Annual Financial Housekeeping
As we start off on a brand new year, it’s a great time to do some financial housekeeping. You’ll be pulling your documents together for tax preparation soon. Some of these organizing steps will help with your tax return preparation. What should I keep and what should I throw away? Generally you’ll divide up your documents into different categories - short term, a year or more, 3-7 years, ‘it depends’ and forever. And keep in mind - when you want to discard old financial documents, you need to do so securely. You can purchase a shredder inexpensively at an [...]
More tax benefits for higher education
One way the government encourages behavior that it sees as beneficial is by offering tax breaks. They offer a mortgage interest deduction to encourage homeownership. They offer deductions to encourage charitable giving. And, they offer tax credits for some college expenses. We wrote about the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) [...]
Didn’t qualify for federal aid…? Consider this!
Most people know that they should complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each year that their student is in college (see this post for more info). The FAFSA will be used as the application for federal student loans and to determine your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) – [...]
What’s next for you?
So, your son or daughter has finished up their applications. You have the list of schools divided up into top choices, middle choices and safety schools. You’re making plans for the holidays and soon you’ll be making plans for graduation. Looking back, you’ve attended countless games, recitals and performances and [...]
What to consider for Open Enrollment
Fall is open enrollment time for many companies and for some people, open enrollment is stressful. Like most financial decisions, your choice of benefits should be based on your personal financial situation or your family’s financial situation. I see people get tripped up every year when they listen to the [...]
Learning from FIRE and financial freedom
I attended a great conference earlier this month where I had the opportunity to talk to a group of folks who are part of the FIRE movement. FIRE stands for Financial Independence Retire Early. We had some interesting discussions and I’ve thought a lot about those conversations since then. Many [...]
Paying for College – What you need to know
Most families won't have the funding set aside for the full cost of a 4 year degree when their students are ready for college. If you're like most families you will be looking for ways to pay for college without going broke. If your student is in high school it's [...]