What should I do with my refund?

[mangos2001]

Pay off your high interest credit card first. 

[Arruda1]

I corrected it the last time I made 18,475.00 in Rhode Island and 1700 and whatever it says there for MassachusettsAnd also made me $730 or whatever it says that I corrected my stuff because the picture I mean my text thing is wrong it’s not set up right it says 18,000 in every one but so I followed the directions the first time and then if I realize something was wrong

[Littleblue]

Why not get a CD loan? I'm using an app called self, lender and how it works is you pay a certain amount (I'm doing the $25 a month plan) and after a year or 2 you get almost all your money back. All the while you are saving and building credit at the same time. Before I even made a single payment my score went up 11 points.

[Cajuncool]

I'm paying off my credit card

[Ripp]

Work on being debt free! Don’t do it too fast though, large payments drive your credit score down, which totally baffles me. Who put these people in charge anyway. 

[gravedancer33]

mail it to me

[reynoldscf95]

First, you could use a free tax calculator/refund estimate. (Intuit has one: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/). I find it helpful to focus on a number versus an unquantifiable variable.

Then split the amount in a way that is most meaningful to you BEFORE you get the check. I would suggest 50% into debt, 40% into your savings account and bucket the amount as "down payment" money, then 10% to charity (write it off for a potentially larger refund next year!)

Hope this was meaningful to you.

[Kreger31]

I would check out Dave Ramsey and take financial peace university.

[DebtfreeJourney]

First of all, a refund isn't "found money", it is an interest free loan you've given to the government for the past year.

Step 1- adjust your withholdings so next year you get as little as possible back in refund.  That will mean you get more every month in your paychecks.

Step 2- set aside $1,000 into a savings account for emergencies.  This will help you not rely on credit cards or create debt when an emergency situation arises.

Step 3- pay off your debts! If all you have is a car payment, put everything remaining from your refund onto your car loan.  If you have credit cards as well, pay those off.  Whatever is the smallest balance is what you should pay off first.  So when that is paid off you can throw whatever the monthly payment was for that debt plus any extra you have onto the next smallest balance.

Best of luck.

[saniam]

This year I am getting around 2,700 back in my refund and this is how I am going to spend it:

• Extra $1,000 payment to student loans
• Extra $1,000 to "emergency fund" savings
• $700 into my fun savings-- where I am saving for a vacation at the end of the year

If you don't do something fun with a portion, it can be hard in my experience to motivate myself to do something "responsible" with the rest. 

Hope this helps you figure your refund plan out!!

[leugimseyer07]

I have my savings in a cert with a 3.50 APY, would you say that's good? Can you explain what you recommended he invest his money in?

[Rouca]

Pay off credit card debt first, then build up a savings account of at least a month or two's worth of your expenses. Also make sure you're not using more than 1 credit card regularly, and leave the rest somewhere secured at home to just use every now and again (ideally, just often enough to keep the accounts active.) Doing these things has made my life infinitely less stressful.

[BlueP]

@ajones  Totally agree with your advice!

[Tilleylives]

What Jew, durin???

[SagkingTarius]

This is exactly what I’ll be doing with mine.