2018 1040 tax form

How the New Tax Law Might Affect Your Personal Financial Situation

However you feel about the politics of tax reform, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is now law and 2018 is the first year you will be dealing with the majority of those changes.

While it’s rarely a good idea to make financial decisions solely based on taxes, it is smart to be aware of the tax consequences of your decisions so that you can avoid any unnecessary costs and take advantage of potential tax savings available to you.

With that in mind, here’s a quick rundown of some of the major changes included in this new law and how those changes might affect your personal financial situation.

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cash, car, calculator and red pencil

An Underappreciated Way to Save Big Money

You’re not alone if you’re under estimating just how much you’re spending on your car. For the most part, we as a culture have come to understand the cost of a car in one of two ways:

The sticker price
The monthly payment

And while those numbers are certainly a big part of the equation, they both fail to tell the whole story. The truth is that the ongoing costs of owning a car are so numerous and so significant that addressing just them, and nothing else in your budget, could be enough to put you on track for your biggest financial goals.

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pot labeled Health with dollars coming out the top

5 Ways to Reduce Healthcare Costs

Healthcare takes a big bite out of just about every family’s budget, with research showing that the average employee spends $11,685 each year on insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.

While many of those expenses are necessary (I would never recommend going without insurance or medical care), there are some ways to save money while still getting the care you need.

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Arrows with Student Loan and Retirement

How Saving for Retirement Can Help You Pay off Your Student Loans

If you’re dealing with student loans, it might be hard to even consider the idea of saving for retirement. When you’re paying hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars every month towards your debt, how can you possibly find extra room in your budget to invest? It’s an understandable feeling, but there’s a hidden relationship between these two financial goals that can make it easier to accomplish both at the same time. In fact, saving for retirement can actually reduce your student loan payments and help you pay them off even faster. Here’s

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Scale weighing house against bag of money

Why the Tax Benefits of Owning a Home Are Overrated

I see people are sometimes tempted to justify buying a home instead of renting because of the tax breaks available to homeowners. The same logic is sometimes applied when deciding to buy a bigger, more expensive house. The tax breaks, the argument goes, lessen the impact of the extra cost.

Sometimes those decisions are justified. Buying can be a good long-term decision, and the tax breaks can certainly be helpful in the right situations.

But there are also many situations in which the tax benefits of owning a home are not everything they’re made out to be. Here are three reasons why.

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What Is What: Fiduciaries, Fees and Financial Advisors

I have to admit that sometimes I’m embarrassed by my profession.

Despite the prevalence of financial advisors (it seems like there’s one on every corner), it’s pretty difficult to find, one who genuinely has your best interests in mind.

The majority of financial advisors either don’t have a legal obligation to act in your best interest OR have connections to financial companies that incentivize them to recommend high-cost products. Or both.

So how can you distinguish the trustworthy from the untrustworthy? Here are some key variables to consider.

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