Josh Elledge - Chief Executive Angel
Hi! I’m Josh Elledge, the Chief Executive Angel of SavingsAngel.com and welcome to the SavingsAngel show! I’m podcasting to you from a windy and chilly Orlando, Florida.
I am an extremely busy consumer expert, money-saving advocate, syndicated newspaper columnist, and the guy that turns digital entrepreneurs into media celebrities with UpMyInfluence.com. I love what I do and can’t wait to get going on today’s episode.
In order to help you save more, earn more and live more abundantly on today’s show I’ll be covering:
- Taking the stress out of tax season
- Testing out of the first year of college
- Budgeting your Spring Break
LINKS FROM THE PODCAST:
www.petersons.com/angel to get 25% off first month
www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free
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Does thinking about the cost of college make you cringe? What if I told you there was a legitimate way to test out of the first year of college, saving students and parents thousands of dollars?
There is, and it’s real. CLEP and DSST exams are the best kept secret in higher education. Similar to AP tests, CLEP and DSST exams are open to anyone and accepted for credit at over 2,900 major colleges and universities. Passing just one of these exams can save you an average of $1,000 in college credit.
Peterson’s is here to help you prepare for those exams. With a subscription to Peterson’s test prep library, you get unlimited access to all of our prep materials for every test we offer. You’ll find practice tests, instructional videos, flashcards and more, so whatever your learning style, you’ll feel confident on test day.
Peterson’s is offering a special discount for SavingsAngel listeners. Use promo code ANGEL at checkout to receive 25% off your first month. For more information or to sign up visit www.petersons.com.
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If you’ve loved hearing everything on this podcast, SHARE THIS episode with a friend! People NEED this information. You and I, together, can change lives. I recommend taking a screenshot and posting on FB – or wherever you hang out most.
And as always, if you have any specific questions, or if there is something you’d like to hear me talk about, you can drop me a comment in the podcast feedback, write me on my Facebook group, or call my podcast hotline at 407.205.9250 and leave me a message. I’ll answer your question, write you back, or – with your permission – I might even share your question or story with others on this show.
Have a wonderful week – full of saving more, earning more, and living more abundantly – and thank you for listening!
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0:02
Hey, I'm Josh Elledge, the chief executive Angel at savingsangel.com and welcome to the savings Angel Show. I'm podcasting to you, just got back from Social Media Marketing World in beautiful San Diego, California. And now, later today I'm on my way over to pod fest here in Orlando. Now I'm an extremely busy consumer expert, money saving advocate, syndicated newspaper columnist and that guy that turns digital entrepreneurs, intermediate celebrities, up my influence calm, I love what I do and can't wait to get going on today's episode. So in order to help you save more, earn more and live more abundantly on today's show, I'm going to be covering how to take the stress out of tax season. I'm going to reveal how you can test out how your kids can test out of their first year of college it is possible. And finally we're going to talk about how to spend spring break
on a budget all that more. Let's get going.
1:02
Tax Season is a stressful time of year for most people. Every year tax laws change and sometimes it's difficult to keep up with what you can and can't do on your tax return. And with two months to go before 2019 tax filing, did you know that you could still reduce your tax liability?
