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Human: Is it possible to claim a girlfriend (over 25+) on your taxes as a dependent if she's unable to work due to health reasons?

The person you wish to claim as a dependent: * Must not have filed a **joint** tax return except to claim a refund * Must be a US citizen, national, or resident alien * Must have a taxpayer ID number (usually SSN) * Must have received at least half of their support from you * Must have a gross yearly income of less than $4050 * Must not be a qualifying child of another person * Must have lived with you all year as a member of your household. [Source](https://www.1040.com/tax-guide/taxes-for-families/who-can-you-claim/)

You may find these links helpful: - [Tax Software Megathread](http://redd.it/7r0tvv) - [Taxes](/r/personalfinance/wiki/taxes) - [Understanding tax brackets](/r/personalfinance/wiki/taxes#wiki_eli5.3A_taxable_income.2C_tax_brackets.2C_marginal_tax_rates) - [W-4 IRS Withholding Calculator](http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/IRS-Withholding-Calculator) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: From what I've read, it appears that TD Ameritrade is the best option for a Roth IRA (I really only compared TD Ameritrade vs USAA). If I go with TD Ameritrade and open an account starting with $3k, I get 60 days commission free. Do I open a Roth IRA now with less than 3k and pay commission OR wait a month and open one when I can do $3k and be 60 days commission free?

The three best options for a Roth IRA tend to be Vanguard, Fidelity, and Schwab.

I recently opened an account with Wealthfront. It seemed pretty straightforward but the stocks are picked by the company so it is very much hands off.

Human: Hello all, I have a question regarding 1099 quarterly taxes and if I should file them. To preface I would like to slip in that I am an Indiana resident but all of my income comes from Illinois. Not sure if that matters but what do I know. So I'm an audio tech and work for four different companies. Three of the companies are W2 and I make most of my income from them. They take out state and federal taxes for me and I usually get a refund(although I think I had to pay like $80 to Indiana for some weird reason this year). The fourth company, who I just started working a couple days a month with is 1099 and they do not withhold taxes. I only expect to make about $2,500 from the 1099 company as I've only made about a grand so far. Do I need to file quarterly taxes? I know its kinda getting down to the wire(pretty sure deadline is in two days) but I literally discovered what quarterly taxes even were this morning because our education system is so adequate in giving us proper life skills. The IRS website says you don't have to file quarterly if you think you will owe less than $1000 yearly. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Assistant: You probably don't have to pay quarterly. Even if you wanted to do something quarterly, you could get caught up in January. There's a longer, more complicated explanation about all of the ins and outs of estimated taxes, but the key ideas here are that you don't have very much self-employment income and you are having taxes withheld on other income already. Combine that with the very low penalties for underwithholding, and you can do nothing in relative safely. But you can still send in some money if you want to. It's up to you. Human: what would be a "safe" amount of money to send in keeping in mind I've only made $1,000 YTD. And would I have to send some to Illinois, Indiana and the feds? Sorry I literally have no idea how taxes work Assistant: If you made $1000, send $250 to the feds and $50 to the state where you pay your taxes. Human: oh dear I'm def not in that high of a tax bracket lmao. Do you suggest sending $250 so at the end of the year I get money back? Do you get money back from 1099?

You have to pay 15% of your self-employment income to cover FICA taxes, so that's $150 of that $250. So now I'm assuming you are OK just paying 10% in federal income taxes. Still laughing?

Whatever is overpaid you will get back in a "refund" and conversely, whatever is underpaid you will owe. TBH, for $2500, don't prepay; just set some aside knowing that you will have to pay taxes on it. When you file your taxes in 2019, **and you expect to have similar income in 2019-2020**, then you will know how much to prepay. It is possible that you are witholding more than necessary on your W2 income so you may end up not getting a return (or a much smaller return), but you won't need to pay now. **If you got a substantial return last year, chances are you're not going to need to prepay.**

Human: From my understanding of HSAs, money can be withdrawn as tax deductible if purchasing a medical device. The new Apple Watch Series 4 was approved by the FDA as an ECG. Does this mean someone can purchase the new Apple Watch and those funds count as a medical expense? I’m not sure if I worded this properly, so feel free to elaborate/correct me. Just looking for some clarity.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/fda-clearance-ecg-monitor-mean-series-4-is-now-an-eligible-hsa-expense.2136873/

Wow. Good question.

Human: Hello Reddit! Even though it's been a long process and I've had to fight for it, I was officially promoted from Sales Operations Coordinator to Operations and Planning Manager, US. When I asked about a raise/salary negotiation, HR told me I was already being paid above market value. I know that is not true. I told my boss about this and he said to show him some numbers and get back to him. How can I run a salary report for my area? ​ I work outside the city of Boston, and currently make $55,000 a year salary. Thank you for any advice! Looks like I have to fight this battle too. Assistant: > Just received a promotion, but I need to prove I'm not being paid market value to my boss. How? Interview. Get offered another job for more money. Tell your boss you were right, quit, take new job, get more money. Human: Is it realistic to believe I'll be offered a job as an Operations Manager at another company when I've only held the title for a day? Assistant: Often you've already proven you can do the job before you get the promotion.. Human: I have proven that which is why I received the promotion. My boss is willing to pay me more, but he wants me to prove I'm not underpaid. When I type in 'Operations and Planning Manager Salary' in Google, it says the average is about $105,000 a year, There is no way I will get a 98% raise, but I want to shoot for at least $10K more a year. I'm just having trouble finding some sort of salary report/comparison

> When I type in 'Operations and Planning Manager Salary' in Google, it says the average is about $105,000 a year, There is no way I will get a 98% raise You can, at a different company

Sharing some of your job duties might make it easier to judge the value / similar roles. It sounds like they are significantly underpaying you just by the title of your new role.

Human: Hi Reddit! I am preparing to gift my sister 27k dollars at closing to help her buy a house. I live in California her in Florida. No one can tell me who and what tax liabilities will arise from me signing a gift letter at closing.

You will have to tell the IRS about it because it's above $15K and they will deduct it from your lifetime exemption and that's it. There's no liability.

You may find these links helpful: - [Tax Software Megathread](http://redd.it/7r0tvv) - [Taxes](/r/personalfinance/wiki/taxes) - [Understanding tax brackets](/r/personalfinance/wiki/taxes#wiki_eli5.3A_taxable_income.2C_tax_brackets.2C_marginal_tax_rates) - [W-4 IRS Withholding Calculator](http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/IRS-Withholding-Calculator) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: My work has received 3 phone calls in the past few days from a woman who states her name but not the business she works for and is telling who she speaks to that she needs to come to my job to serve me some kind of legal documents. She has left a phone number ((833) 882-0383), a case number, and has urged my coworkers to have me call them before they come in and serve me. Now here's the kicker: I work for the police department and I am well aware of how subpoenas and the serving of legal documents work. Constables or Sheriff Deputies don't let the officer or person they are going to serve know before hand that they are going to go serve them. They just show up. I don't know quite how actual process servers work but I imagine it would be the same thing because if the person being served KNOWS that they're going to be served, they're going to dodge them. So why would they try and for warn me about what's going on if it is a legit debt collection or case against me? I called the phone number and the person I spoke to was being evasive to very simple questions. I asked for the name of the business and at first the operator only responded with Outsourcing Litigation it wasn't until I pressed a little bit more than he divulged he was with R.M. Recovery. When I asked for the address, he was quite evasive with that as well and didn't want to provide me with one unless I stated specifically for correspondence or for payments (which also seemed odd). I Googled the phone number they provided and found two different sources that said "unsafe" and tried to Google the business name as well but no links turned up for any business by that name. Am I right in thinking this may be a scam?

Sounds like a scummy collector trying to scare people with fake claims they are going to be sued Get their address for correspondence and send them a “do not contact me again” letter. But check your credit report for any delinquent debt

Debt collection isn't scummy, but isn't a "scam" if that is what you are asking. We have no idea if you have debt someone is trying to collect. If they're about to sue you for the debt, you might want to try to actually work with them. Getting sued for debt is expensive and sucks, and it can even cost you your job.

Human: Do you think it is wise to put 3 months of emergency money in something other than cash, be it 6 month CDs or Treasury Bills? We all know standard retail banks are not the answer.

Emergency money should be liquid so usually a savings account is your best bet

High-yield savings account would be best. Should be easily accessible if or when the time comes that you need to use it.

Human: Hey reddit! So to break down what’s been happening... A few years ago I was unemployed and my car ended up getting repossessed by the credit union. Between then and now a couple of medical bills went to collection as well as some other bills I couldn’t pay. Also for the years of 2015 and 2016, I didn’t file my taxes because I owed and knew I wouldn’t be able to pay. Now I have a good, steady job and want to plan my future. But my credit is absolute trash and I don’t know where to even begin when it comes to cleaning it all up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! -Katie

I would start with the IRS because they'll take your money any way that they can get it, and better to have that taken care of before they start.

Paging /u/thesethingshappen

Human: Hello. I just put $500 in my Roth IRA account, and I'm trying to buy some funds with it. I read the wiki on this sub, it says to pick the Fidelity Freedom Index Fund but I cannot find them in the Mutual Fund Evaluator (if I type into the search bar, it comes up, but it takes me to the fund page, not in the evaluator where I can evaluate different funds side by side). So I clicked into a random fund in the evaluator, and I have no idea how to determine if it is a good fund to buy. The graphs and numbers and the dates and the growth @%$^#$%ERD are giving me a headache. I guess the question is, what should I look for to determine that it is a good fund to buy? how much should I spend? what kind of fund should I pick??? Should I put more money into my IRA????? If it helps, I have 10k ish in savings, I bring home about 4-5k a month after tax. I spend probably around 1.5k of it on rent food entertainment gas... etc., everything else go straight to my Ally Savings. Please help. Thank you!

If you bring home 4-5k/month post tax and only spend 1.5k on rent/food/gas/entertainment combined, something doesn't add up as you should have much more in your savings - unless you are straight out of school, just started this job or just paid off all of your debt. ​ With 2.5-3.5k left over per month, you are going to be very well off in the future. Assuming you don't have any debt: Short term: Put enough money in your 401k to match what your company is giving you. Put $5,000 more into your Roth IRA this year and another $5,500 next year after you build up an emergency fund. Put more into your 401k to get as close to $18,500/year as possible. Build up enough savings (in Ally) for an emergency fund. Save enough for short term spending goals (down payment on a house, car purchase, etc.). ​ Long term: Consider opening a taxable brokerage account. ​ If you are feeling overwhelmed/confused as to what to do, put it in a target date fund for now. They're very diversified and can be used with a "set and forget" approach. If you want to do a little more research, look into a 3-fund portfolio once you get your 401k started and more money into your IRA.

Cash it out and buy lotto tickets.

Human: I was touring a new gym the other day and the salesperson mentioned that they do not accept credit cards and a bank routing number and account number would be used for automated billing. I'm concerned for a number of reasons: *misuse / theft of the bank info *ill-timed withdrawals *I generally don't give that information out Am I being paranoid?

I would highly recommend not doing this. I have heard horror stories about the gyms continuing to charge after you have cancelled and it's a nightmare to deal with them. You can close a credit card or dispute charges. It's much harder with direct withdrawals.

They do this because they do not want homeless people to use the gym as a home. They think if you have a bank account you are more likely to actually have a home.

Human: Hey everyone, So I'm wondering if I can/should dispute an Amazon charge 6 months later because they charged the wrong card, and if so who should I call? I have an Amazon Prime membership. On my membership, I've used multiple different cards over the years, and one of them was a Bank of America credit card. I designated a debit card as the main form of payment at least a year ago for all my purchases on the account, but back in February Amazon charged the BoA card for their prime membership. I haven't used my BoA credit card in probably 2 years, but I've kept it open because I'm young and I was told that keeping it open is good for your credit history. I learned from Experian that I had this late payment, and I immediately got on the phone with BoA and paid it off entirely. Unfortunately for me, this payment was about 5 or 6 months after the charge. This late payment has dropped my credit score from the 775-800 range down to 544, so I'm honestly kind of devastated right now by it. I need a good credit score for both financial and professional reasons, so any help/advice anyone could give would be greatly appreciated.

There is nothing to dispute. Unauthorized charges must be disputed within 60 days, and it is your responsibility to monitor your credit card accounts and make all necessary payments. Did you not log into your account at all in six months? You also would have gotten a statement noting there was a balance on that card. I believe Amazon has a separate section to designate the card you want them to charge for your membership fee, as opposed to the card to charge for purchases, although I might be wrong since it's been a while since I've changed my payment method in Amazon.

A late amazon prime payment took your credit score down that much? That doesn’t seem right to me but then again I hardly ever use credit. It’s not the end of the world. If you have money credit is almost worthless anyway.

Human: The raise I got in June was following our yearly review and is very small. Not sure if I can leverage my MBA into getting another more significant raise?

Since you got your MBA, has your work output significantly changed? If you're doing the same job the same way, you're worth the same, because you didn't need the MBA to do it. If you are doing more and doing it better, sure, but not because you got the MBA, but because of your production.

An MBA doesn't just net you a pay raise, it will help you more if you change jobs or get a promotion. Many employers have caps on raises, an your MBA won't change that.

Human: My wife and I are buying a house with a value of about $800,000 but are only able to put down a little over $80,000 at this time. My income is $360k/yr and we feel confident that we can afford this comfortably even if it isn't ideal. The conventional loan limit for our area is currently $679,650. I have a few lenders talking to me. Some are floating the idea of a piggyback mortgage that I could pay off pretty quickly afterward but a Wells Fargo mortgage banker is offering a 30 year Fixed Rate Jumbo Loan for the entire amount with no PMI included. Is this legit? I was under the impression that I would have to pay PMI if putting down less than 20% but he insists that we would not have to. He is also offering $10k toward closing which would be very good for us. ​ ​

>put down a little over $80,000 at this time. My income is $360k/yr Wait six months and save up another $80k.

It is legit, I did the same. If you got a conforming loan then the lender would be legally required to get you to pay PMI. Jumbo loans are not conforming and the banks can choose to require PMI or not (since they can't sell the loans to the government). 80/10/10 are much riskier as HELOCs are variable rate and rates are only going to climb. This program is by far the best you're going to find. Your rate is a little high though, I got a 4.5% for a 835k place earlier this year.

Human: my car is totaled and sitting at a collision center incurring storage fees, i need to get the vehicle out but its not drivable and i cant think of anywhere to take it. my apartment will tow it if i take it there. if i store it at my moms house it will have to be on the street and im pretty sure that will get it towed to. I need help i can find an awnser for this anywhere! ​ Edit: sorry i need to add context, i cant scrap the vehicle until my claim with the other drivers insurance is denied (most likely outcome) and i get reimbursement from my GAP insurance, so untill then i need access to it and it needs to be stored

If it is totaled, you sell it for scrap. If it is repairable, you tow it to a mechanic and start the repairs. What is the purpose of "storing" an undriveable car?

What are you planning to do with the car? Once you get it from the collision center

Human: Hello! I am definitely in a bind and could use some advice. I am currently 24 and being treated for some moderate mental health issues. During the time of that treatment my insurance on my car lapsed without me realizing it due to the fact I could barely remember how old I was (it ate up my memory and time). I drive a 2012 VW beetle and was in a collision with another vehicle I can barely remember. A semi truck blocked both of our views and we collided on the passenger sides of both of our cars. His car sustained a scratch to the hub cap. My car ended up with 5.9k USD worth of damages just to the body. His insurance company contacted me today regarding the payment of 4k USD for his vehicle. I currently live in subsidized housing with a single mother and only work a part time job. I go to college the rest of the time and pay for that out of pocket as well. I have currently payed for the ticket I was issued at the accident as well as insurance to now cover my car that isn't really drivable at the moment. I work for a company that gives me stocks per year of working there and currently only have about 4.3k of the needed almost 10k to deal with basically fixing both cars. What should I do?

If you're at fault then you owe the money that's all there is to it. Also clearly his car sustained more damage than a scratch to the hub cap especially if your car has $6K in damages.

Set up a payment plan with them to start repaying what you owe.

