This post is sponsored by 1040.com. All views expressed are my own. 

“Taxes are my favorite!” – said no one ever

Newly married, still sparkling with that honeymoon sheen, my wife and I were thrust into full-fledged, Groan Up life — doing our joint taxes together.

Doing taxes together should be a required part of pre-marital counseling. If you can crush your taxes together before it crushes you, you’re already winning.

My wife and I had no clue where to even start.

Thankfully (or so we thought) an accountant from our church invited us to his office to give us some of his wise, taxing, counsel.

For an hour, he looked through our statements. He used all kinds of official tax lingo as I nodded and smiled like I knew what he was talking about.

After one of the longest hours of my Groan Up life, we left his office, more confused than when we started.

He told us that he thought our refund would be $230. Then two weeks later, we got a nice gift in the mail from him — a $250 bill for his “free” consulting services!

Welcome to taxes! Welcome to Groan Up life! Here’s a cup of black coffee filled with coffee grounds. Gulp it down and don’t ask questions! 

Death and Taxes. Sounds about right

Let’s be honest — is there anything worse than death and taxes? Yes, I know something worse! The ANXIETY I get thinking about death and taxes.

Nothing screams becoming All Groan Up more than taxes. Just saying the word “taxes” feels like I’m cursing.

Okay, maybe I’m being a little dramatic, especially since none of us have to sit in that stuffy accountants office ever again. And by doing our taxes now, we can actually help change the world.

Let me explain…

Here are the 4 most significant Groan Up inventions in the past 10 years.

1. Wrinkle Free Dress Shirts
2. Netflix
3. Google Maps (oh I’m old enough to remember being 10 minutes late for a work appointment, consulting an actual paper map in one hand while making wild U-turns with the other)
4. Online Tax Software

Seriously, online tax software is the best. Not using one is like buying a car, then removing the windshield wipers because you want to go old-school.

And for my money, and sanity, 1040.com is quickly rising as one my favorite online tax softwares around. It’s easy to use. It’s free to file or at a very low cost. And then here’s the best part that got me really excited about 1040.com, when you file your taxes with them they donate money to Healing Waters, a non-profit with a mission to bring safe water to anyone in need.

Last year alone, 1040.com helped give 2.6 million gallons of clean water through people just doing there taxes! Even if filing your taxes is free, they still donate money to Healing Waters. And today is World Water Day, so a great day for all of us to be doing something, no matter how big or small, about the global water crisis.

Doing your taxes, which has been typically compared with death, can now help bring others life.

I love that about the age we are living in, where “the way it’s always been” is quickly becoming “how can this be done better?”

Where the worst of “Groan  Up” life doesn’t have to be the worst anymore — if we’re willing to intentionally make choices to find a better way.

Let’s review.

Doing your taxes was the worst.

Doing your taxes doesn’t have to be the worst now.

And if you do your taxes with 1040.com, you can help bring clean water to someone in need.

Groan Up life is getting better all the time.