- Hey, guys, welcome to another episode
of The Rachel Cruze Show
Well, in a little over a month, it is tax day, April 15th.
Yep.
Now, listen, I do not want you to be unprepared.
This is a big deal.
When you file your taxes, if you make a mistake,
it can cost you a lot.
So let's go over the top three mistakes
that I see people make on their taxes.
Tax mistake number uno, getting a refund.
I know, you're thinking, what, Rachel, are you kidding?
I love getting a tax refund.
It's like my favorite thing about taxes.
I get this check in the mail and it's amazing.
Number one, that check is not free money.
That is your money that you worked for all year long
that has now been sitting in Washington D.C.
versus sitting in your account.
So you have to look at your tax refund and saying, hm.
Again, instead of the government hanging out
with my money for a year,
I could have used that money to pay off more debt,
to save money, maybe to even invest it
and make interest on it,
like that money could have been working for you
all year long.
So if you get a big tax refund this year,
I want you to be like, Oh, dang it, D.C.,
you've been keeping my money 'cause that's my money
and you wanna change your taxes for next year.
You wanna make sure that you're not getting a big refund
and in fact, I'll be honest, Winston and I prep for this
so it's not a spur of the moment thing
but we actually would rather owe a little bit
than get a refund at all.
I know it's like a crazy way of thinking about it
but I'm like, I would rather keep my money,
owe a little bit, not a lot.
I don't wanna pay a ton of taxes
like, oh, writing a big check. No thank you
but I'd rather owe a little bit than get a refund
because I can use that money all year long.
It's a crazy thing.
So no refund.
All right, tax mistake number two,
trusting just any tax software with your information.
Now, listen, I know there's so many commercials out there
and really popular tax softwares, websites
and they're all, you know, about helping you.
Listen, some of those can be really sneaky.
They can have a lot of hidden fees.
They can actually sell your information
to other companies and, listen, at Ramsey, that's not cool.
We don't want that.
So we actually created up our own model, Ramsey SmartTax.
So if your taxes and income are pretty straightforward
meaning you get a basic W-2
and you're taking the standard deduction, for an example,
Ramsey SmartTax might be the best way
for you to file your taxes
because again, you can trust the company,
trust the idea that yeah, we're not taking your information
and selling it and using it to throw ads at you
for debt and all this stuff.
No, no, no.
It's clean and it's simple
all from the comfort of your own home.
All right, the last mistake people make is not hiring a pro
if your tax situation is complicated.
So here are a few scenarios where you probably wanna skip
just like the software at home kinda thing
and go work with a tax professional.
If you own your own business,
if you have multiple sources of income or do freelance work,
you plan to itemize your deductions.
Those are some big things, you guys.
It can get really complicated
even if you have other stuff coming in
and it's just like, man, there's just a lot out there,
a lot of complicated stuff
then I really would recommend using a tax professional.
So you can use one of our endorsed local providers for this,
and this is something that I talk about all the time.
Whenever there's something complicated
going on with your money,
whether it's taxes or insurance or investment,
have a pro help you.
Not that you're just giving them everything
and delegating it all.
I want you to be involved but these people,
they know what they're doing.
They take a very complicated situation.
They can make it really simple and can help you
and you actually can save money in the long run.
So you'll have lots of peace of mind
and I promise it will be well worth it.
So if you're still wondering which route is best,
if you should file your own taxes or get a tax pro,
take the free tax quiz that we have.
I'll drop the link in the description
but you'll be able to say, okay, yeah,
this is what I should do,
because I want you to do this well.
I don't want you, again, to owe a lot of money.
I don't want you to get a huge refund.
I want your taxes to be as simple as possible for you
and doing them the right way
is going to save you money in the long run.
And I know, they're not fun.
Taxes are not fun but getting them right
is one way that you can truly take control of your money
and create a life you love.