{"id":8589,"date":"2018-04-02T10:17:03","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T17:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/canary.kcprod.info/blog\/?p=8589"},"modified":"2022-01-11T17:12:26","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T01:12:26","slug":"taking-on-your-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canary.kcprod.info/blog\/taking-on-your-taxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking On Your Taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Wealthfront, one of our goals is to help our clients be prepared for tax season as early as possible. However, if you\u2019re like the 20% of Americans who filed their taxes last in April<\/a>, you might be feeling a bit anxious if you\u2019ve once again put them off. So if you haven\u2019t started organizing for your taxes yet, never fear — we\u2019ve created a handy checklist<\/a> to help you get started and over the goal line before the April 17th deadline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But we\u2019re always amazed to see how many of our clients get to work on their taxes as early as February. The main reason is that they want to get their hands on their refund as soon as possible. Yet we also get a lot of questions asking for tips on how to best put that money to use for the long term. So if you\u2019ve already gotten your refund, or have filed recently and expect one soon, we have a few ideas on what you can do with that windfall from Uncle Sam:<\/p>\n

Pay off some debt<\/h3>\n

This is probably a bit of a buzzkill, but any debt that has a high interest rate can hurt you financially in a big way. Paying off credit card debt should be your highest priority, followed by student debt. In fact, we actually recommend paying off your student loans<\/a> before you invest with Wealthfront.<\/p>\n

Get a head start on your IRA or Roth IRA for 2018<\/h3>\n

Contributing early in the year to your IRA or Roth IRA is one of the best things you can do to give your money even more time in the market. But remember, the IRS imposes restrictions on IRA contributions related to your income, so you may not have the opportunity to contribute every year if you make too much money. If you think you might make more than $120k this year (or $189k jointly), then you may want to hold off on contributing to a Roth IRA until you know for sure. Here\u2019s a little bit more on IRA contribution limits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Start a 529 College Savings Plan<\/h3>\n

If you are gunning for parent — or aunt\u2026 or uncle\u2026 or Godparent — of the year, using even a small portion of your return can go a long way to help a future college kid thanks to the power of compounding. Like IRAs, 529 plans have potential tax benefits<\/a>. As long as you use the money for a student\u2019s qualified educational expenses, your withdrawals are tax-free. Wealthfront makes it easy to start planning for the school of their dreams<\/a> and open up a 529 account.<\/p>\n

Boost your career with online education<\/h3>\n

One way to secure your ambitions faster: make more money! Whether you are trying to get promoted, negotiate a raise, or change jobs, there are a number of new and competitively priced ways to conveniently go back to school and earn valuable (literally!) new skills. As an alternative to traditional graduate degree programs, a number of top universities have partnered with edX to offer online \u201cMicroMasters\u201d certificates<\/a> across a number of disciplines at a fraction of the cost of a full degree. Startups like the Lambda School<\/a> specialize in computer science coursework and offer students a unique \u201cincome share\u201d where they pay tuition costs only after they secure a role that pays at least $50,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Wealthfront, one of our goals is to help our clients be prepared for tax season as early as possible. However, if you\u2019re like the 20% of Americans who filed their taxes last in April, you might be feeling a bit anxious if you\u2019ve once again put them off. So if you haven\u2019t started organizing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":7630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1315,1278],"tags":[2339,1750,2340,1312,2341,1294,1362],"coauthors":[1178,82],"class_list":["post-8589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-insights","category-planning","tag-2339","tag-debt","tag-education","tag-ira","tag-tax-refund","tag-taxes","tag-wealthfront"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTaking On Your Taxes | Wealthfront<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/canary.kcprod.info/blog\/taking-on-your-taxes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taking On Your Taxes | Wealthfront\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At Wealthfront, one of our goals is to help our clients be prepared for tax season as early as possible. 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