Occupational Privilege

Well ya know how I started off with the idea of a personal finance blog and then proceeded to deviate nearly 100% from that path…..well here’s a post that goes back to it!

It was, I don’t know, maybe a month ago when some tax letter came. Boo. I thought that I’d already paid all of the crazy taxes either through that thing due April 15th or the other random deductions that they take out of my pay check automatically. Annoying because they take my money, but hey at least I don’t have to think too much.

But *surprise* there are even more taxes.

Down with this real-world crap, let me back in college please!

So this was some like school tax and occupational privilege tax crap and some other out of no-where ew-ness to the tune of $350.

$350 ouch.

Now it’s not like I’m living pay check to pay check, or like I’ll really notice much of any dent in my finances at all. But still – totally uncool.

I decided I could pay it out of my Emergency Fund, which sits at $5,000. And since I received the bill I’ve been throwing in some miscellaneous funds, like interest, and left overs from expense columns. Plus August is a 3 paycheck month (yippie!), so I’ll pull the rest of the balance from that and come out looking none the worse (as long as you don’t take into consideration the fact that I’ve planned to use those dollars for other savings projects for months).

Now I’ve another minor dilemma. The actual bill is due October I think. But if I pay in August there is a 2% ($7) deduction (and 5% penalty starting in November, a bit unfair sayith me). And I was going to pay it in August to get that deduction. However I realized that my online high-yield accounts are as follows: Schwab checking: 2% apy, E*Trade savings: 3.3% apy, and HSBC savings: 3.5% apy. Now those are all variable amounts but if am not missing something mathematically I can earn more in interest by holding onto that 350 until October than I save by paying it now.

So being as I’ve realized it shouldn’t it be easy and I’ll be like ‘oh duh pay in October’. But my mind doesn’t work so simply and I don’t like having outstanding bills. Paying it now would get it over and done with.

What’s a girl to do?