Last week, Florida had its first real cold spell of the season. When I went outside to let our dog stretch his legs after a night indoors, I could see my breath and I very much regretted leaving the house without at least two more layers of clothing. While we did not get the snow that the North got, it was still a lot colder than we are used to here in the Sunshine State.

And when it gets cold in the South, it can mean only one thing for our two SUVs. At least one of our batteries will die. As if programmed for it, the battery in my wife’s Envoy died the night that our cold spell hit. We called AAA, an annual experience for us when it gets cold, and had our battery replaced with a AAA battery. We elected not to have the SUV towed to our dealership so that the dealer could install the battery because the AAA battery was no more expensive, came with a six year warranty (as opposed to a three year partial warranty at the dealer) and was an immediate solution that did require tow trucks or later trips to the dealership to pick up the vehicle.

I was also impressed with the AAA representative’s knowledge of batteries.

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There are certain situations when you should always compare filing a joint return with filing separately. Compare the results of a joint return and separate retun when one spouse has:

• Large medical bills that exceed 7.5% of their adjusted gross income.

• Large employee business expenses, such as unreimbursed business mileage on a personal vehicle that exceed 2% of their adjusted gross income.

• Miscellaneous itemized deductions that exceed 2% of their adjusted gross income, such as investment management fees, passthrough deductions from an estate or trust, or job search expenses.

• A large casualty loss, such as an uninsured property loss from an accident or storm, that exceeds 10% of their adjusted gross income.

(Note: Adjusted gross income is simply all of your taxable income less certain deductible adjustments such as contributions to an individual retirement account, contributions to a health savings account, tuition, and self-employed health insurance payments.

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I was catching up on some blog reading and caught an old post from Plonkee about the different ways that couples can manage their finances. The three different methods were categorized as communist, socialist, or capitalist. Rather controversial, eh? Don’t get too excited folks, just read on:

Communist: One Big Pot

According to Wikipedia, communism is a social structure in which classes are abolished and property is commonly controlled. Thus, no matter what each person earns, all their income is deposited into one central joint account, from which all expenses are paid from as well. All assets including property, investments, and cash are owned together.

Socialist: Earn More, Pay More

Under this structure, common shared expenses such as rent and utilities are paid via a joint account. Let’s say one person makes $75k and the other person makes $25k. Then if the monthly shared expenses are $1,000 per month, they would pay $750 and $250 respectively.

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