Minor rant thread. Post your rants o' the day here!

Today's rant is about paying estimated taxes. This is my first year of retirement and we're living off of stock that I purchased through my previous employer for the next few years. It's all just capital gains so it should be simple enough, right? I've looked for a product that can calculate my estimated taxes. So far I haven't found anything that does estimated taxes for the current year. I called and spoke to Intuit about Turbo Tax. The kind lady told me that you can just look at your taxes from last year and divide that up. Um, no I can't because last year I was a W2-ed employee and my situation is completely different now. I found that most of the advice was to download a spreadsheet that someone had created and hope for the best. I finally made my own because I couldn't find one that I could trust. 

The second issue I'm running into is that since I don't have any regular income I'm trying to do Roth conversions each year until I have to start withdrawing from my IRAs. Again, I really didn't have a lot of luck finding anything that would calculate the taxes properly.

I finally decided to create a fake 2024 tax return in TurboTax and use that to calculate my tax payments for this year. That seems to work fairly well although I did find a couple of surprises. The standard deduction and cutoffs for the tax brackets are a little off but it should be close enough. I'll probably wind up overpaying a little but I'm fine with that. 

I reposted this in the "Early retirement experiences?" thread. If you have any input please reply there since it's more relevant to that topic. Thanks!

I have hours' worth of training to do on Salesforce.  Which is fine.  But the whole course uses this AI generated voice.  Which is off-putting, but I can handle.  But they also use an AI-generated video presenter.  The uncanny valley is real and it kind of creeps me out.

In reply to CAinCA :

A ways back I replaced the bulb in our front porch light with a RGB smart bulb- was as easy as just swapping the bulb out and linking it to the app that I already had on my phone for a few other devices from the same brand. Now it's set up to automatically turn on and off on a schedule, and I can change the color for special occasions or just for the heck of it (makes it easy to find our house for deliveries with a specific color porch light).

Datsun240ZGuy said:

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

I created a "death" 3-ring binder with all this information and I add/subtract quarterly updates as time goes on. 

I like this idea. Everything organized in one place. I'm going to steal your idea and create my own death binder when I get back home.

stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) said:

Datsun240ZGuy said:

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

I created a "death" 3-ring binder with all this information and I add/subtract quarterly updates as time goes on. 

I like this idea. Everything organized in one place. I'm going to steal your idea and create my own death binder when I get back home.

I think I'll do the same. I had originally thought about putting all the important information together in a lock box but organized in a binder is a better idea. 
 

But who am I kidding? I still don't even have a will

wae said:

I have hours' worth of training to do on Salesforce.  Which is fine.  But the whole course uses this AI generated voice.  Which is off-putting, but I can handle.  But they also use an AI-generated video presenter.  The uncanny valley is real and it kind of creeps me out.

For trainees the AI voice and presenter are creepy, but for the executives who approved the production of the videos and the purchase of the training program, they're a comforting reassurance that no human performers were paid in the making of the video. Not even Matthew McConaughey.

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

Not that it helps now, but for future reference there are online notaries, and it's 100% legal and binding. It's done by video call. 

Mustn't grumble, but this week hasn't been great. Something to do with me finding out why the cataract specialist scheduled my two operations only one week apart, because having one eye with suddenly very good distance vision and the other with -HFM is overtaxing my remaining brain cells something fierce. Oh well, another three days like this...

In reply to BoxheadTim :

My one employer's dad had his "eyes done" with one eye for close up and one for distance, and he was recommending I get the same thing.  Apparently the brain, even in your 70s, is malleable enough to accept that you can only see with one eye AND that it's a different eye for different situations.

The idea gives me heebie-jeebies but it's supposed to be getting more and more common.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I had a long conversation with my cataract specialist about that option and in the end we decided against that for various reasons (like me spending most of my day staring at large computer monitors). So I've already added to my collection of reading glasses, and it looks like I get to use bifocals when driving or riding a motorcycle.

The different eye for different situations thing seems to be working even uninvited. I'm extremely left eye dominant due to both the cataract and myopia in the -6.5 range on my right eye, but it took my brain most of this week to occasionally switch over almost completely to my right eye for distance vision.

That said, apparently the eye specialist were under the impression that I should've been able to drive within a day or two of the surgery, but that seemed more of a bad idea to me. Even with an eye patch over the left eye, I'd be hesitant to drive atm. I'm hoping that that hesitancy is gone by next Tuesday when both eyes should generally agree on the shape and distance of other objects again...

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I think I'd want to try that out with different-power glasses lenses/contacts first...

Thought I'd go for a ride on one of my favorite trails today, weather was good and I hadn't been there yet this year, it's 45mins away and I'd been staying close to home to save money. I heard one rather worrying metallic ping noise from the rear of the bike so I made sure to check the spokes before leaving. Drove out there, got everything ready, and within the first rotation of the pedals a spoke snapped, recoiled through the rim tape, and flattened the rear tire. Punctures in the rim tape laugh at tubeless sealant. I managed to patch it from inside and keep air in it but it was hopelessly wobbly with a spoke missing and I know it would lead to accelerating failure of other spokes anyway. Wasted about $30 in gas and 2.5 hours of prime outdoor time.

My ad:

(but full size pics)

The responses I receive 

In reply to GameboyRMH :

At least the failure happened quickly when you were near the vehicle rather than some miles down-trail when extrication would've been trickier. 

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

Going through the same kinda pain right now. 

I have an extra set of headlights and front springs and shocks for a crown Vic. All new never installed parts I dont need, so I'm listing at a loss to get them gone, asking $100. (Less than 1/3rd what I paid, should be a great price)

So far, I've had one guy have me lug the parts along on a family camping trip to meet up and flake out. One guy accused me of being racist for not replying at midnight on a weekday. Multiple people offer me less, but asking me to drive an hour to sell them the parts. (I'm not knocking $20 and burning two hours of my time on this) And several act like they are buying them and just stop messaging me. 

For $100, I'm about to just take it all to the damn dump. 

Dude had one job: