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danielv835

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Human: I was reading this article on Investopedia that compares ETF's to mutual funds. It states that you would need to invest $60000 in an ETF for one year to offset the cost of of a mutual fund and that therefore, for the most part, mutual funds were a better choice. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/mutualfund/05/etfindexfund.asp

You shouldn't be paying $20 commissions. Schwab offers free trades on their ETFs, which actually have lower expense ratios than vanguard.

You may find these links helpful: - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [Investing wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing) *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 an accidental landlord and just found out I lost homestead exemption. I'm also having to pay a shortage because I technically lost it for last year as well. My mortgage payment was once $1120/month with my tenants paying $1250 in rent. Now my mortgage is $1288 for the next 12 months, so I'm operating at a loss. I don't have much savings to put into a serious maintenance issue, but I do carry American Homeshield. My tenants signed a lease purchase contract in February of 2016 that was set to close on January 15th, 2017. They've agreed to purchase the house at $172900. I currently owe $158500 on the mortgage. In January, they told me that they still had a credit judgment that was preventing them from securing a loan for the house but were still interested. I extended the contract through March, and now they're being really vague about their ability to purchase it by then while still expressing interest in buying it. Maybe you can help me understand if their dilemma is truly solvable: - Foreclosure in 2011 - Two credit cards sent to collections in 2006 and 2007 ($2600 and $1900 balance each). Each account was closed by credit grantor and their credit report says "Bad debt; placed for collection; skip" - One pubic record judgment filed in 2013 for a credit card with a balance of $4100. - No inquiries in last 120 days. His credit score is currently 643, which is high enough for an FHA loan. However, he tells me the loan agency said it's only the 2013 credit judgment preventing him from securing the loan, and he's trying to get it removed. I have ~$5000 of their money that I'll keep if they don't buy the house, but they can use it towards their down payment upon completion of the sale. Last I checked, they had about $3500 in their own savings to complete the down payment. I assume and hope they have more at this point. Would the one credit judgment really be preventing him from securing the loan? Here's what I'm thinking: Since they've never been late and keep the house in great shape, I should give them another year with a few caveats. Their rent will be raised by $100 to help with additional cash flow. The area has seen a rise in average home prices, so I'll raise the asking price to $175900. OR I can tell them sayonara, get a realtor, sell the house on the market, and hope and pray I'd close at $172900, which I don't believe will happen. My tenants buy the house? I make about $14k on the sale before taxes. I sell with a realtor? $9k before taxes if I'm lucky. And that's if it sells. I could end up kicking out tenants that have been great renters and having to sign new people that may be awful. tl;dr - I'm currently operating at a loss with my rental property. Great tenants have credit judgment preventing them from buying house. History includes multiple collections and a foreclosure. Credit score is 643. Enough money there for down payment. Should I extend their lease to ensure I get the most money on the sale of the house, or should I kick them out, try to sell at a lesser profit with a realtor, or find myself stuck with new but bad tenants?

Even at a loss per month, you get to declare depreciation on the house. While that's not a _gain_ per month, it does offset whatever other income you have by several thousand dollars. (I get something like $13k per year on a condo.) And, of course, during the next year, the house should appreciate in value. Maybe, and I'd need to reread your summary to see if you've already recognized this or if it's possible with your agreement with them, in exchange for waiting another year to sell it to them, you reevaluate the price a year from now rather than a fixed sum now. (Though you risk a potential drop in the price.)

I'd want to know how much appreciation you expect in the next year. It may be worth keeping the existing good tenants even if they can't buy in the end so you can later sell at a higher price. Hopefully you have two separate agreements, one for the lease, one for the option to purchase. And I'm assuming that the rent amount does not include any credit towards purchase price. If it does, that could change the math in favor of getting a new tenant then selling for market value at the time the tenant leaves. From what I understand, lease option deals usually benefit the tenant unless they do not exercise the option. There would be no way to know if that is true in your case without knowing expected appreciation and what kind of credit (if any) you are giving them towards purchasing. I think the realtor fees are a non-issue. If you can complete this lease option transaction without a realtor, you can sell later on Craigslist without a realtor. It is the same amount of marketing and paperwork either way.

Human: My car loan was apparently sold recently from Harris Bank to a company called CSC Logic inc. It gives me the option of making my monthly payment through Western Union Speedpay. It kind of makes me uncomfortable. Is this a legitimate operation? Just looking for some clarification, thanks.

Call Harris and validate the transfer. You are wise to be wary of any money wire payment option. Assignment is a common practice and is allowable unless your contact says otherwise.

Even if it gives you the other option to pay, why does it matter? Why can't you pay with the existing method or just write a check?

Human: Howdy r/personalfinance! My fiancé is 8 weeks pregnant. After quite a lot of talking and hopping back and forth we've decided to continue with the pregnancy and start a family. Off of our income we could raise a child and support ourselves but I absolutely do not want to wreck myself financially or live the rest of our days in poverty. Between the two of us we probably pull in 40k a year before taxes. I'm set to begin training for a higher position in the next couple of weeks which should boost our income by another 7-13k in time for the baby. She has debt from when she was younger. 600~ credit card debt. 3,500 in car loans. About 700 in hospital bills. My total debt is about 1250. Unpaid hospital bill and a debt in collections over a terminated contract with my mobile provider. We only pay 150 a month for rent for now. Expected to be 500 in a month or two. I personally bring in about 500-600 dollars a week (paid weekly). The baby is expected to be here in October. What can I do with this weekly income to start getting prepared for this baby? I'm extremely nervous. This is going to be one of the biggest jumps I'll ever make. I don't have a car. We're living in her parents guest house. I need to get the ball rolling immediately. I just don't know where to begin. Please help guide me. I know for a fact that there's a lot of things I should've started doing as of yesterday. I just don't have guidance on the matter. Tl;dr - Fiancé is pregnant. 40k a year combined income. I make 500 a week on average alone. Current bills only 150 a month for rent. I don't have a car. What should I start doing immediately.

My opinion: the fact that your first thought when you find out you're having a baby is to get your life in order means you're going to be okay. It'll probably be very hard, but only knowing that you think this way gives me much confidence in your ability.

Congratulations. With some effort you'll be just fine. Get the book Total Money Makeover on eBay or at the library. It will teach you what you need to know.

Human: On Monday I signed on a good priced used Toyota 4runner. The dealer worked in a service contract with the loan price that I willingly signed for. (That's a totally different story). By Friday I called the dealer to cancel the service contract which clearly states I have 30 days to do with full refund minus a $75 fee. BTW, the contract added $1800 to the loan over 4 years. My issue: The dealer had me send them an email with VIN and mileage along with reason for canceling. I have no receipt for the cancellation that's written into the contract. Dealer said the cancellation won't show up for about 6 weeks when I start making payments on the loan. I'm afraid the cancellation will "mistakenly" not go through at that point, I would be saddled with a prorated refund. I haven't received a response from their email yet, so I couldn't prove they received it if I tried to fight it. What options do I have to force a confirmation for the cancellation? What consumer protection agencies could I defer to or bring in the loop to force their hand?

Payments stay the same but overall financed decreases. You will not get a check to "splurge" unless you did not finance.

Send a letter notifying them you are canceling the policy and send it certified. Keep a copy of the letter and the receipt that they received it. Alternatively you could send an email and ask for a reply acknowledging receipt. Either will give you proof you requested to cancel within the 30 day window.

Human: Edit: issue resolved. Thanks for the help! Sorry about formatting, and if I am not posting in the correct area. Basically, my wife cannot get her W-2 from her past employer. She contacted the IRS and they sent her a very unofficial looking print out (there isn't even a form number so i cannot tell you what it's called) containing her federal information. When we attempted to file our taxes, obviously we were unable to do so, since she has no state info on that sheet. Not really sure what we should do at this point, any help would be appreciated. Assistant: > She contacted the IRS and they sent her a very unofficial looking print out (there isn't even a form number so i cannot tell you what it's called) containing her federal information. She received a Wage and Income document transcript. It's not pretty, but it's official. The pretty transcripts won't be available for a few weeks. She could contact her state tax agency to see if they have similar records. Why can't she obtain the Form W-2 from the employer? Human: Thanks for giving me the name of the document! We'll look into contacting the state tax agency. the TL;DR version is: she needs a working employee ID number. She no longer works for the company, so her number is no longer active.

Have her call her past employer. If she worked for them at all last year, they should have a w2 for her.

She needs to be on the phone with the office. Get in touch with HR, or a higher up in the company. Last few years I switched jobs a lot and moved a lot, so I had the same headache. I finally received my last w2 needed to file this year. It took physically going to the store. Then physically going to corporate offices and speaking with HR. Showed my ID and got my w2 in ten minutes.

Human: I am working on paying down some balances on credit cards but am looking for a good card to switch to with a 0% intro rate or a lower APR, what are some of the good options at this time. I currently have a discover card, max line is 2500 and I owe $2500, paying it down aggressively this month as unlimited overtime is available at work and then more slowly going into spring/summer. I will be paying down $650 in 2 weeks. I'm also paying down another card $350 (limit is only 500) and my wifes discover $600. Should I instead focus on one card and not get a new one and snowball? Any tips for new cards or if I should snowball change my approach would be appreciated.

Chase slate is what you're looking for https://creditcards.chase.com/credit-cards/balance-transfer?CELL=603Y&jp_cmp=cc/Slate%20-%20Brand%20-%20Exact/sea/tZUmJGfJ/Chase%20Slate&kwdID=tZUmJGfJ_dm&adgrpID=172025948831 You can transfer your debt to it for no fee and there's no interest for 15 months

You may find these links helpful: - [Credit-related wiki pages](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_credit) - [Credit Cards](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/creditcards) - [FICO / Credit Scores](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Improving Credit Scores and Building Credit](http://www.reddit.com/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 was given a bonus + relocation assistance for a new job. If I were to leave within the first year, I have to pay 100% back. If I leave within the second year, it states that "I will repay on a pro-rated monthly basis, over a two year period". Can someone clarify what this means?

Sounds to me like you should take the total amount of the bonus and relocation assistance divide by 24 (for the 2 years) and multiply by the number of months left until you get to two years. For example, let's say you got $5000 and decide to leave after 19 months. 5000*5/24=1041.67, so you pay back $1041.67.

I think it means that if you leave after 18 months, they say 18 ("monthly basis")/24 (the "two year period") = 75% ("pro-rated"). Means that you have worked 75% of the two year period. You have not worked 25% of the period. You must repay us 25% of the bonus + relocation assistance. I guess this is what they mean, but it is poorly written, so hard to be sure.

Human: I have been out of work and have been trying to find a job. I applied as a personal assistant through Craigslist for this real estate lady and she emailed me back. She told me what would be required of my job and said she'd send me a money order/check for my first task this week and I'd be paid 540 a week. I tried finding information on her and have had no luck. Well today I received the check for 3380$ and she told me to cash it and to let her know when I did so she could tell me when to proceed. Is this a scam? I asked her for a LinkedIn profile or something and she never responded. we haven't spoken over the phone because of hearing issues so I'm not quite sure what to do I need advice and help. Assistant: Yes, this is a scam. The check will initially clear the bank, and she'll ask you to send the $2800 difference back to her. Then the check will be discovered as fraudulent, the bank will take that money from you, and likely charge you additional fees for depositing a fake check. Human: If I went to the bank and spoke to the teller would he be able to tell me if the check is fake?

No, unless you go to the issuing bank and ask them to cash the check into real physical cash.

You don't need a teller to look at it to know it's a scam. It is 100% without a doubt a scam. Shred the check and stop all contact with this person.

Human: Hey all. I have yet again fell on misfortune and I'm not sure how to get up this time. I have supported myself since I was 19 and got everything I own from money I made. My parents are overseas so I do not have a safety net. I've been on my own since 2009, through school, work, etc. Background: I studied engineering in school. So my job prospects are good. Recently I was working for Fortune 500 comp up until July 2016. I was paying double rent at the time, and had about 3-4k in credit card debt. No big deal since I owned my car and I had no school loans. At the time I was living in a city I did not know anyone in, so my life outside of work had nothing going on in it. I'm not an outsy person, so I kept to myself and built a PC. at this point I may have accumulated 5K in debt. Back in June of 2016, a company approached me for employment. My current job was a contract and this company was offering direct hire. So I figured, why not apply and at least get a tour of the plant. Low and behold. They extend an offer for me. The most enticing thing about this company is the fact they are located in a city I have lived in for years, so I knew some people and was comfortable with. But I had to pay double rent since I had just signed a contract near the 500 fortune contract company. The new direct hire company also offered me relocation assistance of 5k, on the stipulation that I work for 5 years at least, and If i quit or get fired the first year, then I have to pay them back. Once I got the job with the new company and moved back to the city I lived in before. I was in a bad place emotionally, bad relationship and basically depressed. I figured I should reward myself by getting a loan to my dream car and get rid of the one I currently had (where the fuck up started). This car was not a new model. The year was 2016 but the car was 2007, it was the year I wanted. But the guy who sold it to me did beat it to hell. At this time in the events. I had maybe 4k in my bank account. Gave the relocation to the new lease and essentially maxed all my credit cards to fix this car, and figured once its running good, then hey I'll just pay off the cards one at a time. At this point I may have had 10k in debt. Then I got extremely sick and had to go to hospital and accumulated around 5k in debt, 3k of which I paid with a credit card. My rent is 1000/mo, car loan was for 12k @ 250/month. insurance was 150. internet/phonebill/utilities were around 300. and I was wasteful. I'm not going to lie. The new company would pay me after tax 4500. I would send 1k for my family overseas and 1500 for my bills then have around 1500 a month saved. Right off the bat I'm not going to hide it, I'm pretty wasteful and kept pouring my money onto the car, which had bad parts after another (New tranny in 2 months. 4k, new engine rebuild 2k, new drive shaft, new fuel pump, new spark plugs and coils, new calipers and master cylinder and brake booster) I was honestly pouring my money into it, and the more I did, the more broken stuff I found. This brings us to the current moment. I do not want to go over my history and get the "you should have done this or that". I'm at the present, I stand at 20k in debt. 10k in car loan. I bought a beater for 1k since my dream car kept braking down. I stopped sending money to my family, and I trimmed on my spending. But then I got fired. for reasons I do not wish to disclose. Throughout this whole time. I had not been paying my cards, figuring if I pay them off each one completely at once everytime, the creditors might remove the late fees. I had insane amount of debt collectors calling, from the hospital, from the car loan, from the credit cards, and my credit score sits at 420-430 right now. I have 8k in my bank account and my least ends in about 2 more months. so I have 2K more payments to make. The job wants their money back (5k plus 350 initiation fee plus 1361 as tax gross up? is that last part even legal?) Steps I have taken so far: Got rid of the insurance on the "dream car" and Ready to return it to the bank. Have talked to a friend and we will be looking to sign a lease for a house where I make around 300/mo payments if my situation doesnt get better. I have applied for collectively 23 jobs and while I'm getting call backs and interviews, most of these processes take time. My options: I'm thinking of declaring for Chapter 7 bankruptcy because I'm not sure how to pay all that debt if I cant get a job. Or try to find a job before these creditors take me to court. My question: How will declaring bankruptcy affect my future employment opportunities? what should I do now to ENSURE that I get employed. If I can just get employed, then I will steer back on the track. I will return the car, cut my bills in 3rd through living with a friend and sharing expenses. getting rid of high insurance and car loan will save me a ton **Will declaring bankruptcy ruin my ability to get future prospects? how badly is that? My criminal background is clean and my work experience is fantastic.** I'm not looking for scolding, just a direction to move forward. I have learned from my mistake, which I'm proud to say is the only mistake I have ever made in my independent 8year. If I had the old car, I would have probably been able to pay off my debt and be in a better place right now. But this is where I'm. on my knees. asking for your help. Thank you Assistant: Employers may not legally discriminate against you because of the BK in itself. However, employers are permitted to check your credit in certain circumstances, such as when the job you are applying for involves exposure to sensitive financial information, e.g. working for a bank. In that case, a credit score below a certain threshold could render you ineligible for employment. Your credit rating has already taken a big hit, so a BK is not really going to make it any worse, and in fact, could help you improve it much more quickly than spending the next 3 - 5 years in a debt repayment plan, for example. Human: as long as I can get employed again. But I figured since I got fired, I can now file for bankruptcy and start over. I'm in engineering but they do issue us corporate cards sometimes. some of the recruiters mentioned that they will go over background check and credit check. I understand the credit reporting agencies give different copy to the inquiring. I just do not want it to be the reason why I get denied the job. I will not be filing for unemployment either

I filed and got discharged in 2015. I now work at a bank, and have a corporate card for travel expenses. I have had no issues with either as a result of my bk.

