Marriage and Money Mailbag: Bigger Paycheck or Bigger Refund and Best Money Tools for Couples

Elle Martinez

5 years ago

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Today we answer your big marriage and money questions! How do you optimize your paychecks to keep more of your money? How do you tackle multiple goals and make real progress on them?

Marriage and Money Mailbag

We're here – the summer of savings finale!

It's been an incredible and fun six weeks. I hope you got inspired with ways you can save money while still having a good time now.

And I thought the best way to wrap things up is to chat with you and answering marriage and money questions.

Thank you for sending them in – they're really good! In this episode we're going over:

how to maximize your paychecks
knocking out several goals
best money tools for busy couples

Hope you enjoy!

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Money Tools and Resources for Couples

Want to jump in and get your finances squared away? Here are some cool tools and resources to make mastering your money easier!

Get More Money in Your Paycheck: How to Calculate Your W-4 Withholding
TurboTax W-4 Withholding Calculator
5 Tips for Adjusting Withholding Allowances
5 Days to $5K
Jumpstart Your Marriage and Your Money
How to Focus and Prioritize Your Goals
Where Should Our Money Go? Prioritizing Your Goals
Trim: With Trim, you can cancel subscriptions and negotiate your bills.
Billshark: They contact your service providers and negotiate the best price on your behalf.
Paribus: Bought something and a week later the price drops? Paribus can get you back the difference.
Qapital: Makes saving easy!

Fatten Your Paycheck By Mastering Your Withholdings

Our first question is from V in Texas.

She and her husband have a daughter. They recently married and they're earning some really good income.

Now, this is interesting because the question isn't about the goals that they're tackling this year but about the paychecks themselves.

They want to make sure that they're optimizing this.

I think this is really important because I know personally move we started out looking at our finances are withholding and paychecks weren't something that was on our list.

That was short-sighted because your withholdings can have a huge impact not only on what you take home but come tax time whether you have a big refund or not.

So let's just take a moment to talk about that withholdings how they work and how they affect your finances.

When you sign up for your job Human Resources probably gave you a huge packet and within that packet was the W-4.

That form helped them to calculate how much federal, state, and local taxes to take out of each paycheck.

If that was calculated correctly that might mean that your taxes are taken care of for the year which is great.

Now if it's incorrectly you have two different situations that can come up.

If they withhold too little when it comes to filing your taxes you're going to find that you owe the IRS money which for many couples is a very stressful situation.

If they withhold too much then what you usually see with that is that you earn a pretty good size tax refund.

That might sound like a great thing -Who doesn't like to have one big paycheck?

In most cases, though, that means more of your money is being taken out added every paycheck. It's really an interest interest-free to the government.

If you're trying to knock out a goal maybe you're trying to pay down some debt or save for a house or save for a baby fund that's money that you really could use sooner rather than later.

I understand you want to be cautious and make sure that you're not owing to the IRS but do double check that you're not giving up too much of your money throughout the year just to get that big tax refund.

In general, the higher the number of allowances you claim, the less money is being withheld from your paycheck.

For those who take the married withholding allowance, they typically have less of their income withheld, but again you have to look at your circumstances.

Did you have a huge life event or experience that can change withholdings? Did you get married, have a child, even purchasing a home? These can affect your finances and your withholdings.

If you haven't already, review what are you doing with your paychecks and withholdings and make sure it lines up.

You don't want to have too much of your paychecks withheld. And at the same time, you don't want to be owing to the IRS.

I know that sounds complicated but there's help for that Turbo Tax has a free W-4 withholding calculator so you can use to find what's the best option for you.

You can print out an updated W-4, fill it out, and give it to your H.R. by Monday. So it's a small change that you can do that have a huge impact on your finances.