Convenient Timing

I like to consider myself to be a thoughtful spender. I'll pinch pennies here and there on a few things, but I'm not unfamiliar to splurging a bit. However, when it comes to splurging it'll tend to be on high quality items, experiences, or, more often than not, necessary expenses that are well worth the cash.

Ever since I was young my parents have taught me about the importance of saving.

"Money can get your very far. There's work that you can't do that money can, which is very hard. When you work you will perspire. When your money is at work it'll never tire."

Eventually this also taught me about the many uses of investing. In this written piece, though, I'm not going to discuss about investing in stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, government bonds, or certificates of deposits that one may buy at their local bank or credit union. Besides, I don't have a broker's license. Hence, I am legally unfit to provide anybody with those forms of financial advice.

I will write at liberty about the use of putting your money where your proverbial and actual, literal, mouth is.

Recently I've had a plethora of adult purchases all at once. I'm not just talking about one's regular rent/home owner payments or even the electric bill. These are other payments which many may tend to think of as a luxury, but for a few others, they might just be a bare necessity.

1. Tuition - School, especially higher education is not for everybody. College/University courses don't fit everybody's lifestyle as they see fit. I, myself, have had to use a few of my paid vacation hours in order to attend some of my classes. In my opinion the class was worth it to me. It was relative to my field of study, and provided a total of four credit hours with a bare minimal decent grade. A lot of people return to school just for a few educational courses or even a degree (whether it's an associate's, bachelor's, master's, or doctorate's) that will help them move into the next part of their career. In my application for other job positions and titles, even with my degree, I often received the answer that I don't have the educational skills required. So, I signed myself up for a summer class. It was worth it, in my opinion. I'm more knowledgeable in the field that I love, and that much closer to achieving my dreams.

2. Travel - This may be more of a concern when it comes to vacation. Yet, vacation is often viewed as a luxury. True, it was rather luxurious, but I also saw it as a once in a lifetime opportunity. One of my siblings received several job interviews thousands of miles away from their current place of work and residence. I've never been in that location before, and wanted to join myself. There are some places you might only visit once in your lifetime. Plus, I don't know how much longer I'll truly be able to visit my sibling based upon the trajectory of our lives. The mountain of success is lonely at the top, especially when you're climbing different mountains through different mountain ranges. I was blessed to travel with my sibling. My sibling thanked me as well. Since, while we were traveling I did the majority of the driving. Due to the scenery of the area my family members got to enjoy the views while I focused on the road, and mother of God. Those roads were beautiful and the vehicles we rented gave me a wonderful driving experience that I was thankful for. Due to the areas of the scenery, mainly consisting of twisting, turning, carving mountain ranges, my family members felt comfortable with me being behind the wheel, cause they would've felt more than a bit unnerved. Though for me, it was like a dream. All-in-all everybody won. I got to drive a fun sporty car through the mountainous regions of a goddess, my family for to enjoy all the views along with me and capture them on camera and video, but most importantly my sibling was well rested for their interviews. In a sense, I was a personal chauffer.

3. Insurance - Life insurance, renter's/home owner's insurance, car insurance; we all need it especially if you're living in a country where you need a car to go from point A to B, a place of residence that you need to not just feel safe but be legitimately safe in, and life insurance to insure that you're well taken care of even when you can't speak for yourself.

4. Vehicle maintenance - Every now and then our trust worthy machines are in need of some more tender loving care than they would receive on average. Even the most reliable of machines need tune-ups and pick-me-ups from time-to-time. Just as we like to treat ourselves to something nice like a spa day followed by an exquisite delicacy because we're worth it, so do our machines. They are as considered to be as much alive as much as they help to keep us alive. For me, I've had expenses that popped up along with some regular maintenance things such as an oil change, tire rotation, and brake check. My suspension struts had to have their springs replaced as they had cracked. Now, although my car is used I've nearly doubled the miles on it. Plus, I've owned it for more than half a decade. For a vehicle clocking around 150,000 miles maintenance a tad over $1k is worth it, especially when it's that vehicle's first time having that type of maintenance performed. My vehicle keeps me safe, and its my responsibility that I don't endanger other people on the road as well. It was money well spent. My car still drives like a dream till this very day.