The employer's copy of the credit report is not really different from what you would receive if you requested one on yourself. It is different from what creditors would receive. Main difference being that the creditors get a credit score--employers do not. Bankruptcies will show up on any version.

Human: So me and my wife got a rude awakening yesterday when we found out our tax return was totally offset by my student loan debt (around 2k). It was my mistake to let my loan go in the red to begin with, but i had since started the rehabilitation process and this left me confused as my loan is currently n rehabilitation through a 3rd party group, which had expressed in the program I had no worries about money being garnished or collected. I called the department of education who informed me they sent a letter I never received(and said all they are required to do is send one letter) or saw that said my account was authorized to have a tax offset, and that as long as my loan was still in the rehabiliation process (im in month 6) the offset could still occur. She explained to me I have two options: injured spouse claim or a letter of hardship to the department of education. My question is what could ensure we get the full tax return back or as quick as possible? We are both below the poverty line and were counting on the tax return to pay upcoming insurance bills and now are in crisis mode not having the 2k that we had been acquired.

>tax return Tax refund. Tax return is your forms for filing taxes. >My question is what could ensure we get the full tax return back or as quick as possible It sounds like you're going to have to try the letter of hardship route. For 2017, you should also consider adjusting your tax withholding. If you were due a $2,000 refund, that means you lent the government $2,000 interest free during 2016. It sounds like you could have used that money in your paychecks.

You may find these links helpful: - [Student Loans wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/studentloans) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](http://www.reddit.com/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: Hello personal finance! 9 months ago my wife gave birth to my beautiful baby boy! We paid our deductible at discharge and was told by both insurance and hospital staff that we are in the clear and had nothing else to cover. 9 months later I just received a bill for $6694 from the hospital. Do I have any recourse to fight this billing? Why after all this was said and done am I getting a bill for so much 9 months later??? Any help or insight to fighting this is greatly appreciated. **EDIT** some insurance pictures to maybe help bring light to my situation... Seems there are some errors in the billing the provider sent to the insurance in the claim?? http://imgur.com/a/TZW8I **edit** Thank you for all the responses!! The pictures are indeed from the insurance statement of benefits. There is another bill I received from the hospital that confirms the amount. Looks like I definitely need to reach out to the insurance company on why they are refusing payment and take it up with the hospital to provide correct billing codes etc. Assistant: Usually there's co-insurance after you hit the deductible up until you hit your out of pocket max. What does your policy say? Human: That could be the case... unfortunately the information seems to hard to come by as I am no longer being covered by the same insurance company. I'll need to get more information on Monday when they're offices are back open... I have added an edit to my original post with the claim they refused to pay from the provider. Hopefully that sheds some light on my situation?

I've had a similar issue ongoing for a year. In my case, the hospital wrote down the obgyn's id number down wrong and insurance counted it as out of network rather than in network and tried to charge us several thousand in co insurance. I called the hospital's billing department who called the insurance company and together eventually realized what happened. The claim was supposed to get amended by the hospital but got dropped, so I still get notices sometimes. When that happens I call in, we agree it's still their problem and I go on with my life. Stuff that helped in this situation: 1. I wrote down dates and times I contacted billing and insurance and the name of the person I spoke with. 2. I treated the person in billing like they could help me out of a tough spot rather than someone who was screwing me. 3. Every time I call in I have my information ready (they know I've done this before and I'm going to be easy to work with) and I explain I have an ongoing issue and they'll want to read the extensive notes on my account. I'm happy to hold as long as that takes. My daughter is over a year old and I got another notice in February. *sigh*

Definitely call your insurance. Make sure the hospital you went to was in-network. If you have a deductible, you probably have separate in network and out of network deductibles, and then a coinsurance amount that varies based on the service rendered and whether it was in network or out network. Sometimes varies based on whether it was an inpatient procedure or out patient procedure. The thing is, insurance is deliberately confusing for the consumer, especially in terms of benefit coverage. When I call or go online to check insurance coverage at work, it is so straightforward and easy compared to what I've dealt with as a consumer. Now when I have insurance changes, I just check my insurance using my credentials from work because I know I'll be able to get a straight answer.

Human: I have tried several programs in the past and didn't really like the results of the program. What is the best software now that I can download my banking data to that will show me my monthly expenses? Thank you

You Need A Budget (YNAB) is often recommended here. But do whatever fits best in your workflow

YNAB is a pretty good suggestion. But if you need something free and open-source I'd prefer gnucash.

Human: I have a relationship with someone in the EU. Really considering leaving the country for good. Just unsure about credit scores and if they can follow you into a new country.

It's renounce. Not denounce. Marriage generally doesn't give you citizenship automatically. You still need to live there for a few years (although usually way less than if you weren't married). If you have federal loans I'm not sure if you're allowed to renounce. But are you ready to basically never return to the US ever?

You may find these links helpful: - [Student Loans wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/studentloans) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](http://www.reddit.com/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'm a married man with a baby due sometime this month. I inherited a condo 7 years ago in the SF Bay Area worth about $530,000 , I owe $140,000 on it, I'm paying $2500 in property taxes per year and $4800 in HoA fees. After all expenses and credits, it is earning me $800 per month as long as it requires no repairs or upkeep costs. I'm earning $45,000 per year outside of my rental income for a total of ~$55,000. We have no college loans to pay for, no car loans and about $5000 in credit card debt. My wife is currently not working. The big issue is our current house we're living in, it's worth about $700,000 and we owe $370,000 on it. This means $2700 in taxes, insurance and fees, and up to $3,000 per month including electric/gas/water/waste. We have no auto loan debt but we also have about $300 per month in credit card debt. This gives us debt-to-income ratio of about .77:1 granted some of those things I calculated in there are auto insurance, internet, HoA and the electricity bill. We have no savings what-so-ever and are living paycheck to paycheck. Due to our mutual stances on newborn and infant care my wife will not work again until October. We are barely scraping by every month, we've stopped spending money on luxuries or activities altogether in favor of staying home and abstaining from luxuries. We cook every meal, coupon clip and shop around for lowest prices on groceries as opposed to going to the closest grocery store. Should I take on more debt? Should I sell one of ours cars (they're both worth ~5,000 and get ~45mpgs) Should I get a part time job on top of my full time job? Should I sell the condo? Assistant: You are asking the wrong question. You should be asking if you should sell your home. Your monthly gross is about $4500 I'm guessing your net is around $3800. Are you really spending 80% of your take home pay on housing costs? I have a couple of potential solutions here but it depends on other things. Like, is your wife ever going to go back to work? Do you have anything in a 401k? How old are you? Human: My wife will go back to work in October, I have nothing in a 401K and I'm 31 years old. Assistant: > I have nothing in a 401K and I'm 31 years old. That seems like a large problem. Edit: Come on people, don't downvote the guy just for asking for help. Human: Why?

Because you make a decent living and have nothing but two (too expensive for you) homes to show for it, no retirement fund and no liquid assets. If I was you I would sell BOTH homes and get something you can actually afford. Use the leftover to pay off all debt and have a liquid (maybe tfsa) emergency fund and then invest the rest for the future. In theory you should be doing well but you're really not when you look at this mess on paper.

It means you're not saving for retirement and don't have any plans to.

Human: Didn't have health instance for 9 months.

Yep, you're going to pay the penalty.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3664473-because-of-repealing-obamacare-the-irs-said-that-if-you-do-not-answer-the-health-insurance-questions-they-will-still-process-the-return-why-can-t-i-opt-out-of-question Read this

Human: So I have made I terrible mistake. I'm 23 years old and make 14.00 an hour at a steady job working 40 hours a week. I went into the dealership looking at a wrx out of curiosity. My junker 1999 dodge durango was on its way out and was looking for something more reliable and fun. I went in and they needed a few more days to get me approved because of limited credit. 2 days later I got approved for a base model. On the way to the dealership my car died and I got freaked out. I got a ride to the dealership and walked out with the car. $25,700 14.7% interest with a down of 4,250 coming out to a payment of $578 a month. It was a stupid impulse decision. I live with my mom and don't have many expenses so I though it wouldn't be a problem and I was panicking with my old car dying that day. I can MAKE the payments, but I know I can't afford it. I am having serious buyers remorse right now. Is there anything I can do? Is it possible to trade it in for a much cheaper used car even though I lost a whole bunch of money driving it off the lot? Or do I have to just suck it up and deal with this?

AFAIK Subarus actually retain their value decently well. See what you can get selling it.

I'm not much help other than you need to look into getting out of the loan via selling to another individual or trading it for something you have a chance of affording. Side note, what did insurance run you? Been toying around the idea of getting one next year when I turn 25 which hopefully helps me out.

Human: How complicated would our lives be if we married each other? I'm 25f and she's 24f. We are best friends (friends for 7 years), and have no feelings for each other except very strong respect. In fact, I have a boyfriend, who is bad with finance. We both live in California and I make 52k a year. She's still in college, but is attending an ivy league university atm (art major). We plan on getting married when she graduates and gets a job. I plan on putting lots of my income towards 401k and HSA to lower my income bracket. My best friend will also benefit a lot from my health insurance that my employer provides me. She visits the hospital more than I do. We will be reviewing our marriage every year and divorce is always an option. Our finances will be separate, we might or might not live with each other as roommates and have separate SOs. Is this a bad or good idea?

This is an industrial strength stupid idea. You are basically creating a personal financial partnership. There is no good reason to do this.

You may find these links helpful: - [Tax Software Megathread](http://redd.it/5ohy01) - [Taxes wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/taxes) - [Understanding tax brackets](https://www.reddit.com/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: I currently have a 2012 Camry with 46K miles on it that is paid in full. I get IRS mileage reimbursements from my job weekly and have been putting those checks (after paying insurance, oil changes and gasoline) into a savings account for my next vehicle. Instead of doing what most of my coworkers did and get a fancy/new SUV, I want to MAKE money on these checks as they are not taxable income. If I keep my car purchase under $10-15K I can easily make money on the mileage reimbursements since the car I have is pretty fuel efficient as is. So my questions are as follows: 1. What's the best time to sell/get rid of my current car? Is there a mileage cap that I should be mindful of? (i.e. car's value significantly decreases at XX miles) 1. I'm planning on buying another similar car (thinking 2-3 y/o Camry or similar with sub-20K miles) - is there a better car I should consider for high-mileage driving? If I have another year or two before I need to get rid of my current car (see #1, depending on best selling point for the car), should I look into a hybrid or electric, or is that not worth it yet? 1. Should I try to do a private sale for my vehicle, or will I get more money/value selling another way? Thanks in advance!

You've already got the best kind of car for your situation. No need to buy anything else.

I would absolutely keep the Camry. Whatever you are driving, if you keep up on maintenance and fluid changes you won't have any issues. If this is mostly highway miles, your maintenance will be reduced while the fluids will come quicker. I had a previous job where I was putting 35K/yr on a Ford Focus, and at 90K miles when I got rid of it the brakes still had about 50% left. I got 60K on my first set of tires, and the second set had PLENTY of life left.

Human: A month ago I ran a credit report for the first time ever and found out that I have 3 credit cards. I've never opened a credit card in my life. I called up the card companies and found through some digging that they had all been opened up by my mom. I tried to ask her about it, but she had started to experience some terrible health problems... Long story short, she passed away 12 hours ago from complications with cancer. I never got to talk to her about the cards, the cancer had her loopy and it just never seemed like the right time. Now, I'm wondering what to do about these cards. Here's the details: - Closed, open for 4 years, 9 late payments. $0 balance. "Canceled by credit grantor" - Closed, open for 4 years, no payment history. $550 balance. "Charged off as bad debt Profit and loss write-off" - Open, open for 9 years, no late payments. $600 balance, 80% credit utilization. This is all new to me, but I'm guessing there's some way to get these cards back in my mom's name, even though she's passed away. Again, I've never opened a card or used credit my entire life. I need to know how to deal with this, but here's the real question: I ran the report because I was thinking about building credit... 2 of these 3 cards are obviously bad for me, but one of them has 9 years of current payments. I'm assuming that this was a poor attempt at her part on building my credit. Is it worth keeping the $600 debt to have 9 years of on time payments, considering I have no other foundation of credit at 26 years old? Is this even an option? **TL,DR; My now deceased mother started 3 cards in my name without my knowledge. 2 are obviously bad for me, but one might not be. What should I do?**

Unfortunately your mom committed identity theft and thereby damaged your credit profile. The history of non-payment suggests she had trouble managing her finances, came to a point where she could no longer obtain credit under her own name, and so "borrowed" (in blunt terms, stole) yours. There is no way what she did could have had any benefit for you, as she never disclosed what she was doing, and it has undoubtedly hurt your credit score to have cards on your record that were closed for non-payment. Unless you act, this situation will make it materially more difficult for you to get a card of your own, take an an auto loan, etc. On paper, "you" look like a deadbeat. You need to call the three credit reporting agencies and explain what happened, and call the issuer of the one card that is still open and have the account closed. You do have to explain that your identity was stolen and the balance was run up without your knowledge or participation.

For $1100 of outstanding balance, just assume the debt and pay them off. It's easier then trying to fix it. All the cc companies will hear is this "Jerk off guy is trying out discharge $600 bucks on his dead mom" I don't like being the bearer of bad news but......

Human: I was on a road trip from LA to Las Vegas when my car's transmission burned out. I had my car taken to a mechanic and they quoted me a price of $2400 to replace my transmission with one from a *used* car. I drive a 2012 Mazda 3. Am I being ripped off?

That sounds about right from a standard shop. You're paying a decent bit for labor. If you look around for an independent shop that charges less per hour, you can probably get away with 2000. But don't expect anything less. EDIT: a good used transmission costs about 1300-1500$ The job will call for 6-9 hours of labor, at a standard rate of between 100-120 per hour.

You can get a transmission like that for approx $600 on ebay and labor is probably around $1k so if you shop around you can save some money, but if your car is stuck somewhere you have less flexibility

Human: So...I think this is the right place for this. I recently got informed that a company that I interviewed with is "writing up an offer package" for me. I was informed via email that they would have it for me by early next week. In the email, the person asked "what are you accustomed to making, salary wise." Is that legal? And how should I answer? Thanks!

Give them a non-answer that answers the question you want them to be asking. "Based on the responsibilities and description of the position, as well as the experience and skill set I'm bringing in, I'd be looking for a wage in the neighborhood of $X per year. If that doesn't work with what you guys are thinking, I'm open to discussing it further." Adjust wording to your liking.

Answer "An income I can live on without going broke." (read: usually in the mid 5-digits)

Human: Hey guys, I just got laid off from my job making 110k/year. Sole earner for family, wife, 3 kids. I have a little bit of runway to look for another job but I am looking for sound advice because I can't think straight right now and my wife is more hysterical than me. I have 150k mortgage on a 350k home, payments $1360/month. 0 credit card debt, cars are paid off (older one worth ~3k and newer one worth ~25k), but I have 19k on a home equity loan with variable interest rate 4.25%. Min payment is interest only ~$70/month which is what I'm going to start paying now. What I've been averaging: $600/month groceries $300/month preschool fee (ends in May) $190/month car insurance for 2 cars $100/month phones $150/month utilities $100/month internet/TV/Netflix $80/month gas Another 200-300 miscellaneous (but will cut back on this stuff now) I have $14.5k cash and could burn through that money if I can't find a job in several months. I also have 90k in 401k that I can withdraw with the penalty if it gets really bad. So how crazy is it? I need phone/internet to look for a job. But do I pull my kid from preschool and go into hermit mode? Cancel TV and Netflix (which is only $10/month). Think about selling a car? Let the mortgage bank know and talk about changing terms? Also, thinking about next job, do I hold out for six figure job or just take whatever (which I really don't want to do but will if I have no choice and if that's what makes sense). What's the best way to think about this? Do I take a job ASAP that pays way less, how much less makes sense? Just need sound reasoning. Thanks! Edit/update: Wow, thanks everyone for all the awesome feedback. Definitely makes me feel better. So major take away is 1) relax (thanks for this again, I really needed to hear this) 2) apply for unemployment which will extend my runway 3) hold out for maybe a month for somewhat equal paying job, then start to scale back expectations. Honestly, I wasn't very worried until my wife started barraging me questions, worries and concerns. I started to wonder if I was like the Captain of the Titanic, where not taking drastic measures immediately was being stupid. Yeah, that definitely DOES NOT seem to help (unless this is equivalent to the Titanic analogy), so I started to second guess myself and wanted other's opinions. Sorry I can't respond to everyone and thank you one by one. I've read everyone's comment and want to thank you all though. Assistant: I was recently laid off too (actually my company closed) and aside from what others have said already, I have the following advice: 1. File for unemployment. Don't be too proud to do it. It just returns some of the money you paid into it back to you. 2. Make a detailed prioritized list of which expenditures are non-essential. Start cutting back from the bottom of the list until you are at a monthly level that you can sustain for six months. 3. You should aim at having a new job within six months. Any longer than that will not look so great on a resume. If you are approaching that timeline without having a job lined up, start considering lower paying jobs, ideally in the same field though. 4. 80% of all positions (according to my case worker) are filled through networking, so leverage any and all connections you have. I went through my stacks of business cards and connected with everybody on LinkedIn. Not a single one of my applications to open positions I was qualified for lead to an interview, but everybody who knew me from past business interactions wanted to hire me immediately once they found out I was available. You have to network your ass off now. Human: This is solid advice, thanks! I am kind of embarrassed about this but I'm going to make a list of all the people I've worked with and start contacting down the list. Any advice on a good way to make this statement to get over the embarrassment factor?

