While you may not enjoy doing your taxes, receiving a healthy refund makes it all worthwhile. Your immediate impulse might be to use that sudden windfall on something you’ll enjoy. But investing that money with the future in mind may ultimately be the better choice, and you’ll have several different options for making your money stretch further.
Build up your savings
If you’re in a fortunate situation where you don’t need your tax refund for anything in particular, you can save it for a time where you might. Using your refund to build or bolster a savings account is never a bad decision, and it’ll seem even smarter if you wind up needing that money down the line.
Socking your money away in a savings account won’t earn you a handsome return on interest. You can opt to open a higher-yield account like a money market, but you still shouldn’t expect to earn more than a few dollars every year unless you can hit a high savings threshold. Still, the peace of mind that comes from knowing you have money to fall back on for unexpected repairs or family emergencies is its own return on investment.