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danielv835

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personal_finance_v0.2

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Human: I'm 21 years old and I think because I had $450 in CC debt that I havent paid off in months and only paid a minimum here and there. I just paid the whole thing off now. I also opened a stupid Firestone CC and had $700 on there that I just paid off now (making $100 payments monthly with no interest.) Last time I checked my credit report, it was probably in July so I panicked because I read an article about not returning library books and how they can effect your credit score significantly. So what can I do to get my credit score back up? I only have one bank cred it card and about 3 store credit cards. Never made a late payment and I have finally paid of all my CC in full.

The functional difference in 750 vs 762 is pretty much nothing. Don't sweat it.

How did you get the two credit scores?

Human: We both contribute equal parts to our income, and will have at least 20% down payment. I have a 750+ FICO score, but we think my wife has no credit at all. She can't even pull her credit report from the usual free sites because they can't verify her identity (probably because they have no information on her). She had a student credit card back in college, but closed that a couple years ago. Other than that she's never had a loan or credit account. I just added her as an authorized signer with her own card on one of my accounts, but I'm reading stuff online that some sites say that helps and some say it doesn't. Ideally we would like to purchase a house in about 12 months, how is her lack of credit going to impact that? Can we significantly improve it before next year?

Is it possible you could qualify for the mortgage on your income alone? It may be simplest to just leave the wife out and do it all in your name.

I have always wondered about this. Why is is necessary to bring her into this at all? Can't you just use your own financial information? Or can you not afford the house on just your income? (Might be a red flag there.)

Human: Hi PF, My father is relatively old (he's 82, I'm 33) and retired somewhere around 65. As a kid, my dad always impressed upon me the importance of saving, making sound investments and generally using money wisely. I was surprised when I got an email from my older brother recently that Dad was in bad financial shape and was likely going to need help. My siblings and I (5 of us, ranging from 51 to 31) talked yesterday about how to proceed. 2 of them have already been providing him about $350/mo. The other 3 of us have been relatively unaware that things were so tight. He's got about $70k left in the bank and has A LOT of anxiety about letting his savings dip below that. At the point, he badly needs hearing aids (he has trouble hearing his grand kids, especially the girls) to the tune of $3k and about another $1k in car repairs that he's been putting off because he feels like he needs to maintain his current balances as closely as possible. FFS, according to his budget, he spent $85/mo on food last year (I spend that much on a single dinner more than I'd like to admit). We've come to the conclusion that help is necessary. I've offered to buy the hearing aids and start contributing ~$200/mo (out of $800/mo we thing he needs) and adjusting that as necessary after we see how things go for a bit (at least I know this is enough to get him eating better), but I have this feeling (that I'm not sure I'm proud of) that tells me that he should be doing something to improve his situation as well. My sister and I are flying up to see him and the other siblings next week and to sit down and talk. This is going to be extremely stressful on him as, knowing my dad, he's extremely ashamed that he doesn't have the means to take care of himself. Have any others been through something like this? Are there any jobs I can suggest he get? I'm terrified (based on the food spending) that his immediate reaction is going to be to be more frugal, when I want to make sure he's happy, healthy, and living the kind of life that I'd want for myself at his age (well, maybe not *that* extravagant). PS. From someone who's going through it now, it's a good idea to start having frank conversations with your parents when they decide to retire. I wish I had found out about this 5 or 8 years ago so I could've planned better. Unfortunately, I was 16 when he retired and was way too caught up in being a punk-ass teenager at the time (as I probably should have been). tldr; Old dad is running out of mula, kids need to contribute to help, but I think he needs to find a way to improve his situation instead of taking a bailout. Suggestions?

You should talk to a tax professional if you're in the US. You may be able to claim your father as a dependent and get a good deduction or refund that you could give him. You may also be able to write off hearing aids, or maybe you could pay for them and he could write them off on his taxes if he doesn't qualify to be a dependent.

Sounds like Job 1 is going to be redoing his budget so that it is relevant to this century. If you and the other kids do that with him, I don't think there's anything wrong with chipping in for him. Just make sure he's not making terrible financial decisions like comfort-buying off HSN, or getting scammed, or something like that.

Human: **Here’s my problem**: I’m a recent graduate who is unemployed and can’t secure a paying job in my field (one in a million, right?) So far I’ve done internships and freelancing on my own. My technical skills combined with my experience easily qualify me for the entry/junior level jobs I see posted in my field BUT the problem is none of these jobs are in my locality, they’re in New York and I live an hour outside of it. Recruiters seem reluctant to hire an out-of-state candidate, as I’ve been applying like crazy and got only two interviews for all my efforts. One I didn’t get the job for because they went with another candidate and for the other I’m still on the fence. Of course I have my parents, student loans, and a credit card to pay back too. I was able to put all but one of my loans in deferment till late summer/early fall and got the credit card company to hold off on my payments for a couple months at no additional cost or interest. Mom and dad are letting me stay at home for as long as I need to, but they have their own stuff to take care of and I feel guilty for tacking my bills onto their expenses. **Here are two ideas I have to resolve the problem**: * Start using a friend/relative’s address on my resume, try to get interviews, tell HR ‘I’m relocating soon’ if they ask, and commute to work every day if I land a job. (I think: the most expensive to begin with, but should level out by mid-spring. By then I can probably sort out my finances for fall when all my loans go back into repayment. Plus, I’ll have the industry experience right off the bat.) Or * Take a retail or coffee job in my local area, save up money, move to New York, then start my career plans. (I think: the least expensive begin with, but will put off my experience for 7 mos. – 1.5 years, by which time my loans will all go back into repayment, will have to use the cash I save to pay them back plus current debts and relocation costs, etc. etc.) Thoughts on which of these would be the better option? Or would you suggest I do something else entirely? Thanks!

Don't put an address on your resume.

Not what you asked for, but I just wanted to say good luck applying! I sent over 200 applications before landing my current job and it was frustrating as hell. Just keep applying and if you've got the experience, something will happen.

Human: I know a lot of people had nothing but trouble with myedaccount.com (payments not going through, tons of bugs), and now it seems the government has just given up. They have started transferring loans to various other lenders and will most likely be closing their site down. On the 26th my loan was mysteriously paid in full, and today I got an email saying that my loan will now be run through Edfinancial Services. Found this blog post to confirm that this was true. http://dlforms.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/is-direct-loan-servicing-center-being-phased-out/ Gotta love the government... didn't even bother telling anyone they were doing this. Edit: More info here in the 100s of comments: http://www.ed.gov/blog/2011/10/ed-working-to-resolve-problems-with-direct-loan-website/

I just checked on mine and I don't see anything that looks out of order. I appreciate the heads-up and I'll continue to monitor it.

I haven't had any problems yet. Its not unlikely that the government is selling off some debt to minimize their risk exposure. I'll be watching to be sure but I've been making double payments with zero issues thus far. My loan is almost paid off so hopefully this is just rumor. I like the site and don't want to deal with any changes with only a year to go.

Human: I graduated College back in May. I have yet to find a real job. I have been going to interviews and sending resumes for months with no bites. I have a degree in Psychology and a minor in Sociology every job i look into requires years of experience. I am getting really discouraged and do not know where to turn.

Many college graduates end up not working in their field. Have you considered the trades?

Do you have any connections or know any people you can use to get a job? If not you gotta network. One way is to look for volunteer opportunities in your field. But also use LinkedIn and maybe the Alumni from your college.

Human: I'm a full time web developer at a online advertising agency in Texas. My work apparently doesn't provide health insurance benefits because the CEO says it is too expensive. My health insurance is like $200 per month just for myself and I make less than $30k per year. My friends ask me how they get away with not providing anything and I don't have any explanation but I don't want to directly ask my boss if it is legal. Can anyone give me advice or help explain?

It doesn't seem like the community is really giving you one big cohesive piece of advice, so here's my attempt. 1) Insurance: In Texas employers do not need to offer health insurance unless the company has over 50 employees. As well the company only needs to subsidize 50% of that cost. Most likely cost for someone your age is around $200-300 per month to the company for a basic plan. If your boss is right and he can't afford health insurance for ya'll, then extrapolate that - he also probably can't afford things like raises, lateral job movements, etc. His company isn't big enough and doesn't make enough money. You should be looking for a new company with more room for growth. 2) Salary: Your job title is web developer, at $30k you are either NOT a web developer, or you are being drastically underpaid. Write your job description and we can help tell you which one you are. Also write what city you're in, this helps us figure out cost of living.

Don't blame your CEO, blame your president.

Human: I started a new job and don't get the match for a year....should I still contribute? I have no problem saving by myself and have saved 50% of my annual comp (after tax) since I graduated. That said I live in NYC where the income tax is high

A tax advantaged account is still a tax advantaged account. An employer match gives you a much better return, but the lack of one still leaves you with the ability to invest pre-tax dollars and simultaneously lower your taxable income.

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Human: Hey everyone. Long time lurker and finally got an account the other day and have started posting. Something that I've observed regularly here is the advice to keep debt when the interest rate is low and use the money to "invest" for a better return. Often times this is associated with a car purchase and the typical comment is something like "Well I received a 0%/1.9%/2.5%/etc rate and I can make a better return than that by investing in the market. So I am better off" Look I get what you are saying but in reality this never happens. People don't actually take the money they claim to be saving and invest it. In the super off chance they do chances are they are doing it outside of a retirement account and buying single stocks then jumping out when the stock starts dipping more than their risk tolerance. That's not investing - that's speculating. This is the lie we are telling ourselves but in reality we can't afford that $30K car. Meaning we can't actually write the $30K check at the dealer to buy it. "No I totally can I would just rather invest" "No I totally can I just don't want to tie up that much money". OK, that means you don't have enough additional cash on hand that leaves you comfortable. AKA you cannot afford it. The worst lies we tell are the ones we tell to ourselves. Don't tell yourself you are being smart and taking "cheap money". Debt is never a better idea than paying cash. I've been done there and done that. 30 some odd years later I've finally learned. Have a nice day. SOP Assistant: >People don't actually take the money they claim to be saving and invest it. In the super off chance they do chances are they are doing it outside of a retirement account and buying single stocks then jumping out when the stock starts dipping more than their risk tolerance. That's not investing - that's speculating. ...Or they aren't and that might have been just you. I get the advice you are giving but the tone seems just a little too overbearing. Maybe that was your point to try and make the message more memorable. Human: Just doesn't happen man. I've seen it countless times (and used to tell myself the same lie) and you have seen it amongst your friends too. It sounds nice but in doesn't happen in practice.

You're right in that many people don't have the self control to invest. Nevertheless, borrowing at 2% to invest in something that averages 5-7% over a number of years is a good bet. The investing aspect is not wrong.

I doubt you've ever met any of us, nor do you know our financial situations. You are talking out of your ass.

Human: Howdy folks, **I hope this is the right place for this, if it's not, feel free to let me know. This is way too long and full of health troubles and too few dollars with a request for guidance at the end. A fun read for sure. ** I'm having a bit of a rough time here, have been for awhile. I'm 24 years old, and live around Dallas, Texas. I have scoliosis that's been causing me increasing amounts of pain and trouble since I was 7. I can't ever remember not being in pain, it's stopped me from following some dreams but I've dealt with it. However in the past year or so it's gotten dramatically worse. I've lost quite a few jobs from it lately and currently am living off of rapidly dwindling student loans and have no insurance. I'm more than a little concerned about how things are going and could use some advice. **Long list of pains and woes ahead** Alrighty, so here's the junk I'm putting up with. First and foremost, a rather frightening amount of back pain that hampers my physical capabilities and makes keeping food down difficult. I can stand for maybe 30 minutes before most of my attention becomes diverted to keeping myself together, and sitting down isn't any better really. It's this lovely combination of feeling like I'm being crushed, yet also someone is sticking a sharp object in my back and just running that up and down like it's trying to color in the lines of my spine. I avoided sitting down as much as I could for years and just dealt with the pains from standing, sitting sucks. I frequently go days at a time without keeping much food down too, sometimes over a week, as that lovely feeling of being crushed and stabbed can upset the stomach it seems. Plus I have GERD so that doesn't help, though it does keep you out of the air force for good or ill. I actually haven't kept any food down whatsoever today, the vomiting itself doesn't bug me anymore but it's rather draining all the same so I can't say I'm a fan. Oh and sometimes I collapse because a pain hits hard enough or in an unexpected way and I actually can't keep standing through it, people always like seeing that one. I had an X-Ray in the past year and it's still a mess, plus I've never had any surgery or corrective procedure. I've been to physical therapy in my youth but no good came from it, maybe because I was a dumb kid who didn't understand I wasn't supposed to hurt like I did and XBOX was really important. I can tell things are getting worse, as not only is the pain intensifying, it's also getting more difficult to breathe and frequently parts of my back tingle or go numb and then moving just becomes hard to do. It's actually doing that as I type this sentence and it's a bit distracting. Those are pretty sure signs of some damage from what I've gathered given everything else. I grimace a lot, it's not a great look. There's also autism, I have some of that. ADHD as well as the 3-4 clinical visits and professional diagnosis I've had throughout my life keep saying. My focus has been god awful for awhile now, something unending pains really aren't helping with. **In short: My back hurts but sometimes goes numb and also breathing is hard, plus lots of vomiting and autism. So much.** **How has all that garbage impacted me?** Now the sad results of those issues is that stable employment has been tricky. I think I've lost or left every job I've ever had due to back pain or something resulting from it. I've done construction, IT, retail, commissioned sales, hardware testing, data entry, and so on. Turns out that it's hard to sell things to people when all you can think about is "FUCK OW DON'T FALL OVER", you can't quite see straight, all you hear is klaxons, and also you just can't stop throwing up. I mean I did it for awhile anyway but I wouldn't recommend it. 3 retail jobs and one online sales position slipped away in the last year from that, and currently I am living off of subsidized student loans as I wrap up community collage. I'm studying computer science and spend most of my time programming. Well, time that's not spent lying on the floor "writhing", as I've had it described to me; or walking in circles because a stray pain caused me to forget what I was doing AGAIN. I've been accepted to the University of Texas at Dallas, a rather nice computer science school that I hope I'll be attending come spring 2017. I'm looking to go into game programming and already have one small but fun project done, as well as a decent grasp of python and rapidly growing c# knowledge as I study that. But even if games don't pan out, programming is fun and I hear that sort of thing is in demand these days. So my future looks promising, but there's the little problem of not being sure I can actually function for much longer. I've ripped more than one moleskine apart out of involuntary reflex from pain and my knuckles have certainly seen better days. It's a serious psychological drain and can easily lead to deeper self-destruction. My life's plan for years about how to fix myself has been "Get a collage degree, find a job with insurance, stick with that until I am well." But given how I've had to drop multiple classes in the past year because I can't handle how much being there hurts, and how hard keeping employment has been, that idea has gotten shaky. **In short: Lost a bunch of jobs from being in too much pain, working on computer science at nice colleges, but running out of cash and also I might break before I finish? Plus more vomiting.** **Let's talk numbers** The upside to all of this is that I have a wonderful boyfriend who I've lived with for almost two years and dated for four. We split the bills, he pays for food, he has good credit and a family who likes to pretend I don't exist, we get along great. 1.Total rent + utilities is something like 900-1000 usually. 2.My half of all of that is usually around 460. 3.I own a car outright, and pay 90 a month for insurance. That plus a phone bill, gas, and other such things means that my usual monthly expenditure is around 700-750. 4.A couple of months ago, in response to losing yet another job, I took out my first student loan of 5000. Subsidized thankfully, and just enough to last until the next semester. Or it would have if I didn't just need 1500 in car repairs. So now I'm a couple of months short of financially lasting until next semester and getting worried. I have 2700 left in the bank and that number was a lot larger a week ago. I can last until the end of june but not through july on this. My boyfriend has a decently paying job, but it's not enough to safely cover all of the bills plus save for the future. We're both depending on me to carry my share so the clock is ticking. I have to keep the car of course, regardless of the fact that driving is quite painful and it's quite old. It's Texas and if you don't have a car you ain't getting anywhere. Plus my family is dirt poor, sometimes in trouble and my brother is schizophrenic, so if I'm needed somewhere I need to be able to get there ASAP. **In short: Boyfriend pays his half, but I'm losing ability to pay mine. I can make it to July MAYBE. Cars are important in Texas. Student loans~** **Some ideas of mine about where to go, AKA disability is hard to get AKA No Good Answers** 1. I think maybe I should be on disability? It kinda sounds like maybe I should, I'm not happy about that fact but it is what it is. I can't get medicaid without disability btw, I don't qualify for it as I am a young adult, still make too much somehow, and am not pregnant. The trouble is that I don't actually know how I'm supposed to get on disability if that's the answer. Back pain is a bit hard to take someone's word on apparently and requires a history of recent doctor's visits and extensive documented medical efforts to correct the trouble. I haven't seen a doctor these issues in awhile, it hasn't fit into my budget, but I can't quality for disability without more than one doctor looking at me and saying, "Yup, he's boned", it would seem. I'd hit up a free clinic but I doubt they can help out, and i haven't the foggiest how I'd get a hospital to get me what I need without insurance as this isn't an "emergency" so much as "just kinda awful and probably going to kill me." 2. I could just keep getting jobs, suffering through them for as long as I can stand then leave again. That sounds like the thing to do and it's what I've always done, but I really can't stress enough how unpleasant those experiences have been lately. Have you ever cried in a Best Buy bathroom after pain-vomiting something like 10-15 times that day? I don't recommend it, but the handicapped booth is the one to do it in if you must. 3. The third solution is to take some unsubed loans and keep doing what I'm doing. Seeing as I know how what compound interest and a hazy employment future adds up to, this is the route I'd prefer not to take. I could get 1600 for this semester and that would hold me, but bite me later on given my situation. But if I must then I must, I'll need more loans eventually anyway. **In short: Should I be on disability? If so, how do I get that without insurance? The best place to cry at a Best Buy is the handicapped bathroom stall. Also, maybe more student loans?** **Wrap up, took me long enough** So there we have it, a damn novel about all my woes and my inability to deal with my troubles. I don't even know if personalfinance is the right forum but it's the only one I could find. If anyone has any advice on healthcare, getting on disability given my troubles, what routes to take to maximize my funds, resources I could use, or just to shout at me to go to a doctor, I'd appreciate them greatly. **TL:DR I think my body is falling apart and I keep losing jobs, help? I might not be able to make it through school like this, I certainly won't financially. I think I should be on disability? Car repairs are expensive. Vomiting.**

>There's also autism, I have some of that. What are you talking about? Have you been officially diagnosed with something like an ADOS test? If yes, that's something you can pursue disability for. If no, and you're serious, go get a diagnosis. If no to both, stop saying you're autistic. Crap like that belittles people with actual serious problems. More importantly to you, it also will make folks question the validity of your other complaints.