Human: Throwaway because details We live in a rent-controlled 2/1 in the Bay Area, been in the same place for 12 years now so our unit is considerably under market price. We've been saving up to purchase a house for about a decade now and are close to doing so, but not quite there yet - need another year or two of savings to get to the point where we feel comfortable moving forward with a house we can afford and still maintain an emergency fund. Well, the owner of our apartment (who I'm on good personal terms with) emailed me this AM and asked if we'd be willing to be bought out on a short time frame. California is considering passing Prop 10 which would harm his ability to raise rent even after a tenant leaves, and our place is so below market that they're worried they would be locked in at a low rate for many years. The catch is that we'd need to be out within a month; the sweetener is that the owner has another vacant 3/1 unit he'd be willing to allow us to move into for a year at the same cost as our current unit. Details below: * Current rent: $1800/month * Rent Control: about 1% per year tops * Yearly combined income: about $190k * Current liquid savings: about $120k * Parental contribution: about $30k * **Buyout offer: $25k flat** * Monthly post-everything income: ~$9600 * Monthly expenses: ~8000 ($3k/month is childcare, which will be half in a year and gone in 3) Housing costs are pretty high here in the Bay Area so I'm sure we'd need to get a place in the $7-800k range if we wanted to live anywhere with a decent school district. With all the cash we had available, we'd have something like $175k; we can add another $8k by years' end without too much of a problem. So, this would allow us to accelerate our plans of buying a house from two years from now to essentially today. Now for the interesting part. The catch is that we'd have to move within a month, prior to the beginning of November for sure. Not only is that not much time to move, which is a hassle, but the new apartment offered for us to move into is about 10 minutes further away from the kid's daycare and my work, so there will be some extra commute cost. Landlord has proposed giving us the first 4 months rent-free and then 8 months at the normal rate which equates to roughly the same as we're paying right now, which isn't a bad deal. What more, if we were able to find and close on a house within those 4 months (5 essentially as I'll have a month of lead-time) we end up paying no rent at all for those months and saving an extra $7k or so of post-tax dollars on top of the $25k. It's an attractive offer and I want to take it, but I worry about giving up our rent-controlled place without having an actual house that we're purchasing to move into. So, PF geniuses: - Is $25k enough money to jump at to go through this hassle? - Is it worth taking a chance on buying a house earlier to save this money? - Are payments for rent buyouts considered taxable income? My landlord sez he's not going to send a 1099, which sounds a bit shady but whatever. Cheers and thanks to you all!

That's very little savings for 10 years working toward this goal. I don't see how you can afford to buy anyway, if you spend this much. I'd keep the rent control. And I don't think your assumptions are great about buying, if you are dead set on buying. You need a local mortgage broker (or several). You might be able to get an awesome loan with 10% down, depending on your situation.

I would do it, you will have enough for a good downpayment which is what matters in the market.

Human: Im looking for some opinions on what I should do here. I am 18 years old and have a credit building plan, however cannot decide what credit card to choose from. Here are my options and my plan. ​ The plan: Is to have a max limit of 150-175 and use it for small purchases and gas. ​ Here are the card options! Low Rate VISA: 5% APR thats all Cash Back VISA: 2% cash back No accrual limit and 8% APR ​ All will be on a limit and monthly auto pay

*\*IF\** you are smart and pay it off every month, get the one with cash back. Also, don't pay annual fees if you can avoid it. That trumps cash back. ​ I can't stress this to 18 year olds enough: Use the credit card as an extension of your checking account--only use what you could definitely pay off from your real money. Consider yourself lucky you don't need to get a secured card (Like I did!). Happy credit building!

You may find these links helpful: - [Credit-related wiki pages](/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_credit) - [Credit Cards](/r/personalfinance/wiki/creditcards) - [FICO / Credit Scores](/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Improving Credit Scores and Building Credit](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: There have been threads on this in the past, but given that this just happened to a member of my family, I wanted to vent / warn everyone again. ​ This is an increasingly common scam where escrow and title companies have been hacked or scammers are otherwise getting access to information about a currently open escrow. They will spoof the escrow company's information and send you an email to wire your earnest money deposit or closing funds asap. The routing number and account number will not actually be for the escrow company, and once that wire goes through the money is gone. Here's a story that was done about this scam about a year ago: [https://abc7chicago.com/realestate/wired-away-couple-loses-life-savings-during-home-purchase/2630496/](https://abc7chicago.com/realestate/wired-away-couple-loses-life-savings-during-home-purchase/2630496/) ​ This almost happened last week to a member of my family who is intelligent and generally business savvy. The email looked official, contained their names, the address of the property they were purchasing, and the exact amount for their closing. The signature and email shown were the same as their escrow agent. They set up the wire and left the bank, then called the escrow company to let them know the wire was en route. When the escrow agent said that they hadn't sent the wire instructions, they rushed back to the bank and were able to cancel the wire before it was sent. ​ It absolutely infuriates me that people pull this crap, and maybe this post will help prevent someone else from getting scammed. All the money you've saved for a house, the house you've fallen in love with during the purchase process, all gone because of some @$$%&$#. ​ If you are in escrow and need to wire money, these are the steps you need to take EVERY time you wire money. * Verify the escrow company's phone number. Don't just grab it out of an email signature. Look up the company, verify the number before calling * Talk to your actual escrow agent. Get the routing number and account number over the phone. * NEVER take wire instructions via email. Even if they do email them, call the company to verify. Good luck homebuyers - don't get scammed.

I had to make a reasonably ginormous wire transfer to complete a purchase recently. So the day before, I did a test transfer of a nominal amount just to make sure the wire information was correct.

We had to login to a secure portal in order to get our instructions.

Human: Here are the details: I work directly under the company president and have been here for 5 years, 4 of them in my current position. I do not have a degree yet, but will graduate with a BS in my field next year. I am a returning student. Students graduating in my field who have no experience have the potential to earn $20k more than I make currently. I've emailed him a meeting invitation and was clear about the purpose being a pay raise. He responded that he would be happy to discuss this with me. I have prepared some documents highlighting my job description (I was never given one at hire), my achievements and my day-to-day activities. I have also prepared some information on average salary in my field from bls.gov and other reputable sources. Tonight, I plan on gathering my performance data which is greater than the national average. I'm looking for some pointers for tomorrow's meeting. I don't want to make an outrageous request, but I don't want to settle either. I'm fairly certain he has no idea how much I should be making. UPDATE 9/14: It went very well! My boss agreed with every single point that I made to justify a pay raise. He said that he expected this and had already discussed retaining me to the director. Nothing is in stone, but he and the VP (who is also our accountant) will get with me next week to finalize. I was firm with my expectations and asked for what I think I am worth right now, and that I will expect further increases upon graduation. I will let you all know whether my expectations are met, once this is finalized.

It sounds like you are already extremely prepared. I'd say, just be confident and warm with him and that will get you your best result. Also keep the information you gathered for updating your resume. Worst case scenario, you can have the exact same conversation with him next year, but with a little extra leverage.

I would ask for what you deserve! Let us know how it goes!!

Human: Ok so I accepted a job at a pretty big company in Austin, Texas. It is my first job. My car broke down during the summer and my parents lent me one of their cars to finish school. I need to buy a new car. It would be around 30k. I am a fairly tall guy. Around 6'8 so a sedan would be a no go. I would be making 85k a year and I received a 10k bonus. I will be living with a roommate so rent will be pretty cheap, around 650. So do you guys/gals think it is a smart move to buy a car? Also since its in Austin, public transportation is pretty shit. Any advice would be highly appreciated.

Don't buy a new car. Get a used car that's a few years old. You'll save thousands and still end up with a nice car.

No a car is the easiest way to blow money on nothing. My friend has a Subaru wrx brand new for 38 thousand dollars. I bought a Ford Fusion 2012 for 8500 with 93k miles on it. It’s also an LE. So it has all these amazing bells and whistles even his wrx doesn’t have. The sound system is amazing and a guy your size can fit in a fusion, not a wrx. So go to the lot and look for something that fits your size get financing, and don’t finance more than 10k on it.

Human: I'm not sure if this belongs here, but I guess I'll give it a try. I recently started working in my new job, in Graphic design in a small Marketing company that revolves around creating marketing strategies, developing websites, social media maintenance and other stuff like that. I started as an Intern 6 months later, they liked me and well enough they asked me to work on the team. Now, don't get me wrong, I get along really well with everyone at the company, super nice, positive, and I have a lot of respect for every one of them. But the problem begins right as I started working with them. We have a meeting, all of us, as we usually do every Monday morning, and our boss tells us we are in a financial crisis and because of some in work problems that have been amounting through time, from not responding to client email, to having bad work ethics and all those sorts of things, and have had a similar crisis before, and the way he dealt with it was pulling money from his own account and trying to wait it out. But this time was different, he had no backup money and unfortunately, the salary would have to be delayed, he was very honest with his approach. I was paid the first working month, but the second one was when the problem hit the team, I'm finishing the second week with no payment, and it's been super rough, not just because of the pressure we are putting up, but because I feel frustrated that I'm overworking over something I did not cause, at all, and I'm not even being paid! Now of course I understand it's not because he doesn't care or anything, It's not that type of situation, but I can't help but feel frustrated having to keep this up with this, the team is very determined to resolve this situation, and that's really the only part that gets me going. But I'm starting to feel really tired all the time, getting really fed up with everything, beginning to feel overwhelmed and I'm starting to feel impatient all the time, due to the lack of rest. My thing is, I respect them a lot and I know it's not something that anyone proud of and everyone is trying their best, but I'm going through a lot and I don't know when too much is too much. How normal it is to work without getting paid in this situation, or if I should quit and save myself the for getting overworked soo soon, wasting away my week for something I did not cause.

Start looking for a new job now. Companies don't often recover from a crisis that is so bad they can't meet payroll. Get out while you can, and hope that they will eventually pay the salary they owe you, or the bankruptcy court will eventually pay you. Good luck.

You need to be looking for a new job. It sounds like the ship is sinking and it was foolish for them to hire someone with such a dire situation on the horizon. Honestly, I would quit or at the very least come in part time and aggressively hunt for a new job. You don't owe them anything.

Human: I’m 25 years old, roughly 23k in credit card debt, and I make about 44k a year. This translates to about $2400 a month for me (I get a certain percentage taken out of my paycheck to be put into my 401k, where I have about 9,000), and my rent+parking is $1143. Other payments I need to make each month are: Phone biill: $130 Xbox Live: $10 Apple Music: $10 Gas: \~$100-120 Car: $250 (although I may be able to work something lower with this, since I am paying my parents for the car, no interest) Obviously I still need grocery money outside of this, as well as various household essentials. My boyfriend helps with all of that since we live together, but he’s in some debt too (though not as bad as mine). In terms of what I’m looking at with my 3 cards, brace yourselves. Capital One: $9,630 on a 10,000 credit limit, 20% interest American Express: $12,566 on a 13,000 credit limit, 22.74% interest Chase: $477 on 500 credit limit, 15.74% interest Basically, I need some advice on how best to pay this off so I’m not stuck in debt forever. I used to pay off my credit cards in full every month, but I took a trip last year that put me over in spending and I couldn’t pay it off, and then it just snowballed from there. This has all been built up since June 2017. I’m so anxious about it all the time but I feel like I barely make enough money to pay just the minimum payments alongside all the other expenses I have. I want to pay them off as fast as possible but feel like I’m drowning and that there’s no end in sight. Any advice is welcome. Edit: I live in Boston, so cost of living is relatively high. Assistant: It would take a lot of confronting and discipline to handle this, but for most people, the more you get into it, the easier it becomes and then before you know it, you won the game. But prepare for the long haul and steel your resolve. 1) Put those cards somewhere too hard to get to so you don't use them any longer. 2) I'd check with payroll dept if you can defer paying into your 401K while you sort this out. Making a few percent gains on a retirement fund while paying 15.74-22.74 interest is a net loss, unless your employer matches your contributions in which I would not do this. 3) Unless you need your $130/month phone plan for work, I'd look into that to see if you can get something less expensive. Inexpensive plans can be a hassle, but if you get used to only using Wi-Fi you could potentially save a lot. Maybe you have extras on the plan you don't have to have. I'd shoot for a basic unlimited talk and text with as low a monthly as possible, and use WiFi where I can if it limits you badly on data. Honestly when using phones, it's the downloading that eats up your data, so only download when you have free WiFi around. 4) I'd ditch the apple music. There are so many ways to listen to music for free. You can always get it back another day when you aren't so tight on funds. The Xbox Live, ask yourself how often you need it, if it's a lot of fun and leisure for you, then keep it. 5) yes, explain your situation to your parents and see if you can go down to like 125/month while you sort this out. Tell them you can do something like show them progress on your debts every three months to prove to them that you are taking advantage of their generosity in extending their loan term by double the remaining term. 6) Groceries, other essentials, don't live in misery but see what you can do to save money. Fresh fruit and veggies are often a great solution to eating good food inexpensively. Avoid dining out. If you have a coffee habit, make your own instead of Starbucks or whatever. 7) Pay as much as you can to Amex while paying minimums on the others. Once Amex is paid, pay as much as you can to Capital One while paying the minimum on Chase. Once Capital One is paid off, pay as much as you can on Chase until it's gone. 8) During all of this: learn how to do basic budgeting (or if you know how, make yourself do this). 9) ONCE IN A WHILE: fuck it and blow 25 bucks on something that makes you happy. If money does nothing but make you feel like a slave, life is not fun! 10) Learn to find things that are free to do to have fun. Walks, parks, museums sometimes have free admission days, libraries, reading books, exercise, researching things on internet you've always wanted to, in order to keep yourself occupied and have good satisfaction in life. As to the boyfriend, he'll see what you are doing and if he is a good guy, he'll support you in any way he can so you can achieve your goal of debt-free. Human: Thanks for this! Some of this I'm already trying to do (no more Starbucks ever, basic budgeting where I don't go over my daily budget). In terms of my 401k, my employer matches up to 6% so I'm putting in 6% and it's getting matched fully. I really appreciate all of this advice, believe me. And I lucked out with an extremely supportive boyfriend who is 100% on my team in trying to tackle this.

I would pay off the Chase card first. It won't make a big difference in terms of savings on interest rates, and you'll get a big psychological boost from paying one of your cards off. Could you put $500 a month towards one card while you pay the minimum on the other one?

Smart to keep doing the match 6%, you can't beat that! By the way, I recommend a book called The Richest Man in Babylon. It's not only informative, it's actually a relaxing and entertaining read. It helped me out many a time. It's basically a wonderful book about how to deal with money, income, debt.

Human: Hello PF! So here's my situation. I just turned 22 and I still live with my parents (rent free, most of my expenses are cared for). I have no savings and around to $800 in credit card debt. I have a part time job in manufacturing (which I hate) that pays me $15 an hour and I'm able to work about 10-15 hours a week. I also have an A.S. degree in Computer Science from my local community college. So my first question is, does it make sense to get a part time job that pays less and isn't in my field? I'm considering restaurants, coffee shops and retail. My goal is to pay off my debt, establish an emergency fund and save up so I can move out. My second question is, is it worth it to go back to school? As I mentioned, I have an A.S. in Computer Science and I could transfer to a university. I'm considering state universities like SJSU or SSU but I'm open to suggestions. My goal is to work as a software developer / programmer but my dream is to become a game developer. In my spare time I have been going through Unity / Blender tutorials and reading books about computer science. Anyways, would I be able to afford going back and is it a good way to achieve my goals? I hope I've provided enough information to get some advice. Thanks in advance! :)

Why can't you get more work doing manufacturing? Any why aren't you doing technical work instead of aiming at coffee shops? An associates in CS is enough to get into some basic IT gigs. Start looking for support jobs or NOC roles, maybe beef up the linux skills and do the sysadmin for a minute while finishing that CS BS degree. If SJSU and SSU are your nearest choices then look into roles in LA/SJC, plenty of IT there and it'll be an entry into technical work. From there you can build a game on the side and maybe some part time schooling. Going back to school to end up in game design isn't a way out of debt, not in the US in 2018. Do a bit of reading about how ruthless and un-fun the game industry is.

Is a full time job/part time school scenario not possible?

Human: I have 9000 in student loans through Navient that I want to aggressively pay off. The interest is around 10%. Is there any reason I should not open up a 0% Interest CC and pay the student loans off that way? Edit: Ideally I would pay them off in 9 months but I could also take up to 18 with the offer. ​

A lot of student loan providers won't let you pay with a credit card.

Lol, student loan debt cant be discharged in bankruptcy. Do the thinking...ah...now you get it. Good job! Go JOE!

Human: So my manager says I accidentally got paid for an extra shift I never actually worked during the last pay cycle and would deduct the amount from my next check. I guess my question is, is that a thing a boss can legally do?

Yes, if he is right, and it was an error. If you actually worked the shift, dispute it. Good luck.

make sure its all good tho if overtime was assigned your tax rate increases.. look at it carefully

Human: I’m a 23 years old who has a pretty decent credit score and is 100% on my own, my brother is 17 and is in high school while working part time at a pizza place. He asked me how he could get a credit card to build his credit score for the future so I added him as an authorized user on my capital one credit card account after being told that was the only way to help him. My mom is not really all that healthful and she’s very paranoid about the whole thing but I have high hopes for my brother and want his life to be better and easier than what I had growing up but I’m wondering whether I made the right moves by doing this and what rules should I put on the card since I plan on not using that card and getting a different one so he can feel like he has full control of it. The credit limit is $500 and the due date is on the 8th of every month. He doesn’t know much about owning a credit card and I don’t know much about having someone on my card.

Your brother spending money on your credit card doesn't improve his score--His score will improve for being an authorized user. I would take the credit card away from him and cut it up. Then you should use the card, keeping the utilization under 10% or so. Give it a year or two and he should start getting credit card offers in the mail.

