Smart Money Moves for Your Tax Rebate

3. Start a family emergency fund. We recommend that you have at least six months' worth of expenses set aside. This is more important than ever now when the economy is struggling, people are losing jobs, and so on.

Here are some additional resources to help:

• Five Precautions You Should Take Now
• How Much Do I Need for Emergencies?

4. Add a few dollars to your IRA. You get a double bang for the buck. You get a tax break and you're saving for your retirement. When you're retired and sitting at your beach house sipping a glass of fine wine, you'll look back and be glad you made decisions along the way to save for your retirement and not rush out to by that big-screen HDTV.

For more information:

• The Dolan Retirement Catch-Up Plan
• Are You Saving Enough for Retirement?
• How Much Can I Contribute to an IRA?

5. Invest in your career. If you are at all concerned about your job in the current economy, spend some of this money on training or courses to help you keep your job or make you more marketable if you need to find one.

You'll find much more here:

• Our 7-Step Job Loss Action Plan
• What to Do When You're Out of Work

6. Start or add to a 529 savings plan to help pay for your children's (or grandchildren's) college education. There's no better investment in our future!

Saving for college can be confusing, so be sure to check out all of the additional information here on Dolans.com, including:

• The Absolute Best Way to Save for College
• 5 Top Financial Aid Myths
• What Are the Advantages of a 529 Savings Plan?

So there you have it. Six smart money moves you can make with your tax rebate. We encourage you to act on one more of them. Might as well take the president's advice and spend your money, right? But if you're smart about it and "spend" it on the right things, you can really make a difference and improve the lives of you and your family!