Treasury Department Issues Emergency Recall Of All US Dollars
A little Tax-Day humor from The Onion
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Category Archives: Taxes
Day 9: Get smart about your taxes!
I was going to cover something else completely today but saw that taxes are the topic du jour on Twitter (if you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m @Jessc098).
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.
Day 4 of 21: For Community and PF/Literacy
This is day 4 in a series for the month of April: Financial Literacy Month.
I stumbled upon The Motley Fool a long time ago. I remember learning about stock-trading via a game they had (way back when E*Trade first launched). I have since kept using Motley Fool occasionally whenever I want to learn something new about finance. IRA vs 401K, what’s a 403B, I’ve always turned to Motley Fool for their reliable, humorous explanations, which are written in the plain-English that we non-CPAs understand.
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.
Living great, despite the layoff
We’ve now reached the point (just a few months in) where I’ve completely replaced my previous work-outside-the-home income with my mobile notary business and my freelance writing. By implementing the tips I’ve been outlining here–even post-layoff our family is coming out ahead of where we were six months ago financially, as well as in peace of mind.
Here’s a brief list of what we’ve done so far, and where it’s getting us. Remember, my layoff was December 7th, and today is April 2nd.
- Called all lenders and negotiated lower interest rates. Followed up by shredding all credit cards. Value: Priceless!
- Learned to cost-cut around the house: home-made laundry detergent. Saves $7/mo.
- Budget and track all expenses with Mint.com.
- Renegotiated and repriced insurance, dropped the gap coverage on our paid-off/high-mileage cars. Saves $4/mo.
- Used the library more. Estimated savings $20/mo
- Developed passive income streams (adding advertising on this web site and others, as well as Lending Club interest). Earns $1.10/mo.
- Rolled-over my fee-intensive 401K into a more affordable IRA Savings TBD
- Found tax advantages to starting my mobile-notary and freelance writing business.
- “Re bundled” our cable-TV package to the same service and same company at a lower introductory price. Saves $25/mo.
- Received our tax refund and paid off an adoption loan ($150/mo, a credit card $100/mo and a student loan $110/mo). We have just one credit card left. Saves $360/mo in debt payments.
- Refinanced our 30-year fixed mortgage, and rolled in our home equity loan ($329/mo). We put both into a 15-year fixed mortgage and will be paying just $89 more than we were paying on our old mortgage payment. (We used Smarthippo.com to find a better rate). Saves $240 per month and 15 years off the life of our mortgage.
- Testing out some meat-free recipes for dinner. Last night the kids loved eggplant parmesan (they thought it was pizza!). Saves $24/mo.
- Renegotiated cell-phone plan (due to new business). Saves $100/mo.
- The layoff reduced our household’s commuting cost. Saves $200/mo in fuel.
These tricks save us $981.10 per month, but we’ve noticed that now that all expenses are tracked, our household expenses have been reduced by about $1300 per month.
Here’s a few things that we’re not doing.
- Working more than 45-50 hours per week.
- Missing out on time with our kids.
- Cutting our daughter’s preschool (we may do this to ‘snowball’ an extra $660 per month, but she’s having so much fun, we’re having her stay for now).
- Clipping coupons.
- Stuffing envelopes or participating in “get rich quick schemes” and “pyramid sales.”
Lending Club Annoucnes an IRA Product
Lending Club announced today a new self-directed IRA product.
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.
Seeking your advice
Readers: I have a conundrum. God has been good to us, and my small business is growing at a rate where I’m beginning to think the operations are outside of my skillset–and I need to bring in a financial professional (thus ensuring I don’t end up with a WHOPPING tax bill at the end of the year).
How does one go about finding a good CPA? I’ve always done my own taxes, and I have a broker and a financial planner, but they aren’t CPAs and don’t have experience with small business.
If you have tips for what I should look for in a CPA, please let me know. I’ll summarize what I learn in the process of selecting someone, and post it here.
Thanks in advance, I look forward to learning more about selecting the right CPA for my business.