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Human: It seems like you would almost always want to be paying a mortgage and increasing your net worth instead of renting, when you're throwing money into a black hole. I'm a 24 year old who just started a career and am currently renting an apartment. Is there any reason not to find a condo or house once my lease is up?	I know this sub is focused on finance, but I'd like to plug the emotional freedom that renting provides. I've both owned and rented and the amount of stress you save by renting is significant.	Here is my experience so far but market shifts could change that. So I built a house about 3 and half years ago. I bought it for 175k with about 13k down. My house is valued at just over 200k now and I owe less than 150k on it. My payments are 1200 a month with insurance, morgage, and morgage insurance etc... So if you take 1200 x 40 months, that is 48000 plus the 13k I put down would put me at 61k I've put into it over 3 and half years. If I sell now I think I could get between 205k and 210k. Now let's assume I get 205k, now minus the 150k I owe that's 55k in my pocket. Now consider the money I put into it, 61k and 10k in closing fees and realtor fees that puts me -16k walking away. So it basically cost me 16k to live in a 4 bedroom BRAND NEW house with my own yard etc.. over 40 months... the town home I rented before this was 1000 a month and would have cost me 40k over the same time period... that's 40k for a two bedroom 1 bath small town home with no yard vs 16k for a 4 bedroom 2 bath brand new 2200 square foot house with a yard... now all of extra little expenses maybe add up to a few extra thousand... I think owning is much better!! Obviously the downside is you have to put time into lawn care and shoveling snow and other little things... Sorry for the Grammer and sentence structure I'm on mobile and in a hurry
Human: I created a throwaway because i don't want the people who know my account to see all my shizz. I started out knowing nothing of the real world and am slowly working towards actually understanding what the hell is going on, so please bear with me if my questions seem stupid. (please see username). We are fairly poor and have made some bad decisions, but we're ready to work on it. Yes we are on public assistance but I really want to get off of it - biggest issue with that is healthcare. I have many medical debts. None appear to be over $3k. but there are quite a few. My husband has other debts, mainly phone companies and credit cards from his past. ~~We want to buy a house, as far fetched as that sounds.~~ We currently live in a house that is fully paid off but falling apart. Needs $$$$$ to repair, and unlikely to be able to sell for what we've put into it, let alone any sort of profit. Husband works (about $1,500 per month give or take depending on the month as he does some contracted work in addition to the $9 per hour). I stay home with the kids because seriously eff daycare costs, holy shit. We do not want to rent because that's just, well, money down the drain. On to my main concerns - our credit is baaaaaaaaaad. Mine (lowest score) is 506. His (lowest score) is 536. We've both been divorced, made some mistakes etc. We'd like to get it fixed as soon as possible but we are not sure what we can do and when, but we can begin paying now. I have $11k in student loans (school went nowhere) that i am currently trying to consolidate. That's already put through, just waiting on the judgement. We will have a decent sized tax refund once it goes through, otherwise it would all go straight to paying it off with no say on our part. * Husband has three collections debts, all fairly old, one (or two?) of which he does not think he owes. It has already been 30 days since we received the letters. He called them last night (against my advice)(because we should verify them first, right?) to discover what they were. Can we still send a debt validation letter, and will this get us anywhere or will it screw us? One of them I believe is past the statute of limitations. Should we still pay it if it is valid? * I rented a house with my ex. I left and rented an apartment before the lease was up, but continued to help pay the rent until it was, then I believe I signed a form stating I was no longer on the lease with him and he continued to live there and completely destroy the place. We did not get the divorce finalized until halfway into the new lease. I received a collections letter, contacted the property manager (who had recently bought the property management company) who agreed that it was not my debt, but had no further communication from him, nor did he send the collections company anything like he said he would. This is still on my credit report as open ($12k) and the collections company still has me on it. I attempted to contact the property manager yesterday but received no callback as of yet. The collections person was completely unhelpful and rude. Can I call the property guy every day or is there a letter or something I need to send? What do I do? * Small collections account with a counselor - I do not believe the amount is correct but I do know I owe her money. It's a difference of about $100 and my pride. I have no receipts, only a letter and what i think i owe. Should I just bite the bullet? * One medical company (that only did one thing, wasn't like several services) reported to my credit (equi and trans) three separate times (same day though) for one debt. Is this legal? It's broken up into chunks. * How do I sort out medical bills if I have many different amounts for the same (3 days) visit? (this one is probably more simple than I think) * If our debt combined equals out to about $15k (give or take because I cannot figure out some of the amounts on some of the bills) (minus student loans and the renters thing), is it worth it to try and consolidate it, and if so, can we combine our debts or do we each have to have a consolidation account? Also, I am the one taking care of all of the financial stuff, because husband works long hours during any business times, so what are my rights as his wife to discuss his bills, including ones before we got together/got married? EDIT: This means, am I allowed to call his creditors to discuss his debts? He and I are very open with each other about our finances and debts. As far as credit BUILDING plans go, I was given a few pieces of advice but was concerned about the legitimacy of these, or if they're good decisions, for now, later, or ever. Obviously anything we can take on that we can also pay will help us. * Be put on someone else's credit card, without actual access or intent to use. Dad says this will affect his rates since my credit is so bad, but the financial lady (from a loan company when I was still hopeful and then had all my dreams crushed) said it shouldn't affect him at all. * Lendup. Basically a payday loan but with nicer people? I read that you have to borrow several times before this will add anything to your credit. Is this a good company or is there a better one? My idea was a little odd, use the loan to get a secured credit card, turn around and use credit card to pay off loan (how long should you leave a loan - up to due date, or asap?) then pay the credit card off, which would then be used for bills and paid off in full each month. Are small payments or full chunks better for paying these? * A small loan ($500) from the bank. Is this even possible with credit like mine? She said to put it into savings and not even touch it, except to use the money to pay it back, with an automatic withdrawal. Dumb idea? Most important, are any of these going to actually help me out while we are so far in debt? I was going to get whatever loan or secured card I can and then use that to pay the debt. I know that many of these things can be googled (and believe me i have, and looked through some of the wikis on the sidebar) but I've come across so many conflicting articles, and I certainly can't trust the debt collectors. ~~And if it's even remotely possible to take on a mortgage loan (the payment would be relatively small) I feel like this would help us out - building our credit and living someplace that doesn't need $$$$$ in repairs.~~ I may have missed some stuff, but, man I am tired of all of this. I just want to get into a better place financially and make sure my kids are taken care of. I don't care about getting rich, or getting a big house or fancy cars, I don't need the latest gadgets, and I frugal my ass off where I can. I haven't even begun to look into retirement or anything. Feel free to pry and ask questions, give me some tough love, etc. EDIT: Point taken, no new house. Got it, squashed, moving on :) EDIT 2: Thanks for all the replies so far guys. Some perspective was desperately needed. Assistant: You are in no place close to buy a house. Maybe, maybe sell your house that is paid off and use it as a down payment, but this would likely be a lateral move. How expensive of a house are you thinking of, with your husband only making $1500/month? Renting isn't throwing money away, it's spending money towards a roof over your head, houses can be expensive to maintain, much more than what it could cost to rent. What's the reasoning for wanting to leave a fully paid off house? You kept saying you want to do stuff fast or quick, but it's going to take years to rebuild ~550 credit scores. You have $15000 in debt and that's not including your $15000 in student loans (with no degree), nor $14000 that you may or may not still be on the hook for. This debt doesn't just go away, you can't just not include it. You won't find a mortgage with $40000 of debt and $1500 income and 550 credit score.. Your husband needs to make more money or you need to get a part time night job or both. You need to look into paying off your debt and start saving some money. Any house that you could afford is going to need probably just as many issues fixed as your current, payed off house. You can't survive without a mortgage, how can you expect to with one? Human: The house i was looking at is $120k, but it's been on the market for a while and the price has been dropping, I think I can talk them down to $110K. I estimated the payment to be $700 per month. $1,500 is really the low end of potential earning for him, so naturally I want to keep it to where my bills don't surpass that amount. If we were to do this, the tax refund would go towards any related costs and down payment, plus whatever we have managed to save up (this month is going to be a big month for him, around $2,500). We've had several big months recently and he is in line for a significant promotion, though I don't know when that will be. Definitely want to be safe, so yea, if it's not possible, then it's not, but my concern is, do we save the money and try to get out of here, or do we put a ridiculous amount towards repairing a house that we may not even be in in 5 years? I'm talking the entire back half of the house needs to be lifted and repaired, the electrical needs a full overhaul etc. Edit: Basically the house needs more money to be repaired than it is currently worth	I won't rehash what Forty44Four said above, but what are you thinking? You owe THOUSANDS of dollars in debt and you want to go into more debt? If your husband has a big month, you should be paying down your debt, not increasing it. If you want to build your credit, ignoring it is not the way to do that. Paying every single penny you can spare towards your debts is how you fix it.	You need to use any "extra" money that comes in to PAY OFF the folks that you've stiffed! Simply FORGET about buying a house! NOBODY will loan you a dime. They legally can't since you're unable to pay it back.
Human: My son hand an outpatient surgery 2 years ago. At that time I was transitioning to a new job and just had my new employr's insurance kick in. I was under my wife's insurance while I was transitioning. So practically we had two insurances covering us. I hadn't had a chance to call and cancel my wife's insurance. Now 8900 $ bill is being denied by both insurers saying that neither of them are the primary insurers. We have called the company and the hospital several times to choose one or the other to be the primary insurer. After a lot of back and forth the bill is with the collection agency. What should be the next course of action. Should I reach out to an attorney or talk to the collection agency and dispute it directly. Thanks.	You can't just "choose" which is primary. I assume you and your wife are still together, so we would use the birthday rule here. Whoever's birthday is earlier in the year will be primary for the child, and the other parent would be secondary (regardless of who's actually older). You need to call both insurances and tell them that due to the birthday rule, they are either primary or secondary as applicable. Once that's updated, the primary needs to reprocess, then you need to send the EOB from the primary over to the secondary, then they'll reprocess and you'll finally see what you owe.	This is a COB issue, you are right, one of the insurances needs to decide it's primary and the other secondary. Normally this is resolved with a phone call or conference call between two insurances and yourself. You may want to contact an attorney. But definitely don't pay it yet, if you can help it. You are not responsible for all of it. Unfortunately don't have much more advice. Good luck!
Human: Hi all, I'm concerned about a relative of mine. He has never held a job, dropped out of community college, and now spends most of his time playing video games on his mom's couch. He has big ideas for a business he'd like to start, but unfortunately has no contacts, a mediocre idea, no experience, and no real understanding of how to start or run a business. He will turn 26 soon, which means he can't be on his mom's health insurance anymore, right? What happens at that point? He has no income of his own, and no intention of actually finding a job (let alone one with benefits). What will insurance look like for him once that point occurs? Edit: California	If his mother does not claim him as a dependent on her taxes and he has no income of his own, he will qualify for Medi-cal. He can sign up for it on the Covered California website. If his mom does claim him as a dependent on her taxes then he can apply on the Covered CA website, but he will have to include his mom (and her income) on his application, which could put him over the income limit to receive state sponsored Medi-Cal, but he may still qualify for tax credits and subsidies that decrease his monthly premium. Source: government worker.	Http://healthcare.gov
Human: I am coming up on my renewal for my home warranty, I've been in my house for three years. It was built in 2001 and I'm the second owner. It is expensive and I've never had to use it (knock on wood). I need some advice from others to have had one and used it. Was it worth it? Did you have any problems getting things fixed? My neighbor has a different company and she ended up paying over $500 out of pocket for a new water heater. Thanks!	Rarely ever are they worth it. About 12% of the costs actually go to servicing repairs, the rest go to upkeep of the warranty company. Additionally, if you end up having a big ticket item repair they'll do everything in their shitty contract and even beyond to deny the repair.	Read the terms and conditions carefully and see what it covers, then evaluate the age and conditions of those items. For example, if your appliances haven't been replaced since the home was built, you're coming up on 15 years for all of them - not unrealistic that your dishwasher especially, and maybe your fridge, will need replacing soon if they haven't been already. Same goes for your water heater, average life span is ~15 years for one of those. HVAC systems tend to last closer to 20 years, depending on your climate and how hard it gets worked. FWIW, when I bought my house just over a year ago, the seller bought me a one-year warranty: which I used a month later when my furnace went out in -20 weather. I mean like open the door and full-on gas smell straight to the face, it was really bad. The warranty paid to replace the furnace except for some $400 "upgrade" charge, which was kinda bullshit but I didn't fight because I didn't really have an option, I was running propane space heaters to keep my pipes from freezing. Now, when it expired a year later, I didn't renew it because I had remodeled the entire house and almost everything was brand new except for the roof (which mine didn't cover) and the water heater, which I could replace for the cost of one year's worth of the warranty. So, it didn't make sense for me to renew it, but for you it might, since it sounds like you're coming up on the end of the average life span for some major systems of your house. Your call though.
Human: Heya guys, hope yall are doin well this morning. Was hoping to get some insight into a situation that im currently in. I had my taxes done through H&R Block like i normally do each year, however i noticed that it was taking alot longer than the past years. I called their office to follow up on my return and they directed me to a website. An irs website where you can see if its been processed and sent out. I logged into the site and it said "Your refund was sent to your bank on March 3, 2016 for direct deposit" i get my return mailed to me each year and opt out of the direct deposit on my end, so it was H&R's place that got it since they take out a service fee. I went into their office immediately after seeing that, to see what was up. We called their main office to see what was going on with it and see if it had been cashed. It has not been cashed but it has been sent. Theyre saying i have to wait 3 months for that check to expire in order to issue another one. Should they be responsible for cutting me a new check here and now and cancelling the other one? Or is there anything else i can do to get my money? Its for this and next months rent so its time sensitive. The only help they offered was to call my landlord and explain the situation... Any advice or help would be gratly appreciated (its turbo tax next year) xD Tldr: taxes done at h&r block was supposed to get it over a month ago. Doesnt seem like they will cancel that check and just write me another one for the same amount. Thank you for reading and have a nice day :)	>It has not been cashed but it has been sent. Theyre saying i have to wait 3 months for that check to expire in order to issue another one. Should they be responsible for cutting me a new check here and now and cancelling the other one? It would be nice if they would, however you probably agreed to these terms when you filed with them. All you can really do is find a manager or supervisor, explain the situation, and ask nicely. I always recommend that people pay for their tax service directly instead of having it deducted from their return. It can create situations like these since it introduces any extra step or two into the process.	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: So I just got my first credit card and I'm looking to buy the next line of MacBook pros. It'll be a ~$2000 purchase and my limit is $2500. I was wondering if I should buy via credit and pay it off at the end of the month or just via cash. I've heard that credit card companies don't really like when someone with lower limits or someone who is a recent user makes a big purchase like this, even if they pay it off right away. Is this true? Or will I be fine as long as the bill is paid by the end of the month? Thank you!	meh, a CC should make your life easier, not harder. Use the card for its fraud protection and convenience, and perhaps its rewards. Pay the card on time,in full every month and the silly micromanagement BS wont matter. Seems like whenever I talk to someone that harps on the ridiculous details of a credit score, they have a 680. The guys with 800 scores give no fucks. pay it off and dont be late, you'll be in the top 1%.	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: I have two kids, ages 6 and 3. I see a lot of threads about parents ruining their kids credit by taking out loans and cards and such under their names. I'm curious what good things can be done as a parent to help their kids in the future. My current thought is to open bank accounts so they get a statement every month and can see interest accrue so they can learn/understand that concept. Beyond that, I assume some co-signing will be needed for first credit cards or car loans or something. I'm not sure what the most intelligent way to go about this is. I know credit score looks at the age of the oldest account so I would think getting a card under their names/SSNs is better to do sooner than later to establish that history. I also feel that's how you end up in these situations where people parents essentially steal the kids IDs and ruin their credit before it even starts so part of me wants to avoid that to avoid that problem. So, I'm seeking advice and hoping to start a conversation here about dos and don'ts for helping out your children financially to plan ahead for their future.	The best thing you can do for their financial future is secure your own so you are a) not a burden on them when you retire and b) may be in a position to provide assistance to them, as needed. This means fully funding tax advantaged retirement accounts and paying down high interest debt.	Work hard and personal responsibility.
Human: Hi r/personalfinance. I have always heard that you should be saving between 10% and 20% of your money, but what counts as savings? Is that only retirement savings? Or can it include saving to buy a car, house, or pay for education? Here's my situation: After tax income is ~$2,200/month I spend about $1,500/month on everything - rent, utilities, food, car, entertainment, etc. That leaves about $700/month that I "save." However, I am only putting $100 of that toward retirement, just to max out matched 401k contributions. I also put an additional $50/month toward my car to pay if off faster, and the remainder is going into a savings account to pay off my tuition for my Master's Degree a year from now so that I won't have any student debt. Is this all considered "savings?" I could take on student debt and make minimum car payments to "save" more, but that doesn't seem smart. Once my degree is paid in full next year, most of that money will shift into paying off the car, retirement, and saving for a down payment on a house. Can I call this "savings" to make myself feel like I am meeting the recommended amount?	I don't think I've ever seen a consensus on what exactly savings are - everyone uses their own criteria. I personally think savings as money not spent on other things (so, discretionary savings). So retirement and paying off the car don't count. Retirement is an expense just like food is in a sense - it does stay in my possession but it's all earmarked. I will need retirement money, it's not some cool toy I can buy like I can with a proper savings account. Having said that, since people do have their own definitions, when you hear "save X%", see what they say savings is. Most will count retirement savings, which is why I do count retirement when I'm determining my savings rate, for example, when there's a new study form the Dept of Labor talking about average savings rates. That way I can compare apples to apples.	For discussion purposes, let's clarify things by defining two types of savings: * Wealth building savings: Retirement savings, debt reduction, real estate equity, assets. Any activity that sets aside money that increases your net worth. * Future spending funds: Saving account for your next car, christmas fund, etc. Both of these are good. You should tune your budget so that you are doing both of these things. If you have $700 bucks a month to devote to these, you are doing a fantastic job, probably better than 85% of other folks. Keep in mind that sometimes you can "undo" your savings with a negative spending decision. For example, if you work diligently to pay off your car, but then buy a new car earlier than otherwise, your savings did you little good.
