Author: Laurie

April 14, 2016

Why You Should Consider DIY Tax Filing

Save Money with DIY Tax Filing

This post is part of the TaxAct #DIYtaxes blog tour which empowers you to take ownership of your finances by doing your own taxes. TaxAct provides the tools and guidance to help you confidently file your taxes easy and fast. Do your own taxes today at TaxAct.com. You got this.

Hey, frugal friends!! We’re nearing the deadline for personal tax filing, so I thought I would share with you our own DIY tax filing experience and why I think doing your taxes yourself with a trusted company like Tax Act can be a smart idea.

Let me start by saying that I’m the primary handler of the money in our household. Rick has absolutely zero interest in the management of our money. Personal finance just isn’t his thing.

Since this task is mostly left to me, I’m the one who had to face the question of: Do we or do we not file our own tax returns?

I love the guy that does our taxes. He’s knowledgeable, friendly, gets our taxes done quickly and is relatively inexpensive. We’ve been going to him for nearly twenty years, so he knows our returns inside and out and does a great job.

The Benefits of DIY Tax Filing

So, why would I consider doing our taxes myself? Two reasons:

Money
Knowledge

Cost Savings

Although our guy does charge reasonable prices for our area, we still have to pay him $130 a year to get our taxes done. If we use a do-it-yourself tax system like Tax Act, we’ll only pay a maximum of $50 to file state and federal taxes.

Those needing to file a basic EZ or A form pay far less than that.

Knowledge Gained

The other reason I decided to try DIY tax filing was because I really wanted to gain the knowledge that comes from learning to file your own taxes.

After all, I figured, if I could master filing my own taxes, it’s a skill I would have for a lifetime. And the more in tune we are with our personal finances, the easier it is to manage them in a way that helps improve our financial situation.

DIY Tax Filing Today vs. Yesteryear

In full disclosure, we did partake in DIY tax filing one other time, about twenty years ago. We did it for the purpose of comparing the results we received with our preparer with the results we received by doing our taxes on our own.

The experience wasn’t good. The company we used at that time had a less-than-user-friendly system in place, and if we would’ve ended up filing with them, we would’ve received far less back on our refund than we did with our tax guy.

Being so many years had passed, I was eager to see how things have changed. I found that DIY tax filing is MUCH easier in today’s world than it was twenty years ago.

We tried the Tax Act system and found that it is SO easy to use! It tells you exactly what to put in, and exactly where to put it.

The other thing I found highly beneficial with Tax Act is that they have a thorough support system available if filers should have any questions at all. Answers to questions are easy to find and readily available with Tax Act’s online support system.

If you haven’t tried DIY tax filing before, I encourage you to make this the year you test it out for yourself. Tax Act allows you to start your return for free – you pay nothing until you file your return.

So take a chance on saving some money and gaining some knowledge and try DIY tax filing today!

Beating the tax deadline doesn’t have to be stressful. With TaxAct, everything you need to confidently prepare and e-file your taxes is right at your fingertips. You got this. File your simple federal and state return FREE today with TaxAct.

Image Credit: Flickr 401(k)2012

April 4, 2016

Why You Should and How You Can Save More Money

For most of the nearly twenty years of our marriage, we never had any money in our savings account. Oh, we’d occasionally shove some money into the account for a week or two, but we’d always find a reason to take it out and spend it. Either we’d spend it because we needed it to pay bills (because we spent our bill-paying money on other stuff), an “unexpected” expense would rear its ugly head, or we’d see a “new and shiny” thing that we “needed”.

We read all the advice about paying yourself first, but, you see, that “didn’t apply to us” because we were “different”. We didn’t make as much as others. We had more expenditures than others. On and on the excuses went for many years. Read more

March 28, 2016

Balance Transfers and Consolidation Loans: Yes or No?

Balance transfers and consolidation loans can be powerful tools to help people eliminate debt faster. They can also be a train wreck leading to the accumulation of more debt.

How can you be sure that using one of these options to get debt under control is best for you?

Personally, we’ve used balance transfer and consolidation options that have saved us a ton of cash. We’ve also used these options and have had them lead to more debt and bigger financial trouble than we had in the first place.

I want you to avoid the mistakes we made using balance transfers and consolidation loans and to learn how to use them wisely as you pay off debt and build wealth – IF that is the right choice for your individual situation.