You may find these links helpful: - [Credit-related wiki pages](/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_credit) - [Credit Cards](/r/personalfinance/wiki/creditcards) - [FICO / Credit Scores](/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Improving Credit Scores and Building Credit](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: My wife and I are both college students. I was given $5000 from my dad because he needed to use a college fund my grandfather started when I was a baby. He fell on hard times a number of years back and used it, which is fine with me because I never knew it existed. Apparently he's been saving up over the years and wanted to give it to me, so here I am. My wife and I are both quite broke, but we have federal work studies that just barely pay our bills and rent, along with a tiny bit back from Pell Grants that will easily cover our food/gas expenses. We're used to being broke as all hell and we know we will be until we graduate, so I want to take this $5000 and do something smart with it. I know it isn't a lot of money to most people, but where I'm from it takes about 4 months to make that much on a full time job, so this is quite a lot to me. I'd like to invest it to see decent returns, but I'm economically ignorant when it comes to investing. What **should** I do with this money, where should I invest it, etc. Please try to keep the economic terminology to a minimum. I'm trying to learn as I go, but at the moment layman's terms will be about all I can comprehend. Edit: Thanks for that super helpful downvote. It's not like I'm trying to figure out how to be financially stable in the future or anything. Edit 2: I supposed I failed to mention that I have an emergency fund already. Being poor isn't an emergency, it just sucks. Therefore it is going untouched.

Put it in a savings account at an online bank like Marcus, Discover, Barclays, Amex or Ally, where you should get 1.85% interest. Call that your emergency fund. Don't invest money until you are out of school, with good jobs, and are investing money in retirement accounts. Right now you need an emergency fund. This is it. Good luck.

If you have debt, pay that first. If you don’t have any, then put half in savings in case one of you are injured or otherwise get hurt and can’t work. If you want to invest the other half, feel free.

Human: I recently "retired" from my job for a variety of reasons. I had worked there for 5 years and amassed an $11000 dollar pension. I can either take a payout now or get 43 bucks a month for the rest of my life. I figure I have about 40 years left on the planet. I'm 37. I have about 8k in credit card debt so the check would basically wipe that clean. I'm thinking I should do the payout option. Correct? If I wait till 60 to start receiving checks the monthly check estimate was only 120 dollars or so I received a job offer today and will accept. It is for less money but still a comfortable salary.

Over 40 years, that's just 20k. Account for inflation and you're probably losing money. 40 years from now, 43 bucks will be worth a lot less than today. Credit card debt has really high interest rates. Take the money and wipe it clean.

If you do take a payout,you could 1. Invest, but over 40 years, you're unlikely to make outsized annual returns 2. Pay off your credit card debt - this is usually really high interest rates (don't really know your exact situation but unlikely to be below 15%) So paying off your credit card debt is a guaranteed return of at least 15% over however long it would've taken you to pay off that debt with the $43 all going towards paying it down. If you take the monthly, you could still invest it but present value of the money (comes from the guaranteed 15% or your investment of the payout elsewhere) you're leaving in the account will likely be much greater than the value you gain by accumulated interest. So I'd strongly recommend wiping the credit card debt and then starting to invest the leftover.

Human: I have nothing but good things to say about my experience, but prior to enrolling, I was VERY skeptical. I thought it was a scam, but I honestly have no idea what their angle is as they only collect 15 bucks a month from me in fees. Furthermore, I have been able to successfully acquire a new credit card (to rebuild credit, not to use) and an auto loan at a reasonable rate, two things I’m sure my credit score would not have allowed if I did not enter a payment program.

Depends. If it's a non-profit counseling agency that serves the public, it's probably not that bad. If it's a paid for service, it's very likely a system where you're paying someone to do something you could easily do for yourself.

I’d have to say I certainly enjoyed my experience. Finished my DMP 5 months ago. All of my credit ratings have been changed to R1’s. And my credit score is at a 715 now starting at a 533 when I just got out of the program. Only beef I have with it, was that the people at the program didn’t seem all the knowledgeable and I was doing my own work they simply got me the interest rate reductions.

Human: Hi all, I'm actually not sure this is the right sub for this question so apologies in advance but any feedback is appreciated. ​ My employer is looking to get life insurance policies for key staff members. I get where he's coming from as he's a small business owner, and I personally generate about 1/3 of the income for the business. None of the money would go to benefit me or my family obviously; it's all to protect the business in the event of my death and to offer a sign on bonus for my replacement. Any reason I should be skeptical or not agree to provide my personal information so the application can be submitted? A full background check and medical exam are required as part of the process. What questions should I be asking?

This is quite common. The flip side - since he's acknowledging you as a key contributor - evaluate whether you are getting full benefit (pay and related) - and if you think there's merit, you could use this to negotiate.

If you are going to have to get a medical for this anyway, and should have your own term life insurance, (because you have dependents), but don't (because you have procrastinated), take advantage of having to get the medical for your employer to also use it to buy your own term insurance. Good luck.

Human: Hello, everyone! I’ve been thinking recently that I would like to pay off my mortgage. Like right now. My original plan was to pay off my 15 year mortgage in 9 years (currently on year 2) while throwing any extra money towards IRA/stocks/mutual funds. Currently, I owe 77,000 on my mortgage. I have 110,000 in stocks, mutual funds, Roth IRA (57,000 stocks, 7,000 in a joint mutual fund family, 23,000 and 22,000 in two separate Roth IRA... the 23,000 is mine specifically and could be utilized in the principal to add the extra needed to pay the mortgage). As far as expenses for the mortgage go, there’s about 3100-3500 a year going towards interest which will go down over time. My portfolio grows about 10% a year in average. I make around 45,000 a year and my wife makes around 20,000. She uses her income to throw 800 (400 in each) a month towards the IRAs. Expenses run around 2600 a month (includes mortgage 770 and the 800 IRA) I’ve done some preliminary math, and it looks like I’ll miss out of around 28,000 in growth minus interest paid to the mortgage if I let it stand as is. Should I risk it for the biscuit and cash out my investments (all stock and mutual with some IRA principal) and pay off the mortgage and be debt free and start throwing everything back at investments or just be patient and wait the remainder of the 9 year goal to try and pay off my house? Does it seem worth it?

If the interest on your mortgage is less than the growth of your investments... keep the mortgage as you are still producing a net growth. If the interest on your mortgage is higher than the growth on your investments... carefully consider if you are comfortable diminishing your safety net by as much as you have to in order to pay off the house. Considering you intend to borrow from retirement portfolios to pay off the house... I would discourage it unless your mortgage interest is just THAT outrageously high (like 10% high).

You left off a key statistic. What is the interest rates on your mortgage(s) Here is the obvious comparison If it cost you 5% a year on 100k mortgage and you are making 6% a year on investments than you are gaining roughly +1% in your total wealth growth Generally mortgages are cheap debt, so they are ok to carry long term. Instead of taking money out of your IRAs... you can take that extra money you are pumping into it and instead use it to pay extra principal down on your mortgage. This is a good strategy when the markets are at a high point (like right now). If the markets go into a decline... stocks will be cheaper and then you want to buy more stocks instead of paying down principal. So to answer your question, now is a great time to shift to principal repayment because stocks are expensive. But don’t cash out your current investments to do it.

Human: I work for a security contractor. Generally, wages are based on the contract for the specific site that my company is contracted to do security for. Today I was offered a supervisory position at a different site, but that site pays 25 cents less per hour than my current site. It's not much money, but I would think it's the principle of the thing. I was both employee of the month and employee of the year for my branch, which contains over a thousand employees. I've been with the company for well over a year. Theoretically, taking the position would give me more standing within the company but it just feels like that since they've acknowledged me, twice, as an outstanding employee I can't in good conscience accept any position for less pay. Is this the right line of thinking, or should I accept the position? Assistant: Have you gone back and negotiated the initial offer yet? If not, you should do that. It sounds like you have great standing based on your performance to negotiate AT LEAST the same pay (if not more). That said, I do think there are situations where it makes sense to take a promotion for less pay (this is a common situation when employees switch from hourly + OT to salaried). For example, if having supervisor experience on your resume opens you up to other jobs that pay more. Theoretically, after you are a supervisor for 1+ years, you should be seen as qualified for any supervisor job, so you could try to find one at another company for better pay. Human: I have not, I asked for a few days to think about it. Negotiation is going to happen, that's for sure, but what happens if they don't budge? Part of the issue is margins, and they really don't like to cut into those by raising the wage beyond the specified contract unless it's absolutely necessary. So if they don't budge should I accept the position in the hope that it'll pay off down the line? Or should I just stick with the current contract until one better opens up? Will it hurt my standing within the company if I decline?

> So if they don't budge should I accept the position in the hope that it'll pay off down the line? It depends on whether getting the promotion helps your resume for future jobs. If supervisor jobs tend to pay more than the role you're doing now, I would take it. You can always bail on the company after 1 year for a better paying supervisor position. However, if the role doesn't generally pay more (you can check on Glassdoor, Payscale for similar roles to understand the current market pay ranges) then I would decline. > Will it hurt my standing within the company if I decline? Generally, no. It's very understandable if you turn down a "promotion" that's actually less pay. You can also make clear that you really want to advance within the company but you can't justify taking a pay cut to do so.

If they don't budge, don't accept.

Human: This has probably been asked before. I got my first credit card last month and I've been relying on it heavily to help me get through a month and a half with no pay from my teaching jobs. My first check came today and I have four more paychecks coming within the next two weeks. I racked up ~$800 in credit card charges, and they were mostly gas, groceries, and paying a few bills. Now that I'm getting paid again, I've decided that I want to make an aggressive debt paydown plan because I don't like having this kind of debt! I plan to use my CC as little as possible after this. I got my first statement from the CC company earlier this month and my balance due was ~$420. Since then I've spent another $400 so my current balance is now ~$800 and the bill is due at the beginning of October. My question is this: do I only need to pay the $420, or do I pay the whole balance (~$800)? Also, should I pay down the balance or $0, or should I leave $10-15 on the card for when my CC company sends it report to the credit bureaus? My credit score dropped due to heavy utilization so I want to get it up again. To be honest I plan to pay down the whole balance because I want to get rid of this debt as soon as possible, but I guess the real question is whether to pay it to zero or leave something on it.

> This has probably been asked before. Why, yes. Yes, it has. Many, many times. You should pay the entire statement balance on or before the due date. That's not the same as your total balance. Do not leave any of the statement balance just because you mistakenly think it helps your credit to do so.

You may find these links helpful: - [Credit-related wiki pages](/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_credit) - [Credit Cards](/r/personalfinance/wiki/creditcards) - [FICO / Credit Scores](/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Improving Credit Scores and Building Credit](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: I recently cashed out a very small 401k account from a company I worked at for 1.5 years. About 20% was deducted up front as “IRS withholding” and the remaining balance is what was paid out. Do I need to pay additional monies to the IRS on my next tax return to make good for the early withdrawal penalty? How is that usually addressed? Up front or during the following tax season?

Like all withholding, it's based on an estimate. They took 10% for the penalty and some amount of money for the taxes. Like all withholding, sometimes you get a refund and sometimes you owe more. It depends on your total picture for the year. It's not too late to roll it over into an IRA and avoid the penalty. Good luck!

You may find these links helpful: - [401(k) Fund Selection Guide](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k_funds) - [401(k) FAQs](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: Like the title says I got a call from a dealership a while back, like maybe a month ago, asking how I was enjoying my new car. I asked what they meant and they reiterated they wanted to know if I was happy with my new car. Told them they must have made a mistake as I didn't buy a car but they had my name and phone number. So what I'm trying to figure out is if its an honest mix-up or if someone used my identity to buy a car. I haven't noticed any hits to my credit nor any letters referring to a bought car. This is a local dealership that I've had my car serviced at no more recently than about 2 and a half years ago and my stepdad used to work there as a mechanic. Don't know if that's relevant but thought it should be included. Anything I can or should do to look more into this? Mods, I didn't know if this should go here or /r/legaladvice. Please let me know if I should remove it and I will.

Have you pulled your actual credit report in order to see if there is a new auto loan in your name that you didn't make? Can you check with your DMV to see if a car is registered in your name other than your car? You should also follow up with the dealership (in person) and get as much information from them as possible to find out if someone actually did buy a car in your name.

Businesses are run by people who just mess up sometimes. The person assigned to make calls probably selected the wrong person in the computer system or looked at the wrong line in the spreadsheet. So he ended up calling you instead of some other guy who just bought a car. I’ve had similar stuff happen over the years, like a hair salon I no longer use calling me to reschedule an appointment. It’s benign. If you absolutely can’t let it rest, you can call the dealership and ask them to check their records to see if they have you down as having bought a car recently. I’m guessing they’ll tell you no.

Human: Hey guys I know what the obvious answer should be but its not that straight forward to me. I'm 26 in the I.T field I graduated college and I accepted the 30k job first. The reason I like it here is because its for a resort on a island (I live in the Caribbean) They pay for living expenses and for full meals I only pay $1.50 no other major benefits but I was depressed and I have such peace of mind here. On the other hand the 41k is for a very reputable bank based out of Canada where I'm trying to move to next year. A lot of benefits pension health etc. I just know it going to be more stress working for my bank and moving back to the main city. My goal is to retire by 40 what do you guys think is the right move. ​ EDIT: I noticed I wasn't clear In the original post. I lived in Canada for a year (York area) had to come back for some reasons. The 41k job is on another island the main city. I was planning on moving back to Canada in 2020. I know how expensive it is there, but I feel there is a lot more opportunity.

Can you get me a job where you are? I have great job now, but come on...I can’t believe you’d even consider leaving an island that you obviously love for a job in Canada and living with your parents.

26 making 30k? Keep dreaming. You will NEVER accomplish this even at 41K.

Human: tl;dr - I am quite literally supporting my boyfriend financially and he doesn't understand the severity of the situation he has put me in. Right now I am feeling as though I am in a financial bind, and I am not sure how to resolve this situation tactfully. Ever since I moved out at 21, I handled all the bills for whoever I lived with. This was mainly because the lease had always been in my name and in turn, all the utilities. I would pay the bill, and whoever I was living with would pay me back or ahead of time. Perhaps I was lucky, but this had never been a problem. My boyfriend moved in with me in February, and I have since purchased house which is in my name alone. As mentioned before, I pay the bills and he is \*supposed\* to reimburse me, and lately I feeling as though he is taking my flexibility for granted because he knows I am not going to miss a payment. In the last couple of months he has grown very lax regarding paying me and tells me he feels uncomfortable always talking about finances, but I am now struggling as a result of him. At first I would Venmo request him and those piled up. We ended up sitting down and having a very serious talk about this. We agreed that he would pay me a minimum amount each month, and any extra goes towards his balance owed to me from previous bills, groceries, vacations, etc. I asked that he also get a part time job given he owes me a significant amount of money. He was resistant to doing this, but eventually agreed (although I don't even foresee this happening). We are two weeks into this agreement and he has paid me just about a quarter of that is owed for the month and knowing what he makes weekly, there is no way he is going to be able to pay the remaining amount. My finances are suffering significantly and I have had to dip into my savings account a number of times recently to cover his half of the bills, which is now down $4K to cover his half of things. I expressed my concern and he says things like "At least you have a savings account." and most recently stated that if I am in that much of bind that there has to be something wrong on my end from a budgeting perspective. I am not sure what I can do to show him that I am in this bind as a result of his irresponsibility. I fear he is not taking this seriously and I need to figure out a way to penalize him for not making a payment whether that be charging an interest rate or late fee. Without this he is going to continue to take his time, but adamantly disagrees to this because obviously he doesn't want to owe me more than he already does. I am not sure what to do to make this fair without literally managing his finances personally (which I wouldn't want to do for another adult).

Tell him that if he does not pay rent you will have to evict him and find another tenant. Then, if he does not pay, evict him. Good luck.

Does he actually make enough to pay you $1500 a month after necessities? Do you know how much he makes? Or is he just really bad at math and telling himself he only spends $50 a month on food when it's closer to $400? You know, like, well last month the car broke down or this month I had no time and ate out a lot, without realizing that this spending is the norm not the exception. I have been in relationships with honest, good, caring people...but they were way too optimistic about their inflow/outflow ratio. If he's that type of guy, you will have to manage his money for him. Lots of marriages have this setup (because without a prenup you're one joint asset anyway) even in 2018, but it's super awkward as a dating couple. I don't see any other way, though, if you intend the relationship to survive. Personally I think he could sign all the contracts you want and it wouldn't make a difference. You're either holding his hand because he is a decent person but has no clue how to budget or resist impulse purchases or do math...or you're ending the relationship because you don't want to parent his ass but you'll never see that money again.

Human: My daughter is 9 and I want to help her appreciate the value of money and the principle of saving. I was terrible at this when I was younger and it wasn’t until I was in my late 30s that I finally was able to break the habit of spending most of what I had. Are there activities or practices we could do now for fun that could be rewarding in the long run? I thought to open a savings account with her at my credit union, something that only she and I can access (not her brother, who stole from her piggy bank). My dad wants to send her a check every month for $10. I was considering making a goal with her where if she saved a certain amount, maybe $100, that I would reward her by matching or otherwise contributing to it. However, I'm concerned that this might be too abstract and might instead teach her to expect to be externally rewarded for personal achievement. What do you think?

that's EXACTLY how you do it...the concept of delayed gratification.. save one marshmellow today for 5 marshmellows at the end of the week, etc.

I think your ideas are fine. One of the best ways I've seen is to find out what the kid wants and then advise them on how to save up for it, and then buy it. The simple mechanical action of accumulating money, then spending it, makes it very clear to the kid "this much effort resulted in this much of the commodity of exchange resulting in access to this desired commodity." Not in those words, but they get the concept.