Human: Realtor asked my 4 roommates and i if we wanted to renew our lease about a month ago. we immediately said yes and turned in our lease applications for the next lease period. 24 hours ago we were informed that we cannot re lease because one of my roommates applications didn't get approved, and someone else had just turned in an application and they had priority over us. we asked why the application wasn't approved but the realtor said that she was not allowed to tell us why. can i do anything to dispute this and keep my lease? Assistant: Well the other people didn't steal your place. They applied and got accepted. There's nothing you can do because you didn't sign a new lease, just applied for it. It's shitty, and the realtors could have at least let you know who and why they didn't get accepted. A good realtor (re: person) would have also let you guys figure it out and given you a second chance to apply given you've been there for 5 years. Unfortunately, nothing in the housing market says you need to be a good person. Human: Someone was marketing this place for lease while the current tenants lived there. That person knew what they were doing and that they didn't want this group leasing again, especially if they are saying the new applicant has priority over someone already living there. Assistant: Not only this but who makes tenants re apply after 5 years ? It may be different in Australia but the agent asks if you want to extend then sends you documents to sign and most times with no rent increase. Applying to extend your lease is ludicrous and I see absolutely no point to it. Human: 3 out of 5 people of the current lease are staying the other two are moving out for jobs and school. 2 more are moving in so they asked us to reapply	So you aren't renewing the lease, you are re-applying with 2 new names and 2 omitted names. Case is closed; you should try to find a new place quickly!	Oh OK that makes
Human: Hello all, I apologize if this appears more school oriented, but I assure you it deals heavily with my financials. I'm a freshman attending a nearby state college and unfortunately, my first semester I neglected doing my work and subsequently stopped going. Now, I've found myself in a tight spot, because my 3 classes were all fully paid by financial aid. To keep things short, I now have no idea whether or not I'll be able to re-apply for aid or I'll have to pay it back. Should I have to pay it back, this will put me roughly 800 in debt (not factoring any additional charges), and at 18 I don't simply have that kind of money laying around. I certainly don't have the means to fully fund a bachelor's degree either, if they decide I can no longer recieve aid. What should I do? I've considered joining the air force to help fund my schooling and perhaps gain some experience, but this is a last resort. I fully understand this is my doing and I'm willing to pay the consequences, I just want to get this situation in order now before I find myself swimming in debt. Thanks for the consideration PF.	I did bad one quarter and got a warning. I did bad the second quarter and they dropped my financial aid. I had to pay out of pocket for 1 quarter and show good grades to get my grants back.	You can take classes at a state school and a community college, just make sure your credits are transferable. Boost your GPA taking some lower majors and the easier electives and pay less at the c.c for the time being
Human: I recently made a switch to use my credit card primarily for all purchases, and pay it off each month. Before, I was using my debit for all purchases. This has greatly improved my credit score and credit line. I've noticed since then, I've been getting lots of random* calls from telemarketers and computer calls about raising my score/limit. However, these calls are neither from my bank nor my credit card company. Is this normal? Is my credit card company selling my data* off to these telemarketers? *spelling	The more money you have, the more people want to take it	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 Reports](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_reports) - [FICO / Credit Scores](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Improving Credit Scores and Building Credit](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building) I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.
Human: Hoping to get some insight if anyone has any to offer. It goes without saying that responders are not liable and I do not consider this legal counsel. I will get a tax specialist if I decide to go down this road. Just hoping to catch some insight from anyone with this experience. Basically, radiologist, US citizen. Looking at making 400-500k+ CAD in the Vancouver area, moving as my wife is a Canadian from the area. I know there are some treaties between the US and Canada to limit double taxation. However there seem to be multiple caveats. One of these is the exemption from US taxes on Canadian income up to 92k. What about amounts over that? Basically.... Anyone have any experience or insight to offer on this topic? Thanks in advance.	You seem to be referencing the Foreign Earned Income Deduction. The current limit is a little over $100,000. At your level of income, you should look into the Foreign Tax Credit which should lessen the double taxation. Since you're a US citizen, you'll still be subject to the US foreign financial reporting requirements, namely the FBAR. The FBAR reports the existence of foreign financial accounts under your control. There's also Form 8938 which is similar to the FBAR, but with very different limits. Generally, people that move abroad won't hit these limits. However, at your income level, it's definitely possible that you'll make enough. Next there's Form 8621 which reports your ownership of passive foreign investment companies. The most common PFIC that you may own shares in are mutual funds or mutual trusts. Do yourself a favor and avoid investing in foreign mutual funds. Lastly, Canada has different retirement plans than the US. Many of them work roughly the same as US plans. But, some plans that are tax advantaged in Canada are not tax advantaged in the US and their income is taxed in the US. Make sure you save in plans that are tax advantaged in both countries. I think RRSPs and RRIFs are specifically mentioned to have favorable treatment in the tax treaty.	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: Hi all, I'm anticipating a tax refund of roughly $2000 soon and I'd like to pay off debt rather than blowing it like I have in years past. I am trying to move out soon (22, recently graduated) and as of now I have roughly $4,100 left on my car loan and owe roughly $1,400 between two credit cards. I understand that the credit cards have a much higher interest rate than the car loan, although the car payment is significantly higher than the monthly credit card payments. Any insight or suggestions are greatly appreciated!	Pay off the credit cards in full. You target the highest interest items first.	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: For the first time in my life I will be solely responsible for all bills and expenses, and I want to get off to a good start. What are some common mistakes or pitfalls I can avoid, or what are your top tips? Thanks in advance!	1. Be realistic. Lots of people set up absurd budgets with numbers like $100 for food, and $75 for fun. Then, they get frutrated because the budget process is not working. 2. Revise the budget as real numbers come in After a few months, you'll have a good picture of what your actual expenses are. Revise the budget accordingly. 3. Pay yourself first. If you want to save 10%, transfer that money as soon as you get paid to a savings account (or have your online banking do an auto-transfer). Then you aren't tempted to spend it.	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: - [Budgeting wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/budgeting) - [Spreadsheets section of the Tools wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/tools#wiki_redditor_created.3A) I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.
Human: I could really use some advice. My girlfriend's father is looking to transfer his business to my girlfriends name. In a nutshell, i warned her that there are definitely implications when doing something like this, most important being the effect it'll have on her personal income. I need to understand what the risks would be so I'm going to consult a small business attorney next week to talk it over, but i was hoping i could maybe get some advice/guidance on here first. A little background: - She's about 2 years out of college, making about 65k from her Salary - She has nothing hindering her record or outstanding debt EXCEPT a few student loans - Her dad says it's temporary and he'll put it under his name in a few months. Maybe I'm wrong, and that there's nothing wrong with doing this. But I could really use some help. I love this girl more than anything and we're about to move in together. I just want to make sure this is kosher and doesn't put her at risk. Edit: I understand and appreciate everyone letting me know there's likely something wrong with it. But putting that aside, what would the inherent risks be of having it under her name from a business standpoint. Particularly in regards to liability of business performance.	Probably. Why does her dad need to do it? I can't think of any legitimate reasons...	/r/legaladvice
Human: Not much else to say. I'm a man who loves both fiscal responsibility and personal comfort.	Single ply is a crime against humanity. Haven't the homeless suffered enough?!	If you have to ask. No.
Human: Im short on rent and behind on bills. I know payday advaces are evil but my local store offered a $2500 loan for 141% APR for 24 months. I have no where else to go and cant afford to lose my home. EDIT: More info $2500 Loan. Monthly payments $323 $400 - Rent &nbsp; $780 - Bank loan Payments are $178 atm &nbsp; $200 - credit card Payments are $50 atm &nbsp; Remainder: unsure Assistant: Yes. You will pay $316.69/month for that entire time, for a total of $7576.67. This will not improve your situation, it will make it drastically worse. I would (seriously) suggest making arrangements now to move into your car for a few months, because you'll find yourself doing so within a few anyway. At least you can do so while you still have a shred of good credit left. Human: this is out of the question, i have a pregnant wife and child ... Assistant: Can you ask family for help? Apply for emergency assistance from the gov't? Ask a church to help? Hell, using a credit card would be better than this loan. At least the APR would be less than 141%!! Human: family is around. Im just above the gov requirement for assistance and im maxed out on credit. Assistant: Jeeze dude, your credit's maxed and you're living less than paycheck to paycheck and are behind on bills. You might want to seriously consider if you guys can move in with any family for a while. How pregnant is your wife? Can she work a bit? Are you getting WIC? Your wife should be eligible for that at least. Can you get a second job as well? At this point it sounds like that's needed. Human: family isnt around for either of us. and we are receiving wic my wife is 6 months pregnant and she watches our son. yeah second job would be beneficial but my wife is really tired at the end of the day and relies on me to watch our toddler when i get home	I'm sorry to say this, and I'm not being a dick, but you don't have a choice. You guys don't have the income for her to have the luxury of her relying on you to watch the toddler when you get home. You will soon be homeless if you don't find a way to increase your income or reduce your expenses You have a 2nd kid on the way, and your credit is maxed out, and you're only working one job? You need to get a 2nd job. Now.	You, your pregnant wife, and your son going to be homless because she can't stay up for longer? I worked with a youth shelter for a while. CPS would take away homeless children from their parents because they were determined to be unfit. Is that what you guys want? Both of you need to suck it up. I'm sorry, but that's the truth.
Human: I opened a Best Buy credit card to buy a graphics card for my computer when mine suddenly died. I paid it off quickly (in about 3 months), and haven't used it since. Which would be better for my credit score: continue to make small purchases and pay them off right away, or just leave the card inactive until they eventually close it for me due to inactivity? FWIW, my credit score is 750. I have 4 total lines of credit: student loans (~$3500 will be paid off by end of summer), Bank of America CC which I pay off monthly, a furniture store credit line (24 months no interest!), and the Best Buy Card.	I've got a Best Buy card that I've had for years, and make a point to use it a couple of times each year. You've definitely not got enough cards for this one extra one to be a problem. Meanwhile you've got a 0% interest payment option to replace any major appliances that happen to die on you (why spend your own money in an emergency, when you can spend someone else's for free?). I'd keep it.	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: TLDR: my fiance and i need to get our shit together. I'm hoping you all will be able to help us figure out what we need to do, because we don't even know where to begin. I'm just going to put it all out there and hopefully someone can help us figure it out. We currently live with my fiancé's family. Meaning his grandparents, mother, 2 younger brothers, and us. Its fucking jam packed and it sucks, but our rent is only $200 a month. We want to move as soon as possible, and need help figuring out the smartest way (financially) to do this. We have a car payment of approx. $635 (insurance included) and have to buy another car immediately; i totalled mine in March and we work different schedules so 2 cars is a must. My car payment will be similar to what it was on my last car, approx. $561 (insurance included). Im thinking that could possibly go down; my last car was bought through a predatory dealership/lender so I'm hoping going to a legitimate dealership will get me lower rates/payments.(I posted about this previously in here of you need more info on that situation..) The loan was paid off through my insurance and gap insurance. Advice on this process would be great... i clearly didn't know what i was doing the first time. Altogether, our monthly expenses total $2160 (including the rent and car payment). We have credit card debt of approx. $2900 as well as a consolidation loan of approx. $10900. We make the minimum monthly payment on all three. Our monthly combined income is approx. $3200, leaving us with $1040 after expenses. Because we are horrible, none of this goes to savings and is wasted on random bullshit. My fiancé is a chef and was offered a job recently that is basically his dream job, and would increase our montly income to $4,600. He hasn't decided if he's going to take the job yet, but if he decides to, we would like advice on how to responsibly manage the increase in income while also accomplishing the goals we have. Edit: We are aware that our vehicle expenses are approx. 40% of our income. However, it is a necessary evil at this point. His family is unwilling to take me back and forth to work and his schedule doesnt allow for us to carpool. Should he decide to take the other job, his schedule would possibly then allow for us to only have one vehicle.	You're going to be swimming in car payments...	Buy a much cheaper car and stop wasting money. You could move out in 2 months if you did this and your credit is reasonable.
Human: Using the Credit Card Simulator, It says I would jump from 660 to 760 if I pay 50% of my credit card debt. Currently its about 12k out of 20k (due to being unemployed for a while) so I would have to eliminate 6k. I got a great job now and have over 15k in savings.	If you have 15k in savings, you shouldn't have that much credit card debt. Your just wasting money to interest.	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 Reports](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_reports) - [FICO / Credit Scores](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Improving Credit Scores and Building Credit](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building) I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.
Human: I recently found a job as an assistant through my university's career and employment services webpage. The job is only for a few weeks and pays a great deal of money each week. While my boss is overseas, he'll be sending me checks in order to do some shopping for him and to pay for things that he might need for his business. I think that is a great opportunity for me to show my stuff, and possibly get a future career out of this. But this also seems a little too good to be true. Does this seem like a legit position, or am I setting myself up to be some sort of drug mule or money launderer? Thanks in advance! Assistant: Total scam been around for years Human: Do you know what might happen if I go through with the job? Assistant: Depends on which version they're following but generally you buy stuff ship it and never get reimbursed Other times the check is deposited but takes longer to clear and by the.time the bank takes the money back and adds fees you've already shipped Human: the employer said that he'd be paying for everything himself, I'll have to keep an eye out in case he tries anything suspicious like that. What other version were you talking about?	The "employer" is LYING, get it through your thick head, it's a scam. It's a very common scam. Cut off all contact at once. If you get anything in the mail, shred it. This is no joke! Google for a million articles: assistant scam	Checks can take weeks to clear, but your bank will give you access to the money and let you spend it before that time is up. There is no way to protect yourself other than not taking this "job".
Human: Hey! So at the moment I'm staying with my aunt and her girlfriend. I've been with my aunt since I was 15, but because we moved into a smaller house about 2 years ago, I've been sleeping on the couch since then. Therefore, I feel like it's time for me to leave. I don't go to college, the local community college I was going to stopped giving me financial aid because I cannot get a hold of my guardianship papers from my grandmother, and I am afraid to take out any loans so for now I've made the decision to just work and learn. I make about 1000 a month. The CHEAPEST one bedroom apartment around me is 900$ WITHOUT utilities. I have been trying to look for places with my best friend, and we've found some that we can afford, but she doesn't have good credit and I just don't have any credit. However, before I even think of moving I need to get a car. My aunt wants me to start throwing her 200 dollars a month to help with groceries or whatever so I have less than 800 dollars to work with on saving every month because I need to give people gas to get me to work, need to pay my aunt for my phone, and I've been losing a lot of weight lately since I've gotten a more physical job and I can tell that soon I'm going to need to buy new clothes. So, how much should I save up, and after I have saved a decent amount should I buy a used car straight out or should I put down a down payment and finance a car? That question always seems to be half and half in responses I get from people. If I get a used car, it could be fine and I will own the car and not have to make payments BUT with all of my friends who have bought used cars eventually something in their car goes to shit, they can't afford to fix it, and they end up financing another one anyway. If I finance I will have a newer car that probably won't have too many things wrong with it but that will just be another bill when I move out. Please help. I feel like the people around me are already not very financially responsible and I'm scared of debt and ending up unhappy because of bills ruining my life or something. Assistant: You have to increase your income. How are you earning only $1000 per month? That is less than minimum wage at a full time job. You should find out what it takes to increase your income. Your best bet is to develop marketable skills via college or trade school. You should not finance a car. You will get taken advantage of, and end up with a very high interest rate. You should save up a few thousand dollars and pay cash for a car. When you have established credit and have a much larger income, you will be able to finance a car. But that's not a realistic option for you now. Human: I make 9$/hr and get paid bi-weekly working about 70 hours every two weeks, sometimes 80 hours every two weeks. I get about 100 taken out in taxes so my check is usually 520~. After my probation period is up, I'll be making 10/hr but that won't be till August. I'm becoming uncomfortable in my home. I haven't had even my own bed since I was 12. I'm scared that if I don't act soon I'm going to end up in a rut. Assistant: Then take my advice and develop marketable job skills. You'll never get out of this unless you make more money. Human: Okay, thank you	Get into Payroll or any Accounting-entry type of job. Trust me, all you need is a High school diploma. it is easy to learn and will benefit you in the future	Since you are OK with physical work, heavy construction jobs are the way you want to go. You are guaranteed a job by virtue of your gender because it's still lopsided in the neighborhood of 95 guys for every 5 chicks. HR people are pushing very hard to change this right now. Craft workers make anywhere from $100k to $250k at the journeyman level, or even more if you are willing to accept unpleasant working environments (north slope of Alaska, Iraq, Africa). You can be a carpenter, rodbuster, pipefitter, iron worker, whatever. Google the crafts and pick one. Learn a modicum of vocabulary and tell your rep you have (your age minus 18) years of experience. It won't matter, because no one will expect you to do anything at work anyway. But if you want and are willing to work, you can go from entry level (~$20/hour) to journeyman (~$40+/hour and per diem) very quick.
