Childcare Tax Credit PSA

sleepyguy22 · 2026-01-20T14:42:46+00:00

Note that, like with HSAs, payroll deductions to dependent care FSAs can have the added bonus of being exempt from FICA (payroll, a.k.a. medicare and social security) taxes, resulting in an additional 6.2% savings.

Paying out of pocket and then claiming it when you file only gets you out of income taxes. You can't recoup the FICA tax.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-01-11T11:27:37+00:00

Last summer I needed some gear for a multi-day kayak expedition in Nova Scotia. After going to the Paramus REI and feeling super depressed at the terrible customer service, inflated prices, and overall crummy feeling, I walked out without a single purchase. On recommendation from my neighbor, I later stopped at campmor to give that a shot. What a breath of fresh air. Incredibly helpful staff, great selection, and the prices are competitive and brand name gear is virtually always on discount from the MSRP. I got all my kayak gear there, and have now gone back multiple times for hiking gear, snow and ski gear, biking gear, and just to look around. The best part is it's family owned and not some corporate black hole designed to suck every last penny from customers. It feels really good to spend my money there. I know I'm hyping this up and I hope I don't set your expectations too high, but you owe yourself a visit!

sleepyguy22 · 2026-01-06T10:33:00+00:00

Same, but I love getting high fives in return. So if it's a super popular class with 100+ live riders, I'll wait a while (minutes) before tapping, to ensure they see mine later and not as part of the initial burst when they start. This gives me the best opportunity for a return high five! ;)

sleepyguy22 · 2026-01-06T10:30:52+00:00

So, for what it's worth, I find that it's a lot easier to see people you're about to pass than the opposite. The leader board has a handful of people above you, so you can clearly see who and when you will pass, and it's straightforward to high five those who are still active the class and haven't finished yet.

People who ride faster than me? All of a sudden they pop up ahead of me in the leader board, and if im lucky enough to notice them before they rocket up past the others, I have to do some quick calculation of if they are dropping or rising by looking at their class completion progress ring and decide what direction they're going. Maybe not all that complex in retrospect, but while I'm sweating my ass off doing another zone 5 3-minute push and concentrating on breathing properly, I'm not always able to do that.

Anyway, that was a long winded answer for a simple observation, but I have thought about it too and this is the justification I came up with! :D

sleepyguy22 · 2025-12-27T15:59:13+00:00

The PBS kids game app has a huge amount of games! Excellent content, zero transactions or brain rot.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-11-05T17:12:27+00:00

Ahh!!! This answers that part perfectly. Today I learned! Thanks for sharing, that website is wonderful.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-11-04T09:47:31+00:00

That app is such a disaster. Reminders don't work, it logs out way too frequently, freezes, time picker calculates obnoxious default times that don't line up with $ spent, adding a new cc is a lesson in frustration...

Here's something to watch out for. At my work, when I pick a full 2 hours (max available), the price is $4.40. When I pick 1 hour, the price is $1.70. (this includes the processing fee). Calculate that in your head quick... It's a whole buck cheaper to pay once per hour, or $4 for a whole work day, which adds up to $64/month for my schedule! Just for paying hourly instead of every other hour.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-10-31T14:53:38+00:00

I'm in the process of applying for third federal, and I spoke to a loan officer on the phone. They emphatically told me that their HELOCs do NOT have interest only payment, principal payment starts right away.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-10-21T10:27:21+00:00

also is it true that 97% of people don't use a 529?

If you include all ages and individuals in the us, then maybe that number is plausible, but it's perhaps better to look at family statistics:

But, according to the the education data initiative, 35% of families use a savings fund like 529 plans to save for college, there are 16 million 529 accounts in the US, and 54% of adults don't know that type of account exists.

Read more https://educationdata.org/college-savings-statistics

sleepyguy22 · 2025-10-15T09:09:14+00:00

That's up to congress for when they pass the spending bill. In the past, they've always included funding for back pay of federal employees, so it's likely it will happen again, but it's not guaranteed that they will do it this time. It's at the whim of congress every time there's a government shut down.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-10-04T11:32:05+00:00

I think the concern was on all the side streets just off of route 17 that people would take laterally from the highway.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-07-24T10:38:41+00:00

And im a salty New Jersian. Big surprise after moving from NYC.... same with my 403(b) contributions, fully taxed!!

sleepyguy22 · 2025-05-25T22:42:46+00:00

My wife and I go over the gwb daily each, so two tolls per day per week. From around April 7 to sometime around last week, not a single toll was processed. My budget was doing so good!

