What To Do With Tax Refund
Get your tax refund now! Yes, it’s tax time once again. April 15 is upon us and ‘tis the season to pay Uncle Sam!
So you’ve filed and since you’ve paid property taxes and interest on your mortgage, you’ve just received a big, fat tax refund. You are not alone. In recent years, the average refund has been over $2,700 per American. In 2014, the Internal Revenue Service issued $109.2-million refunds, totaling $304 billion with an average refund of 2,783. So how best to put that money back into your home? There are several ways you can re-invest that hard-earned refund to not only enhance your home but make it for attractive for a potential resale down the road.
Refinance Your Mortgage
When refinancing your mortgage, you still have to pay the closing costs and fees. So why not use your refund to cover these closing costs and save thousands a year in mortgage interest?
Refurbish Your Home
Look around your house. Do you need a new roof? Are your windows leaking? Does your kitchen or living room look outdated? Or perhaps you’ve got to take care of that nagging broken toilet? Could new energy efficient appliances save you thousands on utility bills down the road?
Again, if you re-invest in your home, you’re not only making the short-term investment of making your home more comfortable for your family, you’re also making a long-term investment into the value of your house.
Make Your Gardens and Yards More Energy Efficient!
Investing in an excellent lawnmower or smart sprinklers can keep your lawn healthy and attractive while saving you on water bills.
Better yet, invest in drought-tolerant landscaping, a project that will drastically reduce your amount of grass, which requires tons of moisture to upkeep, especially during the summer and in warm-weather regions.
So how about installing a fountain and paving stones and adding drought-tolerant plants. Lavender, Japanese bloodgrass, Artemisia, cactus, and herbs such as oregano and thyme are all examples of garden life that simultaneously look attractive and consume much less water than grass and traditional flowers.
There’s also many ways in which you can play you’re your garden arrangement to conserve water. For example, creeping thyme at the bottom of a gravel path helps to prevent water loss as does creating pathways from porous material. Also, use gravel instead of non-permeable concrete so soil can absorb water before it runs off.
Pay Down That Interest!
Like paying down a credit card that accrues high interest, extra principal mortgage payments bring down the effective cost of that debt.
And while you’re at it, perhaps using your tax refund to pay down that actual credit card debt will free up more money in the future that can be applied to beautifying and improving your home. After all, if you have significant credit card debt, the interest on that debt tends to be higher than mortgage interest.
And on that note, we come full circle! Happy Tax Day!