Can you write for money? I'm assuming your coping with all this shittiness with humor, but you're *funny*. That in itself is a skill that can pay.

Human: Hey all, I'm 21 and have about 10k in savings. I have three more years of college, so it'll be a while until I work full time. What should I be doing with my money in the interim?

Keep it in a savings account as your emergency fund.

Save it. No reason to spend it now. The easiest thing is to spend money.

Human: Hi everyone, as the title states, I'd like to invest in oil. I'm young (24) and can handle the current volatility, but I know that it is undervalued so I would like to take advantage of that. I've got $2000 to invest right now and could potentially contribute more over time. Doing a brief search, I've found a few ETF's that look like they could be a good choice. These are the Vanguard Energy ETF, Energy Select Sector SPDR, and Fidelity MSCI Energy Index. Low expenses are very important to me. I'd like something that emulates the global crude oil market, however, and these seem to only cover US and the energy market overall. Any suggestions on other low cost funds that would be a closer emulation of crude oil only? Otherwise, what do you think of these funds? Thanks for reading

**but I know that it is undervalued** No you don't.

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Human: Hi, Model 3 just got revealed and I'm very tempting about getting one. I wonder if I can really afford it though, please help. Married, no kids yet. Currently I have a mortgage of ~1800 monthly. A crappy car I use for commuting. Wife's car lease is expiring, so a new car for her soon. No any other debts other than mortgage. Family income is about 110k. Assistant: You make 110k a year which has a conservative take-home of 5k a month. Your mortgage is 1800. 5000-1800=3200. List price of the model 3 is currently $35,000 with $1,000 of that needed to reserve it. Your posted monthly surplus is $3200. $34,000/$3,200= 10.625 months needed for you to save up enough to buy it outright. With out any other relevant information this is the best that anyone here is going to do. We are not clairvoyant. Post more details for a better estimate of affordability. Human: Not sure what other information are needed.

You have more bills than just your mortgage?

What is needed is the rest of your bills and what you have left at the end of the month. Basically what is your budget saying?

Human: Any help would be appreciated. I am in dire finances at the moment, overwhelmed by credit card and medical debt. I have a job, and rent an apartment, but am under such financial stress that i estimate it would take me about 10 months to save up enough liquid cash to pay the $400 bankruptcy filing fee and ~$1000 to a lawyer to make sure it doesn't fail. Right now I am scrambling to sell possessions to make sure I can afford rent this month. But that won't be able to hold me up for long, I worry that I am facing homelessness. Are there guides that I can read over to navigate the bankruptcy process? Are lawyers worth it? Why is it so expensive to go bankrupt?

Call a good bankruptcy lawyer and get your free consultation. Here's the deal. Anyone who should file for bankruptcy doesn't have the money to pay the lawyer and they want cash up front. Go figure out a plan and then follow my unwelcome advice. Hidden Secret of Affording Bankruptcy: The truth is if you are declaring bankruptcy you have to figure out what is important to you and then NOT PAY THE REST. By not paying the bills you can't keep up on anyways; you get the money to pay the lawyer and then file including the bills you didn't pay. What are they going to do? Ruin your credit? Bankruptcy is the ultimate credit destroyer.

www.daveramsey.com

Human: Hello! Can we share our favorite budget excel docs here? I am looking to start mine but figure it may be easier to just ask one of your geniuses and see how we can improve each other by improving ourselves!

[This](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8g4W4Uiuc-bUzNXbGZEdjBXbms/view?usp=sharing) is the one I use! I created some of it and then took from an other spread sheet and edited it to fit my needs. Hope this help and works for you!

I made a [budgeting spreadsheet](http://i.imgur.com/3KBlmOE.png) for a project for school. It's not too good but it got me an A.

Human: I currently have around $25,000 in student loans with reasonable interest rates, an average of 3.75%, and about $20,000 in personal savings. I have been saving and paying down the debt - saving $400/mo and paying $1000-$1500/mo towards loans. It seems pretty obvious to me that once I am able to payoff the loans with my savings I should, while keeping some safety net. Should I go ahead and pay off the majority now or wait a little longer?

Personally I would throw 10k at the highest rate loan. I'm not a big fan of paying interest though, and 10k is enough to cover 6 months of spending if I tightened up my budget.

www.daveramsey.com

Human: Really need help on this one guys, no idea where to go from where I am. TL;DR for this story. 11 Yearold sister took my mums phone, and used the app on the phone to load her debit card (both my sisters have one so they can use it for their pocket money) with £175 and spent it all on MSP (Movie Star Planet). What's the best course of action? Update: We got it all sorted, Google had A++ Support with this, especially when talking to my computer illiterate mother.

ground the little girl for the entire summer and make her pay the money back through chores

Depends on how MSP respond to a begging letter explaining that a minor had done it without authorisation. They may do a partial refund as a goodwill gesture. In general, however, the only thing to be done going forward is make sure your sister doesn't have access to that phone - put a good PIN lock on it, or facial recognition depending on its age - and make her work the money back. This could be in household chores, or if you can wait a bit, from 13 she can get a paper round/other very part-time work.

Human: Basically I am receiving a check from a lawsuit that will end up being ~20k. I was thinking about buying a starter home for my fiance and I, somewhere in the 120-150k range. Our household income is roughly 60k. It doesn't have to be put into a house, so any suggestions are welcome.

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/windfall

I agree that you should pay off debt, invest in IRA, and put together an emergency fund, but owning a home will give you tax benefits and possible property appreciation. 12 years ago we put 20K down on our house and now we have 200K equity.

Human: So, I have money deposited online with GE Capital Bank. However, they're selling their assets to Goldman Sachs. Since Goldman Sachs was a substantial part of the reason why 2008-2012 was financially shitty for a bunch of people, I'd prefer *not* to have my assets transferred over to their institution. I also doubt that they'll maintain the 1.05% APR that I currently have on my savings account. Are there any good online banks? Right now, Ally is offering 1.0% APR for online savings, but I heard they had financial issues in the past. Any suggestions?

> Right now, Ally is offering 1.0% APR for online savings, but I heard they had financial issues in the past. What does that matter to you? They are FDIC insured which means if they go belly up, you are insured to up to $250,000. If you have > $250,000 you want to deposit, this is an issue.

I use Ally Bank, the rates are good (at or above 1%) and they are super convenient. I could not recommend them enough.

Human: There are new condominiums being built in an expanding downtown area and are going to be priced to target millennials $100-250k and I'm interested in putting down a deposit. I find that putting monthly payments toward equity somewhere is much more valuable then renting, as the surrounding area lists 500/sqft studios at $1,300/mo. My current long-term plan is to purchase a condo, live in it until I get married and have kids, then purchasing a home. Renting the condo out or selling it to support a down payment/monthly payments on my home is the goal. My question is, am I too young to look into getting a mortgage and purchasing one? I work at an investment bank right around the corner, have excellent credit, and plan on making roughly $3,800/mo after taxes. Why is it that almost everyone my age rents? Am I missing something?

>Why is it that almost everyone my age rents? Am I missing something? * They don't have money for a down payment * They're only starting to learn personal finance (and hopefully responsible personal finance) * Buying may cost more than rent per month, especially with a small down payment * When you're young, your livelihood is less established. You may move jobs, cities, significant others, etc. That makes staying in one place harder.

I'll share my example. I was 24 when I bought my first condo, 1.5 years ago. I put 28% down and didn't have a problem getting a mortgage for the remainder. If you have a good credit score and have held your position for a while, you shouldn't have a problem getting a loan. However, I would make sure that you have a secure job AND a marketable skill set before taking on a mortgage. Here are some things that I didn't realize when I bought my condo: * Property taxes... taxes were appraised during the lowest tax season ever and when I got a $4k tax bill for the balance, it hurt. * HOA fees... paying $550 a month kind of sucks. * You don't have the freedom to just up and leave. You're literally invested in the place you live in. * If the city is bringing in millennials, your condo will appreciate. Mine almost went up 10% in a year, it's not the best but it's better than it going down. * Noise. Hope you get quiet neighbors. * The convenience. Literally, I would never have to leave my building if I didn't want to. 4 restaurants, a grocery store and random other stores. * I almost puked when I signed the contract and looked at the final numbers. It was a HUGE debt I took on and it sucks. That's why I'm paying extra towards the principal whenever I can. * The tax return you get for the mortgage interest you paid! I'm really happy that I got a decent size back from the government. Good Luck.

Human: Right now I am engaged. My fiance and I both just graduated from law school - she has 200k in debt and I have 160k. She is working in biglaw and her starting salary is 160k with bonus potential. I'm doing public interest and making 50k. She has refinanced her loans and will pay them off in about 3 years. Right now under the REPAYE program my monthly payments are $270. I still have 9 and a half years of payments to make before my loans are forgiven. Apparently under the REPAYE program, your monthly payments are calculated based on both you and your spouses income, regardless of your tax filing status. If I were to be married right now, my payments would increase $1550 per month, which is getting close to the monthly payment required to completely pay off the loan in 10 years. Additionally, both of our incomes will be increasing substantially in about a year, which is when we plan to be married. I'll be at approx 80k, while she will likely be over 200k. This will make our payments 2200/month (compared to 519/month on just 80k). Either way, my payments would appear to increase ~1300-1500 by simply being married to a high income partner. My other option is to get on one of the other income based repayment plans which would allow me calculate my payments based on my income only if we file taxes separately. The payments are slightly higher (15% of income instead of 10%) but definitely not anywhere near the numbers above. My big issue with this strategy is that my research has shown that the dept of education is trying to simplify its income based repayment options and this new REPAYE is the first step, making me think that some of the other options will disappear over the next 10 years and I will be forced to calculate my spouses income on whatever payment plan becomes the bread and butter. I also have to consider the tax implications of married filing separately (that I know very little about). My fiance certainly isn't happy with the idea of living together unmarried (we would still do wedding ceremony, etc), just not be legally married). However, is the legal title and convenience really worth it considering how much it will cost over the next 9 years?

Is there a reason why after her loans are paid off in 3 years you can't use the money she won't be paying out any more to her loans and put it towards your loans? Or, what do the numbers look like if you combine your incomes now and get on the standard 10 year plan for both of you? Then it wouldn't matter if you're married or not and you could potentially use the extra income when you get your raises and pay them off even sooner. Seems to me like, based on the information you provided, it's going to take you 10 years to pay off both loans, regardless of the payment plan, so take 10 years and in the meantime it doesn't matter if you're married or not.

Legally, I think they can't just eliminate one of the existing repayment plans - I think they would have to keep you enrolled in the same one that you enroll in for the length of your term. With that level of expense I think you might be right to stay unmarried.

Human: Hi PF. Throwaway to protect myself. I am currently in a social service internship program in a large, southeastern metro area. The internship started in August 2015 and is supposed to last until mid-July 2016. The internship is sponsored by a Church, and I work in small, up-and-coming nonprofit as a case manager. The Church provides me comfortable housing in a nice neighborhood, and a stipend of $400 a month. My expenses are a $100 a month metro card and groceries. I put $35 into my savings account every month and have about 900 saved up. I also receive support from my family. The nonprofit I am currently working at has been very toxic. I do not want to get into too many details, but my department and the other departments are messes. Two new employees, whom I report too, have been brought into clean things up and there is slow, slow change. They are supportive of me and would like to see me stay when my internship is over. However, I would be making $10 an hour/40 hours a week, with no health benefits. I've recently started applying for jobs in the social services, and I have received several interview offers. It is looking like I am going to get a few offers in the next couple of weeks. If I leave now, I risk losing the support of both the Church and the employees at the nonprofit. I would lose two of my references, whom are my direct supervisors. However, a volunteer at the nonprofit said she would be willing to be a reference for me. But she is not my direct supervisor. The most promising job is salaried at 36k a year. I also have 30k student loans, which are currently deferred until December. I am on my parents health plan also. So, PF, do I risk burning bridges by leaving the slowly-improving-yet-still-toxic nonprofit 3.5 months early, or do I take a new job and leave my toxic current one? Edit: I should clarify that I am applying for jobs in a northeast metro area closer to my family and partner, which would totally remove me from involvement with the nonprofit I am currently with.

It is not burning bridges to leave an internship after many months that pays that poorly to take a 36k/yr job with health insurance. If they take it as a jerk move on your part, then they are the actual jerks. You are in the grown-up world. People should act like adults and understand that you found a better job. It isn't like you have been there for 2 weeks and just screwed them over by forcing them to reopen the application process. Also, people usually don't use their current boss as a reference unless it is really clear to everyone involved that you are getting near your termination date (on good terms). Take the real job. Your description of your current job sounds like one step above slavery. To imagine that you would continue after the internship for $10/hr is almost criminal outside of fast food restaurants and Walmart. You need to move on or you are going to be poor and taken advantage of for the rest of your life.

I wouldn't think twice. It was an experience, and unfortunately a better opportunity has arisen. That's just the nature of business. Besides the burnt bridge (which doesn't seem to matter much due to the move), the hardest part would be explaining why you left the internship early. Since you have a job offer already though, that clearly doesn't seem to be a concern. If you are that worried about it, you could always ask for them to delay your start date until the middle of July or end of July if that's your preference. I'm not sure if that would work in your field or not.

Human: My wife makes about $130k/year and files her taxes quarterly in order to keep from having to pay the full $42k at one time. This is a huge chunk of her income and I'm curious to see what we can do to decrease this amount. Some other information that may be helpful: -she is an optometrist who is contracted, so she files as self-employed. -she has still has school loans that she is paying off. -we have no children. I work for a large corporation where I make about $68k/year. The taxes I pay are about $15,500/year. Thank you guys for your time. **edited her annual income.

The real question is why are you surprised your wife who makes double what you do pays 10% more in taxes?

She can form an LLC or an S-Corp (paid as 1099 Corp-to-Corp), and pay herself a salary from her business. She would owe regular self-employment taxes, and income taxes on the salary. However, you would NOT owe self-employment tax on the remainder. That could save you a lot of money. The trick is that you need to pay yourself what the IRS deems "a reasonable, market salary". If you go 80 salary | 20 business you shouldn't raise any red flags. She should also be deducting business expenses. Training, Travel, advertisement, etc. Half of the self-employment taxes are also deductible as well.

Human: My mom tells me I should always have a balance to pay on my credit card. The original way I used, I paid of my credit card in full each month. BQ: My score is in 600s, how long will it take to get that up?

Pay in full each month. Credit is built upon life of the line of credit, and keeping it in good standing. Carrying a balance just costs you interest. The build up can be slow. Just keep using the cards, paying in full each month, and the score will go up.

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Human: I'm pretty new to personal finance and I have a hypothetical question. Say another person and I have 500k each to invest, would we get a bigger return pooling both our money into one account with any interest or dividends reinvested for 10 years or would it be totally neglible? This is not accounting for debt, 401ks, iras or personal debt. Assume that both of us are 100% trustworthy. Sorry if this is a dumb question or not specific enough, it was just a curiosity maybe someone can elaborate on.

From a guy a that works in finance - no this doesn't make sense. We typically quote growth as a percentage. So 5% of growth $1 million but split two ways will be exactly the same as 5% of growth on $500k split one way. Work out the math for yourself, it adds up. Also practically speaking, joint investment accounts are not a good idea unless you're married. It can be messy trying to split up assets. Plus the account will be joint, meaning both parties have equal access. That means your partner can clean out the whole amount if he feels like it and there's nothing you can do about it. Way too much trust to put in another person I'm not married to.

