Spending Your TIME Refund

People have different strategies regarding their tax refunds: some try to avoid them at all costs by keeping their withholding to the lowest possible amount, while others prefer a refund to the anxiety of a surprisingly large tax bill. If you are in the latter camp, how do you decide to spend your tax refund?

I know it isn’t quite tax time, but I found myself thinking about refunds recently because all of us are getting one today. Specifically, we’re getting a TIME refund.

Leap Day is a Time Refund

In three out of every four years, we are cheated out of a quarter day. This happens because the earth takes a solar year of approximately 365.25 days to orbit the sun, but our calendar year rounds that down to 365 days. So in the fourth year, we get a time refund in the form of an extra day to balance the books. And it arrives, without fail, on February 29.

Leap Day Then and Now

This practice of a time refund has been around since ancient times but how and when that refund occurred varied widely. Julius Caesar borrowed from the Egyptian calendar to standardize the Roman calendar. He introduced a Leap Day at the end of February to balance the time books. Then Pope Gregory got involved to adjust the calendar again because a miscalculation in the Julian calendar of approximately 11 minutes per year was moving Easter further away from the day designated by the Catholic church: “the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox.”

Over time, a variety of interesting traditions developed in connection with Leap Day: women were “permitted” to propose to men in Ireland; in Greece, it was considered bad luck to marry on February 29. Meanwhile in modern times, Leap Day can be a hassle rather than celebration for CFOs, says The Wall Street Journal. For example, an extra day has an impact on employee payroll and benefits, as well as on interest payments on corporate debt.

How to Spend YOUR Time Refund?

For the individual, the extra day can feel like just another day at the office. But is that the right way to treat your time refund? Michelle Tullier has written about the benefits of found time. Almost all of us breathe a sigh of relief when we suddenly find ourselves free of an obligation. But what to do with that time? She counsels against simply doubling down on the to-do list. Instead, she asks how we can invest that time better. Her plan is to “invest that refund of time in work that brings me joy and grows my business and brand.” Better still, find “something fun and relaxing to do….”

So many options! But the key is to do something worthwhile with your refund, something memorable. At a minimum, use the time to avoid the danger e.e. cummings warned about:

“The most wasted of all days is the one without laughter”

If you’ve already made a plan to make the most of your time refund today, kudos! If not, then make a quick list of the worthwhile things you could do (other than office or home chores) to spend your next time refund in a way that brings you joy and growth. Then pull out that list whenever someone gives you an unexpected time refund.

A gift of time is a terrible thing to waste.

[Photo Credit: Elena Koycheva]