Personal Finance and Investing

tax bill, or whatever, has no impact on my quality of life. It has far less impact on my financial situation than the usual swings in the stock market. E.g. a -4.75% total return of the S&P 500 in 2018, vs. about +20% in 2019 with a few days to go. (Though that example is quite a lot more than the usual year-to-year swing).

If I have to, I just sell some of a taxable bond fund to raise the money to pay the tax bill. And if I'm using the safe harbor provision (paying the same total amount of estimated taxes in 2019 that I actually paid in taxes in 2018), there's no interest or penalties.

I used to spend a lot of time doing good projections, but it's just gotten a lot harder in the last four years with some changes in my financial circumstances.

"Still shudder to face the Minnesota convoluted system."

I hope its easier this year -- the legislature did pass conformity legislation to make Minnesota taxes align more with the feds. We shall soon see how it works out.