It's business. It's ok to keep it business if they are not personal relationships. As long as you had a good working relationship with them it is ok to contact them solely for this purpose. They will appreciate you not wasting their time with chit chat that you've never done before if the sole purpose of it was to talk business. They will see it as soon as you ask it. Just be forward and confident and know what you can contribute to them. Research in every individual contacts position is a plus.

1. I often had previous employees asking about jobs. They won't even think about why you left, they will be thinking of themselves, and pleased to employ someone they know if they have a vacancy (or they will let you know the next time even if not possible currently). 2. Even if you say you were laid off, remember a lot of people opt to go voluntarily, so they won't know it wasn't what you wanted (someone once told me never give up the chance to take redundancy if payout is good, and they won't know your terms). 3. When redundancy first became a thing, I was terrified of it, but I never EVER heard of anyone who didn't end up in a better situation. I ended up taking redundancy myself to retire early, and did more networking to secure that than ever before, and was so happy to get it. No-one will know you don't feel the same! You will be fine. I know from the hundreds of redundancies I have known about. Enjoy the new opportunities.

Human: Forgive me for this question -- but yes it is "free money" in the sense that you do get the company to match your contributions up to 6%... but you have no way of actually accessing that money until you are 65, correct? Without taxes and penalties that are greater then or equal to the 6% match, right? So is it not feasible that having $5000 now is better then $5300 when you're 65 years old? Of course there are other factors like compounding interest, but I feel like I've been beat over the head with contributing to the 401k up to the company match because "It's Free Money, You Idiot!" when in reality it's a little more complicated then that?

You should be saving for your retirement anyway. It's free money in that respect. Too many people treat their 401(k) as a piggy bank. That's wrong, it's for your retirement.

You may find these links helpful: - [Retirement Accounts](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_retirement_accounts) (articles on 401(k) plans, IRAs, and more) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/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: Hey /r/personalfinance , I just opened a Roth IRA a few weeks ago with Fidelity. I did a little research here and invested my initial $1500 in some iShare ETF's that were free. Roughly 66% in ITOT (US Market) and 33% in IXUS (Intl Market). I was real proud of myself for finally getting this IRA started as I've been trying to do it for a few years now, I'm 25. However, upon looking further into where exactly my money was going, I discovered that each ETF invests about 5% into Oil, Gas, & Consumable Fuels. This is something that I've been trying to divest in, changing from major banks to local banks who don't invest in the fossil fuel industry for example. I'm a very environmentally conscience person so I would really like to invest in an ETF that doesn't have any stock allocated to that industry. I was wondering if you guys have any recommendations on some ETF's to replace these or if there's anything I can do to change specifically what I'm investing in with an ETF. I chose these ETF's because they were commision-free, because I don't have a lot of money to spend on fees and what not. So commision-free ETF's that don't invest in fossil fuels is really what I'm looking for. Any suggestions?

There are funds like this but, they tend to really under perform the market. I however congratulate you for wanting to take a moral stand.

Since some of the largest companies in the world are oil, good luck. Focus on industry specific etfs or find the social type and lose a lot of money

Human: Hi didn't know where to post this but if you could swap places with this person what would you do. You're 24 years old in your prime looking better than you've ever looked. You've spent your life in school getting to your profession and have been a broke college student for the past 6 years. You have a decent car worth ~$10k paid off as your only asset. You're single, not trying to settle down, and only spending ~$1.5k a month on essentials. Making $80k a year after taxes/insurance/401k match. You have $100k in student debt at about 4% fixed interest rate. You have ~$20k credit card limit interest free with no CC debt and an 790 credit score. You also have great job security and don't need to worry about losing your job in the foreseeable future. You have several multi-millionaire connections that are in your family or close/family friends. They own real estate in a close proximity to you and throughout the world. Also some of your connections are familiar with doing business with China and Mexico/South America. You have some cousins that are about 5 years younger than you about to start college. Their parents aren't fortunate enough to help them and their parents have always been kind to you. You don't have to worry about your parents they're about to retire with plenty. How do you budget your money over the next 3 years? Do you save up for a house? Do you invest in finding a partner that makes around the same as you? Do you go on real vacations and see the world while you're in your prime? Do you try to pay off your loans asap? Do you try to beat the 4% interest rate and invest in stocks or with your well off connections? Do you help your not so fortunate cousins get through college? Do you save up for a nicer car? TLDR: Making $80k a year right after grad school what would your budget look like.

Keep living like you are broke, since you are. Pay the student loans off ASAP.

You might have incorrectly formatted line breaks. To create a line break, either put two spaces at the end of the line or put an extra blank line in-between lines. ([See Reddit's page on commenting for more information.](http://www.reddit.com/wiki/commenting)) I have attempted to automatically reformat your text with fixed line breaks. ---- > Hi didn't know where to post this but if you could swap places with this person what would you do. > > > You're 24 years old in your prime looking better than you've ever looked. You've spent your life in school getting to your profession and have been a broke college student for the past 6 years. > > > You have a decent car worth ~$10k paid off as your only asset. You're single, not trying to settle down, and only spending ~$1.5k a month on essentials. Making $80k a year after taxes/insurance/401k match. You have $100k in student debt at about 4% fixed interest rate. You have ~$20k credit card limit interest free with no CC debt and an 790 credit score. You also have great job security and don't need to worry about losing your job in the foreseeable future. > > > You have several multi-millionaire connections that are in your family or close/family friends. They own real estate in a close proximity to you and throughout the world. Also some of your connections are familiar with doing business with China and Mexico/South America. > > > You have some cousins that are about 5 years younger than you about to start college. Their parents aren't fortunate enough to help them and their parents have always been kind to you. > You don't have to worry about your parents they're about to retire with plenty. > > > How do you budget your money over the next 3 years? > Do you save up for a house? > Do you invest in finding a partner that makes around the same as you? > Do you go on real vacations and see the world while you're in your prime? > Do you try to pay off your loans asap? > Do you try to beat the 4% interest rate and invest in stocks or with your well off connections? > Do you help your not so fortunate cousins get through college? > Do you save up for a nicer car? > > > > > > TLDR: Making $80k a year right after grad school what would your budget look like. > ---- ^(I am a bot. Contact) ^[pentium4borg](https://www.reddit.com/user/pentium4borg) ^(with any feedback.)

Human: I would like to hear some peoples opinions on if this is valid or not. I was told a trick to quickly boosting your credit score from a friend, who's opinions I trust. he is very well off, 100k car, nice cloths, the whole package. he was talling me that all you have to do is buy a $1 item a candy bar or something small and thats it nothing else for the whole month, pay off that $1 and do the same thing the next month. he said within 6-8 months your credit score should be in the high 700's at which point you can qualify for a super low interest loan from your bank. take out a $20k loan. make the min payments for a few months and then pay off the whole thing. at which point your credit score will be even high and now you have good rep with your bank. you will be able to take out even larger loans. take out $100k+ low interest loan. only use the bare minimum on your self for rent/food/fun and use the majority of it to pay it's self off. rinse and repeat. this dosnt make any since to me. although what do i know my only form of credit is a khols card. i just dont see how this wold work.

You can get an 800+ credit score with a couple of credit cards. Why would you bother paying interest on a loan, if you can do it for free?

You may find these links helpful: - [Credit-related wiki pages](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_credit) - [Credit Reports](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_reports) - [FICO / Credit Scores](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Improving Credit Scores and Building Credit](http://www.reddit.com/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 husband (39) and I (38) have basically no retirement fund. We are basically following the Dave Ramsey plan. We have a small emergency fund, we are paying off our credit card debt, have about $21k left and are estimating it will all be paid off in about 9-12 months. The only debt we will have left at that point is our house and our studen loans. My work offers a 401k which I only put $30 (so like 3%) per pay period (biweekly) in and husband puts some in his 403b, I think he does 3.5% biweekly, so about $130 maybe. My question is, after our debt is paid off, ad we save up our 6 months of living expenses (we estimate that will take another 9 months or so to save up after our debt is paid off) what should we do to maximize our chances of having a good retirement fund set up? I do have an IRA in my bank that was a rollover from when I left an old job, but I have never put anything in it at all. Our dream is to retire by the time we are 65 and we would love to have $1 million to retire on. Is that even possible at this point? Any advice? Thanks and let me know if you need any more information to help you out.

Make sure the money in your IRA is _invested_ and not just sitting there. Most of the time when you open an IRA, the money you put in is just invested into a "core position", which is a fancy very very low interest-yielding savings account inside your IRA. Invest it into some index funds, ETFs, etc. (see the wiki for investing guidelines) to make sure that money is working for you. If your IRA provider doesn't offer good low-cost funds, consider switching to Fidelity, Vanguard, or Schwab (the trifecta that's most recommended here on /r/personalfinance). In terms of contributing more, I'd do what /u/trebl4 suggested. Make sure you're contributing into your 401k's enough to get any and all employer matching, as not doing so is leaving money on the table for your retirement (and you're behind as it is). Then aggressively pay down your CC debt, and once that's done SAVE SAVE SAVE into your IRAs and 401k's.

The one thing that's scary in all this, is that to get to $1M in by 60-65, you need some very good returns on your investments, and absolutely no stumbles along the way. Basically 16K a year invested @ 7% with no wavering will get you there at around age 62-63. I know of nothing that's generating those level of returns without risk. The two main investment areas I see money pouring into chasing yields - housing and real estate - are looking like bubbles. Or at least enough to make me question how smooth the ride will be in the decades ahead. One big unknown out there, besides the issues of bubbles, financial policy, etc, is the retiring of the generation ahead of you (the baby boomers and some Gen X), and what those demographics mean in terms of how many people are saving and investing vs how many are needing to cash out and live off their prior savings and investments. I don't have a good answer, other than to keep doing the other things you are doing: Get the house paid off, stay out of debt, live below your means. To that I would add: Focus on your health and quality of life, and consider greater diversification (in addition to everything else) - such as owning some precious metals (physically, not just on paper) or owing more local property as a long term play for rental income (which should stay tied to whatever changes in cost of living, inflation/deflation/etc ) . Good luck. Oh, and don't get divorced (without very good reason). I've finally recovered form mine and I've only got half the time you have left to go from zero to something, so I'm resorting to a 'hail mary' play in an effort to be able to retire (My own business, very specific to my 35+ year career).

Human: As the title says this is the first time I've been unemployed since starting my career ten years ago. It has been about 5 days since I was unexpectedly laid off. I received severance to last me until the end of March and have money in the bank to last me another 4 months, so I should be covered until August. Since Tuesday I've applied to about 50 jobs, or about 10 a day at the director or VP level. I'm looking in other cities I'd be willing to move to as well. I've sent my resume to 5 recruiting agencies in town, have not heard back from a single one yet and I've let a few contacts know that I'm looking as well. Here are my questions. 1. For those of you who found jobs at the VP level or higher, what tactics worked for you? 2. Should I file for unemployment? I live in Texas. Anything to know there? 3. Anything else I should be doing that I'm not?

"VP Level" doesn't say much. Were you the VP of a KFC franchise or a Fortune 500? Do you have a degree? Do you have any skills? I'd immediately file for unemployment and then brush up on my communication skills.

ON top of some of the good advice here, consider finding a good headhunting firm.

Human: Update for: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/5u7hod/father_used_my_ssn_to_sign_up_for_utilities_and/ So I posted this a while back looking for advice and got a bunch of great advice from the community here. =) Just wanted to post an update on what I did and how I got it resolved. Firstly, after getting my credit report and noticing the fraudulent debts, putting 2 and 2 together to realize it was my father who utilized my name and SSN to open these accounts with various utility companies and never paid, and then posting here for advice, I decided to dispute all of the debts with TransUnion. The dispute process was simple enough. Just basically had to select from a list of reasons so I selected something along the lines of "No knowledge of this debt" or "Debt doesn't belong to me". Something like that. After about 2 weeks, I received an e-mail from TransUnion stating my credit was updated. Opened up the link and saw that all but one of the debts was removed. The only one remaining, while still not mine, was "verified" as belonging to me somehow. So, I called up my father, had a chat with him about what he did, and worked out a payment plan he could afford. Called up the debt collectors, told them it wasn't my debt but they didn't care. Told them I want it off my report so I'm willing to pay but not the full amount. Ended up negotiating a 50+% discount on the amount. The full amount was $873 but is now $400 at $40/mo. Then, with authorization from my father, I had the debt transferred to his name and he's now responsible for paying the debt collectors directly. My credit score went from 562 to 733 today. So, moral of the story: Don't just report your parents for fraud. Dispute the debts, provide evidence if you can (I had to mail in some disputes), and try and work out a reasonable payment plan with your parents and the debt collectors. Most importantly, have the payment responsibility transferred to them. Both you and your parents have to authorize that with the debt collectors. Thanks again to everyone who sent me advice on the matter! =) Edit: Thank you to everyone who's commented! I know some people don't understand why I didn't just report him for fraud. Simply, I like my dad. I want to keep my relations with my dad in good standing. He's a good guy who didn't understand how credit worked and how bad he messed mine up. I talked with him over the phone and explained everything for him so he could understand it. Though he was on the verge of homelessness when he did it, he was devastated when he realized how big of an impact what he did had. He just beat lung cancer after having half a lung removed so he has a lot of medical bills to pay but we figured out a payment plan he could afford for the 1 remaining debt, which is now in his name; just waiting on the paperwork to be sent to both of us before he starts paying it. He has a good-paying job now working at a place he loves and his boss really likes him so he kept his job for him while he was in the hospital. He'll have no trouble paying it off now. Thanks again! =) Assistant: If any of my family did that, they'd be in jail as fast as I could possibly make that happen. Then again, most of my family are terrible people, with several of them actively in jail, or on the run. Human: Yeah in the old post lots of people encouraged OP to go straight to the cops but I'm glad he thought it through and got to a reasonable solution. Assistant: *which will still have a negative impact on his credit It's cool that OP was willing to help his dad out, but his credit score is still going to take a hit for this, and the credit issuer is still going to attempt to pursue criminal charges even though OP didn't admit that his dad did it. Companies don't just give up after you tell them somebody incurred debt using your identity. Human: My score's up to 733 now and the debts are completely gone from my credit reports. Beyond that, I'm not too worried.

As someone who has a charge off listed on his account with a 745 credit score let me tell you your total number isn't all that matters. I haven't been able to qualify for a loan or many of the nicer credit cards for years and the collections is always listed as the reason. The negative mark will affect your ability to obtain credit or good interest rates, don't just look at the number. Are you positive the debt isn't listed negatively as negatively closed or charged off? It seems odd that they'd remove it completely when you acknowledged the debt was yours by negotiating it with them.

Not worried that your father is a criminal?

Human: $10K isn't shit, won't even buy you a new car or sportbike, but it feels good to finally hit 5 digits in savings after spending years with no more than 7 or $800 in my account due to irresponsible spending. Is $10K in savings doing better than most 9 to 5 people? And if not, how much would I need in the bank before I'm doing better than most average people? $30K? $100K?

Most people have nothing in savings.

