I am in panic mode because I finally got a surgery date. There was a cancellation and so it will be in less than 2 weeks. (Scheduler told me my alternative would probably be March. Ugh!) February would have been fine (preferred). The big deadlines are 1/31, 3/15, and 4/15. BUT, we aren't in the throes of tax stuff yet, too much in January, so I think it will be easier for the rest of the office to pick up my slack. Maybe January is for the best.

Timing is terrible because I have a big audit next week. I was actually hoping to get out of it with surgery. Instead, now it will mean I won't have time to do much else before my surgery. Very frustrating - hope it goes fast and smooth.

To mitigate the panic (& financial side effects of missing 2 weeks of work) I will probably just work every day until the surgery. I was probably going to work Sunday, anyway. So, will enjoy today and tomorrow and then will work every day for about 10 days.

-------------------------------------------------

In other news, I got my nook. Love it!!! The down time of surgery recovery means I will catch up on some TV shows and maybe finish my giant book!

Dh just got some series from Blockbuster - Mad Men? DVR is filled with "Breaking Bads" and we are going through "IT Crowd" on Netflix. I hope it doesn't hurt to laugh - that seems like it will be perfect medicine - will save it for recovery. We have 2 seasons to get through.

I kind of prefer Netflix or Blockbuster as far as just sitting down and watching an entire show. It has its pluses and minuses. Kind of leaves you wanting more, I suppose. But it's hard to get through without a chunk of time off work.

---------------------------------------------------

I'll probably delay some fiscal chores until my recovery.

I already paid all the bills for January. Will have to finalize the credit card payment when it closes Monday.

Today I updated all my mutual funds (made sure all the balances in Quicken matched my actual balances - made sure all dividends posted, etc.). I am actually pretty darn close to $99k in retirement accounts, in the end. Lots of dividends I hadn't downloaded yet.

When the stock market closes (well - when the mutual funds post their closing prices), I will update my net worth. We may be up $3k for the year. After two years of losses, I'll take it! It was a fairly good year, but the house lost value, which hurt us the most.

I got paid, so transferred the last $1k to our IRAs for the year.

I entered all our holdings in yahoo, at 12/30. Close enough since no transactions today. This way, it's easy to keep an eye on stock market returns throughout the year. I just login to yahoo and look at the "year-to-date returns." Though I don't bother tracking every purchase throughout the year.

To do in recovery mode:

Print out year-end statements for all accounts. (Most are online - I just like to have something in paper form just in case).

Calculate our stock market returns for 2010.

Compare 2010 income/spending to 2009.

I usually print out some reports, including net worth, to keep in the long run.

I will also need to print out all the year-to-date numbers for our tax deductions. I already filled in our tax return with preliminary numbers so have a good idea where we are at. Expecting refunds so will file as close to Jan. 31 as possible. (I usually wait until Jan. 31 for any stray 1099s, and to make sure the software is updated, etc., etc.). Last year I filed early enough to avoid an IOU from the state. Since I unfortunately expect a bigger refund this year, I really don't want to get into IOU territory. I suppose the banks took them anyway? I didn't have to deal with that so will be new to me.

I know - I won't even bother risking a refund for 2011. Not from the state!

Our tax situation is so simple. My gross pay = my taxable income, and so I just use my 12/31 pay stub to file my taxes. All of our investments are in IRAs, and so there is no tax considerations. I can run Quicken reports for our interest income (& mortgage interest expense). We don't get any 1099s that I don't already have the info for. But I suppose it's a "just in case" thing that I wait.

This is one reason mortgage pay down is one of our primary goals. We could invest, yes, but we have enjoyed the tax simplicity of not having taxable investments. Throwing extra money at the mortgage keeps it simple.