financial advice

Seven of the Most Overlooked Tax Deductions

It's a pretty good feeling to get that tax return check in the mail, but a pretty bad one to realize you forgot to include a tax deduction that would have lowered your tax bill or increased your returns. With the ever-increasing complexity of the tax laws, filing taxes just gets more and more complicated. To help simplify things, we assembled a list of some of the most commonly overlooked tax breaks you should take advantage of.

Student Loan Interest

Student loan payments can be a significant part of your monthly expenses, but luckily you can claim up to $2,500 in interest paid on student loans for higher education. This deduction is available to you if you're paying interest on a student loan for yourself, your spouse, or a dependent child.

Health Insurance Premiums

Health care is expensive, and only getting more expensive. Luckily, the IRS takes this into account. Deductible medical expenses have to exceed 10 percent of your adjusted gross income (AGI) to be claimed as an itemized deduction in 2019, but if this is true of you, you're looking at some major savings.

Social Security Tax By the Self-Employed

Every employed American has to pay into social security, including the self-employed, who are then eligible for a deduction on a portion of this tax. Usually, employers pay a portion of social security, but when you're self-employed you're paying the portion of the employer and the employee, which amounts to 12.4% on up to $128,400 of earnings.

Unusual Business Expenses

It may seem obvious that you can write off the cost of business expenses, but you may not know how many different kinds of business expenses that include. As Turbotax points out, "A junkyard owner, for example, might be able to deduct the cost of cat food that encourages stray cats to hang around and keep the mice and rats away. A bodybuilder got approved to deduct the body oil he used in competition."

Charitable Donations

While most taxpayers probably know that you can write off major charitable donations, many don't know that you can also write off smaller ones. Additionally, it's possible to write off expenses paid out of pocket that allowed you to spend time working for a charity, such as hiring a babysitter for your children so you can volunteer at a soup kitchen. Or, if you drove your car to charitable activities, you can deduct 14 cents per mile, plus parking and tolls paid.

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)

While a large portion of Americans qualify for the EITC, 25% of people don't claim it. This is actually a tax credit, ranging from $519 to $6,431 for 2018. You likely qualify for this credit if you're low income, or if you recently lost a job, took a pay cut, or worked fewer hours during the year.

Medical Costs

According to the affordable care act, taxpayers under 65 who accrue medical expenses greater than 10% of their annual income can earn a significant tax deduction. To reach this 10% threshold, you can tally up medical expenses that may not seem obvious, like transportation costs to and from the hospital.

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5 Signs It’s Time to Quit Your Job

CNBC

Whether you're bored or completely overwhelmed without enough resources, it may be time to leave your current position and seek out better opportunities. The Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that Americans are quitting their jobs at the highest rate since 2001. While it's normal to occasionally feel stuck or unsure of your next step, if those feelings persist and worsen then it's probably a sign you've outgrown your job. Economists, employers, and job recruiters share 5 common signs that it's time to change your work situations.

1.You're not being challenged

If your heart isn't in your work, then slogging through the daily grind isn't worth the pay. Maybe the company has changed from its original direction or your duties have been altered so that it's no longer the right fit. Take stock of the company's future and your place in it. If you can't see it aligning with your passions, then it's time to brush up on your skill and move on.

2. You're being under-utilized

You may find yourself bored and frustrated because you're being overlooked in the workplace. Whether you've been repeatedly passed over for a promotion or your bosses deny your requests, you shouldn't feel useless or ignored. Suzy Welch at CNBC describes the feeling, "You're stuck in the kind of job I call a 'velvet coffin' — comfortable, but deadly to your brain and spirit, not to mention your career."

3. You're not paid enough

Whether the company has downsized or your haven't received a raise in years, your compensation should be commensurate with your performance and skill levels. Similarly, if you've been asked to take on extra tasks but your pay doesn't reflect your increased workload, that's a sign that you're being underpaid. As always, consider the future and see if you have room to advance in your current position. If not, you should create an exit strategy.

4. Your health is affected

Stress can negatively affect your energy levels, your mood, and your physical health. Worse is the fact that high stress and anxiety can create a lethargy that harms your work performance. If your sick days are increasingly due to dread or fear, then your body is telling you that you need to find a healthier and more productive environment.

5. Offensive workplace behavior

Obviously, if your superiors or co-workers repeatedly exhibit negative, offensive, or inappropriate behavior, you have every right to look at other positions. While a company should provide protocols to report such behaviors to Human Resources, you may also want to consult an employment attorney who has your best interests at heart. Like putting your health first, you should protect your sense of security and safety.

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The Real Cost of Divorce for Women

Here's the sad truth: Divorce doesn't just break your heart; it can leave you broke.

When married, women's median weekly earnings are about 20 percent higher than women who are divorced, separated, widowed or who have never been married, reports US News and World Report based on figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Married women even have the edge on single men, earning almost 10 percent more than them, too.

But after divorce, a woman's financial profile plummets, falling by 41 percent, on average, nearly twice the income loss of divorced men, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

According to research by Stephen Jenkins, a professor at the London School of Economics, men, on the other hand, see their incomes rise more than 30 percent post-divorce.

The pay gap is partly to blame. In heterosexual marriages where both the man and woman are employed, the man out earns the woman 77.8 percent of the time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But the divide is not entirely accounted for by the difference in earning power between men and women so much as it is the pay disparity for the unpaid labor of parenting.

The main reason women bear the brunt of divorce's financial devastation, according to Jenkins, is that during the marriage, they are more likely than men to leave their careers to raise kids. "The key differences are not between men and women, but between fathers and mothers," he tells The Guardian.

