The good news is that the taxes are done. Finished. Complete. And ahead of schedule. That's a serious load off. The bad is that between state and federal, I wrote almost 5 grand worth of checks. 4,888.00 to be exact. This isn't entirely bad news. It just feels like bad news since it's going to suck the life out of my savings account. On the other hand, the reason I owe so much is that I had a good year in the stock market. While I say that, I don't want this to happen again, so I've changed some of my investing habits. I moved a lot of money into mutual funds that I don't plan on trading and I'm only going to keep a small discretionary amount to fool around with. Why? Because it's fun.

Back to the taxes. I've always been an evangelist aginst the tax refund. Everyone likes to get a tax refund. Who doesn't like a check in the mail or money directly deposited into their checking account. But when you get a tax refund what it means is that you've been giving the government an interest free loan. Personally I don't want to do that even when I like the people running the government and I certainly don't want to do that know with those irresponsibile jokers in the White House.

That said I've never had to pay 5 grand in taxes before. I need to find some deductions this year and find them fast. I either need to buy a house, start a business or have some kids (too bad I can't deduct the cats because they are certainly dependent). Since it's not likely that I'm going to have kids any time soon and I probably won't be able to afford a house unless I win the lottery or move, looks like I'm going to have to start a business. Time to put the thinking cap on.