THE FATHER BLOG

I’ve mentioned before that I still play in a men’s ice hockey beer league once a week. I wouldn’t trade it for anything because the benefits of playing have been amazing. I get some late night exercise, have expanded my social network to include some of the closest friends I’ve ever had, and get mental stimulation or a mental break from the rest of life for a couple hours.

Here has been the problem lately….though I will deal with it because I’m not ready to give it up anytime soon. Every team has at least one, some many, guys who still think this stuff matters. The goal of men’s beer league is for the reasons above I mentioned for those who get it. Some of these guys use this time to relive their failed sports youth or to let out pent up aggression on other adults (often targeting the smaller guys on the team) to make themselves feel better.

If you are playing or thinking of playing adult sports….I highly recommend it. Play hard, have fun, but keep things in perspective. Most of us have jobs to go to in the morning and we would like to be able to do so. So relax and have a beer with your buddies and chill out.

It’s been a busy week or so here in our town regarding our high school baseball team. We have had both our varsity and freshman baseball coaches removed over the weekend. Any articles I find online leave things very speculative as to why. But for those of us in town….we have a decent idea of what was going on because it involves our children. (Not mine specifically…but this town isn’t that big that people don’t all talk).

So…let me just say this: have a talk with your children about what is appropriate and inappropriate contact with a teacher or a coach. Example: If a coach is texting/messaging the baseball team as a whole unit to advise them the bus is leaving early for an away game….I think we can all agree this is deemed appropriate communication.

But what if a coach/teacher is separately texting a young girl (possibly underaged). I’ll stop there because I don’t care what the content of the message is at this point….I hope we can agree that this falls under wildly inappropriate. Under no circumstances should this be happening through text messaging. If it is school related to the classroom or some type of assignment, it needs to be done through the schools email or approved communication system. End of story.

I think you get the idea. The action item here is to talk to your children about these types of things and how they should be comfortable coming to you and to discuss it. Does all this stuff fall into “criminal behavior”? Certainly not. But an adult should act like an adult and understand the lines and where not to cross them….both on the field and off.

For today’s finance topic…..should you pay estimated taxes? As always, the answer is “it depends”. I will give you a few examples.

If you find yourself paying thousands of dollars each year in taxes and it’s just based upon a normal year (meaning no major events such as home sale/purchases, stock market wins/losses, etc) then yes, you would save yourself the pain of paying out a large amount each year. On the other side, if you find yourself getting a large return each year, maybe you should adjust your withholdings so you keep more of that money in your pocket during the year. If you seem to break even or close to it each year….don’t change a thing. That is the goal.

A good accountant or CPA can help you figure out your estimated taxes after a short conversation based on previous returns and events you expect in the upcoming year. I say a good accountant for a reason. In the past, I have both owned a lot and have received a few large returns. Though the big check feels nice…I’d rather keep that money throughout the year.

Now that the tax deadline has passed and you can already begin to pay estimated taxes, take a look at your situation now to make the 2026 tax season a little less painful and a little more easy to handle.