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Human: Stupid Question. My MIL deposited 650 in check but my bank says it's got 200+ only. Why?

thats normal, often times thell put a portion of it in, wait till monday and it should all be in

They put a hold on it because your balance is lower than the whole check amount, but they have to give you $100 immediate credit

Human: I'm just looking for some guidance on what I should do. I'm 19 and during 2015 I lived on my own the entire year minus maybe a week I stayed at my parents. I recently filed my taxes and I received a decent refund since I'm currently a student. I did some reading on my own and since I provide for everything myself minus a cellphone bill but my parents want to claim me as a dependent saying that since one of the students loans I took out was under their name (it's a fafsa parent plus loan) they can claim me as a dependent. Am I right to file and claim myself or should I let my parents claim me. They said that the education credit would benefit them more than me but I have already received my refund and spent it paying off my credit card debt, so I know I'll have to pay it back if I do let them claim me. If I'm claimed myself correctly can anyone give me a source to show my parents. Tl;dr - I'm 19, I claimed myself as a dependent, already received and spent my return. My parents want to now claim me as a dependent even though I don't live with them nor do they provide much for me so they can get the education credit. *edit- I probably should of added this information to the main post earlier so I won't have to repeat myself so much. My parents pay for my health insurance, phone bill and got a parent plus loan of 7k that went towards school. I live on my one and its not in any university housing. Also I got in touch with the tax lady my parents were talking to, I think they misunderstood what she said from our conversation. Assistant: Work through the *qualifying child* and *qualifying relative* rules with them, from [Pub 17](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch03.html). If you're a full time student under 24 (sounds like yes) AND you lived with them except for temporary absences (and school counts as a temporary absence, so if you use their house as a base when you are not in school then that counts as living at home) for more than half the year THEN you are their dependent if **you** *have not*^edit provided more than half your support. You should use a worksheet like [this one](https://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/worksheet_for_determining_support_4012.pdf) to determine whether you did or not, because education expenses are included, and if they are extremely high like some are, then they can be a big factor in determining dependency. If you didn't live with them for more than half the year you move onto the Qualifying Relative rules, and you are their dependent only if you made less than $4000 in gross income (and if you got a scholarship that may count) AND **they** provided more than half you support. edit: have not correction Human: No I have had my own place since January of 2015 and I stayed with them for about 1 week during that time but I live about 2 hours away from them and I don't visit them that often and when I do its rare if I stay the night. Also I have a full time job that pays for my bills, the only thing they pay for me is a phone bill. Assistant: Not living with them means you're not their qualifying child, and if your job pays more than $4000 you're not their qualifying relative, so it is pretty clear cut for you. Show your parents the rules from the Pub 17 link and hopefully they will see they are not allowed to claim you. To make peace you could find out how much you got in education credits in your return and offer to give that much of your refund to them, or give them half of the credit or something, but they are not allowed to claim you so are not entitled to your education credits. Human: I did, they said that I should trust their tax lady who apparent have been doing taxes for 20+ over "bullshit I find online"

My parents tried to do the same thing when I was younger. I told them they were welcome to file however they like and let the IRS sort it out if they found a problem. They stopped claiming me as a dependent.

My mom and dad tried to pull something similar. It's time to move on from their tax dependent. Apologize that they are going to have a higher bill, but you are an adult now so your tax refund is yours. You worked for it. And they aren't supporting you any longer, so they made out just fine.

Human: I graduated college last May and have subsequently been paying my student loans since December. I have a federal loan serviced by Nelnet with an interest rate of 3.86%, and a private loan through Sallie Mae with an interest rate of 8.25%. So far, the payment has not been the same for either two months in a row, and they seem to be going up. As a bit of a noob to student loans (but not to credit payments), why is this? Are the payments just going to keep going up indefinitely? Thanks!

When you pay more than the real minimum, (which looks like it is probably around $165) the 'minimum' for the next month will go down. When you pay less, it will go back up towards the true minimum.

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Human: Today my employer asked me to sign my paycheck over to the company, and then wrote a personal check for the amount. The company has been struggling financially. He said it was because they closed that account and were changing banks. Seems fishy, anyone think this is a tax dodge of some sort?

I'd venture a guess that it's accurate. With that said, if I were in your shoes I would be looking for a new job immediately. Things like this are usually step one on the route to company bankruptcy.

Sketchy is the word! They probably wanted you to sign it back to them because there weren't the funds in the account, if they were really just changing banks they would have done it more efficiently and have both open for a while to transfer. And taking a personal check from your boss means just what you think it means - he paid you, not the company, probably because the company couldn't afford to. I would look for another job quickly, I think they don't have enough money to pay you.

Human: She owns a 2013 Hyundai Elantra GLS, financed for 8 years 3.5%. I'm looking to buy an SUV in the $30k - $40k range. I plan to pay for the SUV in full. My plan was to just trade her car in against the SUV and pay the difference. So basically I would be buying a $40k SUV, plus taxes, plus the $3k difference for what the dealership gives us for her car and what she still owes. Is there a better way to go about this? I know selling privately will net us a bit more for her car, but trading it in will just be much less hassle. I guess I am posting this to ask if there are any alternatives that we may not be aware of. Assistant: Why do you NEED an SUV though? I can't imagine there's any job or family necessities that only an SUV can fulfill. Human: We just had a kid, and I'm 6'3 and can barely fit in her car with a baby seat in the back. Plus when we take it for groceries or costco runs we have next to no room for anything cause of the stroller in the trunk. An SUV is definitely needed.

Can't the baby seat go behind her seat? Also, the rear facing baby seat is really temporary. The kid can go front facing at 2 years old. The same with the stroller, in 12 months an "umbrella" stroller is all you will need, and that will take up way less room. Put the 30k in the college fund for the kid, do your kid a favor and be slightly uncomfortable for a fairly short amount of time. If you are fully set on an SUV, pay off the Elantra loan, sell the Elantra to a private party and by a 2013 used minivan or crossover (Mazda 5, Subaru Outback, CRV).

Do all 3 of you need to go to costco together? Since I can't imagine why there's a literal need for all 3 of you to be there... there's 2 less bodies and 1 less stroller that need to go to the store.

Human: Reading the "Big Short" book and came across the following passage: "He had now a tactical invedtment problem. The various floors, or tranches, of subprime mortgage bonds all had one thing in common: the bonds were impossible to sell short. To sell a stock or bond short, you needed to borrow it, and these tranches of mortgage bonds were tiny and impossible to find. You could buy them or not buy them, but you couldn't bet explicitely against them". Update: thank all for your claryfing answers! That u can sell something u don't own it's a crazy idea, I guess this what W street came up with to make more money out of these bonds. Scary! Edit: corrected typo - "own" instead of "know"

Basically, it says it in that passage. To "Sell short" means you borrow the stock off someone, sell it to someone else, and then buy it back later and return it to the person you borrowed it off. If the stock has gone down in that time period you make money. If it has gone up you loose money.

Here's an example: 1. Borrow stock that is worth $100 and sell it to make $100 in cash. 2. Say the stock went down to $50 and you buy it again. But you still have $50 left in cash. 3. You return the stock, but you get to keep the $50.

Human: My wife and I had a Macy's card. I found it a little annoying to keep having to track the store cards, so I decided to pay them all off. Which I did. But, Macy's sent me a new card in the mail and unbeknownst to me my wife and made a purchase on hers. It was a small purchase. The problem was, that since I felt that I was never going to use the card I did not activate it. Because of that, the online statements that I was receiving every month said 0. Apparently, the account is attached to the old card. Which doesn't make any sense to me. The card went two months without being paid and the fees accumulated. I noticed 50 point drop in my credit score. I called Macy's, figured out the situation, and they took off all of the late fees. I paid the card in full while on the phone. But now I'm still worried about the effect on my credit score. Credit Karma was the drop that alerted me. According to them my score is now in the 740s. What can I do to make sure that these negative late payments are taken off of my credit score since they were taken off by the creditor? Should I contact Transunion and Experien?

Just the removal of the late fees doesn't necessarily mean that they removed the late payment notices from your credit report. Contact customer service, and tell them you want the lates removed from your credit file. You'll have to ask nicely, and they'll likely do it. Make sure they know about your other long standing account, as these things help in these matters. I've been successful in getting Macys to do this. Once they remove it on their end, it could take up to 30 days to show up on your credit report.

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Human: Hi there, I'm a university student in Singapore and I've been here for the past 6 years but I've never sunk this low in my life. I'm 23 years old. I have been in debt before but I usually had steady income to clear off everything. I'm overdue on some of my rent, I've two debts both of which are college related loans and I owe some money to my uncle (who told me to take all the time I need, but I'd rather pay him off and get it over with). Over the past few months, I've freelanced (I work in tech, so I have coding knowledge) and I've worked for a startup to gain money. I've been unemployed for the past couple of weeks or so and I've used all my money to settle my debts but there's still so much to pay off. It's around $1400 now including the money I owe my uncle. I've been applying for part time jobs and freelance jobs with little to no luck on employers getting back to me. To top it off, my Paypal account thinks that I've been doing fraudulent transactions and even when submitting proof and pressure from me, they're still taking so long to resolve my issue. The money from there won't help too much other than settling my debt. I'm lost at the moment and my credit score is going to sink low because of how much I owe my banks. I don't want to be in this situation again. I do not spend lavishly on anything, my rent and my debt kills my money. I cook at home and eat cheap food from outside if necessary. I don't spend money on alcohol or clubbing or anything fancy. Solutions I have thought of: 1. Constant application of freelance jobs. 2. Cancelling my insurance policy. My university has given me $20k worth of insurance which I didn't really pay for. I think it got involved with the fees I paid (I paid the fees fully). I don't know if I can get reimbursed for it, but I have to try. Problem is, employers would take time to pay me after finishing jobs. I just want to be able to settle my debts and then continue working hard. This has affected my studies and I've not been able to focus, giving my assignments late and not being able to focus in class. What can I do and how can I avoid this in the future? Edit: I've forgotten to mention an underlying $2030 that I owe my university. Edit 2: I think I missed out a pretty relevant detail. $1400 is not my total debt. My entire debt is $33,000. My post was to know what i can do now to get out of my situation.

Rock bottom is when you wake up under a dumpster in some alley and wonder how you're going to get your next hit of heroin.

Psh, I'm $75,000 in debt from college alone, I'm going to be at least 10 days late on rent this month, my car insurance lapsed because I wasn't able to pay it, I'm on food stamps, maxed out the credit card (horrible credit to begin with), and won't really start making a steady income until September. The only place that will loan me money wants to charge me 25% interest. I have no bank account, so it costs me money to cash any checks I get. And even when I do start making money, it's going to be substitute teacher wages, which aren't much in the face of all my debt. Not to mention that i have 0 health insurance, and some pretty serious health problems that need a lot of attention, but who can worry about stuff like that in the US. Just chill. At least you can rest assured that things will be fine in a few months to a year. I'm going to be in this pit of financial despair for at least a decade, at which point I'll be approaching over 40.

Human: My income currently exceeds Roth IRA limits. Is it worthwhile for me to contribute to a traditional IRA or just up my 401k contributions at work? My contributions to the 401k would be done pre-tax while any contribution to a traditional IRA I would make with after-tax dollars. Would I be better off tax wise contributing more to the 401k? Is there a way to contribute pre-tax income to a traditional IRA through my work?

The only reason you'd contribute to a traditional IRA in your case is to do the backdoor Roth, since you aren't eligible to deduct the contributions. https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Backdoor_Roth_IRA >Is there a way to contribute pre-tax income to a traditional IRA through my work? No.

/u/red---leader brings up a good point about the nature of the 401(k) plan itself and the investment expense of the component funds. Depending on the expense ratio of the funds in your plan I suggest the following strategy. 1. Capture the company match if your plan has one. 2. Make a non-deductible Traditional contribution and immediately roll it to a Roth. Backdoor Roth or Two-step Roth 3. If your savings objectives support it (and your cash-flow) go back and fund the company 401(k) until max. The benefit of the non-deductible contribution is tax diversification. We do not know what rates will be like in the future and having pre-tax and post-tax buckets available will provide you additional flexibility through your retirement. Be careful with the backdoor Roth though. If you have pre-existing personal qualified accounts it can cause some unexpected tax consequences. If you need to "clear a path" check if your 401(k) allows "roll ins." However, that again depends on the nature of your work plan... if it is an expensive plan (expense ratio of the funds) it may not be a good strategy for you.

Human: My kid is on track to be the Valedictorian (fingers crossed). Been accepted to GWU, BostonU, Pitt, etc. Saw this from BostonU in the mail yesterday. It's their "how to afford us" brochure. We can in no way afford. Not pointing fingers at BU, as the costs of Pitt and GW, even when they make a generous $25K/yr offer, are $40K a year. $160K for a bachelor's degree, with 10 years of hefty payments to look forward to upon graduation. William and Mary accepted, and offered very little. :/ How anyone can afford this? So defeating. http://imgur.com/gallery/UQObQ

Simple - Send the kid to a state school for their undergrad, and offer to pay for an "elite" grad school if they decide to continue their education beyond a BS. At the undergrad level, school name means very little. Even beyond that, unless talking specifically about a top-10 MBA, it matters more what you did and with whom, than where you went. Though admittedly, "whom" in that context *does* tend to favor big name schools with big research budgets.

Never too early to start shopping for scholarships. I got a couple books from Amazon. Being at the top of her class is a huge advantage. Our son was top 10% and got a half scholarship. We can only afford it because of that and it's local and public. No debt is important. Either they live with you during college and be debt free or after college with $50-100k+ debt. Apply to many different schools. Smaller ones may offer more incentives and she can comparison shop with more options. Congrats and good luck! Edit:words

Human: My grandparents have moved into a retirement home and I am buying their old but well-maintained and remodeled house that they bought back in 1989. They have agreed that they/their estate will carry the note and I get an interest rate of 2.25%, which is this month's Applicable Federal Rate. I am having an attorney who specializes in probate/trust and real estate law oversee the transaction, although I may also consider doing a lot of this myself through National Family Mortgage, who can handle the mortgage payments and register the loan with the county recorder so I can take advantage of the mortgage interest deduction. My concern is that I want to expedite this as much as possible, because I don't know if the AFR will rise next month (2.25% is pretty damn good). I am very familiar with the property and all the work that has been done to it (indeed, I helped with some of it), and I'm also familiar enough with the property that I would be very surprised if there were any liens or encumbrances that would come back to bite me. My wife and I are also very savvy savers that I don't think we would need an escrow account to pay the taxes and insurance, as we can set money aside for that directly. Given how much time this takes to set up, I'm wondering if I can skip all this and just get the appraisal, promissory note, and other associated paperwork done without all the extraneous stuff that usually goes with having a bank or mortgage lender involved? I am, of course, going to bring all of this up when I talk to my attorney, but I wanted to see what PF thought. EDIT: Please see the section labeled "Full Sale Price with Seller Financing" [here](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-give-your-home-to-your-children-tax-free-2015-02-23), as well as the article [here](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/business/businessspecial5/05MORTGAGE.html?_r=0) to get an idea of what I am trying to do.

Home inspection? That's just money if something's wrong -- maybe you can bear the risk -- but a title search is absolutely required.

I expect they are selling it to you cheap so no need to get an inspection http://www.metrobrokers.com/metrominute/mix/1-17-12/arms-length-transaction

Human: Hi /r/pf, My family is sitting on some cash right now because we have 6 months (or up to a year) before we use the cash on a real estate investment. It's a lot of cash to have sitting around, so they have allowed me to use a *portion* of the cash to work and hopefully earn a relatively safe but low return. - $200k cash - Minimum 6 month timeline. (Ranging up to a year.) - Low risk / low return I started investing in stocks about a month ago to test the waters and to learn for myself. I put down $2k and got a 4% return in the past month. Should I invest in mutual funds? Would a mutual fund be a safe investment or do those fluctuate a lot as well? Stocks? What would you recommend. Thanks in advance! Edit: Thanks for the help. We'll keep the money in a savings account.

Keep your money in an FDIC-insured savings account. Money you know you will need in the short term should not be exposed to larger market risk.

I would look into selling puts or selling calls of the ETF of S&P 500. There are ways to do it which are pretty low risk, and you will get residual income.

Human: I guess someone filed under my social security number before me and so I can't file. TurboTax says to file paper and I'll get a form back from the IRS. Is that really all I can do for now? Edit: So many helpful comments. Thank you all very much.

>TurboTax says to file paper.... Yes. You will have to paper file by mail. You're locked out of e-filing if someone else has already used your SSN.

I added topic flair to your post, but you may update the topic if needed ([click here for help](/r/personalfinance/wiki/flair)). You may find these links helpful: - [Tax Software Megathread](http://redd.it/41dew6) - [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 have worked for seven months as a temp in Massachusetts. I am having skull surgery in two weeks. I will be out of work for 8-10 weeks. During this time I will have no income. Based on what I have searched, I do not think I will qualify for unemployment because I will not actively be looking for a job. Is this correct? Between the $100,000 surgery and not being able to work for 2 months, is there anything I can do to not be broke as fuck come June?