Having stepped off the corporate ladder for a number of years, these child-rearing women may not have advanced as far in their careers as their spouses who didn't take off, leaving them less developed workplace skills and holes on their resumes.

"The dynamic is changing a little as more women are staying in the workforce and continuing and accelerating their careers," Nicole Mayer, a certified divorce financial analyst, and partner at financial planning firm RPG Life Transition Specialists tells US News and World Report, "but typically, divorce hits women harder than men."

And that's not even counting the bill of the divorce itself. According to Divorce Magazine, the cost of divorce can range from as little as $8,500 to over $100,000 for lawyers and legal fees. But if the split is amicable and you can take the DIY divorce route, you might be looking at a tab closer to the cost of an airline flight — from $200 to $500.

Remember: if the divorce isn't done yet, the price tag for lawyering up need not fall only on you, a divorce lawyer in Boston tells The Atlantic: "If someone calls me and says, 'I need an attorney but I have no money,' I remind them they're not divorced yet, so they actually do have money. In those cases, I file a motion asking for retaining fees and the other person's lawyer will cut a check."

In fact, in all divorce matters, it's important to remember your legal rights. Here's a big one: if you didn't sign a prenuptial agreement, and you live in Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin, you're entitled to half of any assets acquired during the marriage. Those are joint assets to be divided equally. Even if your name isn't on the deed to the house, half of it is rightly yours.

You may have let your emotions get the better of you when you were falling in love, but don't let them cloud your judgment here at the end. The objective is to not let the pain of the breakup lead to further financial distress. Marie Claire found that women who wanted to "get it over with," experienced guilt over the end of the relationship, and those who trusted their exes to make good on promises once the divorce was finalized suffered financially.

"The silver lining [to divorce] is that most women feel much more confident, much more in control of their finances after the divorce than before," Natalie Colley, an analyst at financial planning firm Francis Financial tells US News and World Report. "That's because they're finally the ones in control of their finances."

"You always assumed there'd be two of you and maybe two 401(k)s and two IRAs, and that's now all changed," Mayer says. "So now it's really [about] updating your picture as a whole, your long-term picture."

And that can be a beautiful new image. It's time to start imagining your post-divorce dream.

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Financial Tips for the Messy Millennial Trying Their Best

Ever woken up with last night's makeup still on, an uneaten slice of pizza on the bedside table, a jackhammer in your head, and an account balance that only adds to your already building nausea? Ever spend way too much on take out because you're just too exhausted from your job—that doesn't pay you nearly enough for your long hours—to cook? Or maybe, tired of the unhealthy work/life balance your company offers instead of benefits, you spontaneously booked a plane ticket to some Instagram worthy island, and decided you'd figure out the money part later, after all, everyone on Instagram seems to be on vacation. We get it, and we don't blame you.

Being a young professional in 2019 means a whole host of challenges your parents never had to worry about. Between the toxic culture of non-stop productivity, mounting student loan debt, the tendency many companies have to take advantage of millenials, and the way social media forces you to compare yourself to your peers; it can feel like getting ahead financially is a losing game. And when that non-stop stress builds to a breaking point, it's understandable that you may start to let financial best practices fall to the way side in order to stay sane. Your mom is going to tell you the same thing over and over: budget, don't go drinking, eat at home etc. and while that's all good advice, the truth of the matter is your life isn't simple and the world is changing around you all the time. With the specific struggles of the average millenial in mind, here are our top financial tips for people just starting out in, what baby boomers would call, "the real world."

Take a Course

We know, this is adding another expense to your already tight budget, but we promise if you can find the money for an online course in basic finances or economics, it's worth doing. It's absurd that people are just suddenly expected to emerge from college fully equipped to handle things like taxes, budgeting, and investing, when just a month before they were eating ramen in a dorm room doing homework for a class called "the post modern implications of beekeeping." There are even some free options out there.

Get a Cheaper Apartment


We know, sometimes this just isn't an option, but be honest with yourself, how hard did you look for a more affordable apartment? Or did you just make whatever work so you didn't have to think too hard about it? In many cities, there are options for rent controlled apartments, and even housing lotteries to help you take your money farther. As a good rule, housing should be 30% of your income. If it isn't, or that just isn't a possibility for you right now, think about how you can cut down on costs of living. Could you get another roommate? These kind of savings are ideal, because they don't require will power to maintain the way so many financial tips do.

Take Risks

Yes, we know this sounds counterintuitive, but there is something to be said for making investment decisions that don't exactly feel safe. Millenials have been told their whole lives to be careful with money and to work hard to hang on to material security, but the problem with playing it safe is you're very unlikely to see any returns. Investigate the options you have for your savings, and don't be afraid to make minor mistakes, afterall, there is no better way to learn.

Don't Depend on Your Credit Cards


A classic mode of budgeting back in the day was to get all your monthly spending money for the month in cash, divide it up into envelopes (groceries, eating out, drinks, entertainment etc.) and then if the money in the envelope runs out before the end of the month, well, that's that. Most millennials rarely carry cash, but maybe it's time to consider going old school. If you take a certain amount of money out of your "going out" envelope before a night at the bar, you're much less likely to get carried away than you would be with a debit card on an open tab. Once the cash is gone, you know your budget for that particular area of your life is used up, and you're less likely to accidentally overspend.

Pay into an Emergency Fund

Many millenials report having very little back up plan were they to suddenly lose their job or suddenly need a significant amount of money. To avoid this situation, follow the age old rule: pay yourself first. That means pay into your savings every paycheck, even if it's just a small amount. Most importantly, this practice creates good habits of saving, and you'll begin to understand the satisfaction that comes with watching a savings account grow.

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