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The Best Thing You Can Do for Your Finances All Year

Laura Shin
Laura Shin
Posted on Jan 19, 2012

The exhilaration you get after the climb up Mount Everest.

The sense of accomplishment you have when, post-diet, you slide into your old jeans again.

The victory you feel when your tango lessons pay off in your first night of dancing.

You can have this kind of adrenaline-inducing triumph when it comes to your personal finances, too. Seriously. And there’s one easy way to kick it into high gear for the year: Do the hardest thing first.

What would that be? Get your taxes done. And get them done early.

Hold on. Before you close your browser window, we have an offer for you—two, in fact.

First, we’ll make your taxes quick and painless for you with our five-day, easy, breezy Ace Your Taxes Bootcamp (yes, taxes can actually be easy-breezy). In five steps, we’ll answer all of your biggest tax questions and help you get all the tax breaks you deserve. We’ll even help you get organized for next year!

Second, we’ve partnered up with H&R Block to offer all Ace Your Taxes Bootcampers the company’s basic federal online tax filing program (normally $19.95) for free. Free! (You will have access to this program once you start the bootcamp. Note that state filing packages are regularly priced.)

Mountain Climber

So, not only will we hold your hand through doing your taxes, we’ll even help you do them at no cost. Could we possibly give you any more incentive to get them done early?

Well, actually, we can.

Back to what we said earlier: If you get the least fun thing in personal finance done quickly and early in the year, then your other goals will be a piece of cake. If you’ve ever procrastinated once (or multiple times a day for years), you know the unhappy feeling of having an unpleasant task hanging over your head. It makes you not want to do other things either. (Believe us, we know all about downward spirals.) On the other hand, when you finally finish the chore, you want to shout to the world, “Bring it on!”

Get Your Free Tax Prep!

Sign up for the Ace Your Taxes Bootcamp to get your taxes done early and access H&R Block’s online program for free!

Sign up

So, here’s what we propose: Take the bootcamp. File for free with H&R Block—and file early. Then take the momentum you just created—and perhaps your refund—and use it to push on toward your other, more fun financial goals. Saving for vacation? Putting money away for a comfy retirement? They’re all closer to being possible if you just tackle this task first.

Sign up for Ace Your Taxes Bootcamp now.

Update February 21: This article has been updated to reflect that free offer from H&R Block is for federal filing packages only and that state filing packages are regularly priced.

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What's New

  • Shannie_15

    I can’t sign up! I keep trying, but it just keeps asking me to sign up for a new account and there’s no where to log in for existing members. Help!

    • Anonymous

      Hi Shannie_15,

      You’ll notice on the signup page that underneath the signup fields, there’s a small link that says, “Already a member?” If you click that, login fields for existing members will appear.

      Let us know if you have any other questions!
      Laura

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/CEZ32DTMFN43QHGOZ3XFAPBSKA International Spy

    You really should make it clear this is an advertorial for H&R. I’m disappointed in your lack of ethics here.

    • Anonymous

      Hi International Spy,

      Thanks for your comment. I understand your concern, and just wanted to
      explain that this Daily and the Ace Your Taxes Bootcamp are 100%
      LearnVest editorial products. They were produced by the same team of
      writers and editors that write and edit all LV Daily content. H&R
      Block decided to offer a free taxes filing package to our readers, which
      we thought was a great perk. However, the bootcamp and Daily are both
      editorial publications, and we recommend other products aside from
      H&R Block in our bootcamp.

      Laura

  • Rachel

    How is the accomplishment of climbing Mount Everest anything similar to fitting into your old jeans after a diet? Have you researched the costs associated with making that climb? $70,000-$100,000 which is counter-intuitive in an article about personal finance. I understand where you’re going with this article, but such outrageous claims put a strain on your credibility. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1305900204 Christina Rose Eddleman

    I signed up for bootcamp and used the link to file with H&R block. However, after entering in all of my information, it shows that I will have to pay $34.95 to file my state taxes in Missouri. I came back and looked at the wording in the article. Apparently only federal taxes are free to file, but not state. I am incredibly disappointed and feel like I have wasted time.

    • Anonymous

      Hi Christina,

      Thanks for your comment, and I’m sorry for the unpleasant surprise. You are correct that the free offer is for the federal filing package only. I have updated the story to make clear that state filing packages are regularly priced, and I also made the references in the bootcamp even clearer so other bootcampers don’t have similar experiences.

      Laura