Monthly Mashup: February

Well folks, it is Friday...right? With that, I'll also acknowledge that another month has already left us. Hard to believe that 17% of the year is already gone! Anyway, the month of February saw more stuff happen in the world, ranging from absurd to tragic. Alas, I am simply unable to keep up with the flow of information and channel it all to you. My twitter feed updates faster almost than I can read at times, and I am pretty selective in whom I follow to begin with. As such, I can only channel a small smattering of information to you.

First stop, taxes. The height of this season is already evident in the advertising world, let's see what the PF blogosphere has to say about it. Very early in the month, we readers of 20somethingfinance were made aware of the rise of IRS e-file identity theft and ways to combat it. I was already working on my taxes, but that information pushed me into action to round up all the paperwork and submit it. In the end, my federal refund was down quite a bit from years prior and I owe the Golden State. That should put a damper on my making dumb choices with a large wad of cash. (Yeah, guess how I 'funded' my car?) C'est la vie, I guess this is growing up.

Speaking of taxes, Elle at Couple Money reviewed the tax software that I use, TurboTax. She was having a little giveaway as well for a free copy of the software, but we're a tad bit late for that party. However, if instead of using tax preparation software, you decide to take your pile of papers into an actual tax preparer, you need to know some things about them first to make sure they're accountable.

Hairball.

Equally intriguing piece of news as taxes: I cut my hair. My hair is now the shortest that it has been in at least a decade. However, it wasn't to save money. (I've never been to a barbershop in my life.) I've owned a set of clippers for years, but usually just have a family member trim it for me with scissors. This time, I finally just took the clippers to my head and produced the ball to the right. We'll see how long it lasts at this level. It has simplified my hair care in other ways beyond cutting, and if I get around to getting a motorcycle/scooter, it will be much easier to put on a helmet.

Coming up soon, I hope to finally get some new content updated for any of the number of serials I started. I've been reading voraciously, so I do have plenty fodder for several Look at Lit posts. I am also debating going to graduate school, so some Considering College posts are on the horizon as well. And of course, Hoodwinked is the newcomer, but I can't even begin to write down everything fast enough for those posts. Not making promises, but all this content needs to get out.

So if you haven't already done so, set aside some time this weekend to finish up your taxes. You don't want to end up putting it off until April 14, only to find that you're missing a document, there's a long line at the Post Office, or any other usual application of Murphy's Law. It's a shame to end up owing penalties based on something that can be so easily avoided right now. Good luck!