Human: I disputed a car that I cosigned for that was purchased from a buy here pay here place in Indiana. I received a hand written letter from them that said "If you want to get this off your credit bureau you should try paying your bill! If you dispute this again I'm going to send your file over to the prosecutors office b/c this is fraud what you are trying to do. Have great day!" Could they really get me for credit fraud if I disputed this again or is it a scare tactic? Assistant: My basis for disputing it was I cosigned for a girl we broke up and she stopped paying it and it was repossed	That isn't a valid reason to dispute something. The whole point of co-signing is that you are required to pay if the other party doesn't. Sorry, you are on the hook for this one and can't use a dispute/chargeback.	You are liable and must pay.
Human: The car is listed for sale at 2200 and this potential buyer wants to make payments on the vehicle. 200 up front and 500 every other week for 2 weeks until the remaining 2 grand is paid off. Also said he is willing to let me hold the pink slip of his other car, give me his social security info, and other personal information. Ideally I'd want more up front but how could I go about this to keep myself protected from a scam? Or is that just exactly what this is? A friend mentioned to me that if the buyer were to crash the car or hurt someone while making payments (the title would not be transferred until full payment) that I would be liable for whatever may happen. Is that true? Edit: thanks for all the resounding NOs guys. Definitely shady, I've just been impatient trying to sell this car..will let him know that he can pick up the car after all payments are made, or if he comes up with the amount in full.	Absolutely not.	His collateral can all be forged. I'd say find a new buyer or tell him you want something actually worth money as collateral. Just my thought but it's most likely just be best to find a new buyer
Human: I'm having a pity party. 20 or so years ago I took out student loans to attend a for profit "university". Saw a girl get murdered, dropped out, etc, etc, etc... Fast forward to today.Principal balance is $27,000. I'm 40 and making only $13.50 an hour. My expenses are low... really low. I pay roughly $350/month rent. About $250/month utilities (cell, internet and electricity) at it's highest. Pretty cheap insurance, full coverage at $65/month or so and about $30/week for gas. I do, however, have a life. I like to camp/hike so my summers are pretty full with weekend outings, here is my plight. I understand I borrowed the money. I understand I defaulted for nearly 20 years. I rehabilitated my loan and applied for an IBR plan... awesome... my payments are $0. All cool 'n what... but if we take my life now to be the norm, in 25 years when I qualify for loan forgiveness that $27,000 debt will balloon to something like $80,000 to $100,000. Then I have to pay taxes on that crazy sum... how the hell does that help me? The only thing I can figure to do is start now, put $150 a month or so away in a super secret bank account that I can't acknowledge exists in order to pay a tax bill in 25 years or so when they settle my debt as earned income. I know I screwed up. I could have taken care of it when it was only a $12,000 debt. We are beyond that now. I'm 40. I cant keep going like this, I don't have a degree, I earn barely a living wage at $13.50/hr, can't afford health insurance (it's like $100 a week at my present job), and see this now current student loan as being focus of my existence until I retire a broken old fogger living in a campershell that's mounted on an old Toyota pickup truck in walmart parking lot. All because I spent a couple years in a predatory college I had no business being in in the first place. I'm in a dark place. Could use some advice. Edit - student loan is at 6% interest, accruing roughly $160/month in interest, amortized into the principal yearly.	Make more money, literally the only answer. How you make that money is down to you. Second job? Reskill? Either way, it's probably going to take some of those weekends. It comes across that you've coasted through life with your head in the sand waiting for the weekends. You need to grow up.	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: - [Student Loans wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/studentloans) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/debt#wiki_what.27s_the_best_way_to_pay_down_my_debt.3F) I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.
Human: I have my mortgage set to autopay on my monthly due date. Is there any interest saving advantage in changing that to pay on the statement date? If this does save money can anyone quantify it for me? My mortgage is $126k @ 3.79%.	If you have a conventional mortgage then no. Interest is collected on a monthly basis. A simple interest loan collects interest daily, those are usually personal loans. On those, you need to pay exactly every 30 days to maximize interest benefits.	Interest is charged daily. Any amount of time early you can pay ever will reduce the amount of principal interest is charged on and it will result in lower total interest expense. Maybe it doesn't add up to a lot over the course of the loan or maybe it does. It depends on how early and such that you are paying. Double paying on the first payment of a 30 year mortgage probably knocks off one whole year worth of mortgage by itself, but that's a lot of extra and 30 years early.
Human: Background; My wife and I between the two of us grossed approx $110,000 per year. Additional we both had second jobs to bring in an extra $1-2K per month to help pay down debt. We were paying bills each month with a couple hundred left over. Enough for some entertainment for our two children. Her employer cut hours in November which lead to about 25% reduction of her income. My wife and I have retained a lawyer to proceed with chapter 13 bankruptcy as we can no longer keep up with minimum payments. We have roughly $50k of debt between credit cards, student loans and medical bills. Additionally we have two car payments and a mortgage. We have not yet filed but have stopped paying our creditors. Still on time and have no missed payments with home and cars. &nbsp; Now the inheritance: My grandfather passed away March 24. I was just informed last night that my grandfather had set up a Roth IRA for brother and myself with a payout of $20k. All the taxes have been taken care of on the IRA. Since he has passed away I am now able to received it. I am aware that most if not all of this money will consumed in the bankruptcy should I choose to formally file. &nbsp; Where I'm looking for help is how to proceed. Is there any way to hide this money? My grandmother is still a beneficiary on the account. Would there be any control that she has to say not allow me to have it. Then she could withdraw that money and transfer it to me in the form of cash? &nbsp; I've read that there's a possibility of moving it to a trust. Then it cannot be touched. &nbsp; What if I have no choice but to loose it in the bankruptcy. Should I sit down and see if I can save our selves and pay back our debts with this $20k and avoid bankruptcy? &nbsp; Ideally for my situation I'd like to hide the inheritance money. File for bankruptcy. Use $5k to help get some other things under control. Set aside the other $15K to invest when it's safe to do so. &nbsp; edit; YES there was an abuse of spending for the past two years. I did not know the extent of it. I chose to not know where the money was going. THATS my FAULT! I get that. I don't understand much about finances so I trusted my wife to handle it all. If she said we were good or could afford it, I trusted her. again my mistake. YES, I wish I could have help better before this spiraled out of control. EDIT: financial details	>Ideally for my situation I'd like to hide the inheritance money. File for bankruptcy. Use $5k to help get some other things under control. Set aside the other $15K to invest when it's safe to do so. Sounds immoral to me. You rack up all this debt, don't want to pay it, then you hear your going to set a small inheritance and want to try to hide it? Good luck!	You and others viewing this thread may find these links helpful: - [Windfalls wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/windfall) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) I also added topic flair to your post, but you may update the topic if needed ([click here for help](/r/personalfinance/wiki/flair)). 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: Commission-motivated investment "advice" will be a thing of the past for custodians of IRAs and 401ks, according to [new rules](http://www.post-gazette.com/business/money/2016/04/04/Financial-advising-firms-watching-new-fiduciary-rule/stories/201604030116) issued by the Department of Labor [today](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/your-money/new-rules-for-retirement-accounts-financial-advisers.html), disrupting a multi-billion dollar revenue stream and protecting unsophisticated consumers. Since tax-sheltered retirement accounts are the biggest part of most workers' nest-eggs, this is absolutely huge.	Note of caution regarding this rule. A lot of brokerage firms will simply elect to have no contact with plan participants, therefore avoiding the fiduciary obligation in the rule. I know a lot of people are going to be happy with this rule and rightfully so, but firms are going to say, "screw it" and just not pay the money to disclose conflicts and provide fiduciary services. They will simply drop out of the game and let plan participants deal with it by themselves. As financial compliance professional, this rule is wonderful for me. But it's created a lot of anxiety in the brokerage world and there are many discussions already on how to bend or interpret the rules.	celebrate good times COME ON
Human: A co-worker gave me a finder's fee for introducing him to a customer, who proceeded to buy a large ticket item from him. The problem is the co-worker wrote me a check, payable to cash, drawn on Wachovia bank. My co-worker is about 750 years old, so this method (and the fact that the bank no longer technically exists) doesn't surprise me. What I'm wondering is, since it's made out to cash, will I have trouble cashing it at Wells Fargo? Or should I run the risk of depositing it into my own account?	I still write checks with old Wachovia checks. I have half a box of them and they have an address I haven't lived at in 4 years. I've never had an issue. The routing number and account number haven't changed.	Put it in an ATM envelope and deposit it into the ATM. This avoids the "teller giving you a hard time" problem.
Human: Hi PF, Long time reader, first time poster. Also, I am using a throwaway because some friends/family know my real username. I'll try and keep this as short as possible. I graduated from university last year with a degree in digital media and since then I have been gainfully employed in my desired field. After working at my first job for nearly a year I left in pursuit of something. I ended up finding a job fairly quickly at a film production company which I am now working at. I have been at the new job for 3 weeks now and I already know I made the wrong choice. I feel like I was mislead during the hiring process. The job has been nothing at all like the job they described to me. On top of this, the hours are very demanding, the pay is low, and the office culture makes you feel like you are never doing enough. The standard office day is 9-7, there is often overtime required beyond 7pm, and I make roughly 30,000 USD per year before taxes. The job is essentially large volume data transferring between the New York location of the company and the Toronto office. I feel like I have been lied to in order to convince me to take a relatively soul-crushing data transfer job. I feel like a cog in a wheel and I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. The questions I am trying to ask are, what would you do in my position? How soon into starting a job is it OK to leave? For context: I am 23 I still live at home (so no major monthly expenses) I have about 20k in savings I have no plans to move out before I can find a job that makes me truly happy I believe that I am employable and that should I leave this job, I will eventually be able to find a new one. Thanks for the help!	> When is it OK to call it quits at a new job? When you accept another job and the offer letter is signed and received.	You can look whenever. Start now. Don't bash the current job to potential future ones (it might get back to existing employer, existing employer might be involved there in the future, it'll make them wonder if you'll just bash them to others in the future). General good rule is not to leave one job until you have another lined up. Against the posters so far, I wouldn't say never, or nobody would advise doing it - I did twice, and everything turned out fine but it's risky.
Human: I was raised in a risk averse Asian household where we saved every penny possible, built up significant emergency funds, invested wisely, weren't afraid of positive debt like student loans and housing loans, as they meant an increased capacity to make more money. my parents retired with enough savings and passive income to have a comfortable retirement. My SO's family however does not save. They put every penny they earn into property and then borrow on it for retirement. his parents continue to work well past retirement age. he doesn't care for broadening his skill set or to make more income. we are both talking about getting engaged, and recently started talking about financial aims and career plans. both of us want passive income in terms of a house we can rent out. but I'm for working hard till I'm 35 to save, so that my later decisions can be based on what i like to do, instead of financial need. he is more for living in the moment as he is more financially successful than people from back home. I don't know how to have these conversations in a language we both understand, and in a manner where I'm not condescending to him. How do we talk about money when we have been raised in very different families? Assistant: Money can cause some of the biggest problems in a marriage, and is one of the leading causes of divorce. If you're truly ready to marry this person, then you can certainly have difficult conversations with him. Just sit down, lay out your thoughts/feeling on the subject, and try to find some sort of middle ground. Worst case scenario, you keep separate finances. You get 1 joint checking account that you each contribute 50% of the amount of your monthly bills to, and use this account only to pay for shared expenses (rent, utilities, groceries, etc.). You each keep whatever else money you have in separate accounts, and do whatever you wish with it. Human: I never like this suggestion. The issue is the accounts are not really separate. She will probably save a ton of money for retirement, whereas he will blow everything he has. If they don't get divorced, eventually they will both end up living off HER retirement fund. He had all the fun, she was responsible but has to support him anyway. I think it is better to map out a plan early on that everyone can agree on. I know a few people who do the separate finances thing. They have very shitty marriages. Assistant: i think of his hers ours accounts as being the things that prevent couples from having petty fights about money. they are not a licence to do as you please with money. let's say i want to pay for my brother's education or lend to my cousin. I'd rather that come clearly from me than from our combined finances. big goals like retirement and housing need to be joint decisions.	You're confusing communication, expectations, and healthy boundaries with separate accounts. Read this subreddit for a while or speak honestly with people and you'll see a really sad theme of people who are astonished that their spouse racked up huge credit card bills, robbed their retirement to pay off boats or fund an in law's retirement, and generally derailed their financial position. The common theme is that the affected spouse maintains that (1) the other spouse was "in charge of the money" or (2) they had totally separate accounts. I'd rather have healthy discussions with my partner than a divorce. There is a reason why we're able to retire in our early 40s and it isn't because we had separate accounts...	Well yeah. His hers ours accounts are budgetting, not financial planning.
Human: I know that 850 is the highest theoretical credit score possible, but I was told no one ever reaches 850. So I am curious on what is the highest possible credit score one can ever hope to achieve.	In my experience doing mortgages for a few years now, it is not uncommon to see lower 800s occasionally. I think the highest I have seen was maybe 817 or so.	850/850 FICO is definitely achievable. Also, some FICO models go up to 900 or 950.
Human: I am wanting to know what would be the consequences (positive or negative) of marrying my SO (in the coming year) that has NO credit history. A little background, I have worked hard on my credit over the past three years and now have low 700's with all three bureaus while my SO has no real credit history. We just had a baby girl and I just purchased my first home. Which both happened just last week! I currently make 60k a year and my SO is currently a stay-at-home mother. I have a student loan payment, vehicle payment and now a mortgage. My SO has NO debts and has a Vehicle that has been payed off but is under her grandparents name.	You do want to get some credit in her name , you don't want her to have an issue if something happens to you. Joint credit cards would be perfect , she doesn't need a lot of credit just enough for future lenders to know she has existed (and just made up the identity)	It's actually less keystrokes to type "I want to"
Human: What should I do aside from making an amendment? Won't that trigger an audit? I've read way too many scary things on the internet today.. the 1099's together equal arox $4100 and the numerical mistake actually worked in my favor. However I still didn't get a return. I paid in about $700 to both federal and state. I've never had to amend taxes.. can someone please help explain the process and penalties?!	IRS here. Better cough it up or we'll garnish your karma.	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: For anyone reading out there, who drives a Honda and financed it directly through the Honda dealership, you may have noticed that Honda Financial Services dun goofed today. Big time. I made my monthly car payment yesterday, and it went through successfully. However, when I checked my bank statement this morning, I noticed a second charge appear for the same amount. They double-charged the payment. I was very annoyed, so I called their 1-800 customer service line, and it was down (go figure). Got a recorded message saying "all circuits are busy". I did some searching, and found that many other people were reporting the same problem. Explains why the "circuits are busy".... If you had this situation happen, it's not you, it's them. They messed it up. No word yet on how long they're gonna take to resolve this. You can try calling your bank to see if they'll stop/reverse the 2nd payment. That worked for me. Hopefully they would take care of any overdraft fees, if that happened to you. And that leads me into the last thing I wanted to say. I'm very grateful for an emergency fund - this situation is a minor inconvenience to me, and I'm in no hurry to get it resolved. Didn't have to urgently re-dial the 1-800 number over and over, and didn't have to panic about getting it resolved immediately. Sadly there are some people out there who are saying that this overdrafted their account, and they won't be able to buy groceries/gas/etc. Some of these stories may be exaggerated, but some of them are probably real. Yes, Honda will work everything out with the bank and reverse it eventually, but if that takes "3-5 business days" or some crap like that, the grocery store won't accept that as a form of currency. That would all be a non-issue with an emergency fund. tl;dr - For anyone who has their vehicle financed through Honda Financial Services, they apparently made a big mistake on their end and double-charged payments for tons of people. Then their customer service line went down, just to add insult to injury. So if this happened to you, call your bank, and see if they can help you. In the future, if you don't already, try to set aside some money in an emergency fund - it helps for exactly this situation, and prevents a real "emergency". I know it's said here quite a bit, but seriously, it's very helpful.	Welp, that explains why I have 2 charges on my checking account. Thanks for the info. As you said a buffer keeps this from being an issue.	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: - [Emergency Funds wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/emergencyfunds) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.
Human: I need to buy a new car and I am wondering how to go about locking in the lowest interest rate possible. My credit score is pretty bad (565) because of a lack of history and maxed out credit card, so I will need a cosigner. I am looking into financing a new Jeep. What interest rate could I expect on a 72 month loan with a 565 credit score and a cosigner with a 700 credit score?	You want to finance a new jeep and you already have a maxed out credit card? Your interest rate will still be quite a bit higher than normal, the cosigner simply allows you to get the vehicle, not technically give you a magical interest rate. Sorry to sound harsh in my post, but you really need to get your credit and financial situation under control, and a brand new jeep is not the way to do it.	What is your income and budget? If you are worried about the interest rate, need a co-signer, and need a 72 month loan you probably can't afford a new Jeep.
