Tales From The Debt Side: Tax Refunds

(This was a story emailed in by a reader of the blog.  He has elected to remain anonymous.)

One of my worst money handling mistakes involves my tax refund.  I’ve always liked getting a big refund, so at work, I claim on my W4 that I am single with no dependents, so they take a lot of taxes out each week.  When it’s time to file, I then claim married with 4 dependents and get about $5000 back.  It’s always fun when we get that check, but we always blow it fast and then it’s back to trying to find the money to pay all the bills each month.

You wouldn’t believe how many years I did this before I caught on.  I was struggling to pay my bills, fighting with my wife about money, and missed several mortgage payments.  My wife even skipped paying our homeowners association dues for the neighborhood we live in that they went to court and garnished my wages!

Someone finally pointed out to me that I could have an extra $400 a month if I’d just claim the right amount of dependents on my paycheck each week.  I didn’t get that huge tax refund this year, but at least it’s easier to make the mortgage payment now.

Do you have a tale about your debt that you’d like to share with the readers of this blog?  You can email it to: thedebtside@gmail.com.  You can remain anonymous as I won’t include your email address or your whole name (you can choose an alias if you’d like)  in the blog.