[Massachusetts doesn't provide any short-term disability benefits.](http://www.mass.gov/anf/employment-equal-access-disability/disability-info-and-resources/short-term-disability-benefits.html) Unless your employer offers some disability insurance, you're out of luck. You don't qualify for [FMLA](http://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/) either because you are a temp and have only worked there 7 months. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Canadian? If so you should definitely be able to claim e.I..... Claim as sick/injured and you should have up to 3 months of e.I... If your struggling with the online process call. It's very frusterating trying to call e.I. but once you get to a person they should be able to help you out.

Human: I signed up for a Barclays card through Apple in order to get the 0% interest for a year on my MacBook for college. However, it's been about 2 years since I paid off the laptop and I do not use the Barclays card for purchases(I use the two credit cards I had before I signed up for this one). There is no annual fee or anything, obviously no balance. Should I cancel it, or just leave it. Thank you.

Exactly what [/u/youstartfromscratch](https://www.reddit.com/user/youstartfromscratch) said - If there's no annual fee, why not keep it in a drawer and only use it once a year (or whatever amount if needed to not have it shut down)? If you cancel it, you're shortening the AAOA (average age of accounts) for no reason since there's no annual fee.

If you don't use it and don't close it, the bank will probably close your card for you eventually. So I'd close it.

Human: Hi Personal finance, I'm hoping I'm posting this in the right place, if not please feel free to direct me to the right place. I checked my bank acct today, and saw my bank took $900 out of my checking account. I called them, after being transferred about 10 times, they finally told me the people I need to talk to only work on the weekdays. I have $300 left in checkings, and nothing in my savings. I just moved into a new apartment, and my rent is due today. It isn't an auto-pay for my rent, because that is only $500/month. There is NOTHING that I could have spent $900 on in the last 24 hours. Has anyone had this issue before? Does anyone have any advice on what I should do? Thank you!! EDIT: I meant weekdays, not weekends. I'm sorry for the confusion! I was typing in a rush. UPDATE: they said it was a bad check from my work.... I've worked there well over a year & have never once had any issues with my checks. I took it to my HR department yesterday & they told me they would get back to me today about why the check was bad.

Dont get off of the phone until someone can rectify or justify the withdrawal.

former bank employee here. the managers don't work on weekends. the banks doesn't care because there's nothing the customer can do. i've had customers call in from a different state with their card on hold because there was something wrong with their mortgage and the bank couldn't be bothered to phone and tell them something was wrong. so the customer was completely stranded and the bank said, "ya, that's why you don't fuck around with your mortgage. we own you. have a nice day." this is something you'll have to ask your landlord to help you with. ask the bank for a letter explaining the error to prove your story to your landlord.

Human: We may have to move to Silver Spring, MD, later this year. We will want to be there for three years or so. We’re trying to figure out whether buying or renting would be to our greatest advantage. The lowest cost acceptable houses in that area that area range between $450k and $550k. Rents on small, two-bedroom apartments (about 1,000 sq. ft.) will cost right at or just under $2000 a month. Houses (1,400 sq. ft. and up) start at about $2500. Our income will be about $150k. We will have anywhere from $300k to $400k to put down, meaning that for a minimally acceptable home we’d have to finance between $50k and $250k. One site I found claims that home prices in that area have been appreciating at a rate of 5% annually. Mortgage payment on $250k would be about $1200, and that of course doesn’t include taxes and insurance. Taxes would be as much as $7,088 annually. Insurance I’m not sure of. So does anyone have enough knowledge about real estate in that area to venture an informed opinion as to whether financially the best decision would be to buy or rent for a period of 3 or 4 years? Selling a house, of course, involves the broker fee of probably 6% and whatever other fees and taxes go with it, so there's a lot to consider.

Closing costs in Montgomery County are going to kill you. Rent.

Typically, renting is for short term and buying is for long term. There are very few exceptions to that, and 3 years is definitely short term. Renting will cost almost the same each month as a mortgage, but you won't have to deal with the fees of buying and selling (closing costs and broker fees). -baltimore native

Human: So the categories for Chase Freedom this quarter includes warehouse stores. If I buy Costco Cash from Costco.com, will I get the 5% back?

The people over at /r/churning have a [thread going](https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/4cze71/5x_ur_at_costcocom_with_cf/) where they are testing to see what the purchase is coded as. Might want to keep an eye over there for the results.

I'd call your card company and ask. A while ago what people would do, is use their card to buy dollar coins from the treasury, because the treasury was trying to push them, they offered free shipping. So what do you do after you buy $5,000 in dollar coins? You deposit them in your bank & pay off your $5,000 credit card bill without interest and make $100 in 2% cashback. Because of this many card companies no longer offer cash back on "Currency or currency equivalents" which would mean gift cards. But only your issuer can tell you for sure.

Human: Combined income: ~200,000 and still early in our careers so that should go up Savings: 140,00 retirement fund: 50,000 investments: none (dont kill me) No Debt retirement plans: perhaps 10k a year on traveling around. Other bills: Rent: $1000.00 (but want to buy a $300,000 home) Food: 600 utilities: 300 entertainment: 200 Travel: 6k a year Gas: $40, we work from home. Car payments: $0 The important part: If I bought a house for ~$300,000 how long before I could retire realistically? Is it realistic to retire in say 15 years if we decided to go that route? I guess this is more a question of, how much should I drop on a house if I want the option to either just retire in 15 years or just work a different less paying job. Ages if it matters: Me (31) Wife (25) Thanks for any help. What I want retirement to look like: Bills staying the same and drop around 6k on travel a year.

You can retire whenever you want. The question is really about what kind of a lifestyle you want to have in retirement, with one extreme being living under a bridge and eating what your pet crow brings you, and the other extreme being a lavish lifestyle. Since you don't know what your current lifestyle costs, it is impossible to even guess at how much retirement savings would be required to save up enough to duplicate it in retirement. Because you don't specify how much you could be saving for retirement on your current budget, we can't guess at how long it would take to reach that goal. And because you don't specify what kind of a budget you want to adhere to during retirement, we can't modify the above two guesses to account for that. So those are the 3 numbers that you need to get a little clearer about before you can get any good answers! You might consider spending some time with some personal finance budgeting software - Quicken, ynab.com ("you need a budget"), Mint, and homebrew Excel spreadsheets are all things that people work with - if you want to use tools to help you work on these questions.

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. ---- > Combined income: ~200,000 and still early in our careers so that should go up > > Savings: 140,00 > retirement fund: 50,000 > investments: none (dont kill me) > No Debt > retirement plans: perhaps 10k a year on traveling around. > > Other bills: Haven't really calculated it but around average for 2 people no kids with no plan to have kids so I would guess $700 in other bills. > > The important part: > If I bought a house for ~$300,000 how long before I could retire realistically? > > Is it realistic to retire in say 15 years if we decided to go that route? I guess this is more a question of, how much should I drop on a house if I want the option to either just retire in 15 years or just work a different less paying job. > > Ages if it matters: Me (31) Wife (25) > > Thanks for any help. > ---- ^(I am a bot. Contact) ^[pentium4borg](https://www.reddit.com/user/pentium4borg) ^(with any feedback.)

Human: Last year I paid over $6,000 in taxes. At the beginning of 2015 I lost my job and was only able to work 3 months. (Making $8,000). I just completed filing my taxes in Turbotax and it's estimating that I'll get back $2,500. Is this within an expected script? Or have I done something wrong.

It is not a question of leniency. This directly relates to tax bracket last year vs tax bracket this year. If you are getting money back, the natural assumption is that your withholding was higher than necessary. It sounds plausible as so long as your entries for income, deductions, etc were entered properly.

I added topic flair to your post, but you may update the topic if needed ([click here for help](/r/personalfinance/wiki/flair)). You may find these links helpful: - [Tax Software Megathread](http://redd.it/41dew6) - [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: Hey everyone. Thinking of getting an Amazon Visa card. Right now I'm a bit of a Amazon addict and make a lot of my purchases using Amazon with my debit card. I spend maybe $50ish a month on Amazon. Easily something I can pay off in full every month so I won't have to deal with their interest rate being pretty high. Seems like a good idea because of the rewards and $50 off your purchase for the first time. What do you guys think? Currently have one credit card with my bank 750ish credit score, 20 years old and a job I don't really have to worry about making the payments. Kinda want to get maybe 1 more credit card so I can keep building my credit.

I like amazons 3x points on Amazon purchases. So that could be beneficial if you do a lot of Amazon shopping.

I added topic flair to your post, but you may update the topic if needed ([click here for help](/r/personalfinance/wiki/flair)). You may find these links helpful: - [Credit-related wiki pages](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/faq#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: Essentially what the title says, my parents are keeping my debit card I use to access my student loan and I was wondering what my options were. It's my only main source of income at the moment. Thanks in advance

Go to the post office and put a vacation hold on YOUR mail. Get new card, after the card has arrived as the post office, lift the hold.

I added topic flair to your post, but you may update the topic if needed ([click here for help](/r/personalfinance/wiki/flair)). You may find these links helpful: - [Tax Software Megathread](http://redd.it/41dew6) - [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: My sister and I both have good credit and we both have just been asked by our dad (not so good credit) to co-sign a loan so that he can pay his lawyers and hopefully clear his name. He's never been in trouble with the law before and has already spent 30K to his lawyers so far, he's trying to do everything right, unfortunately he doesn't have a lot saved up. I'm a little emotionally overwhelmed and am doing my best to research about co-signing and am finding that the general census is that it's not a smart thing to do. As much as I would like to see my dad fight and win, I'm at a point in my life where I can see myself getting married and buying a house in the near future. (Fwiw - I'm 31, my student loans and car are paid off, I've been saving up for a 20% downpayment, and I'm in a LTR that I wanna stay in. ) My sister has already turned him down and would rather just give him money from her emergency fund, I could do the same. Between the two of us we could probably give him 15k, but that feels like drop in the bucket... I heard my sister talking to him about peer-to-peer lending but that it only goes up to 40k. How possible is it to get that amount with bad credit? What is P2P lending exactly and how does it work? Is that a better idea? Maybe then he could take a loan out by himself from his bank for the remainder? idk.... Super stressed about this situation, He asked me two days ago and it sounds like he's looking to get the loan signed this weekend and I know I have to shoot him down, I'm hoping I could at least have a "No, dad, I can't co-sign on a 60k loan but you could do ____" conversation. Tl;dr - Dad wants me co-sign on a 60k loan, I want to help him but I don't want to mess up my good credit when I might need it for near future Life Events. **Edit - Lots of good points, all of your comments helped me think up lots of questions to ask my dad so I can make an informed decision. I'm going to go cry a lot now and then have a talk with him, wish me luck.** **Edit2 - Getting asked to share his legal issues, seeing that this is r/personalfinance and all, I hesitate, but in a nut shell; My dad is a classically trained fine artist that focuses on oil paintings of the human figure. His house keeper found some sketches and/or reference that is similar to [this scene in the children's film "My Neighbor Totoro"](https://youtu.be/q4FufFCChBQ) and called the cops on him. I find this situation personally frightening as I am an artist that works in children's tv and I have totally had projects where I needed to research what kids look like.**

Is this criminal? Why isn't he using a public defender? Has he tried contacting local law schools for pro bono assistance? Has he asked the court for a pro bono attorney? If he can't afford his defense, the solution isn't debt. He may not end up in a a physical prison, but he would end up in a financial prison.

Never cosign unless you're willing, and able, to cover the entirety of the debt, interest, fees, and lawyers fees, if your Dad can't pay. The far better option is to give your father whatever cash you feel comfortable contributing.

Human: Hello all! I hope to simply share my debt repayment story thus far and publicly state my commitments, goals, etc. I'm living through my second year out of college this year and have been able to really put together a budget and a plan. Here's my story... I came out of college with a bachelor's degree and $35,000 in student loan debt. I was able to pay off $18,000 last year by using tax returns and some small windfalls I received. I was living with my parents paying minimum bills which helped tremendously. I realize that If I had made a real plan last year and committed to a sparser life style, I probably could have paid off my entire student loan debt last year. But alas the temptation of spending my full time salary left me with only a half-hearted repayment strategy. So, big events towards the end of last year... I moved out of my parent's place in November, took possession of my auto, health insurance, phone bill and added more bills that I had to pay due to my living situation. I was also in an accident that totaled my vehicle recently and had to purchase another one, adding another $8,000 in debt. Ironically, this pressure on my cash flow led me to create a budget. It's not all bad news because I was recently promoted to an income that is amazing for my area of living. So right now, today, I have... $12,500 in student loan debt $5,200 in car loan debt $600 in credit card debt And I'm able to pay (starting the middle of this month)... $2,600/month (note: this is after all bills and monthly expenses, like food and gas) But I am able to do some positive things like... $50/month towards investing (mutual fund, more for entertainment purposes at this point) $500/month into an emergency fund (I could be fired tomorrow and live for about 2 months, sans debt repayment) I have $300 "pocket money" per month to do whatever with. How this shakes out is I'll be able to pay off my all of my debt by the end of this year. December, my last payment should be around $400, leaving me with $2,200 "now what do I do with this?" money that month.(..!!!) It's more exciting than anything else but it also feels like until then I'm waiting... Just waiting, 8 full months of waiting.... $300 pocket money certainly doesn't go very far, especially when it's $6/beer at the local watering hole, I can assure you of that. I mostly sit at home teaching myself more about software engineering because I have access to a premium service for free. I sometimes worry about finding a girlfriend because I can't really fit another person into my budget right now. But, back to the positive, I'll be able to post all my zeroed out loans to reap some facebook/snapchat "props to you, bro!" comments/likes at the end of this year! Just as long as I can accept this state of stasis between now and then. Anyways, I was just hoping to share my story. Thank you and I appreciate you for reading! Assistant: 1) Why are you investing when you high interest CC debt? Knock that out immediately 2) What is your interest rate on your car loan? If it's above 3%, I would pay that instead of investing. 3) Props to you bro! Human: 1) It's a best buy credit card, 0% interest until November. I don't want a credit card ever... Being this much in debt at the start sucks real bad and realizing how much life is going to cost (marriage, home, retirement) makes me want credit card debt even less! 2) 6.7% APR. I'm on the avalanche strategy so my car payment is consuming my entire "debt repayment" money since it beats out my 4.66% student loans! $50/month isn't really going to help that much. Plus watching my money slowly, oh so slowly, make money is worth it for entertainment. 3) Thanks! :) Assistant: Wanting a credit card != wanting credit card debt. Human: Why get a credit card?

Pay it off every month and you get free rewards. Plus account protection since the card isn't directly linked to your bank account.

I have a cash back card. I use it for purchases and every week I go through my transactions and schedule a payment for those transactions on the last day of the month. By the end of the month, every transaction is accounted for and my card balance is zero. On the plus side, an extra $20 or so dollars gets deposited into a savings account automatically from the cash back rewards. I haven't had a balance on a card in years but I've certainly reaped the reward benefits.

Human: Hey everyone I own a few businesses with BofA and they recently canceled all my accounts and credit cards. They gave me no reason why they did it but I think it has to do something with too much cash going in and out of the accounts. They gave me a number but whenever I call someone tells me they won't give me a reason why it was closed. Anyone have something similar done to them before?

Maybe your transactions looked like this: https://www.money-education.com/resources/financial-planning-news-and-blogs/blog/129-structuring-cash-transactions-under-10-000-is-criminal

Were they business accounts or personal accounts?

Human: Hi, I am 22 and working as a software engineer in San Francisco. I just accepted an offer at a late stage startup (think Uber, Lyft, Airbnb) and received an offer of 140k salary, a 10k sign-on bonus, and 400k worth of RSUs that vests over 4 years. I already have ~100k saved from my previous jobs over the past 2 years and it is distributed like so: 60k - Stocks with ETrade (~35k in 3 stocks and the rest in 3-4 others) 27k - 401k with Fidelity (moving to Etrade) 10k - Lending Club 5.5k - Roth IRA with Wealthfront Some background: I originally had 70k in my Etrade account, but lost 10k in both Go Pro and Lending Club over the past few months. I have not sold and am hoping they make somewhat of a recovery before realizing my losses. I realized that if I'd saved most of my money in cash when the market was unusually low a few months ago I could have made an "easy" profit with the recent recovery. My strategy now is to sell off my holdings at a reasonable price and wait for the market to dip again so I can buy when everything is cheap. I moved my 401k money to Etrade to do the same. I realize I have a problem with diversification, but can't seem to shake the speculation bug despite having lost a fair bit on stocks already. Is there something that can be done to both satisfy this craving and still be somewhat "safe"? UPDATE: I recognized that I was being pretty dumb with my above strategy and needed more people to tell me this, thanks! I'm planning to dump 55% of my portfolio into VTI, put 25% into Lending Club notes and keep the other 20% in cash for speculation. Any advice on this?

