My former employer closed out my 401(k) and sent me a check for the balance. They didn’t tell me they were going to do this but since I had a balance of $175 in the account I wasn’t surprised that they closed it. They didn’t withold any taxes from the check. I believe I’ll owe tax on this money unless I roll it over to a traditional IRA. I don’t have a traditional IRA and I don’t think it is worthwhile to open one just to contribute such a small amount. I could put the money in my Roth IRA but I’d still owe taxes on it. I’m wondering if I will owe a penalty for early distribution. I’m thinking I shouldn’t since I didn’t initiate the withdrawal but I’m not sure. My thinking is that I can do whatever I want with this money as long as I declare it as income. They didn’t close the account until this year so it shouldn’t have any effect on my 2008 taxes. If anyone has any knowledge of whether my thinking is correct or not or has more information on this subject I’d love to hear it.
Andy Hough
Publicity: Good,Bad, and Possible Click Fraud
Traffic to this blog has skyrocketed over the past couple days due to multiple plugs of some of my posts. First I had a post in this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance which is being hosted at The Writer’s Coin. My post “Five Radical Ways for the U.S. Government to Raise Revenue” is the very first one listed which leads to a lot of traffic. The Carnival wasn’t as large as usual this week either which probably also led to more traffic for my post. Next, my post “Five Things You Should Get for Free” was featured on the MSN Smart Spending blog which resulted in a huge surge of traffic. With both of these combined I’m likely to receive about as much traffic in two days as I usually get in a month. My site seems to be handling ok though.
I’ve also received some negative publicity and negative comments. BA posted “The limits of frugality” which is in response to my “I’m Frugal So Why Am I Poor” (part 2), (part 3)series of posts that I wrote shortly after I began this blog. I’m glad to see someone is reading my old posts and I’m pleased to expose them to new readers since I didn’t have many readers when the post was first published. BA is critical of the results of my frugal efforts in the post. For the most part I agree with him. The series was meant to be a critique of the shortcoming of frugality efforts to that point in my life and determine what I needed to change. I don’t agree with his criticism of my future. I’m not sure if he understood that it wasn’t my plan to continue with the same behavior. Also, my definition of success is not the same as most people’s definition. The get married, have 2.5 kids, and work until you’re 65 life is not one I aspire to. I plan to work for myself, have a great relationship with my wonderful GF, and live a life of semi-retirement.
I wrote that series of posts almost two years ago so it is the future now. I like to think I’ve made great progress since then. I have almost two years of expenses saved. I’ll be graduating law school in May. I’ve been dating my GF since last April and I think we will be together for a very long time. I plan to go on a five month hike after I graduate. The difference between this trip and trips in the past is that even while hiking I’ll be making almost enough to cover my expenses. The hike should cause only a small decrease in my savings if it causes a decrease at all.
The other negative thing is that I think people might be fraudulently clicking on my ads. Even with the increased traffic the number of clicks on my ads is absurdly high. I’m wondering if one of my posts has angered someone and they’re trying to cause me to lose my Google account. I’ve removed my Google ads for now and I’ll put them back when my traffic is back to normal levels. Oh well, I guess you have to take the good with the bad.t
A Rather Dramatic First Day of Using Public Transportation
Today was my first day of using the bus to get to school. I’ve used public transportation in other cities I’ve lived in but I haven’t used it very much here because I’ve always had a car. Now that I’m car free I need to take the bus. I have to take two buses each way to get to school and back. The bus ride to school went fine although I did misread the schedule and cause myself to have to wait an extra 10 minutes for the first bus. I had to wait less than 10 minutes to transfer to the second bus. I like the second bus because it has fewer stops making for a quicker trip. They are also equipped with GPS and there is a sign at the bus stop telling you how many minutes it will be until the next bus arrives. That is a great feature. You don’t have to wonder if the bus is late or on time, you know for sure when the bus will arrive.
The bus ride home didn’t go as smooth. I either have to catch a bus two minutes after my class ends or twenty minutes after my class ends. The bus stop isn’t close enough for me to have a realistic chance of catching the first bus. Catching a bus twenty minutes after class would be fine because that gives me plenty of time to get my stuff together, go to the bathroom or whatever, and still leisurely walk to the bus stop. The problem is this bus arrives at my transfer point about twenty five minutes before the bus I take home arrives. If I could catch the first bus I would just make it to the transfer point in time to catch my second bus. I’m probably not explaining that very clearly but the point is that I have a long wait to transfer buses on my route home. That is just something you have to deal with when you use public transportation.
The drama came on the ride home. A lady had a seizure and the bus driver had to call an ambulance. That obviously kept the bus from continuing on its route. We had to disembark and catch another bus. That would have been about another 10 minute wait. Luckily, I have the best GF in the world and she volunteered to come pick me up.
Overall riding the bus isn’t that bad. It will probably be less dramatic next time. I just need to consult the schedule before I go to minimize my waiting time.
Getting Readmitted to Law School
I don’t need to be readmitted again. I have started my last semester of law school and will graduate in May. This post is for those who are trying to be readmitted to law school after being dismissed for academic insufficiency. “Kicked out of law school” or some variation is one of the most popular search terms bringing people to my blog even though I haven’t written much about law school. For those searchers I’m posting what worked for me. Hopefully, it will work for them as well.
Different schools have different processes but at my school when you were kicked out you had an opportunity to present your case to a committee on why you should be readmitted. The first thing the committee wanted to see was that I was able to do the work. Since I had finished my first year with good grades this showed that I had the ability to do law school work. Next I needed to show a reason why I hadn’t done well the past semester and why I would do better if readmitted. The reason I did poorly was due to depression. After being dismissed I started counseling which helped with my depression and allowed me to do my law school work at a normal level again. Even with being able to show why I would do better if readmitted I probably wouldn’t have been readmitted if it weren’t for the fact that I had a school administrator strongly advocating my case for me. I can’t thank her enough for her help and I’m glad that I’ve shown with my performance since being readmitted that it was the correct decision to readmit me to law school.
Your reasons won’t likely be the same as mine but this should give you an idea of what you need to do. If you are kicked out in the spring semester and want to be readmitted for the fall semester there are several things you can do over the summer to help your case. You could take a non-law school law class. Or you could write a legal paper. Or you could work in a law office, it would be very helpful if they allowed you to show some of your work. I think the thing that would be most helpful though is to convince a member of the readmission committee to advocate for you. The committee members are going to give much more weight to a fellow committee member’s opinion than anything you tell them. If you can’t get a member of the readmission committee to advocate for you than an administration or faculty member would be your next best choice.
I can’t guarantee that these tips will get you readmitted but they should help your case.
December Income- $1309.44
Here is a breakdown of my income for December.
|
Online Income |
$450.12 |
|
Interest |
$16.96 |
|
Bank/Other Bonuses |
$44.10 |
|
Surveys/Mystery Shopping |
$34 |
|
Stock Dividends |
$53.10 |
|
Cash Back |
$26.16 |
|
Car Sale |
$480 |
|
Medical Study |
$205 |
|
Total |
$1309.44 |
My income was higher than my expenses which is always good. Without the sale of my car though it would have been pretty close and my expenses will normally be higher than they were last month. My income will probably go down a little this month. I need to find a way to ramp my alternative income up or get a job. I know a lot of people would be pretty happy with the alternative income I’m generating but since I’m not working I feel like I should be doing better. I’m wasting a lot of time that could be put towards earning more income or at least doing something productive.