With Tax Day in the rear-view mirror, you may feel like you’re "done" dealing with finances for a bit.
But there are a few small things you can do now that will make filing taxes next year easier and faster — and help you keep more of your hard-earned money, too.
Get organized! First, think about the tax documents you needed to gather. Is there a way to make that faster or easier? If a lot of your documents came in the mail, make sure you have a designated place to keep those. If you got them via email, you may want to print them out or save them in a folder on your computer for easy access. In addition, this is a good time to make sure you use a password-saver like LastPass so you don’t have to figure out all of those account passwords again next spring. If you make any big purchases (particularly for energy-efficient improvements to your home), be sure to file away those receipts along with receipts from any charitable contributions!
Make adjustments! Did you get a refund this year? While it’s nice to get that bonus, in most cases, that is money that you gave to the government earlier this year in your payroll taxes. Wouldn’t it be better to keep that money in the first place? If you did get a refund, you should really use it to build or boost your emergency fund, or pay down high-interest debt. Then, make sure you’ve made any withholding adjustments so you’re paying a little less in taxes throughout the year. (If you did not get a refund and instead owed money, you make adjustments to pay a little bit more with each paycheck.)
Look at your retirement savings. Did you know that you can reduce your taxable income by saving more for retirement? Now is a really good time to talk to a financial advisor about your retirement savings accounts, and how saving more in those accounts can actually reduce your tax liability. (Fortunately, we have experts at the ready for you! Just contact us to make an appointment with our CommonWealth One Financial Network retirement and investment advisor.)
If you have specific savings goals this year (or in the next five, 10 or 20 years), we’d love to talk to you about how CommonWealth One can help you out. From vacation savings accounts for short-term savings to retirement accounts, life insurance and more, we’re here to help either in person or virtually. We look forward to speaking with you soon!