This is the dumbest link I've ever clicked on

Human: My daughter is 2 years old and has been blind in one eye since birth. She has an ophthalmologist that she sees on a regular basis. She has undergone a surgery and regularly has EUAs (Exam Under Anesthesia) done to check on her good eye. These can be expensive even with insurance. They billed her primary insurance 18k for her last EUA, and without Medicaid I'm still responsible for 10% of that. Currently I make $12.50/hr full time which comes out to to $26,000/yr before taxes. The Medicaid eligibility cutoff for a family of 3 in Texas is $26,952/yr (also before taxes). A $2 raise will bring me to $30,160, bringing in an additional $320/mo, and putting me over the eligibility limit. I'm enrolled in my employer's health insurance which is $160 biweekly for the 3 of us. Since my daughter qualifies for Medicaid, the state reimburses me those premiums through a program called HIPP. If she loses Medicaid, I'm also out of the HIPP program. This completely negates the $2/hr raise. As is, I'm struggling to make ends meet and require food stamp assistance. We get $315/mo. I'd most likely lose this benefit as well or have it reduced. So in summary, if I get this promotion, my daughter will lose Medicaid, I will have to pay the insurance premiums, deductibles, copays, and coinsurance out of my own pocket. Resulting in a net loss all around when I'm already struggling even though we live modestly. I'd LOVE to get off all government assistance, but a $2/hr raise will not get me there, and it's something I will not even see after losing the other benefits. I only want this promotion so I can further my career and continue onto the next stepping stone. I'm just worried this move will destroy me financially since I'm already struggling. What is your advice? Has anyone been in a similar situation? Is there some type of special Medicaid my child can apply for? If my daughter can keep her Medicaid I don't care about the food stamps since the raise will cover that. It'll instead be a lateral move financially instead of a net loss.

I just wanted to congratulate you for working so hard to understand the systems. You are doing everything you can and I hope you someday rewarded for it.

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Human: Been lurking here for a while thought I'd post something about my first financial dilemma. Some background info: - Im 27 married. - I make ~160k/yr. - Wife is in the last year of nursing school. Has ~50k debt at like 2%. We are only required to pay minimum (80$/month). - We own 1 car. - We rent at 1000/month and live with roommates. - We have saved about 200k til now. - We save about ~5k/month. - We are thinking of buying a house, but prices here (in SF/bay) are crazy. 1 Mil for a regular house. - House at 1 Mil = ~4k/month of mortgage + ~1k/month on HOI + property tax. So we would go from spending 1k in rent, to 5k... Im thinking this from an investment standpoint. Is it a good idea or a horrible one? Im very debated. We could have roommates to get ~1-3k out and then we could deduct are mortgage interest (meaning we'd only pay 60% of the mortgage). I feel like this might not be the best investment, but Idk what else to do. Putting money in the stock market feels riskier and I feel like eventually we will need a house to live in, so better buy sooner than later. Also all I hear about is that house prices are going higher and higher and that I have to start building equity. EDIT: Please be constructive if you can! EDIT2: Im expecting my wife to provide some kind of income after she graduates

No.

Hell no! My husband brings in 130k a year and we have no debt and pay $1375 a month for our mortgage(it's a 15 year too not 30). Honestly max we would spend is $2.2k a month on a mortgage(we live in a low cost area so we don't see the need for a 350k+ home). Anyways at 160k with 50k in debt I'd stick to 750k home. That would give you a mortgage of 550k if you put 200k down. This would be ideal if you don't want to be house poor.

Human: I am a 34 year old man in dire straits. I am over 50000 in debt. My credit is around 550. Here's a brief synopsis. I spent my teen years incarcerated. Got out when i turned 19 and was pretty much on my own. I went to job corps and ended up throwing that opportunity away getting a girl i met pregnant. We moved in together. One of the poorest decisions of my life. I ended up going to college for a semester and dropping out because id partied and didn't know what academic probation meant. After i left i picked up a pretty bad drinking problem and racked up a rap sheet with the associated charges, (dui, public intoxication, battery, etc). Needless to say i would up with 8 children. Im about 70k in debt. Child support takes 65% of what i make. I average 275 on a 2 week check. I live with the mother of my last 3 children which whom i severely dislike. I have no license, few friends, and fewer family. I have come into my own and would like to leave and be free standing. Im once again starting at square one. I have nothing but my possessions and maybe $50. I'm close to giving up but not ready. Any help or advice?

Your goal from here on out should be simple: make your child support payments. If for no other reason, so that you do not go to prison for being in arrears (depending on your state). To do that, you need a job. To get a job, you need a skill. There are several skilled trades that you could enter for relatively cheap and can pay quite well if you stick with it. Do you have a job? And the people telling you to declare bankruptcy are correct. You cannot get rid of child support, but you can get rid of consumer debt and in some cases even student loan debt. Please also for the love of god get a vasectomy.

Get a construction job they pay very well Or get a full time and part time job. Work work work til you out of debt and til you have a few thousands save up. Personal advise : treat any job you get as a career , idc if it cleaning toilets at a McDonald's if you treat it like a career and a stepping stone in your career you end up as a McDonald's manager. If you treat it like a job you end up not caring and gettng stuck

Human: My friend and I got into a debate today, and I surprisingly couldn't find this answer on the internet. What is the highest paying masters - midcareer salary or starting, be that any combination of a school and degree in the world? Would it be Stanford Computer Science? Would it be a Harvard MBA? Interested to hear your thoughts.

This question doesn't really have an answer. There's no guarantee of any of this. Salaries vary, academic institutions prestige doesn't promise a certain level of success for its students. You could not go to school and become a millionare. You could attend the same school, have the same grades, same degree as someone else and they make a different salary. There is no way to measure it for that reason. It's about individuals, work ethic, experience and choices beyond education that will determine your salary.

I have no proof or data to back this up but i would imagine the highest level MBA would pay you more than the highest level computers science degree.

Human: I've had a B of A credit card for 18 months with a limit of $500. I just got raised to $2k and my credit score is up to 690. Not really sure how to proceed from here? Just a humble retail worker, so not a lot of clues on how to build up my credit. I just use it mainly for bills & then funnel in the money from my checking each month.

Congrats! You did good to accept the credit boost. The most important thing you can do is, ironically, nothing different. Don't change your spending habits just because you now have an enlarged credit line. Stick to what you've been doing. After 3 - 4 months from now I'd try and apply for a second card with a similar limit through another bank. This could help your score increase. The bureaus like seeing multiple revolving credit sources on your history. Other than that just be patient and take pride in the fact you're moving along pretty darn smoothly. PS: When looking for that second card visit /r/churning to see any potential offers. Banks sometimes offer great promos for signing up with them that you don't want to miss.

Thanks, everyone! I appreciate the feedback.

Human: Someone acquired my CC information, and I have no idea how. They used it to charge a 3k balance on account. I contacted CC and disputed charge and let them know this was a fraudulent transaction. They tell me they will do nothing for me because the card was physically swiped and a signature was provided for the transaction. I have asked them to compare my signature with the one used but they have not. It has been over 3 months and I am getting nowhere. What is my next course of action?

1) Call the number on the card. This should connect you to the bank Chase, Wells, Bank of America etc. 2) MasterCard & Visa are payment processing companies separate from the bank that issued the credit card. 3) All banks must adhere to the charge back/dispute & fraud claims procedures. 4) Each bank also has its own additional policies and courtesies 5) Banks must file disputes/fraud claims appropriately. Keep in mind, you call your bank who then issues the chargeback by contacting the merchants bank via a system set up by Visa or MasterCard respectively. 6) Wording is critical. Call the number ask to be transferred to fraud. Then request a US based supervisor. That may help. Don't just say it's fraud and yell. Find the right person. 7) If calls do not work, right a letter. Specifically mention each transaction, amount, date etc.

Also timing is important (more so for billing errors).

Human: Hello, I made less than 5k last year and my accountant said I do not qualify for the Child Tax Credits I would normally receive for my two daughters. I tried looking up information but only found government pages talking about how you were affected if you made a lot of money. Does anyone have a link or know if this is the correct information?

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p972/ar02.html#en_US_2016_publink100012090 >#Limits on the Credit >You must reduce the maximum credit amount of $1,000 for each child if either (1) or (2) applies. >1. The amount on Form 1040, line 47; Form 1040A, line 30; or Form 1040NR, line 45, is less than the credit. If this amount is zero, you cannot take this credit because there is no tax to reduce. **But you may be able to take the additional child tax credit. See Additional Child Tax Credit , later.** >...

You may find these links helpful: - [Tax Software Megathread](http://redd.it/5ohy01) - [Taxes wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/taxes) - [Understanding tax brackets](https://www.reddit.com/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: A few weeks ago today, my father pasted away. It was rather sudden and at an age of 62 I would say too young. Thankfully I have 2 older siblings who managed to handle most, if not all of the estate/asset paperwork. What brings me to this sub is obviously regarding inheritance. Dad had a life insurance policy of around 275k which will be split around the 3 of us 34%,33%,33%. That leaves me with around 90,000. I own a '99 Ranger that has a laundry list of issues... I also own a '94 Ranger that I'm getting ready to sell. Would it be a bad idea to spend 35k on a new vehicle? If it not be a bad idea, how should I treat the rest of the money? Should I speak to a financial adviser? I work as a server and average around $300 per week. I would like to reinvest in my education later this fall.

Buying new cars is almost always a bad idea. Buy a used car that's a few years old.

If you must buy a car, at least buy a used one, much cheaper than 35k!

Human: I was just thinking the Vanguard mutual fund since its not much money. Thank you.

$500 in a mutual fund will yield a peanut in 50yrs

Invest it in something you can sell for more.

Human: *net worth Law school loans are a bitch but I am on my way to getting into the black within one year! I live frugally, refinanced most of my loans at a low rate (3%), and the other fed loans I am pay extra every time a paycheck hits my account. I fantasize about the day I pay all my loans off. I still have $60k in fed loans at approximately 5.5%, and $90k in private (refinanced) at 3%. I have $35k in retirement accounts and $30k I keep in my checking account. Assistant: Congrats! In my opinion $30k is way too much for a checking account. Move some of that money to a savings account so you can still have pretty quick access to it but it's at least earning you some interest! Human: My checking account pays 2% APY on balances up to $25k. Assistant: What bank??

There are a handful of banks with nationwide availability that offer higher interest rates (2%-4.5%) on limited amounts, with various numbers of hoops you have to jump through. The highest nation-wide availability is Consumers Credit Union, but you have to spend $1k on one of their credit cards every month to get the 4.5% rate, plus a certain number of debit transactions, plus direct deposit. One popular one is Lake Michigan Credit Union, which I think is 3% on up to $15k, with only the debit transaction requirement and a direct deposit. For more info, check out [Doctor of Credit High Interest Savings Accounts](http://www.doctorofcredit.com/high-interest-savings-to-get/). DOC also has pages with hints about how to get the required debit transactions and what counts as a deposit for which banks.

check your local credit unions. I keep my emergency fund at "FCCU" because I get 2% return on 10k.

Human: Just posting as an FYI. What triggered me to check everything out in Turbotax was that Creditkarma does not check to see if HSA distribution was used for medical purposes. It taxed me for the amount of my distribution plus a penalty.

Credit Karma is full of bugs. I'm having to file a 1040x after realizing it did not include my property taxes paid on schedule A (that in addition to messing up the HSA distribution -- it took off my medical expenses but not my spouse's). Nor did it add my state refund from last year to my taxable income. My fault for not printing out my return and comparing it to last year's. Folks, print out your return and compare it to last year's before hitting submit, no matter how tired and fed up you are at the end of it all.

You may find these links helpful: - [Tax Software Megathread](http://redd.it/5ohy01) - [Taxes wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/taxes) - [Understanding tax brackets](https://www.reddit.com/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: Hi, we're renting our basement, and I'm not sure what to set the rental price at. A listing on Craigslist for a house similar to ours is $450/month, where the renter only gets one private bedroom, but share access to the whole house with the owner. Our listing, in contrast, gives the renter full private access to the basement (which consists of one big, furnished room with a built-in kitchen, a bathroom, a closet, and a private entrance), but not the rest of the house. I'm not sure if this makes our listing worth more or less than the Craigslist listing. What do you think I should set the rent price at? Thank you!

I would set it higher - privacy is a big one and I'd pay a little more for privacy

Start high and go down.

Human: Just bought a used car at 11k. Dealership arranged financing at 9%. My FICO credit score is 750. Side question: is that a reasonable rate? could I reduce the APR? Main question: We could probably pay it down earlier, but wife has read on the nets that for purposes like getting a mortgage, they give weight to having a history of paying back loans that are not CC. So: can improving the rate on a large mortgage justify paying more than necessary on an auto loan? Does paying it back early (larger than due payments) affect credit scores negatively? Edit: thank you very much everyone. A couple of clarifications: the loan is with capital one. Rate sucks, but no early repayment penalty. Rate may be affected by not having a US drivers license, not sure, and also not it is a used car. IIUC, the conclusions are: - Try to refinance at a lower rate elsewhere, should be achievable - No real need to use non-CC loans, since a FICO of more than 760 suffices. - There is no problem with paying off early, it just reduces the count of on time payments. - Go back to using credit unions...

No, it's a bad deal. You don't have to pay interest to increase your credit score. Just having a credit card and paying it off in full is sufficient to get a high score.

This is a really bad deal. Your credit score is fine, anything 740+ is considered the highest so there is no difference if you have a 740 or 840.

Human: Hello Reddit, I have some confusion that I want to get settled, or at least pointed in the right direction regarding housing. Currently, my gf and I want to move out, both of us will make 72k. However this is only the beginning of our studies and after a year from now it will be nearly 93k, I have that cost of school already covered and paid for. Credit is mid 600's and I have 12k saved up No debt My parents say it would be smarter to get a condo and to be honest, the location where I live is 1800 for a one bed room. The lowest being a 1400. Highest being almost 2.5k. It's ridiculous. They suggested getting a condo around 300k and getting an FHA loan for 30 or 15 years. Either way those year commitments seems daunting because I don't have much information on them besides the math of interest, etc. the location around most condos are in construction zones being built for a future mall, college, and new residential area so I do see future gain in obtaining a condo, but either way I would like to get some advice for anyone knowing of this.

I would rent. While it may cost more to rent than to buy (and I'm not sure that it is, especially not if you'd want to sell again in a few years time) it will give you two the flexibility to move places, for example when a job comes along that is awesome but not close to where you live now. You pay a bit more (again, perhaps) for this flexibility, but at your age and in your situation flexibility is very important.

>I have 12k saved up That alone means you can not afford to buy a house. It is barely enough to cover the 3.5% downpayment and there is still many other costs you need to cover, let alone leaving yourself with a big enough emergency fund. >However this is only the beginning of our studies... both of us will make 72k Wait, are you saying you both will currently make 72K this year or that you will make 72K in the future once you finish school? If you are still in school and don't make that money yet, you are not going to get approved for a mortgage anyways. Also, who knows what the future brings. You may get a new job elsewhere and need to move.

Human: Hi, I was surprised that I could not find an existing thread about this topic. On the other hand, maybe it is a stupid thought... So every other day I see a front page article on reddit that basically says that intelligent robots are going to take all the jobs soon. I read many of these articles looking for instructions about what to do now. However most of them just end with the note that it will affect many people negatively and don't give any suggestions on how to avoid those negative effects. Although I am highly qualified and will probably be among the last to be replaced by a bot (I hope!), I would like to be one step ahead of the robots and take action now to be on the benefiting side of the situation. So, what should I do now? Increase my qualifications (ok, one should probably always do that)? Invest in particular robot manufacturers - or maybe just a general Nasdaq-100 tracker? Buy robots and start some kind of robot rental business?

Become a Robot, take peoples jobs.

Creativity and critical thinking are skills that robotics can't match (anytime in the near term anyway). By building skills and experience in these areas, it'll help minimize the chances of losing a job to a robot.

