colorado

Westerra Goes Big (For a Little)

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9 percent cd credit union financegourmet.com

The main credit unions in Colorado have left behind the days where marketing meant sitting there, serving your customers well, have lower fees, and higher interest, and waiting for the smart, financially savvy people to find you on their own. Well, that, and collecting new employees at the companies they started out servicing. Today’s credit unions are willing to put some effort into finding new members and making sure you find them. Westerra Credit Union 90th Anniversary CD Westerra has been around since 1934, which is bonkers. I didn’t even think they had credit unions by then. Be that as it may, the company is making a splash with an outlandish 5-month 9.0% APY CD. Of course, 9% comes with some fine print. In this case, the CD has a maximum deposit of $3,000 and those funds have to be new money to the credit union. Still, 9% on $3,000 is a lot better than 2.5% on $3,000 in some savings account, or even 4.5% in an online high-yield savings account. And you get local, physical locations to go with it just in case you ever need to talk to someone in person, get a cashier’s check, or even get …

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Colorado Unclaimed Property

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Colorado Unclaimed Property 1

Like most states, the Great Payback Colorado program lets citizens search for Colorado unclaimed property for free. When you find Colorado unclaimed funds, or your Colorado lost property, you can look for payback. The Great Colorado Payback With a bit of corny name, the State of Colorado hopes to catch the attention of the people of Colorado and let them know that the State might be in possession of money that belongs to them. Where Does Colorado Unclaimed Property Come From? Contrary to popular belief the Great Payback Colorado program is not a contest. It is not a lottery. It is not a game. It is a way to get unclaimed money Colorado has on hold for you. There is no way to get extra money. When a bank, or other business, or organization has money or other property that belongs to a customer, they contact that customer and remind them about it. If they are a former customer, they will try the last address, and phone number on record. If they cannot find the owner of the money after a certain amount of time, they turn the account over to the State. The state holds unclaimed property in hopes …

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When Can I File Colorado Income Taxes

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Colorado income taxes delay

Colorado Delays Acceptance of 2022 Online Taxes A majority of Coloradoans file their income taxes for free, or via a paid tax program like TurboTax, using Colorado’s online tax forms. Once you know how to file Colorado income tax, the rest is easy. The Colorado Department of Revenue will not accept income tax returns until January 2023. Filing Colorado Income Taxes Online Several laws passed during the 2022 legislative session changed numbers, percentages, forms, and eligibility for various tax deductions, tax credits, and tax-advanced contributions. The one-month delay won’t affect most Colorado income taxpayers. Colorado taxes require completion of Federal income taxes to generate most of the inputs needed for Colorado income taxes. Both state and federal law give employers, and others, until January 31 to generate and send most required tax forms. Thus, the change will only affect taxpayers with simplified taxes whose only employers and contractors created and sent the various W2, 1099, and K-1 forms. Use the Colorado Department of Revenue’s tax updates site to keep up with any new changes.

How To Choose 529 Investments

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529 college savings investment options

If you don’t already have a 529 plan opened, you should start with the instructions for opening a 529 plan before worrying about which investments you use. Trust me, when I tell you, as a former financial planner, that the biggest drag on saving money for college isn’t choosing the wrong investments, it’s taking too long to get started. No amount of tax advantages will make that up. Most parents overestimate the amount of merit-based scholarships their child can get, and underestimate how much financial aid they may need in the form of loans. Whether you are using education savings accounts, a Coverdell IRA, or a 529 plan, you want to cover as many qualified higher education expenses as you can without loans. The amount you need will be more influenced by need than merit, which means if you have a higher income and higher assets, you are going to pay more. That is just the way the world works right now. The only thing you can really do is deduct all the qualified educational expenses you can from your taxes and pay the rest with tax-free money from 529 accounts and the like. At least then your qualified education …

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Colorado PERA Good or Bad The Truth

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PERA logo

As a former financial planner in Colorado, I get a lot of questions about Colorado’s PERA program and is PERA a good retirement plan. For those of you who are not from Colorado, PERA stands for Public Employment Retirement Association. It is a public pension plan for employees of the State of Colorado and public-school teachers, similar to CalPERS, the public pension plan for California. Most Colorado PERA jobs are with state and local governments, as well as many teachers in Colorado. Recently, PERA has taken some lumps in the media. For whatever reason, Republicans hate PERA, even though it is a version of exactly what they want to do by reforming Social Security to be based on investing in the markets. Sometimes, these criticisms are valid, and sometimes they are not. What is true is that PERA is not just another ordinary pension plan, and to really understand it requires delving into those details. PERA and Social Security The most important thing to understand about PERA is that it replaces Social Security. You know how people are always saying that Social Security would be better off if it invested worker’s contributions in the stock market? That is exactly what …

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Colorado Refund Checks Here Now

