A quick update

I got a ton accomplished over the weekend (woohoo!) & M & I also managed to squeeze in a date night. Loved every minute of it.

I'm currently in the process of sorting out our summer plans, camps, and working through our travel details. We have a few $500 airline credits that need to be used (not flown, but booked) by the end of the summer, so I'm juggling flights & bookings to ensure we can use those up as efficiently as possible, as well as a companion fare that we receive via our credit card.

We also received our taxes back from the accountant. I increased our withholdings substantially last year, and it definitely worked for state taxes (we are getting a very small refund). For federal, we continue to have an increasing percentage of our total compensation come from stock equity vs salary, which makes it very hard to get this correct. Mostly because there are black out windows for our stock, so using that as our "standard" monthly cash flow, and greatly increasing withholdings on our salaries isn't feasible without building a much bigger cash cushion. That's on the radar, but not for a few months as we rebuild post the house purchase.

So, 2016 taxes are complete & we now know how much we owe. It's a lot, but within the range that I'd estimated. We should see a small reduction in our taxes in 2017 (home ownership), but we will also be selling our rental house (most likely), which will create a huge tax burden. Ah, the ebbs and flows of taxes.

Speaking of selling our Seattle house, we've had a realtor tour the house, and I have a call with her on Friday to discuss next steps. As much as we would love to keep it for investment purposes, I will feel much better with us selling it, realizing the equity, and that money can be used for a variety of things; 1) paying down our mortgage on our primary residence 2) additional investments 3) a cash cushion that will free me up to explore other jobs in the future.

My mom is flying in on Sunday, and I'm really happy to have the help. She has asked for a "to do list" of things to accomplish, as she likes to be very productive while she's visiting & the boys are in school. I am very pleased to oblige. ;-)

And, finally, M & I have decided to go to Hawaii in October, on an adult only vacation. We try to take one a year. Last year we did a weekend in Tahoe, and the year before that, a week in Hawaii for our anniversary. I'm super excited & planning out different options, assuming all of our financial uncertainty is settled by then, of course.

Those are the updates! As usual, lots going on. We are finally back to meal planning & no take out, but we are making slow progress on the house. The washing machine needs a significant plumbing repair (of course - when was home ownership ever easy?), but we have a long running list & tackle each item on our list as we can.

Happy Tuesday! What's one thing you'd like to get done today? And, are you done with your taxes???