Human: In an effort to be more mindful of how much I’m spending I decided to transfer my money from checking to saving, and only transfer it back into checking as needed (I don’t spend a lot during the month as it is). But as I was transferring funds over this morning to buy a bus pass I got a message saying I hit my federal monthly limit of 6 transfers for the month. I’ve got a substantial amount in savings, and my checking is drained. Is there any loophole I can do to get my money out? Assistant: Usually they don't lock it they just charge you a fee. Human: It's up to bank policy on how they enforce the 6 transfer limit. Some charge a fee, some will close the account altogether after enough violations. I can see a bank simply locking transactions for the rest of the month to enforce federal regulation. Assistant: In this case the transfer attempt is showing up as “Failed” and gave me the 6 transfer notice at the time. This was done through their website, I’ve yet to go there and withdrawal the money in person, hopefully I won’t have an issue with that. Fwiw this is a local credit union

The regulations imposing a 6 transfer limit on savings accounts apply equally to credit unions and banks. You should be able to withdraw money in person, because the regulation only applies to electronic transfers, but the CU's policy could theoretically be stricter than what the regulation requires.

If you go to a branch the teller can do a withdrawal or transfer for you that will not count toward the six transactions. I believe using an ATM will still count as an electronic transfer and may be blocked or result in a fee. As others mention, this is a federal regulation.

Human: First of all, I want to say thanks for letting me browse this community. After doing minimum payments on my loan for almost 7 years, reading Personal Finance gave me the kick in my ass I needed. My $40,000 (CAD) loan is now down to around 4, which I will pay off within the next month (as long as nothing comes up). Now, I’m already paying into my pension and I chose the “middle” plan. With my loan becoming payed off, should I put more into that monthly? I will also be leaving the province where I live to another one in a year or 2 and will need to pull out the pension and transfer it to Ontario. I had a few thousand in savings, but decided to dump it all on my loan. So right now I have very minimal savings (around 2000) for “just in case” Right now I’m making $94000 a year and clearing about $65 after taxes and pension. My rent is $60 a month (Teaching in the far North so housing is essentially paid for) and my car is paid off, so it’s just groceries that I pay for as there are no restaurants or bars or shops within about 200km of me. Knowing that I’m going to be going back to an unstable work market in a year or two and will be taking a significant pay cut (probably around $65000) what should my next step be? ETF? Mutual fund? Again, thanks for your help, PF!

After paying off the loans (well done): 1. Rebuild your emergency fund. 2. Make sure you are contributing enough to retirement. 3. Save for goals less than 5 years out, or invest for goals more than 5 years out. Good luck.

You may find these links helpful: - [Student Loans](/r/personalfinance/wiki/studentloans) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](/r/personalfinance/wiki/debt#wiki_what.27s_the_best_way_to_pay_down_my_debt.3F) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: Hi personal finance folks! To start, I'm the 25yo adult-child of a financially clueless parent so a lot of what I know I've learned here and other internet research. My credit is in good standing 740+ (was higher, but opening all these new accounts around the same time pulled credit hits), I have a newly purchased car loan in my name, car insurance payment, an apartment I'm renting, utilities in my name, one credit card with a low balance, one credit card almost paid off, and student loans that are in deferment. That said: Does it make sense to pay my bills ahead? I've paid my car note 2 months ahead so far and try to make payments more frequently on my credit card and utilities. The credit cards obviously don't count as paying ahead, but it is paying it off faster. The utilities do build 'credits' so if for some awful reason something happened, I'd have X amount of money already paid that they could draw from. I don't feel underwater or stressed by my payments, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Also, I have a small savings cushion as well that can cover my rent in case something were to happen. Does this make sense to do? Is there any real benefit to paying bills ahead? I have a lot of fear about financial insecurity and missing bills so I'm trying to find a balance. Assistant: Not really. Just stick to a budget and pay your bills on time. Human: And with my car payment, should I quit paying ahead on that? I have it paid through December...

Do not prepay a loan to push back the next due date. It is actually bad for your finance. Instead, "apply extra payment to principal" so that you shorten the loan and pay less interest over all.

Paying a car payment is usually worth paying extra every month because of the loan interest rate and paying off the car faster. If you pay it off sooner, it’s less money you spent in the long run. You should also figure out what you’re loan interest rate is

Human: Hello hoping you guys can help me... first year investing and i keep getting mixed signals on this answer is the 5500$ contribution limit to a roth ira include a ira as well? example i have 11,000 to invest can i invest 5500 into a roth and another 5500 into a taxable ira? or is 5500 the max for both types of ira combined per year? if i over invest can i pull the money out now and if so where should the money go... a standard brokerage acount? like robinhood or m1 finance perhaps?

$5500 total between roth/traditional per year until 50, then $6500

The $5,500 is combined, as a quick google search will tell you. I'd take $10, buy an investment book, and educate yourself regarding the basics here. Then you'll know to avoid apps like "Robinhood", and invest directly in Vanguard or similar.

Human: I work for a precision aerospace company. I was hired on as a support worker fulfilling tickets at $12/hr. I've been at my position for about 5 months. In that 5 months I have moved from just doing tickets to managing the ticket network, being a part of the engineering ticket network, and now I am in charge of all the PPAP documentation (consists of bubbling prints, creating inspection documentation, and special documentation depending on certain clauses of the customer). I feel like I have gained a considerably amount of responsibility and workload from when I was initially hired. And I believe that should merit a raise. The only thing that I see as an issue is that my father was in dying in the ICU for approximately 30 days (thankfully he survived) but during that time I had a decent amount of absences since I'm his only family and next of kin. I also have Ulcerative Colitis and was hospitalized overnight, missing a total of 2 days which put me over the limit for days missed and got a written warning because of it. It's been about a month since I got the written warning and I haven't had any absences since. (And yes they were aware of reasons for the days I missed) My boss says he has high hopes for me and sees me as an important part of the team. He said he wasn't happy that they didn't give me a raise at my 60 days and he would try to get me one before my 1 year. And I did get an 18 cent raise ($12.18/hr), but cmon 18 cents?? Ilike the job and my boss and don't wanna cause friction. I was just wondering if it's appropriate to ask for a raise or if i should wait longer? And what is an appropriate amount? On average my coworkers in my group make $17-18/hr

In my opinion... If you think you’re underpaid, and you’re willing to quit if necessary, you can always ask for a raise.

I usually ask for a raise before I'm even hired

Human: Some background; I grew up financially poor. As a teenager, I remember looking at my single-mother's tax returns for one year when I was a kid and being surprised that she had only made about $13,000. She'd make pupusas (typical Salvadoran food) and sell them for $1.50 in our local grocery's parking lot from the trunk of her car. I also remember walking along the train tracks behind our house looking for discarded aluminum beer cans so we could redeem for a couple cents. Although I always had food, clothes and a roof over my head, I now realize money was always tight. For a while, none of us had a bed so my siblings, my mom and I would simply roll out blankets on our bedroom floor and sleep in makeshift sleeping pads. Each morning we'd roll them up against the wall so we could move around the bedroom without having to step on where we slept. We could never afford vacations or a nice car or even a nice meal. In fact, going out to McDonald's as a family was a treat. ​ I'm now 30 working at a stable job that doesn't pay much, but benefits are good and I've been conscious of keeping my expenses down as much as I can. Except for emergencies, I haven't used a credit card in years and hope to finally be credit card debt free by the end of the year. I squirrel away 5% of my paycheck into my 401(K) while I try to save up as much as I can into a--at minimum--$3,000 emergency savings fund. ​ Every month I have the blessing of having at least $100 of play money that I can use for whatever I want, yet I still feel hesitant to part with it and find myself nickle-and-diming everything I buy for myself or others trying to keep costs at a minimum. The financial blue print that I inherited from how I was raised prevents me from truly enjoying what I receive as well as giving without any remorse. How can I change that? ​ Without having to get too woo-woo, I sincerely believe that money is energy and the more I give credence to this financial blue print from childhood, the less I'm open to the abundance that I'd like to receive. ​ Are there any books or YouTube videos that anyone can recommend to help me shift my perception of money from one laden with want and fear to one full of abundance and possibility? ​ EDIT: I just paid an extra $100 towards my credit card debt because of all the comments here. Thank you.

From what you've said (hope to be credit card debt free, try to save a $3000 emergency fund, stable job that doesn't pay much) - you're far away from "abundance". Right now, focus on three things. 1) Paying down your debt and building an emergency fund. 2) Upping your income (think side gig, better job, part-time - or if additional education is needed, how to manage that). 3) Keeping your expenses stable, to build a financial cushion. > Every month I have the blessing of having at least $100 of play money that I can use for whatever I want, yet I still feel hesitant to part with it and find myself nickle-and-diming everything I buy for myself or others trying to keep costs at a minimum. Whatever surpluses you have - put it into 1) above (debt and emergency fund). After completing that, you can stash it away in a separate "fun" savings account; you don't need to spend it each month, you may choose to save up for a big "reward". A lot of my childhood financial programming was similar to yours. I found it easier to think of "I want to travel to Europe" or "I want to get a leather laptop bag" than to force myself to spend $5 / $10 every so often. Another thing I do - I went looking for people who were in dire situations, and how to help; the contributions monthly are small, but putting a face to it and knowing it's helping them avoid what I went through got me over the hump of "not giving". Again, this is not for today, but after you've built enough stability that you can do it.

Honestly the best thing you can do is change your relationship with money! A great resource that helped me out was Courtesyfin.com the guy there helped me out so much. This guy is funny and really professional as well haha. He told me that all you have to do is look at money as tokens of appreciation. If you bring value to someone they pay with their appreciation. So if you got a lot to give in this world you’ll never have to stress about money.

Human: Greetings everyone, A little background, I am a recent college graduate (23) with no student loans and was fortunate enough to land a job in IT with a net income of around $57k. Upon graduation, I decided to purchase a new to me vehicle. At this point in time, I have made steady payments on the vehicle and have put myself in a situation where I can pay off the loan, but do so using almost all of my emergency fund. At the moment, the current value of the loan is at ~$16,000. In paying off the loan, my emergency fund would be at around $1800. The current interest rate on the loan is 3.21% and the monthly payments are around $345. At the moment, my only expenses are insurance ($114), fuel (~$60), and my monthly credit card statement. My question is, should I use my emergency fund to pay off the loan and rebuild that fund, or just "tough out the loan" and wait to pay it off? I am also making contributions to my 401k matching the employer at 6% and also making small contributions to my ROTH IRA. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

> The current interest rate on the loan is 3.21% This isn't an emergency.

You may find these links helpful: - [Emergency Funds](/r/personalfinance/wiki/emergencyfunds) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: I'm not sure if this is the right place, but I was supposed to receive my check on Wednesday which is payday, it's now Friday and I still have yet to receive it. I called management and they told me they sent the check out ON Wednesday (bi-weekly pay if that's relevant) and that it would take 3-10 business days to get here, so at LEAST 3 more days and it's already been two...I haven't eaten in two days and I'm in bad health so it's a bad situation I'm in, is there anything I can do?

Go to a food bank for now. Then figure out how to stop living paycheck to paycheck. [Prime directive](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics). And look into welfare programs like SNAP

Is there someone you can borrow 50 bucks from for a short term? Otherwise call 311 and see if there is some local services that can help you get through until the money shows up. There are typically places that offer food and water and shelter and medical assistance.

Human: So I'm a student and just got a line of $750 from Discover. Originally I was planning on using it like my debit card and paying it off every month to build credit, but I've read some things about keeping your usage under a certain percentage (I'm just gonna go with 30% because anything else is too little). Already I have a school statement for $260 and I was wondering if putting it on the card and immediately paying it off would be bad for my credit or even worth it (for the cashback bonus) or not.

Utilization has no memory, so it's not something you need to worry about on a month-to-month basis. Simply adjust your utilization to be <10% (by either spending less or by paying your balance down before your statement generates) in the month or two before applying for new credit. In general, just use your card for normal purchases that you've budgeted for and could afford to pay for with cash or debit at that moment. Pay your statement balance in full every month by the due date. No need to make it more complicated than that.

Don’t use more than you can afford :)

Human: Long story short, my parents took out a large parent plus loan during my college and used it for themselves. I have been repaying it for 4 years without making a dent. I am going to stop paying it, but am concerned they will fraudulently refinance it into my name from theirs. Is there anything I can do to stop that from happening? Thanks

They can't, ever. That's the while point of PLUS loans. I'm surprised you were even paying it at all as you aren't legally obligated to. However, I would still freeze your credit.

Pretty unlikely. Not a lot of lenders will even do a refinance into only the student's name. Even then, they'd need more than just your SS. They'd need your ID, paystubs, etc.

Human: I have a pain in the ass high-deductible health plan with HSA. Spent over 20k last year on medical. In an effort to save money, I asked my doctor if I could get a prescription written for a whole year instead of coming back every 3 or 6 months for follow ups and a few more months prescription. She doesn't write ANY prescriptions for a year. Even my physicals somehow aren't covered and each visit is about $140. I'm on synthroid for hypothyroidism and Omeprazole (high dose, the Rx is cheaper than OTC) for reflux. Is this typical of doctors or are there others who will prescribe for one year? EDIT: The premiums and HSA contribution alone are $1,000 per month. Last year I had surgery. Year before that I had a baby. Also my husband and my son had minor surgeries. I swear we are actually pretty healthy, so the medical costs are very frustrating!

In my experience it is highly dependent on both the doctor/patient relationship and the specific medicine being prescribed. With a 10+ year history and a mild blood pressure medication, I got a prescription written for 90 day supply with 4 refills (a bit over a year supply). For pain meds or blood thinners, I get at most one prescription each visit with zero refills. For other blood pressure meds that are stronger, I maybe get 1 or two monthly refills. Doctors have been willing to work with me when I describe the insurance issues I have, but they still never write longer prescriptions for certain drugs that need monitoring or have higher dosages.

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Human: My younger sibling has always been a terrible spender and has racked up quite a bit of debt. As the older sibling I'm trying to help out in anyway I can and I hope the wonderful people of Reddit PF can help. The spending has curbed a bit but we can work on that later. There are 5 credit cards with some of them nearly maxed out. On top of that there is a student loan and a car payment to manage. CC1: - Total: $4700 - Minimum Payment: $150 - APR: 20% - Payment per month: $150 CC2: - Total: $9000 - Min Payment: $188 - APR: 25% - Payment per month: $300-$500 (Depending) CC3: - Total: $3500 - Min Payment: $109 - APR: 25% - Payment per month: $133 CC4: - Total: $6300 - Min Payment: $165 - APR: 20% - Payment per month: $165 CC5: - Total: $3000 - Min Payment: $51 - APR: 8.9% - Payment per month: $133 Student loan: - Payment per month: $163 Car loan: - Payment per month: $465 Total CC Debt: $26,500 Total Expenses Per Month (not including gas and food): $1600 Total Income per month: $2000 As you can can see there isn't much room to help put more towards any of the higher APR CCs. I'm thinking that the next best thing is getting a personal loan to pay all of the CC debt off and then manage one overall loan for them. There were preapproved offers that came in the mail but I'm very inexperienced (and skeptical) when it comes to the validity of such offers: 1. Credit9 (Loans originate from Americor Funding): 0% for 12 months then 12%-25% thereafter / no collateral / no upfront fees 2. Greenlink Financial: "Flexible personal loan" / no collateral / Rate = 5.49% for Debt balance up to $25000 3. National Debt Relieft 4. Signature One I've also heard of Lending Club but I'm not sure if they are legit. Is our best path forward for immediate help going to be a personal loan? If so, would one of the above help? Are there other lenders and/or options that would be better? Any help is greatly appreciated! Edit: I'm specifically looking for people's personal experience and/or knowledge of consolidation loan/personal loan programs and whether one is better over the other.

If a second job isnt an option right now, just pay minimums until she can get a second job.

