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Also fancy food and Donald Trump's carried-interest tax plan.
After news from Asia and elsewhere around the world sank futures, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,000 points in trading just after the opening bell, only to gradually recover most of those losses throughout the morning. Advisors seem to have taken the news in stride, but any time the Dow is down four digits just after the opening bell, nerves are tested.
Scott Bishop, a financial planner and accountant in Houston, takes a different view. If you’re getting a refund of nearly $3,000, he said, you may be having too much money withheld from your paycheck: “You’re giving the federal government an interest-free loan.”
By adjusting your payroll withholding, he said, you could have that $240 or so a month automatically directed into a savings account, a workplace retirement plan, an individual retirement account or a 529 college savings plan.
Mr. Bishop also suggests that if you have some financial flexibility, you might want to use part of your refund to make a charitable donation and reduce your tax bill for next year. Discussing options with your children, he said, is a good way to start them thinking about charitable giving.
Here are some questions about tax refunds to consider:
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