Financial Karma?

Yesterday
I was reviewing our tax situation yesterday, and I had thought that Kristin and I were going to owe an additional $6k with our tax return. But as I re-ran the numbers, I remembered to add some additional deductions that I had previously forgotten. Those would save us $3k in taxes. So while I wasn't happy to be paying additional tax, I was feeling very good that our payment would be much smaller.

But then I got an email from AT&T regarding my new cell phone service. It indicated that text messaging was not included with my plan and that I was being charged $0.20 for each text (both outgoing and incoming). So I called AT&T to add $5 to my monthly charges so that I'd be covered. This new cost made me feel less happy.

Then, as I was driving home, I went to cash in my winning lottery ticket, and I received $11. Clearly, I was riding high. (And yes, per Logan's suggestion, I did let some of it ride, as the new jackpot is $146MM.)

Then, I went to pick up some dress shoes that I had left at the shoe repair store. I was thinking the total cost would be less than $40, which is more than what we ever paid in Santa Clara for having my shoes re-heeled, polished, and Kristin's shoes being fixed. I had two pairs of shoes there, and it cost $97 (for polishing, re-soling, and re-heeling). I was appalled, and my day was again ruined.

Then I needed to pick up our dry cleaning. The bill was $26. But they accepted coupons from a competitor, so that knocked off $4. So my day ended just a little bit better.

Today
I tried to sell one of Kristin's investments (a municipal bond from San Joaquin Hills). According to the Schwab statement, it was worth just yesterday approximately $13000. Today, when I called Schwab so that they could solicit bids on the open market, it would only fetch $7600. Again, my day wasn't going so well.

But five minutes later, a check for $50 arrived in my office. Apparently, a month ago, I had taken a survey for financial advisors, and they had promised a $50 check for completing it.

Conclusion
Clearly, on a dollar for dollar basis, things are not quite evening out right now. But it's good to see that for every loss, there's a gain. And vice versa.