> My strategy now is to sell off my holdings at a reasonable price and wait for the market to dip again so I can buy when everything is cheap This is called timing the market and if you could consistently achieve this you could make millions in asset management. Spoiler alert: Fund managers are not able to do it, its unlikely you will. Your stock portfolio is extremely undiversified - less than 10 stocks, something also tells me that those probably are in 2-3 sectors. There is nothing bad in underweighting a sector or two, especially if you have natural exposure to it through your job, but trying to beat the market by selecting 2-3 sectors is not gonna work most of the time. How much time can you spend researching the companies/sectors a week? If you said 10 hours then Id say youre extremely committed, an average analyst in asset management will be doing same thing for 50 hours and will have significant information advantage. Average analyst has very hard time outperforming the market. You would not sit at a poker table with the pros, so why would you think you can do better than pros here? It is fine to pick some stocks yourself and overweight them, but only as a part of well diversified portfolio and to a limited extent. Find a diversified allocation and stick to it. Have some reasonable small percentage of your investments set aside for your own bets if you need to. PS. http://qz.com/487013/this-game-will-show-you-just-how-foolish-it-is-to-sell-stocks-right-now/

You are essentially a part time speculator rolling the dice on your retirement funds. Even full time professionals do it with other people's money, and certainly not their own retirement money. The thing to do is to drastically change your investment strategy towards a highly diversified approach

Human: Hi, Little background info first: I have a new baby at home 2 months old, just bought a house this month. I make decent money, but im the only one working right now. Before i was married and had a kid i bought my first financed car. A ford focus ST. I dont have the best credit, never used it and the things i did use it on years ago i wasnt responsible enough to use it right. Im 25 years old my base pay is 92k and I make usually another 15-20k in OT pay. I owe around 20k on my car still, trade in value is maybe 16k (not sure just taking the low end number) but the catch is my finance rate is 12.99% yikesss. I would like to buy a more family friendly car but since i pay 467$ month in car note and about another 200-300$/month in car insurance i really dont want to get another car loan on top of it. This summer ill be making great money in OT (turnaround money) working 13 of 14 days 12hrs/day. So decent pay checks. My question is: Should i try to pay off my car this summer and maybe next year get the family car i want? Or Save that money for a good downpayment on new car this year, and possibly trade what i got in now? Thank you so much for reading all that :) Anxiously await your responses

No money you save can possibly make 13%/year so pay off the horrible deal you got on your first car as fast as you can, or better yet, sell it and buy something with better terms.

Congrats on the new baby! I think you'll find that a hatchback like the ST is relatively family friendly (while still being fun to drive - a huge perk of that car!), unless you're planning on adding more children soon. You might check with some local credit unions and see if they'd be willing to refinance that loan at a better rate. I'm also surprised by your insurance rates. Those often drop when you turn 25 and "graduate" out of the high risk pool. Maybe check with your ins company and some competitors to see if you can do better.

Human: Last March (2015), I moved from the midwest to Massachusetts and started a job with a large company here. Since I'm under 25 and have a younger sibling as well, I stayed on my parents' insurance because it wouldn't cost them anything extra for 4 people instead of 3. This arrangement worked well until this past February (2016), when due to changes at my dad's company, then ended up switching to an insurance company that wouldn't have provided coverage in MA where I live. I switched, at that point, to insurance through my employer, which was annoying, but ultimately fairly simple. Fast forward to today: I'm opening my mail from the last few days, and I find that my company sent me a 1095-c form for 2015. On the form, it shows that I paid for 8 months of insurance in 2015 to get insurance *through them*, and the numbers look like they're based on the plan I signed up for this February. Looking at my pay stubs, this is obviously not the case; it is still rather concerning to me, especially since this is the first year I did my taxes on my own (filed back in March, already got all my refunds). I will, of course, be reaching out to HR as soon as I get to work. I also read the form in it's entirety, and didn't see anywhere on it how to dispute incorrect information. I'm wondering, however, if there are other things that need to be done in this situation. 1. Do I correctly understand what this form is saying? 2. Since I filed my taxes over a month ago, will this effect my current filing? What about audit risks? 3. Is this something that they (my employer) are ALLOWED to do? --- TLDR: I got health insurance though my employer starting Feb 2016. They sent a tax form incorrectly stating I'd been paying them for coverage since 2015. WTF?

As long as you had insurance all year and said so on your tax return, it doesn't matter.

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Human: I am 5 years out from a foreclosure. I have one open deragotry mark on my credit report a $547 medical bill from 2010. I currently rent. I make a good salary >100K. I have 10k in savings. I have one open credit card with a $500 limit. The biggest thing seems to be my credit history....the foreclosure and late payments on other things while trying to save the house. What is my best course of action to raise my fico scores?

Wait it out until those things fall off your record.

Unfortunately there's nothing you can do to significantly mitigate the effects of the issues you mentioned aside from waiting.

Human: I currently live in the state of Maryland and my apartment manager recently emailed me about a 8.95% increase in my lease (I do a full year as opposed to a month to month). There is no rationale supporting the amount they suggesting- at least in the email. The email then goes on to say that the local governing body "recommends" a 2.1% increase in rent for a lease of my type. Do you think the original amount in too high? The email also goes on to describe how I can debate the amount. The major issue is that they are requiring that I make the decision by April 14th. Any suggestions?

I've had luck in the past just asking them to reconsider. If you've been a good tenant, it doesn't hurt to try.

I dunno what rents are like in your area overall, but when I signed my last renewal on my apartment here (Denver), my increase was 9.2%, which is extremely low for this area (most people I know have had increases anywhere from 10-100% (yes, seriously) when their renewals have come up). I was happy at first, but still did some shopping around at comparable complexes to see what they were charging for new leases. In my case, it was still cheaper than anywhere comparable, so I renewed without trying to dispute it. If there's cheaper ones in the area, and your complex has a high vacancy rate, you could try negotiating down that increase at least closer to what the cheaper places are offering. If you're dealing with a super crazy housing market like we are here, you're kind of SOL unfortunately.

Human: (US) I'm getting laid off from my job of 8 years in 2 weeks. My company said they *might* have another position for me. If I refuse that position, am I putting my severance at risk? Assistant: You would have to ask your employer. Human: Yeah, that's not going to happen. I don't trust my managers, unfortunately.

How do you not ask them? You literally have no choice since they are likely the only people who can answer this. The only other possibility is if it is set out in your terms of employment. (Which is rare).

No clue why this comment is being down voted. It's a fair statement to make and it's his personal situation.

Human: So, I live on my own in a condo on Long Islans that I bought outright with cash. I currently owe some money, but if I sell my car I can pay it off easily. The long story as to how I owned a condo by the age of 18, and how I'm losing it is in r/legaladvice who told me my situation is helpless. It is what it is, and I expected it. Basically, on my 25th birthday, I will receive close to a million dollars. Until then my bank account remains at $0. I have an eighth grade education and cannot hold down a job due to PTSD which leaves me running out of buildings when I am on the clock, as I cannot be in crowds of people. For the past 6 months I have applied to a job every day. Every. Day. The reason I do this is because if I do get a job as the local grocery store's cashier, I know for a fact that it will last a month (best case scenario) and I will need a new workplace lined up for myself. So I guess my first and rather silly question is: can I keep my condo? I bought it for $315,000, using part of an inheritance. Monthly: - Electric is $250 - Maintenance (AKA mandatory lawn mowing) is $275 - Sewage is $30 - Cable is obviously optional, but preferred as a landline is all I use and wifi allows me to check emails for work, but, again, it's optional. $217 Every 6 Months: - Car insurance is $2,000 And, obviously, yearly taxes. Roughly $5,000. Necessities for myself and my cat comes out to $10 every day so let's say $300 a month. I would definitely feel better if I had a little padding for vet visits. I couldn't care less if I die at this point. I don't have home insurance and I never had. It was just something that was not allowed to me when I was given my budget. I also don't have health insurance. Again, the money was just never allowed to me. Now, I have a spare bedroom that I can rent out. It currently has nobody in it, but typically I set the rent at $500-$600 a month. Tenants have always come to me in the past but I need to look and I never have! So what's the best way to find somebody? I tried craigslist and got no replies, but it was several weeks ago now. Is it worth re-posting or are there other options? I definitely want somebody close to my age rather than a 30 or 40 year old as that will trigger my PTSD. Moving on from tenants: I have only ever had minimum wage jobs at minimum hours. And obviously it doesn't work. I cannot think of a single job that wouldn't cause a complete breakdown due to noise and crowds. I would love something like being a secretary or filing or anything that takes place with paperwork and computer screens and quiet rooms. But, unfortunately, these jobs never come to people my age and I fear I am doomed to an infinite retail cycle for the rest of eternity of hired-fired-hired-fired and the worst part is none of these places can be put on future resumes. My qualifications stop at the eighth grade. What kind of options are there for this? Obviously therapy isn't an option - I don't even have health insurance nor do I know the first thing about it! Are there options for people like myself? I see what PTSD does to veterans on the street. And it's terrifying. My boyfriend lives with me. He is recently unemployed from a long term job but he is starting a new job at the end of April and estimates that he can also bring in an additional $500 a month. This job ends in the fall, but he'll be looking for a replacement until then. Anyway, if it is really impossible for me to keep my current home, I can sell it. My questions in that case are: how on earth do I do that? How much will selling a home cost me? I know NOTHING about anything that I have posted so I need an extremely literal ELI5. And I mean it when I use the word literal. If that's the case: how much money will I end up with and what kind of a home should I move into next? Rent? Buy? Have a spare bedroom for a tenant? Find a one bedroom place? Would renting a place for cheap and dwindling the $300,000 work? Will I ever be able to go back to school or see a therapist again? Or, is none of this possible? Am I doomed to be homeless until I am 25? Considering my medical necessities, I **will not survive** until then as a homeless person so as many options as possible would be great!

I would find an adult, such as a counselor, to help you set up a job and get your affairs in order. You won't get a lot of sympathy from redditors, and are better off finding someone in the real world to guide you. I agree that you need to get your GED. You definitely won't get the type of job you're looking for without a high school education.

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. Your text might contain incorrectly formatted list(s). To format a list properly, add a space between the bullet points and list items, and add a blank line before the start of the list. ---- > So, I live on my own in a condo on Long Islans that I bought outright with cash. I currently owe some money, but if I sell my car I can pay it off easily. The long story as to how I owned a condo by the age of 18, and how I'm losing it is in r/legaladvice who told me my situation is helpless. It is what it is, and I expected it. > > Basically, on my 25th birthday, I will receive close to a million dollars. Until then my bank account remains at $0. I have an eighth grade education and cannot hold down a job due to PTSD which leaves me running out of buildings when I am on the clock, as I cannot be in crowds of people. For the past 6 months I have applied to a job every day. Every. Day. The reason I do this is because if I do get a job as the local grocery store's cashier, I know for a fact that it will last a month (best case scenario) and I will need a new workplace lined up for myself. > > So I guess my first and rather silly question is: can I keep my condo? I bought it for $315,000, using part of an inheritance. > > Monthly: > > - Electric is $250 > - Maintenance (AKA mandatory lawn mowing) is $275 > - Sewage is $30 > - Cable is obviously optional, but preferred as a landline is all I use and wifi allows me to check emails for work, but, again, it's optional. $217 > > Every 6 Months: > - Car insurance is $2,000 > > And, obviously, yearly taxes. Roughly $5,000. Necessities for myself and my cat comes out to $10 every day so let's say $300 a month. I would definitely feel better if I had a little padding for vet visits. I couldn't care less if I die at this point. > > I don't have home insurance and I never had. It was just something that was not allowed to me when I was given my budget. I also don't have health insurance. Again, the money was just never allowed to me. > > Now, I have a spare bedroom that I can rent out. It currently has nobody in it, but typically I set the rent at $500-$600 a month. Tenants have always come to me in the past but I need to look and I never have! So what's the best way to find somebody? I tried craigslist and got no replies, but it was several weeks ago now. Is it worth re-posting or are there other options? I definitely want somebody close to my age rather than a 30 or 40 year old as that will trigger my PTSD. > > Moving on from tenants: I have only ever had minimum wage jobs at minimum hours. And obviously it doesn't work. I cannot think of a single job that wouldn't cause a complete breakdown due to noise and crowds. I would love something like being a secretary or filing or anything that takes place with paperwork and computer screens and quiet rooms. But, unfortunately, these jobs never come to people my age and I fear I am doomed to an infinite retail cycle for the rest of eternity of hired-fired-hired-fired and the worst part is none of these places can be put on future resumes. My qualifications stop at the eighth grade. What kind of options are there for this? Obviously therapy isn't an option - I don't even have health insurance nor do I know the first thing about it! Are there options for people like myself? I see what PTSD does to veterans on the street. And it's terrifying. > > My boyfriend lives with me. He is recently unemployed from a long term job but he is starting a new job at the end of April and estimates that he can also bring in an additional $500 a month. This job ends in the fall, but he'll be looking for a replacement until then. > > Anyway, if it is really impossible for me to keep my current home, I can sell it. My questions in that case are: how on earth do I do that? How much will selling a home cost me? I know NOTHING about anything that I have posted so I need an extremely literal ELI5. And I mean it when I use the word literal. > > If that's the case: how much money will I end up with and what kind of a home should I move into next? Rent? Buy? Have a spare bedroom for a tenant? Find a one bedroom place? Would renting a place for cheap and dwindling the $300,000 work? Will I ever be able to go back to school or see a therapist again? > > Or, is none of this possible? Am I doomed to be homeless until I am 25? Considering my medical necessities, I **will not survive** until then as a homeless person so as many options as possible would be great! > ---- ^(I am a bot. Contact) ^[pentium4borg](https://www.reddit.com/user/pentium4borg) ^(with any feedback.)

Human: Hi all, I appreciate any ideas and advice you all can provide. I've been so stressed about how to handle this situation: My parents are getting older and my brother and I want to buy them a small condo (well under 150k if we can manage it) just for the two of them to live in. They're currently renting. My father is on medicare and has retired. My mom still works but only for a few more years. She is also on Medicaid as she doesn't make much. Right now, their rent is $1450 a month. They're blue-collared workers so they only have a few thousands saved up. Rent is likely to continue to go up and my brother and I want them to have a stable payment that they can afford after my mom retires. Both of us will likely have to chip in a bit monthly to help out but I think we make enough to do that. My brother makes around 40k a year with a lot of room for advancement. He paid off his student loans. I currently make 78k and my potential is well over 100k with the government but still saddled with 90k in student loans. My brother and his wife will likely inherit her parents' home so they won't have to worry about a mortgage. I, on the other, want to buy a house later with my finance. Her mother is willing to give us quite a large sum to buy our first house together so we will most likely not have a mortgage or a very small mortgage. My brother and parents live in MD and there's the MD Mortgage program that they can qualify. I live in VA. Would co-signing a loan with my brother for a home and then later buy myself and my finance a home be a good approach? I don't want this debt to be burdened on my finance once we get married. If you know of any other approaches to this, please feel free to let me know. Thank you!

Have you considered after buying your own home, constructing a small rental unit in the basement/off the side of the house/above garage? Their rent can stay stable, you can help them out as they age, and grandparents make great babysitters (and great sources of home-cooked dinners). Obviously this sort of lifestyle isn't for everyone (especially SO), but I know some successful families who have done this sort of thing and had a lot of positives come from it.

This is going to be all mortgage stuff, I'll defer to others on the question of "is this a good idea?" Calling that condo an investment property will help DTI issues if you collect rent from parents and show it on tax returns, so that's probably out. Cosigning can work and is a thing. DTI is calculated collectively across all coborrowers, so need to determine if them being on the loan at all will help or hurt. FICO score, lowest of all coborrowers is used, no averaging. You can also buy housing for your parents using primary residence interest rate pricing and guidelines if you wish. > Would co-signing a loan with my brother for a home and then later buy myself and my finance a home be a good approach? If you can prove 100% beyond a shadow of a doubt that this other person has made all the mortgage payments, on time every time, for the last 12 months, that mortgage payment can generally be excluded from your DTI when you go to buy a home. You may/will still be hit with the prop taxes and HOI.

Human: I'm not sure this is the best place for this question but you are all so helpful, I thought I would try. As the title states, I did some freelance work for a company in mid-2014. The company was slow to pay, and, long story short, the money for this project did not reach my hands until early 2015. Last week I received a letter from the IRS saying that my 2014 tax return was incomplete as it did not show this income (apparently the company had filed a 1099 for this payment for the 2014 tax season, and had not sent me a copy). I now "owe" nearly $2,500 towards my 2014 taxes, plus interest and penalties. I have not filed my 2015 taxes yet, but was planning to claim this income this year, as that's when I actually received it. Before I contact the IRS, is there anything I should do or know about this situation? Unfortunately contacting the company I did the work for is not possible as they now appear to be out of business and I don't have a way to reach them.

Just call up the IRS and explain it to them. I have found that the folks who answer the phone at the IRS are universally helpful.

