What are your plans for this year's tax refund?

According to a recent poll by TD Ameritrade, of the more than half of Americans who expect to receive a refund on their taxes this year, 63 percent plan to save or invest at least part of that money.

In addition to saving or investing, many said they would pay down debt, and some said the refund would go towards paying for necessities such as food or utility bills. Only 14 percent of respondents planned to splurge on luxuries, according to the survey of more than 1,000 adults, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. said.

What do you plan to do with your refund? Tell us in the comments section below.

As a follow up to yesterday’s story about love and money, here are some tips for couples to think about when managing money together, and some common mistakes to watch out for, from Irvin Schorsch III, founder and president of Pennsylvania Capital Management, which has about $620 million under management.

Tips:

Create a Common Vision: Couples cannot plan for the future if they can’t decide on what their future will hold. Will both spouses work? How many children does a couple anticipate on having? Does either spouse wish to go back to school for an advanced degree? What do they envision retirement to look like? The sooner those questions are answered, the better off the couple will be.

Delegate: Once a financial “game plan” is put into place, it’s important to to determine which spouse will handle the variety of financial responsibilities within a household. Tasks/projects should be given to the spouse who is best suited to them, so that each spouse feels they’re contributing effectively.

Maximize All Contributions: Does one spouse receive a handsome employer match to any 401(k) contributions? If so, it’s important to maximize that contribution, even if it means living on one spouse’s income for a period of time. The sacrifice will be well worth it, especially if it helps build a large nest egg earlier in life.

My girlfriend just emailed me to let me know she was engaged. Absolutely thrilled for her, and great timing given that it’s Valentine’s Day week!

Hearing her news of course brought me back to memories of my own engagement, and the lessons that I’ve learned after almost 14 years of marriage. As I sat to write this week’s column, I thought about how, not surprisingly, we often hear that money is one of the biggest sources of tension in a relationship. And I asked myself, if I were to give a new couple advice on how to handle this, what would I say?

If I had to change one aspect of the financial planning we did early in our marriage, it would be to find a financial manager with whom I felt my husband and I could develop a true give-and-take rapport. We waited until after we started having a family to find someone, and while in the grand scheme of things that’s still relatively early, my advice would be to start sooner.

Why? “Time is the biggest ally,” Irvin Schorsch III, founder and president of Pennsylvania Capital Management, told me recently when I interviewed him about, fittingly, the issue of love and money. “The biggest source of conflict is starting too late” in creating a common financial lifeplan, he said. “Couples that get a late start need to save more to catch up.”

Participants in Fidelity 401(k) plans inched up the amount they were willing to save for retirement last year, bolstered by employer contributions and the rising acceptance of Target date funds, the Boston-based financial services company said.

Boston ranks among the most expensive cities in the U.S. to watch the Super Bowl, according to an analysis of average monthly television charges for cable and satellite services.

If you work for a company with a pension plan that uses Fidelity Investments for its record keeping, you may be able to access some new online tools for understanding and managing retirement.

Fidelity, which provides pension plan services to 108 companies, announced a new online video library that helps pension plan participants better understand their benefits, and how to incorporate them into an overall retirement plan. The videos explain such topics as the difference between a 401(k) plan and a pension, and how pension benefits grow. Located in the Pension & Tools Learning section of Fidelity's NetBenefits site, the videos also cover vesting and retirement eligibility so that people can learn how to integrate their pension into a retirement income strategy.

Are chicken wings on your shopping list for your Super Bowl spread this weekend? I am always amazed at the statistics people can come up with, but here’s one to mark this sports tradition: More than 1.25 billion wing portions will be consumed this weekend – the equivalent of circling the circumference of the Earth more than twice, according to the National Chicken Council.

Accompanying the wings (which are apparently second only to dips and spreads in popularity at game time), 14,500 tons of chips as well as 4,000 tons of popcorn will be consumed.

And, according to ZipList.com, the average Super Bowl party host will spend between $50 and $100 on food for their party.

That seems a little low to me. How about you?

Economic indicators may have shown recent signs of improvement, but Americans are still feeling less financially secure than a year ago, according to a survey by Bankrate.com.

The telephone survey of 1,000 people included questions pertaining to five "core tenets" of financial security: job security, savings, debt, net worth and one's overall financial situation, said Bankrate.com's senior financial analyst, Greg McBride.

While Bankrate.com's Financial Security Index showed incremental improvement since December, and even since last summer when the run-up in gas prices prompted a sharp cutback in spending, consumers are "still not where we need to be," McBride said. "They're still on the negative side of the ledger."

The former president of Upromise has taken that company's grocery savings program to a new level with his Waltham, Massachusetts-based venture, SavingStar.com.

