Friday, September 21, 2007

My report card - TaxPack 2007

In school, there were report cards. At university, results were published in the newspaper. Now, there is the tax return.

Many of us have grown up with an incredible amount of focus on results. Results in school, sports, dance classes, music classes or whatever other extra curricular activities we had. There are obviously pros and cons to this emphasis on delivering results but I'll save that for a different post.

My point today is that the tax return has now become one of my report cards. I'm not sure that its a good thing to measure how I'm growing based on how much money I've earned but I do look forward to completing it. I didn't do this when I had the usual 9-5 job but that was just because I had another form of report card from work - the annual evaluation for increments and promotions!

My tax return has only become my report card since I stopped going to work in an office. Now, with my home trading, its the main way I assess my growth from year to year - not just the bank account but personal development as well. I look forward to it and I actually enjoy tabulating all my gains (or losses). Yes, in the end I end up having to pay some tax but if you look at it in a roundabout way, it just means that the more tax I pay, the better I am at what I do.

This year will be a little different though. It so happened that Aaron was born 2 months into the financial year (July-June) and there has been no time to monitor, let alone enter all that many trades. So, perhaps I will end up paying less tax but my growth had definitely not been stunted. I just grew in a different way. I don't want a report card on my mothering skills though! I don't think I could handle that.

5 comments:

John A Hill said...

Parenting can come with regular progress reports, but I'm afriad the real report card doesn't come for a couple of decades.

It would appear that my two (18 and 15)are growing into fine young adults. However there is still a lot of proving to be done and a final report card due.

Bilbo said...

I'd never thought of a tax return as a report card, but I suppose it does provide a measure of one's success. I'm always astounded each year when my preparer puts it all together and I see in one place how much money Agnes and I make...it's an astounding figure to me, particularly when I think of how little of it I actually see after all the taxes are taken out.

If I were you, I wouldn't worry about the report card on mothering skills...you seem to be doing just fine. Now that my children are all grown, gone, married, and producing grandchildren, I can look back and think that, in spite of all the doubts along the way, I must have done SOMETHING right! You'll feel the same way one day. Best wishes, Bilbo.

Serina Hope said...

I imagine that you'd be a straight A Mama. I can tell that Aaron is a lucky guy!

Jean-Luc Picard said...

Be sure you don't get a D- on your report card.

NomadicExpat said...

Oui! I agree. You dont need any report card on parenting. You do the best you can and pray that everything will turn out fine at the end of the day. Now, when it comes to moms like Britney Spears, they do need a good smack, but you ain't one of them.