NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
How Tariffs Could Impact Your Retirement and What to Know for 2025 Taxes
Thu, 06 Mar 2025
Learn how to respond to market volatility, the risks of private credit investing, and key tax updates for 2025. Should you adjust your 401(k) amid uncertain market conditions? How do you decide between the standard deduction and itemizing on your taxes? Hosts Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola discuss stock market volatility and tax season essentials to help you make smarter financial choices. NerdWallet senior news writer Anna Helhoski and investing writer Sam Taube, join Sean and Elizabeth to discuss recent stock market swings, covering how new tariffs on major trade partners are affecting the economy. They provide insights into why markets react to policy changes, the risks of panic-selling investments, and strategies for how you can maintain a steady financial course through uncertain or turbulent times. Then, NerdWallet tax writer Bella Avila joins Sean and Elizabeth to answer listeners’ burning tax questions, including explaining key filing deadlines, recent tax bracket changes, and when it makes sense to itemize deductions instead of taking the standard deduction. NerdWallet’s federal income tax calculator: https://www.nerdwallet.com/calculator/tax-calculator Use NerdWallet’s dividend calculator to estimate your long-term returns and tax liability on a dividend stock, assuming dividends are reinvested: https://www.nerdwallet.com/calculator/dividend-calculator Learn about qualified and nonqualified dividend tax rates: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/dividend-tax-rate In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: stock market volatility, private credit investing, how to invest in private credit, retirement account changes, investing during a downturn, tax season 2025, tax deadline 2025, tax filing tips, tax brackets 2025, standard deduction vs itemized deduction, IRS Free File, Direct File IRS, how to file taxes for free, Roth IRA contribution limits, how dividends affect Roth IRA, reinvested dividends and taxes, backdoor Roth IRA, qualified vs ordinary dividends, investment risk tolerance, impact of tariffs on stock market, shadow banking, alternative investments, investing in private credit, tax changes for 2025, how to estimate tax payments, how to avoid tax penalties, and e-filing vs paper filing. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email [email protected]. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend.
Should you worry about market volatility and your retirement savings?
Estimating your taxes includes finding your total gross income from the last year, factoring in things like credits and deductions and more. Using an online income tax calculator like NerdWallet can help simplify the process.
I love that you added that people have to still pay their taxes because I will not lie, I might have forgotten that part. And also good suggestion on the calculator, Bella. I'm a calculator girl. So for everyone listening, we will have a link to NerdWallet's federal income tax calculator in today's show notes.
Or you can just search in Google or whatever search engine you use, NerdWallet tax calculator.
Yeah, go check that out if you're interested. And the last deadline-related thing I'll touch on is if you're due a refund, there's no penalty for filing late, but you might want to file on time anyway to get your money back sooner. And although you might not be penalized for filing late, you may still be obligated to file a return based on the IRS's rules.
Alright, so are there any big changes this year that people should be aware of?
Every year, the IRS makes what we call inflation adjustments, which means things like the tax brackets, standard deductions, certain tax credits, and more are shifted. And these shifts tend to work out in the favor of us taxpayers. We can dive into how that plays out, starting with tax brackets. Although the seven income tax rates don't typically change year to year, tax brackets do.
For example, last tax filing season, as a single filer, the first $11,000 of your income would have been taxed at 10%, whereas this filing season, the first $11,600 is taxed at 10%, keeping more of your income from reaching that higher tax rate. And then I also want to touch on how the standard deduction has changed this year. We can use that same single filer example.
Last year, if you took the standard deduction, you would have gotten a $13,850 deduction. Whereas this year, under the same circumstances, you'll get a $14,600 deduction. This means an extra $750 of your income isn't subject to tax.
So last year, we talked about the IRS's free tax filing program. Bella, what's the current status of that? Is it still intact after the slicing and dicing of the federal government that we've seen over the past several weeks?
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