5. License Plate - When you move to another place of residence, especially if it's not in your previous area of jurisdiction the one thing I was told to do was to 1) update my driver's license and 2) get my license plate changed. Getting my driver's license changed was difficult at first. Especially with having to schedule everything online. To be honest, I'm used to waiting at the Department of Motor Vehicles and getting all of my work done in one complete sitting. This was more like a video game task of trials, or that of a school class with which one needs to have prerequisites taken beforehand. As expensive as it is, it's worth it due to not being pulled over for having a license plate that's not identifiable or registered within that area of jurisdiction. Whether its another country or another state, if your license plate doesn't match you may be fined for such a thing regardless of your driving. Besides, once you've learned about the process of how to change your license plate and register your vehicle within the area of jurisdiction, it'll be easier if you'll ever have to do it again. So, it's a whole learning lesson as well.

6. Taxes Late Fee - I'm like every hard working person and I file my taxes, paying Uncle Sam one arm and leg at a time. Yes, don't worry, they're my own arms and legs. Speaking of which, anybody have an arm or a leg that they wouldn't mind me borrowing interest free?

Less I digress, I've received a letter from the department of treasury that I hadn't paid my taxes. I received a tax return, but I never pay my taxes with my tax return. I pay them hand over fist, and they pay me back my tax returns hand over fist. There is no reduction of debt from either party. Example, I would owe them $400.00 and they would owe me $600.00. Instead of having them just settle it out and may me $200.00 we pay each other in full. The more one tries to complicate things, the worse off they tend to get.

So, I spoke with the tax service company that I filed with, was in the office with a tax expert, on the phone with the tax company's customer service as the entire office was listening (they all laughed when customer service said that they'd get me in contact with a tax expert, it was like they were being punked and they didn't even know it), and the department of treasury.

Allow me to type this. I was so furious that I had the deranged thought of driving up to the area of jurisdiction's department of treasury, renting a bus, and driving every employee there, along with the tax experts, to the sovereign nation's department of treasury just to solve this dilemma. I was furious that I was charged a penalty fee when I had filed my taxes on time, months before the end of tax season. I was informed that it's my responsibility to ensure that the department of treasury had filed my taxes and my tax return. I'm going to reiterate this. The department of treasury wanted me to contact them ensuring that they were completing their responsibilities that involved my paperwork. Which is absurd to me. I'm not their boss, nor am I their parent watching over their shoulder making sure that they get their homework done, nor I am their auditor. I was ready to use words that I would regret.

Yet, in the end, it's my responsibility to ensure that any tax service I use properly files my taxes with the IRS.

That being typed, I just went and paid the penalty fee along with the taxes due it not being worth my time. I could be making more money than there was on the penalty fee in the same amount of time it'd take me to get that penalty fee absolved. It wasn't a battle of the big man winning. It was a battle of ROI. Some people, businesses, entities, etc. won't learn their lessons until they're forced to.

As I left the tax office the tax expert there told me about a story of how people in their entire city all at once had received penalties from the department of treasury, even though they had all filed their taxes diligently. The department of treasury is a business too. For a weird theory think about all of the small and large businesses that have been shut down due to the recent state of the world. If a business if unprofitable, it can't be taxed. Hence, the conspiracy is that the department of treasury chose not to file that town's taxes on time, just to charge people with late fees, being that the department of treasury was also struggling financially.

Well, that was too much of a vent. Let's continue.

I had to change a few spending habits. Well, maybe not my spending habits. I do save. Sometimes too much. When it came to my retirement, savings, and brokerage account, I was storing away 42% of my paychecks. Due to all of my expenses hitting over a long period of time this year, slowly draining me faster than I could work, in order to save more money I had to save less money. As a metaphor, I had so much change stored in my piggy banks that my pockets were struggling to jingle.

So, I picked my foot up from that gas pedal to go at a better cruising speed for the time being. I went back to money system I had when I originally started working and saving. It was working. I was getting more money gradually back into my checkings and savings accounts.

Now for a bit of convenient timing.

