Wellness Wednesday: How to stay on top of your financial health | News

CHICO, Calif. – As tax season gets underway, it’s the perfect time to focus on your financial health.

Today’s Wellness Wednesday, sponsored by Happy at Home, tackles the importance of staying organized when it comes to filing taxes. Action News Now Executive Producer Melissa Joseph shares her own journey of tackling tax troubles and explains why it’s crucial to file on time.

Mylie Beeson, owner of Beeson Tax Group, knows firsthand the challenges many people face when it comes to tax filing. “One of the biggest mistakes I see is that people don’t file.”

For Melissa, tax season has become a bit more complicated. At 25 years old, she admits that her knowledge of taxes was limited — until life threw a curveball. Over the past three years, she lost both of her grandparents and her father, which meant she was appointed the executor trustee of her family’s estate. What she didn’t realize was that this responsibility also included filing taxes for both her late relatives and the estate itself.

“It slipped through the cracks,” Melissa confesses. While she remembers her estate lawyer briefly mentioning the need to file a final tax return after someone’s passing, it wasn’t a top priority amidst the challenges of managing family matters, working full-time, and handling the sale of her grandma’s property. Unfortunately, the IRS doesn’t necessarily notify you about all tax obligations, so staying organized is key.

Luckily, Melissa had one thing going for her: she had saved most of the tax documents she’d received, even if she wasn’t sure what they were for. “That meant I only had a short list of forms I needed to track down,” she explains. But for many, the situation isn’t that simple.

Beeson advises that staying on top of tax documents throughout the year is vital to avoiding last-minute scrambling. “People will do things during the year and don’t think about the consequences, so they’re not looking for the right forms or keeping track of them when they come in,” she explains.

To make managing taxes easier, Beeson suggests setting up an online account with the IRS. Once your account is set up, you can order a “wage and income transcript” that lists all the forms you should have received. This way, you won’t miss any important documents.

Another useful tip? Beeson recommends creating a new folder every year to keep all your tax-related documents organized. “I call it my ‘2025 tax folder,’ and I put anything that could be tax-related in that folder as I receive it,” she shares. This simple habit ensures everything stays in one place and is easy to find come tax season.

As for Melissa, while she hasn’t filed her taxes yet, she feels much more prepared for the upcoming year. “I now have all my forms organized in one place, so come tax season 2025, I’ll be better prepared,” she says.

With tax season in full swing, it’s a great time to get your finances in order. Whether you’re dealing with complicated family estates or just trying to keep track of your own documents, staying organized is the key to filing on time and avoiding unnecessary stress.