Ahhh, Tax Day

Our beloved April 15.  The day many people in the U.S. dread.  But the truth is that most people get tax refunds, so what's to dread?  I believe the dread is in the deadline.  As humans, we tend to dread deadlines. And, of course, it's not a fun process getting all of our financial paperwork organized.
I believe the dread is also about the subject matter: money.  Money tends to be a subject many of us bury our heads in the sand about. Some of the first questions I ask new clients are about their money situation:  How long are you going to last?  What kind of financial reserves do you have?  Do you have a budget that you stick to?  All of these questions tend to make new clients uncomfortable.  But the reality is I can only help you if you're totally honest with me AND yourself about your current situation.

Answers to these questions also serve as a personality assessment to help me better understand how my new client operates.  Where else might they be struggling with reality?

Doing our taxes also is confronting because it puts an actual number on our efforts from the past year.  If you've recently lost your job, seeing what you made last year can bring up all sorts of self doubts, knowing you're not at that same level of earning right now.  If you were laid off the last tax year, seeing the impact to your bottom line can be hard to face.

Bottom line: We have to accept the deadlines in life, but we have control over the dread it causes based on our willingness to accept our current reality.

Brenda Cody