Human: I started working back in November, the recruiter, I was hired via staffing agency, told me the pay was starting at $16 an hour. My interview was more focused on my leadership and experience, it's a call center with about a total of 115 people, they've been open for about 5 years, and they don't have anybody with major Call Center experience, I've worked for one of the nations top Telecom providers as a top performing agent and groomed for leadership, and probably the most recognized Credit Card company as a team lead. While nearing the end of my contract with the staffing agency, I am told that they want to offer me a permanent position, and they explain that the pay would be $14 per hour. I took a pay cut to move closer to family, by about $9 per hour plus commission, and this would put my wife and I even further in the hole. I like the people I work for and with, and the company is willing to make changes to their old school call center structure. How do I negotiate this salary while still keeping this job? My wife is a school teacher and we have health benefits through her. I reviewed the Insurance, it's Blue Cross Open Access PPO $127 a month, my wife has a State Health Benefit plan from BCBS. We are scrapping by on revolving credit, loans, and shear dumb luck. We've got a toddler and want to eventually move into a home. I know that while it may not seem like much, I know that every dollar I can negotiate today will mean better long term money prospects. Thanks!! Edit: removed identifying information

They're trying to stonewall you. The permanent gig is for $2 an hour less because your contract is about up. Without a contract you have $0 an hour. Tell them you want $20, remind them politely what experience and knowledge you're bringing to the table, and if they don't at least bring you in for $16 then walk.

this employer already established your worth to them...

Human: Im looking to get a credit card and am just overwhelmed with options. I don't care about the APR because I plan to pay it in full every time essentially giving me a 0%. I just want something with good cash back and that will help me build a credit score. Right now, the Chase Sapphire Rewards card is looking good but just wanted to see if any Redditors have any better suggestions. Thanks!

The best all-around card, in my opinion, is Discover's It card.

You may find these links helpful: - [Credit-related wiki pages](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_credit) - [Credit Cards](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/creditcards) - [FICO / Credit Scores](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Improving Credit Scores and Building Credit](http://www.reddit.com/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 am 43 and have about $86,000 but I am contributing $15,000 per year. All the stories I read say that most people don't have hardly anything set aside for retirement. Is that really true?

Yes, most people don't save/save very little. I think like ~40% of Americans can't access 1k in an emergency.

You may find these links helpful: - [Retirement Accounts](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_retirement_accounts) (articles on 401(k) plans, IRAs, and more) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/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 finishing my computer engineering degree in June and am working full time as a software engineer at the moment earning 80K a year. Which might seem like a decent salary but after saving 1500$ a month for retirement and paying 2000$ a month for living expenses I'm already down to a flex budget of around 1k a month. How am I supposed to afford to travel, go out with friends, buy a new car(need a snow vehicle), continue my hobbies (snow skiing, waterskiing) and backpacking) when I'm only earning 1000$ a month after you take out living expenses? Edit: I guess the better question is what is the best way to save for big items that I want to buy in a time span of 1-2 years. Edit: living expenses more detailed on monthly basis. $1,200 for rent, utilities, cable,wifi $600 for groceries $120 for gas $80 for phone $0 for car parents let me use one of theirs but I'm trying to save for my own. TLDR; Earn 80k a year but feel like I can't afford to do the things I want on that salary. Assistant: Can you break down your expenses? To me $1,000 is more than enough to "blow". Human: What do you mean break down expenses? Like my living costs? or how much my fun activities cost?

Post an actual budget. You spend $X on housing, $T on car, etc. As an side, express dollar figures like this $100, not 100$.

Who the hell downvoted OP for giving a relevant response to a relevant question addressed to him in his own thread?

Human: Hi Reddit just a quick Legal question. So my new employer (Chef in a kitchen) wants me to work an undisclosed time period for free. Was told it could be from 2-5 days, until I learn everything on the menu/prep. Now, I am a skilled cook, learning these things come naturally day by day in the kitchen. I have never seen this anywhere else, what can I do ? I want the Job, but I do not want to work 5 days for free.

Yeah that's fucked, did you already sign tax paper work? If so they have to pay you, if they don't there are agency's you report those types of actions to, at least in my state.

No way. I wouldn't spend a second at a job unless I'm getting compensated

Human: Sorry if this isn't the right place for this, never had a question on here before. Some people in my office made a small one time donation to Save the Children (I usually don't donate to charity but i was feeling the peer pressure of my boss and coworkers making donations...), but i noticed on my card statement that they took out a monthly donation without my known approval... are they allowed to do that? Would i be able to get my money back -- it was about $70. Let me know if anyone has been in this situation before.

You've just raised the bar on heaven for your coworkers friend. Well played.

Think of it as one of life's lessons and move on!! BUT we are all grateful to be made aware of this by your post, and I for one will be very cautious when giving to a charity that I am not signing on for recurring monthly donations - so we owe you our thanks! (give only cash, I guess!)

Human: I've only just went on break and don't know if I'll get any answers, buy I've been working at a fast food restaurant for a bit over a month now and being an introvert, it's been a rather okay experience. However, recently my social skills have been tested by my manager and assistant managers, and it's been terrible. They keep complaining that they can't hear me and that I'm not really interacting with customers. They think I'm just standing there doing nothing but I know that's not the case. They been pulling into the office every 30 min to every hour and a half to tell me that they can't hear me. This not only frustrate me, but it causing me to seriously lose interest in the job. I know I'm doing the best I can and try my best to interact with the customers despite my higher ups claims. I'm almost completely convinced that this is not the job I want to keep and will be looking for employment elsewhere, but can I get any advice on how to write my letter of resignation? I feel a bit of dread knowing this is my first job and I couldn't keep it for more than a little over a month but I can't be forced to simply act like someone I'm not.

Would it be possible to speak more loudly even if you are an introvert?

Can you be the one who makes the sandwiches in the back? Then you don't have to interact with customers.

Human: The most expensive payment is navient (170 a month) was cosigned by my dad so I cant lower that payment at all. I dont really know what to do as life is barely affordable with them. I also have 2 others which I havent paid in 12 months - fed loans and another private loan. Total debts around 45-50k. I am aware of income based repayment on fed loans. I have a big repair due on my car ($1000+ rear axle leaking oil) and if my car died on me, I'd be done, not being able to get to work. I only make about 1720 a month and my student loans are forcing me to live with my grandparents and do over an hour drive to work and back each day (gas and wear on my car are also hurting). What can I do to make these payments more reasonable so I can afford to live? I appreciate advice, thanks!

Post your entire budget. Break down your loans into private and federal.

You may find these links helpful: - [Student Loans wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/studentloans) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](http://www.reddit.com/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: A post I made here from a throwaway account resulted in my plan for some money I'm receiving, which is to pay off a couple of debts and then save the remainder of this portion as my emergency funds - around 5 months worth ;and I won't be taxed on it). But, as I'm planning to save it and not touch it unless an emergency comes up, I'm wondering if it's best to simply leave it in my savings account or do something else with it. I have a 401k, but if I put it in there and DID have an emergency and need it (I'm only 21), I'd be taxed heavily on it. If I bought shares with it that are stable just for the gains, I'd be taxed if I needed it at any point and sold those shares, which would mean I'd be spending money unnecessarily then too. But, as far as I know, my savings account with my bank doesn't have any significant interest rates. Is it best to simply leave it in my current savings account? Or should I see if there's another bank that has a better interest rate to save this in? Is that even a thing? Any advice or suggestions is much appreciated. Thank you!!

Put it in a Roth IRA. If you really have an emergency you can pull out all your contribution tax and penalty free. And at least it will be gaining interest until said "emergency" happens, if ever. https://investor.vanguard.com/ira/ira-distribution-rules

Our emergency fund is very liquid. I keep it in the toilet tank...

Human: I contribute money from each paycheck into a Roth IRA through my employer, and they do a small match. This year I over-contributed a little bit. I know I need to monitor the contributions so I don't go over again, but what should I do with the money from the paychecks instead? Thanks!

if you qualify, HSAs offer the most tax savings of any "tax-advantage" account. they're exempt from medicare/social security tax unlike a 401k and if you spend the money on health care the money is never taxed.

General rule: when your qualified accounts max out for the year, you can make excess retirement savings into non-qualified accounts, like a taxable brokerage account or a savings account, depending on your needs. In your case, if your employer is sponsoring a SEP or SIMPLE IRA, the limit for that IRA is separate from a non-employer IRA you could set up yourself. The limits for all three kinds of IRAs are [separate](https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/cola-increases-for-dollar-limitations-on-benefits-and-contributions), so you could put $12,500 into a SEP and another $5,500 into an IRA you establish yourself. However, if your income is too high, then depending on your marital status you might be [prevented](https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/2017-ira-deduction-limits-effect-of-modified-agi-on-deduction-if-you-are-covered-by-a-retirement-plan-at-work) from making deductible IRA contributions or [blocked](https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/amount-of-roth-ira-contributions-that-you-can-make-for-2017) from making Roth contributions to a non-employer IRA. If your MAGI is less than $62k then you definitely aren't restricted in 2017 unless your filing status is married filing separate; if your MAGI is more than $196k then you definitely are restricted. If restricted, you can still make non-deductible contributions to a traditional IRA and then later roll them into a Roth (aka the backdoor Roth). You can also use other vehicles, like HSA or 529 to get some tax benefits. But if you cannot make use of tax-qualified accounts, then a regular taxable account is a good place to save and invest.

Human: I hope my formatting is ok I am on mobile. Hello Personal finance! I come before you today seeking advice. I am 26 (f) and I work full time (40/hr wk, NO OT) for a big paint company, as a customer service/sales person. I handle day to day customer interaction as well as mix their paint. My struggle is this: I am miserable at my location but I love the job and need the benefits. (currently getting some extensive dental work taken care of.) We all have trouble with upper management sometimes and mine is to the point that I just now submitted an ethics complaint about his behavior(non sexual dont worry). Also today I missed a family members special event because of a schedule mishap and some miscommunication which has me saying "I should have just locked up and walked out but I didn't." My income is hourly about 600/net biweekly. I am very lucky to be living at home and my expenses are fairly minimum... Car payment - 200$/mo (10000$ loan) Cellphone - 50$/mo Car insurance - 80$/mo Medical bill - 300$ (current) 1000$/savings My biggest problem atm is that my dad may be loosing his job on monday, and although this wont really affect me it means things in my family might get tight and as we all know finances can make or break us sometimes. (Upper management shenanigans despite his 30+ years of support there in IT) I have been looking for another job both intra company and elsewhere. I have put out my resume, and he is working on his. My strengths are in customer service (not sales) and merchandising and working with kids. I guess what I'm asking is... What do I do? Do I quit out right? I've been trying to hold out for a call back or an email (or until I finished getting my teeth fixed)... but so far nothing. I have been with this company for 4 years in their store fronts and although I'd like to move up I am 'unqualified'. I am feeling lost. I hope this is an acceptable place to post this. Thanks Tl;dr I cant make up my mind about leaving my job and cant seem to catch traction finding another one. Edit: clarification

Crank up the intensity of the job search and widen your net. Do not quit your job until you have another job in hand.

The default should always be to work until you find another job, or they fire you. Consider it practice for letting things to roll off your back. You can ~~speaks~~ *always* quit later but unquitting is a lot harder!

Human: I want to preface this by saying that I hate the company I work for, and am actively looking for new work, but until something comes along, asking for a raise is my only other opportunity to increase my income. I work for a mid-size company where I report directly to the CEO and COO. Last year I emailed the CEO asking him if we could sit down at some point and discuss my compensation because of a lot of new work I had taken on in recent months. I had a list of accomplishments ready to go over, as well as examples of what my "market value" was. He emailed me back and told me that it wasn't necessary for us to meet because they give raises when they deem it appropriate and are always fair about it. This obviously pissed me off because it sounded like he was blowing me off, but then a week later he gave me a 20% raise. It has now been a year since I got that raise, and since the company doesn't do reviews or performance meetings of any sort, I want to ask for another one. The team I managed has grown in the last year, and I've also gone above and beyond by helping a few other departments cut out inefficient processes that should be more than enough to argue for at least a small raise. I'm just not sure how to approach it a second time. Should I just email him again as I did last time, and ask for a meeting? He obviously didn't respond well to it the first time, but... I did also get a raise. I'm not sure if there's a better way I should approach it considering what he said last time. I'm hoping you guys could share some thoughts on how to proceed. Thanks!

Just ask for another performance evaluation talk..in that meeting bring up compensation. Would probably at the very least give you brownie points for wanting feedback and caring. I'm entirely impressed that you seem to thrive in a company you hate, I don't think alot of people could do that.

As others have said, 20% is a big bump. I would not approach again this year, maybe not even next year. Assuming you aren't in the minimal wage range, of course. Also, what makes the interaction you described "very awkward"? It seems fairly normal to me. You asked for a raise, they spent time reviewing it, and decided you were worth an extra 20% (which is huge!). Where's the awkward part?

Human: What is considered a living wage? Idk if it matters based on location, im sure it does as houses cost more in different areas. But I'm 20 looking at moving out from my parents but i work a minimum wage job as a delivery driver. I'm currently not in college so I personally feel like I dont have the necessary skills in order to do a job that most people want as a career to live off of. What would be a good step to get to a good paying job to live on my own with?

You are asking the wrong question. Your labor is a product (service actually) that you sell to your employer. What can you do to make yourself more valuable to an employer?

It's highly dependent on where you live. In the Midwest 40k+ you be able to live on your own and own a starter home. On the east or west coast you would need closer to 80k+ to live on your own and have a started home.

Human: I was recently accepted to a PA program that I'm psyched about but the reality of paying for it is beginning to set in. I checked the wiki but was left with a few questions. The gist of it is that the program costs roughly 100k for the two+ year program. I have savings from my past professional life but much of it was invested in my career switch. I don't need to make a tuition payment until December 2017 and it's roughly 15k per semester. **What I'm working with:** * Currently working 4 days a week in a hospital making roughly 2,500 a month after tax. I can pick up more shifts if necessary and will likely try to work more before school starts so I can save some cash * 21.5k in a traditional 401k - Can I withdraw this money without penalty if for tuition? * 12k in a mutual fund - I'm expecting to put all of this toward my first semester tuition * 12k cash savings - I'd like to hang on to this for living expenses * Not only would it be difficult to hold down a job once the program starts it is not allowed * Single without dependents The cost of living where I will be attending school is very low so I expect to spend <20k per year. I live in an expensive urban area now so I am really not sure how much to expect my yearly expenses to decrease. Does withdrawing money make the most sense? Should I be holding on to my mutual fund and retirement savings rather than reducing the amount of student debt I take on?

Take out student loans, you will have a good ROI from PA school. Keep the 401k invested. Keep your mutual fund and cash for emergency use, test/licensing fees, travel for interviews, etc. Congratulations and good luck!

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Human: Hi, I just wanted to get PF take on an MBA. I'm currently 24, make about 75k a year and have about 45k saved up. I currently co-manage a sales team of 12 in a thriving start up in LA. With that said, I want to get my MBA to progress my career and get up to a 6 figure salary. The loans scare me and so I thought a part time MBA would be a potentially happy medium. I wouldn't settle for anything less than a top 20 school. Anyone have insight as to if the MBA is a worthy investment?

An MBA from a top 20 school has one thing to offer...their time. Most companies that you currently work for are not going to pay you much more for an MBA because what extra value do you bring? Places like McKinsey and Co. will pay you well over a $100k but those are truly churn and burns. They want young people with MBAs that can make pivot tables, sling jargon, and produce "ooh and awe" reports. At best you could market yourself and get a 10-30% pay increase with a different company. But you could do that without an MBA. How much will you spend and how long will it take an ROI to recoup those expenses? Unless you can answer those questions an MBA isn't going to do you any good anyways. Lets say you went to a state school for $12k, what delta would an Ivy league MBA add on top of the benefits of the economy MBA? All in all it is only a question that you can answer. I own a consulting company. I have a state school MBA and my lead consultant has an Ivy league MBA. I sign his checks.

You may find these links helpful: - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [Investing wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing) *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 all I will be graduating in May with a business degree and got a job that requires a car. The job starts July 10th and pays $65,000 a year or $5,400 a month. I've crunched the numbers and don't want to spend more than $300 a month on a car. Ideally, i'd like to buy a 14000-16500 used subaru, toyota or honda (something practical w/ low maintenance). I currently have a 702 FICO score from my student loans and will be opening my first credit card this week (bank of america cash rewards). Some more background info: i'm 22, graduating with 47,000 in college debt, my rent payments will be starting in September and be around $600. The thing is, I need to get my car beginning of June because i'm going on a road trip. That means, I won't technically be employed yet. I do have an official offer letter with my salary stating i'll have that income starting in July. What sort of a loan do you think i'll be able to get? Size/rate? I know Toyota and Honda offer 'new grad' programs that allow people to finance through them before their jobs if they have proof of future income, but i want to know if I can get a decent loan through a bank/credit union. Thank you so much in advance!! Any advice is much appreciated. addition: i've been working part time since October and make $240 a week. not sure if this would help?

