Have you filed your taxes yet? January 28, 2011

I haven’t filed my taxes yet.  I’ve pretty much done everything I can, but I’m waiting to get my K-1 information from my old job so I can file.  And that usually doesn’t arrive until mid-March.  So, even though I am ready to file, I have to hold off until I get that information, even though it probably wont change my tax situation at all.

I got to thinking about filing my taxes after reading Postgrad Agenda‘s latest post on 5 (Actually Useful) Tax Resources.

So, I thought I’d share some of the resources I’ve found over the years.

A few years ago, I posted about some options for free or discounted tax preparation software.  I’ll remind you of them, and include some new ones, below:

TurboTax Online Discounts:

First off, if you have a really easy return, you can use their free version for your Federal returns, and it looks to be ~$28/state filing, though you could probably get it cheaper using the next discount.

Fidelity:  Save 25% off Federal and State products.  In addition, you can access the “Basic” version, a cheaper blend between the free and Deluxe versions.

Bank of America:  Save 35% off Federal products.

Chase:  Save 35% off Federal products.  Not sure if you have to pay your taxes with your Chase card to be eligible.

Those are the best 3 discounts I’ve found.  You can also get 10% off  Federal products through RetailMeNot.com.

If you don’t love TurboTax (it’s what I’ve used every year since graduation), there are a lot of other online options.

TaxAct:

They have a good free federal option, as well as a relatively cheap fancier version (deluxe) at $9.95 or deluxe federal + state return for $17.95.  I’m not as familiar with their product, so anyone with experience with TaxAct, let me know what you think of it.

IRS’s FreeFile:

If your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is less than $58,ooo, you can use one of these tax preparation sites for free.  If you want some help figuring out which site to use, you can answer a few questions to narrow down the list.  Some companies just offer free Federal filing, but some also offer free State filing as well.

If your AGI is more than $58,000, you can still e-file for free.  You can access the forms you need and fill them out through FreeFile by following the link here.

So, have you filed your taxes yet?  Did you use one of the methods mentioned above (or in Postgrad Agenda’s post)?  Did you owe money or get a refund?  Right now, it looks like I’ll get a tiny refund.  Tiny enough that I really couldn’t have changed my withholding enough to not “give Uncle Sam an interest free loan”.  So I’m fine with that.

Reading Books: My Review of “Generation Earn” January 22, 2011

I first heard about Generation Earn when I read about it on Wellheeled’s blog.  As is usual when I hear about a good book, I add it to my library reserve list. I was around 119 on the waiting list, so I forgot about it for a while. So, it was a pleasant surprise when I finally got to the top of the list.

I liked this book a lot. It contains a lot of information and advice, and works well for personal finance novices as well as people like me who have already started along the personal finance path. The book acted as both a refresher, reminding me to check up on my finances, as well as an eye opener, presenting ideas I hadn’t really thought about.

The book walks you through the major steps required to establish your finances.  Each chapter builds upon what you learned in the previous chapter.  The reader is guided through important decisions in a young adult’s life.

The book is really well written and very useful. She uses real life examples, not just imagined case studies. Between the non-fiction scenarios and the pages of cited materials, it is apparent that the author did a lot of research for this book. I appreciate this, because I cringe when people use statistics without backing them up.    The author’s style is very helpful and thought-provoking. You learn how to begin your way as part of Generation Earn (her more descriptive title than Gen Y, and more complimentary description than Generation Debt).

She has a very bright view on how the current 20 and 30 somethings can grow and succeed, and believes that we will have a positive impact on society.

I recommend this book for anyone in their 20s or 30s, especially those who are just starting out.  There’s a lot of great advice, and, with short “Quick Tips” peppered throughout the book, you’ll definitely learn something new!

So, go out and read it!  And let me know what you thought of it!

2010 blogging in review January 2, 2011

I just got an email from WordPress summing up my blogging statistics for the year.

Let’s review what happened, blogwise, this past year.  My comments will be in regular font, the email from WordPress will be in navy blue italics.

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Thanks, stats helper monkey.  Looks like WordPress wants to convince me to keep blogging.  I really have no idea if anyone else gets anything besides Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2010. That’s about 29 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 21 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 142 posts.

The busiest day of the year was December 7th with 98 views. The most popular post that day was Christmas Car Commercials, I hate you.

I find it a little sad that I only posted 21 new posts last year.  I promise to do better this year!

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were myprettypennies.com, freemoneyfinance.com, twitter.com, stackingpennies.wordpress.com, and wisebread.com.

Thanks, MPP, FMF, SP, and Wisebread for your linking awesomeness!

Some visitors came searching, mostly for life after college, what to do with 401k after layoff, unemployed after college, collecting unemployment, and paying at costco.

