What will you do with your tax refund?

[DebMcDonald]

I'm not sure we'll get a refund, hopefully we'll find out this week, but last year I was self employed for four months, my husband was laid off for 8.5 months and got a large severance, so if we are lucky enough to get money back we are going to get an above ground pool and then take a week off to just relax by our pool as a family.

 

[taymaesmom]

We got back $5752 from federal and are using it to buy 2 new laptops for work, new living room flooring, 2 new windows that were damaged during a storm, a new garage door, living room furniture and about $1000 will go into savings. We got $172 from state that will buy dh a new grill for fathers day!

 

[sunshinejanie]

we are going to Disney!

 

[SnowWtch]

We're putting most of it into savings to help pay for bills when things get too tight some months. We're going to use about $250 of it to go to Star Wars Weekends and stay off-site in a place that has continental breakfast, a microwave and a fridge in the room. The money will pay for the room, gas and frozen dinners for that weekend. Good thing we already have passes.

 

[Ka' eo]

Okay, so I think we'll do the roth. People bought up good points about being able to remove some of the original investment without penalty if we need it for an emergency. We'll be able to put about $3,000 in (as I am going to kick another $500 from due to the fact that we downgraded from poly to offsite.

We contribute to our retirement every month (have been for 22 years), so hopefully when the market recovers, so will the 401k.

Roth Ira it is.

I am sorry to all of you who aren't getting anything back or worse. We had years like that.

 

[omghidanielle]

We were anticipating being able to put half towards vacation and the other half towards new house savings

but, seeing as we got less than 1/4 of what we got last year, our return isn't even enough to cover the cost of the tax preparation and the whopping $75 I owe to the State of PA.

I'm grumpy.

 

[Ka' eo]

We were anticipating being able to put half towards vacation and the other half towards new house savings

but, seeing as we got less than 1/4 of what we got last year, our return isn't even enough to cover the cost of the tax preparation and the whopping $75 I owe to the State of PA.

I'm grumpy.

Awww. That's no fun. Maybe you'll have a better year next year!

Have you considered using turbo tax or even the free IRS online form? We spend $60 for Turbotax each year. It's all in our computer. I do some consulting in addition to my job and have a 1099 for that and it's still easy.

 

[MagicKingdom05]

We were anticipating being able to put half towards vacation and the other half towards new house savings

but, seeing as we got less than 1/4 of what we got last year, our return isn't even enough to cover the cost of the tax preparation and the whopping $75 I owe to the State of PA.

I'm grumpy.

Sorry to hear that. This is why I told my wife we needed to wait and see what our return was before we talked about doing anything with it. Just like in your case, you just never know what it will be. Sure I have them take out more than I need to each pay check, but just because we got a huge return last year didn't mean we were going to get another big one this year. It turns out we did get a bigger one, but you can never count on it until you have it.

 

[Planogirl]

We're spending ours on dental work and a vacuum cleaner. Exciting stuff.

 

[wdwfan16]

Okay, so I think we'll do the roth. People bought up good points about being able to remove some of the original investment without penalty if we need it for an emergency. We'll be able to put about $3,000 in (as I am going to kick another $500 from due to the fact that we downgraded from poly to offsite.

We contribute to our retirement every month (have been for 22 years), so hopefully when the market recovers, so will the 401k.

Roth Ira it is.

I am sorry to all of you who aren't getting anything back or worse. We had years like that.

Don't feel sorry for us that have to pay. Our tax burdon is the same whether we pay or get a refund. We sent our stuff to the CPA and should know in a few weeks. It was ready to send in a week earlier but we had too much snow to get to the PO to send it out. I expect us to owe. If we happen to get a refund we will put it into savings.

 

[Wonderlandmom]

Awww. That's no fun. Maybe you'll have a better year next year!

I have never understood why people want a big refund rather than getting their taxes right each month. We try to break even, I think we will get about $80 back.

So many of you say you are using it to pay off CC's. If you set up your with holdings right, you would get more money in your pay each month and perhaps could pay your CC bills each month. Could save on all that interest you must be paying. Don't give the IRS your hard earned money for the past year! Use it yourself each month!

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

We're debt free except for our mortgage

Our plan is

1/3 savings
1/3 travel fund
1/3 towards mortgage

 

[StefnMike]

We are using it to pay down our debt.

I am losing my job at the end of April with no plans to go back to work (I have a DD 21 months and am due at the end of October). Our plan is to be totally debt free (house, student loan and 1 car not included) by the time my severence ends at the end of September while spending that time learning how to live off of one salary.

 

[mrsklamc]

After I pay the accountant and the state, less than $100 left. It will go toward our car, the one and only non mortgage debt we have left!

 

[Dr. David Q. Dawson]

Just made our deposit for August 2011 Disney Dream cruise...

 

[MagicKingdom05]

I have never understood why people want a big refund rather than getting their taxes right each month. We try to break even, I think we will get about $80 back.

So many of you say you are using it to pay off CC's. If you set up your with holdings right, you would get more money in your pay each month and perhaps could pay your CC bills each month. Could save on all that interest you must be paying. Don't give the IRS your hard earned money for the past year! Use it yourself each month!

We do it as a way of savings. We know at the end of each year we should get a nice chunk back that wouldn't normally be there. In our case if that money was in our savings each month it would have been spent on something that we thought at the time we needed, that we went without because it wasn't there. Now all of the sudden we have a nice chunk of change that we can put into savings and use some for a well needed trip to WDW.

 

[The Iron Giant]

We're getting about $9300 back between state and federal.

We're going to spend around $400 on a netbook and a new wireless router. Put another $500 or so towards a few things that need to be taken care of around the house. The rest goes into savings for now.

 

[ccgirl]

I am using $1,000 to start the emergency fund and the rest will go towards credit cards.

 

[Wonderlandmom]

We do it as a way of savings. We know at the end of each year we should get a nice chunk back that wouldn't normally be there. In our case if that money was in our savings each month it would have been spent on something that we thought at the time we needed, that we went without because it wasn't there. Now all of the sudden we have a nice chunk of change that we can put into savings and use some for a well needed trip to WDW.

I guess it is just a different way of thinking. We manage to save/invest money each month. We certainly don't spend/waste what we get, and if we have any CC bills they are paid off right away so no interest is charged. We take trips when we want to WDW and other places. I guess we just save monthly, instead of through the IRS.

 

[MagicKingdom05]

I guess it is just a different way of thinking. We manage to save/invest money each month. We certainly don't spend/waste what we get, and if we have any CC bills they are paid off right away so no interest is charged. We take trips when we want to WDW and other places. I guess we just save monthly, instead of through the IRS.

Everyone has there own way of doing it. Just because we like doing it this way doesn't mean it's the way other people should do it. Everyone should do it the way they feed most comfortable, and in our case it's having them take more out each month. This way we don't have to wonder come tax time if enough has come out, plus it's nice to have that chunk of change to put into savings and use some to get away for a week on vacation.