#21 Simple Tips For The Average Family to Save On Their Tax Bill

Sean is a tax-focused financial planner. He helps individuals and small businesses with financial planning, tax strategies, and tax return preparation. The discussion we have is not intended to be financial, tax, or investment advice for any particular individual. You should consult your own advisor regarding your specific situation. Website: I have a tax and financial independence blog at https://fitaxguy.com https://mullaneyfinancial.com Resources mentioned in this episode: 7 day Budget Challenge (www.budgetsmadeeasy.com/budget-challenge) Millionaire Next Door (https://amzn.to/2ReIpVT) aff link Simple Path to Wealth (https://amzn.to/2TjmuiW) aff link Full transcript: Welcome to the money mindset podcast where you will find the inspiration and motivation you need to manage your money better so you can stress less and live the life you want. I'm Ashley Patrick with budgets means easy and the money mindset podcast. Today we are talking to Shawn Malaney. He is a tax focused financial planner and he helps individuals and small. This is with financial planning tax strategies and tax return preparation. And today we are going to talk with him about preparing for your taxes so that you can lower your tax bill. Now it may be a little too late to lower your tax bill for this year, but these are some helpful tips in planning for next year. So if you're getting a big tax refund, there's even some tips in here with what to do with the money to lower your tax bill for next year. Now, as a disclaimer, you know the discussion we have is not intended to be financial tax or investment advice for any particular individual. You should consult with your own advisor regarding your specific situation. But of course he's got lots of different ideas and helpful tips that kind of help you, uh, lower your tax burden for the coming year and possibly years down the road. So before we jump in, I do want to mention that the seven day budget challenge will be changing. I plan to change it by the end of this month. So this is airing in January of 2020 and right now the budget challenge is a pay what you want, challenge minimum of $5. So I am going to be changing mat. I'm going to be turning it into a mini course and the price will be going up. Now I may have another budget challenge where I shorten it. Um, but you know, for those of you who have taken the budget challenge, you know, it's um, pretty detailed videos, step-by-step videos on how to do everything. So I am going to be adding to that and increasing the price probably and by you know, next month. So if you haven't already, go ahead and check that out. You know, if you've been waiting, you know, people on average that do the seven day budget challenge save almost $500 every single month. I think the math is like $493 on average whenever I take out the average. So almost $500 a month just by doing their budget. And then there's lots of helpful tips, a Facebook group and everything like that. So if you have waited to jump on the budget challenge, if you are overwhelmed and you just really don't know where to start, this is where you start. This is where you start to save money. It's where you start to pay off debt is where you start to build longterm wealth. It all with your budget. It's the foundation. If you hate the B word, you know, call it a cashflow plan, you know, call it whatever you want, that'll get you to motivate you to actually do it. So, you know, if you just really hate the word budget, think of another word. Uh, you know, a lot of people call it a cash flow plan, which you know, is what it is. So go ahead and check that out at budgetsmadeeasy.com/budget-challenge. And now we will jump into Sean's interview. Hi Sean. Thanks for being here today. Thanks so much for having me Ashley. It's a pleasure to be with you today and I am so excited. You know, it's, it's beginning the new year and Tech's time and you know, you focus on taxes and so I'm really excited to talk to you about, uh, ways that people can prepare for taxes or maybe even, you know, next year, things that they can do throughout the year to kind of get ready for tax season because you know, it's coming whether you like it or not, you gotta pay your taxes so it's better to be prepared than surprised come tax time. Right? Absolutely. Ashley, you know, I think there are two things people should think about, right? One is every year you must file a federal income tax return. And in most States you're going to have to file a state income tax return too. And that's an important exercise, right? The IRS is a high priority credit or so you don't want to be on the wrong side of the IRS current in your filing obligations. But even more important I think is the longterm planning that I think some teachers, sometimes people get lost, you know, they say, Oh, I've got this tax return. You gotta make sure it's prepared on time and I'm all anxious and concerned about that. They get that done whenever they get tha