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2019 by the numbers
2020-Feb-22, Saturday 02:29 pmIt's the time of year for taxes again, so I'm adding to my previous numbers. It seems like this tax filing process gets ever more confusing and burdensome each year. Garbage like this is a very good incentive to stop being a homeowner.
The credit score is still a useless figure. As usual, they deduct severely for having only a single debt: my house mortgage. Somehow, TurboTax knows that I have a current balance of $43.1K on that debt. Why do we even bother filling out tax forms? Can't the government just send us the form telling us what our tax balance is, then let us file our own forms only if we want to challenge their estimation? That process would be a lot less cumbersome.
At least there's a dramatic reduction in federal taxes this time. Does that always happen during election years?
A much better statistic, though, is my consumer footprint. Thankfully, I recorded the mileage (94.1Kmi) on the car when I bought it in 2013, so I can easily compare it to now (128.3Kmi) for total mileage (34.2Kmi). Over 80 months, that comes to an average total distance that I drive each month as 428 miles. According to one website, the average Minnesotan in 2014 drove 891 miles per month. I am far below average, and that's a good thing.
I disapprove of shipping human bodies back and forth. Commuting (especially as a single-occupant-vehicle) is a terrible idea. I'm glad I've got such a low planetary burden on this measure. That's a little good news, I guess.
The median US employee earns about $48,672/year ($935/week). So I'm doing really well as a part-time worker. That's very good news.
| Year | GrossIncomeUS$ | Change | FederalTaxUS$ | TaxChange | CreditScore |
| 2016 | 30,500 | 2,384 | |||
| 2017 | 33,800 | +11% | 3,048 | +28% | 720 |
| 2018 | 36,600 | +8% | 3,938 | +29% | 723 |
| 2019 | 37,451 | +2% | 2,839 | -28% | 730 |
The credit score is still a useless figure. As usual, they deduct severely for having only a single debt: my house mortgage. Somehow, TurboTax knows that I have a current balance of $43.1K on that debt. Why do we even bother filling out tax forms? Can't the government just send us the form telling us what our tax balance is, then let us file our own forms only if we want to challenge their estimation? That process would be a lot less cumbersome.
At least there's a dramatic reduction in federal taxes this time. Does that always happen during election years?
A much better statistic, though, is my consumer footprint. Thankfully, I recorded the mileage (94.1Kmi) on the car when I bought it in 2013, so I can easily compare it to now (128.3Kmi) for total mileage (34.2Kmi). Over 80 months, that comes to an average total distance that I drive each month as 428 miles. According to one website, the average Minnesotan in 2014 drove 891 miles per month. I am far below average, and that's a good thing.
I disapprove of shipping human bodies back and forth. Commuting (especially as a single-occupant-vehicle) is a terrible idea. I'm glad I've got such a low planetary burden on this measure. That's a little good news, I guess.
The median US employee earns about $48,672/year ($935/week). So I'm doing really well as a part-time worker. That's very good news.