Human: I plan on only using the card for basic expenses I know I can pay off (gas, phone etc.). I'm wondering which cards have good rewards programs and low/no fees.	Probably Chase Freedom if you have any kind of credit, otherwise they probably won't approve you. If you have 0 credit history, probably a local credit union will have something for students. The university itself might, if it's a state school.	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: So, I’m not sure if this is exactly the right place to post this, but the issue does involve money. If there is a better subreddit, please let me know. &nbsp; I am a full time college student in the US and I am still partially covered by my parents medical insurance. Recently, I had been having a persistent headache that had been bothering me for about a week, so I decided to go in to campus health to see if they could help me out at all. I thought, beforehand, that maybe it was stress or vision related, and was hoping to get some answers. &nbsp; The intake process went smoothly, I answered a few questions by the nurses and they told me a doctor would be in shortly. When he arrived, he asked me basically the same questions: how long has the headache been around; what is its intensity; any other symptoms like nausea or vision problems. As soon as I told him I was having some vision blurriness and occasional nausea, he stopped questioning me and refused to examine me further, saying I could have a bleed in my brain and that I needed to immediately go to the ER for a CT scan. Of course, this scared the crap out of me! What was I going to do, say, “No doctor, you’re wrong, please continue to examine me”? &nbsp; The school medical center sent me over to our nearby university medical center ER via golf cart for further treatment. In the ER, they gave me an eye examination, took some urine (of course), did some reflex tests, and decided that I had a migraine. They gave me some migraine medication and sent me on my way. Of course, this landed me with a disproportionately large bill for services that really SHOULD have been rendered by the campus health doctor. Now, I owe the hospital over $1000 when I never would have gone there in the first place if the campus doctor had not scared the living daylights out of me! None of this is sitting right with me. I don’t understand why the campus doctor could not do what the ER ended up doing. &nbsp; To make matters worse, my insurance covered only about $150 of the entire thing, and after calling the hospital to ask about discounts or breaks for low income patients, I was told that the best they could do was a payment plan. I can handle the payment plan and I don’t blame the hospital for charging me (although why was it so much for so little work?), but I am just so bitter that I had to go there in the first place! I feel like the campus doctor acted irresponsibly and caused me both a lot of anxiety and put me into debt. I feel like I should complain or have some kind of recourse, but I really just don’t know what to do. Can I complain to someone? Is this debt really all on me? I never would have gone to the ER had the first doctor not acted the way he did. Any advice would be helpful. Thank you so much for reading.	> partially covered this means what, exactly? you're covered, or you aren't. a thousand bucks for an ER visit is cheap. if they'd done, say, an MRI, you'd be looking at five or six thousand. the doc at the clinic sent you to the ER for a very good reason: the clinic guy is not trained to diagnose cranial hemorrhage or stroke; the guys at the ER are trained to do that. the clinic guy was right that nausea and blurred vision can be significant neurological symptoms, and he managed your case in absolutely the correct way: you were sent to someone with the knowledge, training, and experience to manage your symptoms. since your symptoms suggested conditions that could be immediately life-threatening, you were sent to the ER for evaluation. what if the shoe had been on the other foot, and the clinic guy sent you home with migraine meds, but you were really stroking out? that puts his license at risk. no, he made the right call. you can appeal the decision to your insurance company if you wish. i would also check with them for future reference about which hospitals in your area are covered and which are not, because if you need emergency care again (think a broken arm or an automobile accident), you will want to know.	First, a $1,000 ER bill is a BARGAIN!!!! The health center doctor did the right thing by sending you to the ER after hearing your symptoms. What if you did have a brain bleed and he gave you some aspirin and send you on your way? Doctors, especially a likely not very experienced doctor - working in a student health center filled with special snowflakes doesn't want to take any chances. Pay your cheap ER bill and get some better insurance!
Human: Hi personalfinance, I recently lost my job. I have: * $20K in cash * $44K in taxable investment accounts * $141K in a traditional IRA at Betterment sourced entirely from 401k rollovers * $12K in a Roth 401k plus $12K in a conventional 401k in the same place, all in a TA Vanguard Target date fund. Surprisingly the Type 29 expense ratio is only 0.1% and the the administrative fee $9/quarter. (wow!?) With COBRA and my mortgage, my burn rate is ~$5.5K/mo. I may be able to get that down when my fiancée gets a job (she just came back from extensive travel). I'd really like to take a couple of months off and travel before getting back in the work force. At the moment, my occupation is in high demand. I was thinking of rolling my 401k over to Betterment (although the 401k fees are basically the same). However, I'm curious as to how this might affect me in the future in the unlikely event that I need to draw on these funds to pay for my mortgage, etc. How does a 401K differ from a traditional or Roth IRA in this respect? What are the tax consequences if I roll both the traditional and Roth 401K into my Roth IRA?	Traditional 401k is pre tax so you can only roll it into a traditional IRA tax free. Traditional 401k to Roth IRA will incur a tax at conversion since Roth is after tax. Roth 401k to Roth IRA is tax free since Roth 401k is after tax contributions and Roth IRA is after tax. Also, why use Betterment? Why not put the money directly into Vanguard (which Betterment does but charges a small fee on top of)?	You have control over when and why you take distributions from an IRA. Whereas with a 401k, your plan administrator has to follow IRS rules as to when and how you can take distributions; you may have to meet hardship rules, for example.
Human: Hey everybody, new to posting here. Anyways, I have a large amount of money in my savings account and I hate to see it essentially losing money due to inflation every year while I watch my retirement accounts grow by leaps and bounds. Are there any disadvantages to putting these emergency savings into my individual brokerage account and invest in my usual mutual funds? Besides the obvious issue of markets being volatile, is there anything I'm missing here? Seems almost like a no-brainer.	My only other concern would be accessibility. If the savings account that you're referring to is also your emergency or 'rainy day' fund - having it in investments might make it difficult or time-consuming to extract when you need it for an unforeseen expense. A major home repair, medical incident, car accident/failure, etc. may require access to those funds very quickly, and getting your money out of your investments might take too long. But, if you've got a fully funded emergency fund (3-6 months of expenses is the rule of thumb), there's no reason not to invest your liquid cash: especially if you don't plan on using it for a while.	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: - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [Investing wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing) I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.
Human: I have 17,000 in federal loans at about 7% interest. I have 1 month net salary in savings. I take home $2,000 a month after Everything. No other commitments. How much should I devote to my savings and loan each month? Thanks in advance!	$2000 after your expenses? I'd pay the loans as quickly as possible after building up an emergency fund. If you have a 401k match, at least contribute enough to get the full company match as it's 100% return.	I would split your $2000 between your loans and an emergency fund such that when you pay off your loans you have 6 months of expenses in your savings account.
Human: 2 weeks ago someone wrote a post about going all out on 401k and becoming a 401k millionaire before 35. He was kinda rude in his post, but the idea of just maximizing 401k was in my head. If i were to put like $50k in 1 year, what would happen?	You would owe an excise tax of 6% of the excess amount each year it remains in your 401(k). As others have said, it's unlikely that you'd be able to do this, but there are a couple ways it could happen. (At least that's my understanding. IANA CPA, etc.)	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: - [401(k) Fund Selection Guide](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k_funds) - [401(k) FAQs](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.
Human: I want a credit card with a $25,000 spending limit. I don't yet have a form of credit. My question is threefold: 1. Is there a credit card that gives these sorts of spending limits to people with no credit? 2. What forms of credit can I easily obtain to build up to a score where I can get more exclusive cards with higher spending limits? 3. Typically, how long would it take to build credit to the point, if I were originally unable to get a card with such a spending limit with no credit, to be able to get such a card?	Why do you need a credit card with such a high limit right off the bat? I don't think any bank would take on that risk. If you're a credit ghost, I think most people suggest starting with a secured credit card from your bank.	>I want a credit card with a $25,000 spending limit. I don't yet have a form of credit. My question is threefold: >1. Is there a credit card that gives these sorts of spending limits to people with no credit? No. >2. What forms of credit can I easily obtain to build up to a score where I can get more exclusive cards with higher spending limits? Any card really. >3. Typically, how long would it take to build credit to the point, if I were originally unable to get a card with such a spending limit with no credit, to be able to get such a card? Depends on the CC lender. Could be anywhere from 3-10 years. Don't use CCs as an EM fund. That's not what they're for.
Human: Hi everyone, I am a recent college grad starting my first job soon. I have created a rough budget of what I expect my monthly expenses to be. Please let me know what you think. Also, for some background I owe $5k in student loans and will be living in Manhattan hence some of the high costs. My base salary is 85k. * Rent 1,800 * Utilities 150 * Food 400 * Entertainment 600 * Internet 70 * Phone 70 * Haircut 40 * Dry Clean 40 * Transportation 150 I am planning on maxing my 401k match and putting the leftover money into my savings account. There is also a discretionary bonus at the end of the year ranging from 20k-40k.	Cut back on drinks. Helps keep the waist thin and the wallet fat.	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: - [Budgeting wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/budgeting) - [Spreadsheets section of the Tools wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/tools#wiki_redditor_created.3A) I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.
Human: Hello /r/pf! You guys have been a huge resource in the past and I don't know where else to go. I will try to be as brief as possible and can elaborate where needed. We are in New Jersey. &nbsp; TL;DR * Mom purchases home * She gets put on permanent disability * Home goes into foreclosure * Years later we try to short sell the house * Early in process home catches fire * Thankfully policy was kept under her name * Sheriff's date served within 3 weeks of date. (Now less than 2) * Public Adjuster is pressuring us to sign over authority so his contractor/restoration buddy can handle everything on their own * Short Sale Realtor has interest in buying the house himself and is putting extreme pressure to finish paper work so that he may resume the process. * We are afraid of losing insurance benefits such as temporary housing and personal property coverage if my mom officially loses the home. &nbsp; The long and long of it: &nbsp; My Mom purchased her first home ever in ~2008. A couple years after she was put on permanent disability and is no longer able to work. She had no choice but to stop making payments which put the home in foreclosure. My brother and I couldn't help save the home as the loan was upside down and we were struggling college students. &nbsp; The home has been in foreclosure for a few years. We knew that eventually our time would run out in the home. We started a short sale processes because the realtor assured us that it would buy us some time in the home. &nbsp; About 1 month ago our house catches on fire. Thankfully no one was home. The basement where the fire originated is completely destroyed. Every single item has been written off. The 1st and 2nd floor have extensive smoke damage. The house even though it looks decent from the outside has to be rebuilt for the most part. The first floor they're saying requires a full remodel and the 2nd floor may make due with repainting of the walls after a thorough cleaning. &nbsp; At first we thought we had ZERO insurance as the property was far along into the foreclosure process. My brother works for the county and some "higher up officials" happen to know him. One of which had their home catch fire too. He recommended a Public Adjuster which we have been using. He's charging us less than 10% and I remember that thread on here regarding claims adjusters so I thought that was far and reasonable. &nbsp; Thank goodness that we found out the original policy was retained and the bank made payments on my mother's behalf. We were relieved to say the least! However, we were served with the Sheriff's Sale Date. The letter had about 30 days notice but we received it with less than 3 weeks notice. I had to travel for a week and the situation has devolved since I've been away. &nbsp; Now every party involved is trying to pressure and scare my Mom. My Mom is in bad shape from the stress and I feel terrible that I can't do more to help. My brother and I were still living at home to help us save money. I don't know what else to do! &nbsp; The short sale guy is now saying we have 48 hrs (now 24hrs) to give him some documents for the bank or "the bank is pulling out". Which is most likely BS. &nbsp; The public adjuster appointed a restoration company to handle the furniture and packing of the house. Said restoration company is also a contractor and wants us to sign papers saying all contracting work will be done by them, all payments related to repairing the home be made to his name, etc. They're saying the only way they can talk to the bank and potentially stop this process is by giving them authority to call the bank on our behalf. We can probably find our own contractor but the public adjuster was trying to scare us out of that too. &nbsp; My mom called the bank and they said since there's a sheriff's sale pending there's nothing they can do. &nbsp; I would think the bank would be interested in postponing this processing ensuring that the insurance company would pay out for repairs. It seems like the bank would lose more money if they had to repair out of pocket? I'm very confused and obviously people want to get paid and the advice we receive is catered to helping them get compensated. &nbsp; I'm overwhelmed please help. I just want to see my Mom happy again. Right now we're in temporary housing at a hotel and we're afraid we'll lose the insurance benefits if the property is no longer under her name.	It's not BS. The bank can end the short sale process anytime they want. It's purely voluntary on their end. I doubt they want to foreclose on a burned down house though. That said, a home headed to foreclosure is a liability that they want off the books. Repairing and then selling is a year long process. I'd expect them to not let your mom keep the house through that whole process. They will do whatever gets that house off three balance sheet faster. Especially if the home is not exceptionally expensive. If you're really trying to keep her in whatever temporary situation insurance has arranged, make sure there's no limit you're going to run up against. Do not let anyone not approved by insurance work on the home. Do not pocket any additional money paid by the insurance. Every dime they set up for repairs needs to be documented and used properly. I'd expect your mom to be under more than average scrutiny due to the general state of her finances.	You've lived in a house for 6 years for free. Use those savings to rent somewhere.
Human: I am quiting my job and leaving the state with no notice during my week vacation. Is your employer required to pay vacation pay if you do not show up the following week to report back in?	"I am quiting my job and leaving the state with no notice during my week vacation." That just seems like a dick thing to do. I wouldn't feel bad for you if they don't pay out your accrued vacation time. But I'm assuming they still should pay it out.	Yeah check state laws about it, some have to some don't.
Human: Soo... 10 years ago I signed up for a martial arts class. 150/month for 1 year. (I actually got my money's worth and more) But... 1) The instructor made a trans-Union account under my name? Wtf? 2) It's showing as a cash advance for the year amount, and a payment of 150/month. It's fully paid off and closed, but I'm finding out this is a ding on my credit. Technically it's not wrong, just messed up. Can I dispute it? Assistant: What you did was sign up for a 'retail installment contract' for $1800, paid down monthly instead of a 150/mo class. The contract is structured this way so that if stop coming and want to stop paying your 'membership fees' then they can force you to keep paying. I'm glad you got your monies worth. Something this old and paid in full should be a positive tick on your credit rather than a negative. Did your insurance specifically state this was a negative and caused them to raise your rate? I believe they are required to provide you with the credit results that they used in their calculation, but I haven't seem them point to a specific line and say 'this'. Human: I'm still fairly young, so I literally only have credit cards, and this one thing on my credit history that fits the description. -Number of personal finance loans is 1 or more. Optimum value is 0. (-)	While we don't know exactly how the credit score is calculated, its a relatively small, old, paid-in-full load is not likely significantly impacting your score.	> -Number of personal finance loans is 1 or more. Optimum value is 0. (-) Hi, I do credit analysis and loan processing for a living. Here is what I am 99.99999% sure is happening. You're talking to an insurance call center rep who is trained to run off a script and has no real professional training or likely understanding of credit and how credit works. When you have a loan and you pay it in back in full and on time, that is a positive mark on your credit. In fact, having loans and paying them back is the only way to get a credit score in the first place. The misconception is generally that by paying your rent, your comcast bill, etc your credit will go up when that is not the case. Bills like that can only effect you negatively and that is if they are sent into collections for non-payment. The insurance company likely has a program (or an actual anaylist if they are old school) that is set to pick out things from your credit report that give them more information as it pertains to the business they will do with you, in this case insurance. This one company may have rules to bump you down in quote tiers based on the amount of unsecured personal financing you have. The logic being, a person with lots of unsecured debt is less financially stable and thus more of a liability than someone without it. The fact that it is 10 years old and closed though should not have any effect at all on your business with them or on your credit profile at all. Like others have said, if anything it should help you if it was paid well. It could may well be that this rep you are working with is just misreading/ misunderstanding the information they are being fed about the credit decision but who really knows. Insurance companies are a dime a dozen. At the least get several more quotes because them dinging you for that is fishy to say the least. Good luck!
Human: A co-worker was telling me all about how investing is a scam blah blah blah Bernie Madoff this Enron that. My question is, what is a good explanation of the difference between the scams of people like Madoff vs actual investing, using vanguard, etc? How can I explain this to people who view the stock market as this evil scary scam machine?	Best advice I can give is to invest in an aluminum foil company so you can profit off their tin foil hat making ;) As for the Bernie Madoff issue, if anything that has proven why you should never put all your eggs in one basket. I have 2 separate companies managing my retirement just in case something like that happens, I'm not left with nothing. But at the end of the day, you can't convince them. Just ask what they plan on doing to invest for retirement...that's always a good place to start.	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: - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [Investing wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing) I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.
Human: I've been running various retirement calculators online and they all show that I am running short on saving for retirement, which baffles me. I think they are overestimating what I will need and am wondering if this is a common issue. What income are you aiming for in retirement as a percent and total? Here are my details: Income: $180K/ yr in a low cost of living area. Spouse stays at home with kids. Income has risen a lot since I graduated college, so I have supported a family on a much lower income in the past. Family: One child has a permanent disability. This complicates retirement savings, since we will also use it to support him. On the other hand, he will also get SSI income. Age: Early 30's Current retirement savings: $225K - would be higher, but my starting pay out of college was $50K, so I have not always been able to save as much Annual savings: Maxing out 401K ($18K/yr), maxing out Roth and spousal Roth (11K), employer 401K match (11K). Total annual retirement savings: $40K What am I missing here? I would think that having over $200K in savings at 30 and saving $40K per year would allow me to retire at 60 (my goal), but every calculator says I am will fall short of the needed amount. I am assuming that is because we are higher income and they are overestimating what we will need. Thoughts? I am also saving for college for kids, so I prefer to contribute any extra savings to 529 plans. Assistant: With those savings rates, I think you will be fine. Did those retirement calculators take into the account your investment strategy of your retirement savings? Even at a fairly conservative 5% yearly growth rate, for 27 years, you will end up with over 15 times your yearly salary (over 3 million). An estimate often thrown around is to retire with 10-15 times your annual salary. With a high-cost lifestyle it could be closer to the 15, but you would be nicely within that number. Adjust the yearly growth rate by a few percentage points, and you will have millions more. Human: Thanks, yes they are assuming about 80% of my income and a return of about 5% per year. I am aiming to have about $3M- $4M in retirement, which seems reasonable.	You should use an assumption of expected EXPENSES, not a percentage of current income. You are saving $29K, so first, remove that. $180-19=$152K. Then, remove other expenses you won't have in retirement - SS/Medicare taxes, 529 savings, mortgage (if you plan to have it paid off). Income taxes will be lower; maybe travel budget/healthcare will be higher etc. Then, use that estimate to see how much you'll need to save. I'm projecting our expenses in retirement will be about 55% of our pre-retirement income (inflation adjusted), so the 80% would be wildly inaccurate for us as well.	Based on what you've said, the retirement calculators are also not taking into account the fact that you won't be supporting all of your kids by the time you retire (hopefully!). 80% of your current spending is very, very conservative.