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Human: Some basics: * Married, 3 children under 18 * Taxable household income of $135,000 * Homeowner, $9500 mortgage interest, $10,000 property taxes * Up to $500 charitable donations every year. I believe our problem started when we refinanced our house to a 15-year mortgage in 2013 substantially cutting our mortgage interest. We paid about $500 in taxes in 2013. My wife claims two dependents on her W-2. I don't claim any. I know we're supposed to withhold additional tax each pay period but I already feel like we're living just above our break-even point. Are there any steps we an take to reduce our tax burden beginning now? Additional info: * No credit card debt * 1 of 2 vehicles paid off * Contribute 10% into 401k * Contribute $250 monthly per child into college savings plan * Use flexible savings plan for doctor visits and perscriptions I believe we live within our means _________________________________________ Edit: Budget info Income Me $1900 bi-weekly net Wife $2300 bi-weekly net **Totals ~$9100/month** Expenses Mortgage (15-year, 2.875% interest, just over 12 years remaining) $2550/month Home Equity Loan (for new roof, new windows, about 8 years remaining) $500/month Daycare $1000/month (will reduce to about $750/month for aftercare starting in September) Car loan (60 month loan, 0% interest) $380/month Home and car insurance $170/month Life insurance (both of us) $170/month Water bill $85/month Gas bill (for cooking, heating) $250/month Auto Fuel $250/month Electric bill $200/month Phone bill (landline, internet, TV, 2 iPhones) $350/month Groceries $600/month Gym memberships $70/month Property taxes (if paid monthly) $835/month **Totals $7410/month** Leftovers ~ $1700/month College savings plan $750/month **Current savings $950/month** Assistant: > I already feel like we're living just above our break-even point > I believe we live within our means These two statements are contradictory. ~~You aren't going to benefit by itemizing. If you also deduct sales tax, then maybe a little.~~ Post your monthly take home, budget, and all debts with minimum payments and interest rates. Edit: > Contribute 10% into 401k > Contribute $250 monthly per child into college savings plan You need to focus more on your retirement and less on saving for your kids' college. Human: OK, let me clarify. By living within our means, I meant we don't do anything extravagant. We rarely dine out/go out. None of our kids have iPhones, we drive economy cars, we are usually the last to keep up with trends.

That's not what living within your means means. Living within your means means that you can afford your lifestyle and save for retirement plus whatever other goals you have.

Most people prevent themselves from saving money via housing. Either they buy the most expensive house they can afford, or they rent the most expensive apartment they can afford

Human: *What makes Edward Jones so bad? I heard both extremes l, one saying its " the most prestigious finance firm in the world " to "dont work for them EVER", but they never articulate. What makes them so bad? I'm a accounting major by the way, so bare with me.

They charge extremely high fees to provide very standard funds. They also have a bad habit of making tons of trades to rack up fees at the detriment of their (often elderly) customers. There are no two sides to this story- they are a terrible choice

They have a consulting arm and an international development arm that are pretty reputable from what I understand. I agree the finance side of things is not the way to go.

Human: So just a bit of background information. I have 24,000 dollars in private student loan debt. When I was 17 I signed a 8 year contract with the Army Reseverves under the pretense that they would pay back my student loans. I applied for private student loans and brought the paperwork to my recruiter and he told that it was all gravy and I just needed to bring them my command staff when I was ready for it to get repaid. I bring the paperwork to my command staff a few years later once I leave college and find out to my dismay that the Army would in fact NOT be paying back my student loans as they ONLY paid back private student loans. So under false pretense I have accrued 24k in student loan debt. Frankly I feel cheated by the whole system and it feels like I've been worked over because my recruiter wasn't mindful at his and now I'm left with the check. Frankly I absolutely do not want to pay these student loans back and I really doubt there will be any sort of legal action I can take against the army for something like this. I've done lots of reading about defaulting and just walking away from this student loan. Even the prospect of filing bankruptcy since I'm so young and I'll be able to recover my credit by the time I'm older without a doubt. What is the likelihood a bank would pursue wage garnishment. I can handle the debt collectors, I'm just curious about what kind of legal action, if any a bank would pursue for these loans. Anybody with personal experience walking away from private student loans? Maybe anybody with advice about getting these loans dropped considering it was all bullshit anyways. I also consider just biting the bullet and paying them off just to get it over with. My parents are willing to pay double the minimum with me as they feel responsible for this situation as well. They cosigner the army contract and the student loan agreement. We got duped.

If you got an education I'd say you weren't cheated..... granted a lot of words might have been spoken leading you to think you wouldn't be in debt, but lets face it: At the end of the day you signed the documents and you did get an education. If your parents are willing to pay half then I think it's pretty damn good deal and I would pay off the loans and get it over with.

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Human: I (25/F) lived away from home during college and I am currently staying at my parents' house for my final internship. I will graduate in May and will start a new job soon. I have no student loans (thanks to a combination of cheap in-state tuition, scholarships, part time jobs, and living in a house with 10 or more people in college). I don't have credit card debt and my score is 770. **Salary:** $43,650 for 10 months (I have the option of working during the summer to earn extra income). **Estimated monthly take home pay:** $2400 (divided between 12 months) Savings: $3500 Expenses while living with parents: **Car payment:** $221 **Car insurance and gas:** $100 **Food:** $200 **Cell phone:** $50 **Medication:** $20 **Psychotherapy copays:** $100 **Miscellaneous expenses/Discretionary spending:** $100 **Total:** $791 Living with parents: My parents come from a country where multigeneratinal households are the norm and children live at home until they're married. I'm not close to my family and I don't get along with my father (he's emotionally abusive) but he started working the evening shift and I generally see him only on weekends. My parents see me as a combination of child and third parent to my two siblings (12 year old brother and 14 year old sister). My sister was diagnosed with schizophrenia last year but gets inconsistent treatment because my parents are in denial (our father doesn't want her in therapy and frequently tries to get her off her meds). My mom and I are usually the ones caring for her/keeping her safe when she relapses. Living at home is stressful but I estimate that I could save $1500 per month by living at home. Living alone: A one bedroom apartment in my area is easily $1000 or more. If I live alone, rent and utilities will cost over 50% of my monthly net income. I'll have additional expenses such as internet and renter's insurance and I'll have to spend money on things for the apartment such as furniture. After paying all of my bills, I estimate that I would only be able to save less than $100 per month. Roommates: In college I lived in cheap community housing with 10 or more strangers. I also shared a bedroom with one other person. I noticed that my mental health was a lot worse during that time (I was hospitalized twice while living there). It got much better after I moved to a single apartment. Another option would be to have just one roommate or rent a bedroom in a home. I rented a room and bathroom in a condo that belonged to an older woman. It ended up being a negative experience because she let her son stay with us and he would steal my belongings, do drugs in the house, bring strangers home from nightclubs, trash the condo etc. I later found out that he had an extensive history of violence towards women and tried to break into our apartment after he was kicked out. I'm wary of informal rental agreements after this experience. I would really like to move out, but it seems financially irresponsible at this point. My goals are to build an emergency fund, save for retirement, stay financially independent, and stay healthy. I'm not sure what to do and would appreciate any advice. I’ll admit that I have been sheltered and I’m naïve about most of these things.

Maybe live with your parents at first, on a "trial basis". Worst case scenario: you are miserable and move out after 2 months, but have still saved $3000. Best case scenario: it's not so bad, and you save even more. Also, living with them at first gives you extra time to hunt for a good apartment situation. It takes time to find the right place, with the right commute, with the right roommate. If you're with your parents in the meantime, you won't be so rushed. I also agree with paying down your car quickly.

I think you need to make a plan to get out of you parents' house. Look for a stable situation with a roommate.

Human: Hello! I have about $12k in total assets right now and about $20k in student loans, by the time I graduate that number will be about $28k, but I figured I could start paying it down now. Given that the loans have no interest, should I just wait to start paying them or should I work on paying it down today?

If you don't have to pay interest in the loans while in school just save your money. Once you graduate and have a job lined up then use your cash savings to pay off the loans. You can do a large payment at that time and leave a few (1-3) thousand as an emergency fund. Good luck!

Uhmmm...maybe use your $12k to pay some of the tuition to avoid taking out more loans. That and change your major to Math.

Human: **EDIT: It's now clear that this is probably a scam. Thank you all for your thorough responses! I knew I came to the right place.** I've never cross-posted before, so I hope [this link to the original post is the appropriate way to do it](https://www.reddit.com/r/jobs/comments/4d7yyj/concerned_this_online_job_may_be_a_scam_what/) TL;DR: I applied for a job, and got a response that just feels scammy, but I can't figure out what the guy's angle could be, or what part of it I should be wary of. I think it may have something to do with him wanting me to set up a merchant's account to receive payment, which is why I thought r/personalfinance could give an opinion.

They will give you a bogus check that you will deposit, think it is good, send money to the expensive printer, then the check will bounce weeks later and you will be out all the money you sent. Run the other way, quickly.

This http://www.appen.com/company/opportunities/ company has a few legit online jobs if you're interested. Not sure were you are, but apply for the "Web Search Evaluation" or even the new "Social Media Evaluator" position. I'm currently doing the "Web Search" stuff and can vouch it's legit, been doing it over 2 years. Pay is not enough to live off of, but if you can spend 4-5 hours on the computer a day you'll make some extra cash. You can even do it while watching TV or something :P Google the company to find more information.

Human: About a year ago my grandfather died, and left my mom and uncle his house. My mom is going to buy my uncle out, and has already moved out there. My parents are willing to help my wife and I by letting us buy my childhood home, for about half of what it is worth. On zillow, the house is estimated to sell for $195k and I am buying the house for right around $100k. The main thing I want to accomplish is to avoid paying mortgage insurance. I visited chase bank, and had a meeting over the phone with one of their mortgage bankers. He kept trying to talk me into having the selling price be 195k, and have my parents gift me the equity they have in the house. So the selling price will be 195, they gift me 95k worth of equity, and my loan will be a bit over 100k. (I want to roll in the closing costs, and have enough to replace the A/C unit) I have talked to one other person in the business, and he said that as long as I have over 20% equity, it does not matter what the selling price is and that I will not have to pay the insurance. My dad is saying that as well, but I have only talked to one person that actually gives this advice out for a living. Are there any pros/cons to having a higher selling price for the house? Will I, or my parents, have to pay taxes on the equity they would gift me? The banker talked about the equity like it was a tangible thing that only existed if we had a full price selling price, and we have the mortgage loan out for less. Is he trying to scam me into making more money? If I just take out the loan for what I owe my parents plus closing costs and A/C will I avoid the pmi because I have almost 50% equity? Thanks for your help Assistant: Taxes in my area are affected by the selling price, as are commissions on sales. Human: Homes are not always re-appraised during sale. His appraisal may stay at the current amount regardless of sale price. Assistant: Chase told me I would ha e to have it re appraised

he meant assessed for property taxes. Appraisal for financing is different. OTOH selling you the house for less than market may trigger income taxes for you and may be why the broker wants to value the sale at market. Consult with an accountant

Find someone other than Chase to do it. The guy in the back alley might be a better bet.

Human: So I got a free credit report (experian) but it doesn't show the actual credit score. Am I missing something here? lol. How do we get figure out our score as well? :)

It's a free credit report, not a free credit score.

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Human: Hello. So today was the detail the retail back broke, I've been working at target for 3 years now and I have finally reached my limit. I'm not making enough, I'm not happy, it's pushing me into depression, and I want more fulfilling work. What are my options as a high school graduate? I recently moved from Southern California to Colorado Springs and I'm not sure where to start. I've looked on Monster for jobs, as per a friend recommendation, but I haven't had luck. And, having a tinge of social anxiety, has made me afraid to apply considering I don't know anything about most work. I know they train you and teach, but that is the most intimidating part. I took an ASVAB in my senior year of high school, and my marks were in the high 80s. I just have no idea what I want to do, and I've never known. Just working straight out of high school with whatever I could get. All I know for sure, is I don't want to work retail for the rest of my life and while I'm 22 I would like to get the hell out of here and I don't know my options as a high school graduate. Assistant: I'd definitely consider the military. You have a high asvab and if you have a clean criminal history you can likely get into a decent field. Try to pick one that translates over to the civilian world easily. You'll have the post 9/11 GI bill that will pay for your college, but as I learned degrees aren't worth that much unless they translate directly into job skills (engineering, accounting etc) I got a degree in economics which seems pretty useless unless I got something above a bachelors. If the military isn't for you, then you could always apply to something like the post office. It's hard work, but you don't really have to deal with people and the pay is decent. Human: I've thought about the Navy. But the whole 4 years + to get into proper shape has just intimated me. My buddy just signed on for another 3 to stay in Japan. It's been on my mind for years, especially because I struggle trying to find what I want to do.

I joined the military at 23. It's not too late. I separated and walked into a job making $62k per year.

Maybe check out the Coast Guard. I graduated college with a BA and still didn't know what to do in the crappy job market, so I scored high on the ASVAB and enlisted in the CG for 4 years (the CG is arguably the pickiest service due to small size and quality of life.) I just got out not long ago but the military training and work I did looks much better on the resume and set me up for my current job. Do one enlistment and get out as an E4 or E5, most likely stay stateside guarding our coasts and saving people rather than deploying to the sandbox, and still get the GI Bill and other benefits like any service. I have access to another free round of college if I want. Just know that there aren't many guarantees, and the Coast Guard does in fact have large ships that get underway for long periods of time. My first unit was a cutter that I didn't want, but it turned out to be a pretty rewarding experience.

Human: So I'm nearing the end of my car loan, right now it's at about $6k left (min payment is 400 a month, I've been paying 500/month plus any extra monthly income to getting it down) and I have right around 3k in my savings account. I have all my credit cards paid off and outside of student loans that I'm accumulating while in school my car is my only outstanding debt and is really the only big monthly hit on my budget. I would like to get it paid off and free up that money to either work less hours (and focus on school) or move out and get my own place. So i was wondering on thoughts of using my rainy day savings to pay it off now and then replenish the rainy day fund again with my freed up budget. I should also point out there's no penalty for early repayment and the APR is at 4% on the car loan.

Of course not. This isn't an emergency.

Rainy day funds are overrated. People need to do better at minimizing their interest expense. I would figure out what you really need in cash, maybe 1000, and then put the rest on the car. Once you get out of debt, put a percent of the freed up monthly payments back into building up the fund again and maybe think about working less hours with the remainder of the payments.

Human: Do people apply for credit cards (and use them) with no intention of repayment? A neighbor said she overhead a woman speaking about doing this every seven years by repairing her credit and building trust with smaller lines of credit, only to repeat the process. She said she has done it four times over the past twenty some years. How often is this practice seen?

Many banks will blacklist you for 10 to infinity years.

That sounds like the way someone justifies going bankrupt to save themselves the embarrassment. If done intentionally it's also fraud.

Human: I am a 24 year old living in Monterey Bay, CA. I moved out from my folks place for 2 years at 22 with my then bf, and somewhere in that time period things went assbackwards with my finances. My folks were kind enough to let me come home to get myself back in order, and I am feeling pretty lost on how to start. I have $2400 on a credit card that I need to pay off, I have my tax return of $1300 in savings, and I have no idea how to budget properly so that I can be successful on my own. I make about $1,600 take home a month, est. $2,080 before taxes, and current bills not including rent or groceries are about $650-$700. I have disconnected my credit and debit cards from all online shopping areas, as I know I have a tendency to spend real money on stupid games like bubblewitch. I figure I have maybe 3 months home to get my act together and move back out. Where is a good place to start with getting my finances back in order? EDIT: Thank you all for the advice, I appreciate it!!

Start with your 1600; subtract every monthly bill you have, estimate for food/entertainment, get your final tally. Once you have everything broken down, it's a lot easier to see where you can make concessions (I.e. - don't buy that extra life in candy crush). When you start looking at places to rent, fit the rent into your leftover budget. Before you move out, try to save up at least 3 months worth of rent as contingency before you move out. Hopefully that's a bit of a starting point for you.

Create a chart of expenses in EXCEL or something. I have "rent, utilities, gas, car payment, car insurance, phone, student loan". Everything left over goes into MISC (which is fun money). Typically I save 200-600 bucks per month depending on what is going on. It will only work if you update your excel chart after every expense. Also gives you an idea of what you spend money on which is important so you know where to cut back from. You will save money this way and also get an idea of what you can afford or not afford.