I noticed you didn't mention insurace for the car, is that another expense? Sometimes with prequalification it's just an invitation to apply and not necessarily a guarantee for credit and creates unnecessary credit dings, so be careful of this. Debt consolidation usually hits credit pretty hard and depending on how the relief program works could be stuck on your credit report for awhile. If the personal loan APR doesn't exceed the average CC apr go for it. Even if you don't get a low rate (like 5-15%), consolidating will salvage your siblings credit history/score. But, if your sibling does get a lower interest rate, they save money and could potentially reduce the overall monthly payment. Its also a fixed term usually which means at the end the debt is gone... While paying the minimum on CC's, even after 5 years the debt could remain. Definitely watch out for origination fees, prepayment penalties etc. Credit unions are usually non profit and are more likely to take into account personal situations so building a relationship with a credit union could help a bit. Credit unions often have lower interest rates as well for lending products. You never mentioned the auto loan terms. Refinancing the auto loan could help initially, especially if you can get a refinance with a lower APR. Refinancing with a longer term reduces the monthly auto loan payment and you still have the option of paying down principle once the financial situation improves. In addition, if the APR is lowered with the refinance then the monthly payment will decrease even more since the overall cost of the loan is reduced. Also, look into the contracts that were signed when the auto loan was purchased. If your sibling purchased additional warranties, protection plans etc, these are usually refundable and not worth purchasing depending on the car. Your sibling could have been pressured into buying unnecessary protection plans and you could potentially seek refunds on them which will be sent to the principal of the auto loan thus reducing the monthly payment even more. Not sure where your sibling is in school, but if currently still attending it may be worth applying for fafsa. Lendingclub is legit in the fact it looks at your credit history using a soft inquiry (no effect on credit score) and finds lenders that are willing to lend to you based on certain criteria, however, looking at the amount of debt your sibling has can almost guarantee no results and could be a waste of time. ​ EDIT: Forgot to mention, proper budgeting with the remaining funds your sibling has in the month is crucial. Instead of spending money on eating out etc, look into a meal plan and tailor it to your siblings situation. In AZ you can get 2700 calories a day (typically a good amount depending on BMI) on about $60-$70 a week. Alternate methods of transportation when possible could save on gas to. Carpooling, having your friends pick you up instead of you driving to them, walking/biking short distance travels etc could reduce gas costs. Also, if you begin doing your own grocery shopping, a lot of companies offer fuel points earned by purchasing food. You need food already, might as well get fuel points in addition to get additional savings on gas. Another way to increase income is through opening checking accounts and receiving the bonuses. For example, you can open a checking account and get a $150-$300 opening bonus as long as you set up a direct deposit for a specified amount of money(usually $500-$1500 depending on the bank). Some accounts that are availabe for opening bonus options have no maintenace fees and others offer ways to have the fees waived in the account (such as maintaining a qualifying direct deposit) In addition, you have to keep the account open for 6 months or you forefit the reward and have to repay it. Lastly, you report it on taxes so it is taxed at the end of the year, but the full $300 is your siblings to use until taxes come around. You could also take complete control of your siblings credit cards to prevent use after consolidation and after time once your sibling has a grip on their spending, you could begin helping he/she with using the credit card rewards programs in your siblings favor to gain more savings and limiting their use until they have the self control to do so himself/herself. If possible try to avoid having your sibling close the accounts, that could damage their credit. An alternative could be you taking control of their CC accounts and taking possesion of the CC's at your siblings discretion (ofc) Your sibling would need to make small transactions on the CC to prevent the accounts from being closed due to inactivity, but you could assist by monitoring this process and ensuring the use is strictly to prevent the account from closing.

Human: I have documentation which shows I am a 15% beneficiary of a Charles Schwab account. The account was already paid out and they distributed just 4% to me. They claim that their documentation says just 4%, but mine says 15%. What do I do?

Lawyer, that’s what you do.

Request the documentation they're referring to. Check for funny business. If yes, lawyer up and begin mortal combat.

Human: I owe $13,000 on a $9,000 car (2015 jetta w/ 100k miles) and just want to get rid of it before I move out of my parents house so I don't have to carry around the payment around for the next 5 years. If I post my car up on Craigslist and get an interested buyer ; how should I go about selling the car. Does the buyer give me the $9,000(which is what I will be asking) and just tell him to sit tight while the bank gives me the pink slip for the vehicle; of course after I come up with the rest of the money to equal the payoff price of the car? Or would he pay me, I give him the car without pink slip, then when I do get the slip from the bank do I just send it to him? I'm really lost on how the process works.

Who on earth is buying a Jetta with 100k miles for $9,000?

You need 13k to pay off the car first to get your pink slip before you can sell it private party. It takes 1-3weeks to get the title after you pay it off. Unless it is someone you know very well that trusts you and is willing to take the keys and pay you money to get a title later ( risky on both sides). Or you can sell it to carmax and they will take your 4k$ cash and keys immediately.

Human: So weird situation - I have an HSA with about $500 in it from a previous employer, my current health plan is not an HSA. Since it is with a previous employer I'm actually getting charged a fee for having the account open, so each month it's really just ticking down. ​ I don't actually have any regular medical expenses that I would spend this on (no medications, no co-pays, etc...), is there anything out there that I could spend this on? I believe I could take the money out, but the resulting taxes would take a significant portion of it? ​ Really the only reason I'm interested in this is that it will just keep depreciating, but the best option is probably to try to wait for applicable expenses?

You can use it for dental and vision expenses too. If you need to get your teeth cleaned or fillings, annual checkup, whatever. ​ For that small amount of money I would probably just wait until I have some qualifying expenses to burn it up. You could alternatively transfer the money to a different HSA with lower fees though.

$500 first aid kit.

Human: Hi All, I'm 28 yrs old and I want to start investing and saving for retirement and potentially a new home in the future. I have about 2.5 months expenses in an emergency fund. (I feel pretty secure at my job and can get another job no problem if let go) I currently have about 4.5k in a 401k (no longer being contributed to , I switched companies and no company match at my current place)   I just finished paying off a CC and now want to start paying off my car or invest in retirement/future goals.   I owe ~9300 on my car. Current interest rate is 4.02%   I was thinking of putting an extra $300 to it every 2 weeks on top of the monthly payment of 279.   However I wanted to see if I can make that money grow elsewhere. I was thinking of transfering my 401k account to a roth IRA and start contributing a bit every check to it. I wanted to pay off my car first because it would just give me a better piece of mind but I wanted to do the numbers first and see if it will be worthwhile to do something else with it.   I can get the car paid off in a year or so. Or will it be more worth while to put money into some type of investment account and only pay the minimum. Payoff Day if paying the minimum is October 2021.   Thanks!   Also - Any recommendation on investment books or popcasts?

Make sure that if you choose to pay extra toward your car, that the extra actually goes toward principal and not “advancing your due date”).

You may find these links helpful: - [Retirement Accounts](/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_retirement_accounts) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: Is this normal? My jobs changing locations and is expecting us to move everything out of the building and into the new one (all furniture and all the inventory in our warehouse shelves everything.) We’re not movers and I’ve never heard of a company making their employees responsible for this, is this normal?

yeah, if the company doesnt want to pay for movers...smaller companies dont like to waste money.

Look up workplace safety laws in your area and get a letter written up that says that employees are not responsable for moving items with a weight greater than X and are not responsable for and damages that may inadvertently arise during the move. Seems like a stupid idea to me but management is like that sometimes. Risking blowing out someone’s back or damaging an expensive equipment that will not be covered under insurance is short sited.

Human: So I have an account with x amount of money in it, and my mother who is very controlling with that money is attached and won't get off, and according to my bank I won't be able to get her off without her present, so I went and I opened another bank account with another bank and started to slowly funnel that money out. I'm curious if this was a bad idea or not in terms of credit score and whatnot, since I read somewhere having another account and not having much money in it, negativily impacts your credit score, and so should I close it if having it negativily impacts me?

This is a good idea. Deposit accounts do not affect your credit score unless they get closed with a negative balance and sent to collections. You're an adult, and you should have your own bank accounts. You should read the terms of the joint account with your mom to find out if there are any monthly fees you would incur by going below a certain balance. If there are, you'll either have to keep that much money in the account to avoid the fee, or withdraw all of it at once and close out the account.

A savings account has absolutely nothing to do with your credit score.

Human: Hello PF. I've seen lots and lots of posts around here about housing questions, buying, selling, all that fun stuff. And I've noticed that there isn't anything particularly helpful on that topic in the sidebar, so I figured why not, I can contribute. Background: I'm a licensed Mortgage Loan Originator in the US, with licenses in 6 states. So anyway, about buying a house! Your house is the largest single investment most people will make in their lifetime. And yet, the vast majority of people have absolutely no idea how this whole thing works. If you were paying attention, you probably know that the 2008 recession had something to do with housing and something or something, but that's a topic for a whole different time and another sub. People's knowledge generally stops at making payments on time and everyone got screwed on their interest rate. So let's try to learn something about the way this whole thing works. So you want to buy a house. Congratulations! There's a LOT of stuff that you need to be thinking about and every single person you talk to is going to have an opinion or a way to help. But no matter who you talk to, the first question you'll get is always "What's your rate?" Gonna be honest, as an MLO, I absolutely hate that question. I could tell you the rate is 3.5%, I could tell you it's 7.5%, but what does that actually mean for you? Most people don't really have a point of reference for it. I understand why everyone cares, but there's a TON of stuff that goes into it. We'll get to rates later. Yes, it's a fair question, but it's not at all the most important thing. The first thing you should actually be asking is this: How can I get a pre-qualification letter? The vast majority of the time, to actually make an offer on a house, they'll ask you for some sort of evidence that you actually have the money to buy the house. If you don't happen to have $250,000 lying around somewhere, you'll probably need to borrow it, so they want to see proof that you're actually qualified to borrow that much money. That's what the pre-qualification is for. It also helps you with figuring out exactly what your price range is. So, we're trying to get you pre-qualified, that's fantastic! A couple of very important steps are coming into play here. How much of a down payment do you have saved up? The "traditional" wisdom is 20% of the house, but... That's a *ton* of money and a lot of people just aren't able to get that much saved up very easily. If that's you, there are other options available. If you're a veteran or active duty in the military, you can actually finance 100% of the house. The same is also true if you live in a metropolitan statistical area of under 20,000 people. Financing 100% of the house isn't exactly ideal and it'll bring your payment up quite a bit, but we can do it. If you don't fall in to one of those two categories, like most people, you *must* bring at least 3.5% as a down payment, no matter what. Gifts are allowed, but if it's a gift, you have to have a notarized letter saying that there's no expectation of it to be repaid. Otherwise, you have to be able to prove that you've had the money for at least two months. So, to summarize: How much should you bring for a down payment? As much as possible, but at *least* 3.5%. The more, the better. Okay, awesome, you have a down payment! The next thing we're going to do is get you credit qualified. That's easy, right? Eh.... Not quite. It's not quite as simple as just checking your credit score, although that is a part of it. As long as you're above ~650, there won't be a problem with the score. But just to make it more complicated, your Credit Karma score isn't going to really help you. It's been tossed around a little bit, but mortgage companies use a different scoring equation. So it's fantastic if Credit Karma tells you that you have a 750, but if I pull your credit and see a 550, I can't help you. That's an extreme example, but I've seen differences of up to 100 points between the calculation methods. Beyond just the credit score, there are also things on the credit report that we need to see. No bankruptcies discharged in the last two years. (Side note, if you're in the middle of a chapter 13, we can still help you. It might be worth looking into.) We don't *like* collections, but those are case-by-case and we usually ignore medical collections (mostly). As far as late payments go, all we really care about is late payments on the mortgage. If you have a mortgage right now, you have to be current on it. But if you've been late more than twice in the last 12 months, our investors don't want us to take that risk. If your credit score is below 650, it just means you need to shop around a little bit. My last company, for example, was able to lend down to 620 or even 600 with some circumstances. Your local bank might be able to lend on even lower credit scores. It just depends. And while we're on the topic of credit, time for a second about credit pulls. The CFPB has actually put a rule in place stating that after a mortgage company makes a credit pull, you can have every other mortgage company in the country pull your credit and after 45 days, it'll all only count as 1 credit pull. You have a 45 day window for free pulls, you may as well use it and shop around while you can. Okay, great, so you have a down payment and you have your credit qualification. Next step, income! You do have an income, right? Yes, I have actually run into problems with this one before... You HAVE to have an income that reports to the government. If the federal government doesn't know about it, we can't use it. So you 1099 folks, be careful how much you're writing off for business expenses. That can affect how much income we're allowed to use to qualify you. Now, how much do you need? So conventional budget-building recommends that you should keep your housing expenses right about 30% of your budget. Fun fact, when it comes to the mortgage, that's the actual rule. It depends on the mortgage program, but your housing expenses aren't allowed to be more than ~28-36% of your monthly income, although some exceptions occur. In addition, your TOTAL debt-to-income ratio has to be under 45%. Your income is one of the limiting factors for your monthly payment. Okay, so we've already got a lot of the stuff we need to know. Your down payment, your credit qualification, and your income gives us benchmarks for what your payment limits are. There are **6** pieces of information that we need to give you an accurate rate. If anyone is trying to quote you a rate before getting all six pieces of information, be very skeptical of it. It probably won't be accurate. Those six pieces of information: The loan vs the value of the house (LTV), the amount of the loan, the income you're able to use, your credit score, the loan program you're using, and what the purpose of the loan is (in this case, a purchase). Right now, rates are typically in the 4-5% range, *mostly* on the lower end of that. Obviously, though, your mileage may vary. Okay, now for my mini-rant about why rate doesn't actually matter. On a $100,000 loan, a 10 year note at 10% is $1,321 per month. A 30 year note for the same amount at 3.5% is $449 per month. Over the lifetime of the loan, though, the 10 year costs about $158,000 while the 30 year costs $161,000. A .125% change in interest rate on the same 30 year note is a difference of $8/month and about $2500 over the life of the loan. It's not nearly as important as people think it is. Not saying it doesn't matter at all, but that 4% vs that 4.125% isn't quite as big a difference as people think. The difference maker is actually the term of the loan. A $100,000 loan at 4% for 10 years costs you $1,012 per month with a total lifetime repayment of $121,494. The same loan over 30 years is only $477 per month, but you'll end up paying $171,870 before the house is paid off. Extending the loan out 20 years saves you about $750 every month but costs you $50,000 over the life of the loan (spoiler alert, you end up ahead by about 20 years' of payments on the 30 year). What I recommend to people, for the most part is this: Go with the 30 year note, then make extra payments. Why? Because no mortgage since 2008 has prepayment penalties (unless you have a *really* shady bank) and mortgage interest is simple interest, instead of compounding. That's right, mortgage interest does *not* earn interest on itself. Your mortgage interest for the year is calculated at the beginning of the year and scheduled out throughout the year. Every penny you pay over your minimum payment is money paying down the principal of the loan. This makes mortgages one of the easiest loans to pay ahead on. That's why I personally tend to recommend going with a 30-year, then paying ahead when you can. That way, you have the lowest possible payment if something were to happen, but you can afford to throw a ton of extra money at it while you're able to. Okay, so we have your credit, we have your rate, we have the program, all the structures of the loan, all that fun stuff, we're almost done right? Kinda... Next step is the appraisal. If we're going to lend you money on your house, we need to know how much your house is *actually* worth. I've seen a lot of people really not understand what the appraisal is about. It has nothing to do with how recently you put your roof on, how recently you painted, if you recently replaced a door, none of that stuff. The appraisal is based on the prices of houses in the neighborhood and what they *actually sold for*. The appraiser will do some adjustments because not all houses are identical, but it all depends on what your neighbors are selling their houses for. (There are other ways to do appraisals, this is the most common.) And this is where you start to get into all the fees associated with buying a house. Title work, inspections, origination fees, surveys, HOA fees, all that fun stuff. There's a lot of it, but I'll save that for another post because this one is already getting long. Just... Be prepared to need anywhere from $2-5000 dollars to cover the "closing costs" of buying a house. I promise, the fees all make sense and none of them are meaningless, it's just expensive. So congratulations! You now own a home and owe on a debt for 15-30 years of your life. I'll put up another post about the closing costs and what all goes into that at a later date. Until then, be an educated consumer.

This is more like "Introduction to getting a mortgage".

I'm closing on a place on the 26, it's good to know I'm not retarded when it comes to the financial aspect of house buying, it was actually quite easy but that's probably because of my good credit. I do feel like I'm getting hoses somehow when it comes to inspection and closing costs though.

Human: Both policies are with the same company.

Most likely not. Pretty much all homeowners insurance policies exclude motorized vehicles of any type (autos, motorcycles, atvs, boats, etc.).

Quite possibly as the vehicle was parked on private property but they may be able to get out of it by having some kind of clause that states vehicles ar not covered. Would have been a shame for the insurance company if something very valuable happened to be in the car that was taken at the time of the vandalism.

Human: I'm not sure if i should just get a secure card, max it out and then make double the minimum payment or what. That's about all I can come up with. Any advice is appreciated.

>I'm not sure if i should just get a secured card Secured cards are generally how those with no credit start building their credit, so this is a good idea >max it out and then make double the minimum payment What? Why would you do this? Use your credit card for already budgeted for expenses that you could afford to pay for with cash/debit, and pay your statement balance in full every month. Never carry a balance on your credit cards.

I got a college cars from Wells Fargo. It was a start. I also took out a $3500 loan for a car, all when I was about 22. I'm 27 now, have never made a late payment, and my credit score is pushing 800.

Human: I'm a truck driver and I recently got a job in May that pays me a lot more and allows me to be home every day with weekends off. I quit my first job after 6 months because I couldnt stand being cooped up in a truck for 2 weeks at a time before I could come home. I love my current job and they pay me well..but I am paid by the amount of work I accomplish and not by the hour. I've worked it out and I average almost $20 an hour by what I can accomplish(60 hour work week). However, I have to work night shifts to achieve the efficiency so I can avoid traffic and I have to work friday-tuesday to get a weekend bonus. With winter coming up the weather will most definitely slow me down and effect my pay.. I came across a job posting that would allow me to work day shifts at $24.79 as a flat hourly rate and allow actual weekends off. My only concern is that I left my last job after 6months and if I took this job it would only be 4months. Does this look really bad on my part? I just want to work at the place that pays me the most and getting a consistent paycheck would be nice..thoughts? Tldr: First job I had I left after 6 months for better pay. Current job I've been at for 4 months but yet again I've found a job with a significant pay increase. Should I take it or does it look too bad on a resume.

Were you offered the job? If so, take it. What is to say you wont be there for years. If not offered yet, apply for it. It cant hurt. You can always explain in the interview why you have bounced around.

I had a job for 9 months, work at my current job for 6 months, and put in notice for a new job next month. As far as my experience goes I haven't had any issues with my job history. Sometimes you have to chase the money and the benefits.