Human: ### New members, please read through the [New User Orientation](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/newuser). Instead of posting individual threads for triumphant stories of how you've reached a certain net worth, paid off a loan, or anything else that you want to brag about, let's consolidate everyone's stories into one weekly thread! Make a top-level comment if you want to brag about something regarding your personal finances! For past Triumphant Thursday threads, please search the [Weekly Archive](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/search?q=Triumphant+Thursday+author%3AAutoModerator&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=year#res-hide-options).	Just got an annual raise from $60k to $67k by working at a level higher than my experience would suggest. And my partner had a successful interview yesterday, moving from $22k part time retail to $50k full time career! Bring on the DINK lifestyle and savings I say.	25 years old just broke $100,000 net worth. I definitely got a fortunate start from my parents with no student loans but I have also done well for myself since graduating and I am proud of that.
Human: I earn a small portion of income online by publishing video reviews of products. If I buy a product and publish a review, can I write off the product cost as a business expense even if I continue using it personally? Example: I buy a smartphone and review it, but afterwards I use it as my personal phone.	You can certainly make that claim as being a necessary business expense. The question is whether the IRS would buy it if you were audited, which probably won't happen. Whether they would agree or not would depend on a lot of things, including the cost of the product, the nature of the review, and how you ultimately use the product. Your safest course of action would be to deduct only a portion of the cost of items that you used outside of your business. https://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Deducting-Business-Expenses	Yes and No. It has to be a reasonable business expense. Obviously you need products to review, so on that point its a reasonable expense. You may have an issue on theses points; "This is really a hobby" front. The "Leona Hensley" front (this was never intend for business use). The "Reasonable and normal use for this industry" front. If the industry norm is "Buy a product , try it for 2 weeks and then sell for 50% " , get the product for free from the manufactures or Hobby reviewer reviewing products they bought for personal use, any of those things can cause issue. Consumer Reports can deduct the cost of the products they buy to review. Bob who gets paid $5 to do a consumer review , can't.
Human: I make $41k. Minimum payments on my student loans are around $50, but I'm auto-paying $121 + ~$300 (based purely on emotional whim e.g. I really want to buy a new expensive sweater but instead I'll pay off my loans to satiate the desire to spend $$) per month. I was able to save a bit while living at home, but now I'm in my own place. Should I keep the $5k in my savings as an emergency fund or is that too much for me to hold onto? I have a feeling that I should pay off around $1k-2k in loans now. Interest rates are 3.15-3.16% because they're federal loans. As for my retirement fund, I'm automatically deferring 10% directly into my 401k from my paycheck. Should I put more money here instead? Thanks in advance.	You're getting a tax break on your student loan interest, so your effective rate is down under 3%. I wouldn't be in a rush to pay off these loans at these rates. Certainly wouldn't dent an e-fund to accelerate the payment. I'd be more interested in seeing how much of these loans I could pay off with future dollars, which are worth less than present dollars.	Please read how to handle $ in the sidebar.
Human: So I have been working for about a year since I graduated from college, and have been interviewing again because I want to change location. I got an offer yesterday for an engineering position from a company that I think has between 50-100 employees. I expected it to be a salaried position but the offer is for an hourly non-exempt position that would receive OT but it is also a 1099 position tax-wise. There is company provided healthcare and life insurance, some PTO/holidays, as well as bonuses, but no retirement. So it is basically a contractor position with some benefits and OT (although I have no idea if they would actually ever let me take OT). I have been trying to find examples of this kind of setup but haven't had much luck; most that I read about 1099 employees states that they get no benefits but get paid much more. This position's hourly pay is not higher than my current salaried pay if I were to convert it to hourly, and my current job has more benefits. So I guess I am trying to figure out if it is actually a terrible offer or not. I know that as a 1099 employee I would have to pay higher taxes, and I know I would be treated like a salaried employee with the 9-5 work hour structure. Is anyone familiar with something like this, or is there anything in particular I would need to look out for? Why would they provide benefits but make me a 1099 employee? Is it just so that they can pass some of the tax burden off to me? Or is it actually an awesome setup? Any help is very much appreciated. Edit: Thanks for all the responses. I was already certain that they were misclassifying the position even before posting here because it was heavily implied that it would be treated like a salaried position. They even want me to sign a non-compete. And this is in a right to work state, which means they have no reason to do it as a trial run. It is pretty clear that they are trying to keep their number of employees low to avoid regulation as well as pass off some tax burden to an unsuspecting college grad. I will pass on the offer.	If they're talking about things like PTO and overtime and the usual perks of being an employee for a contractor position it sounds like they are misclassifying their workers to pay them less without looking like they're doing so, or trying to skirt regulations that trigger by having more than a certain number of full time employees. True contractors have more of a vendor-client relationship with the company as opposed to a supervisor-subordinate relationship. Meaning they're given tasks or specifications of what they need to accomplish, and negotiate an estimate on how many billable hours to do the work, but other than that control their own schedule and the specific details about how they work. If a manager is telling you what time to show up, and to do this or that, you're not really a contractor. True contractor positions usually have gross billable hourly rates that are substantially (>60%) higher than full time employee pay but that's it. Actual total compensation usually ends up being about the same after contractors deduct expenses, pay self-employment tax, buy benefits out of pocket, and save a much larger emergency fund to make up for not having PTO or unemployment benefits.	as a side note most contractors can be " removed from the project" or are dependent on funding.. meaning they can get rid of you any time they wish
Human: Edit 2: Thank you to everyone who gave me honest advice. I really appreciate it. I didn't think it was necessary to put personal details in a post on this sub, so I didn't share my situation. I'm very surprised by all the hateful comments I received. I didn't ask for any handouts. I want very much to be self reliant, and came here for advice on how to manage my current expenses so I could work towards that. I'm in college, and have been for 3 years. I'm working full time. My expenses are high because before my husband left our combined income was over 7k a month after taxes, and our rent, car payment, and other expenses were more than manageable. When our lease is up I will be getting a cheaper place, and I will be looking into trading in the car for something more affordable, as well as taking many of the other suggestions I've read here tonight. I never wanted to be in this position, and I never thought I would be, but my husband left and it is what it is. Thanks again to everyone who gave me advice. So right now with rent, utilities, car costs, food, credit card debt, etc, I am about 700 short every month just for breaking even. I work full time, and my two youngest children are in daycare. I have no friends or family to help watch them, and the daycare I have is the chebapest I could find. I don't have cable, or spend unnecessary money. I considered bankruptcy, but that would only eliminate a few hundred a month in debt, which would still leave me in need, and would ruin my credit. Do I have any other options? I'm desperate right now. Edit: The divorce isn't final yet, so there's a lot of things I haven't been able to do. At this point I assumed that any type of assistance I would qualify for would still take his income into consideration. I am currently making about $1300 a month after taxes. I'm getting $1500 a month from my ex. Bills are as follows. Rent $1000 Electric $145 average Water $25 Car payment $330 Car insurance $80 Daycare $1300 Credit card payments $400 Phone $50 Gas $45 Student loan $100 Food costs $500	The daycare is the most easily fixable problem of the ones you've listed. First, there's a lot of assistance programs out there to help pay for daycare. State programs are the primary ones so look into that in your state. Check [here](http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/occ/resource/ccdf-grantee-state-and-territory-contacts) for some information on federal assistance disbursed in your state as well. You can also call 211 for information on daycare in many states - it's a general purpose childcare hotline and most states have information about it. There are also federal government subsidies for daycare for military families - I don't know if you can get those when you're divorcing your husband, but he is in the military so it's worth looking into. You may also be able to find just a daycare that's cheaper or that's willing to work with you so you can stay under budget Now that the big one is out of the way, there's also the credit cards, rent, electric, food, tax, and phone that could potentially be helped. The credit cards probably can't be helped without declaring bankruptcy, but what you can do is call up the companies and negotiate a repayment plan at a reduced interest rate. Make sure you mention that if you can't do that you won't be able to afford to continue paying them back - they want their money. If you do this, you can take your interest rate from 20% down to maybe 5% in many cases, which makes repayment a ton easier. Rent varies by area - in some cities $1000 is dirt cheap while in others that's crazy expensive. What kind of work do you do, and would you be able to consider moving? Because if you're only making $1300 a month, you are not benefiting from living in an area with such expensive rent. At all. Moving to an area with a lower cost of living will often reduce pay, but honestly in your case you should be able to find an area that's much cheaper and with a job that will pay at least $1300 a month full time (in my area, rent for an apartment or duplex would probably run you $500 a month but even working at around minimum wage would make you the same money). Moving is quite possibly your easiest route to lower living costs, but make sure you line up a job before you do. Electric is easy enough. Check that you aren't leaving lights and heat/AC on a lot. Consider buying electric blankets during wintertime so that you can turn the heat down but keep everyone warm. $140 seems crazy to me but again, I live in a very cheap area so I don't really have a good spot to compare from. Food is normally pretty easy to cut back costs on if you're careful about it. Don't buy a ton of snacks, or at least not the premade type - things like nuts, fruit, etc. are cheaper overall and healthier. Consider buying a membership to one of the bulk clubs - Costco, Sams Club, or BJs. Just by going to one of those or Aldi (whichever is cheaper on what you want) you can probably cut some food costs. Phone bills can normally be helped by switching to a secondary type carrier. I have my phone through Google Fi (with talk/text/data for $30) and got my parents a phone through Republic Wireless (talk/text for $10). $20 a month may not be worth it to you depending on your savings account situation (since you'd need to get a phone through them to do it) but it's worth considering the next time you're about to buy a phone. Consider finding a website to calculate your taxes you'll owe this year. It's quite possible that with these costs, with how much you'll get tax credits for daycare, and with your low single income that you're overpaying on your taxes and can lower your withholding.	Getting rid of day care and making them go to the boys and girl club.
Human: I am graduating (undergrad) this May but do not have the school paid off so I won't be receiving my diploma and thus cannot attend the Law school into which I have been accepted. I'm worried that if I take out the loan I will just be smothered in debt during/after school, but I'm also worried that if I take a year or two to pay the school I'll be stuck paying off my other $20,000 loans which will no longer qualify for deferment and I'll never make it back to school. What do I do? Edit: I currently have a half tuition scholarship at my chosen university though I'm not sure that would be the case if I were to reapply in a year or two. Edit 2: The in-state tuition is only $15,000 so I don't see myself getting $200,000 in debt as someone suggested. The school is the University of Nebraska Lincoln which is rated as one of the "best values" and "most affordable" law schools.	If I had to do it over I would absolutely not have attended law school.	I was completely unaware this was a thing. They can keep your diploma if you owe them money?
Human: I'm a new homeowner and I received a check made out to me and my bank. I'm heading to the bank to get it endorsed by them today but I have a couple of questions. If the amount I get charged is less than what I received do I get to keep the rest of the money? After I get my roof replaced do I need to submit something to my insurance that it's been replaced? On another note I also received a check to get the fence pressure sprayed and stained. What If that's something I can do myself, can I keep the money or do I have to give them an invoice from a company?	If I remember correctly the way it worked for me is that I got a check for "depreciated cash value" at begin. As I submitted receipts they gave the the actual cash value. . .. I don't know if I'm using the terms right. So lets say my window is 10 years old and worth 500 bucks. A new window is 750 bucks. If I wanted the extra 250 I needed to submit proof I got the work done. My roof was only covered per the depreciated cash value, so there was no need to submit anything to the insurance company. My windows and other damage . .I got checks if I submitted the receipts to the mortgage company Note: My bank said to me that due to my credit score, payment history, etc. . .they didn't require proof that I fixed the roof. The bank itself may have rules for you . . .to make the endorsement happen.	I had a similar experience. I had a branch fall on the roof of my car. I originally got a quote, insurance (Allstate) adjusted and sent the check. I ended up going with a different body shop who was able to perform paintless dent removal which was considerably less expensive. The body shop requested a check for the new amount. I called the insurance company and requested the difference and they obliged without issue. Good luck.
Human: Didn't see the insurance subreddit initially and hoping I can get some help. I currently use Geico and have some pretty extensive coverage. In the past five years I've been in two not at fault accidents between July of 2014 and January of 2016 (my car was parked both times, front bumper got hit in one, rear bumper got hit in the other), and two at fault accidents between October of 2012 and August of 2015, which were both fender benders with no injuries resulting in damages of $600 and $2500 respectively. My premium was just increased from $105 a month to $130 a month and I was told by a Geico representative that the increase is due to my at fault accidents AND not at fault accidents. I can understand why my premium would go up for the accident I caused, but why would I have to pay more for any not at fault accidents, especially when neither not at fault accident required my insurance company to pay anything. Seems a bit ridiculous to me, and quite frankly, shady.	You've reported four accidents in five years. They're taking that into account in the rates they charge you.	When calculating your insurance rate the only thing they care about is risk. They are not punishing you for the non-fault accidents, but their statistics say that people who have made a lot of insurance claims in the past are likely to make claims in the future. i.e. I have had two small non-fault incidents in the past and paid for both myself. Therefore there is a good chance I will do the same in the future which will save the insurance company money making me cheaper to insure.
Human: So both my wife and I work and each have 1x salary in life insurance - basically enough to pay for a funeral and a couple of months to help the other get their head clear in case something goes wrong. We are both healthy, so the only real concern of death we have is an accident/act of nature/etc. My issue is I feel like that is enough (for us and our lifestyle) but other people (whose financial advice I value) always freak out when they find out how little life insurance we have. Our lifestyle is set-up that the loss of income from one side won't really effect anything except our ability to pay down debt faster (we currently live on less than the lower salary). We have a solid eFund in place, so we have even less concerns there as well. Plus all of our non-mortgage debt is tied individually to one party (student loans) so in case of a loss, the other side would not be on the hook for the rest of the deceased's debt (just their loans and the mortgage). So the normal life insurance thing is to have enough to replace the salary for x years and pay off debt - but honestly, we wouldn't need that. Wouldn't be the happiest thing, but outside of losing their spouse, the surviving party could continue the exact same life with no change. All the articles/advice I can find is usually either comparing different types of insurance (whole vs term for example) or just assume that your family can't live without your income (which through a lot of budgeting and living below our means, mine can). The rates on term are pretty cheap (would be about $20/month each for our 'recommended' level of coverage - 10x salary) but I just feel like $500/yr isn't worth it considering we would survive just fine without. Our facts: late 20s/early 30s, 2 kids (2 and due in a few months). $120k combined income, split roughly even. Average annual budget - $45k/yr (counting only minimums on student loans). We've been focusing on debt pretty hard (like over $40k/yr hard) and expect to have everything paid off (including the house) in less than 5 years. So, oh wise sages of PF - what would you do in my shoes? Eat the $500/yr for the extra security, keep the 'self-insure' mind-set we have, some middle ground?	>each have 1x salary in life insurance You need way more than that. Term insurance isn't that expensive, there isn't much reason not to carry 3x-4x your annual income each. >always freak out when they find out how little life insurance we have. Yeah, because depending on how much your annual income is and the surviving spouse's ability to scale to a lifestyle living on 50% of household income, you're going to see one of the two of you go bankrupt. >ability to pay down debt faster I would not want to have a spouse die and leave the other in debt. At a bare minimum, your insurance should erase all debts. >2 kids (2 and due in a few months) This isn't something to include in paragraph 5. You absolutely are wildly under-insured. $400,000 of term insurance for both of you is likely not going to run you more than the $500 a year that you're describing. That won't derail your financial planning but I think you're both really underestimating the financial costs associated with the death of a spouse, especially when kids are involved.	I like the idea of having 10-12x annual income in term life insurance, and that's what my wife and I carry. That way, if one of us dies the other can invest it and replace their income for a really, really long time (if not indefinitely). It's not that expensive, especially in your 20s. $500/year for 10x your income ($42/month), at $120k/year income, shouldn't even noticeably impact your overall budget.
Human: I am in my early 20's and have a few thousand dollars in disposible income to purchase things now so I won't have to think about it 5 or 10 years down the line. I am thinking of good household or personal items that I will be thankful I bought now when I could instead of later when money may be a little tighter. As some info, I already save enough of my income that saving this extra would be "unnecessary" I do not have any debts	Your retirement. Please read the information found in the [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index), particularly ["I Have $[X] ... What Do I Do With It?!"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics). You may find [Your IRA and You: Basic Information](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/iras) and [Your 401k and You: Basic Information](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k) worth a read as well. >I already save enough of my income that saving this extra would be "unnecessary" Unlikely, but if true head over to /r/buyitforlife.	Saving is never unnecessary. Shove more in your retirement, forget about it for 30 years, and be amazed when you can retire a few years earlier than you otherwise would have. If it's burning a hole in your pocket, pick a split--60/40 is a good idea, 80/20 is even better--and put a chunk in retirement and use the rest as "fun money." Upgrade to the gym with the fluffy towels in the locker room, put sweet speakers in your car, buy nicer beer, go o Vegas, whatever suits you. This way you'll still feel like you're "making it" and not depriving yourself, but future-you will still reap benefits.
