Starting to Think about Taxes...

I’m not even scheduling the appointment yet, but this is the time of year when I start to see those notices about 2008 tax forms, that I want to make sure I am thinking about everything I want to achieve before this tax year is up. Mainly, my stretch goal of maxing out the Roth. I am oh so envious of all you other pfb’s for whom this is not a stretch goal, but rather – the very first goal at the top of your lists! I realize this is THE personal finance no brainer, however, right now, given everything, I think my emergency fund is the most important expense. Also, I will admit to suffering from a little saver’s self-righteousness… I feel like I already do contribute hefty percentages of my income to my retirement savings, and when I’m only 24! Do I really need to max this out? Or so the small whiny voice in my head goes…

So until I file next month, I will start straightening myself out to see how much I will need to contribute to max it out. I do want to check back in on my charitable giving for 2008 and make sure I did everything I wanted to do. I definitely increased my giving over last year, which has been my unofficial goal when it comes to charitable giving. But I want to start thinking about more structured goals for 2009 – what are the right charities, etc? Thus far, it’s been more of whatever came along…