salary | Online Savings Blog

How Our Taxes Came Out Perfectly
04.02.08 | Money, Work | 0 Comments | by junger

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I finally got around to doing our taxes over the weekend — I had been putting them off for a bit and then couldn't find a good time to sit down and do them.

They were a little bit more confusing this year, thanks to our inter-state move in November and reaching a high enough income on my Web publishing gigs to pay self-employment taxes.

Once I was able to get it all straightened out, the results came out about as perfectly as they could.

The final totals?

Federal: $136 refund
Massachusetts: $175 refund
Maryland: $179 to pay

So, in the end, we'll be getting $132.

Not a lot, but that's okay — remember, every dollar the government pays to you is a dollar you've given to them, interest-free.

Now, I know that a certain school of thought would rather pay taxes than receive any refund — and I respect that — but I would rather err on the side of getting a little bit back than having to shell out more.

If you ended up with a really large refund, take back your salary today. Talk to your HR person and adjust your W4 to have more withholdings — you'll get more money in your paycheck and you won't be loaning out your cash to the government interest-free.
How to Get a Raise at Your Job
03.10.08 | Work | 1 Comment | by junger

Over at CE Pro (my day job), we've just posted a story called "8 Ways to Get a Raise at Work." It's aimed at custom electronics installers, but the message it delivers can be translated into whatever you do for a living.

Fred Harding, the author of the piece, shares his background on looking to increase his salary:

When I was in high school, I worked for Jack Houchins of Jack’s Vacuum Exchange fame. After working there for about a year, I decided I deserved a raise.

So, I broached the topic with him. His reply was to ask, “Why?”

Jack went on to explain that I wasn’t any more productive over the past couple of months; I wasn’t selling more and so on.

Simply showing up wasn’t enough, he said. I needed to earn a raise.

I thought about that for awhile and came to realize he was right. I really wasn’t worth any more to him at that moment in time. I could change that, though, and I set out to do just that.

Keep in mind: you don't deserve a raise. You need to earn a raise.

Penelope Trunk says that it isn't enough to do your job well — you need to be doing more than when your salary was originally set.

I've been in a very good situation during my young career. My company automatically adjusts salaries every summer, and since I've been promoted to new positions twice, I've effectively had five raises in under three years.

Have you earned your next raise?

free website hit counter