Surprises

My oldest son brought a gal home tonight for us to meet, a friend he met way back in grade school and hasn't seen for years. The young lady now lives in Boston where she works in real estate as a broker. She says times are rough in real estate right now, not a surprise to me, but fortunately she said her office handles a lot of rentals that apparently keeps her in the black.

My boy had told her about my tax book for writers and artisans. (He might be impressed." He wanted me to show her a copy, so I did and she ended up taking it with her to read. Her degree is in German and music. She aspires to opera but has had to settle for a more practical occupation. She related how difficult it was for her to fill out online her 1040 this year and how not having properly estimated and paid in estimated payments of taxes in advance had been a shock to her.

I guess it's better to be shocked than to have paid nothing and owed nothing in taxes, for that would suggest not much if anything was made. But still, it is always a good idea, almost a necessity, to keep a running account of where you are profit-wise. That way, you don't get surprised and you can change your mode of operation if you need to. It also means that you're doing a fairly decent job of keeping records.