Out government has finally admitted that there is nothing transitory about inflation and is now moving to combat it. The only tool they can find in the tool box is to raise interest rates and the effects can now bee seen

Mortgage rates are now about 5% and climbing when they were at 2.5% just a few months ago. The stock market is entering bear market territory just as one would expect with rising rates. Following these events, you can expect consumer confidence to slip as the euphoria over cheap money and never ending stock and real estate increases quickly erodes.

I have said all along that the Fed is way behind and now they must act more aggressively than might have been necessary putting us right on the edge of that awful word: Recession

Our government over the past couple of years has done almost nothing correctly and hasn’t solved a single problem. From covid, shortages, supply chain issues, energy problems, etc. instead of tackling the problems head on they have simply thrown money at the wall hoping that would somehow magically solve the problems.

In our current free speech environment, it is somehow more important to punish someone for saying the wrong thing than it is to enable people to put food on the table or fill their gas tank.

There’s a saying about things needing to get worse before they get better. I believe worse is on the way.

Now time passes and you are wondering where your refund is and why it is taking so long.

Both the IRS and the state of Virginia have “where’s my refund” tools on their websites

The IRS is here

https://www.irs.gov/refunds

The Virginia is here

https://www.tax.virginia.gov/wheres-my-refund

These are the ONLY resources to find the status of your tax refund. Your tax preparer has no inside track and can’t get you any better status. Calling the IRS or the State will also not give you any better status and will only waste your time.

If there is a delay in issuing your refund (for whatever reason) you will simply have to be patient.

What your tax preparer CAN assist you with is any tax notices you may receive regarding your tax return. Often, it is the taxpayer’s failure to adequately respond to these notices, that significantly holds up the processing of the tax return.

People often complain that the wealthy get all the perks and yet won’t do the simple things that wealthy people do to stay wealthy.

Debit cards are the banks friend. They provide no miles, no rewards, no cash back, almost no protection, and payment comes out of your account immediately.

Now juxtapose this with a good credit card where you can get cash back on every purchase, shopping rewards, or miles. In other words, you can make money by spending on the exact same things you would purchase with your debit card. Not only that, you get purchase protection not typically provided by the debt card and you can get a grace period of up to 60 days before you have to transfer the money out of your account interest free. Imagine that, using the banks money to make yourself money.

Many people will balk at some of the best rewards cards out there because of the high interest rates. However, if you are paying off the card, what do you care what the interest rate is?

If you are a responsible individual who pays off their credit card each month, you should not even be carrying a debt card. Get a good cash back or rewards credit card and start getting some of your money back.