How To Legally Pay Less In Taxes

So that's all of this episode, regular people. Yeah, and then it's definitely we'll talk about side hustles and how you can kind of optimize paying less in taxes through that. But we are including as much as possible that is related doable to the average W two employee and as much as we are qualified to actually talk about. And so we're Yeah, this has been an episode that I have wanted to do for a while because it's something I have always been interested in but never felt qualified

to talk about. And I started writing for a company last year that I said the only things I can't write about our taxes and insurance, and that was immediately the only two things they had me writing about. So I think they misunderstood me, and now I feel more qualified.

That's a good journey to find ourselves today. But first, before we get into all of the wisdom that I may or may not have on taxes, our sponsors, today's episode is brought to you by things that we are really experts together a single expert on is saving money. So today's episode is brought to you by the Modern Frugal Living e book. If you are on our email list, you have in your inbox this very second, a free e book with over two hundred ways to save money.

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brought to you by the Path less Traveled. Sure it may not be well worn and might even be a little bit overgrown, but it's quieter and usually more interesting. The path less traveled, if it means doing the right thing, take that path. Is the pathless traveled covered in dirt because people are still talking about the dirt, trail, the dirt. You where you didn't say path, but you just said the dirt, the dirt, and we didn't correct it. No

post or anything. Don't do that. Left it because it's funny. Yeah, and so congruent with that. I will be the entertainment on this episode and Gen will be the education. But none of us are tax prof nestionals. Absolutely. That is a caveat that we should make and any personal finance expert should make unless they are a certified public accountant, is that we're not tax professionals. We do not give

tax advice. This episode is for educational purposes only, and we are going to go through vetted articles that are on the internet written by other personal finance experts. But if you think something applies to you, double check it with your tax software or your c p A. That's how you're really going to know if it works for you. But everything here is going to be super generalized. And with that, we'll start with our first generalized article from a tiny little site US News and World Report when

we're talking about federal taxes. I decided not to go with the blogs and we're going just straight to the really big publications on this one. Smart move, Yeah, you know, and it's fifteen legal secret to reducing your taxes. Jill, with your penchant for tax knowledge, how did you feel about this one? I liked it, you know, as a as a person who pays my taxes. I know I

know more than I might let on. But there were some interesting things that stood out to me in this and I think some of it will get into it, but has to do with whether or not you take

the standard deduction or you itemize deduction. Some of the things don't apply to me specifically, but overall, I thought really helpful information and things to consider with taxes and what's going to give us the best opportunity for not spending more on taxes than what we need to but also not avoiding the taxes that we do need to pay,

you know, keeping it legal. Yeah, I agree. I liked this one as well because it's it's easy to find the tax articles where they're only looking at people that itemize their deduction, which is not a lot of us, or small business owners, which maybe a good amount of people, especially if you have a side hustle, but that's not necessarily everyone. And so we have to be realistic because taxes really are the biggest fee that we pay in life.

So sometimes you'll you'll hear US or other experts talking about low fee index funds with investing or paying off your debts so that you're not paying the interest on your debt. So taxes. The tax brackets range from like ten to thirty seven as of the time of this recording, but the kind of around the average you'll pay is around fifteen because you don't if you're in the thirty seven percent tax bracket, you're not paying that on every single dollar you earn. Uh, it's a it's cremental, it's

a ladder. So the first you know, ten grand or something is taxed at the lowest and then you go, you know this to this is taxed the next highest and so on and so on. So you're not paying the percentage of your tax bracket. You're not paying that on every single dollar, and so a I think that should be encouraging, like, yeah, increase your income and don't worry about your tax bracket, stop thinking about your tax bracket,

and work to increase your income. But it's also eye opening because if the average is around fift then that's I mean, that's more than probably your student loan interest.

