Datasets:

danielv835

/

personal_finance_v0.2

like 21

Human: I work for a small company that offers nothing in terms of retirement or investing. Just started to get my life together and wanted to know what my best options are for investing for the future. My monthly expenses are $1600 to $1800 a month. I make about 2k a month at best. What should I be investing in first? How would I go about investing in those particular areas? Is there someone I should look into talking to closer to home that can help? Any help or guidence would be fantastic. Edit: I guess a break down would have helped a bit! Sorry! Car payment: 297.67 Insurance: 107.87 Credit Card: 125 Engagement Ring: 150 Rent(Live with parent atm: 450 Gas: 150 Food: 250 Necessities(Bathroom needs/Personal Hygiene): 100 That's the breakdown. My fiance doesn't work atm, so i'm on my own with saving. We've cut out just about everything we could to help shore up what we can save/invest.

What do your debts look like, in ratio to your current income level? Paying off debts is the first step to putting money aside, particularly when you're looking at your current income level leaving very little wiggle room for unexpected expenses. Say, your transmission goes out on your car, or you slip and break your wrist, where's money come from to cover? I would recommend paying down debts, paying off car loans, etc, and putting aside at least $100 a month until you've got 3 months worth of expenses saved in a savings account that you don't touch. Then I'd move more into investigating retirement savings options after that's accomplished. Establish a better income-to-debt ratio, establish a safety net, and then plan for the long term savings.

107 a month for 1 person? WHat coverage and who do you use? I pay 700 for a full year for 2 cars, one fully insured and I can split it into 2 - 6 month payments. You should do what people are suggesting with the car though. If you are struggling the car payment can be dropped and you can buy a car much cheaper

Human: I travel a lot for my job so I don't see him much. The total debt added up to $2000 originally and has since been brought down to around $1000 over the passed 6 years. I had to pay my best friend/roommates rent when he was struggling with money to avoid bad credit and late fee's. He paid me about $400 of it in 2011 another $100 in 2015 and now $350 a few months back He finally has a good job now and makes probably 5 times more a year then I do. I don't think he's in any debt since he never went to college. I've asked at least over 10 times for the money but since I'm always gone its like out of site out of mind for him. I've suggested he makes small payments to me and that was when he gave me the $100 in 2015 and then told me he was broke the next month. So that obviously didn't workout... I'm now the one struggling with money and recently got him to help me pay half of my rent 3 months ago (the $350) He broke down and apologized for how long it has taken him to pay me back but told me hes going to finally do it now that he has a good job. Its now been 3 months since that day and I have also left town once again. I haven't heard anything from him about it since. We only talk once in a while about some bs here and there. I hate bringing it up because I shouldn't have to. Any suggestions of how to get this guy to finally pay me back even though I won't see him again for another 6 or 7 months?

Never gonna happen.

Ask him to.

Human: I have a few questions when it comes to my card. forgive me if this is basic info, this is my first card. My "closing date" is tomorrow. I have no due date. Also my balance is much less than how much I've actually spent. This is a Bank of America card. I make about 40k a year and I didn't have to put anything down. I have little to no credit history and this is my first month with my card. I've spent around 150 on it but my balance as of right now is only 50. Is this normal? How much should I pay? Should I pay it all? What is a closing date? Why isn't my due date displayed and why is my statement "unavailable"? I'm so lost. If anyone could do a run down on this whole thing before I accidentally run my credit into the ground, I'd really appreciate it. EDIT: Should also add when I got my job they didn't know if I was a real person because nothing came up under the credit search, and myfico returned me my money when I signed up because I have zero credit history.

Credit card billing is broken down into cycles (same concept as cell phone and utility bills). Each cycle closes on the closing date and the next cycle opens the day after. When a cycle closes, a statement is generated, containing all of your posted purchases. The sum total is your statement balance. The statement will also give you a due date, approximately 3 weeks from when the statement is generated. *Always pay the statement balance by the due date.* Any purchases made after the closing date appears on the next statement. > Why isn't my due date displayed and why is my statement "unavailable"? Because you haven't had a statement yet. It will generate on the closing date or soon after.

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: Hey guys, So my parents have been running their own company since 1980, and have been relatively successful over the years. They have a decent amount in their savings account. Over the past few years there have been several occasions where a relative has taken money from them. An uncle of ours persuaded them to give him about 120k so he could make a down payment on a prime piece of real estate for us (he's a real estate agent). So my parents agreed and thought it would be a great investment. Fast forward a few months, this uncle divorced my aunt and is now living in Italy with my parent's money. This money is all gone since they sent him the money via cashier's checks. As I'm getting older and more involved in the family finances, I've found out that they're losing thousands of dollars a month because of relatives like my uncle. They "loan" out money to relatives who never pay back, allow people to use the business credit card to buy personal items, etc. I love my parents, but they're extremely gullible and can't say no. What do you think I should do about this? Their business isn't doing so well lately, and my relatives are sucking their savings dry. I'm scared that when they retire in 10-15 years, they won't have enough to live comfortably. What would you do in my shoes?

It's very difficult to protect adults from their own foolish decisions. You can try talking with them about it, but arguments over family finances have led to many child/parent estrangements. Before you do anything, carefully consider how far you are willing to go with this, and whether you are ready to handle the worst-case outcome.

Can you have a straight talk with your parents about this and set boundaries? Can you talk to the relatives and let them know this needs to stop?

