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Apr 17, 2023    |      0 comments

4 Tips for Recovering Your Finances After a Car Accident

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Getting into a car accident is something that literally no driver wants to go through. Regardless, it’s impossible to predict accidents and therefore avoid them completely. That’s because while you may do your best to drive safely, you can’t control other drivers on the road. So, what’s the next step after you get involved in an accident? Recovery in terms of physical health and finances is what typically follows. Have a look below to see four tips that can help you recover your finances and stay on top of money management after getting in a car accident.

1. Talk to a Lawyer

The best thing that you can do is to talk to a car accident lawyer as soon as possible. One with experience can tell you some ways in which to make savings and get the most out of a new money management system you come up with. They’ll also tell you about any actions you need to take so they can save you time as a result. They’ll let you know details of the law such as that you have up to three years to file a claim after getting into a motorcycle accident in most cases. Such information may prove beneficial to you as it will help you determine the best way to proceed.

2. Change Your Lifestyle

Another tip that can help improve your money management after getting in a car accident is to change your lifestyle. This should involve making adjustments that lead to lower expenses for you at the end of every month. This tip can help you recover your finances after getting into an accident and improve your life for the long term. With the average number of car accidents in the United States every single year standing at six million, you can benefit immensely from being financially responsible both as a form of prevention and aftercare.

3. Leverage Insurance

Next, do your best to get the most from your insurance coverage. Make sure that everything that’s covered by your provider is paid for. This includes hospital expenses and car repairs. Additional costs may be things like lost wages and damages to property or other vehicles if you’re liable to pay for these. As long as your car accident didn’t involve a fatality, you may find it easier to get the financial assistance you need from your insurance provider. On this note, almost 1.25 million people lose their lives in car crashes annually, according to thewanderingrv.

4. Renegotiate Any Loans You May Have

Finally, if you have any loans, approach the institutions you owe to renegotiate the terms. With better terms, you may be able to have a more comfortable financial load to deal with at the end of every month. With good money management, this is a tip that can also help you pay off your loan faster and make some savings in the form of lowered interest rates. It may be worth hiring a good financial planner to help you navigate the process. Soon enough, you may be able to make this a habit and enjoy the benefits for the rest of your life.

Use these tips to help you recover your finances after you get involved in a car accident. They can help you improve your life in ways that you didn’t think were possible. You may recover and actually improve your finances, ending up with a better lifestyle than you lived before. You can also set up a savings account for any car expenses you may incur in the future. This will make it even easier for you to handle a similar issue in case it comes up again.

Apr 11, 2023    |      0 comments

CPA versus Certified Tax Preparer…Is It Worth It?

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It’s that lovely time of year when we all get to do our taxes. *cue collective groan*

We ended up having a small tax debt this year for our federal taxes, but ended up with a refund on the state side, which helped to even things out in the end. Going through all our files (physical and electronic) is such a pain and we have a lot of different investments and tax credits through the state of Arizona, and it can be tough to keep track of everything! So it makes me wonder…is a CPA worth it?

My prior experience with a CPA

When I was married to my now ex-husband, there was one year that we really messed up our taxes and ended up owning a LOT of money (like….nearly $20,000). The following year, I hired a CPA and we used him for a couple of years until I went through my divorce. The CPA had been fine, but I didn’t feel like I was getting much out of the fee I was paying him. The biggest benefit is that he had a tax organizer that told me all the forms I needed to find/organize so I didn’t leave anything out. But I didn’t feel like he gave us any real advice in terms of minimizing tax obligations and his service cost $450/year.

While it was lovely not to have to do any of the work ourselves, I couldn’t really justify the cost. Once I went through my divorce, a lot of my tax situation simplified. My ex had been a small business owner, so there was a lot of extra “stuff” in relation to that. I didn’t have to worry about that on my own, and did my own taxes for a few years.

Current experience with certified tax preparer

My now-husband and I have been handling our taxes ourselves since we wed in 2020. This year, however, we were both overworked and out-of-time to do it on our own. We ended up hiring a certified tax preparer to get all our documents together and submit everything for us. He was cheaper than the CPA ($275 total), but I still wonder….is it worth it?

CPA vs Tax Preparer

If you’re in the market to hire someone to help with taxes, it’s good to know what you’re getting for your money. A CPA is generally more expensive, but they have more expansive training and testing on all types of accounting and financial information, including (and beyond) tax preparation. The certified tax preparer we used this year still passed a test and is certified to be able to prepare taxes. But he doesn’t know all the ins-and-outs of everything a CPA would know. In our initial meeting, I asked what the current income limit is in order to have a Roth IRA. He didn’t know. It was easy for me to look up on my own, but it just feels like something a CPA would surely know straight from memory.

What are your thoughts?

We did, in fact, use a tax preparer this year. But I don’t know what we’ll do in the future. I feel like we’re at a point in our financial lives that a CPA’s advice could be beneficial for financial planning purposes. But I don’t want to spend an arm-and-a-leg and feel like I’m not getting much out of it, either.

Maybe last time my CPA was just a “dud” and I need to interview around or get better recommendations and referrals. To be clear, he did what he was supposed to (he prepared and filed our taxes, after all). But it just didn’t feel like anything over and above what our tax preparer is doing. Can spending more money on a CPA result in a net savings in terms of smart investments and legal ways to minimize tax burden?  When do you know if it’s a smart choice for you?

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