Human: I am a first year college student and live on my own and work full time. My mom is dead and I am not in contact with my father. I was able to successfully do a dependency override and I just got my award letter today. I got the pell grant of $3,048.00 per semester and the state grant of $696.00 per semester, comes out to $7488.00 per year. This is enough for all of my school + probably more. I do not have a lot of money though, I am about $1500 in "debt" (utilizing 0% intro apr credit cards that begin accruing interest in about 10 months) so I can use all the help I can get. I also have a loan on a motorcycle with $2800.00 left on the balance, I pay 130$ per month for it. ​ My award letter also offered a subsidized loan of $1750 per semester. I'm thinking about taking this loan out even though I don't need it to pay off my bike and give me some extra cushion for emergencies/car/rent or investing until I'm done with school. It seems like a good idea because I have a long way to go before I start accruing interest on the loan. Even if I'm stupid with my money and don't have enough to pay it off when I graduate I doubt this would be a life changing debt when I get a solid job (i'm studying comp sci) ​ Thoughts? ​ Edit: Decided to take out the loan, and I probably will again next year if I get offered another subsidized one. Thanks everyone!

A lot of students take out loans for living expenses as well. I would recommend taking it to build up a cushion since it appears you're already in debt and potentially teetering on the brink of more expensive debt. Be very, very careful that you do not use this money to inflate your lifestyle in any way. If you spend your student loan money on living expenses, make sure it is on a necessity and not a desire. Keep in mind that in a worst case scenario, student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.

You may find these links helpful: - [Student Loans](/r/personalfinance/wiki/studentloans) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](/r/personalfinance/wiki/debt#wiki_what.27s_the_best_way_to_pay_down_my_debt.3F) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: ### If you need help, please check the [PF Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index) to see if your question might be answered there. This thread is for personal finance discussions, questions, and sharing your success stories: 1. *Make a top-level comment if you want to share something positive regarding your personal finances!* Instead of posting individual threads for positive success stories of how you've funded your emergency fund, made progress on your debt, saved for a future goal, reached a certain net worth, or anything else you would like to share, let's consolidate everyone's stories into one weekly thread! 2. *Please make a top-level comment if you want to ask a question! Also, please don't downvote "moronic" questions!* If you have not received your answer within 24 hours, you can feel free to [start a discussion](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/submit?selftext=true). **A big thank you to the many PFers who take time to answer other people's questions!** For past threads, please search the [Weekly Archive](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/search?q=title%3A%28%22Weekend+Discussion%22+OR+%22Triumphant+Thursday%22%29+author%3AAutoModerator&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=year#res-hide-options).

Finally hit the saving milestone I've been looking at since moving into our first home several months ago! I wanted this amount partly because it's the upper limit for the nice interest rate at my credit union, and partly because it's a good several months worth of emergency fund. Celebrated by bumping up our retirement contributions 2% more. Now I've got almost a year to pay off the 0% APR credit card I used to speed up my progress, but it should only take 3-5 months. Then I'll be funneling money towards a car fund so that hopefully we can buy a car in cash when one of our cars (that are racking up the miles but still going strong) finally dies. I really love this sub and I've learned so much in the past almost year I've been reading. Sure you have to take a lot of things with a grain of salt, but before I came here I was so overwhelmed by everything finance-related that I didn't understand and I didn't know where to start. I feel so much better about the future than I did before.

Question about owner-occupied vs investment property and getting a mortgage in the US (California if it matters). My general understanding is that mortgage terms (downpayment required, interest rate, etc) can depend on if it's your primary residence, a second vacation home, or an investment property. Taxes on the sale also depend on whether you you lived in the property and how long you owned it for. Three scenarios: (1) I buy a duplex, live in one half, and rent out the other half. (2) I buy a four bedroom single-family home. I live in one bedroom and rent out the other three. (3) I buy a tenant-occupied single family home. The tenant's lease expires a year from now. I assume landlord responsibilities for a year, collect rent, then do not renew the lease, and move in myself. In each of these cases, when applying for a mortgage, is it a "primary residence" or an "investment property"? In (1) and (2), I think it's primary residence. But in (3), for the first year I'll still be paying rent and living elsewhere and assuming full landlord duties, even though I intend to move into the house and make it my primary residence eventually.

Human: I've been working as a software engineer for 10 years. This year I'm considering taking a leave of absence for 6 to 12 months. I'll be taking the time to travel, study machine learning, and Augmented reality, and rest!. My salary including benefits (401k matching etc) is 105k. My job is okay with me taking that many months off, but there won't be a guarantee that my position will be available when i'm back. I have a mortgage of 1500$, but I have two roommates and that pretty much takes care of it. In addition I've been doing pretty well with the stock market. I'm thinking of focusing on this in the mean time. I have: - 205k on 401k - 87k roth ira - 5k HSA - 20k life insurance investment( I know that was a dumb idea). - 500k on stocks - 280k on options. In terms of debt, I have 200k of mortgage left, 39k on a car. No credit card debt. I do have to pay probably 125k worth of tax for this year :(. I've been cashing out my investments to take care of this ASAP. - insurance 150$ - Monthly car payments 400$ I'm I to reckless to take a leave of absence? Did anyone do something similar? I am 34 with no family.

Take it from a guy who DIDN'T do it: Years ago a buddy and I ran into a couple in a bar on the west coast. The couple was from New York, and they were in the final leg of a year-long trip around the world. They had stuffed all of their belongings into a storage unit, quit their jobs, and were surviving on around $1,000 a month as they traveled. This was 5-6 years ago. Every now and then I sit and stare out my window and wonder "what if." My life isn't bad, I love my job and my family. My wife and I always talked about slumming around Europe, but then she got pregnant, and it never happened for us......and that was almost 20 years ago. Can you afford to do it? Looks like it. Take it from an old guy - you will only get one shot at this. Make it count.

It seems like you have infinite money to me. As long as you do actually improve your skills during that year (machine learning or whatever), it's probably fine. I would advise against sitting around doing a year long pure vacation.

Human: Hey all, I am in desperate need of a new laptop and don't have the cash to just buy it. As a broke **college student** financing seems to be the only way to do so. I currently have a credit score in the 550-600 range and I am looking to also build my credit. Would this be an appropriate way to do so? Any and all help/advice would be greatly appreciated! ​ Some extra background info: * 19 male living in US currently attending university * currently don't have a 'job' but do work as a TA and bring in \~$300/month * I have signed up for UberEats driver service and hope to make \~$100 a week doing so ​ Thanks again!

No. Don’t finance depreciating assets

If you can even get approved for financing with your credit score or already have a card with avail credit. If not, best bet would be to buy a used one or borrow one from your school/friend until you have enough saved up to buy one.

Human: I just turned 30 and my 401k is at ~83k. Currently I am 100% in the S&P500 but I will probably scale back the risk somewhat soon. Below are my year-to-year 401k values. Generally whenever I get a raise at work I add an additional 1-2% of that raise to my 401k. 2013...1872 2014...9388 2015...18051 2016...25523 2017...39560 2018...62394 2019...83000 So, is it fair to fit a polynomial to that? I assume the slope will be a bit misleading since currently I am 100% in S&P500 (eg my gains will slow down, most likely, once I got for less risky options), but of course my annual contributions will continue to rise as well. Just curious since if I fit a polynomial to it, I have a projected ~2.5M at my retirement age with an R^2 of basically 100.

Doing anything more complex than assuming stocks will return a certain percent per year (I assume 6.5-7% going forward) is pointless. I'd leave the polynomials in math class.

You may find these links helpful: - [401(k) Fund Selection Guide](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k_funds) - [401(k) FAQs](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: My wife and I are looking to move out of state (FL to CO) in about 18 months and we have no idea what to do with our 3/2 townhouse. We are a little over 2 years into the mortgage and owe around $123k on it. Last I checked it is worth around $165k (give or take $10k) or it could be rented for around $1.6k/mo (mortgage payment and HOA fee comes to $1.1k/mo). We are located within 20 minutes of two large universities and would have no problem finding renters but idk if it's worth the hassle. We're both under 25 so my inclination is to just cut ties and sell it. Thoughts? (lmk if I left anything important out.) Edit: Another thing to consider is that I could take the profit and use it to pay off a $33k debt consolidation loan that's costing us about $600/mo, we'd be debt free but with essential no assets.

You'll probably need a management company to look after the place if you want to rent it so if call a few to look at the charges for them. They usually charge around 1 month per new lease and around 10% a month

Well, right off the bat we know you owe around 123k, lets just round it up to $124k. If you charged 1k a month, that's 12k a year. At this rate, you would pay off the townhouse in 10 years and roughly 4 months. If you charged $1500 a month, then that's $18000 a year, and would pay off the town house in 6 years and 8 months or so. Now, let's say that you take either route; are you okay waiting 6-10 years for the place to be paid off? What if you rent it, and the renters are late on rent. Are you going to be able to pay the regular mortgage rate? Two perks that you have are universities as you've said. So the clientele is there, but how many rooms do you have? How many people you place in the townhouse, while maintaining a comfortable atmosphere? For example, if you pack the townhouse with 10 people, and it's small, then I'm sure as shit not going to pay that much because it's not a comfortable experience, and there's 9 other people that can split the rent as well. Also, are you comfortable with using Airbnb? Do you have someone that you could trust with the keys, and if so, someone that is reliable and can be reached at varying hours of the day and night? If you take the route, how will you maintain it? Professional cleaning company? Said trusted friend? If you take the Airbnb route, google hotel rates for the week, and what the rooms offer. If you charged $400 a week for the town house, and I had to choose paying $400 for Red Roof, I'm choosing you. Why? There are stoves and fridges. I could buy groceries, and I would save money on food in the long run. Also, you could charge less for the hotels when events are in town. I've lived in hotels when events come to town, and they GOUGE the prices. We're talking going from $60-$75 USD a night, to $150 or more. Even if you're charging $75 ***a night***, when there are hotels that are charging $150 or more, again, I am choosing ***you***. Even at $75 a night, that is $2250 a month, which is $650 more a month then if you simply charged $1600 a month. Whatever you do, good luck!

Human: I’m 24 and have no debts, and only $500 worth of monthly bills. I’m in pace to make about $40k this year and should have about $15,000 saved in my banking account by the end of the year. Should I max my 2018 & 2019 Roth IRA contributions or just contribute a monthly plan to start off? I also contribute what my employer matches on my 401k and have about $9k there.

It's still 2018, so you can only put in $5500 right now. I'd do that, and then another $5500 in January.

You may find these links helpful: - [Retirement Accounts](/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_retirement_accounts) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: I have the option to finish my 2 year degree for IT- programming, which I was half way through about 7 years ago. I contacted them and they stated I could resume it still. Or I also started a degree with the University of Phoenix online, Bachelors degree and was about half way through. I originally was doing UoPx because my job was paying for it, but they stopped and then I stopped. Wondering how I should go about this. They are both for programming and I am very comfortable with many programming languages. Should I even consider UoPx? Is it truly a scam? Edit: at the time I didn't realize that UoP was a mistake and my boss encouraged it.

Hasn't University of Phoenix been like fined by the government cause they're not providing a good education? Do your traditional 4 year degree

If the consensus is to finish your IT degree, is it possible that some of your credits from Uni Phoenix could be applied towards the IT degree? If that’s the case, it might mean finishing the degree quicker and more economically.

Human: My parents helped me out with college and have been paying for about a year on a Parent PLUS Student Loan. Right now, monthly payments are about $1,000 a month, and I give my dad $600 every month to help out with that. I want to do this, as it was for my education. However, they are all in his name. This is a problem for a few reasons: * He wants to move in the next few years, and is worried that having this huge loan on his Credit Report will affect his prospects of getting a new home * I would like these huge payments and Credit history on my own Credit Report. This is a large loan that I know I can pay off, and I want to be able to have it on my history and not my Dad's. It feels like the $600 a month I am paying him is going down the drain a bit. Can I refinance these somehow to get them in my name?

yes, this is possible, but only through private lenders (Federal consolidation does not allow transfer of responsibility). Not every private creditor will do this, either. Some of the key players do, though, like Sofi and Commonbond, as last I knew. Whether you'll get a better rate or not (or even get approved at all) depends on your income, job class, and credit history.

You may find these links helpful: - [Identity Theft Guide](/r/personalfinance/wiki/identity_theft) - [Credit-related wiki pages](/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_credit) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: Im not savings for anything huge like a house or anything, just an emergency fund. Right now is just a job im doing to keep busy until my real job which starts in July gets into motion.

Best advice I ever got was from my grandma. She said keep 10% for "me money" whatever you want to do with it really. 20% saved and the rest on living expenses. Dollar value never came into it just the percentage of the total amount divided up, gotta say... it's worked pretty well for me so far.

You should live on 40-50% of your income. And save and invest the rest

Human: I work construction and anything over 8 hours is automatic overtime and Saturday and Sunday are automatic overtime. Last week my hours were as follows; * Monday (8hrs) * Tuesday (8hrs +2hrs OT) * Wednesday (8hrs +4hrs OT) * Thursday (8hrs +4hrs OT) * Friday (8hrs +4hrs OT) * Saturday (12hrs OT) * Sunday (12hrs OT) So in total I should have had a total of 78hrs (40 Regular + 38 OT) Well I this week I was only paid for 66 (payroll forgot to include our time for Sunday) After calling payroll I was told they would put in an adjustment and it will be included in my next check. I don't know if they are just crediting me an extra 12 hours this week or whatever the difference (after taxes) that they owe me is just being added. My question is since my next check is going to be significantly larger will I be taxed more and in the long run be cheated out of some money since it is being lumped in with my next check which will inflate it. This week on track to work 86hrs (40 regular + 46 OT) so if they add my missing hours I'll have 98hrs (40 regular +58 OT). Assistant: You are never “cheated” out of money in regard to tax withholding. You have a tax burden come tax season- that never changes. You will owe whatever you owe. Your withholding amount can change, but all that will effect is if you get a refund or not, and how large the refund is. It’s a common misconception that overtime and bonuses aren’t “worth it” because they are heavily taxed- they aren’t. They are *withheld* at a different rate. Your taxes come tax season do not change. Human: Thank you, there is a common believe among my peers to try a hit the sweet spot in work hours (60) because anything over that is just lost to taxes.

Yea, that is completely untrue. It is an unfortunate example of our awful financial literacy in this country. You can look up the tax tables. It’s a static number, it doesn’t change.

This is a common belief among everyone's peers and it shows a complete lack of understanding of tax laws, withholdings, and tax returns. If they try and argue, just tell them to discuss it with their tax preparer next year and go on with your life.

Human: So......my coworkers gave me some advice that I’m unsure of. I work in 911 dispatch. We recently lost a dispatcher to forced resignation and as a result, overtime has been plentiful to the tune of 30 hours overtime on my next upcoming check. The pay period has not ended but I’m working my regularly scheduled days so the 30 hours overtime are already locked in I’m going to New York next week on vacation and my coworkers told me to change my W-4 withholdings to 99 so that I get as much of that OT money as possible. One of my coworkers, a 20 year vet, had told me that anything over 20 hours OT usually gets wiped out by taxes so changing the withholding preserves a greater portion for myself. Otherwise, I’ve claimed Single 0 for most of my working life. They told me to change it back right after payday so that it’s only a 1 time deal It all sounded shady to me so I wanted to ask folks who might know better. Googling wasn’t particularly helpful as I couldn’t find anything related to a 1 time change of the withholdings. Thank you for any advice you can offer

You still pay the same in tax at the end of the day. It just depends if the irs holds it till tax day or you do. People who get a large return are just giving the government an interest free loan. Then when you file they give that money back to you.

If you end up oweing taxes multiple times, the IRS will either make you start making quarterly payments for the expected amount you would owe, or they will start fining you. This is an issue if you end up oweing larger amounts more than once.

Human: Hey Guys, With all the talk about the likelihood of an impending stock market crash like we saw in 2008, do you all suppose it'd be a good idea to take 401k money out of stocks and put it into more stable options like bonds until we ride out any crashes in the economy? Is this ever a good idea? At 39 years old, I've got about 60k in my 401k account, invested heavily in highly-yielding stocks (like 100% in stocks). No matter what happens I plan on continuing to contribute as much as I can even through a recession.

Don't try to time the market.

You may find these links helpful: - [401(k) Fund Selection Guide](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k_funds) - [401(k) FAQs](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: Like it says in the title, my car was broken into and stolen last night. I reported the theft to the police and my insurance company immediately when I found out. By the end of the day, I received a call that my vehicle was found and went to meet the officer at that location. The car was badly damaged, the ignition was stripped, the car could not be driven safely due to the damage. I had recently gotten my car detailed and there were only a couple of valuable items in the car which were no longer there after it was recovered. Not a huge deal. However, I realized towards the end of our conversation that an envelope with my insurance, registration, etc was taken from the car. I asked the officer about the implications of this and he was a little dismissive about it, which I thought was odd. These documents contain a lot of personal information that I imagine can be used for fraudulent purposes. What precautions should I take to ensure that none of that information will be misused? I'm especially paranoid about it because my credit card information was recently stolen as well. Both of these incidents have left me feeling violated and paranoid. I've always tried to be fiscally responsible and I want very badly to prevent this from happening again. I've read that I should contact my local DMV to report the documents stolen and a credit agency to request a fraud alert, but that's all I know. Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated. I just want to feel like I'm covered.