A few weeks ago, I had looked at my Vocal Wallet and tapped "Request to withdraw." I had looked at my wallet and said, "It'd be a shame to just have it sitting there, doing nothing. Even if it were to just sit in my bank account it'd accrue interest. Think, Thavien, just like Matthew 25:14-30. Better to store your money where it's valued than to bury it in the ground, afraid it will be stripped from you."

So, I tapped the button, talked about the withdrawal request with a friend, and was informed that it would take some time. All I had to do was wait. Patience is a virtue. Here's why.

Due to all of the adult expenses that I listed above, I was earning more money gradually, but just marginally enough to do more than recover. I get earning and saving more and more, but the expenses were still high on their own. Believe it or not, the traveling wasn't the most expensive thing, and neither was the car's maintenance.

Rent came due and so did the electric bills. Things I was used to, and so everything was paid in full. Everything was alright. Until inconvenience struck.

At work we were informed that our direct deposits on our paychecks wouldn't work this week.

I worked more than 80 hours this week.

That's time, time-and-a-half, and more time than that.

We were informed that we'd receive our cash via check, in the mail several business days later. Noticeably, our C suite superiors weren't affected by this.

Now, I had just made sure all of my payments were done and squared away. So, I should have had nothing to worry about. At least that's what you'd think.

When it comes to saving and investing I have automatic transfers set up. As soon as payday hits, BAM! I'm automatically putting away that green to grow my money trees.

However, since my large paycheck was going to be delayed, the potential for overdrawing my account was approaching.

Then the clouds opened up, a chorus sang out, as I received an email notification.

Ba-Ding!

Your withdrawal request will be deposited into Your account tomorrow morning.

Talk about Convient Timing.

Had I not tapped that "Request to withdraw" when I did, my checking's account would've been overdrawn due to my automatic savings and investing. Thankfully, I didn't have to temporarily go in and move cash from my savings, or temporarily put my automatic saving or investing on hold.

I was still in the green.

Life is good.

So, that morning I went to workout, and then get some grocery shopping done. I tend to always buy the bare necessities. Fruit, veggies, meat, bread, eggs; you get the jist.

Yet, I was blessed again with another small amount of money.

As I was pushing my shopping cart towards my car, I noticed a folded dollar bill on the ground. I picked it up, looked at the people next to me that were putting their groceries away, and I spoke up.

"Excuse me, ma'am, is this yours?"

She turned to face me, patted her pants pockets then asked, "Is it a $10.00?"

I unfolded the bill, "It's a $20.00."

"No. I don't think it's mine."

"Are you sure? I'd hate to steal from you, or anybody in that matter."

"Let me check with my husband." She ran to open up the driverside door and talked to her significant other while he was still loading the car.

Upon checking his pants pockets he said, "Oh my gosh, dude thank you. Are you sure you don't want to keep it?"

"Hey, it's not my money. Therefore it's not my problem. Besides, I couldn't live with myself if I was deceitful."

"Thanks man," he shook my hand.

As I got to my car, I hit unlocked the trunk when from out of the corner of my eye it was the same gentleman, "Hey, buddy, just keep it."

I asked, "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely, you deserved it."

I brought him in to shake his hand and we gave each other a pat on the back, "Thanks man, I really appreciate this."

"No problem."

He didn't ask about my problems, he didn't know that my direct deposit with the company I worked for had been delayed for my big paycheck, he didn't know that I had arguments over late fees with the IRS and tax experts, and he didn't know that I had been denied tuition reimbursement due to already having completed the class 30 days ahead of time. All he knew was that either the wind or somebody else would've swept away his hard earned $20.00 bill. He didn't ask, and he didn't know, but he still gave.

Honesty was the best policy for that situation. Since I was honest, I was blessed. It was convenient timing that I was there in the first place since that dollar bill was about to be picked up by the wind. Even more convenient that it was me, and not somebody else who might've just pocketed the cash and walked away with it.

All I had to do was trust the process.

Even though small interruptions arose, I was fine. In remembering that the future isn't everything, I'm learning how to live in the present.

Save for the future, plan for it with the weapons that you have today, but remember that if you're always looking towards the future you'll miss the present that's been gifted right in front of you.