Here are some questions you can ask before you sign on the dotted line and reroute your debt somewhere else. Read more

March 21, 2016

What My Daughter’s Self-Defense Class Taught Me About Debt

Even though we’re on a very strict budget right now, there is one thing we started paying for in October of 2013 that, although it’s not a need, is very important to us. We signed our (at the time) 14-year-old daughter up for self-defense classes.

March 7, 2016

Four Heirloom Tomato Secrets for Maximum Yield

Tips for Maximizing Your Tomato Yield

Happy Monday, my frugal friends! Today we feature a post from our blogging pal Cameron over at Thrift Hounds. Cameron shares on his blog funny and inventive ways to save money and live frugally. And as a bonus, his wife has an awesome food blog. 🙂

There’s probably still a snowstorm or two on the horizon here where I live in Denver before summer arrives, and yet I – like you, maybe – am already already obsessing over how to coax as many pounds of tomatoes as possible out of my beloved tomato plants this year.

Tomatoes, like zucchinis, have the reputation of surprising gardeners with more produce than you thought possible (to the point where you start bribing reluctant coworkers to take them off of your hands).

In fact, most gardeners are ecstatic to get 10 or 15 pounds of fruit out of each plant.

But with some careful planning and maintenance, you can push your plants to produce up two or three times that amount. Read more

February 29, 2016

You’re Not Just Paying off Debt, You’re Building Wealth

This post originally appeared in May of 2013, just 5 months after we began our debt payoff journey. Enjoy!

Often the usually long-term task of paying off debt gets tedious and boring, as I wrote in a post last week. The post last week suggested a few ways to keep yourself motivated, and gracious readers added in the comments area their own valuable advice for staying on track when the boredom sets in. Read more

February 25, 2016

4 Reasons Why You’ll Never Be Debt Free

Debt Freedom Will Elude You Forever Unless You Do These Three Things

You’ll NEVER be debt free. EVER!

Does that thought scare you? Good. I want you to experience some serious fear when you read that line.

Why, because fear can be an astronomical motivator.

Back in December, I wrote a post giving 7 Reasons Why You Can’t Get Out of Debt. I feel like I need to expand on that some more and share some additional reasons why some people will never, ever get out of debt.

I hear so many people saying that they simply can’t get out of debt.

I get it. Getting out of debt is hard. It takes work beyond what you can imagine for most people.

The reason for that is because many people with debt truly do have more debt than they can handle. Read more

February 22, 2016

3 Ways to Eliminate Pests for Less

You open the drawer, and there it is: teeny little mice droppings. The scatter of ants. Or the “click, click, click” of roach feet as they make a mad dash for a hiding place.

If you’ve ever had to deal with pest infestations such as mice, ants or roaches, you know what a massive job it is to get rid of the problem.

My goal today is to help you avoid having to deal with those types of pest infestations. Living in the country, we have more than our fair share of mice, ants and other pests endowing our land with their not-so-enticing presence.

How do we –and how can you – keep them at bay, away from the home and securely outside? Here are some solid tips for ensuring your home gets and stays free of mice, ants and other pests. Read more

February 18, 2016

Prepping For Newbies: What You Should Focus On

If you’re just beginning to consider being more prepared, whether that be for economic crises, weather-related crises, terrorist attacks or some other chaotic event, it’s important to assess what you really need and want in a prepping plan and to put that down on paper. At that point, you can begin taking steps to be more prepared.

First Focus

I was delighted to hear from a highly-esteemed friend and big shot in the corporate world that both he and his buddies (who work in the security department at his major company and are former FBI agents) are just as concerned as I am about the thought of being prepared for disasters of any kind. Prepping isn’t just for the crazies, as I’ve said dozens of times on this blog. There are real and valid reasons why prepping is a wise choice in this day and age of increasing natural disasters, regularly-occuring terror attacks and financial uncertainty. Read more

February 15, 2016

Can an Umbrella Policy Benefit You?

Do you need an umbrella insurance policy?

Part of creating a smart total wealth picture includes living by the rule of “Insure What You Can’t Afford to Replace”. You’ve likely investigated or currently own insurance policies for your home, your car or your life.

However, have you investigated an umbrella policy and learned how one can potentially save you hundreds of thousands of dollars?