Human: In the process of getting a new job that is very important to me. When a background check is run on somebody and they ask for previous employment information, do they just check to see if your numbers match up with the employer or do they actually go to the IRS to find out how much you made and when you were employed?	The IRS doesn't disclose any information about you to outside parties	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 all, So my brother wants me to open up a Chase Slate card to balance transfer. He doesn't qualify for as high a credit limit (I usually get about 10-12k limit and he qualifies for about 5-6k). So he has okay credit (mid-600) and I have 800+ right now. But he does have a nice paying job right now, makes over twice what I make so I don't think he will have a problem paying it off. I want to know how much this will affect my credit score. I don't have a problem as long as I stay above 775-ish. Do you guys think my credit score will drop substantially with this move? Thanks	"No". He wants to make his debt your debt. If he stops paying you, you're screwed. There is no upside and only downside. If he's earning that much, he has a bigger problem than a <$10,000 debt.	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: So as the title says, I got scammed out of $2500 a couple weeks ago. TL;DR of the scam: A cheque came in the mail and I deposited it, withdrew cash and transferred most of it via Western Union. I know, I'm stupid, but it happened. Let's move past that. I am a student in my third year at a university in Ontario, Canada. Luckily, I have no student loans. My credit card is almost maxed out at about $1000. My bank account has been frozen until I pay the amount oweing back ($2479.23) in full. I have about $10 in cash, which is the last of my money until I head to my parents for the summer (in 2 weeks). For the sake of this thread, let's assume I have no personal contacts that can loan me the money. I have horrible financial management, even before the scam; the scam just highlighted the issue for me and I'm ready to learn. So far, I have tried to apply for a loan to cover the damages so that I can keep my bank account active, but it was rejected. I have no income at the moment, but as my school year comes to an end, I'm going to get a summer job. My questions to you guys: 1. How can I survive the next 2 weeks with only $10 while staying somewhat healthy if I can. Right now, I'm eating rice, spaghetti and bread for most of my meals. 2. Are there any other options for me to get a loan so that my bank account doesn't go into debt collection? 3. What is some advice or links you can give to help me stay financially on track once I get my summer job? Edit: I'm going to start reading the links on the side.	so the prince in Africa wasnt real? lol.. All joking aside.. Based on the above I'm going to assume that this needs to be said: - DO NOT TAKE OUT A PAY DAY LOAN!!! they are ALSO a scam to avoid. - if it seems to good to be true, it is. Have you called the bank to explain the situation? Credit Karma is a decent resource to read up on financial health, also read through the sidebar on this sub.	1. /r/eatcheapandhealthy + food panteries 2. /r/personalfinancecanada will be more familiar with the options available to you. 3. Please read how to handle $ in the sidebar.
Human: I am planning to move so I am selling a lot of items on Craigslist. I have had 3 people offer to pay me more than asking price. Is this normal? Granted, the items are rate, antique dollhouse and a special jeep top. But it just seems fishy. All 3 preferred email contacts. And want to mail a certified check and will arrange pickup after the check clears. Any chance this could be a scam?	* IN-PERSON * CASH ONLY * AT BANK OR POLICE STATION Else, SCAM.	scammers.
Human: My boyfriend is about to start a new job, so we are going through all the paperwork. The firm is a registered investment advisor with the SEC. As such, they need to perform due diligence to ensure there is no insider trading going on (And perhaps other reasons, but this is the only one I am aware of). I understand the importance of this, and am on board with helping facilitate this process. However the Employer is requiring me, as his live-together girlfriend (not wife, not legal partner) to disclose all my financial holdings on a monthly basis. (Monthly statements sent directly to them.) I don't even get monthly statements myself! (I get quarterly statements). They say this is a requirement from the SEC. Is there somewhere I could go to read up on the details of this requirement? Would it not suffice to sign an agreement that I will not purchase or be involved with any securities that could cause conflict for them? I find this request invasive. Personal finances are, well, personal and this does not sit right with me. At the same time, my boyfriend is quite excited for this job, and I don't want to kick up a fuss and start his job off on the wrong foot. Neither of us are very financial people. I am inexperienced with this stuff. His role at the company will not a financial one. So I feel a bit out of my depth dealing with this. What does /r/personalfinance think? Am I being too protective or paranoid? Are they overreaching their bounds? Thanks!	I think it sounds fine and fair. It would be super easy for BF to tell you when and what to sell/buy (not that he would). It's likely they (the firm) ask this of all BF/GFs to cover themselves from potential issues with the SEC. But, for the legal side of things - I'd check with /r/legaladvice to see what you are required to do. but don't forget, if you say no, they could (and probably would) fire BF rather than risk the SEC. Maybe talk to company HR about who gets to see the info and how and how long is it stored for.	wow. when you think about this and what you have to give up to be w/ your bf....................................................i dont know. this sounds like a deal broker.
Human: Hello! I'll get straight to details, and try to keep this fairly short. I was hired by a small, but successful biotech company in July of 2015. I was hired on as a research tech, and offered a salary of $45000 (which I accepted). Fast forward to now- I have used my personal hobby of computer programming to help the company in multiple ways. I have rebuilt the entire company website, partially because we hated the look of the Wordpress website we had from 2013, and mostly because we want full control over the pages without going through the hassle of Wordpress. I have built a web application for the company that enables customers to do their own analysis, via any source of Internet (phone, computer, tablet, etc). This is more of a fallback option for the customer, and is only used a couple times a month. Lastly I have created an entire database driven LIMS system for the company, which gets used every day and holds nearly all of the data received and processed by our company. This is the most important contribution I'd say I have made, as it is absolutely critical to our success and compliance with industry standards. Unrelated to programming, I am also in charge of our shipping department, and ensuring everything sent out is validated and put together correctly. I did most of this in my free time, but more recently they have moved me into a software engineer type role. When I started I was doing only bench work, and my boss had no knowledge of my background in software. I make $45000 currently, but my review is fast approaching and I feel as though I am due for a fairly substantial raise. I live on the west coast, and median salary for software engineering/ web development is near $80000. Now I know I can't ask for a 100% pay increase, but I know that what I'm doing is worth that. How do I ask for a gigantic raise without coming across as inconsiderate or unappreciative? How much do I ask for?? Thanks!!!! Assistant: in my experience, the only time you'll be able to get the type of raise we're talking about here ( something that will get you closer to the average), is by finding employment elsewhere. a NORMAL pay bump without a step up in seniority is 5%. Human: We are a very small company- normal rules do not exactly apply here, as my coworker received a $10000 raise directly after I was hired. My boss is very generous, but not particularly business savvy. I do know he wants to do right by his core group of employees. I do appreciate the insight! I'd hate to leave, or even give the impression that I'm looking elsewhere, as we are doing VERY well and have increased our profit margins 5x since I started( not due to my work, but due to everyone chipping in and working hard) To put more context in it, I am 1 of 7 core employees, with maybe 4 more employees that don't work with us full time.	Present that your current salary was fair for an entry-level employee, when they had no idea if you'd be valuable to the company, or would stick around. Now that you've proven that, it's time to start being paid what you're worth. Ignore the talk about 5% being a typical raise, that's just what managers say to make you happy with 6%. If you think 80k is fair, and you truly believe that, then stand by that number. If they don't give you what you want, then you have to let them know you are not happy with your level of compensation. If you're as valuable as you say, that should make them lose sleep and open to more negotiation. Good luck!	well, you could just ask I suppose.
Human: I'm receiving an injury settlement, and I don't have a bank account. I will be receiving a check drawn from a regional bank. Should I open an account at the bank that the check is from, or should I use a different bank to deposit the check? I need the money ASAP, so I'm thinking that depositing the check in the same bank will help me get the money faster. Thank you.	You shouldn't need to open an account at the issuing bank to cash it. But, you know, you really should have a bank account.	The hold placed on the check will be about the same regardless of what bank you choose. You said it's a settlement check so I'm going to assume it's a larger dollar amount. If you go to ANY bank to cash or open an account with a large check and are very adament and pushy that you need to money as soon as possible that is going to raise a ton of red flags. They will intentially apply the longest hold allowed on the check so keep that in mind.
Human: I am going to graduate college this month and (hopefully) I will be beginning a career. Is the net amount of money that I use to pay back my private student debt deductible from my tax burden?	No. Depending on your income and filing status you may be able to deduct up to $2,500 of interest paid on your student loans, but not the balance.	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: - [Student Loans wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/studentloans) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/debt#wiki_what.27s_the_best_way_to_pay_down_my_debt.3F) I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.
Human: Hi /r/personalfinance, I am currently working at an outdoor store and I receive incredible discounts (60%-80% off). I currently have some debt ($12,000 in student loans, $6,000 in auto) and just received a credit card with a limit of $4,700 and no interest for 2 years. My major excess spending goes to outdoor equipment and activities, and I know that this will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. I am quitting my job in two months to join the Coast Guard, so my question is this: Do I use the no interest period of the credit card to save money on the purchases I am planning on making in the next couple years? I am planning on buying a mountain bike within the next year anyway. I would have to put it on credit now ($2500) or spend $5500 cash in a few months. I will have a consistent paycheck in the Coast Guard and very little living expenses so paying off the credit card shouldn't be a problem. I know that there are unexpected events that would make the Coast Guard impossible (accidents, health problems, etc.), but I do have an emergency fund that could be used in these circumstances. Any advice is greatly appreciated.	>I am planning on buying a mountain bike within the next year anyway. I would have to put it on credit now ($2500) or spend $5500 cash in a few months. Or (c), you don't buy a $5500 bike until you're no longer in debt.	You have 18000 in debt, dont make much money, and want to buy a $2000 bicycle on credit? This is a bad idea. If you absolutely must have it, sell your car.
Human: I've been reading a lot of question on this sub lately about debt and student loans. As someone with 138k in student loans, and no hope of ever paying them off fully, I'd like to better understand what I've gotten myself into. This place is great and I've been googling and actually reading some tax laws but I just don't understand why my forgiven loans would be considered taxable. Let's say I manage to pay off half of my loans in 25years and end up having something like 70k in student loans forgiven. It's not like I've actually acquired $70,000. And since I will have been working off of an income based repayment plan, everyone from my loan provider to the IRS knows that I don't make a lot of money. Could someone explain (possibly in an explain like I'm 10 way) why my forgiven loans are going to be considered taxable income when the forgiven loan is not an amount that I receive?	> Let's say I manage to pay off half of my loans in 25years and end up having something like 70k in student loans forgiven. It's not like I've actually acquired $70,000. Yes you did. That $70,000 was given to the school on your behalf or represents interest that you accrued. The expectation was that you'd pay it back, but since you didn't, it's basically like getting free money and thus income.	why did you rack up 138k? Why are you trying to get out of paying it? You should be thankful that you can get any forgiven honestly. You get that 70k...that's why it is taxable income.
Human: I am in my last month of pharmacy school and I have what feels like an overwhelming amount of debt. Before I started pharmacy school I did 4 years of undergrad and had to start taking out loans for that pretty early as well. As a result, I have a decent amount of student loan debt and interest as well. Currently, my principal balance is $121,375 and my outstanding interest is $22,931. I just got a residency position where I will be making $42,000 for this upcoming year. After that, I hope to get a clinical pharmacy position in a hospital where I should be making around $100,000. I'd like to get started making some payments as soon as possible. I can't do as much this first year with my residency salary, but I'd like to get something started because the amount of interest that has accrued really scares me. I thought about living at home with my parents during my residency year to give me more disposable income to devote to loans. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated! Just wanting to know what realistic options I have and how soon I can reasonably expect to get this debt payed off.	I think the trick is to keep living like you have been and attack the debt. If you don't mind living at home for a year or two, that's a good plan too. You can be done in about 3 years with that income. You just have to remind yourself that just because you make 100k, you can't buy a new car. So live like you earn 30k for a few years and you'll be fine.	A lot of people are giving advice like when you make x amount of money you start doing such and such. A lot of the advice has centred around you having one income stream from your primary occupation, which for you probably isn't going to cut it. I dont think you are screwed but The simple fact is you need to start paying that debt down asap. It sounds like you have a great career but rather than lowering your lifestyle to match your income you should be looking at ways to raise your income to match your lifestyle. I know heaps of young people who have built residual income from network marketing that has covered their student loan repayments for paid them out entirely. If you are someone who is motivated, hardworking and enjoys helping others it could be a great option for you. We paid off my wife's student loan in 3 years, took a lot of hard work, people calling us crazy and all that sort of stuff but it was worth it in the end.
Human: I make about $600 dollars a month right now, and I have $200 a month rent. How can I get a car without a downpayment? Is it a good idea? I need something that doesn't break down every other day.	You need to make more money, and pay to really fix your current car. This is your cheapest option. I don't think you could get financing with $600 a month income, so you'd have to buy outright. What you could afford to buy outright is probably not any better than your current car. Increase your income and save. Use some of that income/ savings to take your car into a mechanic and ask them to really tell you what needs to be done to keep it going for 3-4 more years.	You can lease without down payment.
Human: I'm going to be starting a job next week and would like to get an emergency fund account set up. I understand that APY's are pretty low these days, so I'm looking for something that's doesn't have to be high - just no fees, APY ~ 1% with decent customer service. What do you guys use to store your emergency funds?	I keep my emergency fund in a Kasasa checking account offered through my credit union. They pay 3% up to $10,000. There is no minimum to open an account.	generally a 1% account is a good place, check out credit unions near you, they usually have the best rates. Some CU's you can join with like a 10 dollar donation.
Human: I didn't do that year's taxes cuz I didn't have enough to pay. Now I do and I wanna take care of it before it gets worse. What's the quickest/safest way of taking care of this? I'm a California resident.	A bit of advice to people that may be in OP's situation where they know they'll owe but don't have enough to pay... File anyway without payment, and set up a payment plan. The penalty for failing to file is 5% per month up to 25%. The penalty for failure to pay is .5% per month up to 25%. Because OP didn't file or pay, he'll have to pay a 25% failure to file penalty and around 6% for failure to pay.	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: Opened a TERRIBLE APR credit card a year or so back for a few reasons: 1) I needed some positive payment history. I set it up so that I'd only have one recurring bill on the CC a month, and I pay it off each month in full. NBD, it's only like $15 a month. 2) Just in case. At the point I opened the card, I had just received a new (used) car as part of an inheritance and I didn't have an emergency fund set up, and since I live in LA, having a working car is basically paramount. At this point, I have a solid emergency fund, so I wouldn't really be relying on the CC if I had to pay for any repairs or unforeseen expenses. I just got an email saying that I got a $150 increase in the credit limit, for a $24.95 fee, due to my "excellent payment history". I'd have no problem paying the $37 (or whatever) on the next statement, but since I'm already way under the 30% threshold, does this benefit me in any way shape or form? I feel like, since this is a shite CC with a terrible APR, they're preying on low-income people with credit increases, hoping they'll spend more money and be stuck paying the interest on that larger balance, so I get WHY they'd give it to me, but not if there's any reason I'd accept the offer. Any thoughts?	They are now charging people to take on debt. Unbelievable. I wouldn't pay $1 for a 5k increase. This is payday loan level scummyness.	If anything, I might pay for a lower credit limit. Then it'd be easier to open additional cards for my adventures in /r/churning :)
Human: I just got my first credit card from my bank. $250 limit since I go to school, and don't make much from my part time job. I don't have any pressing need for a credit card, just thought it was time to start building my credit. Today when I picked it up, and signed all the paper work, I was told that I shouldn't pay it off each month. The reason being that I need to have a payment report for if I want an increase on my limit. Is there anything preventing me from paying off everything besides $0.01? That way I'm not hit by the interest fee to an extent where it actually matters, and still getting pay reports. Any answers or advice would be more than appreciated! Edit: I was also told not to use more than half of my limit. Why would they tell me that? Why not just half my limit if they don't want me to use it all?	Such bullshit advice. Always pay off your monthly statement balance in full and on time. Pay a few days before the due date because payments take time to process. However, maybe your issuer meant about paying before closing date. Try not to pay the balance completely before the closing date. You want to show some usage when your activity is reported to the credit bureaus. Charge what is needed, let the billing cycle close at the closing date, and pay off what appears as your balance in your monthly statement. If for whatever reason, you can't afford to pay off your statement balance, pay at least the minimum. However, I don't advise getting into the habit of doing this. Always pay it off completely and on time.	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: As I said in the title, I'm 22, low credit of 545 because It's less than 1 year old, and looking to buy a bike in the $6,500 range. I'm trying to find a loan for the bike that won't gouge me on monthly payments, won't hurt my credit terribly, and obviously won't deny me. I really don't care too much on interest over time, I'd just like to keep monthly payments low. Also, I've just started a job that pays $44,000 a year minimum, and I suspect my monthly expenses will be relatively low. If it helps, I'm a pilot planning on flying out of Salt Lake City, Utah, and have my legal residence still in Florida. Thank you in advance EDIT: look folks, understand and respect all of your input, and appreciate that this may not be the "greatest financial move" I could possibly make, but respectfully, I'm trying to find a reputable legal and non-scam place that I can find a loan for the amount I'm looking for with bad credit. Please understand my main goal is finding a decent place to do this, not to be talked out of it. I ask that you will respect my decision, and if you have any info that may help me find this, I will appreciate it. Thank you again Assistant: I see this too often with young military folk. With your credit score, age, and choice of vehicle, your loan and insurance payments are going to be outrageous. If you "started a job that pays $44,000 a year minimum, and I suspect my monthly expenses will be relatively low," why not save for the bike? Human: I understand the question, however I need a vehicle for this new job, as I currently don't have one to live out west. Edit: additionally, not that it may make a difference or pertain to your question, but I am not military.	You may need a vehicle, but you don't need one on credit. If you buy a clunker for 1500 that you drive for six months while you save, that might be a wiser option. Given your new credit plus young driver, the only lenders who will be willing to extend credit are the exact ones you don't want.	Im going to go ahead and say you will actually need a car if you want transportation. Very very very few people find a bike tolerable for year round transportation in the valley.
