April 06, 2008~~9:30 a.m.
one of those women...

We haven't even started doing our taxes yet; I'm not sure why the husband hasn't pushed it. I think we're just feeling lazy. Better snap out of it though...

Our taxes are pretty easy. We only have one W2 each. One mortgage. One (inherited) stock (that makes almost nothing, but I keep for its sentimental value). We've never paid a tax pro, mostly because it would require far better organization than we posess to have everything together in one place so we could hand it over to someone else.

The process in our house generally looks something like this... I sit at the computer inputting data and telling the husband what I need numbers for. He runs back and forth between the office and the closet in the master bedroom where he keeps the documents and details of our life filed away according to a system understood only by him.

I always said that I'd never be one of those wives who didn't know how to do things for herself. I have always been a bit of a control freak, so managing the finances was my responsibility for years. But the husband and I do not like things done in the same fashion. Where I balance a checkbook to the penny, he lets go of differences, trusts the bank and moves on. His *time* has always been worth more than mine and he can't really be bothered with the degree of accuracy it takes for me to be comfortable.

For my sanity, I had to let it go. I had to trade in the monthly frustration and accept an ignorance is bliss outlook. And so, he pays the bills and deals with the bank and the only time we do anything financial together is tax time.

It works for us, but God forbid anything unexpected happens to the man and I have to figure out his *system* on my own.

Bleh. I'm one of *those* women.