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colorado refund tabor line

Taxpayers in Colorado began receiving their 2022 Colorado refund checks in the mail this week. Several readers have reported getting theirs, and I got mine on Monday, so they are definitely coming. To qualify for a refund check from Colorado you had to be a full-time resident in 2021, and you had to be 18 by December 31, 2022. You also had to file your Colorado income taxes. Check out this in-depth look at Acorns investing. Colorado Tabor Refund Checks Politicians were fast to break their arms patting themselves on the backs for getting $750 to each Colorado taxpayer. It is a nice surprise, and the Democrats get credit for getting $750 to your mailbox in August 2022 instead of making you wait until early 2023 to get your refund when you file your Colorado income taxes. Republicans are quick to point out that Democrats have supported ending Tabor in the past, so they think they get credit. Check out Where Your Colorado Refund Check Comes From You like free money as much as the next guy, but you are an intelligent and curious srot, so you’d like to know exactly where this refund check money is coming from. That’s …

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Colorado Income Tax Tips

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colorado taxes

I live in Colorado. Most personal finance and achieving financial independence applies to everyone, nationwide. When it comes to taxes though, there is a great deal of variation among states. I may dig into some other states as time provides, but for now, here are some 2022 Colorado Income Tax Tips for the taxes filing in early 2023. Colorado Income Tax Rate 2022 The best part of writing about 2022 Colorado Income Tax Rates is that the state has a flat tax. In other words, everyone in Colorado pays the same tax rate regardless of how rich or poor you are. Before you get all up in arms, percentages are by their nature, progressive. That is, someone will $500,000 income paying 5% will pay more taxes ($5,000) than someone paying $100,000 ($1,000). The worst part of writing about Colorado income taxes is that unlike the drawn-out battles of doom in the U.S. Congress to change anything in the Federal income taxes, Colorado’s income taxes change all the time, sometimes automatically. Such is the case for 2023 where Colorado’s TABOR law will make the Colorado Income Tax Rate for 2022 down to 4.4% from 4.5% in 2021. In addition, Coloradoans will …

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Colorado Tax Refunds 2022

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colorado tax refund summer tab

This summer, Colorado sales tax refunds are coming via check to everyone who filed Colorado income taxes by June 30, 2022. If you filed after that, you might be out of luck, or some people will get their Colorado Tabor refund 2022 in early 2023. Update: The checks are in the mail! What Is This Colorado Summer Tax Refund? This is the Tabor tax refund that Colorado taxpayers normally get when they file their taxes. If you’re new to Colorado politics and government, taxpayers passed a law back in 1992 called the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR. Among other things, it limits the amount of tax revenue the state can collect each year to an increase based upon inflation and population growth. If the state collects too much money, then it must refund the excess to taxpayers. This is often referred to as the TABOR surplus by politicians, and the TABOR refund by Coloradoans. How Colorado TABOR Refunds Usually Work The Colorado government runs on a fiscal year that runs from July to June, not a calendar year from January to December. Normally, when the fiscal year ends in June, the Colorado state government counts all of the tax …

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Colorado Secure Savings Program

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colorado secure savings program

Colorado is set to join a handful of other states in creating an automatic retirement savings program for Colorado workers. The idea is that while many Coloradoans have access to a retirement plan like a 401k or 457 plan through their employer, a lot of Coloradoans don’t. Unfortunately, those who do not have an employer sponsored retirement plan often do not start saving for retirement until much later than those who do. And, when it comes to retirement savings, time is lots of money. What Is the Colorado Secure Savings Program? The final Colorado Secure Savings Program won’t launch until at least 2023, but the rough idea is that each Coloradoan who works for an employer without a retirement plan will be automatically enrolled in the CSSP. The CSSP is actually nothing more than an IRA, or Roth IRA. What the program does differently is automatically create the retirement plan account and set the employee’s contribution to a specific minimum which will come from payroll deductions like a 401k plan. People who don’t want to participate can opt out. This plan could be a big retirement driver for Colorado workers over the long term. When I was a financial planner, …

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CollegeInvest 529 Plan Fees Reduced

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It’s always nice to get good news. CollegeInvest 529 Reduces Feeds for Direct Portfolio According to a recent release from CollegeInvest CEO Angela Baier, the administrative fee for the CollegeInvest Direct Portfolio was reduced from 0.32% to 0.31% on August 1, 2021. That means more of those college savings dollars stay in your 529 account, and less go to expenses. Remember, this only applies to the Direct Portfolio at CollegeInvest and not the CollegeInvest Scholars Choice, Smart Choice, or Stable Value Plus plans. A word about the Direct Portfolio at CollegeInvest Either the folks who started up CollegeInvest didn’t consult anyone with any knowledge about investing and marketing, or they DID consult someone, and that someone was working for the investment industry more than they were for the people of Colorado. Either way, the resulting Colorado 529 plan system ended up being a bit of a confusing mess for Coloradoans looking to invest money for college. So, CollegeInvest is the overall umbrella for all Colorado 529 plans. Colorado has four 529 plans. So, to access your 529 account online you go through a CollegeInvest login at collegeinveset.com. Once you get to CollegeInvest online there are FOUR different Colorado 529 plan …

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