Human: I graduated a year ago with a music degree. Since then, I have been working a $12/hr job (which I'm grateful for, but it's a dead end job with no potential for even a raise), and I'm really starting to feel like I'm not going to be able to accomplish anything. I haven't given up on a music career, but in the meantime, I would like to find a job that actually pays a decent income, but I realize I'd probably have to work up to that. I'm not trained in a lot of business processes or anything like that, as music school doesn't teach you that AT ALL. I know that I'm way more valuable to a company than $12/hour (my boss has readily admitted that I'm sorely underpaid), but I don't know how I would start. Especially since my degree doesn't really get me any leg up on potential competition, meaning I can't really get experience that might net me a better job. I wish I knew even what question to ask, but I feel like I'm caught in a hole. Edit: Allow me to clarify. If I want to do music, I know how I can do that. I guess what I'm asking is more along the lines of, "If I wanted to change my career path, what might be a good way of doing so?" Going back to school isn't really feasible financially for me at this point, but I would like to see what other options there might be for breaking out of music. Assistant: I have a friend who is a Violin performance major. Initially I thought to myself "how df, will she even survive with that??" Anyway I asked and she told me that you can make A LOT of money taking in students on a rotating schedule. The nice thing about providing lessons is that if you're good, you can set your price. What music program did you go to that they don't facilitate thought into career options?? The conservatory where I'm at makes damn sure that students are aware of the monetary options they have after graduating. Human: I know for a fact that I have no interest in teaching. I have neither the patience, nor the desire. I would probably hate that more than my current job. It's not that my program (which I prefer not to reveal) didn't give any information, it's that I was a lazy POS and just floated along through my entire college and high school career. Now that I actually see what the world is like, I think I would have had a much better time with it. Edit: Getting downvoted to hell for being honest here. I guess I understand why, but apparently admitting that I was a stupid 16 year-old and have only owned up to it now is a bad thing? I'm trying to take hold of my life and change direction BECAUSE I realized this.

Go to your university's career center. Ask them to take a career interest inventory. Find out what might be a good fit for you based on your interests when intersected with your education, or what education you might be interested in acquiring in a practical timeframe. You can find various resources on the Internet that test the same with varying degrees of sophistication and accuracy. https://www.google.com/search?q=career+interest+inventory

Regardless of your interests it would make a nice sideline to your regular job. Even just a few students a week would see your income rise significantly. Should at least give it a go and see how it goes.

Human: So, as some of you might have noticed, the Tesla Model 3 was announce the other day. I reserved my shortly after it started so I expect to be getting mine sometime first quarter 2018. My question is this. Knowing pretty much exactly(+/- 6 months) when I will need the money and it being so far off, what would be the best way to put away money to make paying for it easier? I'm looking for something that would be difficult to raid, but easy to adjust what I put into it. The base model is going to be 35K but I expect I will be wanting one in the 55-60K zone. The reason I want to start getting ready for it now is, normally that would be on the extreme side of my budget, but I feel like I will be in a position to afford it when the time comes. I expect my credit score to be in the mid to high 700's by then, but no extra money, besides whatever I setup to get ready for the purchase.

You already mentioned CDs in one of your comments so in terms of meeting the "difficult to raid", high interest rate criteria, you probably already know this is one of the better options. That being said, it's not going to "set you up" beyond what you have already saved or are able to pay on a monthly basis. At least not between now and 2018. And if you're making 77K gross, a 60K car isn't something you should be putting your money in to. I know this isn't the advice you want to hear. I've been waiting for this car for forever and stood in line myself to make this reservation so believe me, I know how much you want it. It's going to be hard to convince you NOT to get it, but I'd consider sticking with the base model. Or if there's a lease option, consider that. At your income, you can be dropping 60k on something that doesn't depreciate. Again, I know that's not what you asked or wanted to hear. So going back to it, I think a CD meets your criteria.

A savings account. There is nothing out there that will earn you anything significant in that short time period. I'd you want it more or of reach out it in an online savings account. Ally is good and has 1% interest. Better then most banks.

Human: I am awful with money, I mean horrendous. I am behind in rent $3600, is this an OK time to pull from my 401k? I know I can repay myself in a timely manner, no fees involved. Assistant: If it is your only reasonable option to get the cash and keep a roof over your head then I'd say it's a no-brainer. Human: I agree with this. Should be a last resort so hopefully OP has considered all other options. Better question for OP to be asking themselves is what they will do to improve to avoid being in this situation. Emergency fund should be priority #1. Assistant: I'm unsure what went wrong. For the longest time, we had barely enough money to survive. About a year and a half ago I landed a job paying $80k - $100k depending on overtime and now we find it hard to stay afloat. I have kept a $1k emergency fund up until about a month ago.

You need a budget... bad.

what the fuck

Human: Hey, r/personalfinance! Thanks for being such a great subreddit. For some time now, I've just been paying my loans using their auto-payment option. With their recent update, I now have the ability to pay by group for my student loans. What would be my best option regarding getting these paid off? Here's where I stand: * Group A - 5.60% - $3,025.06 * Group B - 6.80% - $2,059.18 * Group C - 4.50% - $3,000.64 * Group D - 6.80% - $2,168.56 * Group E - 3.40% - $8,571.81 * Group F - 6.80% - $2,054.17 Total: $20, 879.42 I just don't know the best way of paying these off. I have been told several different methods by people that I work with, but I've seen miracles worked on here. Any help is greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance. Edit: Formatting Assistant: **Mathematically optimal way: Avalanche** 1. List from highest interest rate to lowest interest rate. 2. Minimums on all except the highest interest rate. 3. Highest interest rate: Target with remaining spare cash. **Psychologically optimal way: Snowball** 1. List from lowest balance to highest balance. 2. Minimums on all except the lowest balance. 3. Lowest balance: Target with remaining spare cash. Try http://unbury.us for a simulator. Human: Thanks for that! I will check that simulator out and see what results I get. +1 to you good sir!

You lucked out with these (in as much of a way as someone can luck out with student loans)! Your highest interest rates *are* your lowest balances (with the exception of group A and group C, which are nearly the same balance anyway) so you can maximize the financial benefits and the psychological benefits because avalanche and snowball give you nearly the same ordering.

If you would have read the sidebar you would have seen these options. There really is a lot of useful information there

Human: I always see the Sally Mae(?) one suggested on reddit, but can't find the link to actually apply for it.

There are better travel reward cards. Check out r/churning

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Human: Over the past year I've noticed three of my friends have bought homes with their significant other without being married. I'm curious as to whether this is just something people do, or if there is some sort of tax reason or other incentive.

A lot of people just do this, and I don't think they do it specifically for any sort of advantage. In my opinion, this plan is riddled with way more risk than reward. In fact, the only reward I would see is that you get to take the mortgage interest deductions which will lower your tax liability. But then again, as unmarried individuals filing separately, they can each only deduct the amount they paid. Which just makes the water even more muddy. Not a good move in my opinion to do this ever.

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Human: My SO [20M] and I [20F] cannot save a penny. I'm in college, he's working, we're just about to move to another country with no savings at all. All the money he earns goes on paying the bills and guitar accessories and my income is super low and goes on food. I've been thinking of introducing some fun saving system with milestones: f.e. if we manage to save 10k, we can use 2k for travel etc. The more money we save the bigger treats we can get. What do you think about this idea?

>cannot save a penny >guitar accessories Sounds like he already treats himself.

I like the idea. However, 20% of 10K seems high. I would only do 5%... 500 at 10K. 1K at 20K. and so on

Human: Hi, I got a call from a small attorney's office called Crystal Moroney about an alleged debt for not returning a book. I asked them if they could send me itemized billing, but they said it was not possible. On the first call, they were pretty polite and asked me if I remembered a debt for a book return. I told them I don't remember anything like that, and they told me they'd give me a bit of time to do research before calling back. I asked if they could send me verification like to whom the debt was owed, but they also seemed to deny being able to do that. I am a college student and have rented a book, so it is possible I may not have returned it, which is why I haven't blocked them. They called for the second time this morning and asked me if I was ready. I asked them what the payment options were, and they said online, money order, and over the phone. I needed to leave for class, so I just said I'd try to get it paid by the end of the month to get him off the phone. He said he'd put me down for April 29th. Did I make a mistake and admit debt or something to a scammer? He was asking for somewhere around $250. If it is an actual debt, I'm thinking of just waiting for it to fall of my report since I don't see myself needing a new car, house, or new card in the next 6-7 years. Thanks for any insight! Additional info:

Googling the name of that firm brings up a *lot* of complaints about apparently shady debt collection. Definitely conduct all of your interaction in writing, and insist on proper validation of the debt - as they're required to provide on request - before paying them anything.

So you do have to worry about them talking to the credit bureaus, even thought you are probably in the right. Ask them what business is contesting this debt with you, and take it up with them. Ultimately, the business who hired them can discuss all of this with you. At the end of the day though, there are a lot of federal laws that protect the consumer from racketeering schemes like debt collectors. So you can also look into the laws to see what they must legally provide. What state do you live in? Depending on your wire tapping laws, you can record the conversations with them on the phone. Then if they do push it to the credit agencies, you can have ammunition in court against them. This site says it is a scam: http://the-law-offices-of-crystal-moroney.pissedconsumer.com/the-law-offices-of-crystal-moroney-beware-of-debt-collecting-scam-20131001450458.html Now federal law ( https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/fair-debt-collection-practices-act-text ) states they must provide you with the name of the business...so ask for that first so you can then contact them to get the proof.

Human: Hello! I'm 20 years old and live in Colorado. I work minimum wage with once/month commission doing sales. I applied for Medicaid a ew days ago, and just had an appointment with a case worker today. I was approved only for the month of March (in which I only got a few dental fillings, so that's cool, I guess.) and until the end of April. Why? Because I make $70 dollars too much per year. $5.83 per month. And I make commission, so that could change every month. I need more dental work done, 4 fillings and a wisdom teeth removal. I have the filling appointment scheduled for April 19th but I think there's no way I could schedule one before May 1st for the wisdom teeth. I also need to see a psychiatrist for anxiety treatment/medication. What am I supposed to do now? I'm trying to move out, and could barely afford rent alone on my income, so I probably can't afford health insurance either. What other options are there for people with low incomes, but not low enough for Medicaid? I missed the enrollment period for Obamacare. I know you can qualify for a "special" enrollment period if you get married of have a child or something, OR if you lose health coverage from somewhere else. So should I apply for Obamacare after I lose medicaid coverage on May 1st? Is Obamacare even that good? Or should I try to find some other kind of affordable health insurance? Thank you for reading.

>I missed the enrollment period for Obamacare. I know you can qualify for a "special" enrollment period if you get married of have a child or something, OR if you lose health coverage from somewhere else. [You're "losing health coverage" from somewhere else: Medicaid.](https://www.healthcare.gov/sep-list/) Apply for an ACA plan via the shopping vehicle in your geographic area. >Because I make $70 dollars too much per year. $5.83 per month. And I make commission, so that could change every month. Buckle up, as it would appear you'll be repeating this process until <*R6_mod-worthy_content_here*>.

Yes apply for obamacare. It's easy, simple and fairly cheap. I pay 150 a month for medical for me and my spouse. Fairly cheap considering that's what I paid through private insurance and got lesser benefits.

Human: So talking with my father last weekend. He claims that he will be getting taxed on his Roth IRA earnings and has been told this by his financial adviser. Given it's a Roth, I was under the assumption that contributions and earnings are taken out tax free since contributions are already taxed. Anyone know what the hell my dad's talking about or a situation where you would be taxed on Roth money in retirement? Edit: Just to be clear, yes, he did say it was a Roth IRA, and no, it will not be an early withdrawal. All of this crossed my mind when he said this.

Contributions can be taken out tax free at any time. Earnings can be taken out tax free starting at age 59 1/2. Earnings taken out before 59 1/2 will be taxed at the person's tax rate plus a 10% penalty (unless using one of the withdrawal exceptions).

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Human: I just received an email from my boss detailing how I was apparently paid an hourly rate nearly twice what I am supposed to make. So to make up for it on this month's check, he wants to take the difference out of this month's check. Well that will effectively cut out all of my wages this month, and I'll have to dig into savings for about all of my bills. So, he claims that this was an error by the payroll company he uses, and that they've fixed my rate in their system or something to that effect. I plan to meet with him to talk about it, but I'm not sure what I can really do. Anyone had experience with this or general suggestions?

So what happened to your over payment? If it was added to your savings? If so, you're not really dipping into *real* savings, right?

I'd just tell him that you'll have trouble paying bills with no check this month and ask if you can get it taken out over 3 months or so.

Human: A year ago as I was eagerly learning about financial stuff, I decided to throw some money in the stock market. It was about $1,000 at the time. I also used the Robinhood trading app, so I didn't pay any commission or fees. Since then, I've lost a bit of money. I'm at about $900. Now that I actually know what I'm doing, I'm realizing I could have put that money to better use. And I'd like to pull it out and use it to pay off a student loan. (For reference, I'm planning on using my tax return, 2015 company bonus, and hopefully this money to pay off about $8,000 of loans at 6.5%). I'd really like to wait until I reach my break-even point before I pull the money out, which I also considered the dividends I received to calculate that. Of course, there's no guarantee the stock price will reach that anytime soon, and I'm "losing" money in the form of interest by waiting. What's the best thing to do here? Chalk a $100 loss up as a lesson, pull the money out, and be done with it?

If you had $900 in cash, would you invest it in that stock until it hit 1k or pay off your loan?

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Human: In tons of negative equity, which doesn't bother me since I plan on keeping my car until it breaks down. However I would like to completely pay off my car within one year. Payoff is $17,100. This is definitely doable with a bit of frugality. Would it be better for me to save up the cash in a savings account, and then pay it off, or just pay double/triple on the loan every month? Interest rate is 4%, however my concern is that, if I pay on the loan every month and then something goes out, I wouldn't have that money saved up. Is there anything wrong with having a dual emergency fund + loan payment savings account? P.S. And yes, I DO have GAP insurance...

I would build your emergency fund to 6 months of expenses then start paying extra every month on the auto loan. Be sure to talk with your loan provider first as to how they prefer extra payments, as you want to be sure they're applied to principle and not future payments.

In general, you will save more money faster by paying the loan (at 4% interest) than by holding it in a savings account (at 1% interest). But you don't want to blow your whole wad on the loan, only to run into hardship later. Save some of your paycheck in savings, invest a little when you have enough there, and simply make double payments or so on the car.

Human: 28 years old, only debt is mortage and $7k car loan (1.7%). Have a capitalone (1% back) card that I've had for about 10 years, and a chase (1-3% back) Amazon card that I've had for about 5 years. My job requires me to personally pay for travel and then get reimbursed. I average between $1k-$2k a month in business expenses that I expense. Wondering what a better card with either more perks or a better percent back would be helpful. Mostly hotels/airlines/meals, and the majority of these places will take some of the smaller card brands (IE Amex). Thoughts?

check out /r/churning they keep a good lsit of cards and their rewards programs and bonuses. The main thing is to match your rewards with your life. you could focus on free airline tickets or hotels - allowing you to get free vacations. That would be my recommendation - if you always use the Hilton Hotel chains - get a Hilton credit card, sign up for Hilton rewards and start getting tons of bonus points to get free stays that you can take when you want to go on vacation. Repeat with the airline of your choice as well.

it depends on your loyalty to a certain brand or not. Also, it also worth looking at the airline hub closest to you... so like if you have an AA hub in town, i would get the AA card. If united, then theres a bunch... general cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred is great for travel... mix it with the Freedom Unlimited, Freedom, Ink card, gives a powerful set. /r/churning is a great source to look into.

Human: I just do not trust internet review sites anymore knowing how much garbage they put out since they make money on affiliate links. I've recently repaired my credit and would love to have one card which has like the best benefits...so what's your take on that?

I like no fee cards with general cash rewards (not store/industry specific or rotating categories). For me it would be a toss-up between Fidelity Rewards and Citi Double Cash. Or if I traveled a lot, Capital One Quicksilver.

AMEX Centurion

Human: I don't want to give the gift cards or sell them. I want to spend the money. I'm torn between... Buy a mega cool $1000 toy Buy a few $200 toys Buying something that I can re-sell for more to increase my earnings (potentially putting that into savings) or buying something that would better my life (exercise or health related things?) Gosh, any suggestions from the gurus here?

Amazon sells gift cards, so you can buy gift cards for all kinds of other expenses. * Southwest Airlines * Starbucks * Sears * Whole foods are just a few of the [Options](http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=s9_acss_bw_cg_GCLPocc_2b1?node=2864196011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-4&pf_rd_r=14D5J8902P8KTF2XMWGV&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=2446601082&pf_rd_i=2238192011)

My advice would be save it until you really need something. My wife and I got a bunch of gift cards for our wedding 2 years ago. Now when something unexpected we need pop's up. We usually can buy it with a gift card. Having a reserve is awesome. Just don't buy shit you don't need.

Human: I'll admit it, I suck at understanding investments and finances outside of normal household "accounting." We just filed our 2015 taxes and we're getting a small return but our 2016 looks dismal. My two oldest children are gone, along with their college education benefits. My 16 y/o turns 17 this year (still in high school). I just ran the IRS' W4 calculator and it's telling me that we have to pay an additional $710/month to the IRS for 2016 pre-taxes. Here are the specifics: 3 "jobs" Job 1 88k / year, paid every two weeks, YTD Fed tax 2154, most recent Fed tax 385. Job 2 52k / year, paid every two weeks, YTD Fed tax 1477, most recent Fed tax 200. Job 3 22k / year, paid monthly (military retirement), YTD fed tax 385, most recent Fed tax, 115. 1 dependent 0 child tax credits Expecting 20,000 in mortgage and RV interest payments Expecting 4,000 in tax payments The W4 calculator is saying we should be paying an additional $710 a month to taxes. If we simply increase our 401k contributions by that amount ($710), will that even out the equation? If not, what are other options?

