"I'm proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money." - Arthur Godfrey

I’ve started and restarted this blog post several times now. I even deleted it and restarted it with the exact same first sentence I’m using. I’m not sure what I’m trying to say, which I guess is why I’m not a professional writer. Sometimes since we’ve been here it feels like we just get screwed by big things, little things, medium things. From permit issues to foreign exchange rates, we’ve had our fair share of “well, it is what is” issues. 

I didn’t know I was stressed out filing our taxes this year. I thought for sure we would owe $30,000, which John thought was an exaggeration. I already had the amount in my mind. It was a very precisely calculated number that I totally made up.

We had a much better time preparing our taxes this year than last since we knew what kinds of documents and information we would need, John did most of the work rather than me, and we made wine mandatory. We got everything together in early February and waited for the numbers to fall where they may.

We just got our final return, and it was much much better news than I thought. Turns out John was right, and I totally exaggerated.  But will the difference cover the medical bills to cover my high blood pressure?

So this time our “it is what it is” situation worked in our favor, and the US will just have to make it another year without our tax dollars (don’t worry, Switzerland is getting plenty of our tax francs). Actually, this will probably just help with covering the increased social security taxes this year. Have fun and don’t spend it all in one place, Uncle Sam.