We have a property tax installment due on 9/1 for about $3500.00. DH just got a new job, which he will start next Thursday, 8/31.
He gave notice at his existing job yesterday, and planned to work the rest of this week, but his director told him not to bother finishing out the week (nice, I know).
His next paycheck for his existing job is supposed to come on 9/1. Of course, I was thinking that he would get half a paycheck on that day since he is working one week and he gets paid every other friday. Half a paycheck would be a little over $1,000. But now, since he won't be working, he will get two days, which is pretty much nothing.
The stickler here is that he gets paid at his new job once a month, and payday is the last working day of the month. Which will be September 29!!!!. This new job is considerably more money than his current job, so those once-a-month paychecks will be quite large.. a little over 7K before deductions. (Yay for us)... so whatever that will be after taxes and insurance are taken out we will have to wait and see, but pretty good regardless.
I know this is long, and thank you so much if you are still reading. So here is my dilemma. Figuring all our bills until the 1st, we will have about 1700 in checking and we currently have 2K in immediate accessable savings. We also have $2500 in each a CD and Money Market. Of course if we touch one of those, we will have to pay taxes on it come April. Would you take your available funds and pay the property tax on time- leaving only about $200 left in checking/savings until we can get more in there....... OR take money out of the CD or MM to cover it.......OR wait until DH gets his first check and pay the late penalty of $75.00 or so? It tells you on the property tax stub exactly what you will have to pay if you pay on 9/1, 10/1, or 11/1. Obviously the 10/1 and 11/1 payments are slightly more, but not huge.
I'm having a problem with this mostly because I have NEVER paid anything late. I'm not really worried about our credit - we just bought our last "major purchase" for a while when we bought DH's truck and they ran his credit which is over 800. Mine is about 760 or so.
I get paid every week, but since we will have to pay ALL THE BILLS for the month of Sept on my salary alone, I am a little nervous about leaving so little in checking.
Is there any penalty to paying the tax late except for the late fee?
I'm sorry this was so long winded... any advice would be great.
Oh, and DH already asked his new employer if they would be willing to give him a partial check to ease the transition for us to one paycheck and they said "it will be difficult". Since they just accepted his counter-offer for a larger salary, he didn't want to press it, especially since we HAVE the money... well, sort of...

Personally, I'd wait until 10/1 or 11/1 to pay the property taxes. Your tax bill should indicate whether there's a penalty. Most likely there isn't, except the implied penalty of having to pay slightly more tax. But property taxes are tax deductible, assuming you itemize.

I used to get paid monthly, and I loved it. However, the first month was brutal. It was nice that I had some savings to fall back on until I got into a pattern of getting paid 1x per month. I was also able to pay almost every bill at the beginning of the month, which made bill paying easier for me.

Now that I get paid bi-weekly, I transfer 1/12th of my annual net salary from savings to checking on the first day of each month. Then, when each bi-weekly paycheck gets deposited into my checking account, I transfer that amount back into savings. So, in effect, I have put myself on the 1x per month pay cycle.