did you use fed tax return to pay down debt????

[markio26]

i just received my income tax return into my checking account today... and as planned, i immediately paid $1200 on my target credit card...... feels great to pay down debt.......yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ima saver]

Mine was only $353, but I used it towards my land payment principal. (No credit card debt)

[Snoopy2645]

We use ours every year to pay off debts!! When I was single & it was just me & my daughter we would go shopping with it & then put the rest away in savings it was the only time of year we bought clothes. Now dh likes to spend a little too much so we are always behind on everything. He dont even want to use it pay down debt but I am sneaky & get it & pay off the debt before he has a say in it LOL!!

[flash]

When we had a return, we did. After I stopped thinking of it as a year end bonus! Now DH manages our withholdings to the penny, so no refund, and no owes. All of our money goes into our own investments.

I do miss that bonus check at times, though!

[Ima saver]

But, it was only an interest free loan!! I try not to have any coming back either, but being self employed , you never know.

[Haku]

Originally Posted by flash

Now DH manages our withholdings to the penny, so no refund, and no owes. All of our money goes into our own investments.

IMHO, this is the ideal attitude towards managing taxes. You don't want Uncle Sam holding it when you could at least stick it in your own high interest savings account or CD and get a little something out of it.

I also know a few people who would try to owe Uncle Sam a couple of thousand, but are disciplined enough to have it saved up and pay it off come tax time. Of course, these are the same people who chase interest rates and do the credit card balance transfers whenever they can. Good for them, but too much work for me.

[veronak]

Yes I paid off two credit cards and paid on another I even upped my EF...Congrats

[jodi]

Yes - $3k to the car loan. Only about $1500 more to go...

[abowers]

Mine was ~$600, and I got it back the first week of February.
at the time I had almost no extra cash saved up, so I put $400 in my savings account for emergencies, and put the remaining ~$250 toward paying more than what I normally would have on my car payment and credit card bills.

[abowers]

PS, I haven't touched that $400 since, and I've way more than doubled what's in my Savings account since then.

[Ima saver]

You all are doing great!!

[getforfree]

I also think that giving the Uncle Sam an iterest-free loan is not a good idea espessially if you owe on cc's or something like that. Why not to try have less witholding from your paycheck and rather pay it when you do your tax return.
This year we got ~2000 money back. We made less than I though twe would, because dh had extra days off due to not enough work at his job. And after my dd was born I stayed home for almost 4mos, they paid for maternity leave, but like twice less than I would make working. And I also had more write-off because we had money to prepay our mortgage at the end of December for 3 mos ahead.(that's extra $3000 write off right there). Now I changed my W-4, so I pay no federal tax at all, if we will have any due, we'll pay it later. I let Uncle Sam to give me an interest-free loan.undefined

[jmjj215]

I had to pay a big chunk - no refund here...

[Haku]

I re-read my original reponse and realized that it may have come across as critical.

If so, I apologize though it was not my intention.

In fact, it's both a privilege and a pleasure to be among such fine, financially reponsible company.

Keep up the good work!

[seaar2000]

I received 3,400 and paid off my dental bill of $1,200. The rest I put in my EF.

[flash]

Congratulations to all of you! Well on the way to financial security with that attitude!

I just received a letter from my brother, he is 56, says he wants to save, but cashed out his retirement and took out a second mortgage to use the equity to SPEND...he just spent his IRS check on...an aquarium and fish!!!

I love him, and it's his money...but I'm amazed at people who want to SAVE and SPEND at the same time!

MAJOR KUDOS to all of you!

[buzz75]

Yes! We threw $1500 at our HELOC. I transferred my Student Loan to the HELOC because at the time the interest rate was half of the CU student loan. With the intertest rate creeping up it hasn't been fun seeing the amount of interest every month, not to mention, I was unemployed/self-employed for 5 months previous to getting the return. (D*** Michigan economy!) I'm happy to say that I'm back to work and doing better than ever now and it feels great to be paying away those student loans once again.

[Ima saver]

Glad to hear that Buzz. We are self employed and never know what we will make, so we have to make estimated payments. We got back $350, which I put in savings.

[markio26]

we have a small home based business and never really know how much we will get back... i do traditional ira to bring down the taxes.. we have a 401k as well...

[Bookie]

Mostly, I try to avoid both a refund and a tax bill. This year I ended up writing a check.

Boo!