That got me thinking… the vast majority of Americans file on or after the deadline…very much unlike me. I consider a perk of being self-employed being able to file my taxes extra-early without waiting for a W-2, but I’m weird like that. Also, being an adoptive parent (two adoptions in three years) we see gigantic refunds every year due to the Adoption Tax Credit. We don’t even end up paying AMT.

Do you pay someone else to do your taxes? If you don’t have businesses or trusts, or other unusual circumstances, you might try giving tax-preparation a try.

We’ve used TurboTax online for the last several years, and one of my favorite features is that I can print my return to a *.pdf file and keep it on my computer. Also, every time I loose this file I can just grab it from the Web. Furthermore, it keeps track of things like the carryover balance of the adoption tax credit that we’ll get to claim for 2009 because we didn’t reach the max in 2008. This is all stuff my tax preparer might miss, and it provides me the extra assurance of being able to find the return later if I need it.

Also, if you are (or have) gotten money back this year–is it time to re-evaluate your withholding? What if you reduced your withholding and stopped giving the government an interest-free loan? Just something to think on for today. You could put the difference into an IRA or if you’re afraid of underpaying and getting stuck with a bill, put the extra into a SmartyPig savings account to keep around until you’ve calculated your 09 taxes.

Just my $.02 for today.

Motley Fool provides excellent communities and message boards, and some affordable financial literacy classes (at least they have, I’m not sure if they’re still available).

I learned about Mint.com from Motley Fool.

They also have excellent tax-planning resources!

The site is free with a free membership but there’s a premium membership as well. I’ve never explored this, as I’ve found everything I’ve needed in their free pages.

My only word of caution is “beware the ads.” Their advertising borders on oppressive. It also frequently has a doomsday or get-rich-quick tone that I tire of. There is email “why the oil boom is coming SOON” and the site is covered with ads. Sometimes it can be hard to tell the content from the ads.

They also have so many Fool-branded affiliate relationships that I can’t always tell what all they’re endorsing, or what is going to get me to sign up for some fund or stock newsletter. I find myself only reading the first 1/2 of all their pages and never the sidebars because of the advertisements.

That said, the message boards are excellent resources, as are their tip articles like “60 seconds to get out of debt.”

If you’re new to personal finance or trying to learn something new–check them out, but beware the ads–here there by dragons.

Seriously though, I got involved in my retirement planning, and household budgeting. We paid off our cars early and “burned the candle at both ends” to pay down our home mortgage (something we’re grateful now as most of our neighbors are upside down in their mortgages).

In my research of personal finance, I’ve studied the PF theories of two “gurus” of personal finance; Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman.

Dave Ramsey’s philosophy is a bit more stringent. He doesn’t believe in debt. He says never take more than a 15 year mortgage, and never, EVER use a credit card. I especially like his book “The Total Money Makeover,” which I downloaded as an ebook from Audible.com.

Suze Orman’s philosophy is a little more relaxed in that student loan debt is “acceptable” debt, and that a credit card used for job search expenses is OK. I found her philosophy and strategy very helpful in my first few years on my own. I especially like her book “Money For the Young, Fabulous and Broke!”

I find my own personal finance philosophy right in-between these two–shunning credit cards, but accepting mortgages and student loan debts. Mr. Ramsey encourages parents to pay for their children’s college, I’m of the opinion that they appreciate it more when they put themselves through.

I encourage you to check out the library or iTunes and their Web sites for some good ideas and information. Dave Ramsey has a daily podcast available for free from iTunes. I especially enjoy the Friday shows where he invites callers to call and scream “I’m Debt Free!” with him on the air when they’ve paid off their last debt.

Happy learning!

This is part 3 of 21 of “21 days of financial literacy” for April, which is Financial Literacy Month.

This is great news for folks like myself who are both self-employed and fans of P2P lending.

If you want to start an account for the 2008 tax year, you need to be enrolled and have funded your account by April 15th. The account goes by “real postal mail” not electronically, so hop to your research right away.

You can read more at the article I posted to Prosper Lending Review, where I’m a guest writer.