It's definitely more than your mortgage. So it's it's things that we have to we have to kind of bear in mind the percent of our income that we're paying to the government, which is great because we get a lot of great things for that, but we want to pay as little is legally possible, because that is our duty as Americans that have voted on this whatever these these people in Washington are doing and making all this tax law and stuff. You know so well, and that

is another good poin. We've We've got listeners in a lot of different countries, so yeah, this is specifically talking about the United States. Yeah, but so so this yeah, definitely going to be relevant for the United States. But if you have kind of that idea is as a you know, as somebody who's not a billionaire, how can I pay as little tax as possible? I think that's a great mindset to have. So let's dive into our first strategy, and that is to contribute to a retirement account.

So this is definitely not something that's going to up your tax refund. That's not what we're talking about. The title of this episode is not how to get a fatter tax refund, it's how to legally pay less in taxes, and so that may not be upfront, but it may be over time because we want to look at the bigger picture, and so that's kind of where a retirement

account comes in. So we're looking specifically at traditional four oh one KSE and traditional i ras, and most people are going to use a traditional four oh one k to lower their taxable income. So, Jill, what did you think about this one? How much of this did you know related to a retirement account? I mean, I think I'm still learning so much about investing and how that impacts what we have to pay in taxes versus what we have to pay in the future. So I like

I like these like digestible articles that help me understand that. Yeah, so usually it all and this all depends on what income you're making. So again talk to a c P, A test numbers and a calculator do that for you. But if you're trying to figure out, should I be putting more in my traditional four A one K to lower my taxes now, or should I be putting more in a roth either you know roth ira A or

wrath four O one K that limits my taxes later. Typically, if you're just starting out in your career and you anticipate higher income growth in the future, then we say prioritize RATH because you're paying you're at a lower tax bracket,

which means lower average tax cost. But if you are kind of at the height of your income or very happy with where you're at, if maybe you are in is you live in a city where you aren't triple tax so federal tax, state tax, and city tax, this is going to be of great importance to you if you are are being heavily taxed in in a year, and you may want to prioritize traditional four oh one K or traditional IRA at that point. So this is

very situational. But when I was contributing to a four oh one K, I was kind of doing half and half, so I just took up the whole. I was maxing everything out, and so I kind of took nineteen five plus six thousand and divided it by two and then just put half in the traditional four O one K six thousand in the rath I RA and then the rest in the rath version of the four one K. Not everyone can do that. I'm not saying that's investment advice. I'm saying that's kind of what I did. But I

only pay federal tax. I do not have a state tax or a city tax, because also you don't know what taxes are going to be like when you retire. So I mean, it's just good advice to just never put all your eggs in one basket in general. Yes, similar to what you're saying Jen about investing in a retirement account. The article also lists opening a health savings account, and so this would be for those of you who

have an eligible high deductible medical plan. You can contribute to a health savings account, and those contributions to those accounts offer immediate tax deduction. UM it can grow tax deferred and can be withdrawn tax free for qualified medical expenses. So health savings account is specifically for your medical expenses, and then any balance left at the end of the

year can be rolled over indefinitely. So this is just a really great place to put your money on something that you most likely will have to spend it on at some point and experience tax deductions as a result. Yeah, and the h s A they say you'll hear that an hs A is triple tax advantaged, so you don't pay tax on the money that's going in, you don't pay tax on the money that's going out when it is paid like for medical funds, the earnings aren't tax.

But also it's the only account where you can avoid the FICA tax or I don't know if it's considered a tax, but um, so that's fun to Social Security and Medicare, so the funds that it's a small percentage that's taken out still even if you contribute to four one K, but not so for a h s A, So that's also something to look at. Hs A is have a pretty low annual max, so if you are able to use one, I would definitely look into it.

