word!

Well, well. I’ve finally made it in life.

Having been keen on the blogging scene and having more than a passing interest in personal finance, I’ve been an avid reader of the back page of the Business Section in the daily Startribune. There is a younger reporter that actually writes about young adults and their finances, so this is always a very interesting section to peruse. Being the hip, young reporter she is, she has set up a Blog (Ka-Blog!) to go along with her articles.

So lo and behold, when she asked for opinions about tax refunds for this past filing season, I emailed her to tell her that I didn’t think giving the government a 1 year interest free loan was all that awesome. My little conversation was reduced to this blurb:

In the past, Michael Piotter, 26 of Gaylord, Minn., put refunds into Roth IRAs, but the microbiology technician does not look forward to getting money back. He’d rather owe a little than receive a refund, although he prefers that his tax bill be as close to zero as possible.

The rest can be read online at the StarTribune.

Not all that exciting of paragraph, but it seems like I’m one of few people that doesn’t trully appreciate a huge refund. But then again, wouldn’t you think that getting 15,000 back a year is a tad excessive as the lead individual gave out for his situation? And the guy helps others out at tax time? OUCH!

I can see the points if people don’t have money to pay their respective tax bills each spring, but they should feel guilty for consistantly recieving huge refunds. They must be the most loyal Americans, wiling to loan the US government their money for a year at a time. Not me.

Update: Scanned pages of said article:

Main Page

Inner Page

It’s funny how the company culture in America is changing. They say no one will stay at the same job for their career. Workers will average 6-7 different companies throughout their carrer as a result.

I guess that would be no suprise if one would be doing it for personal reasons; such as moving away, etc. But it seems that companies really are starting to not care about their most important assest ~ their people. They hire and fire so willynilly that who is to know whim or the why. Sure, they state some obscure reason like the world economy is in a downturn for your product or some other glossy excuse, but none of the execs take pay cuts or feels the pinch.

They also word their employee handbooks so loosely that if they really want to fire you, they will do their darndest to find something you are not doing correctly and out you for it. Yet in the next breath they’ll state they don’t have a good pool of people to choose from for replacements. Who would want to work for an entity that is willing to cut you loose for pretty much anything?

It seems kinda of cold and robotic the way managers and execs make these decisions. There must be a confidence that anyone can and will be replaced with someone of equal or greater value within a short turnaround. It just seems cold and heartless to do away with people that you deal with on a daily basis like that.