Almost to tax day, which (working in financial services as I do) is somewhat of a marker for busy-ness, but not as much as it was when I worked for an accounting firm or tax department. At least most of the "administratrivia," as I call it, is over for the year. That's all the tax forms (1099s and K-1s) that I need to send to clients and their CPAs early in the year. The 1099s are out in January or February, but the K-1s continue to trickle in, with several coming in this past week (and some may yet come in on Monday or Tuesday), and some which will not be issued until the summer. In that case, the client needs to have their return put on extension, but still needs to pay the expected amount of tax due by the 4/15 deadline. All of that extra paperwork comes on TOP of the regular workload of preparation for client meetings, so (with that largely over for the year) I get to breathe a bit more easily until next January.
I still haven't made much progress on my decluttering goals, but hopefully will now that I have that additional bit of breathing room. I took yesterday off with the goal of working on my kitchen, but I did have my work computer with me, and (it still being before 4/15) I ended up doing a couple of hours of work from home as well as taking myself out to a leisurely breakfast By the time I was done with that and also tackling my yard for the first time this spring and running two errands, it was well into the afternoon and I ended up taking a nap.
I'm at work again today--I usually do spend a few hours at work over the weekend since it is quiet and I won't get interrupted by client phone calls or drop-ins and can be more productive. I'm hoping to get the work I want done today and then tackle the kitchen tomorrow.
On the financial front, my portfolio at the moment is largely back to where it was before this unnecessary war, both due to recovery and the fact that I contribute to both my 401(k) and my sinking funds every paycheck. It's only down about 2k from where it was before 2/28.
I haven't been doing a good job of tracking my spending with a spreadsheet as I'd intended, so I may give Monarch Money a try--I'll decide that after tax day.
Also, as per my last blog post, our Office Manager did retire two weeks ago. It does look like we will get somewhat of a replacement, with a different title and somewhat different responsibilities. In the meanwhile, the four of us left at the office have to take on extra work (for no extra pay). I'm responsible for the mail, which includes collecting it and scanning any client documents and filing them in our electronic filing cabinet, as well as doing a bunch of checks before leaving the office for the day since I am almost always the last person out the door (but also the last one in most mornings). We had 7 people in this office for the first few years I worked here and had 6 people for the several years after that. With two retirements now in about a year and a quarter, we are down to four and it feels kind of empty.
April 11th, 2026 at 06:35 pm 1775932500
April 11th, 2026 at 07:27 pm 1775935630
Then again, as I have commented in a previous post about the oil supply chain, the domestic gas market is largely robust, despite its warts and all. So, perhaps that is why the market is so willing to rebound as much as it did. At the same time though, the situation between Israel, Iran, and Lebanon remains actively and deadly.
At the end of the day, I think the stock market is laser-focused on one key item here, and that is the status of the Strait of Hormuz. The market jumped when Trump announced a “truce” for 2 weeks. Personally, I trust the words of any narcissistic megalomaniacs / pathological liars about as far as I can throw them with two fingers, but for what it’s worth, I still hope all involved can resolve this somehow, sooner rather than later.
April 16th, 2026 at 03:51 pm 1776354712