Andrea Coombes, a tax editor at Bankrate, translates complex personal finance topics into understandable language that helps people live their best financial lives. She’s a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and over the past 25 years has worked as a financial coach, personal finance writer and editor, and volunteer tax preparer.
Her work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MarketWatch and many newspapers nationwide. She's been interviewed on local and national TV and radio, including NPR's All Things Considered, CBS News, NASDAQ and Marketplace.
Andrea has moderated panels on how to invest for retirement, how to use 529 college savings plans and more, and she's an experienced personal-finance speaker who has presented to groups on a variety of topics such as how to budget, improve credit, manage debt, and build savings. She's also worked as a personal financial coach and certified consumer credit counselor, helping people reach their goals. For two tax seasons, she worked a volunteer tax preparer.
A lot of people are nervous about doing their taxes, and about managing their money in general. I'm here to say: It's not rocket science. There are small steps each of us can take to slowly start moving towards our long-term goals. We can do this, people.
— Andrea Coombes, CFP®
The new car loan interest deduction can reduce your taxable income by as much as $10,000 a year, but you’ll need to buy a new luxury vehicle to get the full benefit.
The additional child tax credit can mean an extra $1,700 in your pocket, if you qualify.
The ‘big beautiful bill’ hiked the child tax credit to $2,200 in 2025, up from $2,000 in 2024. Here’s who qualifies for this valuable tax credit.
Many states offer sales tax holidays, during which they waive sales tax on clothes, computers, school supplies and more.
Property taxes are a major cost of homeownership. Here are the 10 states with the highest property tax rates, and the 10 states with the lowest rates.
The solar tax credit, plus other residential clean energy and energy efficient home improvement credits, are about to expire.
The massive new tax law brings several tax-law changes for self-employed, freelance and gig workers, including some that should lower their tax bills.
The standard deduction is a valuable tax benefit, and one of the easiest to claim. And it got a boost in the new tax law.
