Nowadays, it seems to be common for people in their early or mid 20s to still not know very much about doing taxes. I speak for many people when I say that I'm 21 years old and still rely on my parents to help me with all tax-related situations. In defense of our generation, however, most of us never had the opportunity in school to learn about taxes, because it wasn't part of the general curriculum. I don't understand why, since taxes are an important thing to know about in the world of employment. This year, I'm making a goal for myself to understand the intricacies of taxes, as there are many things I can do that require more skill and more work. Here are five things I know how to do better than my taxes.
1. Analyze Shakespeare
I understand William Shakespeare's importance as a writer, as well as the significance of his plays, but what I always found unusual was the large amount of time spent in middle and high school studying his work. Shakespeare's old English style causes many students to scratch their heads in confusion every day, but most of us can still understand at least a few passages of Shakespeare better than we understand taxes. Shakespeare is important, but shouldn't at least a little of the time be used up to be devoted to more life skills like taxes?
2. Create business items like spreadsheets and cover letters
Even though I wasn't taught taxes in school, I did learn a lot of other skills in the business world. For example, I'm able to utilize Office programs like PowerPoint and Excel to create items necessary for business. These skills are obviously very important, but what's the point of knowing them if you can't do taxes, arguably the most important business skill out there?
3. Manage my presence as an artist
As a performing and recording musician, I need to be on my computer and/or phone every day to work on things with my booking company, promoters, and venues. Not to mention all the other artists I try to work with. Even though I'm very far from being able to call music a career, it is still a business endeavor with some financial rewards. Taxes regarding independent income is something I will need to know about if I ever start making a lot of money doing music, but as of now, I know barely anything about them.
4. Basic computer repair
During my sophomore year at my old university. I had a student job working in Campus IT. I repaired student computers, helped answer questions, maintained campus technology, and fixed internet issues in buildings. To learn how to repair computers, I went through a week-long training program and then learned more by observing more experienced coworkers and asking questions. Being a difficult (but enjoyable) job, my coworkers were very smart people. Sure enough, however, when tax season came around, all of us were asking and answering questions with each other. I don't understand why as young people, we are able to pursue almost any job we want without being taught about how taxes work.
5. Proofs
WHY. DID. WE. LEARN. THESE? I'll never forget how tedious and annoying these math problems were in high school. I had so much trouble figuring out the logic behind solving these intricate geometric figures. The most upsetting thing about learning proofs was that my teacher even confessed that proofs were just used in school to improve logic, and had no purpose in the "real world." It sounds to me like we should have learned something instead of proofs, like TAXES.
Hopefully a year from now, I will be able to look back on this day and remember it as a time when I still didn't know much about taxes. I really think that at this point in my life, I should make learning a top priority.
