They Say It's Your Birthday…

It’s my birthday, too, yeah. So, in honor of the day, in the tradition of bloggers everywhere, I present ten things you may not know about me…

1. I share a birthday with actress Jill Whelan. She and I have much in common: she starred in one of my favorite movies, Airplane!, and the wildly popular show, Love Boat, before moving to Philadelphia while I played the role of Snoopy in my junior high production of You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown before moving to Philadelphia. She, however, was never a tax attorney – ha!
2. At various times in my life, I wanted to be an actress, a teacher, a baseball player (which reminds me: Charlie Manuel, if you haven’t found a replacement for Lidge, I’m still available through October) and a lawyer. My dad is fond of relating the story of my telling people that I wanted to be a lawyer so that I could be rich and just write poetry. I clearly overestimated how much they pay lawyers – which is why I now just write tax haiku.
3. When people ask me what I do for a living now, I tell them I’m a tax attorney who also writes about tax (this may frighten them a little). If you think that’s confusing to grown-ups, think of my poor children: they often tell people that I drive a taxi.
4. My husband and I are both lawyers and yes, we met in law school. I didn’t care for him very much during our first year because I thought he was too sarcastic. If you read the blog very often and know my writing style, that should boggle your mind.
5. In law school, I swore I would never take a tax course, bar review or no bar review, because I thought it would be boring. There’s a lesson to be learned here – and it’s not to not listen to me.
6. The worst grade I ever got in law school was in tax – the first tax course I ever took. I was devastated and went to my professor in tears. I was already signed up for my Internal Revenue Service (IRS) clerkship by the time I got my grade and wanted to quit. My professor convinced me to not quit. I completely attribute my being a tax geek today to my terrific law school tax profs.
7. I did a stint as a tax prof myself for a bit at Community College of Philadelphia. I taught Wills and Trusts. The great thing about growing up in a Southern family is that I didn’t really have to embellish any of my family for the hypos – although I did occasionally. For example, my dad does, in fact, have an entire room in our house dedicated to all things Coca-Cola – though as far as I know, none of the bottles contain flesh-eating bacteria. Again, as far as I know…
8. I have really fond memories of my childhood except for a few “incidents” involving my brothers and some strategically placed walkie-talkies (no, Rob and T, I haven’t forgotten). Some of my best memories revolve around my maternal grandmother who made a pretty mean vegetable soup. She died of cancer and I now run the Komen 5k in her memory (Team Joye). 
9. I now have three kids of my own – fortunately, my daughter’s invisible friend, Mary, has moved on (I did not claim her as a tax deduction, despite my father’s belief that I could). I have no idea what my kids will be when they grow up though I would not be surprised to see my middle child off Broadway (and I mean, off, off Broadway). My husband and I have always said that they can be anything they want except a stripper or a lawyer – and we’re willing to bend on stripper.
10. My other “baby” is taxgirl. I’ve been blogging for a number of years now (even before I bought taxgirl.com). Way back… As in back in the day when my mom didn’t even know what a blog was and my dad was just about my only reader. It’s been the most fun a tax geek can have (and still hold a job). I really do appreciate all of my readers for giving me inspiration and encouragement every.single.day. And thanks, of course, to Richard Hatch, for constantly giving me something to write about.

Kelly Phillips Erb

Kelly Phillips Erb is a tax attorney, tax writer, and podcaster.

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