My tax returns have been submitted!

I finished up my tax returns last night.  And I am getting a solid chunk of change back.  Enough to fund my Roth IRA and then some.

So now there are two questions:

1. What to do with the return
2. What to change on my withholdings (if anything).

Number one isn’t too hard.  Step one, fund Roth IRA.  Or at least set aside the money to fund it throughout the year.  The remainder will be split between my savings and my home improvement fund.  Easy enough.

The second question is a bit more complicated.  Clearly, I’m withholding too much.  But I’m not sure what to change.  I definitely don’t want to have to pay in.  I’m definitely making a change to my state taxes.  Previously, I was withholding an extra $30 per paycheck to cover the ridiculous amount of money that Maryland wants from me every year.  Now that I have a house, I have more deductions, so I can change that.

I may just make that one change and leave everything else the same.  I know, I know.  It’s not the smartest thing to do.  But my budget is working quite well for me.  And while I should save the additional money that would be coming in, I’m just not convinced that I would do it.

I do think I’m going to look at my TSP (government 401(k)) and see about taking that additional $30 of withholding and putting that towards my TSP.  I’m currently putting about 7% of my paycheck there (plus the 5% match) and that’s definitely something that I could increase.

So the next step is going to be doing some math.  And waiting for that big ole check to deposit in my account.  Hooray!