Taxes

Taxes hurt, especially when you can’t plan for them. Photo source: Bitmoji

Let me tell you how it will be

There’s one for you, nineteen for me

‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman

—George Harrison

I got a property tax bill in the mail today from DeWitt County for the Yorktown farm. Property taxes in Texas are usually due by the end of January. This is February. Surprise!!

Without going into too much detail, let me just say that the bill is well into the five digit range. And because they would normally have been due a few days ago, I just took advantage of an investment opportunity, so I don’t have that kind of free capital. I don’t like to let my money be anywhere near as lazy as I am. I want it to work for me.

“I’ll get you…and your little dog, too. You’ve got to pay your taxes. Pay! Pay!” Photo source: Villains Wikia

There are a couple of bright spots on this dung heap. First, the county admits they were late getting the tax bills out (because they were “understaffed,” they said—whose fault is that?). Because of that, they are allowing until the 27^th to pay the taxes “without penalty.” That would be nice if people (other than my dad) left that kind of money lying fallow in a moldy bank account somewhere. Now I have to find it.

The real bright spot is that I “paid myself first,” as Robert Kiyosaki puts it. I put my money to work in an investment that will earn far more than the penalties I’ll incur for paying the property tax late. And since there are a half dozen separate bills, I can string the county out paying them off over time as more money come is.

This situation worked out much better than if I had paid the taxes before the opportunity came along.