I talk a lot about not buying stuff here, but it’s worth talking about a period that I seldom discuss, which is the two-ish month span between the beginning of the year and when I file my taxes, where I really hold off on anything big. Truly it has to be essential for me to justify it. This is the fallow period.

Corporate taxes in America go like this: we decide on a date when the tax year ends, and the balance you have on that date dictates how much you spend in tax. So if you spend a lot in tax-deductible categories ahead of time, you get to deduct more. In practice, this means it benefits you to do things like:

• Renewing your domains for the maximum period
• Paying your home office’s mortgage as far ahead as you can
• Paying your last month’s utility bills before the end of the month
• Pre-filling any vendor account balances which allow that
• Deferring client payments until after the tax year concludes

And then at the end of the tax year, you save until you feel comfortable with your runway.

My tax year ends with the actual year. Tax day is March 15 for me, because I run a small business and that’s the business deadline. In practice we usually file at the end of February. My taxes cost me anywhere between $0 and mid-five figures, and I’d like to say I’ve become good at predicting the final number, but I am very terrible at this for a variety of tax-ish reasons that are too boring to outline here.

This is an economic shock that kind of feels boring & avoidable until you realize that everybody is doing it. “Use it or lose it” budgets exist for a reason. Businesses, especially publicly traded ones, live & die by their financial calendars. And you are not immune.

The fallow period hits different when your whole “to buy” list is two items and you’re going to a retail paradise in a few weeks. Refusal as practice. Touching grass, instead.

Two years ago was all about ruggedization. Last year was all about durability. This year is about living with the stuff I already have. A yearlong fallow period.