1:20
What's more, the many taxpayers can get free tax filing for both federal and state taxes. Now, here are the best tips for filling your 2019 tax returns. Number one, contribute more to retirement. Now you have until April 15 2020 to contribute to $6,000 to a traditional IRA or $7,000. For those 55 or more years old, and 30 $500, you can still contribute to a health savings account for an individual or $7,000. For a family plan, you could add an additional thousand dollars a few 55 plus Now contributions made before April 15, are considered tax deductible. So if you have a little bit of extra cash, move it over to the HSA, move it over to the IRA. It is tax deductible, but more importantly, the interest compounds as tax deferred. Now that allows you to save more quickly than a, obviously an account that's taxed. Number two, let's talk about taking advantage of some specific deductions. If your child is in college, you may deduct $4,000 a year in tuition costs and other expenses. You can deduct up to 20 $500 or the amount of interest you paid during the year, whichever is the lesser amount you can pay for daycare. Paying for daycare after school care for a child under the age of 13 may qualify you to be able to collect a credit of up to $1,050 for one kid or 21 hundred dollars for two or more kids. However, you'll need the tax ID or social security number of the care provider to claim this deduction. Next, homeowners may who pay PMI private mortgage insurance and itemize on tax returns can deduct the premiums paid during the year. If you had mortgage debt on your principal residence cancelled or forgiven, then you may exclude up to $2 million for married filers of that discharged debt from your gross income. And then finally, medical costs that exceed 7.5% of your 2019 Adjusted Gross Income can be deducted. However, if you used an HSA to pay for these expenses. You may not deduct those costs because you're already you know, not being taxed on that. Next, and this is number three here. You can file your taxes for free. Let's talk about how you do this. Lot of different out there, lot of advertisers saying you can file for free with them. But there's a catch. Now eligible taxpayers can file their federal and state taxes at no cost. Taxpayers whose adjusted gross income was $69,000 or less last year, can file their 2019 federal taxes for free this year using the IRS free file that's at irs.gov. And you'll see it right on the homepage there. It's where the free file now taxpayers can use their smartphone or tablet to do their taxes. They just need to go to irs.gov/freefile on their device. All Free File products are enabled for mobile devices. Free File offers the new form 1040 dash s our option for seniors over the age of 65 as well. Now, many of them can also do their state taxes at no charge. Okay, they do this through Free File offered either by the IRS or by states that have a similar public private partnership. Now the states with a free file program, are you ready for this list? Listen for years. I'm going to share it in alphabetical order here. We'll see if we name yours. Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan. There you are Michiganders, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia plus the District of Columbia. Now Free File partners will charge a fee for state tax return preparation. unless their offer says upfront the taxpayer can file both Federal and State returns for free. taxpayers who want to use one of the state Free File program products should go to their state tax agencies Free File page. Now, there are also programs where people can go to have their taxes prepared for free vieta and T c e site sites visa v. ita and TCP sites are generally located at community and neighborhood centers, libraries, schools, shopping malls and other convenient locations across the country. Taxpayers can use the vieta locator tool and that is at the IRS is website and you can find that let's see if I can actually look this up for you right here. Yeah, it looks like oh, yeah, okay, well, it's it's a little bit long. It's if you go to irs.gov/individuals. And from there you'll be able to find the vieta locator tool. Listen, taxes don't have to be scary so long as you're prepared. Know Before You Go get your paperwork organized, have your dependent ID numbers, and visit irs.gov to see what you may be qualified to deduct from your 2019 taxes.
7:19
Now, for many of us, the thought of student debt has us reconsidering. Luckily, I'm here to tell you have a way to not only save you thousands of dollars, but save you the pressure of the first year of college. I'm here to tell you how you can save an average of $1,000 or more in college credit. What's the big secret you ask? You got to get your kiddos or if you're working your way through college, you're listening to this, you want to test out using clap or dsst exams. So these exams are similar to those of the ages. P tests offered in high school, all you have to call you got to do is just pass one per subject. And then these exams are accepted in over 2900 universities and colleges. And this ends up being so much less money, then pretty much every college out there. So how can you pass these tests? Well, listen, preparation is the key. My son just took his essay T, he did a lot of test prep, I'm telling you, you got to treat test prep, like a part time job. If you'll do it, it will pay you handsomely. So parents hint hint, there might be a way that you can work that out. But I'm telling you, this is the most important thing. You just have to make it mandatory. You know, passing these tests without this is going to be very hard, unless you've got a test prep game. Plan. So, one one system and again, we searched the web online, Peterson's Test Prep is probably it is it's it's the best that we found petersons Test Prep library, they have a subscription, you're allowed unlimited access to all the test prep material they have to offer that's, that's what they specialize in, you'll have access to their instructional videos, flashcards and practice tests, which are really important. See with a practice test, I mean, you generally know what you're going to get. You keep taking practice tests, and you're like, Okay, well, you know, now I'm scoring a 70%. If you're scoring a 70%, on the practice test, you're probably going to score around that on the real test. And so you just keep on prepping until you keep on taking those practice tests and you get higher and higher and higher until you know your apps are going to ace the thing. Right. So petersons is offering a special discount for savings Angel listeners. I'm going to save you some money here. The promo code Angel, that's what you want to use a n g e l, you get 25% off your first month, just give it a shot for more information or to sign up you go to petersons.com/angel, a n g e l. That's petersons.com/angel. Use the promo code Angel so you can save some money. Just have your kids get in there, try for a month or two. Make sure that they recognize just what a huge opportunity this is. Listen with summer coming up. Are you kidding? Why would you not take advantage of that during the summer months? Have them get a college credit or two? I think that's an absolutely brilliant idea. Thank you so much. petersons again petersons.com/angel use the promo code Angel 25% off.