Human: Hi all! Sorry if this is the wrong place to put this. Feel free to redirect me if there is somewhere more appropriate. I am currently trying to convince my boyfriend that he needs to do his taxes, but I am not informed enough to come up with reasons on my own. His reasoning is that if he does not make enough for the IRS to worry about it. He makes about 25k a year and is mad that he owes about $75. I think that he is being an idiot and am worried about any longterm repercussions from this. What should I say to convince him that he needs to pay his taxes?	Would you like some reasons to make him an ex-boyfriend?	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 can't believe that I am in this position. I had worked for the same company for 15 years and have been a homeowner for over 18 years. And now I am facing bankruptcy! What happened?!! It goes like this.. After being employed as project manager with the same specialty-trade service company for 15 loyal years, I took a huge leap of faith and decided to accept an offer and take on a general manager position with a competitor company. The new position offered new opportunity and challenges, not to mention a great commission. To make a long story short, the new job did not work out so well. The working environment was not what I had expected. It was not a good fit for me, at all. I new within the first few days that I had made a huge mistake by quitting my job where I had seniority and was respected. Anyway, I couldn't go crawling back to my last employer. They'd laugh in my face. While collecting Employment Insurance (EI) for a few short weeks, I weighed my options regarding future employment and eventually came to the realization that the best thing that I could possibly do, with the limited skills that I have, was to "stick to what I know best" and start up my own specialty-trade service company. So, that is exactly what I did. On a tight budget, I started my own company. The first eight months were great. I was able to keep one crew working and we completed several projects, right up until Xmas of 2015. Since Xmas 2015, the price of oil continued to drop and the economy in oil-rich Alberta was/is stunned. Large oil & gas companies are conducting lay-off's on a daily basis. As a result, the specialty-trade service industry (as a whole) has been affected and the number of projects available for tender have declined significantly. My company has had no work (no revenue) for all 2016, so far. Subsequently, the little bit of money that my small start up had made in 2015 continued to pay its own overhead, as well as my salary for the past three months. Work will eventually pick up, and projects will start being tendered again as the construction season starts and the economy recuperates. But I am worried that it is too late for me. My company and I are both pretty much broke! The company has $500 left in its account. And I have less than $100 left in mine! This past April 1st, I did not make a mortgage payment. For the first time in 18 years, I was not able to make the payment, and I also have no money to pay for my monthly utility and credit card payments. I really need to know what I should do next! It has been a lot of hard work and personal investment to start my own company, I don't want to fail! The fear of losing my home and my car is stressful, to say the least. Advice needed! Should I be trying to find an investor to sell a piece of the company, to raise the capital I need to keep my company alive? Or, should I be seeking a bankruptcy lawyer? Can I claim personal bankruptcy but keep my business?	People leave jobs and go back to their old companies all the time. Unless you left your old company in an unprofessional way, you're likely to still have some allies there. Start calling your old colleagues and boss and be honest and gracious about your situation. Maybe they can hire you back as a consultant.	Have you tried talking to a bank to attempt getting a business loan or business line of credit? It's usually based off revenue of last year, so that could be beneficial to bridge the gap until work picks up. Are there other locations near you that you could branch out into to look for work? Can you modify what you do to turn a buck? Maybe turn it into project management consulting?
Human: In an effort to curb some bad spending habits, my husband has cut up all his credit and debit cards and says he will no longer carry money in any form. He says if he needs to buy something, I will need to be with him. If he thinks he will need money for something, he will ask me in advance for cash. My initial instinct is that this is a terrible idea but I'm not sure why. I snuck a $20 bill behind his ID for emergencies. His work provides food and drink, so he's not going to starve. If he has car trouble he still has his Uber account set up on his phone. I drive his car often enough that I can fill up his tank when it gets low. I'm wondering your thoughts, /r/personalfinance. Is this a valid strategy to curb spending or is he insane? EDIT: Thanks for your thoughts and responses. I agree with those who said this is a fair short-term strategy but I was pretty taken aback that he cut up his cards rather than, say, put them in a sealed envelope until he felt like he could use them responsibly. I also agree that I don't want to be the gatekeeper to his spending, although it does make make me feel slightly better that I don't have to worry about excessive spending anymore. I've gotten a couple questions about what triggered this and what he was spending the money on. This is probably relevant and should have included it in the original post, but it seemed like more of a /r/relationships issue. Some of the spending was just random crap that he doesn't need like a $300 pair of slacks (we don't typically spend that much on clothing). However, I found out recently that my husband has been hiding some destructive behavior from me. I knew he was spending money poorly but I didn't realize how excessive it was until I started looking closely at the credit card statements. In the first 3 months of the year he spent $1500 at bars on credit cards and took out $2200 in cash. The cash was mostly spent on alcohol, drugs, and strippers (bachelor party). NOTE: I don't feel the drug/alcohol is an addiction, it was more of an issue of socializing and "getting it out of his system" before the baby arrives. The spending (and behavior) is troubling enough on his own but now I'm about to go on maternity leave and we're going to lose 1/3 of our income for a while. At this point we're working through our issues (marriage counseling) and he is trying to earn my trust back. So part of his reasoning for this stunt is so I don't have to worry about this particular issue anymore. In my opinion, that's not really trust. I need to be able to not worry about what he's spending money on when he does have the option of spending it. But maybe it's OK for now while we try to get back on our feet.	I think it's a bad idea purely because he's putting the burden of responsibility on you and not on himself.	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: Has anyone else had this happen to them? I just received the card in the mail a few days ago and was immediately hit with THIS: http://i.imgur.com/q1qwPE7.png I have 0 posted transactions with them yet. Here is a link to their website where they claim $0 membership fees: https://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/quicksilver/ The fact that there was supposedly no annual fee was one of the reasons I chose this card over another one which is why I'm upset. I feel like just cancelling it but I don't want it to negatively affect my credit so I feel stuck :(. Background info: I'm in my early 20s, and have a credit score is around ~680. What gives.	I would call in and ask to have the annual fee waived. It's possible. My friend was approved for the Quicksilver One, called in to customer service and politely asked about switching to the Quicksilver instead of the Quicksilver One. The rep said that wasn't possible, so friend asked the rep if there was any way the fee could be waived, and they were able to do it for at least the first year. The key was to be polite and kind, not pushy. Then, after a year you can call and ask to change your card to the $0 fee Quicksilver. By building up a positive history with CapitalOne you're likely to be able to get that. And even if you don't, by making your payments on time for a year you'll have built up your credit score so you should be able to qualify for a different $0 annual fee card.	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: She relocated to an economically-depressed area of California (it's where she had a couch to crash), but only has $1,000 with which to secure some kind of housing before her friend's landlord wants her off the couch and in her own place. She's got ten days to do so. She's got enough money for rent this month, but most places are looking for an $800-1,000 deposit. She's applying for jobs like crazy, but she needs a roof over her head and doesn't have enough time to grab a paycheck. What are her options to avoid staying in a shelter?	Sounds like she needs a roommate or two.	If she has a a car sign up for uber. Drive for pizza joints. Basically try harder to get a job.
Human: My family was never happy, but recently it just got physical and I am not willing to tolerate being the house physical punching bag on top of emotional and mental stressball for these scumbags. My father is now saying get your shit and leave if you don't like being low man on the totempole and I'm quite content to leave. I spent my entire childhood trying to cajole some reasoned human reaction from them and I'm quite finished with them - I honestly hate them, and not in that edgy teenage rebel way, but honest to god resent them for sucking out anything positive in my formative years and I'm not letting this taint my next 35-80 years of life. Personal animosity aside, I need help: I need a place to stay in the space of a month. My father being so generous for once is letting me walk off with the old beater car so long as I can get insurance and tags. I have 1.5k, no contacts, basically a shut-in, struggle at finding employment, a tank full of fish that I have to care for, only a vague idea about financial aid and live in Orlando. Am going to school for engineering, terrible grades (hopefully will improve once I get on my feet) Could student loans secure my freedom? Any ideas?	As other people have said, get rid of the fish. I know it sucks to lose pets you care about, but your survival is more important than keeping them. Why do you struggle at finding employment? Look for any kind of job, especially in food service, since that could provide free grub in addition to money. Look for people seeking roommates on Craigslist.	There is already some great advice here, but have you thought about the military? It's a good option, and each branch will take you if you have any engineering skills (even without a degree).
Human: How do I ask them to fix this situation in a professional way without being accusatory? All of this stupid software implementation and I don't have any proof I worked..	>I want it fixed today. How do I ask them to fix this situation in a professional way without being accusatory? All of this stupid software implementation and I don't have any proof I worked.. Good job on tracking your hours. I would drive or talk to them and stress how important it is. That being said, it likely won't be fixed today. I am sorry to tell you that, but unless one of your managers cuts you a physical check that is quite unlikely.	Tell them according to my records these are the hours I worked and my paycheck doesn't reflect this. How can we resolve this issue? If your manager rejects your claim, you can try to find witnesses that you were working to support your claim. But I wouldn't worry about jumping down this path until you talk to them first about the missing money.
Human: Title pretty much sums it up, but here are the details: * I am 27, making about 100k/year, living in a major U.S. city alone in an apartment (no spouse/kids). Rent is about $1300/month. All other expenses about $700/month, and I have my safety ~6months of living expenses + retirement. * I graduated with about 90k in student loan debt. My salary has increased fairly dramatically in the years since graduation (about 40k total in raises) - Basically, I live comfortably, but nothing extravagant * The debt is now at about $58k. Here is the breakdown: * Loan 1: $16k at 6% (in my name) * Loan 2: $34K at 7.9% (in my dad's name) * Loan 3: $7.5k at 8.5% (in my dad's name) * I can get a loan through SoFi to cover the remaining amount of all loans at an interest rate of 5.375%. My credit score about 730. Okay, finally to my question. If I take out that loan through SoFi, will no doubt save money over the remaining life of my loans. HOWEVER, the loans in my dad's name will now fall under my name. If I'm paying on these loans anyway, is it worth it to take them under my name? Yes, I know legally they're in my dad's name, but at this point it's not worth stress on the family to just stop paying and pretend like they don't exist. My financial situation is far better than my dad's (who's near retirement), and I work a stable/growing job market with high salary potential as I continue to "climb the corporate ladder." I appreciate any thoughts here.	If they are your loans, and you are going to pay them; why not relieve your dad of any potential mental stress of being the co-sign?	Refinancing with SoFi takes you out of the federal loan system, and these sound like federal loans. Make sure you look at the benefits on the IBR, PAYE, PSLF, Forbearance list and look seriously at your life before you lose those benefits. (For example, if you think you might stop working or work in a low paying job for 2-6 years for child related reasons, then you might want to keep the ability to have a very low IBR payment.) Second, since you have a high income I might try to pay off that 8.5% loan in full if you can in the next 3 months before refinancing. That would lower the total amount to refinance significantly (and may lower your interest rate.) It would also lower your payments, of course. The only "Reason" to do it right now I guess is because you might be able to convince your self to do the emotional work of a big pay-off push right now, and that could do you good in the long run.
Human: Hi all, Moving to a new city after graduation next month. Will be living in an apartment complex. Have a job lined up, but due to industry norms there is a significant possibility that I will be leaving within 4-5 years for business school or an opportunity elsewhere. Given my situation, I was wondering if it made more sense to rent or buy furniture. ______ #Renting (+)Simplicity; Delivery and assembly service included. (+)Flexibility; if I leave for school it will be much easier to move out. (+)Guaranteed quality (-)More expensive in the long-run? #Buying (+)Cheaper? If I buy from IKEA or something though idk how much cheaper it will be. (-)Transportation will be difficult. I drive a small car and atm don't know anybody in the city who owns a truck or anything. (-)Difficult to liquidate if I move for school. (-)Craiglist is a bit sketchy/more of a hassle if I go that route. ________ What do you people think? Any other considerations or insight you have are appreciate.	Let me give you my experience with renting furniture through your apartment complex: * If the apartments are new, so is the furniture, and it will be fairly nice if you are at a decent complex. * The bed frame is usually metal, and sits high off the ground for storage underneath. It will squeak like crazy. * The mattress is a set of springs wrapped in plastic/rubber. Seriously, I don't think there is any padding at all in those damn things. I slept on a twin mattress in Iraq that was light years better than those damn things. * After a year, depending on the rental cost, you probably could have bought your own budget furniture. After two years, you could have bought fairly decent furniture. I would personally never do it again. I don't want anything that someone else has had their nasty body all over. I would rather invest in furniture that I can take with me wherever I go. EDIT: If you do a google image search for "prison mattress", you will get a very good idea of what the rental furniture mattresses are like. This is no joke. I live in Tuscaloosa, AL and I have always lived in apartments that rented to mostly college students and those are the mattresses that every single place uses. I currently own a TempurPedic. Haven't had any back problems since getting it and always feel very good after sleeping in it. People say to invest in your mattress for your back. Those people are right.	You could scope out a couple thrift stores and figure out which has a decent selection of furniture. Then rent a van for a day and buy furniture from the thrift store and IKEA.
Human: I am a veteran, and I'm planning to put 5% down payment on a 300k home. So va loan = 5% downpayment + VA funding fee ($4750) + closing costs ($5000) conventional = 5% downpayment + closing costs ($5000) + PMI (80$/month for 3 years) the fees of the VA loan is going to cost more in the end than taking the PMI hit on a conventional loan. so what is the purpose of the VA loan then? edit: i am 0% disability	VA loans can do 0% down.	Good interest rates and 0% down.
Human: Hello, I found a great townhouse via craigslist in Ohio. It's a sublease, as I'll be finishing out the remainder of the lease of the current residents until June. I may reconsider re-leasing because it's a nice place in a safe neighborhood, and the price is good with no chance of it being raised (or so I've been told by management). However, when I went in yesterday to get the lease signed over to me, I was told I needed to pay a one-time, non-refundable administration fee of $199. This was the first time I heard about this fee. Even the current residents didn't know about it until yesterday. The current residents paid a deposit that they will be refunded after the lease ends. I don't need to pay any type of deposit, just the admin fee. I asked management what the fee covered exactly and a supervisor explained it to me that it's for expansions to the property such as processing and a new gym. When the current residents signed, they were required to pay deposits, but since a new company took over the property, they no longer accept deposits and simply require all tenants to pay the admin fee. My issue is this: if I'm taking over an existing lease, shouldn't the parameters be the same? Why must I pay an admin fee if I only choose to stay there for the remainder of the lease (which is just a few months)? What happens if I don't resign a lease? I brought up the idea that I hold off on paying the admin fee until after I resign because it simply wouldn't be worth it to me to pay it if I only stay there until June and choose not to resign. They said they'd get back to me on that and I ended up not signing the sublease. Do I have any recourse here? It's not just that I'm upset I wasn't told about the admin fee ahead of time (I am upset about that) . . . it's that I'm upset that I have to pay it when all I'm doing is taking over an existing lease that didn't require it and I may only stay until the sublease ends. What can I do here, if anything? I live in Ohio if that makes a difference. TLDR; In lieu of paying a deposit, I'm supposed to pay a non-refundable Admin Fee that wasn't required of the original tenants that I'm taking over the lease for. What can I do?	/r/legaladvice but I doubt you can do anything about it. They can change whatever fees that way beforehand. If you don't like it, don't sign.	Check your state laws, fees like this are illegal in some places.
Human: So i was in a work accident when i was 18, i received a lump sum 2 years ago, i was drinking a lot then so i asked my mom to hold onto it till i sobered up which i have.... I've received a steady income and since my accident people from my moms side have come to me for loans.. On top of the $21,000 i put in my moms savings, her family, my sister, grandpa, uncle, and my mom, owe me around $4150 from over the years, i was recently approved for a mortgage and forced my mom to show me my savings account and found out i was sitting at $17,000, she dipped in when she was helping refugees in kos for 2 months... She's going back to help refugees, even though she's broke, again, but refuses to transfer my money "until i buy an apartment" which makes no sense since i need the deposit before hand... I'm done with my moms side of the family, taking advantage of a disabled persons income is just sad, any advice is welcome.	Attorney here. Don't trust people with money, seen too much shit to say otherwise. If you're going to let them "borrow" or "shelter" your money, might as well think of it as if you gave them the money. PS: don't ask legal advice in the internet, unless you absolutely know the person you're chatting with is an attorney for your specific problem and in the same region/city.	There is usually very little sympathy for people who are unable to manage their own money in this sub. Personally, I don't think if people are unable to manage their own money, the best advice is to "just learn how to do it". If you ever feel like falling off the wagon again, for $20k you could buy an annuity that pays $1k/year ($20/week) forever. Which is not great, but being able to buy food and a little gas every week is better than blowing it all on hookers and coke over the course of a month, or falling out with a family over it. At the end of the day, it's just money. Your relationship with your mother is surely much more valuable than $20k. Even if only in its magnitude, the value being negative.
