We all reach certain milestones in life that are undoubtedly profound accomplishments. Everyone’s milestones are different, but some examples might be graduating high school, landing a great job, or marrying that special someone in your life.
These milestones are incredible. They are the building blocks that make up your entire life. You’ve become the person you are today because of the milestones you’ve reached (and because of the milestones you’ve missed). The sad thing about a lot of these milestones is that once you’ve accomplished them, you can’t go back.
Once you’ve graduated from high school, it’s over. You have that diploma for the rest of your life, but you can’t go back. For some people, high school was the best part of their lives, but they can’t go back. Those days are over. Marriage is theoretically a one time deal as well, although we know that’s not the case for everyone.
Isn’t it sad that you can’t go back? Sometimes you want to relive those glory days. Well I recently realized that I actually can go back and re-do one of the milestones I reached a few years ago. How exciting!
No, I’m not going back to high school. I’m deducting student loan interest from my taxes!
If you have student loans and make under a certain amount of money per year (you can look up the limits; I’m writing this post from an airplane and I won’t pay the $8 for wifi), you can deduct some or all of that interest and reduce your taxable income. I did this for years until I paid off all my student loans. Yay!
But as you know I’m married now. And my wife has some student loans that we need to pay. We combined our finances even before we were married, so I’ve (and when I say “I” I mean “we”) been paying student loans for a few years without getting to deduct the interest because they weren’t my loans. And even if they were my loans, my income as a single man was too high to qualify for the deduction.
However, I’m not a single man anymore. I’m married, which means all the tax laws change. Where my income used to disqualify me from taking the student loan interest deduction, my combined income with my wife is much less than the limit for a married couple!
I never thought I would be deducting student loan interest from my taxes, but here I am mentally preparing for my taxes next year and I just realized I get to go back and take this benefit again. How exciting!
Although when you really think about it, I went from not paying student loans to paying them again. Sure I get to deduct the interest, but it still sucks I have to pay them.
I guess that’s kind of like going back to high school. It sounds like a great idea, but I’m sure if anyone actually did it they would find it’s not nearly as fun as they remembered.
The point is, when you get married your tax life changes drastically. I basically have to start from scratch on my taxes for next year and consider every deduction and credit because who knows what I’m eligible for? Here’s hoping I can save a bunch of money on my taxes!
James Hendrickson is an internet entrepreneur, blogging junky, hunter and personal finance geek. When he’s not lurking in coffee shops in Portland, Oregon, you’ll find him in the Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors. James has a masters degree in Sociology from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Bachelors degree on Sociology from Earlham College. He loves individual stocks, bonds and precious metals.