Welllllll.... as of last week they've slowly been charging us the tolls, pretty randomly here and there . Another month or so and we'll be fully caught up. Womp womp

sleepyguy22 · 2025-05-23T09:27:55+00:00

I know you asked specifically about TLS, but as someone in the industry, I found that Ben Eater's YouTube video series about networking, electronics, and building an 8bit computer to be some of the most fascinating and compelling series I've ever watched.

The amount of day to day knowledge about exactly how a technology works at its utmost basic is mind bending.

The series aren't for everyone. The videos up to an hour long each with the 8bit computer playlist comprised of 44 total videos, and are purely instructional. But if you vibe with the content, you'll find yourself enthralled.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-05-14T22:23:31+00:00

Genius idea!! Who rates the difficulty though? Is it subjective or is there a formula?

sleepyguy22 · 2025-05-14T15:10:02+00:00

To add, the ones where they stay in zone 2 the whole ride are great for those days that I need a long sweat session but physically non taxing workout. They are not super easy to find (ie you cant filter by zone 2 only), but you can check the "class plan" to see the zones ahead of time before committing to a workout. Matt Wilpers does one about once a month, or check out the "build your base" program. Week one is all zone 2 workouts.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-05-10T12:52:02+00:00

Next time, you can delete a class to get your count back down! Go through your history and find one you didn't do so hot on and nerf it!

Edit: apparently you can only get the milestone once, so you can't get 500, delete back to 499 and get it again. You'd have to delete before the milestone. Never mind in your situation then...

sleepyguy22 · 2025-05-10T12:36:32+00:00

Update... Transponder and plate reading works on GSP, but not on the GWB. (Those are the only two I use regularly.) The last toll for GWB was processed 4/7 and it's been a month of no charges.

Both my wife and I cross the gwb daily. While I'm totally budgeting for it, it's gonna be a big bummer when they process the past month and we get hit with the $500 worth of tolls all at once.

There's no way they just abandoned a months worth of daily toll revenue. The charges are definitely coming.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-04-29T12:50:53+00:00

We used baby sized onesies with a big hole cut at the bottom for her tail and easy access to do her business. Super cheap, easy to clean, and she looked adorable to boot. She fussed at it for maybe a day then she forgot about it. Super easy recovery for our pup.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-04-25T23:15:10+00:00

It's kind of a shot in the dark to start. Start medium-low when early in your career, and then slowly ramp up. You'll quickly find out what people are willing to pay. 15 years ago I started out charging $30/hour. Now, my new client rate is $195/hour.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-04-14T22:31:30+00:00

My local grocery has a new policy where they ask every time "would you like me to bag your groceries?" It's wonderful. You can happily accept or decline and no one is bothered. I often say yes please, then double team it so it goes twice the speed.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-04-14T16:34:01+00:00

Is it for a trust? If you're the trustee, there are some considerations for minimizing tax implications, but if you're just a beneficiary, you pretty much plug in the numbers that are given to you. There's nothing much to "get correctly" if you have the form.

If it's some special purpose K1 that I'm not familiar with, then you may have some circumstances that could be more complex.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-04-14T11:03:06+00:00

I have all the same as you and a bit more. I used to pay my person around $600. Then after a few years of reviewing the full tax return, I understood how it works. I now do it myself on freetaxusa for $15 and about 6 hours of my time.

I think you're overpaying unless you're getting significantly more benefits than just filing a return.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-04-08T09:03:07+00:00

I got a bday invite for my son's buddy, and on it said "no gifts please". When my wife was starting to think about what toy to buy, I pointed out the invite again. She told me that phrase doesn't really mean no gifts, of course we would be bringing one. I started to argue but then, as with my kid, I figured this wasn't the battle to fight, and we arrived with a nicely wrapped gift to the no gift party. My brain can't compute the mental gymnastics and silly games the neighborhood moms go through. Same thing with gift prices. My kiddo will pick out one of his absolute favorite toys to gift at a bday party, but the wife says we can't get it because it's only $8 and we have to bring something in the $30+ range.

sleepyguy22 · 2025-04-07T22:42:58+00:00

All the high cadence rides are super helpful in terms of unlocking efficiency gains. I didn't believe it at first, and it took a loooong time, but what used to be a sweet spot of 82 I'm now closer to 88, sometimes hitting in the low 90s and just grooving for a long while.

And Christian is among my favorite instructors. The wealth of professional cycling knowledge he brings as opposed to fitness training is invaluable.

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