Human: Hi PF, I have learned a lot from you over the last couple years and now I think it is time to have you all weigh in and critique me. 27 years old - Single - no children - only debt is mortgage and student loans - medical professional - stable career - I will be getting a 25k gift from my parents shortly need help selecting the proper loans to pay off to maximize the value of this gift. Also, I will be moving my parents into my house due to their age and health status. Instead of me charging them rent, they want to contribute $1k a month to my student loans to help me pay them off quicker. (They are financially independent - they are moving in strictly so I can keep an eye on them, making sure they take their medications - get to MD appointments etc - and I will be giving them my first floor master bed and bath so they don’t ever have to make steps - and no I am not Asian). I don’t mind my parents living with me too much I will pretty much have a basement that is setup to be a 1,000 sq ft income suite. My goal is to pay off the student loans as soon as possible. Once they are paid off, I will either buy myself another house (if there is a girl in the picture) and let my parents and my brother live in my house for cost or (if no girl in the picture) just dump as much cash as I can into saving vehicles and FIRE before 50. I was also wondering what PF thought about purchasing an “own job” disability insurance. My company does not offer a good group policy and was wondering if the cost was worth it for a person in my situation. Thanks PF! Assets Checking Account - $11,200 Emergency Fund - $15,000 Life insurance fund - $1,200 - Annual premiums for both term and whole life are $1,900 a year ($500k) - Don’t turn this into a thread about how horrible whole life is - I have done a lot of research on it and have determined that a small loss in potential gains compared to a 401k is worth the security/advantages of what the policy can offer and it will only be a small part of my portfolio. Car - Paid off - worth about 8k. Apple stock $4,281 Old Job 401k - $19,433 Old Job Vested ESPP value - $3,067 Current job 401k - $5,400 (started job in July 401k was introduced to company in October - I put $500 in a month and they match up to 3%) House - Purchased for $173k - Put 10k into it in renovations (new kitchen, and new masterbath, new floors, and new lights and fans) House down the street (same floor plan) is currently on the market for 245k. Mortgage balance is around 160k (owned for less than a year) Liabilities Current Balance $5,802.87 Interest Rate 8.000% Current Balance $22,471.13 Interest Rate 5.000% Current Balance $22,598.67 Interest Rate 6.000% Current Balance $15,716.92 Interest Rate 8.000% Current Balance $22,504.13 Interest Rate 3.750% Current Balance:$17,859.59 Interest Rate:6.8% Current Balance:$19,603.60 Interest Rate:7.9% Current Balance:$3,149.56 Interest Rate:3.4% Current Balance:$4,379.73 Interest Rate:4.5% Current Balance:$1,963.72 Interest Rate:6.8% Current Balance:$5,945.71 Interest Rate:8% Current Balance:$4,427.15 Interest Rate:5.6% Current Balance:$2,077.52 Interest Rate:6.8% Current Balance:$2,187.95 Interest Rate:6.8% Current Balance:$3,636.19 Interest Rate:6% Current Balance:$2,831.24 Interest Rate:6.8% Total Student Loan debt is about 157k (down from $207,005.88 when I graduated) Budget - Net take home pay $5,200/month Student loans - 2K/month Mortgage/taxes - 1.2k/month Utilities - $300/month Gas and Car insurance - 150/month Cell phone - 50/month Food - 200/month Life Insurance - 160/month Entertainment - 200/month Vacation - 100/month Gifts/ - 40/month Emergency fund - 100 Whatever is leftover at the end of the month goes to paying off the top student loan.	You've got about $25K in 8% loans, so start there.	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: - [Student Loans wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/studentloans) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/debt#wiki_what.27s_the_best_way_to_pay_down_my_debt.3F) I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.
Human: Last week on Credit Karma, my payment rate was 95% (horrible) because of a shared auto loan between myself and my ex wife, where she missed multiple payments. I finally got her to pay it off completely with tax return money and it has shown up as a closed account. My payment rate is now at about 97% and only lists a few old missed payments, none of which are from the auto loan. Do missed payments drop off like that when it comes to installment loans? Or would they show up on a real credit report?	They remain on your report for 7 years.	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: - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/debt#wiki_what.27s_the_best_way_to_pay_down_my_debt.3F) - [Dealing with collections](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/collections) - [Credit repair](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building#wiki_i_have_bad_credit.2C_and_i_am_looking_to_repair_it.) I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.
Human: I've been trying to be on top of my CC payments since I got this thing in December. I'm enjoying the splendors of not having to pay any interest on my card for the first 15 months. So this Wednesday, I scheduled 2 payments - one that paid off the charges I racked up last month and another that's my bi-weekly payment from my paycheck. I got the CC to buy a scooter, so I know exactly how much I have to pay off each month in order to pay it all off by Jan 2017 (2 month ahead of schedule - just in case). So I did the math for this round of payments (I should just schedule one large payment instead of two, I know) and by today, I should have $XXXX balance. I checked the account today and it looks like my new balance is $100.93 higher than I calculated. I have the paper I did the math on in front of me. I don't see where I went wrong. And unlike checking accounts, CC activity doesn't show the new balance after every new charge - which I'm now feeling a little suspect about. What I really want to do is go back and see what my balance was on Wednesday and re-do the math, but I can't find that information anywhere. Not even in the confirmation email of my scheduled payment. What are the chances Chase "miscalculated" my end balance? Should I just calm down and trust what my account says?	> What are the chances Chase "miscalculated" my end balance? A lot lower than the chances you miscalculated it, to be candid about it. They do this for a living. There could be other issues at work here, but miscalculation is pretty unlikely.	Were both payments taken out of your checking account, or was only one processed? Sometimes the websites won't let you make a payment if the previous one hasn't gone through yet.
Human: About 2 years ago I was convinced by a new financial advisor at NWM to get a whole life policy. My wife was convinced to do the same, and combined we are dumping over $900/month into respective policies for each of us. I have been contemplating killing it for a while, as we also have a sizable amount of debt (home and student loans), and are about to relocate to a much more expensive area for a better job opportunity for me (we both work, she won't have a major issue finding work either, and won't move until a new job is secured). I will note that I DO think we can afford to keep the policy, I just hate the idea of having policies that I feel we were bamboozled into, and constricting our quality of life and short/medium term savings opportunities for the potential benefit of being able to draw from/borrow the cash value on a convoluted life insurance policy. The same advisor sold us disability insurance (since we both were doing contract work at the time) and had the rest of our assets in their brokerage accounts which we were paying ~1.5% for in fees. I have since undone both of these (assets now in Vanguard index funds per /r/personalfinance's advice). These are the last questionable accounts tying us to NWM (other than IRAs), and I've already approached them about the repercussions of killing them. Below are some details of our policies. Mine (note I dumped about $12k into from a VUL - yep, I'm an asshole - I had prior with another bank) Death Benefit: $370k Net Cash Value: $15k Start Date: March 2014 Annualized Premium: $3,700 &nbsp; Wife's Death Benefit: $600k Net Cash Value: $6500 Start Date: March 2014 Annualized Premium: $7,300 &nbsp; As I understand it, we would get the entirety of the cash value by closing the account, and wouldn't have to pay any "fees" other than realizing the loss between our total annualized premiums (what we paid) and that cash value (what we get out). &nbsp; Questions: - Do you think it makes sense to cancel these policies this "early" into the process? I feel like canceling mine makes more sense due to high cash value in it. - Is there anything else with canceling a whole life (NWM specifically) policy that I should be accounting for or asking about? &nbsp; Thank you so much for reading and for any advice you can offer. Better to sort this out later than never :/	>new financial advisor Sales person. >I will note that I DO think we can afford to keep the policy, They're likely a waste of money. >being able to draw from/borrow the cash value on a convoluted life insurance policy. Replace it with term and you won't need to use your life insurance like a credit card. You'll just have money. $900 a month will buy you an outrageous amount of term. Get the term in place first and then cancel.	You could indeed get the whole cash value back with no penalties if they are standard WL policies. If you really want that money back, it is indeed there. I also think that these policies could have been designed a lot more towards getting the highest possible ratio of premium to cash value. There is some potential there to convert these to policies that are strictly better than what you have now. Everything better or equal. I got quoted on Penn Mutual blended 166k WL / 333k TL with about about the best PUA deal in the industry. The annual payment on that is about 3400. That converts to straight 500k WL by itself over 65 years. That has cash value itself. On top of that, I can put in up to 12k/y that goes straight to cash value at 95 cents on the dollar and raises the death benefit by like 3-3.5x the additional contribution amounts. All the reasons you got the policies to begin with are still there, including the ability to take policy loans that you don't have to pay back and the ability to withdraw up to the amount you put in without tax or hassles. Honestly, you should really not be buying anything that is called "Whole Life" and thinking about the 2 year performance metrics. Everything is highly likely to be down after 2 years, even stuff that doesn't have all the same advantages as WL. Nobody should be putting money they need in the next 2 years into any kind of investment except maybe short term CDs or money market accounts. You should really be evaluating this based on what your situation will look like 30 years from now.
Human: I'm just a youngin that recently graduated college and got a job with my degree. Current company I'm working for isn't offering me benefits yet. I don't believe they do matching anyway. Either way, I want to start a ROTH IRA asap but need some advice and a repituble source/contractor/program to go through. Any good ones?	Vanguard, Fidelity, or Schwab. Please read the information found in the [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index), particularly ["I Have $[X] ... What Do I Do With It?!"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics). You may find [Your IRA and You: Basic Information](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/iras) and [Your 401k and You: Basic Information](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k) worth a read as well.	betterment.com - autodeposit $100/mo so you get the 0.25% fee instead of $3/mo fee - 90% stocks/10% bonds cuz you're young but the 10% bonds allows rebalancing - then just log in once in a while and check how you're doing, very easy. Add your account on mint.com and you can see everything in one place, on PC or on your smartphone. In a decade or so when you have $XX,XXX or so and might start caring about squeezing that 0.25% fee even lower you can just roll it over to Vanguard. In the meantime while you have very little invested, 0.25% will be pocket change and you get the advantage of a much better interface than Vanguard has, spiffy charts and graphs, and can let them manage which funds you're in (all you set is asset allocation, % of stocks versus % of bonds) while you learn more about investing and get more confidence that you know how it all works.
Human: This is a hypothetical. I'm guessing the answer to the question is a resounding "No", but I couldn't find a thread on this. If someone turns down job A offering 70k, is it acceptable to negotiate job B saying, I got offer 70k, I want more than 50k for this job! Assistant: Its a delicate balancing act, if you say you have this other offer and give a specific amount they could just say "well go take that other job". I would advise speaking a bit more generally along the lines of "well i am currently also exploring other offers, based on my research into salaries with similar jobs im looking to gain something more along the lines of X amount". That way youre not giving out any specifics about any other offers and you put the ball in their court of saying they are standing firm or if they could come up a little more Human: There has to be some kind of time limit to this right? Like imagine I turn down a job offer from 10 months ago. Or 5 years ago. o.O I guess it wouldn't really matter much if one doesn't go into the specifics.	> I guess it wouldn't really matter much if one doesn't go into the specifics. You don't even need an offer to negotiate, you need to be willing to walk away from whatever offer they're giving you. If you're willing to walk away from a job offer, then you have all the leverage in the world (of course, the person making the offer may be willing to do the same). The bottom line is, do you think you have more value than what they're offering to the point that they'd rather offer more than go back to interviewing people. Edit to add: If this is a contracting company you should ALWAYS negotiate, as they always have room to adjust their % cut. And pretty much anything will be making them a profit, as their overhead is minimal.	well if you speak generally enough theres no real way of them verifying you do have other offers. thats why I would avoid specifically saying "well i do have this other offer, or i did have this other offer".
Human: Hi everyone, So I started filing my taxes on TurboTax last night and found that I owe about $6,000 in taxes despite only making about $31,000. This is my first year of having and 1099s as my main source of income (I also have three W2- totaling about $4,000). I have two 1099-MISC that are about $27,000. I added my deductions and write-offs, which brings it down to $24,450. I also have my student loan 1089, which is about $1,500. Does $6,000 seem really high to anyone else? I can't afford a tax adviser where I live (they run $500-$600/hour), so it'd be great if I could get insight from the reddit community. Thanks! EDIT: Thanks for everyone's help! I clearly did not do my research for 2015 and am paying for it now. 2016 will be a different year! Currently taking an interest-free loan from my parents to pay off these taxes since I only have $4,000 to my name. Just when I thought I was passing off as an adult.... Assistant: The self employment tax on $24,450 net earnings is ~$3,455.00. Assuming you are filing status single, eligible to claim your personal exemption, and you aren't assessed the Shared Responsibility Payment, your income tax liability should be ~$1,778.00, for a total federal tax of ~$5,233.00. Edit: you are probably being assessed the [Penalty for Underpayment of Estimated Tax](https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc306.html) as well. Are you including a state tax liability in your $6,000 total? Human: Yes I have about $780 in state tax. Wait, so if I haven't been making quarterly payments then I can be penalized for that? I wasn't even aware that I'm suppose to be making quarterly payments.	> I wasn't even aware that I'm suppose to be making quarterly payments You should probably go research what 1099 employment is.	> so if I haven't been making quarterly payments then I can be penalized for that? Yep. I forgot to pay one quarter but made up for it the following quarter. At the end of the year, I had _over_ paid in taxes and was due a refund; however, I still incurred an underpayment penalty and my refund was reduced accordingly. So, yes, in America, you can both overpay and underpay your taxes in the same fiscal year.
Human: Hey guys, need some advice. When I started I was about 32K in the hole in CC and medical bills - got into an accident after I had lost my job. I'm employed now and over the last 9 months have been aggressively paying off my cards - Thanks for all the advice this sub has provided. I'm about $11k in the hole now. I'm getting a pretty large amount of money back after taxes (around 3k). I'm not quite sure what to do with it. thoughts? What comes to mind is: 1) Put it all towards my CC 2) save it or 3) invest it [EDIT/UPDATE] I should have been more clear. I am being refunded $3000. I do not owe the Gov't this much. This is my refund AFTER I have already paid what is due back to fed and state(s).	Put it against the credit card! That is a terrific investment because the you will save a lot on interest and your future payments will cause those cc balances to fall even faster.	Divide 1/3 into each of those options.
Human: I realize that going up in salary can bump you into higher tax brackets, but I didn't go up enough (AFAIK) to warrant this kind of change. Old job: 55k base, bi-weekly take-home: $1,667 New job: 65k base, bi-weekly take-home: $1,814 65,000 / 55,000 = 18.2% increase 1,814 / 1,667 = 8.8% increase I realize you can't directly compare the two due to differences in taxes, but a 10% difference seems wrong, isn't it? This is in Minnesota. Just doing very rough calculations, I was really banking on my paycheck being about $100 more than it currently is (15% bump over old paycheck). It won't put me in any trouble, but I'm a little disappointed that it's $100 lower than what I thought was a decently conservative expectation. I should also note that these are the true take-home earnings. My old job didn't offer a 401k, and they also didn't charge me a dime for health insurance. My new job has a 401k/health insurance, but I can't join them for 30 days so this initial paycheck represents a blank slate of pay.	Could be many different things. You could have selected a different amount of withholdings on your taxes, you have something else coming out that you haven't accounted for, or other things. You are going to need to look at both pay stubs and take a look and do the math on percentage with held, taxes and other items coming out. Also, you are being taxed more but it shouldn't be that much.	1814 take home at 65k? Contribute to that 401k!
Human: So I have this belief that we're about to experience the bursting of the debt bubble, and aren't sure what's best to consider with that in mind. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.	Trying to time the market is a recipe for frustration and loss. If you really have this low of risk tolerance, than you can move some of your portfolio into bonds, treasuries and the like. But what you're trying to do is really called "gambling" not investing.	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: - [401(k) Fund Selection Guide](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k_funds) - [401(k) FAQs](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k) - ["How to handle $"](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.
Human: So I took a new job back in Jan where I was told that after 90 days I would start earning a bonus on the next months check (one month ahead, very similar to how commissions work for sales people). Any way this means that this month is the month that I would start earning for bonus potential for May. My wife does our finances and last month she asked why a check was higher than normal. I shrugged it off and said “I guess maybe some overtime”. Today she asked for a paystub so I logged in and looked. Now keep in mind bonuses are always paid on the check that comes on the 15th – the March 15th check was $2000 more. I looked at the stub and I was paid a bonus of 2k for that month. The bonuses I’ll be getting are more in the $500-$600 range per month. I know I’m not at all entitled to this money, as I didn’t earn it however I’m sure my wife has budgeted it. I told my bosses, boss about it (who happens to be my friend that helped me get the job) and she says I should be concerned about it. My fear is that I’m in a weird situation. Last thing I want to do is tell payroll and have them suddenly withdraw $2000 from my bank account and suddenly I over draft and everything on auto pay doesn’t go through and now I have all these fees. Curious about how I should handle this. My first instinct was to see if it happens again (in exactly a week). Because if it does, then it is right in line with someone earing a bonus based on my hire date (who probably negotiated waiving the 90 day period) but they messed up what they were supposed to pay me. Any advice is welcomed, this is a pretty stressful situation. Thanks!	< this is a pretty stressful situation. why? Don't spend it or be prepared to get paid less next month. They probably ask for the money back, or give you less next month.	Tell them ASAP. Nobody can withdraw money from your account without permission. Talk to your employer about a payback plan or other ways to handle it.