With $0 income, you have 0 ability to repay the loan. No reputable lender is going to touch that. Consider a rental car for your road trip maybe, and save the "going into debt" for when you've got a paycheck.

OP get a rental car for the road trip anyways. You can pound out a whole bunch of miles on it and give it back. No reason to rack up miles on your owned car.

Human: I typically max out my 401k contributions (only about $27k in there right now). My employer does not match, so I was considering reducing the contributions to $0 for the rest of the year to save money for a down payment on a house. That would give me about $15k more for my down payment. Can someone let me know if this is a bad idea?

Everyone's situation is different - but my gut feeling is to keep your 401k funding as-is and put a smaller down payment on the house. That opens up a whole world of "minimum down payment", mortgage insurance, taxes... but with interest rates as low as they are now, take the bigger mortgage and keep paying yourself with the 401k.

You may find these links helpful: - [401(k) Fund Selection Guide](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k_funds) - [401(k) FAQs](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/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: So I want to take out a loan to purchase a camera. How long do I have to pay the loan off and how much can I borrow. I'm only looking to get like 300 dollars

Don't take a loan for that. Take the amount that you're willing to spend per month and save up for it. By then your camera is on sale or you decide you don't really need it.

A bank won't make a loan this small. They will be happy to have you apply for a credit card.

Human: I make about $3k per month after taxes. I have a very stable job. No student loans. I only have a car loan that's about $250/month. I am looking to rent an apartment that's $1200 a month with water, sewer, trash, internet, and cable included. No cat rent! Pet deposit is $300 for both of my cats. Electricity is the only thing I have to pay but I live in the same area and my electricity bill ranges from $30-80. It's a brand new apartment closer to my job. The apartment I live in now is $825 but it sucks! It's old, smelly, drafty, no sun, and the neighbors suck. I'm definitely moving out but I just want to make sure I'm not screwing myself over. I took the cheaper apartment this year to save money but it was really stressful living here. I just need some reassurance with this decision because I just started living on my own! Assistant: In a low cost of living area, I recommend 30% of your take home for rent. That puts you at 900/month. In high cost of living areas (NYC/SF/DC/etc) you can go up to 40% of your take home which is $1200 for you. So it depends. Human: It's DC metro area...I know I can live cheaper if I go out further but I figured I'd cut down the cost of commuting to work?

Yeah, DC is going to be closer to 40%.

If you can, figure out what the cost ratio is. Spending X on housing to save Z on travel, or Spending Z on travel to save X on housing. Which is going to be more reasonable.

Human: Hello Reddit as the title say my mother has put me in a financial bind . I'm disabled have been my whole life , so recently I decided to take a trip down to the local social security office being that I'm not able to work a physically demanding job. However after speaking with one of the representatives and explained to me I had an overpayment of well over 13k but I had never been on it before.. until I was told I had been on it my whole life. I tried explaining that I wasn't even old enough to manage it considering id been a child and all. However they stated that I'm equally responsible for this debt. Another situation I'm currently having is there is a credit card also taken out in my name without my consent let alone my knowledge I had seen this only after reeling through my credit report and noticing a Walmart card. I remembered seeing her with one but didn't realize this those years ago. It has since been charged off as a loss So I'd like to know how can I fix any and all of this at all Thank you ahead of time

If you alleged that you are disabled, Social Security is bound by law to take a claim from you whether you have a past overpayment or not. Also, you have a right by law to file an appeal of the overypayment and to file for a waiver of the overpayment. These are 2 separate processes and you are eligible to apply for both. And to get decisions in writing from Social Security. Did the Social Security people not explain this to you? If not, go back and demand to speak with a supervisor.

You will have to file a criminal fraud complaint against your mother. This can be done at a police station. This will most likely ruin your relationship with your mother. /r/legaladvice may have more info.

Human: As a single 24 year old I find rent in my area expensive as ever (1100) for a 1 bedroom 600 sq ft apartment. I have low credit around 500. Just to go crazy I looked at houses. They're roughly 250-350k for smaller sized houses. I know absolutely nothing about starting off to buy a house. What's some advice on going in blind? Assistant: Really at thAt income level about the max you can afford for a house is double your income so $70k. That is with a good credit score like 700. Human: So I can buy a shack with 259 sq ft land. The American dream!

Or you can work to increase your income.

Just depends...location location location + how much sweat equity you want to put in to it. Your first home isnt a forever home, get something small and make it work for you.

Human: I've read plenty of posts on here talking about how to repair credit, and most of them it suggests that we ask for validation of the debt that we owe. The thing is, I know that I owe the debt and I'm finally in a place that I can pay them off in full. When I say debt, I am referring to accounts that are in collections, rather than my healthy debts like my auto loan and secured credit card with a zero balance. So, do I actually have to get a validation of the debt, or can I skip that step and just pay the balance in full? I don't want to hassle with trying to pay less, or doing a pay for delete, I just want to put the account in good standing and increase my credit score into the 640s so I can qualify for housing loan as quickly as possible. What should my next steps be?

You really should get your credit score up to the 700s before you consider a housing loan. Compound interest over a 30 year mortgage with even a 1% difference in interest rate will mean 10s-100s of thousands of dollars extra depending on the amount of the loan.

>I don't want to hassle with trying to pay less, or doing a pay for delete, I just want to put the account in good standing and increase my credit score into the 640s These two statements contradict. Paying the debt will not put the account in "good standing" - it will show as paid in full but it will continue to hurt your score until it ages off. Depending on where your score is now, paying it off may not increase your score into the 640s.. or even at all. If it's not falling off anytime soon, it's probably worth the effort to try and get it removed.

Human: So my monthly payments are ~$250, but I want to pay $500 instead, but the thing is, to set up auto payments on my account, it only allows me to pay the ~250. If i want to use my debit card to pay any amount i want, it charges me an extra 10.95 for convenience. I have no idea what to do, this is my first time taking out a loan. would love as much advice as possible. Thanks!

When you spend $100 on your credit or debit card, the merchant only gets ~$98 of that. Your loan servicer doesn't want to lose money on your payments. Keep the autopay going. Send them a $250 check 15 days after your payment date make sure it's marked apply to principal.

Does your autoloan have a bodyguard?

Human: I live in Pennsylvania. I wanted to start a small mutual fund for myself to have something besides my retirement. And I don't know if I to fill out a form or which government branch I have to contact or however the thing goes. Anyone know?

Do you want start a mutual fund or invest in one? Those are 2 very different things. Invest in one is easy. Call the place you want to open an account at (Vanguard is great) and they will guide you. If you want to create a mutual fund (hedge fund) and take investor money and charge a fee, that a really big question.

You may find these links helpful: - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [Investing wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing) *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: Back in 2007-2009, I remember watching my overall investment value drop ~20%. But my friend who reallocated his parents' investments in preparation for their retirement actually made a tiny bit during those years by moving mostly to bonds. While no one can predict an oncoming bear market, the sharp rise in the market based on tenuous political promises does not feel good to me and I worry about an oncoming correction. Suffice it to say, I'd like to reallocate my retirement to safer grounds for the time being. Is there anything I can do in my company provided Fidelity 401k to get me safe (albeit low) returns?

>Back in 2007-2009, I remember watching my overall investment value drop ~20% Wow! Did you remember those same investments going up nearly 300% since 2009 if you just invested in Vanguard's total stock fund? I certainly do and remember that 2009 was when people who had huge debt positions were punished and people who invested in indexes *and left them alone* built enormous wealth. >But my friend who reallocated his parents' investments in preparation for their retirement actually made a tiny bit during those years by moving mostly to bonds. Brutal! Your friend swapped a 9.5%+ average return for a 4.5% average return because s/he confused risk with volatility. I wouldn't want to replicate that mistake if I were you. Do you plan on retiring incredibly soon? I am unclear why you wouldn't just pick a target retirement fund and step back. >Is there anything I can do in my company provided Fidelity 401k to get me safe (albeit low) returns? Sure, buy an annuity or give me all of the money and I'll guaranty a 4% annual return indefinitely. Like the annuity, I keep all of the profits past 4% and will pay you up to 4% in down years.

You may find these links helpful: - [401(k) Fund Selection Guide](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k_funds) - [401(k) FAQs](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/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 currently a freshman at an in-state public university. For this year, and most likely other years to come, I will have to pay little to nothing in order to attend college from scholarships and grants. Some of these grants have come from filing the FAFSA, which I have done twice now (once in January of 2016 for my freshman year that started in August, and later in October 2016 for my sophomore year that will start next August). The major grant I received from the FAFSA was the Pell Grant, amounting in over $5,000. This makes sense given my parents current financial status; they are local entrepreneurs, whose business is tanking. I believe that the information they gave me regarding their parental contributions was correct because of the lifestyle I was brought up living; my mother was very modest and stingy, and focused heavily on saving our money for college because she and my dad would most likely not be able to pay for my post-secondary education at all. Because of this, I worked two or three jobs at a time from the age of fourteen, but that still hasn't been enough to pay for all of a four-year degree. Because of this, I believe my parents instructed me to do the following, and helped me do so: they withdrew money from my savings and checking accounts a few weeks before I filed my FAFSA, leaving about $1,000 total between both accounts so my expected financial contribution would be lower. They wanted me to save the money I had worked for and keep it in case of an emergency, like their business failing and we are become homeless, (which some months seems very real). Now that I've done the FAFSA twice, this makes the withdraws of money not included in the FAFSA around $8,000 dollars. This money is supposedly stored in a safety deposit box (that is a relative's box who I believe knows the situation) inside of an envelope with my name on it. I didn't realize that this was probably a very bad thing to be doing until thinking it through. I was only doing what I thought was right because that's what my parents told me to do, and I didn't think the money I had accumulated would make a difference in my FAFSA. I'm very worried that this could be a federal offense, and I have no idea what to do. Do I report it? Will I lose my money? Could I go to jail? What happens if I don't report it and get caught? Theoretically, I could pay for a semester or two of college if I had to, and I don't mind working during school especially if I need the money, but I don't know how to even confront my parents about this. tl;dr My parents withdrew money from my accounts to make my financial contribution on the FAFSA be smaller so I could potentially get more money/save the money I worked for in case of an emergency. Is this a problem, and if so, how do I fix this, and what kind of punishment could I be facing?

OP, are you sure your money still exists? With your parents' business tanking a healthy 8k might be too tempting. I keep reading about people getting scammed by their own parents and I always get wary in these situations.

You may find these links helpful: - [Student Loans wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/studentloans) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](http://www.reddit.com/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: As I stated, my friend had a seizure. I found him and he made a hole in his wall. He spoke to his landlord and she said it's not her problem and he has to pay for it. This apartment is already too much for him to afford since he lost his job and he can't afford to patch the wall and make it not noticeable.

Speaking as a landlord, your friend absolutely has an obligation and responsibility to repair the damage.

2nd the video/DIY. I am the least handy homeowner ever, and I can do this repair. And yes, ask LL for the matching paint. I guess I should ask, since I am thinking of a fist-sized or at most foot-sized patch, how big is this hole?

Human: All recommendations are welcome, however I thought I would mention I am especially interested in the topics of budgeting/financial planning for a young family and learning about the stock market (as a total newbie).

Clark Howard - www.clark.com

Not a podcast, but a YouTube + blog: https://youtube.com/user/rapidcity55 Find lots of advice about passive investing, asset protection, how to think/talk about financial planning.

Human: My parents are beginning the process of exploring selling commercial real estate in Northern New Jersey (affluent town, along train line into New York City) that will be eventually converted into condos. They are really great people with hearts of gold, but are not so strong with business dealings if you know what I mean. They are generally smart people but have a history of being seriously taken advantage of. While they were chatting with fellow property owners, the number $1.5M was thrown out as the value of the land. It turns out that that figure is significantly lower (like 6x lower) than what similar but less desirable property sold to developers in the area for in last two years. Sharks abound. My parents are getting older and will be basically using the proceeds of the sale to fund their retirement. I do not want them to get screwed. What books (specific titles) should I steer them towards to learn more about selling commercial property? Dealing with condo developers? What kinds of people should they be talking to and in what order? What advice do you have that I can point them towards? Again, they are going to living off of this so I don’t want them to get hosed. All thoughts are appreciated. (Cross post for more input hopefully)

Get a property lawyer and an appraisal for the land.

$1.5MM - $9MM spreads are not something you can buy a book on amazon and brush up on. They need a team of people to assist in the sale of the property. At least an attorney and a CPA. They need to look into something called a 1031 Exchange. If they just cash out and keep the money they will get absolutely crushed with taxes. They can legally sell this property and put the proceeds into a new real estate investment that generates income. I'm in the midwest and I see ~7% cap rates all over the place.

Human: Often I hear people using credit cards even when they don't actually need it. It is not because of lack of money, but to build "credit rating" or collect points or stuff like that. I'm not sure on the details how it works in USA. So. Can anyone give me reasons why it makes sense to use credit cards and pay off any credit card debt at end of each month even when you don't actually have to? Assistant: I think the most important reason that others haven't mentioned, is that it's the easiest way to build up a good credit score for a larger loan when you want one. In particular, car and home loans. Human: Why would you ever use a car or home loan, when you have to pay % for it? Assistant: How old are you that you plan on paying cash for a car (not unheard of but uncommon) and cash for a house (unheard of)? Human: It doesn't really matter what age. I mean: if you can't save up, just try earning more and save up more. I think that loans is a very bad case of not being able to employ principle of delayed gratification. If you aren't able to buy a car or a home in cash, then it means you have literally not earned this right and should make more money instead of borrowing it from the banker overlords.

Houses in my area start at $300k and that's for a dlapidated shoe box in a dangerous area. Why on earth would I pay more in rent for 20 years to live in a worse house?

There are a lot of people just giving throwaway answers to this, so I'd like to actually offer a few things to think about. Home loans are generally a good idea, especially if you're going to be living in one place for a while. 1) The cost of renting is closely tied with borrowing costs. When renting, you're paying all of the costs that are paid to own the property (including mortgage interest and principle, rental properties are almost always leveraged), plus some extra profit for the property owner. There is some economy of scale involved for maintenance and management, but the total cost will never be cheaper than owning the property yourself. 2) Buying a property fixes the cost you'll pay for the property. In most areas, the cost of real estate rises over the years. Furthermore, inflation will effectively reduce the amount you're paying relative to your income. If you buy a property now, sure, you're paying basically what you'd pay to rent for the next few years. But 5 years later, you'll usually be paying less than the prevailing rent in the area because your mortgage payments haven't changed. 3) The US federal government has created laws that may offer further incentives for buying a house. The ability to deduct the interest you pay on your mortgage from your taxes further reduces the amount you're actually paying for the property, especially in the first few years of the mortgage where you're primarily paying interest. This assumes that you are at the point where you can itemize, however, which is not possible for all people. If you can buy a house outright, awesome. If you can't, you're still likely better off buying something that will cost roughly the amount you're paying in rent now (or less), because inflation and tax laws are on your side. If you do something like buy a duplex and rent out half the duplex, the government is really REALLY on your side, and you can nearly break even on the entire stupid mortgage. This is what I did for about 10 years and I paid nothing for my living situation in exchange for about 3 hours a month of management. If that isn't an argument against renting....

Human: Greetings from Venezuela, the land of one of the most chaotic economies in the world. I've managed to keep my family afloat by doing freelance jobs on the internet paid in dollars, and I've come to the point where I can actually start saving some money, mainly because I want to create a fund to eventually leave the country with my family. Here's the deal... how should I save that money?. I'm paid using online wallet systems (mainly Paypal and Skrill), and I've used bitcoin mainly to convert what I earn to the local currency (bolivar, VEF) by going paypal/skrill - bitcoin - VEF, but never actually kept it there. Creating an account in dollars isn't easy at all, there's a strict foreign currency control in Venezuela, so they put waaay to many bureaucratic blocks on creating one, and with a yearly inflation of over 1000% with everything pointing to it getting worse as time goes by, saving in VEF would be like throwing the money away. So basically that leaves me with using paypal and skrill to keep the money, or bitcoin (which I don't have any real experience with), but I know they're generally frowned upon against a real bank account. My general idea was to keep a little money on each just in case (some in paypal, some in skrill, some in bitcoin and so on), but I'd really like some advice at what could I do.

