 AmeriForce Finance Guide 2008
Letters: Waiting for a Refund
Like many other fortunate Americans, I have been waiting for tax season to come around so I can apply to receive my yearly refund. And as much as I am tempted to spend it on the latest gadget, home repair or put it into our monthly budget, I know from researching the article “How to Create a Budget” on page 22, one of the first steps I should take towards financial freedom is making it a priority to put money away for a future expense.
Thankfully, my father knew this better than I and opened a 529 account last year for my kids to serve as their college fund. As described on page 7, this type of account is very convenient because you can set up automatic deposits into the 529 from any account to build up a good nest egg when it’s time for your kids to go to college. Even a little money put away each month, compounded over nearly 20 years can add up significantly without too big of a hit on the pocketbook each month.
[Continued below — click here]
The article on “How Military Families Can Save Money on College” (pages 6-9) is also very helpful for outlining some additional ways to pay for college, including scholarship and federal financial aid. When that time comes, I will look into those options as addition streams of funding to help pay for my kids’ education. For now I am happy to salt away a few dollars each month.
In addition, I learned from the article on page 26-27, “Use Your Bonus As a Financial Building Block,” that I need to consider ditching debt and saving for emergencies as two other priorities when deciding what to do
with my tax refund freefall. I’ll happily ditch my small debts and add to the chunk we save each month towards unexpected expenses,
such as car repairs and home maintenance.
For those of you who are like me and have waited to file your income taxes, a good article to read is on page 10. If you are deployed or have recently returned from deployment, the article details some of the recent tax breaks for military personnel who saw combat. The article also discusses the tax implications for those who haven’t seen combat in the last year.
So, if you are fortunate enough to have enough deductions each year to warrant a refund, are looking for tax breaks, or if are interested in improving your bottom line this year through budgeting, we hope you glean some of the very useful information in this issue.
— Sara Graves,
Managing Editor
|
