Greetings old friends and new readers!  It's that time of year again--it's time to start preparing for next year's federal income taxes.  In other words, it's time for my annual Free Money! blog post.  This is the one blog post that readers actually inquire about without fail.  For that reason, I'll probably have to write an updated version of this post every year until death.  So much for slinking off to retirement! Our Former Child-Tax Credit Is Off to College! As I mentioned last year, our son (aka, our former tax credit) no longer provides us with much tax-planning utility. From a child-tax-credit perspective, he's useless. That said, we still love him immensely! What is Free Money! Exactly? Free Money! refers to the amount of income: you can earn before you owe any federal income tax. FM! represents your 0% tax rate for your federal income taxes (not your state or FICA tax rate). The FM!…