You have your income tax refund, now what??

Now that you have your refund, what are you going to do with it? A lot of us have plans on how to spend that extra money before we even file our returns. Pay off debt, get some new clothes, take our kids to do something fun-the list goes on and on…

Go back and look at the vision you drew at the end of last year. If you didn’t draw a vision of what your life will look like in 5 years, take a few minutes draw one now. Not just your financial life, but your whole life, your job, your spirituality, your family, your home, etc. Now, think about how the money in your refund can start to help you move towards some of those goals. For some of us, it might be starting a savings fund for school, others of us might choose to pull our credit report and pay off debt, or pay back a family member we owe money to. If you don’t know how you want spend the money, put it in a savings account or a CD until you know how you want to make that money work for you!

Also, I encourage you to think about starting a small emergency savings account. Having an emergency account no matter how big or small can help out when unexpected medical bills, car repairs, or other surprise expenses come up. Another idea: take some money to do something fun for yourself and your children-you deserve it! Next time, we’ll talk about credit building!