Taxes and Me

This is only my second year filing my taxes. I'm such a baby. Or am I a Big Girl? Hmm..

When I was in college my job was tax-free as I had a work-study award. So, I never worried/knew anything about taxes. All I knew was that I got paid bi-weekly and that was enough for the alcohol/fast food/clothes for the month. It kept me from going into the infamous CC DEBT. Also since I worked for a few years in the same position, I automatically was enrolled in a retirement account. Score! Or so I thought (cue ominous music).

When I graduated I bummed around for six months. I did some volunteer work but that's all that got me productive two days out of the week. When I had to really start paying back my student loans, OUCH. I got the retirement account check for $12 (since I graduated). I had no savings. So I got a business portfolio, printed out several resumes, and went on craigslist.

I took an anatomy class /irrelevant/, and found a part-time job as a receptionist for the last three months of the year. Come March of the next year, I went to my family's accountant to file my taxes for that last three months. They charged me $40 to file, and an extra $20 to file the retirement savings I had "prematurely withdrawn" from college. Ugh. And from federal and state taxes I got a $3 refund. Good? Bad?

The end-all be-all though, was that I got a parking violation that day. Double UGH (kinda sounds inappropriate, ha ha). So I was set back another $60. I was so in the negative that day (literally, too).

This year, I didn't chance it. I researched like hell for a few weeks then filed my own taxes online through H&R Block. $50. I found out I couldn't e-file, so I mailed my returns in two weeks ago. $3. I'm impatiently waiting now for my refund! The "where's my refund" thing on the IRS page takes 4 weeks to update.. I feel so unknown! Especially in this day and age where you can get information pretty much like *snap. Does anyone else even mail in their returns nowadays?

*UPDATE 03/14: I got my refund back! I checked my bank account the other day, and there sat a nice little $688 chunk of change from Uncle Sam. Now waiting for state..

Anyway, apologies for the whole life sob story. For next year, I will go back to my family's accountant to file. I'm thinking of opening a retirement account this year, and invest in some stocks. I think my brain will explode if I try to file. Also, my mom said they gave out free tote bags to everyone.