>some in paypal, some in skrill, some in bitcoin In your situation, that is probably the right strategy. Dollars held in Paypal and Skrill do not have as much exchange rate risk as Bitcoin. However, your Paypal and Skrill accounts are not fundamentally different from bank accounts. They could be restricted or even frozen if the VE government decides to clamp down on international transfer methods. On the other hand, Bitcoin that you hold in your own wallet cannot be frozen, because you are in complete control of it. When you eventually leave the country, your Bitcoin easily goes with you without requiring permission from any financial company. So both dollars and bitcoins have pros and cons in your situation. Holding some of each diversifies your risk.

Whatever you are able to save, I would split it and keep it in several places. * Paypal - Keep some in your paypal account. * Bitcoin - Keep some in bitcoin, but preferably not in a bitcoin exchange account, but actually in a bitcoin client or paper wallet. * USD cash - Are you able to convert some to VEF and then to physical USD cash at a local exchange? You would be losing a little bit to inflation, but it's liquid money you can use. * Look into USD bank accounts that aren't in the United States. Panama, Caribbean islands, maybe even Switzerland?

Human: Just made my first investment of $100 in my Roth IRA by purchasing vanguard target 2050. I was charged a $35 dollar fee when I did this. I called Wells Fargo and they said I would have to pay this fee every time I put money into this mutual fund because it's not a no load. I'm pretty sure it IS a no load though. Does anyone else have a Roth with Wells Fargo that can explain what's happening. Is this normal? I just wanna be able to add money to this vanguard fund regularly without this fee.

Sorry to recommend this but get away from WF. Go with vanguard.

You may find these links helpful: - [Retirement Accounts](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_retirement_accounts) (articles on 401(k) plans, IRAs, and more) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/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 dad passed away late last year. In January my mom discovered an old life insurance policy of his that had accrued a large sum of money. She recently deposited the amount in her savings account and made me a joint owner. If I withdraw any of this money, is it considered a "gift," therefore subject to those declarations and penalties? If it is "gift" money, how can we remedy that, if at all? (This is not relevant to last year's filings, btw, just preparing for next year and trying to avoid any declarations or penalties for anyone involved. Thanks in advance.) EDIT: Yes my mother explicitly stated that she wanted me to have the entire amount (as dad has her covered with other financials elsewhere). Mom was named as the beneficiary on this particular policy. Also interesting that I am assumed to be a guy ;) EDIT AGAIN: FYI I am 31yo - obviously no longer a dependent minor. Assistant: As far as the bank is concerned, it is both your and her money. As far as gift tax laws are concerned, it is her money. Therefore, if you withdraw the money, it is considered a gift. This is why non-spousal joint account is such a hassle on gift tax issues! How fast are you planning to withdraw? If it's under $14k/year, then there are no forms to fill. Human: Well it's approx $100k total and was hoping to use all of it for various things like adding to my 401k, smaller savings (emergency) nest eggs, a downpayment on a house, paying off debts, laddering CD's, etc...

You need to sit down and have a thorough talk with your mother before you touch *any* of that money. It's very likely that she also has plans for it. Not to sound harsh, but you've lost your father recently. You don't want to lose your mother as well, especially not over something like life insurance money.

So you want that "new new" with mom's money? Are you asking us if it is legal to take mom's money from an account that you joint owner of? And if you did, will the IRS / cops care? Get that new new, you degenerate, parents raised you well.

Human: So like the title says a am recently divorced(2 years) from a 20 year relationship, and I didn't take it very well and let my finances go to hell from drinking and not really caring about anything. Well I finally straightened up and want get control again, so was looking for some advice. I had 5 accounts when I started, paid off a $290 CC and a $511 CC with my tax return, here's what I have left. 1. Credit Card 6500 Balance 7000 Limit 22% rate 2. Credit Card 1000 Balance 1500 Limit 15% rate 3. Auto Loan 900 Balance 60 a month 6.9% rate Do I keep knocking off the small ones, or do I go after the biggest one with the highest rate? Thanks for any advice.

In this case I would do the pay the highest interest first because it is 7% more then the next highest. So I would pay 1 then 2 then 3. You will see slow progress but it will save you the most money in the long run.

Pay off 2 and 3 right away. Find another credit card no interest 6 months type of deal and switch number one. Then take the money you are saving from paying off 2 and 3 and put it towards number 1. You will be done in no time

Human: Come June of this year there is some wide spread word that my company in Michigan may be closing it's doors for good. I am hired into the company and have been working here for 2-3 years. I am hoping for the best that we do not close and I keep my job. But, if the company does shut down how do I find out more information on a severance package and if I will even get one? Anything and everything is appreciated /r/PersonalFinance thank you! Edit 1: I have already begun doing research for another job incase this does in fact happen. And yes it is not confirmed but I have heard this from high sources so I am playing it safe. The weird thing is my company just got a mew building a bit further away as this buildings lease is up in 2019. So this is all very strange. Edit 2: I am in the lithium ion battery field. Looks like no severance package for me -_-)

If they are shutting down, that means there's no money. If there's no money, you're not getting severance.

That is sad - what industry do you work in? Generally, companies try to make an official announcement, they try to offer compensation packages for 'staying till the end' - but if your company is just failing on every single level which caused an unavoidable shutting of the doors come june - your best option would be to update your resume, start going to every networking/hiring/conference etc that you're able to attend between now and your last day - if you're lucky you'll get a better job before ever dealing with the real stress, depression and anxiety involved with a company shutting down.

Human: I bought a car on December 30, and made my first monthly payment on Feb 1. At the time, I thought I had set up an automatic monthly payment through my online banking account. So, I assumed that the March 1 payment was already scheduled. This weekend, I was looking through my accounts and realized the payment was never made. I immediately sent the payment but it's not going to go through until today because of the weekend. I am contacting my bank to try and figure out what happened. In the meantime, how badly will this affect my credit score? At the time I purchased my car, it was 712 and I have payed all of my other bills on time since then.

It shouldn't affect your score at all. Most places don't report late payments to the credit bureaus until they're 30 days past due.

You may find these links helpful: - [Credit-related wiki pages](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_credit) - [Credit Reports](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_reports) - [FICO / Credit Scores](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Improving Credit Scores and Building Credit](http://www.reddit.com/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 have about $6,000 in credit card debt. Last year our income was $29,000. This year our income will be over $50,000 thanks to a very unexpected promotion for one of us. We've been trying to put back for emergency funds and debt repayment since we started paying attention to our money and keeping up with r/pf back in September. Never expected our income would go up so quickly. So now, we've gone from having barely enough to get by, to having over a thousand left over to use each month however we want. So now here's my question... We could pay off our debt over the next 6-7 months and be out of debt completely. Why should we put back one month's expenses worth of savings before paying off this debt since it costs us more in interest every month that we don't pay it off? What if we just had a $500 emergency fund or something smaller so we could get out of debt sooner? EDIT: I left something out. Why have an emergency fund when we're getting out of debt, rather than using the credit card that we paid off somewhat and just going back into the same debt if there were and emergency. I'm asking purely from a mathematical standpoint, not a peace of mind kind of question. EDIT 2: Noticed I didn't include our interest rates. We're young so our interest rates are between 22-29%. EDIT 3: Thanks for all the advice guys! I've decided to keep a $1000 emergency fund until I pay off my high interest debt. I'm okay with that amount of risk.

It's purely psychological. When paying down debt, the emergency fund is there to break the dependence upon your credit card. For example, if your car needs new tires you don't need to fall back on the credit card you're trying to pay off to get them. It feels like a failure to have to fall back on your credit card again, so the emergency fund prevents that. From a purely mathematical standpoint, you're costing yourself money by not paying the debt first.

At 1000k a month extra you should have enough to pay down extra on the card *and* save. So maybe instead of the $25 minimum payment, put down 200 and save 800 (just as an example). Then once you have a decent e-fund throw the rest directly at the debt. Congrats on the promotion!

Human: My parents justification for manuals having lower resale is that the demand is lower, and consequently, that drives the price down. I'm looking for a new car, and have around 5k to spend. If I want to get the best deal, should I prefer manuals? EDIT: To clarify, I'm not concerned on the resale value when I sell the car, I was more focusing on the resale value when the original owner sells it, ie, my purchase price. It seems the consensus is that for two economy cars, condition being equal, one can assume the price on the manual will be lower. Does this conditional go the other way. If you have two economy cars that are priced the same, can it be reasonably assumed that the manual will be in better condition.

A manual transmission will sell for less, but that also means you can buy it for less. Those two factors should pretty much balance each other out.

On the used market, I would argue the opposite. The available buyer pool for manual transmission cars might be smaller, however they are willing to pay more to get a manual transmission car, than someone in the market for a boring slushbox. This is especially true with cars that have an enthusiast market, or have any slight hint of being sporty. Manual transmission BMWs for example, especially E30, E36 and E39 models are much more desirable and sell for quite a bit more than their automatic counterparts.

Human: Recently made a job move where I know make 25% more, but now have no access to a 401k. Im currently looking into getting my funds rolled into my Roth IRA.. So with the money I normally would have funneled into my Roth 401k should I just put that into a taxable account? I already fully fund my Roth IRA every year and have a fully funded emergency fund. Is this the best move since I can't find any additional tax advantaged vehicles to put this money into? Assistant: You may not have heard of it, but there's a great tax advantaged vehicle out there that takes advantage of IRC 7702 (just like there are plans that use IRC 401k). I personally have one known as a IUL. I'm guaranteed not to lose, I can capture the upswing of the market, and it is tax advantaged. Great for long term savings, which is exactly what I use it for. I found an old video talking more about it: http://www.myretirementjet.com/My_Retirement_Jet.html Human: This sounds amazing... Why doesn't everyone do this?? Assistant: Only created during the early 2000's and most professionals don't have the licensure for it (it requires a life insurance license). Plus, the financial industry is *reeeallyy* slow when it comes to announcing changes. I personally have one for both myself and my wife. Looking at last year's statement, 8 out of 12 months were negative (as much as -14%) and I lost *nothing* during the worst times, leaving all my money available to grow during the good times. Human: Well that sounds like a good deal.... What's the catch? Are there large fees? Can the funds only be pulled out when I'm dead?

IUL is Indexed Universal Life. You can do a quick search here on PF for why UL is not a popular vehicle for retirement, the same issues apply to IUL. The tldr is that after high fees and costs, you likely would have ended up with more money if you just invested in an index fund yourself (even after taxes).

There are a few "catches", all of which I was well informed of before hand and aren't that big. First off, to count as life insurance and gain the tax benefits there are things such as cost of insurance plus limits on policy size based on face amount. You also have to qualify based on health. However, if you ever need to save more you can just get another policy. And considering you can take out money tax deferred (or if you follow the rules, tax free), what you save in taxes makes up for fees several times over. The fees are also not very big, at least not for the companies I've seen. There are also surrender charges involved, both to prevent money laundering but also to allow the company to provide high rates of return (incidentally, a reason banks have such low ROR, they have no guarantees how long the money is available to work with). This is why it's good for long term, by the time you need it the surrender periods are long gone. And the funds can be pulled out while you're alive. Some of the companies are really trying to revolutionize things and add long term care on board, meaning if you had to receive long term care benefits you could pull that from the death benefit of your policy *while you're still alive*.

Human: I have been doing a fair amount of research on this topic and have found a mix of answers... it seems to be almost split 50/50. My fiance and I are both 25 years old. She is about to graduate Pharmacy school and has a lot of student loan debt. Right now it is at $255,000 (ouch) with a mix of interest rates. When she graduates and starts work in the next 3-5 months she will be making a salary of around $115,000 or more. I have recently paid off all of my debts since graduating college and have a salary of $95,000. Cumulative salary when she has a full time job for the two of us should be in the $200,000 + range. Her loans are the only debt we have. We both own our cars and currently do not own a home/have a mortgage. We are planning on CRUSHING the student loan debt once she finishes school and starts making good money. Basically living frugally and using all of our spare $$$ to pay off the loan. We anticipate it should take us about 4 years by paying $7,000+ towards the loans at a minimum each month. After that we will save for a house. I have a fair amount of $$$ that I am undecided on what to do with (~$15k)... I am wondering if for the tax year 2016 we should both contribute the max $5,500 to a Roth IRA account... Or I could just throw it at the loans. My concern is that once we are married (1-2 years at most) we are not going to be able to contribute to tax-advantaged IRA funds (salary over the ~$195k limit). Obviously, contributing to an IRA for the year is a 'use it or lose it' scenario for everyone but I feel this is even more the case with us given that we will likely never be able to contribute to IRA again after a year or two. We are both fortunate to have good salaries so in the grand scheme of things $11,000 of loan debt will take us only like 2 more months to cover in the future if we choose to contribute to IRA now. What should we do? Pay off $11k worth of the debt (highest interest accounts first) or contribute to Roth IRA while we still can? Loan details (all student through Great Lakes): Direct Subsidized Stafford $4,549.82 4.500% Direct Unsubsidized Stafford $1,449.61 6.800% Direct Subsidized Stafford $5,546.00 3.400% Direct Unsubsidized Stafford $2,705.72 6.800% Direct Subsidized Stafford $5,641.06 3.400% Direct Unsubsidized Stafford $2,545.03 6.800% Direct Unsubsidized Stafford $23,193.76 6.210% Direct Unsubsidized Stafford $17,274.22 6.210% Direct Unsubsidized Stafford $21,833.25 5.840% Direct Unsubsidized Stafford $16,260.96 5.840% Direct Unsubsidized Stafford $20,806.78 5.310% Direct Unsubsidized Stafford $12,687.06 5.310% Direct Grad PLUS $37,323.18 7.210% Direct Grad PLUS $37,720.97 6.840% Direct Grad PLUS $33,651.95 6.310% FFEL Unsubsidized Stafford $6,091.18 6.800% FFEL Unsubsidized Stafford $3,045.51 6.800% FFEL Subsidized Stafford $3,565.93 5.600% Salary (once fiance gets full time job after graduating in a few months) Her: ~$115,000 + Me: $95,000 Total: $200,000 +

> My concern is that once we are married (1-2 years at most) we are not going to be able to contribute to tax-advantaged IRA funds (salary over the ~$195k limit). You can always contribute to a traditional IRA. The only limit on tIRA contributions is whether you can deduct them or not, but there is no limit to actually contributing. You could then employee a backdoor Roth strategy, or just be comfortable with non-deductible tIRA contributions. Your situation will become slightly more complex, maybe, but you never lose your ability to contribute. In my opinion, tackle the shit out of this debt. It's all guaranteed returns on your money, which pretty much nothing else can guarantee (apart from low interest insured accounts). At the very least pay off the highest interest rate loans before contributing to IRAs.

You may find these links helpful: - [Student Loans wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/studentloans) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](http://www.reddit.com/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: So I know it's normally good to keep your oldest line of credit - this thing has probably been opened for 10 years. The APR is really high, but since I've paid it off, I never use it. They have been charging me $8/month as a fee for the last two years. The available credit is 3k so it's not like it's helping my credit report that much. Should I just cancel and take the short-term hit on my credit? Do they normally knock off fees for having a $0 balance if I reach out and complain? Keep it? Thanks in advance.

If you put a small recurring charge like Netflix on there and autopay it every month, does that avoid the fee? $8 a month is BS, do not continue to pay this.

If this is your oldest card by far, I say no. I had one card for 10 years and due to inactivity they canceled it. Now my average active credit is 4 years old and that brought down my credit score slightly. Maybe someone can opine on switching to a different card with no fee within the same institution? I am not sure if that will help.

Human: This is something that weighs heavy on me every year. So many of my friends and family members did not look at employment reports or consider how taking on mountains of debt could affect them later on in life. I wanted to post this for the upcoming period of college decision-making. Things to consider before attending a university: 1. **Return on Investment** 2. **Starting Salary** 3. **Employment Reports** 4. **Cost of Living** 5. **How far does the network go?**

6. The human factor. Don't boil everything down to dollars and cents, I know that's hard in a sub like this, but the human factor really needs to be evaluated. If it costs a little bit less overall to go to a school you don't want to go to, and don't like, then 6 says don't do it. 1 through 5 are good base lines to work with, but always work with 6.

Nah, college is gonna be free soon like in Sweden or Europe.

Human: So my parents called me today saying that because I filled my own taxes that they can't claim me as a dependent and are losing $4k in taxes because of it. I'm not sure why. Can anyone elaborate as to why me filing my taxes causes them to lose anything on their taxes.

