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Tax Return – How To Manage For Maximum Profit
Tax Season is officially here which means the price of cars and other “treat yourself” items is on the rise. Today let’s chat about what should YOU do with your tax return for maximum profit and peace, so let’s do this!
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Other Podcast Episode On Taxes: https://aimeecerka.com/17
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Podcast Key Points
0:00 – Episode Overview
0:56 – Winning The Lottery
2:28 – Financial Security in 2023
4:10 – Net Worth And Debt Pay Off
5:40 – Credit Score – Things To Be Aware Of
7:40 – Investing In Your Business
8:35 – Doing Something For You
10:30 – Recap
11:55 – Challenge: Which Strategy Was Most Insightful For You
Frustrated that you aren’t making the progress that you should within your finances? Create an unshakable money mindset with the Money Mindset Mastery Checklist
How To Make The Most Of Your Tax Refund
Tax season is officially here which means the prices of cars and other treat yourself items is on the rise. Today let’s chat about what should you do with your tax return for maximum profit and peace so let’s do this
Welcome to the Your Money Your Life podcast. I’m your host Aimee Cerka. After over 10 years in the personal finance industry and multiple personal financial and medical crisis, I was fed up with the lies or being shouted from the rooftops by the guru’s and the media. If you’re ready to eliminate fear, stress, struggle, frustration and guilt, from your finances, all the areas they affect, you’re in the right place. Welcome. I’m so glad you’re here
Maximizing Your Tax Refund for Peace and Profit
Welcome back to another episode on the Your Money Your Life Podcast. I’m so happy to report when I was looking through analytics, I saw that the episode around taxes and tax returns last year was still a resource that was being utilized. And all that information is still accurate, which is why I try to avoid speaking in trends, and hey, it worked.
But this year, I want to address it with the intent for peace and profit. Just a quick sneak peek, I am working on an entrepreneur workshop coming up in April. And we’re going to dive into like all of that all the money stuff around business and like really creating the peace and the profit.
But when we’re thinking about profit, we have to talk peace. And that’s really the peace of mind.
This is why you need the unstoppable finances framework, you can’t have one without the other. You, we all know people who’ve made all the money in the world they’ve like hit the massive income goals, and they don’t have the relationships or any of those things.
So if you make all the money and you don’t have the peace with your money, then it’s not going to be like this transformational experience. This is exactly why statistically, lottery winners go broke. Within five years, they’ve lost all the money that they won and then some because of mindset and how we approach everything, and really our spending habits as well.
Catching Up on Bills: Finding Relief and Peace
But for today and your tax return, let’s talk about what would give you peace of mind, right?
Financial security is one of them for many and this is different for 2023. It used to be there’s so several gurus that talk about this, but the put your six months worth of expenses into a savings accounts. We’re just going to stick it in there, stuff it away, and we’re going to be good that that doesn’t work anymore. Like please don’t be doing that.
Financial Security looks different.
Increasing Financial Security: Building a Safety Net
So we need to have three months security at a minimum. I would agree with that. And that’s probably where the main gurus that we’re talking about, that’s where it ends. But if you wanted to maximize the profit and the peace, a smart move for your tax return would be to make sure that you’ve got some of that financial security, okay. And here’s a couple things that would play into that, if you’re looking for the financial security.
If you’ve got bills that you’re behind on, please just catch up on those first, like, put that out of the way that needs to be taken care of. Okay. Also gonna give you the peace of mind because you’re not getting the red letters anymore.
Another way, you could be increasing your financial security, you can be adding to a savings account, like your contingency fund, you could also be setting aside money for Christmas or other holidays so that you can pay cash.
Because a lot of times we want to do that, but we don’t start planning that until December.
So start doing that now.
But if something happened, and the stuff hits the fan, you’ve got that money there to cover your necessities. So see how that’s like part of your financial security.
You could also pay memberships at an annual rate to save money and lower your monthly expenses, that would be another great strategy to do.
Paying Off Debts: Clearing the Path to Financial Freedom
Another thing to consider probably the next thing to consider would be your net worth in or your debt payoff.
Now we talk all the time about focusing on your net worth instead of your debt payoff and that is still true. But it is a good idea to pay off consumer debt and tax season with your tax return or any other time you get a lump sum of money is a great time to like really kind of focus on that and make smart moves about that.
Financial Security won’t happen like we’re covering the grow your net worth is there but again, this is a great time to kind of focus on the debt payoff for a quick minute. Okay.
So a couple things that you want to evaluate if you’re in this spot.
What is the total amount was due?
Rate them.
Inside the Academy, we talk about the different options.
Most people, I recommend the Debt Snowball, which means you write them in order from smallest to largest. So you pay off the smallest one first and then you roll it up into the larger one.
Debt Avalanche is basically is based off based off of interest, you pay off the highest interest one first.
The reason why the Debt Snowball works, again is a mindset thing, it helps you see those wins faster, and you gain that momentum. And for me, that’s more important than saving a little bit of money on interest because I want you to stick with it long term. Okay?
So evaluate the total amount that’s due, evaluate the interest and evaluate the motions around the debt. Is this a debt that you made, like a decision that you have? Maybe guilt shame about?