Neither of those documents are really worth anything. You can call up your insurance and have your policy number changed of you want. Car registration is pretty much worthless to anyone other than the state. The envelope was probably taken in hopes ot contained something of greater value.

The fact they you're referring to your feelings as violated and paranoid means you might need to speak to someone professionally to address your trauma. You took the usual precautions, but live in a society with other people... shit happens. Do what you can to address your situation, report the stolen items to the state and your insurance company. Request new copies. Get a new car. Lock it when you're not in it, take out anything expensive, hide anything that you don't remove.

Human: Didn't really know where else to post this, sorry if it doesn't belong here. I work at a restaurant where I am supposed to be making $11/hr. However, on my latest paycheck, I noticed that I am now making $12.50/hr. What confuses me about this is that this was not discussed with me beforehand and I have no documentation saying that I was getting a raise. What might my best course of action be and what might happen if it is indeed a mistake? EDIT: I realized I should have mentioned that I work in Minnesota

I had this happen on Jan 1st one year (my first year at this job) and I assumed that it was legitimate. It was apparently a mistake my employer discovered 11 months later and made me pay it back - initially said I had 30 days to pay back, but eventually agreed to let me pay it back at the same pace it was paid to me. It was awful. Bring it to the attention of your employer.

Was the most minimum wage raised as of the first of September in your area? Different industries and different states have different minimum wages

Human: My best friend (who does not make much more than minimum wage) just financed a brand new car with only $1000 down and an 18% interest rate. He should absolutely not have done that and I wish he'd talked to me about it beforehand so I could have talked him out of it. Anyway, my question is : How does someone like him get approved for a loan that he is obviously not going to be able to handle ? What are creditors thinking ?!

In most cases lenders will give people more than enough rope to hang themselves. This is why, for example, if a person is considering a house and the bank will only just give them enough for it there should be major alarms going off about actual affordability. As for the car, if his expenses are low he can probably make payments on this. It will hurt, it won't be fun.

When you get into 18% territory it's usually a smaller lot that knows they'll be dealing with a lot of defaults. They work closely with the repo company and will use tricks like just calling the person back to "rework" the loan then blocking in the car so they don't even have to send a repo man, etc. And there is money in defaults too. There's a whole industry of law firms that will sue over a loan like that, I've worked at one of them. Garnishments, liens, it can get ugly. They crank out hundreds a day, assembly line style. Gone are the days when a car lot would be pissed off and have to hire some lawyer for custom legal work to sue on a $5k default.

Human: I switched my cellphone from Verizon to at&t about 6 months ago. I paid my last bill to Verizon, and verified on my online account that I didn't owe them any money. Last week I got a letter from a collection agency called "Convergent" saying I owe Verizon about 150 dollars. I was never contacted by Verizon about this debt, and when I call Verizon, they wont talk to me about it. As soon as I mention the collection agency, they transfer me to the convergent people. Meanwhile, the convergent people can't even tell me what the money is for. I've asked them several times to provide an itemized bill, and so far they've been unable to. I'm totally willing to pay money if I owe, but this seems sketchy. Verizon claims I owe money, but wont talk to me. Convergent says I owe money, but can't say what for. I don't want them to fuck up my credit. Should I just pay them to make this go away? Do I have any options? I should also say that financially, I could just "eat" this and be fine. I could pay this and not miss any meals. It's more the principal of the thing. I don't want to get bullied into paying something I don't owe. But if its between messing up my credit, and just paying it, I'd rather just pay it.

Ask for them to send you proof of the debt in writing within 30 days and not to contact you until they’ve supported their claim. That should satisfy them also if they start reporting to the credit bureaus you can have the debt removed due to no proof of ownership.

You may find these links helpful: - [Dealing with collections](/r/personalfinance/wiki/collections) - [Credit Repair](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building#wiki_i_have_bad_credit.2C_and_i_am_looking_to_repair_it.) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: My husband decided that it made more sense to use his savings to pay off my student loans because they had a higher interest rate than his savings account. We do not live in the US and he is not a US citizen, so he does not file US taxes but does pay income tax in our country of residence, which exchanges information with the US about taxes (theoretically). I file my US taxes as married filing separately. It was not a small amount of money (somewhere around $30k). How do I report this? Will it get counted as income? Am I gonna get totally screwed when I file 2018 taxes? Assistant: What's there to report? Human: Well he transferred the money from his EU account to my US account so I could pay them. Won’t that kind of large deposit raise flags if I don’t report it somehow?

You only need to report cash deposits exceeding 10k.

No.

Human: I live in the US. My dear Canadian relative surprised me with a check for 5K CAD, but unfortunately the current exchange rate = 3832.45 US. Ordinarily I wouldn't feel comfortable accepting something like this, but I'm about 33K in CC debt... and the cash would provide me with some breathing room. Before you judge, I usually have zero to nil cc balances, but the past couple years of life have been pretty shitty and I needed the CC's to get a few things accomplished. I'm financially weary and can barely see straight so some outside perspective could prove useful... lol. Thanks in advance. ​ Should I: \-pay off my car payment of 3,003.53? \-pay off the balance of a high interest CC 1,700 and then apply the balance to another debt stream? \-do nothing and just keep the cash in my checking acct for a rainy day? (I have a small cushion, but it's tight.) \-something else? ​ ​

Pay off the CCs first. No reason to pay off your car unless it's a higher interest rate than your credit cards

Credit card first. Stop the bleeding. Also, you said you were 33k in CC debt, but then only mentioned your high interest card. Not sure how many cards you have, but pay off the highest interest ones first. You could set aside some for emergencies, but if you aren't able to actively save money, you need to work on a plan to do that as well. Maybe set up direct deposit of a small amount to a savings account, so you don't have to think about it. Could be as low as $10 a pay check. Point is something is better than nothing. ​ High debt is no joke. I've been there. Please don't do "nothing".

Human: Hello, whenever I see calculators for retirement plans, they always assume that you derive an income from investing your money and never touch the principal. This got me thinking - what if don't want to leave a penny to my name? That is, you just assume you'll live to be 100, and the principal can be down to 0 at that point (i.e., during your retirement you can use any combination of investment income from the principal and drawdown from the principal itself ). Would this mean I'll need a smaller pension pot when I stop working? Does anyone know of a model / calculator that shows how this would work, considering taxes and inflation? Thanks! Assistant: I'm not sure if I've ever seen a retirement calculator that assumes you can't touch the principal. The goal is generally just to not run out of money. Trying to make sure you *do* run out of money just before you die sounds problematic, because it's very unlikely you'll get the timing right. Chances are that either you'll die too soon and fail to run out of money, or you'll run out too soon and starve to death as a direct result. The only calculator I can recall seeing that explicitly considers death at all is this one: http://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/ Human: Thanks - I'm not interested in timing it right (e.g., it's ok if you have still 100k left at the end), but I wonder if by allowing to touch the principal you'll need a smaller pot (hence allowing you to retire earlier or at least at a resonable age). Do you know if that's the case? Assistant: As the first comment in this thread said, most retirement plans take into account your principle investment along with your gains when planning for your retirement. Is there somewhere you read/heard that said retirement plans aren’t allow to withdraw principle? Human: Perhaps I've been looking at the wrong calculators - but if you're allowed to do that, how do you make sure you don't run out of money? Can you please link to a calculator that does that? Thanks!

You can't be sure, of course, but this is why most retirement plans have you gradually shifting your money out of equities into less volatile investments, and eventually into cash, while relying heavily on actuarial charts.

Pretty much every calculator assumes you'll live for 25 years after you retire. I don't know a single one that assumes you'll withdraw 0% of principle

Human: Hello. Sorry if this is the wrong place for this. So, moved into new apartment and want to buy a new TV. First big electronics purchase besides phones (current tv I got for free for graduation present) and kinda lost. Saved up some for a cheaper model, but have since been convinced to not buy cheap brands and low quality for many reasons, so planning on buying a more expensive model even if that means making a couple payments. Both Costco and Bestbuy have the same tv for the same price. With Costco, I'd have to pay for it all upfront on my card and pay credit card interest (23% on my current card, ??? If I get their card). This would be there first time in two years I've carried a balance on a credit card. Dont like that idea. But they do throw in a free 3 year extended warranty (5 years if I sign up and use their costco credit card). With that, I'd have the whole thing paid off in two months, meaning one month of interest. (note; have costco membership for free through my parents' ranch). Bestbuy has their no interest financing for 24 months. But I'd have to pay for their extended warranty. Meaning I'd be looking at three months to pay it off, though I'd have to ability to stretch it out more if need be. Basically, has anyone used either, or both of, these companies? How are they? How are their warranties? Is costco's warranty good enough for one month of interest on less than a $1000 (since I plan on using what I saved and only charging the remaining balance), or are the the same enough that 0 interest from bestbuy is the better option? Assistant: I’m sorry, but if you can’t buy a **television** without financing you can’t afford it. Period, end of discussion. Now if you can buy it in cash but want to use 0% financing that’s another story, but if you don’t have whatever the cost of the tv is in your bank account today you can’t afford it. Human: It's not that I cant buy it outright if i want to dip into my other savings, like my Europe fund (for my trip next summer), it's just that the money I earmarked specifically for a TV isnt enough to cover it once I got convinced not to be a cheapskate and buy quality. And haven't decided yet if I want to dip into other earmarked monies.

Uh, you cant afford it. You have a vacation fund...if you dont want to dip into it its probably bc you wont be able to save that amt you took out...even in a year...you cant afford it.

Probably best for you to wait a couple of months and then buy. Will work out perfectly too with Black Friday having the best TV deals of the year.

Human: I’m in quite a bit of credit card debt. I have 4 cards and with the money I just got I can completely pay off two of them and either pay half off another card or split the payment and give have to one card and half to the other. Which will look better on a credit report?

Prioritize the cards with the highest interest rates.

Well, having four cards with carried balances looks bad on a credit report no matter what, so forget about your credit score for the time being and save yourself the maximum amount of money, which means first attacking the balance with the highest interest rate. Then the next-highest, etc.

Human: I had my first child in December. She was born with a heart defect and a hereditary disease. All of our savings went into that. (Good news! The disease ended up being extremely mild and she will very likely never show and symptoms, and the heart defect resolved itself as of June. So she is healthy now. ) In May I was laid off from my job, with no chance to replace any savings. I have been surviving on unemployment Benefits. $466 a week. I applied for and was approved for Utah Medicare. I got hired at Goldman Sachs and am currently waiting to clear background so I have been given as official start date and I have not signed any offers. Earlier this week I got sick and my doctor found signs of leukemia. That night I was admitted and it was confirmed. I have acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The hospitals in Utah are very good about treating you with out ever even looking at your insurance. So I’m not too concerned about paying for the chemo. But I am very worried about paying monthly bills and food for my family. I had applied for the state run food stamps and financial aid which would be roughly $300 for food a month and I’m not sure how much the financial aid is. I wouldn’t guess more than 300-400 a month. My unemployment is gone since I was admitted to the hospital. One of the requirements is that you have to be able to work 40 hours a week. I live in Utah, USA, I am married but my wife is a resident not a citizen, and I have a 9month old daughter. I am 35 years old. I own my home, mortgage is $960 a month, I own my car but we paid it off. I have $5000 in credit card debt. My wife has somewhere between $2,000-$3,000 in cash at home. Assistant: I worked through several rounds of chemo. The effects are different for everyone. I didn’t stop until surgery. Get life insurance for your wife. Ask you he hospital for assistance, and talk to their social worker about any government programs that may help you out. Human: With my chemo they said I cannot leave the hospital and they are restricting who can come see me. Leukemia kills your immune system. So working remotely is my only option. But I guess it’s worth asking. Also, life insurance, since I have already been diagnosed, won’t they all deny me coverage?

> Also, life insurance, since I have already been diagnosed, won’t they all deny me coverage? Most likely.

I think that poster clarified, but they meant insure your wife. You will be impossible to insure now, but she is not. You want your kid to be taken care of in case something happens to both of you.

Human: Ok so Im a 19 y/o living in montreal. Yesterday I got kicked out of my house but I was prepared since it was meant to happen soon or later. But the provlem is all my stuff is still at home(I only have the clothes I had + a backpack with perfum, deodorant , a water bottle + a hoodie) im still in school and I have a shit ton of things to do for this week but I dont have any of my stuff. I cant go home to take them because We left on very bad terms. Altho not all is lost, I hav 2 jobs, workin around 20-25 hours a week. I have some savings + I have a computer I can sell for about 700-800$ easily. Im just lost at what I can do? Yesterday I went out until 5 and then slept on a roof top and then at concordia, but IDK if ill be able to do that everyday? I have some really good friends who can help me out if needed, but I dont want to spend too much time squatting at theirs. Ill probably leave my stuff there once I get it all back tho. I have an iphone 7 without a sim(my real phone was taken by my sister) so I have to go and get a sim card with at leadt unlimited texting because thats how me and my bosses communicate. Is there something else I can do? I was thinking of going to my teachers and explain to them the situation, especially since monday I have a kind of oral presentation on some readings but I havent finished reading the pages+ I dont have the book with me. Is there something else I can do? Tl;dr: 19 homeless dude, I have 2 jobs + some Money saved ( about 300, not much but it is what it is). What can I do? Anyone have advices? I am also used to not eating for long periods of time (ramadan) and I can get some free food from subway. Any and every suggestions is deeply appreciated. Edit 1) reason why I gor kicked out https://reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/9g25vg/_/e60yunl/?context=1 Also thank you all, im still reading all the replies. I might not respond to all of them but I got a phone number( prepaid card, 20$ per month with unlimited texts and a 50 mins to talk) Edit 2) waw honestly thank you guys, I’m gonna go get my stuff later on today. And I do have access to showers so thats not much of a problem. Assistant: From the post, it looks like you go to Concordia University. You might want to try People’s Potato. It’s a student group that makes free food for lunch. It’s on Hall Building 7th floor. You just need to bring containers. You can bring more containers and have some leftovers. Regarding places to live, you can check Facebook marketplace for montreal rooms to rent. You might be able to find a cheap room for a short period of time. Human: I actually dont go to concordia, im still in cegep (at ahuntsic), its just I always used to go to concordia to study(still do) and since my sister went there, she showed me a shit ton of good spots in JMSB, so I can survive Assistant: I’m pretty sure they would give you food still. Human: Do I need to have a student card? Because if so I dont think itll work, but otherwise this is actually a good idea! I just have to find a container with a matchig top 🤔🤔

I don’t think you need a student id. Give it a shot! The Dollorama in Faubourg has got you covered for containers and utensils.

I go to Concordia, trust me you'll be fine for the peoples potato food. Try to look like you belong

Human: Bought house year ago for $230k now the value is $285k. I haven’t invested anything into it. Do I take the money and run?

Well, where would you live? And what would you do with the money? Your cost (estate agent fees) to sell the house would be about $17k/ So your profit would be about $38k. You have not lived in the house for 2 years, so you would not get the capital gains tax exemption on primary residence. Your capital gains tax rate would probably be 15%, so the tax would be $5,700. At the end of the day, you would walk away with about $32k and no house, and probably a lot of furniture and stuff with no place to put it. I would just keep the house. Good luck.

Don't forget you also lose around $23K of that to commissions and closing fees, so it's not as much money as you think.

Human: Hi finance peps :) I found this great local ex-vanguard high net worth financial planner that charges 1% of a persons salary to be their coach/planner for the year. I've had a couple meetings with him and he seems great however I'm about $35k in debt right now (credit card). I've done a lot of self work in the last year and have a budget that I'm sticking to, and working to increase my cash flow. My question is...should I wait and use his services after I pay down debt or is it wise to use him now so we're pre-planning my post debt life now vs later? Currently, he's helping me align my 401k and hsa investment portfolio, and some little budget stuff but I'm not sure this stuff will take more than a month to do...so why pay a financial planner all year? Thanks! Would love to hear someone's thoughts/experiences in similar positions.

I don't think this is a smart decision at the moment. CC debt is not like safer debt, you're paying ridiculously high interest rates on it. Really will not see much of a net-positive by diverting money into savings versus throwing it at this. Your #1 priority at the moment should be getting that to a manageable level.

Credit card debt is the worst debt there is short of owing money to a drug dealer. There is *no* investment opportunity that will yield more interest than your debt is costing you - any and all spare money you have should be going towards clearing that debt. You don't need to pay some guy 1% of your money to tell you that.

Human: Hi all, two questions about Vanguard: 1. I've been depositing $50-$100 monthly in a Roth IRA there for about 6 months now. I'm not even close to 3k minimum for their funds. What do I do with that money until I hit 3k? 2. Why is their interface so bad? Is there some kind of a guide (not made by them) that allows to learn how to navigate ? I can't even find where to edit my monthly deposit without having to Google it. The website is awful, the app is awful. Huge turn off and since it's hard to navigate I'm worried about making a costly error.

Why not buy shares of an etf instead of a mutual fund? ETF's have no minimums, and are essentially identical to the Admiral Share class of the matching Vanguard mutual fund. You could go with VT for total world stock market diversification.

