Oh, I love saving money, but I’ve learned through brutal experience that some strategies just don’t work. Here are three areas that are fraught with peril:
Changing your own oil. I learned how to do this as part of a high-school driver’s ed course (yeah, once upon a time schools offered those) and used to regularly do it myself, but now I’ve learned better. It’s not just that safely (and legally) disposing of the used oil is a pain in the butt. It’s also the fact that I’m not a mechanic and could easily miss problems that could cost me big bucks later. I avoid the chain outfits, though, and take my car to a trusted mechanic who checks belts, refills fluids and generally gives it a good once-over. The result: reliable transportation, and enough early warning that I can fix problems before they turn into major bills.
Doing your own taxes. DIY is fine if you’re filling out a 1040A or 1040EZ form, or if you’re a wage slave (W-2 earner) taking standard deductions on a 1040. If, however, you’re growing your wealth as you should be with investments and a side business, a tax pro’s help can be invaluable—not just to fill out the forms, but to provide you with feedback and strategies year-round. There’s no way that you, who focuses on taxes for a few days every April, can be as informed as someone who arm-wrestles our tax code for a living. An enrolled agent is an affordable alternative to a CPA, but if your business is sizeable enough to consider incorporation, you’ll probably want a CPA’s help. I used to test tax software for an annual column, so would do our 1040s seven or eight times over every season, but I still used a tax pro and she always found deductions and other savings I’d missed.
Home improvement projects. Patching, painting and planting flowers are pretty easy to figure out, and there are plenty of other tasks a reasonably handy homeowner can take on. If the project involves wiring, pipes, electric saws or heights, however, you want to make darn sure you know what you’re doing. (Two members of my family have died trimming trees, and a friend’s brother just died from a fall during a painting project, so the dangers of ladders and heights are particularly on my mind.) I can clear a drain clog, empty first-floor gutters or rewire a lamp, but anything that involves digging around in walls, shutting off any systems and sawing through something that might be important gets turned over to the pros.
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