Always sad that common search terms are about unemployment, but that’s a sign of the times.  Hope I was able to help the people looking for advice on most of those topics!  Interestingly enough, people using the “paying at costco” search term probably wont get anything useful coming to my blog.  The post people probably found was this one, which covered two topics:  a shopping trip at Costco and considering using credit cards to pay for bills, in order to build up reward points faster or earn a bonus from a credit card company.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Christmas Car Commercials, I hate you December 2010
3 comments

2

How often should I contribute to my Roth IRA? January 2008
10 comments

3

Layoff Survival Guide: What to do with your 401(k) June 2009
2 comments

4

Notes from Suze Orman January 2010
2 comments

5

About Me October 2007
20 comments

1.  The Christmas Car Commercial post probably got more hits because I shared the link in my gchat status, so more people probably followed through to that.  Plus I did see a few searches come in looking for that, so maybe it was a good topic.  If you are the type that enjoys commentary on commercials, check out my friend’s blog, Drink Moxie.  A fun, witty, and insightful read every time!

2.  I think a common question when it comes to investing is how to start.  Do you put all your money in at once?  Or take advantage of dollar cost averaging and buy funds in smaller increments?  The general consensus among the commenters was that any retirement contribution is better than no contribution at all.  I still continue to contribute each month, since that’s one of the options Fidelity allows so that you don’t have to start with a huge contribution (minimum of $200/month required).  But I contribute to the max allowable ($5,000/year)

3.  You have to deal with a lot of decisions and changes when you get laid off.  One of those is figuring out what to do with your 401(k).  So, that’s been a pretty popular post.

4.  Lots of good advice from Suze Orman.

5.  Guessing a lot of people want to know who I am when they first find my blog.  I may have to go back and update it, since I haven’t looked at it in quite some time.

Well, that’s it, folks.  Thanks again to people who have linked to me.  If I’ve left someone off of my blogroll (or put someone in the wrong list, or am using the wrong link), please let me know, and I’ll fix that ASAP.

What a difference a year makes January 1, 2011

Happy New Year!  It’s hard to believe it’s 2011.  One of my resolutions is to get more involved in blogging:  blog more, get more involved in the personal finance blogging community, and maybe even transition to my own domain.  So I guess I should start this year on the right foot with a new post!
After reading this post at Paying Myself, I felt compelled to review my financial standing.  But, because I’m not completely anonymous (my “real life” friends read this blog), I decided to just post the change in each account, as opposed to what my actual assets and debts are.  I know that money is still an uncomfortable topic in social settings, so that’s my reasoning behind hiding some of the information.

So, let’s review:

Assets:

• Liquid assets (checking and savings accounts):
  +$4319 (would have been higher but used a large amount…see Car Loan below)

• Retirement (401(k), Roth IRA, Rollover IRA):
  +$19,053 (thanks to a slight rebound in stock prices and my increased 401(k) contribution)

• Car (edmunds.com private sale value):
  -$1,090 (I know there’s a lot of debate over including cars in net worth calculations.  I initially included it to make myself feel better about my auto loan, to balance out the ugly dip in my net worth)

Debts:

• Student Loans:
  Reduced  payoff balance by $7,127

• Car Loan:
  Reduced by $13,731.  Current balance:  $0!  It felt so awesome paying off my car loan 3 years early.

Change in net worth since last year:  +$43,140

WOW.  I don’t think I ever stopped to realize how well things went this year.  Shoot.  I feel like I’m bragging now.

But looking at this, plus reviewing a lot of the comments on some of my older blog posts (like on I’m okay with being wrong sometimes, Personal Finance Stagnation, and Fighting Lifestyle Inflation), I realized I should be more aggressive with my student loan payoff.  Granted, the interest I’m paying on my student loans isn’t that much higher than the interest I’m earning off my savings accounts, but I think I have enough saved for emergencies, which is always goal 1 when you’re reviewing your finances.  My next main goal after paying off my debts is buying a house, so I do want to have money for a down payment.  But as Big City Beer Budget pointed out here, banks will be looking at your total financial picture when considering you for a mortgage, so the less debt I have, the better I’ll look, and the lower interest I might have to pay.

As you probably could tell from a lot of my posts, I’m always second-guessing myself when it comes to my personal finance priorities.  Reviewing my accounts, I also realized that while I save money at a consistent and steady pace (everything automated at reasonable amounts), I tend to pay debts in a more erratic rate.  With all of my student loans (and before, with my car loan), I paid the monthly bill, i.e. the minimum.  But every once in a while, I realize I should be paying off my loans faster, since paying only the minimum is never the path to getting out of debt.  So I pay a few thousand dollars towards my student loans (or in the case of my car loan, completely pay it off).  But then more months pass, and I’m back to just paying what the banks tell me to, since that’s the way the autopay is set up.

I have to make a plan to get rid of this debt.  I think maybe I should figure out if I can set up an extra or higher autopay for my student loans.  Plus I could also do another lump sum payment with that extra $4k that I built up in my cash accounts.  We’ll see.  I think I’ll try to keep my blog posts shorter in the future (another resolution?) but I tend to have so much to say once I start thinking about something!  Maybe I can start turning these into multiple posts

Happy New Year!!