If you're a company or wherever you have, if the high deductible healthcare plan that you have doesn't have an hs A, look into if you're still eligible for one, because you could be eligible for one, it's just not offered. If so, you can find a separate h A company. We like a company called Starship, not just because I like Star Wars and Star Trek, but Starship is a really great um H a company that has low fee

index funds in their investment portions. So you can hit up Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Starship and see if you can get one there. Oh that's so fun. Yeah, slash Starship, slash Starship. I know, I don't. Usually these tech companies have the worst names, So I don't know like where Starship came from. It's just it's gold the next one on this list, and I think this is where we're going to get most of our nuance is

use your side hustle to claim business deductions. And so if you're using if you're doing this, you really really

should be using a professional to do your taxes. It is is highly recommended because there's so many things that could be written off that you maybe didn't know about or maybe too scared to write off on your taxes because you're just not sure like in what capacity you qualify for it, and and an tax professional can very much help you determine if you can write those things off in what percentage and so on, and they typically

pay for themselves in that case. So I had as when I was a doing business as UM company before I became an LLC, all of that stuff was just included on my personal tax, the personal tax report, and so I didn't have to pay extra for a separate business tax filing. So that is that was my experience. I know that it's not like that in every state, but yeah, so don't be worried about telling like using an accountant and telling them that you have a side hustle.

And if you're a frugal friend, you most likely do have some sort of side hustles. So if you've made money in any way other than through your work where you are in a W two employee, this is definitely something to be keeping track of, and attacks professional will be able to help you identify the things that you

can write off. Of course, if you are able to talk to someone throughout the year, you can have better chances of keeping good track of the things that can be right offs, rather than trying to backtrack at the end of the year in trying to remember what all did you buy and spend all these things. But certainly if you've got any kind of side hustle, it's a great way to be able to write off various parts

of your life that are connected to that side hustle. Yeah, and don't think just because you it's not entirely for business purposes, you can't write it off, because they you can write off percentages of things, so that Yeah, And and working with a professional will very much help you. And even using a bookkeeping software will help you kind of keep track of it too. I know I have

full disclosure Jill, and I love spreadsheets. So I've been doing the books for frugal friends entirely on spreadsheet and it has been the bane of my existence. And so this is the first year I'll be using attack or a bookkeeping software, and I think it's going to make my life at tax time eleven times easier. It's at least gonna save me a few hours a month on on keeping all of these deductions in line. Yeah, there comes a time when you graduate to something, something better,

something new. The next one on this list is related to the side hustle piece, that you could claim a home office deduction. Again, this is only if you have a side business. I know that a lot of people have been working from home. If you are a W two, I don't believe that you can write off your office. Hopefully your work is still taking care of you. But if you have a side hustle and you have a dedicated space for a home office, that can often be

deducted as well. Even things from um percentages of your rent or utilities can go towards the home office deduction. Again, ask your tax preparer about this. But that's another way to save I know for us. So in two thousand nineteen, both Eric and I were self employed, so we did not have a W two. We basically had our own businesses, and our tax prepared told us that we were even able to write off renovations on our dedicated office spaces.

So I keep track of the upgrades that we do specifically in our home offices, and that too as a text deduction. So that's great because I already want my house to look better and it's a tax deduction for me. Yeah, and there's so many things that you for those of us who don't itemize, you can't write off, like charitable deductions are charitable donations like lower down on this list, you you can't write those off if you don't itemize, But if your business makes a charitable donation, that can

be written off. So obviously you want to do this ethically, but it just makes so much sense to have something on the side, no matter how small it is, so that you can take advantage of these deductions that are legal and are used ethically. So the next real one. So we won't go through every single one on list because some of them are for itemized UM or itemized text you know words. But so this one you if you're using tax software, this should do this for you

automatically UM. But to deduct half of your self employment taxes. Uh. So I talk about this one because the article doesn't. So it says the government assesses a fifteen percent fight attacks like I was talking about with the around the h s A on all earnings, except for it is not charged on earning on contributions made to the h s A. So while employers split the cost with their workers, if you're self employed, you have to pay the whole thing.