10:58
Now statistically, students over a billion dollars a year during spring break, the largest expense being flights. Now we know that most teens and young adults don't want to concern themselves with a budget, went on vacations with their friends. Spending money is inevitable, but one portion you can control is just how much you are spending. Now, whether you plan on spending spring break in your state or another, here's some helpful tips on how to keep the green in your wallet. Number one, be prepared. Meet with your family or friends and plan out where you want to go. Don't look for flights last minute. Buying ahead will almost always save your money. Then you can spend the rest of the time spending money while on vacation. Many airlines give shoppers the option to get notified when airfare goes down in price. Again, just get locked in with you know just look for that. fare watchers there. They're all over the place online number to drive. If you don't want to pay a large amount on airplane tickets, change locations to somewhere closer. road trips are a fun way to travel with family or friends. At least they can be. So how do you do this? Well, very simple. You can make a food passport. If you don't know what a food passport is. It's going Google that you can make a magnetic activity tray from a small cookie sheet for kids. You play license plate bingo or the alphabet game, you know where you look for letters on signs in order that we almost always do. I my boys have eagle eyes and we play that game. You can play a movie soundtrack to make your trip feel like it's just like the ones from the movies maybe not the Fast and Furious soundtrack. I want you to stay safe. Take pause and and find some nature to enjoy. So as you're playing planning your route. It's really important, right? That, you know, my advice is to do things to better enjoy the journey, the journey, you got to treat it as part of the vacation. I know sometimes historically, you know, as the data, we're just got to get there, we got to get there. You know, but there's there's been other times when we looked at the map, we said, Oh, hey, there's a state park there. And we're like, that's a diversion. But, and if it ends up taking you an extra day to travel there, I just believe you know, not this is not always going to be the case. But I want you to enjoy the journey as well as the destination and so feel free to take these little side trips. And again, commune with nature, I think your spirit will love it. You can keep small snacks in a tackle box. Don't blow your budget on convenience store and restaurant food that you can go through so much money doing that. And if you plan your your all your snacks and your food and ahead of time, get at the grocery store, use your coupons, take advantage, your sales, bogos and all that sort of thing. And you could save a lot of money by doing it that way. Make sure you invest in a multi way charger. So everybody, you got all the cords, you got all the Chargers, so no one's fighting over, it's my turn to charge, right just avoid that whole drama, have more than enough chargers ready to go. And then finally, find a great road trip playlist on Spotify or Apple Music or whatever use Google music and feel free to sing along. Number three, Airbnb instead of spending a ton of money on a hotel, rent a room with the Airbnb app or rent out a place split the cost with your friends, then cook and save on the money you would have used to eat at restaurants. Number four, create a budget. Now this will limit the impulsive purchases one makes as we all find ourselves inside gives shops wanting to buy a momento, whatever if you decide to take a road trip, budget, how much gas and the cost to where you stay, and from there set aside funds specifically for food, leisure and gifts and just budgeted ahead of time you know exactly how things are going to go down then. Now, above all this, remember to have fun. You don't want to get caught up in constantly checking your account and losing out on fun and worrying about whether or not you're staying on budget planning ahead, you will stay on budget. Now you can be responsible and fun, all at the same time. Have a happy spring break.
15:37
Now, if you've loved hearing everything on this podcast, share this episode with a friend. People need this information. You and I together can change lives. I recommend taking a screenshot and posting on Facebook or wherever you hang out the most. And as always, if you have any specific questions or if there's something you'd like to hear me talk about, you could drop me a comment on the podcast feedback, write me on my face Facebook group or call the podcast hotline right now. 407-205-9250 and leave me a message I'll answer your question right back or with your permission, and even share your story with others on the show. With that, have a wonderful, full of saving more, earning more and living more abundantly. And thank you for listening.
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