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Financial Planning / Tax Strategies
URL: http://boards.fool.com/nothing-as-sophisticated-as-quicken-is-needed-it-29249853.aspx
Subject: Re: Charitable Donations	Date: 4/20/2011 9:45 AM
Author: Wradical	Number: 113230 of 118626
Nothing as sophisticated as Quicken is needed. It takes me probably no more than an hour per year total to come up with our medical and charitable deductions for Schedule A--90 minutes tops. --fleg ============================== I certainly agree with respect to the charitable contributions; with the medical it's different. If you have enough medical expenses to itemize and deduct them, I think some ongoing analysis and scrutiny during the year is warranted, if only to monitor where you stand with your health insurance as to deductible and co-pay amounts, adjustments to/from providers, and if you've been credited for what you should be, etc. I our family it used to be more challenging, with a daughter who had quite a few health problems. I used to keep an elaborate spreadsheet to keep track of what had been put through our flex plan(s)- and my wife and I are on different plan years, which actually helps - what had been applied to deductibles; etc. I used Lotus back in those days, except for one year I tried dBase IV just as an experiment. Switched back the next year. I agree, things like contributions or other deductions are easy - just file them in that year's tax file. And several times during the year I will go through my check register and underline in red the deductible items, which I will recap when it comes time to do the returns. Bill
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