1st Quarter 2008

Four Ways to Stretch Your Tax Rebate

Most Americans will get a happy surprise in their mailboxes — or their bank accounts — before mid July: cash from Uncle Sam. The Economic Stimulus Act will give most single people a $600 rebate and most married couples $1,200. Parents will get an extra $300 for every dependent child under age 17. (The rebate starts to phase out for single taxpayers whose 2007 adjusted gross income is more than $75,000; the squeeze starts at $150,000 for joint filers.) Most people don't need to do anything to get the money other than file a 2007 tax return.

Here are four ways to stretch your rebate check:

1 Pay off high-interest credit-card debt. Using the rebate to pay off a $1,200 balance on a credit card with an 18 percent interest rate can save you hundreds of dollars in interest. If, instead, you just made the minimum payment on that debt (4 percent of the balance each month), it could take nearly eight years to retire the $1,200 balance and cost you $635 in interest.

2 Increase your retirement savings. If you're not maxing out your 457 contribution, let the extra cash move you closer to that goal. A cool thing about saving pre-tax dollars in a 457 plan is that the government's help eases the sting of setting aside money.

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