But you can get around this by if you are self employed, registering for um an LLC and then registering as an escorp. And you have typically until March to do this, sometime in March to elect an escorp and that that is free. It does cost to become an LLC,

but it's a very low amount. And then you can pay yourself a salary every month and your I mean I professionally can tell you what, but but typically people recommend thirty five to fort of your earnings and you can just pay yourself just deduct those taxes on the salary that you are paying yourself, so you instead of paying the fifteen on everything that comes in, your only paying on what you're paying your salary as So you can save a lot of money once you start increasing

your earnings from your side business. So I think some people say once you start earning around sixty dollars a year, it's a good time to elect as an escorp. And you can find more information about that online. But that's a really great way to lower your taxes if you are self employed. Yeah, that's an sample of one that I was not aware of I found helpful on this one. Although now both Eric and I are moving towards being employees,

so that's self employed. Some of those self employed benefits aren't going to be there anymore, but it'll be better in the long run. The next tip, so moving away from having side hustles back to just what might be available for anybody, is getting credit for higher education. So the government does offer tax credits to offset the cost

of higher education. Of course it's it's not a ton don't get your hopes up, friends, um, but you they do provide for a maximum credit of dollars per student per year, So definitely be aware of what's available to you if you are currently a student, and I believe that this would be whether you're whether you're part time or full time. Of course, the credit may differ depending on what kind of student you are, but be aware of that. Also, keep track of costs for your books, tuition,

all of the things. Um, those those are all helpful when when tax time comes. Yes, absolutely so. There are a few other things on this list, um specific too. If you have state and city taxes, to definitely look at your state and your city to see what kind of tax deductions they provide or tax breaks. A big one is if you have children and your state may give you uh contributions to a five twenty nine in that state are often times um deductible for state tax.

Like we don't in Florida, don't have a state tax, so we can use any five twenty nine in any state. But if your state gives tax breaks, you might want to stick to the five twenty nine in your state. So that's another way. If you're going to be doing a five twenty nine for your children any way, see if your state has tax incentives for using the in state one, and then like private mortgage insurance, your tax

software should do that for you. So don't throw away that form you get from your mortgage company because p m I is deductible. And that's another I mean, if you can't put down on a home and you're scared of p m I, and it's just another reason, don't be as afraid of p m I as some people might tell you too, because it is deductible. I mean, tax code is tax code changes every single year or

so of course keep that in mind too. Write talk to your tax preparer, who's going to be updated on the most recent code because deducting p m I has gone in and out throughout different years. So sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. They like to keep us on our toes always, always they overlook the big like sweeping tax reformed it could do and just like Pitter pattern with their y p m I. It's fun, you know, it's fun. It's great so that we have to hire people because

it's so complicated. And of course the last thing on here for me is the making charitable donations of course for anybody that is deductible and wherever you do donate, to make sure that you get the receipt for that indicating your ability for tax deduction. Absolutely all right, So our next article is going to be how to boost your tax refund. I know we said we wouldn't talk about it, but we're gonna talk about a little. It's

just five hidden ways to boost your tax refund. And these are just like practical things that not a lot of people may know about, just little facts that you may want to use for your tax filings. So this is not going to help you a lot with your next tax refund, sorry, but there are things you can

start maybe doing now for your next one. This might be especially important if you owe taxes this year, then you'll definitely want to take these things into consideration so that you at least don't Oh, so you're not surprised with a tax bill. What do you think of this one, Jill? Oh, great, super digestible. I love it when there's just something like five tips like this one effect. Yeah, and we'll go

through them all. Uh. So, the first one is rethink you're filing status, and so there's two things to be aware of. If you are married, it may beho view to file separately. So this status often requires more effort but could benefit you and tax savings. So under the right conditions, For example, if one spouse has a lot of medical expenses such as COBRA payments resulting from a job loss, computing taxes individually might allow for a larger deduction.