SavingStar lets consumers save in two ways. Users can go on the site, register their grocery or drugstore loyalty card, and then review five different categories of products for weekly coupon savings: Food & General Grocery; Health & Personal Care; Beverages; Frozen; and Household. Click to pick the savings on products you want, and the online coupons are registered onto your card.

When you go to make your purchases, simply show your card to collect the savings. With no more paper coupons to stuff in your wallet, the convenience factor is key, not to mention the environmental bonus with the reduction of paper waste.

But here's the kicker: unlike Upromise, which automatically credits your education savings account, you can choose how you'd like to redeem the discounts. Once your SavingStar account reaches a $5 threshold, you can have the payout sent and collected in a bank or PayPal account.

TurboTax and H&R Block are among 14 companies that announced the launch of this year’s IRS Free File service, an online service that allows taxpayers who make an adjusted gross income of $57,000 or less to prepare and file their federal tax returns for free.

The service, started in 2003, is a collaboration between the IRS and the Free File Alliance, a coalition of tax software companies that also includes OnlineTaxPros.com and 1040.com, and that aims to provide taxpayers with low-to-moderate income with access to industry-leading software and customer support. More than 33 million people have used Free File.

New Year's Resolutions often feel like empty promises that I make to myself. So when January rolls around, I take stock of my long list and ask, "What is actually achievable?" This year, the choice was pretty obvious: I need to go paperless. The ever-creeping piles of paper too easily start to remind me of the show, "Hoarders," and I am tiring of spending the week between Christmas and New Year digging myself out, shredding, and lugging out trash bags to the curb.

So it was with great curiosity (and amusement at the timing) that last week I saw in my inbox an email about Manilla, a new service that aims to help people manage their accounts -- and they use this term rather broadly. You can track the obvious household utility bills as well as financial accounts such as credit cards and bank statements. They also help you keep track of other types of accounts that can fall through the cracks, like subscriptions to magazines or travel and rewards programs.

The story about Waltham High School's Student Santa program prompted several readers to contact me about the importance of teaching kids guidelines for personal financial management. In particular, many spoke about how the teenage years are a critical time for practicing money management skills, before graduation and "real life" start to set in.

Personal finance isn't often part of the school curriculum these days. If you're a parent of a teen looking for some tips on how to teach your child smart money habits, here are a few ideas from Robbie and Julie Hyman, co-founders of the personal finance e-learning course Money Savvy Teen:

I sat down this week with my Quicken files and Excel spreadsheets to try to plot out a fresh budget for 2012. Sound familiar? As much as I would like to find ways to reduce spending, as I pored over everything from healthcare to weekly grocery bills, I found myself wondering in which categories to expect increases.

Dealnews.com, a website that says it examines the deals offered by more than 2,000 online retailers every day, recently came up with its list of products and services that will cost more, and less, in 2012.

Not surprisingly, electronics-related devices filled up both lists, and the price increases vs. decreases seemed to largely depend on whether a new model of a popular product is expected to come out or if consumers are willing to pay for refurbished products.

Waltham High School's Student Santa program filled the stage of the school's 1,000-seat auditorium. Students admired the display this morning amidst their holiday assembly, with music from Waltham High's band and chorus. About 300 children in the Waltham community were "adopted" by this program, which raises funds from the classrooms, families and staff of the school to make sure that each child gets about $100 of gifts this season.

Parents looking for a heartwarming way to teach their kids the important lesson of giving back this holiday season might be interested to learn about the unique charitable giving program that’s in place at Waltham High School.

Christine Dunn interviewed Stephen Johnson, a financial consultant with Charles Schwab who works in Chestnut Hill, about a recent survey about planning for retirement spending. Hear what he had to say.

What are the biggest mistakes that people often make when planning for retirement spending?
Stephen Johnson says the two big mistakes he’s seen are misunderstanding how to strategically take money out of savings accounts and investment portfolios and fully understanding exactly what retirement expenses will be. Listen and learn more about how to define “predictable” sources of income and fully account for potential expenses.

How can you effectively develop a plan for "measured" withdrawals?
Charles Schwab's Stephen Johnson says that the firm follows the "4 percent" rule to help create an effective plan for a retirement that lasts about 30 years and keeps pace with inflation. Learn more about the assumptions they make to come up with this amount, and the risks involved.

Covering the cost of healthcare expenses is a significant concern.
Schwab's Johnson says people need to start planning for this expenses as early as possible. "It eases the burden," he said. Having that extra cash on hand, possibly as a separate fund, gives people the additional cushion they may need in case of emergency.

As a follow-up to the story from last week about Charles Schwab’s survey on planning for retirement spending and income, I interviewed Stephen Johnson, a financial consultant with the firm who works in Chestnut Hill.

