If you’re anything like me, taxes feel like this annual fog. Not scary, but… distant. Like something happening to someone else.

Something Future Me will magically deal with. Or something I couldn’t wait to hire a professional to do.

Either way, a classic case of disassociation.

This year, I started wondering: why does something that affects every paycheck, every job decision, every creative experiment… feel like something I just want to hand off?

That question is the lens through which this article is written.

The U.S. tax deadline is April 15th and every year people scramble to gather documents. It’s easy to point fingers but those people are also me.

I am the people.

Every year I sit down to “finally get organized,” and every year I fall short just a little bit. Have I gotten better over time? Absolutely. Is it the structured approach I usually prefer? No.

So this year, I sat down nine months in advance to get a headstart on this looming deadline. A small checklist for essential documents that began on the back of a receipt and made its way onto a napkin. And slowly, turned into this article.

I think this was a daring process.

Daring. Why?

Because nothing in life is as personal as money. People will talk about their intimate lives before they’ll talk about their bank accounts. Money — and the forced (or avoided) obligation of taxation — is deeply personal everywhere, regardless of geography or culture.

And who can blame us?

So much of being a “functioning adult” revolves around earning, spending, and managing money that any suggestion of a “better way” can feel suspicious, either a scheme to extract more money, or a quiet criticism. It can trigger shame, resistance, stubbornness; the same brand of stubbornness freshly minted toddlers wield with astonishing skill.

But you’re here. And I’m here.

So let’s talk about why DIY-ing your taxes, at least once, is a good idea.

For the purpose of this article, I’m going to assume most of us hate this stuff. Afterall, who wants to think about taxes when they aren’t due….?