So if you're working with a professional, they will tell you this. But I had no clue that something like a bunch of medical expenses could make it better to file separately. The other one is for separated parents. So there's a child tax credit. You know this, but both parents can actually be like you can get that. So if you file as head of household, each parent can get like half is what I was reading. That's not

in this article. But if you have a child, and I'm sure custody kind of comes into play on this as well, but you can do that for the child tax credit. That is something to look into see if it applies for your situation. And then that would require you too. I'm not sure. Maybe you would have to file Mary filed separately if you just got separated. That's and then head of household. So this is something I

didn't know. If you are taking care of a family member, so whether it's a child or a parent, or or anyone, and you are taking care of them at a certain point, if you take enough care of them monetarily, you can be considered head of household for them and that helps you with your taxes. If you are taking care of a parent or family member, then look into how you are filing and see if it will behoove you to change to a head of household instead of single. This

is specifically for single people. Those are kind of the two married finally separately and head of household can kind of help you if you're in some unique situations, there's a reason to take care of your parents. There you go more than just because they took care of you. Uh. The second tip on here is to embrace tax deductions. Some of these we may be more aware of than others. They just give a quick list of some that most people might be able to take advantage of, maybe even

less commonly known. So there's things like state sales tax, so you can use the I R s as calculator to determine how much of your state and local taxes you can deduct. Reinvested dividends they say it's not technically a deduction, but it can you reduce your overall tax liability. When you automatically have dividends from mutual funds that you've reinvested, you can include that in your cost basis. Also out

of pocket charitable contributions. We already talked about that one student loan interests, so whatever you've paid in interest on your student loans could also be a tax deduction. And child and dependent care, so speaking to what gen referenced too in the first one of whether you're caring for an elderly family member or a child, the cost of that, the expenses qualifying expenses for caring for those dependents, can

also be deducted. Yeah, and these are things that your tax software will tell you about so you don't have to worry about missing them. Yeah. Also certain jury duty fees, so if you if you do answer all of the questions and the exact right order, and you land yourself on on a jury. Uh, some of that can be a tax deduction. Medical miles so as in like car mileage that is associated with medical needs could also be deducted. Miles that you put on your car associated with charity

if you volunteer at any place. So just yeah, lesser known things that we can keep in mind and keep traffic throughout the year. Our hope is that you'll hear these unique situations and not realize you're in a unique situation. You think you're just in a normal situation. But if you hear it and you're like, oh, yeah, I do that. Oh that's unique. Oh maybe I should have somebody look in to see if I can pay less in taxes. So that's our goal with kind of like just piquing

your interests. They're unique, so they are not going to apply to everyone. But hopefully at least one thing in this episode you'll be able to take and reduce some

of your tax burden. So then the next one on this one is we were just talking about maximize your IRA A and h S A contributions, and I guess we would say the same with four O one K, but actually for your IRA, you can put money into it up until the tax date, so in it is February, you can still be contributing to your one I R and there are limits and stipulations to be able to deduct like make those tax deductible like currently where it's

much more like free in the RATH area. You just know whatever you put in there is tax now and tax free later. But so look into what these stipulations are for having the contributions to a traditional IRA tax deductible now, but you still can contribute and get some of that tax burden off up until the tax date. Yeah. The fourth on here is to use timing in your

favor to boost your tax refunds. So they're particularly advocating that we be looking for payments or contributions that we can make before the end of the year that will reduce our taxable income. A couple of things that they advocate for. I don't know how much of a difference

this would actually be on your taxes. But maybe if you were in a really weird triple tax situation or you had a really weird year, then yeah, making January's mortgage payment by December thirty one so that you can get the added p M i uh interest added to I don't know how much that that would actually help you, but they're trying to get you to think through what, yeah, what you can be spending on at the end of the last cord or to be able to, like they said,

reduce your taxable income. And this is why you definitely see an uptick of charitable contributions at the end of the year. It's not just that everyone's feeling super generous, it's also that people want to reduce their taxable income. So whether it's being generous, which is great, or if you want to schedule you know, you've got medical expenses coming up and you want to get those in before the end of the year so that it can add