> If we simply increase our 401k contributions by that amount ($710), will that even out the equation? No. That will deduct $710*12 from your taxable income. It's a deduction, not a credit. The government isn't giving you money to save for retirement, they just aren't taxing you on that money.

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Human: Hello, im a college student and recently applied for a credit card at my bank. However, today I received a letter in the mail stating a was not approved for a credit card because I had delinquent activities towards my bank. I've never taken out a credit card before so that only leaves my parents who would know all of my information to take out loans. After confronting them they admitted to having taken loans out in my name and never paying them back but said they would be willing to help me in recovering my credit. How do I fix my credit and is there a way of doing that without pointing fingers at my parents and causing them trouble? Thank you EDIT: Thank you all for you words of advice Please note that I love my parents very much, they have helped me in every possible aspect of my being, and I still depend on them on a daily basis. While I understand what they did is illegal and has screwed me over I do not plan on throwing them under the bus like they did to me. After speaking to them they seemed very remorseful and admitted to not being in an economically stable position and were pulling at straws. The situation makes me mad that the only reason I found out was because of I wanted a credit card and not by their own words. Fortunately, they agreed to pay whatever they owe back and to build up my credit. While this may sound stupid I subtly hinted I do want to resort to getting the authorities involved. We will be looking into fixing my credit, it was at a 670 according to the letter my bank sent me so hopefully it isn't so bad. Again, thank you all for your advice.

Do you have any siblings? If so, you should encourage them to check their credit (annualcreditreport.com is the real site) to see if your parents committed fraud by using their identities as well. Also, just a heads-up: many folks in this thread are encouraging you to report your parents for fraud. I agree. If you search this sub (and other financial forums on the internet), there's a common theme for people who don't report this sort of thing: the criminal in question does it again. If they do it to you again, you either report it or enter a never-ending cycle of them taking money in your name, whenever they want it, for whatever reason they want it. If they do it to someone else, then you also get to live with the guilt that you enabled them to do it. Sorry to seem like I'm dropping that on you: you seem like a nice fellow in a bad situation. But you really need to consider reporting the crime.

It's kind of a tough one. I know this sub likes to instantly write off people who did you harm, but I mean to file fraud, they will go to jail. You basically will never see them again; they will probably disown you if you try to push them into jail or whatever. But, it's the only way to really fix that credit. So, basically what I would do here is A. This option is assuming your relationship with them hasn't been very good. They did in fact take advantage of you knowing it would hurt you, and help them. If the relationship was toxic before, you need to file for fraud, and just move on with your life. B. Assuming your relationship was fine before, and this is just something they did, I wouldn't want them to go to jail personally. I think they need to compensate you somehow. Figure out a way for them to make ammends. Maybe it's buying you a car outright, since you can't get a loan. Or give you X dollars. It's tough, because you need to pick two completely polar options here. Throw them under the bus, or get run over.

Human: I lost my husband a couple of weeks ago in a car accident. His place of employment finally got me to come in and talk to them about life insurance benefits and in my grief, I don't think I really understood all the papers laid out in front of me, much less what to do with the information. I'll cut to the chase. The amount of insurance I am receiving is $427,000. I was told this is taxable. He had a 401(k) savings plan and the balance coming to me from it is $22,732. I understand this is also taxable. The lady with the benefits department also said I should go to the clerk or court office here and apply for a year's widow's allowance. I'm working on getting the paperwork I need for that. Here's the link with that information: http://info.legalzoom.com/north-carolinas-inheritance-law-22357.html We had no children. I'm totally alone now and quite frankly, this money is not going to bring my husband back. The very select few people that know of it have given me varied advice, like pay off my student loans, pay off his debts (if he had any, I can't find any evidence he did), buy a small house for myself, and so on. So here's my questions: A) How much in taxes can I expect to pay? B) I don't want to blow through this. I honestly don't want to touch it unless it's for necessities. How can I invest this so it will grow?

Sorry that you've been through this trauma. That's terrible. To echo the others: life insurance is usually not taxable. I got life insurance checks when my father died, and only a small portion of the amount was taxable. Basically the life insurance payout accumulated interest in the period between my dad's death and the time they actually cut the check a few weeks later. In my case the interest was something like $20 from one policy and $30 from another policy, both for which they sent a 1099 form at the end of the tax year. My advice is that you dont do *anything* with this money for a while. You've been through a lot, losing your spouse is devastating and you'll need some time to recover even a little bit. So don't feel rushed to do anything, despite all the advice you've heard. Just park the money in a savings account or maybe a CD for at least 6 months. Try to forget about it until you recover your emotional equilibrium, *then* you can learn about investing and decide what's the best use of the money. Don't do anything because someone tells you it's great; do it because you understand it. As a surviving spouse, you have the option of rolling the 401k account to an IRA to avoid paying taxes right now. But talk to a pro. http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/personalfinance/experts/practicalmoneymatters/columns_2014/0620_Inherit_401k.php

This isn't a question for Reddit. Lots of wrong answers throughout. Talk to a CPA, and good luck.

Human: Hi guys, I needed some advice to help pay off my credit card, for the first year I had it everything went well, it got paid every month with no problems but with a few irresponsible decisions here I am with it maxed out. The limit is $2300. I make 16/hr working 40 hour weeks. At this point I no longer have anything in my savings, so I'm on the edge of I don't know what honestly. I'm just looking for any tips you guys may have for keeping expenses low. Thanks!

>I'm just looking for any tips you guys may have for keeping expenses low. Stop spending money on your credit card...? You need to cut up that card and go on the cash envelope system for a while. Make sure to include your credit card payments in your budget.

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Human: So my German cousin just got a huge hospital bill as per the title and it doesn't sound like he can afford it. He hasn't told me what happened yet, but he needed anesthesia. He is freaking out right now and I'm not sure what advice to give him. I know that he had to pay a $5k deposit, so I was thinking of having that go through, then cutting off charges from that place in the future or just outright canceling his card. Then he can notify the hospital of his new address for billing. Then maybe call the hospital and negotiate something with the billing department? Are there any programs for Germans traveling abroad or anything like that?

>Are there any programs for Germans traveling abroad or anything like that? Many/most take out travel medical insurance for just this reason.

Have him contact his Krankenkasse in Germany. They may be able to help with at least a portion of the bill, but it's equally likely that they say they only cover for medical bills in the EU and he's SOL. I echo the sentiment that in the future, everyone should buy travel insurance for this reason when traveling to the US. I pay 14€ a year for such coverage.

Human: My mom passed away when I was 11 years old and left me a trust, with my father as Trustee. About a month before she passed away, some strange amendments were made to her will (i.e my dad going from 1/3 of her non-trusted estate to all, changing my uncle from Trustee to my dad). She was very ill and about a week away from entering hospice, and most of my family believed she wasn't really "with it" enough to make those changes. Fast forward and I'm less than a year away from receiving my first installment of 3. My dad told me when I was graduating college that he had taken a line of credit out on the trust but didn't say much beyond that. I'm not sure if that's legal in the state of FL and it seems sketchy to me. He's also said that the first installment doesn't come for **another** year, which I know isn't true because I have a copy of the will. Does anyone know about the legality of credit lines on trusts in the state of FL? I live in another state right now so it's going to be harder for me to get a lawyer if it comes down to that. If it turns out he did something illegal or murky, I don't think I want to be estranged from him the rest of my life. Any advice is much appreciated.

I hate to say but a lawyer is your best option. Trust law is tricky.

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Human: Just got engaged. Happy as I can be that I get to spend the rest of my life with my best friend. Just have a quick few PF questions to get out of the way. Me - 28M, $81K/year from a W2 job, + ~$11K/year as a musician. Car/Motorcycle payment, $12K in 401K, $22K in savings (7 month emergency fund), live in an apartment, 690 credit score. Her - 25F, ~$20K/year from music and freelance chef work, no debt, bad credit (unsure of exact score) The mismatch in incomes don't bother me. We're both musicians, I've just given up on making it as a career. She's way more talented than me and has many more irons in the fire towards her career than I do at this point. She does part time chef work for a catering company in her spare time. We live in Texas. Should I consider a prenuptial agreement? I'm leaning against, as from what I've heard until you're in the mid six figures, it really doesn't make as much as sense since we have so little assets. None of us own property, nor have much desire to. Anything else I should be thinking about? My old man says your IQ drops 100 points when you're in love, and I want to make sure I'm thinking about the right things.

It depends on how strong the relationship is and it's up to individual assessment. As a blanket statement and generalisation based on national and international divorce rates I'd say yes. But that says nothing of who she or you are as people, willingness to compromise and make the marriage work etc. Looking purely on income disparity and divorce rates, it's a yes for me. Though asking for a pre nuptual may seem insulting to your SO and may indicate to her the success rate you think this marriage will have..

you need a prenup. the details of your current financial situations dont matter at all. not even a little bit

Human: The stock is HTC. The company is releasing it's first virtual reality system tomorrow. Everyone that's tried it (myself included) has been blown away. Pre-orders for this thing began late February, and shortly after, the stock price shot up about 40% over the course of a week, only to come back down to what it was pre-pre-orders. Since it's releasing tomorrow, I'm expecting a wave of positive reviews to come out over the next week, which I believe will drive up the stock price at least temporarily. I know that putting so many eggs in one basket is generally a bad idea, but I can't see why it would be in this case. It would only be short term (2 weeks max.) What do I really have to lose? HTC is a big enough company that it's not going to just cease to exist in 2 weeks. Especially with them releasing a new product. There's just no way the stock price will go down in response to this announcement. It might not go up as much as I would hope, but it certainly won't go down significantly. I'm 27, no kids, earn enough to support myself and save some, have no debt and have about $40k in investing money.

Investors are weeks or months ahead of you. Be careful investing so much in something you don't understand. There is nothing wrong with investing a little in things you like, but just be aware that the professionals control what will happen to that stock.

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Human: Hi, I'm 26 years old and I have a Master of Computer Science, I was told there would be jobs, but I'm searching since 2 years now. I lost faith because the city's economy is crashing and everything is 3x times the price you would pay normally. I'm from the province of Québec, Canada, I don't have any debt, but I don't have any money either. I live in a small town, my job (Airport Ramp Agent) is just enough to barely survive. It is a very small airport, so the job and salary is pretty ghetto. Unfortunately my city is very far away, about 12-13h hours from any big city. I'm afraid to leave the little that I have here and take a bus to Montréal or Toronto, without any shelter and very little money (only a mastercard). I'm currently searching on the internet for a job, I don't have family or friends here, so I could work anywhere in the world, I just need a guarantee I'm not burning a bus or plane ticket for nothing. All the people that contacted me, want a "real life" interview, obviously! So, I'm mystified right now.

I'm confused. Usually the company pays you to travel for the interview.

I'm glad to see its not only Americas youth that is clueless. Move!

Human: I am hoping to move in with my boyfriend (who I already live with), and another couple that he has known for a long time. The rent would be $500, which is dirt cheap for the city we live in. A question came up when I spoke with the other couple. The girl isn't working enough hours to sign the lease, and "the bank messed up" (her words) so her boyfriend has bad credit. I just looked at my credit score, and I think it's good. I am on time and pay more than the minimum for credit card payments, and neither my BF or I has started paying college loans yet. We each work around 20 hours a week. This is a great deal for us, but after she said that they would not be able to sign the lease I am a little nervous about what may happen if they are unable to pay rent or some other unforeseen circumstance. Even if they were unable to pay anything towards rent, my boyfriend and I could easily afford the $500 a month. Should I be worried? Like I said, this is a great deal so we both really want to take it. Please let me know if you have any questions, I'm not sure what information is most relevant.

I wouldn't touch that with a 10 ft pole. Anyone that says "the bank messed up" is the reason for their bad credit with no other details is shady at best. I've only ever lived in one apartment, but anyone that lived there HAD to be on the lease to be allowed to stay there.

If someone has bad credit, signing a lease with an Amazing rent amount and consistently paying it is the best thing they can do. Just say "it's an awesome deal in this city, you'll build your credit back and It's not like you guys wouldnt pay me right?" Pull the friendship card.

Human: I am a nurse. I work a full time job. I am not rich by any means. I am middle aged. I have money in a 401k, a rainy day fund, a home and a car. Would it be possible for me to set up an off shore account and direct my paychecks through it in such a way as to decrease my tax liability? I want it to be 100% legal. If so, how would I go about doing it? Assistant: No, not if your goal is lower taxes. What this statement means is that you can legally have a secret offshore account if you properly disclose it to the IRS and pay tax on it. It would not decrease your tax liability. It may offer some legal protection by making you less likely to be sued/harder to get damages from. EDIT: This is for the U.S. In some other countries, there may be tax advantages, and structuring in it via Panama, etc... may or may not be legal. But, bottom line, there are legitimatish uses of offshore "hidden" accounts. Imagine you live in, say, Cuba, and are worried that the government will just seize your money one day. I would argue this would be a moral, and perhaps legal, time to use a secret account. Human: I figured as much. Thank you for your reply. It just seems unfair that there is a standard for one segment of people and a different set of rules for everyone else. Assistant: No problem - if wealthy people had accounts there and weren't disclosing them/paying tax on them in accordance with the law, it is illegal and the IRS can go after them for big penalties (and I hope they will). I hear what you are saying though; I'm sure there were rich people who paid money to have illegal structures set up to dodge taxes and gamble that they wouldn't be caught. It is totally possible to evade taxes this way (if nobody tells the IRS you made money and you don't report it, how can they find out?), just extremely illegal. Human: To me there is no legitimate reason why an individual would set up an account like that. Doing so means they are hiding that money from someone. Hiding it from a spouse, from a company, from a constituency or from a government.

As /u/Mrme pointed out in his first post edit above there are some legitimate reasons. Fear of government seizure of assets is a big one, especially if you are in an unstable country. Another, more legitimate reason, would be that if you are afraid of the stability of your home country's currency it might be wise to open an off shore account and keep your savings in a more stable currency. Also, you may travel to a foreign place often and having a second bank account there could provide useful, especially if you have business interests there too. All in all, there are legitimate reasons for doing it, and as long as the income is reported under the laws of both countries there is no problem with it.

There are a lot of criminals out there.

Human: I'm an 18 year old from North Carolina and I was recently accepted into both Duke University and UNC. I am trying to determine which, financially, would be the better choice for me, and I was hoping other users who have dealt with things like college debt can weigh in on the discussion. On the one hand, UNC has offered me $15000 in merit aid off of the total cost which would leave me around $8000 to pay per year. On the other hand, Duke has offered me very little financial aid due to their belief that my father who I have not seen in 5 years should be able to contribute from his large income that is far beyond the cost of Duke. However, legally my father is not required to contribute and frankly he won't do it out of moral. This leaves Duke at a yearly cost of around $67000 which is $4000 more than my mothers AGI, so the majority of the payment would have to be made via loans. My questions is this, would Duke be worth the large loans for the benefits later in life due to having a degree from Duke or would I simply be better off choosing UNC for college to avoid the debt? Thanks for the help. Thanks everyone who has contributed so far for the help! Edit: My majors will be computer science and mathematics or computer systems engineering as well as a possible minor in financial investing. Assistant: Sorry.... No. Duke is absolutely not worth it. You'll spend the rest of your life regretting a decision you made when you were "just a kid who didn't understand loans". (Search these threads for that phrase... You'll see it over and over again). Don't ruin your life because of a college name. Outside of Harvard it won't return the cost Human: Thanks for the input. Currently, I am also sitting on the waitlist for both Harvard and MIT. If I was taken off the wait list and offered admission I imagine the cost situation would be a similar scenario. For these two schools, would the debt be worth It or do you think it still would be too burdening?

Harvard and MIT both have much better need-based aid. You can see what you'd be likely to pay at Harvard with https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/net-price-calculator (I don't know if this changes with the waitlist).

>Currently, I am also sitting on the waitlist for both Harvard and MIT. Something like 60% of Harvard's student body is actually on full financial aid, because the other 40% pay more than enough to cover everyone. They want students concentrating on studies and nothing else. I imagine MIT is the same way. The thing is, if none of these schools actually offer you enough financial aid to pay for school AND live on, then they're not worth going to. You'll be trying your hardest for a year or two, then eventually break down with the stress of it all. Wait and see what packages they actually offer before you commit to anything. Community college may be the best option for you right now.

Human: I just became eligible for the 401k plan at my new employer. When I called John Hancock to roll my previous 401k, they told me that my plan does not allow roth rollovers HR has inquired about this and told me there is nothing they can do. Any advice? It is about $3k. Would there be a penalty if I just withdrew it?

Rolling it over to a Roth IRA is probably the easiest / cleanest solution. But to answer your questions, since it is Roth there would be no penalty for withdrawing the original contribution, but there would be a penalty on any gains.

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