PSA: Tax time is on her way, so it’s time to get yourself primed to (hopefully) get a little cheeky cash injection you weren’t banking on. Everyone approaches tax time differently, but for me, it’s all about getting that return in as quickly as possible and ripping off the bandaid to see whether there’s a little bonus coming my way.
I’ll never understand why some people hate tax time.
Here are a bunch of ways to spend your extra dough, from downright ridiculous to actually quite clever.
Food
I’ll kick things off with something we can all agree that we spend too much money on. Food is a great way to spend your money, but when it comes to tax time, we want you to be more tactical than this. Spending your extra money on food is literally like flushing it down the toilet. Don’t do it.
Paying off your credit card
This is actually a great tip (one that I’ve done myself once or twice) but I’m putting it so low on the list because I’m sad that you can’t keep the money and spend it on something pretty. Moving on!
Fake save it
Fake saving is when you overshoot how much money you can put in your savings account to give yourself the warm and fuzzies in the immediate future, knowing full-well that you’ll still spend it. If that’s what you need to do to feel a scrap of financial security for a single second, you do you boo. But we all know where that money’s really going.
Book a holiday
My personal favourite: booking a holiday that was not in the budget. Is it responsible? Probably not. Do I have any regrets? Definitely not.
Clothes
This one stacks pretty high up on the list because clothes are one of life’s necessities. But I will say this: spending an obscene amount of money (aka, your tax return) on a single piece of clothing you’ll genuinely love for years to come is, I would argue, a great investment. If it’s a flash-in-the-pan haul, maybe sit this one out.
Car
And just like that, we’ve reached the got-your-life-together portion of the list. Putting the money aside for car rego, insurance, or towards a new car if your decrepit old whip needs an upgrade is very responsible and I applaud you.
Paying off student debt
You never had the money to begin with, so funnelling it into your student debt (or any other debt) might be a good and responsible move. It’ll hurt in the moment but future you will thank you.
Bond on a new place
Spending your money on a bond for a new place just sucks. It’s one of life’s cruel jokes to have a stack of your hard-earned cash sitting in a holding pattern where it’s doing no one any good. Therefore, your unexpected tax return is actually a great use for it.
Investing it into your super
Hear me out: re-investing your tax return into your superannuation account could be the most responsible thing you’ll do all year. There are a couple of reasons. For most of us, we never really invest extra little bits of money into our superannuation account throughout the year like we’re supposed to, even though it’s one of the only bank accounts that will see true growth from compound interest over our lifetimes. According to CareSuper, if you’re not earning a lot, you might also be eligible for the Government’s co-contribution scheme where if you invest that tax return into your super, the government could co-contribute up to $500 straight into your super account.