to your medical expense deduction. Kind of anything that we listed off so far that you might want to consider by the end of the year to see a lower lower amount that you pay in taxes. Yeah, it's just like if you're able to claim the home office deduction, you can even deduct the cost of painting your home office if you want to start the new year with

a fresh look. And and I've always been of the mind like even if it's tax deductible, it's not deductible, like in like in Ship's Creek when David's like buying the face cream and they're like, who pays for it? I don't know exactly. I think that can be sometimes how people approach tax deductions, Like you're still buying it. It's not suddenly free. It just could reduce your taxable income, but you still have to buy the thing, and so still make sure that you have the money to buy

the thing. Yeah, and I don't think a can of paint is going to like break your verse. Uh. You know. The only thing is if you're super unorganized and you want to remember and keep the receipt that it might you know, be in your best interest to do the things in December so you're not buying it in January and like digging around for the receipts next year. That

that would be the biggest benefit I would see. So the last one on here is to become tax credit Savvy, and again, most of these are going to be in any tax software. I mean this is from Turbo tax, so like if you're using turbo tax, isn't an ad for that, but obviously it's all going to be in

that software. So I wouldn't worry about these things. But know that there is an earned income tax credit, and the software will calculate if you meet the guidelines for that if you have no qualifying children, Like the max credit amount is liked for that one, but it can go up to like sixty seven hundred and more kids. There you go how to save money on taxes. Frugal friends say have a ton of kids. That's stuff from the frugal friend that has zero children. And there's the

Child Independent Care Credit. Yeah right, so that is surely going that's a going to change for tax or two. But it's you know, you get what you get right now. If you took the half payments throughout last year, then you have those. If you didn't, then they will show up on your taxes this year. But there are there are some interesting ones like the American Opportunity Credit as for college students or people supporting a child in college.

There's also the Lifetime Learning credit, so you can go ahead if you are in college or have a college student, you can go ahead and like kind of google the education credits, education tax credits and see kind of what's available. Uh. And then energy saving home improvements, So there's a lot I know now in a Florida for solar, but then you also have to kind of do the math on if the cost of solar and the amount of time you're going to stay in your house all of that

kind of makes it worth it. So these are just things that are not You shouldn't just do it because you get a tax credit, but if you want to do something, then it kind of can put you over the edge in that. But some of the credits are kind of stretching it. Credit for electric vehicles that might

be something. If you want an electric vehicle, then the I R S is still offering up to per qualifying vehicle for so stuff like you you kind of already have to want it and be able to budget for it and then just get a little helpful it from the gov. Mm hmm, well, you know what, you don't need a little extra help for um and that nobody but us is going to provide for you. You can't you can't write this off. H that's right, It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a

baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died, and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Tough bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clint, this is the bill of the week. Hey Jen, Hey Jill. My name is Natasha. I'm a new listener and I have binged your podcast for the last week or so. I love the content that you put out. Um, my bill of the week is my

Christmas bill. So recently I listened to one of your podcast episodes about repurposing, reusing, and recycling, and it has inspired me to do just that for our Christmas gifts this year for all of our family and fronts. So although we don't have an actual bill that we get for Christmas, it is going to reduce the amount that we have to spend on our Christmas. So we had this big box of items that we were just going to go ahead and send to the donation center, and

instead I went through the box. So far, I've been able to create about nine gifts out of all of the items that were in there. I'm super excited about it. I'm not really crafty, but I'm trying my hand at it because I've figured we have the items here, why not use them? So um, and it's only September. There's surely more that we can create out of all of

the items laying around our house. So I just wanted to thank you for inspiring me to do that, for helping us save on our Christmas bill, and just also thank you for the content that you put out and love it. Keep it up, Wow, Natasha, Yes hashtag normalized secondhand gifts. I want that on a T shirt. Oh well, and also so sorry that you recorded this in September