That would be one that I would prioritize over one that doesn’t bother you?
So can you settle?
It does not hurt to ask most credit card companies will close the account, if you settle.
So do keep in mind is that all affect your credit score, and of course, credit availability and all those things. But you know, like medical debts, any of those things absolutely settle. We do need to strive to keep a decent credit score.
That is important. It’s not the end all be all. But if we don’t pay attention to it, it can cause some serious issues.
So that is something that I want you to factor in. There are a lot of things that factor into your credit score. There’s a whole module on that inside the Academy, we can talk about that on the podcast another day. If you want to hear more about that on the podcast, then send me a message let me know. Because I can work on that for you.
Investing in Tools for Your Business: Accelerating Growth and Profit
Once you’ve evaluated like the total amount of due interest, emotions, can you settle kind of create a game plan?
And what will be the maximum reward for your money?
If you want some help with that, of course, if you’re inside the Academy jump on a live coaching call, I’m here to support you.
If not, make sure you’re signed up for the q&a days because we can answer that on one of our Q&a days. We do that via text. Just shoot me question to 817-969-4653. If you’re driving, that number is in the show notes as well. So you can come back and grab that.
We’ve talked about three things that will be good ideas to increase your financial security, we’ve talked about paying off debt is a smart move for profit.
Another good idea is investing in tools for your business. And we’re going to be talking about this. Like I said, I hinted in the beginning we have the workshop coming up that is it’s in process. I’m really excited for you to be able to have this like get your hands on this.
If you have a question or something that you really want answered around that, just make sure to shoot me that question either via text again, or Instagram. Because I want to make sure it’s like really game changing for you this workshop, I’m putting a lot of love into it. But at a minimum, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast. So you can catch future episodes as I release more information about that.
But investing in tools in your business, we can talk about the profit, there are many different ways that you can accelerate profit in your business investments.
There are also tax write offs.
Again, we’re gonna get into all that in the workshop.
Investing in Yourself: Cultivating Confidence and Joy
The last thing though, that is a smart thing to do with your tax return to maximize profit is doing something for you.
Now, this might not seem like it’s about maximizing profit, but we’re not talking like crazy big, you know, buying a vehicle or anything like that. But you don’t have money already set aside for it, you have money set aside for it, go for it.
But just because you get a lump sum for your tax return does not mean that you need to go blow everything on you.
But actually, this shirt is something that I bought for me recently. And Alright, we’ll just say women, we don’t always necessarily buy stuff for ourselves, probably as moms. Please send me messages, let me know I’m not the only one on this. But I’ve had like, you know, the same clothes you know, we just kind of get by we have stuff that we use, we have stuff that we’re aware, but it’s not necessarily like that we do stuff for ourselves all the time.
And even when I take time for myself and I do things for myself as there’s not always necessarily like let me go buy something like that just for myself. So this is something that I did for me.
That didn’t cost a lot. I think it’s like a $20 shirt from Amazon. But the confidence in it. Like that’s key and that’s why doing something for you can increase your profit inside note like the color that I want in the red here. I like the red, I like wearing a red shirt, red black was like my two colors. But the red was a little bit more expensive. So I could have let guilt come up or get them in fine, just get the black one, that one’s a little cheaper.
But I wanted to have another fun, nicer shirt that I liked something that was newer, not a maternity shirt that’s a necessity, or some other shirt, something that I liked and something that I wanted. And that’s powerful. So I want you to be able to do that for yourself as well.
Okay, let’s quickly recap the strategies that we talked about to maximize your profit. And again, I’ll put a link in the show notes to the episode that we did last year on Smart Money moves for your tax refunds as well, because I think it was insightful. So that one still works. I just wanted to focus a little bit more on profit this year. Okay.
We talked about the first thing we talked about was catching up on bills if you’re behind them.
The second thing we talked about was increasing financial security.
Primarily, we can do this through adding to like your contingency fund or finding an annual savings account.
That would be like the holidays, Christmas was what we call those annual savings accounts.
The third thing we talked about was paying off memberships or other subscriptions at an annual rate so you save more on your monthly expenses, which lowers the amount that you need to have in the financial security.
We also talked about debt payoff and how this is an excellent time to really strategically pay off some debt with the tax return looking at a couple of different factors around which one you should prioritize first. Then we also talked about investing in your business.
These can be tools to help accelerate your progress, whether this is in a team, whether this is in moving forward. Coaching tools, any of those things, those are all really strategic moves.
And the last thing was investing or doing something for you. And yes, that increases profit.
Like we talked about increasing that confidence and doing something for yourself.
Your challenge today I want to hear which strategy was most insightful for you. All right. So you message on Instagram @aimeecerka or shoot me a text 817-969-4653
That is it for now, and we’ll see you next time.
Thank you so much for listening to the Your Money Your Life podcast. Wondering what’s next? When you’re ready there are different levels of support that you can use on the path to creating unstoppable finances and your unstoppable life. After all, your finances are unique and your support should be too. Ultimately, we’ll create a customized plan to ditch financial struggle for good that works for you. Your goals, your priorities, your life. Go to workwithaimee.com to get started with one of our most popular programs, or you can book a q&a call with me, and we’ll figure out what your next step should be.
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