End of Year Money Management

As I, along with most of my friends, am a new college grad and have just started working this year, there are multiple strategies and methods we can use to save money and reduce our tax obligations this year. Working for only a portion of the year allows us to be eligible for tax deductions that are otherwise meant for people who earn less.

Here are a few so far that I have come up with:

-Put money in retirement accounts to take advantage of the Saver's Credit. Edit: not eligible if you have been a full time student for 5 months or more.

-Deduct moving expenses (only if related to new job, and if move is over 50 miles). This applies to me since I moved to the location of my new/first job. Here is the IRS page on the details.

-If you are over 25, you can try to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit. This one will probably be tough to qualify for.

-Education Tax Credits This does not apply to me so I haven't really looked into it, but could for those of you who paid for your own higher education expenses.

-Reconsolidating your student loans. Here is a fatwallet thread that describes how to get the best rates by consolidating your student loans through UHEAA (Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority).

Those are some of the things I have come up with so far. If you have any other ideas, please leave a comment! In the meantime, I'm comparing brokers/institutions to determine where I am going to open a roth IRA. Hope this helps.