and we're playing in February. That's how behind we are, and that's how excited our listeners are about But we do play every single bill, so it will get played, don't worry. That's why it takes so long. That is amazing, though, and I would love to see what you ended up coming up with, because it sounds like not only did you just give something on as a gift, but you maybe made some changes to different items to repurpose them

and then regift them. Super curious about that anyhow, feel free to update us on some of your your top re gifts in our Football Friends community group on Facebook. Because even if it's not the holidays, birthdays and other types of celebrations happen, so we love to have ideas on how we can be kind and generous but not have to spend a ton of money either, especially if we don't have it. So yeah, I love that tips,

So glad it was helpful. Natasha. We have a gift closet, so we I mean it's not the whole closet, but we have a closet in my office and we will put stuff like that into the closet and gifts we receive at Christmas that we don't really want to go into the closet, so that during the year, if we have a birthday party or like congratulatory like book book launch, uh, you know, stuff that in life that is really celebratable, and we can go into the gift closet and grab

gifts because I am so about regifting and gifting secondhand and by nothing groups are a great used to find some gift things too, So thank you so much, Natasha. We have a similar gift closet and actually Jen, I just came across a gift for Travis's birthday, holding on to it. I'm looking at it right now. I don't get too excited, don't get too excited. But it costs me nothing and he will get it on his birthday.

All right. Well, if you have a bill, if it has to do with bills you didn't have to pay, or regifting or you know, you know the drill literally anything related to bill, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill, leave us your bill. Eventually we'll get to it. Yea, And now it's time for cute. I got told that they wanted they wanted noises again. People in our membership group like what happened to the noises? And I'm like, you mean what I did with my mouth? I can

bring that back. People literally asked for the mouth noises back and I sat there stunned. Um. But anyways, today we are sharing how we personally save on taxes as normal people who don't make like millions of dollars more yeah than of thousands. Yeah yet I guess sure, go for it, Jen, How do you do this legally? So I started my business in twenty sixteen, so kind of was the first. It was in the end of Seen was like the first year that I had a business.

And it took one year for me to realize that having a business increases your tax liability and that they don't just take taxes out. And so I had to stop using a tax software and moved to an accountant. And this guy worked his magic and saved me so much money on like what I thought I was going to have to pay, and he more than paid for himself. And that is why I am a great advocate of paying for services that will pay for themselves because it saves me time and stress. And we use this guy

every year and he's great. He has a fishing pole and between clients he will just go to the pond behind his office and fish for like, you know, five ten minutes. And and that's the kind of accountant you want, right like that is it. He is everything. I tried for him to be my accountant, but he wasn't having it. He because of because of the caliber of accountant he is. You can imagine he did not take new clients last year. Well, he didn't take new clients last year because last year

was crazy. But it's a new year. It was still crazy. They I This is my opinion. I think that they make the tax could so complicated so that you have to hire somebody. I'm convinced that if you don't know, if you have not studied this for four years in like graduate school, that you're not going to be able to save as much money as you could if you

hired somebody. I don't. I mean Eric and I have done our own taxes for many years, and finally, yeah, we we were in a complicated situation where we just hired somebody and they did. They saved us a ton of money. So, like you're saying, Jen, it more than paid for itself to hire somebody. Of course, not if you are a standard W two employee that that's pretty straightforward to be able to do your own taxes. But if you've got a side hustle, if you're self employed,

don't waste your time, just hire somebody. Yeah, I was still a side hustle Inenen. I didn't go full time until nineteen, so I was I was definitely using him while I had the side hustle, for sure. So for me, you want to know how I saved on taxes, like your's a lot I moved to Florida, where I don't have to pay state and local income tax anymore. Yes, it's in all caps. Yes, if you read our show notes, it's in all caps because I am that excited about it.

