Wednesday

[susandennis]

The pool was packed today. Wednesdays are generally busy days at the gym but 8 swimmers at 5:45 am is a little wild. Two of them waited on deck for a spot.

Today is real estate tax day. The county sends out the tax bills and makes the info available online. Last year my bill was $4K for the year. My values changed a little (we get that info at the end of the year) but I expected the total amount to increase. I was wrong! My bill is $3.800! Excellent. That's a lovely surprise.

Yesterday I sent my doctor a note asking for a refill of my Spiriva prescription. I changed my insurance to Humana at the beginning of the year. I had set up my online account in January but hadn't really looked into the pharmacy side of it until yesterday. Welcome to this decade! Finally, an insurance company who's act is together!

Last year's insurance company had zero online anything. The insurance company before that had some reports but zero drug info. Humana has it all in spades. I easily transferred my 3 other prescriptions. I discovered I have a $50 a quarter allowance for over the counter stuff (a limited selection but still a lot of good stuff). I can't see prices yet but it looks like the cost to me will be lower.

Mainly, however, their website shows me that they have my requests and things are in process. One has shipped and they give me the tracking number. Nice, very very nice.

I've decided to move my cell service from T-Mobile to Google Fi. I don't expect to save money but I do hope to get more flexibility. My main worry was switching back if it does not work like I hope. My Google Voice number is my old land line number that I've had for 25 years. Losing it would not be catastrophic but would be a major Pain in the Ass. Apparently, now, if you leave Fi, one option is to return to regular old Google Voice. That, and I keep hearing rumors that my sweet little $30 a month T-Mobile plan is going away soon, has me moving on for now.

Now I need to hang up my wet suit and put the clean dishes away in the kitchen - house cleaner prep.

Oh here's last night's bear...

Comments

[mixter11nm.livejournal.com]

Which prescription company does Humana use? I have United Healthcare/Oxford and we use OptumRx for all prescriptions online or thru the mail. They are excellent and, like your new prescription plan, are completely online. It works great.

Good luck with switching phone companies. I've been using T-Mobile for years and years.

[susandennis]

I don't know the mechanics behind it but the pharmacy is labeled Humana Pharmacy.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

So what is real estate tax? What is it tax on or what do you get for it? I'm trying to work out what our equivalent is

[susandennis]

Real estate tax is the tax we pay for land and houses. If you own any real property (land, house, condo, some apartments, co-ops, farm building) you pay a tax for that property. A real estate tax. Does that help?

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

It's payable annually?
I don't think we have anything like it, we pay a 'stamp duty' when we buy property. A certain amount is free then after that you pay a percentage of the cost (about 2%, I think) and that is a one off payment. After that we only pay 'council tax' to the local council which covers the cost of rubbish collection, street cleaning, police, street lighting etc. That is calculated by the value band of your property and usually paid monthly. Ours is about £1,300 a year although it's coming up to the new financial year so it'll go up a bit. Because we live in a village we have to pay a little bit extra called a precept to pay for the parish council (my husband is a parish councillor) which is ironic as we have worse conditions than people in towns

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Real estate tax (also commonly called "property tax") is the way most American municipalities (cities and towns) are financed.

[susandennis]

Yep sounds like two entirely different systems. Interesting!

Here in this county we can pay the total amount in halves - one in May and one in October. Or all at once.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

So if you rented rather than owned what taxes would you pay?

[susandennis]

If you rent, your landlord pays the property/real estate taxes and you do not.

We all (owners and renters) pay income tax to the federal government. Most states also collect tax on that income. Most cities have a tax on all sales. Some cities exclude food items from that. Some places have special taxes on things like luxury items (your yacht, for example) and car rentals.

People who rent get to pay a lot in taxes, too :)

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I see! Very interesting. We have income tax and national insurance (which pays for the welfare state provision) and then the only sales tax we have is VAT which in theory is on luxury goods but is often on quite normal things like tampons because it is a luxury to be a woman

[susandennis]

:)

[hopefulspirit.livejournal.com]

It's great your tax went down! That never seems to happen.

I should check to see what my insurance company has online. My office just switched companies in January so I don't know much about it yet.

I didn't know Google has a phone plan. I'm so out of the loop. lol I've had AT&T for years, mainly because there weren't many options here until recently.

The gray with the pink bear looks nice!

[doggiesushi.livejournal.com]

If you happen to have any good resources or advice for COPD, I'd love to hear about it. My cousin (lifelong NON-smoker) just got diagnosed with it last month and she's really angry and sad about it. She's just in the beginning of dealing with that (along with both of her parents dying within 4 weeks of each other back in November). She's dealing with the COPD by just ignoring it right now, understandably.

[susandennis]

Oh so sorry to hear. BUT, it sounds like she's doing exactly what my lung doctor suggested for me. Ignore it. He tells me that all we can do is treat the symptoms so if no symptoms, then no treatment needed! I make sure I have what I need to treat my most recurring symptoms - in my case shortness of breath and coughing. When I have 'em I treat 'em. When I don't, I don't.

[doggiesushi.livejournal.com]

Ah - ok! Great to know! She's been having a lot of anxiety since her parents died, so i'm sure that's been exacerbating her symptoms. thank you!