January flew by and February is about gone. What are some steps you can take as the shortest month of the year ends?
- Get all your paperwork in order for filing your taxes. Most people should have already received their W-2s from work already, student loan interest forms should be available as should bank interest and any dividends, etc. Make sure to check all areas of your life to ensure you have all the forms you need to file your taxes.
- Determine if you’ll do your taxes yourself or hire a professional. Unless you have a lot of complicated investments you don’t really need to use a tax professional. H&R Block, TurboTax, etc. can be used. We used CreditKarma Tax this year, everything was free – filing both federal and state.
- Re-evaluate your W-4 withholdings if you are to receive a refund. Refunds are something to jump for joy over. It is essentially loaning the government your money for free all year to get it back with no interest. Why would you want to do that and wait until tax return time to get your money back when you can have YOUR money in YOUR paycheck all year? Keep your money and use it to pay off debt, invest, build your emergency fund or just work on getting your finances in order.
- Evaluate your spending in January and February and see what you can do to continue to improve spending, saving, investing or earning in March. The first quarter of the year is almost over and there are 3 quarters left. Look at yourself and treat yourself like a business. As they say, you’re the CEO of you. Based on 2019 so far would you keep yourself on the payroll?
- Pick up a book, listen to a podcast, watch something informative and take a break from social media for a day or two. See how much more aware you are of life going on around you and what you can learn to share and impart with someone to help them have a better month of March.
- Check any New Year Resolutions you set and see how you’re doing with them so far. If you’ve fallen off the wagon, it’s never too late to get back on. Restart those resolutions you set and create SMARTER goals to keep yourself focused. When goals are specific, measurable, achievable, time-bound, evaluated and recognized/rewarded you’re more likely to keep going.
- Remember to celebrate yourself. You are a smart, intelligent, kind person who whether you know it or not is making a difference in someone’s life. Be kind and gracious to yourself and enjoy the rest of the month. On to March!
How do you stay focused during the year? Have you always looked at tax refunds as something to celebrate? Do you do your taxes yourself?
