The Best Ways to Invest Your Tax Refund

Okay, so you put TurboTax or H&R Block Online to work and got a fat tax refund this year. What are you going to do with it? If you overpaid your taxes last year, let’s face it – that was money you managed to live without for a full year so why not invest it? Under the right conditions, investing your tax refund is one of the wisest things you can do with that windfall.

I once heard a very wise financial advisor say that investing was like sending money to your future self and I like that thought process. But before you jump headlong into the investment world, make sure you’ve:

  • Paid off all high interest debt
  • Fully funded your emergency reserve fund
  • Properly insured the various facets of your life

Open a brokerage account and begin investing into a Roth IRA (if you qualify). Since Roth IRA’s are funded with after tax dollars, both their principle and their interest can be withdrawn tax free once you reach retirement age. Then, on


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Will bad credit stop me entering a debt management plan?

Many people looking for a debt solution are concerned that a poor credit history may affect their choice of options. While it is true that you are unlikely to be accepted for a debt consolidation loan with a bad credit rating, other solutions such as debt management could help.

This is because a debt management plan does not require you to obtain further credit to make your debts more manageable. Instead, it restructures payments to your existing debts – making them easier to afford. A spokesperson for Debt Advisory Centre commented:

“Debt management can help people whose credit score has been damaged by missed or late payments – even if you have received County Court Judgments in the past. By helping you to agree affordable monthly payments to debts such as credit cards, store cards, loans and overdrafts, a debt management plan could help even out the ups and downs that are causing your credit rating to suffer.”

How can debt management make debts affordable?

A debt management plan is actually a new repayment plan that a debt management company agrees with your lenders. By
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Be My Valentine: 8 Ways to Say “I Love You” that Cost Little or No Money

Well, it’s almost that time of year again: Valentine’s Day. A day when we’re expected to express our love with extravagant jewelry, fine wine and chocolates, and equally extravagant flower bouquets. Last year, U.S. consumers spent more than $12 billion on gifts for spouses and loved ones. And why wouldn’t we? The commercials (and society) tell us that the amount of our love is equal to the dollar amount of our gift.

But one of the most important aspects of gaining (and maintaining) control of our finances is to step away from societal expectations and do what’s best of our wallets and our financial futures. Though the jewelry, candy and flower stores would have you believe differently, it is entirely possible to say “I love you” in profound, but inexpensive ways. Here are eight suggestions:

Hand-written notes

Instead of spending money to buy a love note written by someone else, take time to write one of your own. Or better yet, tell your loved one that Valentine’s Day marks the beginning of your “One Year of Love Notes” commitment. Instead of waiting


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How I Ended Up With A $5000 Dollar Tax Bill This Year. Oops!

This past week I started getting all of my tax forms.  I got my W2 from the company I work for at my day job, 1099s from a variety of companies that I do freelance work for, some miscellaneous tax forms from investments that we have and reporting forms showing how much weve donated to our church and other charities.

Ive been using TurboTax for the past few years, and Ill be using it again this year so I started entering all of my information into their software a couple of nights ago (check out the tax software  I recommend).   Im still waiting on a few 1099 forms, but Ive almost received them all at this point.

After a couple of hours of entering data into the TurboTax interface I was shocked to realize that despite the fact that I had paid 100% of my tax liability from 2010 this past year, I was still going to end up owing quite a bit of money come tax time.  In fact, it looks like Im going to owe about $5000 in combined federal and state taxes.  Wow.

How did I end up in a situation where I owe that much money on my taxes?  It happened for a variety of reasons.

First, when paying my taxes using TurboTax last year it automatically calculated what my estimated tax payments for the coming year should be.   It printed out payment coupons for me for what I should be paying each quarter.   The total of the payments it gave me was equal to 100% of 2010s tax liability.    Knowing that I would be within the safe harbor requirements for 2011 taxes, I think that gave me a false sense of assurance that despite the fact that I was tracking blog income and expenses pretty closely, I wouldnt need to do any re-calculations if my income rose because I wouldnt be subject to any penalties.  I could just pay any small overages when tax time came.

Another factor causing me to owe  more than expected was the fact that my blog income rose more than I expected this year by between $15,000-20,000.  Not only that but I had another one time increase in online income due to an online asset that I sold for around $8000.  So the increase in blog income, along with a one time bump due to selling that property means I made around $25,000 more online this year than last year.    I was expecting


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Major Australian Banks Likely To Cut Thousands Of Jobs

Australia’s biggest lenders are likely to cut thousands of jobs nationally as they seek to consolidate record earnings from last year.

Amidst a backdrop of soaring funding costs and slower growth in mortgage lending, ANZ, Westpac and CBA have devised plans to reduce expenses according to the Daily Telegraph.

CBA’s plan, with an intriguing code name “Project 35”, seeks to achieve a cost to income ratio at its retail banking division of 35 per cent by next year. According to banking analysts reducing the ratio to that level from its current rate of 38.7, will mean a loss of at least 600 jobs.

In August last year, CBA announced a record $6.4 billion in profits for the year. Rival NAB delivered a record $5.5 billion, whilst Westpac also produced a record $7 billion. ANZ als


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