Until you get to the point you’re an adult, the start of the year is nothing special. But then… you begin to hate it.
I am not sure how many expenses there are in your country, but I just had to pay those this month:
Car insurance – I have 10 years and a couple of months of driving experience, I am still considered a young driver and my insurance is high because of that and also because it is a 2.2 diesel engine. 470$ for 12 months
Car tax – Usually, for engines up to 2.0 diesel the tax is lower, but in my country’s opinion I drive a “luxury” car and the yearly tax I paid was 210$
House tax – The luxury to own our little house costs 111$ for the whole 2023 year.
Yearly car inspection – This is still due this week but will cost around 45$ and is valid for another 12 months.
Income tax – I also paid half of my income tax, the total amount is due in May so I still have time to pay the other part, but I just paid 1730$. This is for the income year 2022, the amount for 2023 is due next year and will be significantly higher.
Yearly house insurance – In Romania, if you own a house you have to pay for house insurance to a state-owned company. This insurance is just in case of natural disasters and is around 20$ per year. I also pay another insurance to get better coverage (also required by the bank that I owe mortgage), but that is around 20$ monthly.
Fine – We took a trip this month to Hungary and the parking I made was a little bit off, since the Hungarian Police do not like us Romanians a lot, they stopped near our car when we were leaving and gave us a little fine of 25$.
The total paid just for those expenses in January was 2611$. 11780 Romanian LEU.
So yeah, this is why I hate the start of the year as an adult. Besides those expenses, we still had to pay the mortgage, the car payment, and other monthly expenses. So yeah, rough start.
With a difficult year ahead (lots of tech companies are laying off employees in the US), I am glad I got enough money to pay those expenses early, just the income tax is left to fully cover.
I am not sure if Romanian programmers will be affected a lot by the upcoming recession, but I really hope I can provide for my family this year by doing the thing I know best. As a Christian, I know God will provide for us no matter what, we just have to stay faithful and trust Him.
Later this year I plan to raise my rates as a programmer, mainly because the real inflation rate this year will also be high and mostly two digits, so if I do not raise the rate by at least the inflation rate, I have less purchasing power with the money I earn.
If you read this… how many taxes or expenses do you have to pay when the year starts? I am curious especially if you are outside Romania.
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