So easy to slide back into old patterns, that's why I'm doing this for 21 days, because they say it takes 21 days to form a habit. I did not look at my account yesterday. Doh. Nothing catastrophic happened, but its something I want to put into practice everyday. Not only does it give me more control over my money, but it also allows me to make sure that no one has committed fraud with my Debit card #. Apparently Visa just had a bunch of credit card numbers stolen because just a few days ago I got a new debit card in the mail just in case my # was one of the stolen cards. Looking at my account everyday enables me to make sure that there are no transactions on my account that I did not make. I was actually a victim of fraud earlier this year and luckily the Credit Union was on top of it and called me, right away, on a Sunday to double check and see if I've made three purchases at the KMart in Valencia. To which I would like to say to the people who committed the fraud and copied my debit card, Don't be an IDIOT. . . three purchases in one place, one right after the other is a RED FLAG. . . sheesh. At least they're morons.
I have recently made the realization that I can not generate abundance in my life if its not on the up and up. That's where the integrity part of this blog comes in today. In 2007 and 2008 I went to a shady tax man. Everyone at my work had utilized him and some had been audited, but it didn't seem like a big deal. I chose to use him for those tax years because I work at a high end restaurant and we used to get paid in cash. While we reported all of the money we made, there was never enough to take out of our paychecks, which consisted only of the hourly $8.25 rate we made for the 25- 30 hours a week we worked. In order to avoid having to pay taxes I went to a shady tax man. BAD CALL. I now know that if my brain knows its not in integrity I will create problems for myself.
I was audited and am currently paying back over $4000 that I owe to the IRS and the State of California for those years. Here's the thing, it just wasn't worth it. I only got back maybe $600 one of the years and not much more the others. To be honest if I had ended up paying the taxes that i owed it probably would have been a fraction of the money I'm now paying back, but a scorned IRS does not like to play nice. I tried to argue with them for a few years and after sending endless amounts of paperwork back and forth I finally caved and said, forget it, its worth more of my peace of mind to simply straighten it out.
The tax man was not without fault because besides taking some crazy deductions, that I just didn't pay attention to . . . once again, checked out, disconnected and just HOPING that things would pan out. . . I also think he made a mistake on one of the years and somehow counted my income as $88,000 instead of $44,000. No matter how many times I asked about it he never really understood what I was saying.
Perhaps I could have gone a different route and hired a tax attorney to help me work it out, but like I said after the two year battle and then constant self-punishment for using a shady tax man I just resolved myself to owning up to it and paying it back.
A lesson learned that I won't soon forget. If its not in integrity, even if it seems lucrative in the moment and I could desperately use the money, I probably shouldn't do it, because inevitably its going to come back and bite me in the arse.
Hey Liz I'm glad to see that you're realizing that if you don't take care of your money no one else will either. We all have made stupid mistakes with our hard earned dollars, but if it happens again then its all for nothing and you learned nothing. Oh my debit card was compromised and I had to get it replaced. Someone from CA tried to buy something for $400.00 but was denied. Love ya Dad.
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