Send that refund on over, baby

I just filed my taxes, and it was an unexpectedly smooth process. For the past three years, I've had to file Wisconsin state income tax, which is something of a pain; I've also had problems with tax software, whether it's TurboTax or Tax Cut or whatever. And last year, because I accidentally left a 1099-DIV off my return, I had to file an amended tax return, which is no fun at all.

This year, though, filing taxes was not so bad. It helped that I am finally free of Wisconsin's clutches (although, of course, this year I'll be heading straight into California's warm embrace). I also finally got to benefit from having streamlined and consolidated my finances in previous years, which meant less 1099 forms to enter. All in all, the process took me about an hour and a half, which included some frustration with the "Update" function, which did not actually work. I ended up having to download the latest patches from TurboTax's site directly.

Now a nice fat refund should wing its way to me eventually. What will I do with it? Well, originally I had planned to use it to beef up my work wardrobe, which is pretty scant in both the actual "office" clothing category as well as the more casual, but still necessarily dressy "office function" category. (GPG thinks my clothing for the latter is too sensible and not fun enough.) But now I think a more practical and immediate use will be putting the money into a Roth IRA. Much less exciting than going clothes shopping . . . but there aren't any major sales now anyway, right? Right.

I'm so boring.