My Tax Refund
I finished my taxes last night, which makes me feel like I am slightly less of a slacker than the ones who wait until today to start. My federal return was set to be about $1379, until I took advantage of being able to put money into a traditional IRA. Since money is rather tight right now, I couldn’t afford to put in much, so I put $1000 into Vanguard’s Star Fund. I didn’t research funds or anything, but that was the only fund with such a low buy-in. If it turns out that I don’t like it, later I will roll it over into a different fund. Now my return will be about $1529 (?), not including the $165 from Virginia and the $600 rebate that I’ll get later.
When talking about contributing to retirement when one is young, I hate when others say that “you can’t afford not to!” Sure. I realize the impact of compounding interest and all, but sometimes a person really has no money to spare unless he or she wants to go into more debt. I would love to be putting tons of money into an IRA right now, but I can barely swing this. I’m taking my total (state+federal) return from about $1486 to $691. I’m happy that I was able to put something in, though, especially with the economy the way it currently is. As my dad says, the economy will eventually make a large push back, rocketing the values of current holdings.