Move your money to schwab or fidelity. I don't think Vanguard charges a fee. You can invest in several index funds at schwab for as little as $100 and IDK firsthand but I heard you can start investing is several index funds at fidelity with just $1. You could also move your money over to M1 finance which lets you buy fractional shares of stocks and etfs so you can invest every penny, for free.

Human: Hello sub, I have a concern I would like to relate to you all. Please keep in mind, I am twenty-four years old and this is the only property I have ever owned. Around 5 years ago me and my sister were given a property totalling I was told around 0.88 acres. It’s a simple, set of four lots bordering a somewhat low-income area. It was until recently quite out of sorts with large concrete chunks and such littering it all over. Some people had also thrown sofas and some couches on the property. It was not in good shape. Since, I haven’t had much drive to do anything with the property, it has just kind of sat. I know I should have done better, but, I have has many concerns over the years and this just isn’t one of them. Recently, however, a note was received in the mail from the fity demanding that it be cleaned up and accompanying it were some dire threats of this was not carried out. My sister’s husband attempted to clear and smooth it out but it was apparent that his equipment, a tractor, was not sufficient. He was thanked profusely for his efforts, nonetheless. Me, my mom, and my sister sat down and discussed options. My mom called the city and they were very gracious and understanding and gave us a two-week extension. We decided to get quotes on dirtwork options and my sister mentioned that her husband had a family friend who did stuff like this, and, that it would cost $2000. Me and my mom explained that it would be better to do some more looking since we had time and it was understood that more quotes would be gathered. A few days of me and my mom looking for quotes, my mom discovered an experienced owner and operator of a bulldozer who would do the job for $800. A day later, a bulldozer was seen on the property as the $800 operator was shown the property. My mom immediately discovered that my sister had given the go-ahead for the family friend to do the work. We were both furious. My sister was immediately called and questioned and she revealed she bad done this. (A quick aside: my sister is overweight, impulsive, and not really bright at all. She had to take low level math classes to pass high school. Impetuously thinks she grasps topics that are far beyond her understanding.) On the phone call she immediately starts bawling and whining pitifully, her typical response to any serious mistake. Next day, her husband comes riding into my mom’s house complaining about the phone call (nothing unreasonable was said) and then my sister arrives. A long conversation ensues in which sister and her husband pressure me over and over again to sell this property and I kept reiterating that it needs to be fenced and surveyed and that I need to speak with some sort of financial advisor to see if this is a good decision. (The taxes on the property are very, very, very low and I have been curious about whether it will appreciate). It also slips out in the conversation that sister’s husband’s cousin, that they share a business with, is wanting a new place to house their equipment for their propane business. This was a discussion in which I was calm and considerate of their viewpoints but my sister was curling up on the couch and screeching like a drowner poked with a silver sword. I am currently going to school right now after leaving an awful, yet lucrative job. I have few financial obligations except for school, which, I might leave if the right job pops up. I am just asking what you guys think I should do. Buy her out, sell her my share? Should I buy it to let it appreciate and sell it later? I really don’t relish living in that area again. Sorry for huge post. Thanks everyone.

Owning land that you don't intend to use in the foreseeable future is generally a bad idea. Personally, I'd sell, if they're willing to pay what it's worth (which sounds dubious from your description). P.S. Not sure why it's relevant that your sister is overweight.

It sounds like you don't want to sell and are considering buying her out. I can't imagine 0.88 acres near farmland is going to cost all that much. Find out what her husband's cousin is willing to pay and offer to pay her half, assuming you can spare the funds

Human: A friend in California has recently become conservator of her elderly mother. As part of the conservatorship, the courts have ordered that the bulk of the mother's money be placed in blocked conservatorship accounts. Furthermore, they have asked that since the amount of money is large, the money be placed in multiple institutions, each with an amount under the FDIC limit. However, this friend quickly learned that some banks basically lose their shit when you ask them to open a conservatorship account. They just aren't good at it. At Wells Fargo, it took them five and a half hours to get the account open, as they had to escalate to upper management and their legal department multiple times. Word on the street is that Bank of America is apparently not much better. So my question is: does anyone have a recommendation for banks that can open conservatorship accounts without much fuss? Los Angeles area banks preferred. Thanks!

I have a conservator account for my minor son at Chase. I used to work at Washington Mutual in Valencia before Chase bought them out. Chase knows how to do this with little to no trouble, they also have accounts for celebrities that are minors because they require a special type of account to protect the child's money. I honestly don't like big name banks so I'd look into credit unions also, I have accounts for him there too, but in another state. As you said, FDIC only insures up to a certain amount so having the funds at different banks is better. Honestly....ask for a banker with the most experience in these accounts, this sounds like an inexperienced person, sorry for your bad experience. The branch manager can also do them.

I would recommend going to a large city branch for this. It’s uncommon enough that a lot of smaller branches would probably end up calling a larger branch for instructions on how to set the account up. Might as well cut out the middleman. Another option is looking into a private bank with the amount you are planing to deposit. There are independent private banks, or private banking arms of largest commercial branches. They often have better customer (“client”) service, benefits, and flexibility.

Human: Firstly- anything else that I need to provide them? Secondly- anything I should plan to do for myself? BTW- this is an hourly wage job that is “part time” (~38 hrs/wk). No benefits. No contract.

Depending on location, they might just let you go on the spot, so be prepared for that I guess. They might want to do an exit interview to see why you are leaving.

Like kenny Rodgers sang, you gotta know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away and know when to run. Sometimes if not full time quitting immediately is ok, they didn't treat you professionally by working nearly full time and withholding benefits, fuck them

Human: I live in PA. She brought up the idea today after telling me she's retiring. I've lived here rent free most of my life, but I help her with bills and maintenance. House is in good shape, probably worth about 110k. She wants to sell it to me for 86k. I don't have any money for a down payment, as I've been throwing my money at debt. I have a decent amount in my 401k that I might be able to to borrow for a down payment. What do I do? I've never bought a house before.

Please don't touch your 401k to do this. You'll not only have to pay it back but you will lose a ton of compound interest by taking money out.

You may find these links helpful: - [Retirement Accounts](/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_retirement_accounts) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: I am currently working as a sex worker, along with several other jobs. Someone told me today that, if I am claimed as a dependent (which I am), I will have to disclose all income to my parents so they can file it on their taxes. Is this true, or can I file myself?? I have been doing my taxes myself for the past couple years, but I was not a sex worker, so my parents having access to income records would not be a problem. I am EXTREMELY worried about this. Edit: thank you to everyone who has commented - I feel a lot better now. I wasn’t able to find any info online about my situation, so I greatly appreciate your help!!

Them filing you as a dependent does not give them special access to your records. You should either tell them not to claim you as a dependent or give them accurate totals for everything, leaving out the details of how you obtained that money. I'd recommend doing your own taxes.

No, as DeluxeXL stated they are completely different things. If they claim you as a dependent, it means that they are providing the majority of your support. Meaning food, housing, etc.

Human: I’ve posted numerous times and have always received great advice, so I want to say thank you in advance. So 2 years ago I separated with my wife and moved back to my home town with my mother/sister/grandparents because I needed help with my kids. I was unemployed and incredibly depressed, I took a job making $13 an hour, and I received a couple of raises and promotions for working hard and what not. Last may after a bunch of great advice from this sub I’m now making close to $50k a year (with over time). Because we live with family we don’t have many living expenses, and over the last 2 years I’ve paid off over 25k of debt, my credit score went from 590 to 720, and my only remaining debt are my federal student loans. My emergency fund is at about 3 months, and I have over 10k in credit cards if ever needed. To be honest I’ve been spending money kinda frivolously because I was going through a divorce and now because she passed away (retail therapy I guess). Because of her passing we’ll now receive about 1k a month in survivor benefits, and I don’t know how to plan for that. I could very quickly save up to buy a house right now, but I don’t know if that should be a priority because to be honest I still need help with my children, and there are so many other living expenses I’d absorb. Also we currently live in a suburb and I don’t know if I could afford to live in the area and keep my kids in the same school. Part of me feel like I should just leave that money separate and start college funds for all my kids. Also I’m 33 and don’t have much saved for retirement. My 401k isn’t even a year old and I’m only contributing 5% a month. I’ve made a ton of steps in the right direction, and I want to stay on track. Any advice would be appreciated. Assistant: 4 kids are a lot. I would save for your retirement, and pay off your student loans. When you are done with that, you can help your kids out more. Living with family will allow you to save more so I would recommend against getting a different place until you absolutely must. Kids get expensive. Save the money. Human: I completely agree with you, but it’s so hard to live under someone else’s roof. It just kinda drains on you.

I know you want to set your kids up a bit with college funds but remember that they can borrow for college but you can't borrow for retirement.

Watch Dan Lok on youtube. He explains how rich people do it. They find somethjng that makes them money then use that to buy things. Saved up myself for my first house and it became a rental. Just buying a house isn’t the right move. You need to buy low, sell high when buying a house. A lot of people just buy when the house they want is available (usually spring to fall when kids are out - so this is when to sell). It needs to be timed. Sometimes you may find an objectively good buy, but don’t shop for a house like you shop for a car. Time it.

Human: I'm pivoting in my career to the trading desk at a major bank and was told that there are regulations/laws about my personal investments once I start. Can anyone explain these in Layman's terms? Do I have to sell all my personal stocks, or just declare them? Do they actually care or is it just a general recommendation? Any insight would be great

Have you tried asking people at work? You know, the ones who have certainly dealt with this before?

Layman's explanation: Your company policy will determine whether you have to sell them or not. It will also determine other specifics - what I say below is just general guidelines, and I've added a lot of "likelys" since reddit is full of pedants and they'll probably descend on this post and try to pick it apart with anecdotal evidence of one single instance where a friend worked for a bank and didn't have to do those things. Source for all this: I work in a supervisory role within the Compliance department of a dually-registered firm. I'm actually looking at this exact subject-matter at the moment for work as a matter of fact. They absolutely do care, and it's not a "general recommendation" - it's an SEC rule. Don't go trying to hide things - it's no big deal - your firm is totally expecting you to have stocks. Hiding stuff will just result in a bigger deal and potentially get you fired. It's not worth it for something that is so run-of-the-mill ordinary. At a minimum you will likely have to disclose brokerage accounts where you can trade intra-day priced securities (equities, etfs). At a minimum you will likely have to have your accounts setup so that your new firm receives duplicate confirms and statements. This is painless, and basically just involves them sending a letter to your brokerage firm or firms. They do this so that they can monitor what you are trading, which they are required to do. It's not so they can "steal your sweet trading insight bro." Note: As a trader you may very well be considered an "insider" -- in which case different rules apply, likely including some sort of blackout dates or pre-clearance. But your firm will be able to tell you more about that - and you won't be the first trader there who actively plays in the markets I can assure you. Things get a bit hairier with a lot of the stuff millennials seem to be into - weed stocks, crypto. Your firm may very well have more restrictive rules around that stuff, but they may not. I know my firm we consider employee investments in crypto to be currency, so it's not restricted. Hope this helps. Tried to keep it layman-style and not include SEC Rule citations or anything since I didn't want to put anyone to sleep on a Saturday afternoon.

Human: So, I'm getting my life together slowly, but surely. However due to my partner being jobless for a few months. We've gotten behind on bills and rent. I've got a 401 k with about 5k in it and was thinking of taking out 2-1.5k I know there are taxes and penalties but, what other unforseen things can happen from taking money out early. Any info and advise is appreciated.

The unforseen thing is at age 65 your retirement fund will be about $26k smaller than it would be if you didn't take out $2k and given the tax and penalties on $2k you are really pulling out $1300 and missing out on $26k at age 65 You should have been working this problem the day your partner became jobless, namely finding some temp work, cutting back on expenses, ...

You may find these links helpful: - [401(k) Fund Selection Guide](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k_funds) - [401(k) FAQs](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: What's the best way to pay down credit card debt? I have about $40,000 in credit card debt spread over 10 different accounts with $20,000 of cash in hand from a "gift". Should I try and totally pay off a few cards or spread it out over as many as I can to get the balances down? The balances range from $1,000-$12,000. Assistant: Avalanche technique seems to be the best and cleanest way to get rid of debt. Highest interest rates first. And snowball the amount that you were paying in interest on to the next debt. Human: Explain this concept please....

Say, you're paying minimum $100 on card A at 25%, $50 on card B at 9% and $50 on card C at 12%. 100+50+50=200 Say you could pay $250 total if you really try. Pay off card A completely with the original $100 plus the $50 more every month, while paying minimum on the others. 150+50+50=250 Then you put $200 payments on card C and $50 on card B until card C is paid off, then you pay the entire $250/month on card B until it is paid off. 200+50=250 http://unbury.us/ https://undebt.it/

Knock out account debts completely one by one starting with highest interest.

Human: So to start off I am a disabled veteran and rely completely on my disability checks from the Department of Veteran Affairs. A few days ago I got a letter from the Treasury Department saying I owe $68k (to the Department of Defense - NOT the VA) and to expect my wages to be garnished... and to top that off they froze my bank account. Prior to this I had still been struggling financially but was slowly making progress towards being able to save something in case of an emergency .... well none of that matters at this point. I have absolutely no money right now I used my last $8 yesterday for gas (which was mostly change I found between the seats) ... I am trying to stay positive about the situation but for someone who has already attempted suicide more than once and has crippling depression .... This is really messing me up. I am sure it is a mistake there is absolutely no way I could possibly owe $68,000 ... I mean for fucks sake I sleep on a 15 year old broken Walmart futon held together with duct tape and a piece of plywood.... and it's stuck in the couch position. So if I had this magical $68k they are claiming you could bet your ass I'd splurge on at least an air mattress lol I called the phone # on the paperwork to try to figure out what this whole thing is about and the woman couldn't be any less helpful if she tried. It says I can request a hearing - so I am absolutely going to do that .... but what am I suppose to do in the mean time? I have like $2 in change ... and that's it. I feel like fucking crying - I just can't catch a break. I have a couple half-siblings but we haven't spoken in years so it's not like I can ask any of them to Western Union me $100 while I figure things out ... I am feeling really stuck and not seeing too many options. Any advice would be really appreciated ...

This sounds like something to also contact your state representatives about. Maybe even some local news stations. Also I think it's 311 to call for community services but someone can correct me if I'm wrong. If you can, also add your state. Might help with options. Here are some resources that might be of some help. Not sure how much the gig ones will help though with the frozen accounts. - /r/militaryfinance people know more specifically related to military issues - /r/assistance (account must be registered and have +300 karma) - /r/borrow (account must be 90 days old with at least +1000 karma) - /r/care (account must be verified, 6 months old, and have +100 karma) You may also find some of these subreddits helpful: - /r/almosthomeless if you are homeless or in immediate danger of becoming homeless and need advice or assistance. - /r/homeless for homelessness-related articles and resources. - /r/food_pantry is a place where you can request a meal or hygienic necessity. - /r/randomkindness is for when a small act of kindness can go a long way. - /r/frugal for tips on maximizing resource allocations. - /r/beermoney for discussing ways to make some extra cash online. - /r/slavelabour for odd jobs listings. - /r/personalfinance/wiki/sideincome ideas for bringing in some cash - /r/depression is a supportive place for those struggling with depression. (Sorry to just spam links. It's a scripted response for people to give other places to reach out)

Contact the VA anyways, see if they know what's going on. At the very least, they might be able to help point you in the right direction. Head over to r/MilitaryFinance too, in case anyone has any idea what might cause it. There are a bunch of random situations where military benefits have been clawed back retroactively (not just in the US either, there was a hundred million dollar lawsuit a few years back in Canada on a similar deal). Edit, other thoughts: (Note make sure you call numbers you find off of official government websites, not random letters or emails you got - just to make sure you're not getting scammed - though if your bank accounts are frozen it drastically decreases the chance that you're being scammed) I wouldn't read too much in to the treasury department vs. VA. For example if you're paying the government for immigration expenses, the check is written out to the Treasury Department directly, not USCIS or DHS or whatever. So that could just be where they want the money to go, not who is saying you're responsible for paying stuff back.

Human: I payed what I thought was the remainder of one of my student loans, but after the payment went through there was still a $1.71 left. I'm not worried about it, just curious why it was fully payed off.

Probably an additional day of interest that wasn't in the payoff quote... Maybe your payoff hit 1 day later than expected. Congrats on paying off your loans.

You may find these links helpful: - [Student Loans](/r/personalfinance/wiki/studentloans) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](/r/personalfinance/wiki/debt#wiki_what.27s_the_best_way_to_pay_down_my_debt.3F) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: I have $25k ($19.4k invested and $5.6k in total gains) in an E*TRADE account and $25k of student loan debt at a 7.9% interest rate. Should I sell my stocks to pay off the student loans? I believe the CAGR for the stock market is ~6% so I believe it makes sense to use the stocks to pay off the loans, but I don’t know if I am missing anything. I realize I will also have to pay tax on the gains as well. I also have a 401k of 180k, $30k in cash and $25k in RSUs that aren’t vested yet. Age 30. Thanks for the help!

As long as you won’t be penalized (as in if it’s a retirement account) I would do it

You may find these links helpful: - [Student Loans](/r/personalfinance/wiki/studentloans) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](/r/personalfinance/wiki/debt#wiki_what.27s_the_best_way_to_pay_down_my_debt.3F) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*