Protect Your Financial Future Archives

How to Make Estimated Tax Payments and Avoid IRS Penalties

04/11/2021
Do Your Own Taxes, Protect Your Financial Future, Single Mom CPA

UPDATED FOR 2021 So many people – especially newly divorced single moms and first-time freelancers – end up in tax trouble for one common reason: They don't realize they need to make estimated tax payments. So if you: Started a business Have a side gig Got unemployment Work from home as a freelancer Have any 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC income Have investment income Take money out of a retirement account… You could get a nasty surprise at tax time, unless you do something proactive to prevent it... Make quarterly estimated tax payments during the year. What kind of income would be…

How to Prioritize Your Debt

10/22/2020
Managing Debt, Protect Your Financial Future, Saving and Investing, Single Mom CPA

Covering your essentials and tackling financially-damaging debt Please Note: This article contains affiliate links. If you click on those links, I may receive compensation. When it comes to managing debt, single moms have extra struggles to deal with. But we manage to overcome those hurdles and keep making strides to pay off debt and build net worth. Then 2020 happened, and for many of us our financial progress got knocked off track. According to a survey by Lending Tree, 56% of parents have gone into debt during this Covid crisis… and it’s even harder on single moms. But that doesn’t…

How to Open a Roth IRA in Under 30 Minutes

10/07/2020
Building a Nest, investing, personal finance, Protect Your Financial Future, retirement, Retirement Planning, Saving and Investing, Single Mom CPA, taxes, The Basics, Uncategorized

You need to do this today. Single moms – women in general, actually – are waaayyyyyy behind when it comes to retirement savings. We all have plenty of reasons for this… but when we’re 80 and out of money, those reasons won’t matter at all. So today we are going to take 30 minutes to open up Roth IRA accounts. We’re focusing on Roth IRAs specifically because you always have free and complete access to the money you put in. This takes a huge barrier out of the way of retirement savings: This money is not locked up, and you…

Avoid Target-Date Retirement Fund Traps

09/01/2020
Building a Nest, Protect Your Financial Future, Retirement Planning, Saving and Investing, Single Mom CPA, The Basics

What you don’t know about target-date funds can hurt you Note: This article contains affiliate links. I may receive compensation if you click on them. Thank you for your support. When your to-do list is already a mile too long, it’s tempting to go the easiest ways to get things done. That’s especially true when it comes to financial matters – like retirement savings – that seem complicated. That’s why so many single moms go with the hands-off, no-worries choice in their retirement plans: target date retirement funds. The whole point of these is to pick one, then ignore it…

Crisis Budgeting: How to Survive Financial Catastrophe And Thrive on the Other Side

When you’re a single parent, it doesn’t take much to knock you into a financial crisis. Sudden job loss… flooded basement… a sick or injured child… dozens of things can make you dip into and use up your emergency savings. And those financial setbacks can leave you struggling to make ends meet. Lots of times, those events pile on top of each other. And like so many of you, I’ve lived with financial anxiety, and had months where I couldn’t pay all of my bills. When you’re stuck inside a financial crisis, the usual money advice doesn't work. You need…