The survey of more than 1,000 Americans age 55 to 70 found that generating income in retirement is an issue that investors are struggling with, and often don’t address until it’s too late. Of the baby boomers who say they are just five years away from retirement, one-third have not calculated how much income they will need when the time comes. Schwab said part of the problem is that individuals haven’t figured out what their essential living expenses will be. More than 76 million baby boomers, or nearly a quarter of all Americans, are approaching retirement age in the next two decades.

Here’s an excerpt my conversation with Schwab's Johnson:

What surprised you most about the results of the survey on planning for retirement spending?

“There’s a lot in that survey that was surprising. First, in a lot of cases the fact that the majority [of respondents] were very optimistic about retirement readiness, yet less than a third planned to have a year or more in cash savings -- that to me is disconcerting when there’s not a lot of emergency funds to provide them with their retirement.

“[Also,] almost 1 in 10 have never rebalanced their portfolio. If you’re not working with someone to rebalance, how do you plan to generate income if your portfolio looks the same now as it did 15 years ago? It’s hard as you move into this retirement stage to shift the portfolio into more of a retirement income stage.”

When we talk about retirement, usually the conversation centers around how to save and how to invest that savings. Let’s add a third dimension to that discussion: Once you retire, how do you turn that savings into income and make the transition from retirement savings to retirement spending?

It’s a question that many Americans, and even those nearing retirement, may be unprepared to answer. According to a recent survey published by Charles Schwab, one-third of baby boomers who say they are just five years away from retirement have not even calculated how much income they will need when the time comes. Part of the problem, Schwab says, is that individuals haven’t figured out what their essential living expenses will be. More than 76 million baby boomers, or nearly a quarter of all Americans, are approaching retirement age in the next two decades.

Boston.com readers who participated in last week’s holiday shopping survey indicated that they are going to keep a tight hold on budgets and spend cautiously in the upcoming weeks.

Almost 37 percent of respondents said they will spend up to $500 on holiday shopping this year, while another 29 percent said their budget limit is $1,000. About 18 percent said they will spend as much as $1,500.

For the vast majority, the budget is either a decrease from last year, or the same amount. Of those surveyed, 52.7 percent said their budget is staying the same, and another 30 percent said it was dropping. Why? The top reason cited by readers was, “I’ve focused on tightening my budget and don’t feel I need to spend as much.” The other reasons most commonly cited included lack of confidence in the economy and unemployment in the family.

In two weeks, the annual shopping standoff begins: The holiday season will kick off with the traditional Black Friday specials, and consumers will speak with their wallets about their confidence in their personal financial outlooks, and the US economy.

The National Retail Federation and the International Council of Shopping Centers are both forecasting modest year-over-year gains in holiday sales. Economists at the NRF said they expect a 2.8 percent increase in retail industry sales in the months of November and December. Their forecast includes sales at discount, department, grocery and specialty stores, and exclude sales from outlets such as automotive dealers, gas stations and restaurants.

The ICSC said its metric of industry performance, shopping-center sales, will increase by 2.2 percent during the two-month holiday period.

Boston.com readers had a lot to add in their comments to the survey questions. Read some of them here – and share yours in the comments section of the blog.

Bank of America Corp. yesterday released a statement saying that it has decided not to move forward with its proposed $5 monthly debit card fee. As reported in the Boston Globe, customers had petitioned the bank, and mobilized to close their accounts, to avoid the fee. Bank of America’s decision followed similar moves by other large banks, including JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co.

Bank of America’s decision should come as no surprise to Boston.com readers. Among those individuals who completed the survey from my blog post yesterday, more than 82 percent said that they would consider switching banks if their institution started charging monthly debit card fees. Among those surveyed, more than 70 percent said they use debit cards regularly for making purchases.

Do you use a large, national bank or a smaller, regional one? Personally, I’ve never chosen simply because of size. Usually my decision is based on need for certain services. In recent years, my decision was driven mainly by accessibility to a relatively wide variety of online banking services. I was willing to accept a certain level of trade-off between fees and convenience.

I think like many consumers, in recent weeks I’ve been taking a second, harder look at my bank and the fees it charges. Ever since Bank of America Corp. and several other national financial providers proposed charging monthly debit card fees, I’ve been asking myself, “What am I willing to pay for, and how much?”

It’s happened to all of us. As parents, we have the best of intentions to sit down and methodically plot a financial path, but then the phone rings. Afterschool activities beckon. It’s dinnertime and the kids are hungry. The boss calls. Life somehow gets in the way.

“I’m sure people, as their kids are growing up, realize that they really need to think more about saving for college, but then life gets in the way and they’re busy running their kids to all of their different activities,” said Chuck Drawbaugh, president of College Funding Associates in Rumson, New Jersey.

Parents need to make the time to sit down and review their finances. It’s not just about saving for college. It’s about getting back to basics and having a conversation about the choices that need to be made in order to achieve all of life’s financial goals.