Learn to better understand taxes using VITA instruction resources
Many people find taxes intimidating. But they are just a set of rules, and unlike if you want to prepare taxes professionally, to do your own you only need to learn about the situations that impact you. If you want to learn more about preparing taxes, you can join the…
Minnesota and Federal student loan forgiveness and repayment programs for health care workers
Public service loan forgiveness isn’t the only way to get your student loans forgiven, depending on your profession and employer. Already this fall we covered hospital registered nurse loan forgiveness through a new Minnesota program. Next we’re going to cover a few other existing programs in Minnesota and elsewhere. Minnesota…
Minnesota hospital registered nurses loan forgiveness
Public service loan forgiveness isn’t the only way to get your student loans forgiven, depending on your profession and employer. Hospital registered nurses at non-profit hospitals got a boost in 2023 when Minnesota added a loan forgiveness program for them. Unlike federal programs, the Minnesota programs have limited application cycles…
Silence is not the same as consensus
One of the people I work with on a non-profit board has a day job in the leadership development space. The last time we were running an event together, she gave an impromptu mentoring session to 5 women, including myself, about being a leader. It centered around her new favorite…
December is the new October – FAFSA timelines 2023
Typically, October 1st is the first day you can complete the FAFSA each fall, for your student who will be in college the following August. In 2023, because of the transition from the Expected Family Contribution to the Student Aid Index, and the changes to the FAFSA form, the government…
November 1st means Open Enrollment is here
If you are like many, your Open Enrollment period runs November 1st through November 15th. That means you have two weeks to select your benefit options. This is your opportunity to change your benefit elections for 2024, based on new understandings of how your benefits work, new changes to your…
Income tax tip – Charitable giving carry-over
Introduction When you give a lot to charity, it’s nice to be able to deduct those contributions on your federal income taxes. What’s even nicer is that if you top out the amount you’re allowed to deduct within a given year, you can potentially claim those deductions in the future….
Just like acorns, your finances will grow in their own time
Image credit – Champaign County Forest Preserve District Did you know that oak trees coordinate their acorn production years, to ebb and surge together? A surge year is called a mast year, and the scientific hypothesis for the coordination is overwhelming the demand for acorns by rabbits, squirrels, deer, etc,…
Mentoring as a form of giving back
Have you ever volunteered as a mentor? Mentoring provides a lot of benefit for the mentor, as well as the mentee. The mentee gets a boost up on their career as well as emotional and informational support, while the mentor gets to make connections and pay forward all of the…
How to be a trustee – Attack!
We lost a relative this summer, and now one of her children is the trustee of her estate, so I’ve got estates on my mind more than usual. It’s a hard job on many fronts. The problems Giving support Knowing this, last night I sent the trustee an email to…