I feel like I found the biggest most legal loophole in the entire nation. And it's amazing. And you know what, this is going to be the first year that I fully get to enjoy that reality. We moved in twenty twenty mid so when I did my taxes that year, I still had to pay a Pennsylvania They still had a grip on me. But this year, all of one baby, we were in Florida, and it will save me between

six to eight thousand dollars. Wow, at least, like, at least conservatively, I will not have to pay that amount of money. That real money that came out of my pocket I get to keep just because I made the very smart, very wise decision to move to greener pasture. Yeah. I don't usually say this publicly, but like, come on down to Florida, like it's it's really a free for

all here and and we like it. So I don't say that to people, but like, if your list, if you're a Frugal Friends listener, Like you're a good person, and so I will say it to you. But like otherwise I would be like, don't say anything, Jill, because everybody is moving to Florida and it's very obviously because of the tax situation. Now listen, Florida is not the only state who does that. So you know you could you could go to another state that doesn't require state

and local. It's not as good of a state, but like it's right state ag and listen. If we're trying to keep it to ourselves, then well not for frugal friends. There's no sunshine or water year round here. It's not it's not all it's cracked up. We don't have There are alligators. They're awesome, but there are alligators for a strong word. But thank you so much for listening. We want to thank you for your kind reviews of the

Alligators and the podcast like this one. This one is of us and it happens to be five stars from year one, eight to nine. It's very helpful and valuable. You ladies are a godsend. I'm in my fifties and came up in the school of Susie Orman and Dave Ramsey. I could never live by their rules. I've had many depression bow and self esteem battles from being unable to stick to a budget, pay off, debt, and save. It's been a journey of successes and failures and lots of

mental anguish. But listening to YouTube, especially your values based budget episode, I now have the language the words that fit who I am. I could go on, but I don't want to bore you. I just want to say thank you and keep it coming. I'm a huge fan be well. That gives me heart flutters in a good way to to see that transfer. Everybody should feel confident about their finances, no matter where they are, because we are all on a journey to getting better and and

you deserve confidence on that journey. Yeah. The thing that stands out to me and her review is that she now has the words to put to her journey, which I think is so important for whatever journey we're on, financial, mental, relational, all of the things. I think having a language and terminology to be able to describe and name is so important for seeing successes in that journey. Well well done,

We're so glad you found us too. We also want to thank our friends who share these episodes on social media. So when you share the latest episode on Instagram specifically, we're adding you to our monthly drawing. For every five tags and reviews week at each month, we're giving away fifty dollars five zero big bucks for you to spend in the Frugal Friends shop. So keep leaving us those reviews.

Where have you listen to podcasts? Sending the screenshot to reviews at Frugal Friends podcast dot com, and don't forget to tag us on social See you next week. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian jen. I think I've told you this before, but I actually get really excited for tax time because well, because both Eric and I have been self employed for like most of our marriage, and so taxes don't automatically come out of our paychecks.

So we have to make sure that we set aside the money for taxes, and I do that with every paycheck that we do receive. I set aside more than what I imagine, right, I estimate that we'll have to pay about sevent of our income in taxes. So I put away of both of mine and Eric's paychecks, and so that means that when I do finally pay taxes, I get a nice little this little bonus, nice you know, extra chunk of change. So I'm always like, I'm always on top of it. Now that we work with an

accountant to prepare our taxes. Um, I said them emails like months ahead of time, like are you still ready for me? What's the soonest I can get my information? Do you I'm to go. I've got all my spreadsheets and and then I pay my taxes and then I and then I get to do what I want with my fun money. And then I am not ready for you with the frugal friends money. I will get ready in three days. In three days, I will be paying you know what. It's your loss too, because this year

that money is going towards renovations. So you hate the dumpster fire as much, if not more than I do dumpster fire kitchen, that you're only going to hurt yourself. I know, I know. I'm I'm here for you. I am for you and myself because I need to. I need my money. Happy taxes