Mental rolodex

In Virginia, while most of our taxes are low (relative to other places, that is) we pay a wonderful thing called a car-tax. They have a formal name for it, but basically we pay our county money each year for the "privilege" of parking our car here. Never mind that WE don't park our car (now cars) on county streets since we live in a development with reserved off-street parking.

For years we paid this tax in the fall. Wasn't sure when we paid it, but was almost sure we paid in the fall. Mind you, the tax is based on the value of the car. But as of today, we hadn't received a notice or the more-important sticker to place on the car saying we had paid the silly tax. I had a few spare minutes while our son slept so I called and actually got human voices. Turns out, our notice was mailed the first week in August AND its due Oct. 3!

Good thing I called.

In Virginia they will ticket the heck out of you without that sticker, despite the fact that our 2002 Ford Focus is now only costing us $50 (I shudder to think what the new car will cost). Sadly I learned the ticketing lesson the hard way when we first moved here.

The point of this post is simple. If you have standard bills, try to remember when you think they are due. I am not talking about the bills we have each month. I am talking about assessments, annual premiums, etc. You will likely pay them the same time each year. Mark on a calendar or set up automatic alerts in your Outlook. By doing this you avoid late fees, penalties...or worse, tickets. Heaven knows we don't need to give the states more money than we already do.