If you claim your personal exemption, no one can claim you as a dependent, which means they can't lower their taxable income by claiming your exemption. The real question here is whether or not they _could have_ claimed you as a dependent. If they can claim you, you _can't_ claim yourself, even if they don't claim you. So if you were either a qualifying child or qualifying relative for last year and claimed your personal exemption on your tax return, you'll need to amend your tax return since you weren't actually allowed to. If you weren't a qualifying relative or qualifying child, you don't have to change anything, and your parents can't claim you.

You may find these links helpful: - [Tax Software Megathread](http://redd.it/5ohy01) - [Taxes wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/taxes) - [Understanding tax brackets](https://www.reddit.com/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: A bit of background: I'm 23, living in NYC, a year out of college with a B.B.A., no student loans. Today, I was offered my first salaried job (SEO Analyst) at a digital marketing agency for 40k with "aggressive raises" after 6 and 12 months. I said I was excited about the position, but wanted some time to think about the offer. I'm a little shocked the offer was low because after researching median wages for the position in NYC, I was expecting more around the 50k-55k range. Am I justified in wanting to negotiate considering this is my first job? Can I ask for 50k or will that put them off? Should I have negotiated on the phone when she gave me the number? I'm just really confused because I believe my work is valued higher than 40k, but I don't know how to justify that and I'm afraid if I walk away from this job that another one won't come along for awhile. Should I take the job because it's a job in my field and shut up and be happy? Should I walk away? People of Reddit, impart upon me your wisdom!

Keep in mind that the median wage takes into account the lowest and highest wages in the field. You have zero experience professionally, it is unlikely you will be offered an entry level position at the median rate. Do you have another offer? If not, take the job, learn as much as you can, and keep job searching. Some money is better than no money.

No experience? 1st job? Are you good at poker? Can you bluff that you've been offered a better amount with another company?

Human: I reported this to campus police, and they made a report. I noticed that my neck started to hurt like 15-20 minutes after the accident and I'm slightly worried about that. The car itself doesn't seem to be damaged, but it is a hatchback and she rammed into the tire on the back pretty hard ripping the cover and maybe doing damage underneath. On one hand cash sounds great and I can repair whatever needs to be repaired, but I also don't know if my neck is a big deal or not. I would prefer to handle this outside of insurance claims myself and cash would be helpful but what do you think?

Get an estimate to have your car repaired. When you get an estimate, you know how much to ask for. I can't advise you on your neck, your best best would be to see a doctor.

I would take the cash. It COULD end up being worse than it seems, but I don't think the chances are super high.

Human: Hey guys So today I find out my mother has been lying about income. I make over the 4,000 dollar minimum so I know that I need to file my taxes but my mom lied to me and said I don't need to file anything now I need to file taxes but she's telling me that she signed so form stating that I make less than 4,000 and if she lies she's under penalty of perjury supposedly. Is this true??

1. You don't need to file if you make over 4k. You need to file if you make over 6.3k or 10k depending on if you're a dependant. 2. Sounds like she's claiming you as a dependant as a qualifying relative. No, she just needs to amend her taxes.

To add to the good responses - even if you make under $6300 and are a dependent, if you had taxes withheld from your income you will *want* to file a tax return to get those refunded. This is fine to do as a dependent, you just check the box on your tax return saying that someone else can claim your personal exemption.

Human: This question is mostly about money management. I'm currently 19, have my first job. My money management isn't excatly that great. Whenever my co worker saw something expensive and wants to buy, they always say wait until next paycheck. My main confusion is that does that mean they spend all of their paycheck already? Why do they have to wait for the money is there's (assuming) money saved in their account? So how does the whole money management work?

It's also possible that they're waiting until the next paycheck to see if they "really" want to make that expensive purchase.

It could be a self limit that they have set per month. I have delayed purchases that I don't need until later because I spent my own limit for the month.

Human: Okay. So the short of it. I am 22k in debt with federal student loans, I owe a bank and a credit card $500 each and that doesn't even touch my hospital bills. My mother passed away two years ago and my older brother and I bought her house on the beach. We both came into a little insurance money that is now all gone. It's a nice house. We are behind in our HOA payments and owe 4K in taxes. We are both unemployed (I am just coming out of rehab and my brother just lost his high paying job) we literally have no income besides my brother's unemployment that he hasn't even filed for yet. What do I do? I am so stressed out. I want to sell the house but what's the best way to go about this? Please help. Also I have been working in the restaurant business and my brother will also have to find an entry level job

Sell the house. You cant afford it.

Look into renting the house out instead of selling it. This might bring in a bit of cash sooner than selling. This might give you guys some time to recover your finances without having to make a distressed sale. If you can hang on a few months, you might get more money per month from a summer rental on a beach house than from a year round rental. Of course, you would need to find some place to live.

Human: I am currently a junior at college and pay for everything myself through work and school loans. I am preparing my taxes and will get a decent amount of money back if I am claiming as an independent and will either owe money or just not receive or owe anything if my parents claim me as a dependent. They were told that it is illegal for them to not claim me as a dependent because I am between the ages of 18 and 24 and am currently in school. Is this really the case? Especially when they provide 0 income to me at all? If housing matters at all, I have an apartment and have not lived with my parents for over a year, and pay for it all through work and not through student loans.

The *support test* for "qualifying child" says if you provided more than half the cost of your support for the year, then no one can claim you as a "qualifying child" dependent. If you cannot be claimed as a "qualifying child" then they might still be able to claim you as a "qualifying relative." But the *gross income test* for qualifying relative states that if you had more than $4050 income in the year, they can't claim you as a "qualifying relative" dependent. Also, if they did not provide more than half your cost of support, they can't claim you as a "qualifying relative" dependent. See all the tests here in Chapter 3: https://www.irs.gov/uac/about-publication-17 So, it would be illegal for them to claim you as a dependent if you don't meet the tests for qualifying child or qualifying relative. Exactly the contrary of what you have been told.

You may find these links helpful: - [Tax Software Megathread](http://redd.it/5ohy01) - [Taxes wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/taxes) - [Understanding tax brackets](https://www.reddit.com/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: Hi. Apologies if this is not the right sub to post this. I'm gearing up to propose and would love some advice re: how much to pay for a ring. Reading online, I've established: * the x times your monthly salary is marketing and is generally no longer followed anymore * that according to jewelers or diamond companies, the average spend on a ring is $4k to $6k. Obviously, their "research" is biased. I've spoken to her as well and she's gotten input on the ring she wants. I'd appreciate it if we did not jump to conclusions and discuss my gf's implied tastes, my choice in a woman with these implied tastes nor our commitment to our future financial goals (which we have discussed and are focused on). Financially, we're in a good place. More than 6 months salary in savings. Maxed out 401k. All holidays this year booked and paid for. No debt. According to /r/financialindependence, we're a little behind. I read somewhere that one should spend as much on a ring as they do on any expensive hobbies they have. I ride a motorcycle (a money pit of a hobby). I'm not sure I agree with that. I'd love to hear others thoughts on how to budget for a ring, factoring in emotional and financial aspects of the purchase.

You don't need to compare a wedding ring to any other price estimates. The answer is something that you can afford that your fiance would appreciate and it shouldn't impact future financial decisions. Is that $300? Great. Is that $4k? As long as it meets these criteria.

You may find these links helpful: - [Budgeting wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/budgeting) - [Spreadsheets section of the Tools wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/tools#wiki_redditor_created.3A) *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 was talking with my boss and suggested that he add his children to his Capital One credit card as authorized users to help them build credit. My parents did that for me when I was 16 with a gas card and by the time I was 18 I had a credit score in the high 700's. Anyways, we log into his account to add them as an authorized user with their DOB, SSN address and phone number and set the card spending limits. The cards are sent via overnight mail. The next day he receives a call from Capital one fraud department stating they need the kids's drivers license and a copy of their social security card. He's unorganized and doesn't have them so he calls his wife. Shes pissed that he's even asking and doesn't want to send that info. The kids don't have a drivers license anyways. They don't have a state ID either, I asked. My boss calls Capital one back stating he's not sending in the information and to cancel the request of adding them as an authorized user. The rep says they cannot cancel that request until the documents are sent in. He told them the kids don't have drivers licenses and that he's not sending in their social security cards. He's irate. He tells the rep to cancel the card. He also has a business card with them too and I am trying to convince him to keep it for the 1.5% cash back. The rep states that she cannot submit a request to cancel the card due to the "fraud restriction" and that he would have to send the required authorized user documents. Her name is Nicole #vkd837. My boss asked if he had any other options and asked again to have the card cancelled. She stated they would not be able to cancel the card. He paid the balance in full so it'll be zero tomorrow. My great idea to help his kids boost their credit score has turned into a nightmare. We are concerned with leaving the account open. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated. UPDATE; Thank you /u/royalic . My boss just got off the phone with the manager in the fraud department. He was on the phone for about 25 minutes but they were able to remove the restriction on his card and remove the request to add his kids as authorized users.

Why not go forward with getting them authorized? That was the original objective was it not? State IDs are easy to acquire and SSN is info that every CC company has on file.

You may find these links helpful: - [Identity Theft Guide](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/identity_theft) - [Credit-related wiki pages](http://www.reddit.com/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: I had a pretty deep laceration to my index finger while at home. I bandaged the laceration and put a zip tie above the cut so I could temporarily stop the bleeding. This was a quick fix so I could continue doing some work related things. About an hour later I went to an urgent care and they noticed that I had nicked a tendon and advised me to goto the ER, so I did. Got to the ER, sat in a room for about 3 hours while people came in and out and took my BP and took 3 X-rays of my hand and gave me some shots for antibiotics and tetanus . Finally the doctor came in and and gave me 3 stitches. Didn't even do anything to my tendon, just advised me to see an orthopedic specialist which I later did. Turned out to be a hardly an emergency at all. Something the urgent care could have absolutely handled. So now I'm getting a bill from the facility. The insurance has covered around $2200 of the bill but I still owe over $1600 ( deductible + 30%coinsurance )for the visit !?! Oh and I got another separate bill from the doctor for $1200!! I'm looking at the bill with the CPT codes associated with each procedural fee and I'm honestly flabbergasted. Part of the charges is a procedure for tendon repair which never happened. I simply got 3 stitches and went on my way. 1, how did my insurance accept these rates in the first place? 2, what can I do to remedy this? I honestly can't find the logic in some of the prices. Not to mention the procedure that never happened. I want to dispute this bill and I've been trying to find some data on CPT codes and fee associated with them but I'm getting mixed results, but non the less much much cheaper than what is on the bill. I want to do my due diligence before i dispute the charges. Does anyone know a good data base to search for costs on drugs and procedures? I'm I live in Oklahoma if that's of any relevance. CPT CODE/ charge: 73130- $675.85 x ray 26418-$940.92 tendon repair 96372-$349.55 ther/proph/inj sc/im 99284-$1970.02 emergency services 90714-$172.00 td vacc no presv J0690-$63.00 cefazoli inject 500mg 90471-$281.51 immunization Do these prices look right? Edit: I use Aetna, I'm 25, don't qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. I have very little experience with the med industry. Edit 2: my adjusted bill through insurance is closer to 4000.

You might have incorrectly formatted line breaks. To create a line break, either put two spaces at the end of the line or put an extra blank line in-between lines. ([See Reddit's page on commenting for more information.](http://www.reddit.com/wiki/commenting)) I have attempted to automatically reformat your text with fixed line breaks. ---- > I had a pretty deep laceration to my index finger while at home. I bandaged the laceration and put a zip tie above the cut so I could temporarily stop the bleeding. This was a quick fix so I could continue doing some work related things. > > About an hour later I went to an urgent care and they noticed that I had nicked a tendon and advised me to goto the ER, so I did. > > Got to the ER, sat in a room for about 3 hours while people came in and out and took my BP and took 3 X-rays of my hand and gave me some shots for antibiotics and tetanus . Finally the doctor came in and and gave me 3 stitches. Didn't even do anything to my tendon, just advised me to see an orthopedic specialist which I later did. > > Turned out to be a hardly an emergency at all. Something the urgent care could have absolutely handled. > > So now I'm getting a bill from the facility. The insurance has covered around $2200 of the bill but I still owe over $1600 ( deductible + 30%coinsurance )for the visit !?! Oh and I got another separate bill from the doctor for $1200!! > > I'm looking at the bill with the CPT codes associated with each procedural fee and I'm honestly flabbergasted. Part of the charges is a procedure for tendon repair which never happened. I simply got 3 stitches and went on my way. > > 1, how did my insurance accept these rates in the first place? > 2, what can I do to remedy this? I honestly can't find the logic in some of the prices. Not to mention the procedure that never happened. > > I want to dispute this bill and I've been trying to find some data on CPT codes and fee associated with them but I'm getting mixed results, but non the less much much cheaper than what is on the bill. I want to do my due diligence before i dispute the charges. Does anyone know a good data base to search for costs on drugs and procedures? I'm > I live in Oklahoma if that's of any relevance. > > CPT CODE/ charge: > 73130- $675.85 x ray > 26418-$940.92 tendon repair > 96372-$349.55 ther/proph/inj sc/im > 99284-$1970.02 emergency services > 90714-$172.00 td vacc no presv > J0690-$63.00 cefazoli inject 500mg > 90471-$281.51 immunization > > Do these prices look right? > ---- ^(I am a bot. Contact) ^[pentium4borg](https://www.reddit.com/user/pentium4borg) ^(with any feedback.)

That's what you get for going to the doctor.

Human: I have a friend that said he wasn't worried whatsoever about his college debt. He says he knows people that have had debt their whole lives and still live comfortably, thats sounds wrong but i don't know why.

Imagine how much more comfortable they could be *without* the debt.

>I have a friend that said he wasn't worried whatsoever about his college debt. He may not worry now, but he will later in life. The Gov't will eventually seize tax refunds and SS as well as deny certain Gov't funding and lending. >He says he knows people that have had debt their whole lives and still live comfortably, thats sounds wrong but i don't know why. He may know people that LOOK like they live comfortably, but without looking into their personal finances he has no clue if they actually live comfortably or if they're just treading water. I think a lot of people who rationalize not paying their student loan debts are going to be in for a real rude awakening.

Human: Hello all. I am not usually one for posting on Reddit but I have pushed my personal ego and stubborn attitude aside to ask for advice/help. I'm going to try to be as specific about things as possible. I am a 24 year old college grad, in the field of Graphic Design. I have dreams of creating youth art galleries, and things to give back to the community. But I cannot obtain these dreams quite yet.. Since the age of 15 any money I received went to my parents. My college scholarships that were in check form also went to said parents. They took thousands from me, because we were getting evicted here and there, and starving. I did everything I could in Highschool to get scholarships to college. I went to the University of New Haven CT. My parents never went to college, so I had no guidance. I worked throughout college, saving where I could, but since my family had no money, I had to take out credit cards to buy food and books, etc. Along with grants, I had to get loans to go through school. The total that I currently owe is over $110,000.00 with payments over $300 a month, on income driven payment plans. (The loan companies are DOE federal loan, and NAVIENT). I spoke to Navient today to remove my account info, and they said if I do, I'll owe over $800 a month just to them. I wanted to remove my card because I recently lost my car, and had to then quit my job. So I figured I'd ask for lower/temporary no payments, and they refused. My bank account is negative. On top of this, I support my parents. I pay the electricity and internet, as well as groceries and money occasionally. I have made a series of decisions to help my family in trying times (under the impression I would be paid back) and it has created a deep hole of which I cannot see light. I am looking for employment locally since I do not have a car. I am looking for employment near my boyfriend because if I get something, I can stay with him and share his car. But I legitimately fear this hole will only continue to grow over the next 10-30 years, and I will never be able to get a home. Or start a family. Or give back to the community. When I was younger I always volunteered. I can't even afford to do that now, and it has sent me into a depression. Lastly, I attempted to start my own apparel screen printing online shop, but have not been able to market well, so as a viable income option it has yet to succeed. I am lost, I am panicking, I am scared, and I need advice. I have been strong and giving for so long, that I have finally broken, and I need your help. Thank you so much for what ever advice you can bare, I will appreciate anything.

Can't help you much unless you post a full budget, but from what you have posted you 100% cannot be helping your parents right now. You simply cannot afford to.

Did not read your post since I see no budget listed. The first way you tackle a financial crisis is by getting a comprehensive budget put together. List all your debts, what the interest rates are, list your income, etc etc - once you have a full budget put together - the stress and drowning feelings start going away because you have a clear picture, a timetable, a plan. Have you already read the Wiki's ?