5 Things I Learned from Doing My Taxes

It’s that time of year again — my least favorite month of the year when dozens of 1099s and a few W2s fly into my mailbox so I can pay the government for taxes that, in my mind, should have already been paid for me.

The life of being a freelance writer is so glorious.

This year I was really diligent about ensuring that I received all the deductions I deserved and combed through all my bank accounts and categorized expenses as I went through TurboTax. (Yes, I know I just wrote that you shouldn’t DIY your taxes. I don’t always take my own advice, but that’s not what this blog post is about.)

As I looked through my bank statements — and what I could NOT take deductions for — I realized there were some things I desperately lacked in 2015. Some things I didn’t do, didn’t buy, etc. Here are a few things I learned from doing my taxes for last year — and what’s going to change in 2016:

Networking

One of the saddest things I found while digging through my spending in 2015 was only ONE networking event — a CRAVE event that I’m not even sure I attended (which is a huge bummer since Melody has put her whole heart and soul into rebranding her events after a computer crash and now I hear her events are epic.) I fell into a big of a depression last year, and the later of the year was consumed by health issues, so I’ll give myself some slack overall as I write this all out — but compared to the last 5 years of my life, this is REALLY glaring.

2016 resolution: Go to more networking events! (I actually just joined a local LeanIn Circle. Since that is free, and I imagine other meetups and events will be as well, I’m creating a spreadsheet to track my networking in 2016.)

Lunch Meetings

In the first few years of my freelance career, I used to make the most out of my lunches and meet up with people — mentors, sources for stories, colleagues, friends, or someone in a city I was visiting (hello, Vegas!). This was also REALLY lacking in 2015. I was able to write off a few lunches and coffee meetings every month, but there should have been at least one per week – not per month. I actually had a coffee date (that was paid for by someone else — damn it!) earlier this year with a wonderful woman I’ve known via social media for many years and she gave me the best piece of advice I didn’t really take:

Have one lunch/coffee a week with someone I’ve “known” on Twitter for awhile. Meet them. Listen to them. Maybe make a new friend. Help them if you can.

2016 resolution: Take that advice and have at least one coffee/lunch a week – on me! (Want to meet me for coffee or lunch in the Seattle area? Let’s set one up — right now!)

Travel

I only went on one vacation in 2015 — to Vegas. This was actually a fairly cheap trip initially because I used miles to book first class tix both ways, but because things went awry I ended up having to rebook the tix — costing me an extra grand. The rest of the trip was actually incredibly cost-effective and well-worth the investment — including a cabana at the pool everyday (thanks mom and dad!) Unfortunately, this was the ONLY trip I took in 2015, which was strange compared to the past five years of my life. In other words:

There were NO conferences.

And considering my health and status of life in general in 2015, that was ok. But not what I want life to look like forever. I also want more getaways, more experiences. I definitely need to save to retire, but I also want to experience life now. When I traveled more in 2011-2013, life defintely felt more magical.

2016 Resolution: Travel more. More vacations, more getaways, more conferences. Subgoal: More sponsorships to make this happen.

Too Much Coffee

Here’s a possible correlation: Way, way, way too much coffee and a significant increase in my weight. Granted, my coffee was often bought in 2s, but I know they were usually lattes and not just iced coffee, which can easily be zero calories instead of 400.

This is a simple fix: Start using my starbucks card to create a coffee “budget” and to earn free coffee. When I do this, I also tend to stretch that budget my drinking the cheaper — and low cal — option — iced coffee, which I can get free refills for (across the street!)

Win win.

2016 Resolution: Drink iced coffee using Starbucks card. Lose weight like magic.

No Fun Stuff

This is last because it’s honestly really, really depressing. Except for the Vegas trip, I did nothing fun in 2015. No concerts (I bailed on the Dashboard Confessional concert I paid for), very few movies, and only one or two lunches I could attribute to being with other friends. I actually did very little with other friends in 2015 — many friends moved in 2015 (or even in years prior) and I settled into suburbia, opting for quiet, sober nights in instead of drinking on a school night. I took a “staycation” in August, staying home from Molly’s Stratejoy summer camp because life was throwing everything it could at me and a trip across country was just not something I could handle right then. Going through the numbers I can see why I ended up more depressed — I wasn’t doing anything fun!

2016 resolution: One Fun Thing A Week. This doesn’t actually have to cost anything (maybe this means I need another spreadsheet?) but the goal is to laugh, giggle and smile until I cry at least once a week. For some people, this might seem just part of everyday life. For me, this is a stretch — but something severely lacking in the last year of my life.

There are a few other things I realized I did that were dumb — like spending over one month of my income on my website, over 3x that on coaching, and getting so in debt I ended up filing for bankruptcy. I could say there’s a lesson learned in those mistakes, but I actually got something out of all of those things (more one each, later.)