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Now that your tax refund check is here, you’re probably thinking of all the ways you can spend it. Have you ever thought about choosing to invest your tax refund? While it might be fun to blow it all on something crazy, take a minute to make that through before charging ahead. Suppose you spend your tax refund on some crazy weekend out—how long will the satisfaction last? Probably not as long as you’d hope for the amount of money you’ll spend. Interested in finding a more practical, long-term investment for that tax refund? Investing in your home is a safe, smart option.
Invest Your Tax Refund
This year, the average refund is a whopping $2,831, which is plenty to put into making some changes around the house. Your options range from saving money on your regular expenses to improving the value of your home for when you plan to sell later down the road, but no matter what you decide to do, investing in your home is a wise choice.
Refinancing Your Home
Depending on when you bought your home, there’s a good chance that mortgage rates are much lower now than they were when you bought into yours. If you don’t plan on moving out of your house anytime soon, and the current mortgage rates are at least 1% less than your current rate, you should consider refinancing. You can use your tax refund to cover the closing costs of your refinance, and then will start saving every month thereafter!
Upgrade or Update
Is your kitchen a bit dated? How about your bathrooms? If there are things that could use a bit of sprucing up, your tax refund is a good chunk of change that you could put into some of the home improvement jobs that aren’t in your regular budget. Putting that money into your home now could reap huge benefits when it comes time to sell your house.
Home Energy Audit
Have you ever wondered how efficient your house is running? Even if you haven’t, you probably should—you could be saving a fortune on your utility costs just by making some changes to the energy consumption in your home. A home energy audit will run you a few hundred dollars, but you’ll get some really great information about your home from it. In New York, homeowners who make the recommended improvements that result from their home energy audits qualify for 10% cash back incentives on certain measures. Some can even qualify for a grant of up to $5,000 to cover up to 50% of the cost of their energy-efficient upgrades through the Assisted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program. According to Bankrate, LIPA will rebate 25% of the cost of the upgrades recommended after a home energy audit up to $3,000.
Stay tuned next week for more ideas on how to spend your tax refund!
