After licking your wallet wounds from tax season I thought I’d share a few tips to help you fight your way back with these money saving tricks…
Read this and save $134,987.
These days, it's not enough to pinch a penny. You've got to grab for fists full of dough.
Here are 10 ways to do just that
1. Share your nest.
If you happen to live near a site where people gather every year--close to Augusta National or the Brickyard, near a campus where parents or alumni gather for graduation-week revelry, or near the beach, a lake, or a national park--consider renting out your digs briefly. The IRS lets you pocket the money on a rental of up to 14 days, tax-free. You don't even have to report the income. Rather than doing your own marketing, simply let the right local brokers or organizations (Chamber of Commerce, public-relations department of an event, alumni affairs department if it's a college, tournament director's office) know you're willing to split the dough. Then plan your vacation for Masters week, or move in with the neighbors for a few days. The earnings of course depend on the swank quotient of the event. But those golf guys have deep pockets, and leasing a beach house for 2 weeks in July could mean a real, actual, untaxed $5,000 in your pants.
2. Organize a tax revolt.
There's now a whole specialist group of lawyers who appeal property-tax assessments and then charge fees based on the savings they win you. Most of these tax-certiorari firms charge a small, sometimes refundable, up-front fee of between $100 and $200, then take the first year's savings. But it may be worth a gamble. You risk a couple of hundred for a possible four-figure abatement that could last for years. And these guys don't take cases unless they think they have a good shot at winning.
3. Buy pets on the cheap.
When it comes to dogs, we prefer muts. But if you, due to some deep-seated insecurity, need a Spanish weaselhound, please don't spend the thousand dollars it's easy to pay a breeder for a purebred. Contact the local club of breed owners and ask about adopting a rescue animal. These clubs are foster homes for purebreds that have been abandoned or returned, or whose owners can no longer care for them. For a donation of less than $100, you may get the Siberian waltz poodle you long for.
4. Be patient with upgrades.
Lots of guys always want to be the first with the latest. We wouldn't, of course, dare to suggest that maybe the DVD player you have is perfectly good, that you don't need to see Angelina Jolie any more clearly. But we would advise that if you can be just a little patient in buying new toys, you can save a lot of money. Pick up the previous generation of technology after the new models hit the stores and you'll save 25 percent, since stores are trying to clear out inventory. New electronics products are introduced in January and June, so start cruising the shelves in March and August.
And if you're capable of waiting a bit longer still, order big-ticket items online from retailers with no real-world location in your state; you'll save sales tax, which could be as much as 8 percent, or even more. Then pick the cheapest delivery option to maximize the savings. Add it all up, and a guy who buys an older camcorder from Amazon.com in August could save enough for a weekend getaway on which to capture some interesting footage
5. Carry your wad of cash.
When you're hiring someone to do renovations, repairs, or construction work, ask whether he offers a cash discount. All it will take is a quick trip to the bank and you could save up to 10 percent. Yes, he may be planning to be less than completely frank with the IRS, but his tax return is not your business. And, speaking of your tax return...
6. Resist a refund.
Way too many people feel good about receiving a tax-refund check. If you got one, you messed up. While Washington has held on to your money, you've lost months of compounding interest. Go to bookkeeping and have them increase the number of dependents you claim on your W4 withholding form. For every $500 in refund you got, add one dependent. The number of dependents on your W4 doesn't have to match your actual number of dependents.
7. Transform your debt.
You know there's no smarter financial move than paying off credit-card debt by taking out a home-equity line of credit or pulling cash out of your home equity by refinancing. But you can save thousands more with some legal sleight of hand. Ask your lawyer to arrange it so any mortgage refinancing is actually a mortgage reassignment. That means rather than your old mortgage being torn up and a new one created, the original paperwork is simply transferred from one lender to another. This will save you from 0.5 percent to 2 percent in state mortgage tax. It doesn't sound like much, but on a $150,000 loan, it could mean $750 to $3,000 in your pocket.
8. Raise your rates.
Employees know they have to ask for a raise to get more money, but sometimes the self-employed forget that. If you haven't raised your fees in the past 6 months, send out a letter doing so now. Blame it on the increased costs of doing business. Assume half your clients will accept the increase without batting an eye. One-quarter of them will call to negotiate. Try to work out a compromise figure with these folks, but don't fall all the way back to the original rate. The final quarter may threaten to bolt. Express your desire to keep them, indicate your willingness to compromise, but don't back down. If you're good at what you do, most will stay on board.
9. Finish in the Ivy League.
A motivated kid can get a good education at almost any college. But, fair or not, being a Yalie comes with certain prestige points. Remember, only the diploma matters. So, if your daughter is a good student, consider the option of having her build a great academic record at a state school and then transfer to Yale in her junior year. Your net savings: well over $50,000.
10. Go union.
Community credit unions aren't just for union members. They offer services identical to those of banks, are fully insured, and often charge lower fees and pay higher interest. You can easily save $100 a year in fees and earn maybe another 0.5 to 1 percent interest on your deposits. You can find a community credit union at the Web site of the Credit Union National Association: www.cuna.org.
Info Source: Stephen Pollan and Mark Levine, authors of The Die Broke Complete Book of Money.
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