Now that the year is drawing to a close, it’s time to consider your taxes. It’s always best to prepare as early in advance as you can. This way you’ll be less stressed. And one of the things to watch out for is the mortgage interest statement from your lender or loan servicer. Keep watch for all these items in the mail right after the first of the year, and file them away together.

Then consider whether or not you should take the mortgage interest deduction. Look at how much interest you paid on your home mortgage loan this year, and see whether, with other deductions, it exceeds the standard deduction. For most tax filers, you will have a standard deduction of $5,700 for single and $11,400 for married filing jointly.

You can itemize to see if you can exceed that amount. Add up your charitable donations, mortgage interest paid and other deductible items on Schedule A of Form 1040. If you end up with more than the standard deduction, you are ahead to itemize. Don’t settle for the standard deduction when you could very well get a bigger deduction.