Human: I (26/m) don't know where else to turn, so I hope you guys have some advice for me. Sorry for the throwaway. I moved from a $120k a year sales position to a $45k civil servant position a few years ago. The cut in pay didn't affect my lifestyle much, as I was able to save quite a bit before I made the transition (thanks PF!). I have a home that is paid for (valued at $135k 2 years ago), a car that is way above my current salary (which isn't necessarily an issue), and minimal student loan and credit card debt. So what's the problem? My mom was in an accident last year, so my bills ballooned fairly recently into an unmanageable beast on my salary. She is currently waiting for disability and has moved in with me. I'll start with my bills, then add the new ones. My car - $682/mo (valued recently on trade in at $35,000. Owe $38,880) Car insurance - $190 Credit cards - $100/mo (only $2800 balance) Student loans - $70/mo ($6600 balance) Energy - ~$90/mo Internet - $68/mo Netflix - $8/mo Hulu - $11.99/mo Gas - ~$30/mo Water - ~$20/mo --New bills-- Her car - $468/mo (valued recently at $14000, owe ~$21800) Her car insurance - $360/mo Phone bill - $230/mo (I joined her plan and cancelled mine.) Her credit cards - 300/mo (~$15000 balance) Her life insurance - $100/mo Cancelled TV -$480 not yet paid Medical bills are astronomical, but the attorneys are handling them. I don't think I'm forgetting anything, other than miscellaneous times she'll need money for prescriptions (she doesn't have health insurance). In the midst of all of this I was hoping to move to another state, but that doesn't look feasible now. I've burned through virtually all of my savings, and the next step for me would be to cash in my 401k and clear all of the debt. I'd like to not have to, but I don't see any other options. I attempted to get a loan for the negative equity in her car to sell it, but have been unsuccessful. I have to get rid of her car and insurance. She can't use it, and it's killing me monthly. I bank through a credit union, who is willing to give me a loan against the house to pay all of the debt, but there has to be a better way... Thanks in advance PF. You guys helped me get to where I was, maybe you can help me find a light at the end of the tunnel... On mobile, sorry for any formatting errors

Did you notice how in the safety instructions on a plane they tell you," In case of an emergency to put your air mask on first and then help those dependent on you?" That advice is not to be cold and heartless its because if you pass out while struggling to help someone else you will both die. This applies here , you need to make sure you're mask is on or you wont be able to help your mom. Credit is important but in reality since you're willing to help only one of you needs decent credit and its very important to note credit can be rebuilt in 2 year (to qualify for a loan) and 4 years to qualify for a really good loan. Call your mothers CCs and say "Do to an extreme medical emergency we will not be able to pay on this." Give them some info(mom has $500,000 in medical bills , can not work and is not classified as disabled yet, if there is a lawsuit pending tell them ) , if they believe they can not collect they will put you on the bottom of the pile and all you will need to deal with is a few phone calls( for the most part they know they can not get money from a stone , your mom is noncollectable ATM ) If someone sues consult a BK lawyer at that point. LEt her car be repoed ...Thats 700 a month (are part of her medical bills from a car accident? )She could take a $30 Uber 3 times a week and still be better off. Yes people will bug her for them money but once the situation is resolved you can help her reestablish credit. That phone bill is nuts ... The way you are heading now you;ll both be bankrupt and homeless. Feed her , house her , get her to her Drs appointments but don't bankrupt yourself too buy paying off CCs and that car. AS a side note , most lenders understand devastating medical bills.

I'd recommend the same things most here have said, in that her bills aren't your bills. Let her car get repo'ed (she has more negative equity than you), cancel her car insurance, stop paying on her credit card bills, find cheaper cell phones. Maybe the most overlooked thing in this case, is make a phone call. Call the bank who has her car note. Call the TV company she owes $480. Call the credit card companies. Tell them what happened, see what they can do for you. They may wave fees, remove interest rates, offer super extended payment plans, they have lots of options to help your mom. If they know they aren't getting paid any time soon (if at all) it makes them much more amenable to offer a way to get something further down the road. It also buys you time for the lawyers to do their thing. In the end, however, car loans and credit card bills are contracts with defined penalties for breaking them. Wrecked credit is irrelevant to your mom right now, that is your ace in the hole.

Human: Hello Reddit, I am currently a freshman at a branch of a college and am saving up to transfer tot he main campus next year. Besides saving up for tuition, I am saving up for money to spend for going out, buying clothes, etc. I currently work 3 jobs. I am a student worker at my university. Taxes are taken out and everything, but I also house sit on the side and work 1 or 2 days at a local horse barn. Both house sitting and the barn pay me under the table an I have been putting the money in various spots around my house. I know that's not safe, but I do not want that money to be considered into my FAFSA process and put in a bank. I do have a savings account set up for college and 2 bank accounts that my paychecks and some outside money goes into. So my question is, what should I do with this money to keep it safer? I was going to get a safe, but people can pick that up if we are robbed. I was also recommended a lock box at the bank, but I have not looked into that. Finally, a friend recommended a personal check system through the bank, where I had the money in and they write a check to me. Any helpful information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

You're asking for advice on how to commit fraud. The correct answer to your question is to open a bank account, deposit the money, and report the income on your taxes and the asset (and income) on your FAFSA.

safe box at bank will cost you less than $100/year. You can convert $ into $100 notes and keep them there.

Human: I paid for my brother's tuition for 2015, which was over $5K. He is not a US citizen. He lived in another country for the entire year of 2015. He was however taking online classes and was a student at university here in the US. He is now in the US (moved to on-campus in Jan 2016), and now has a social security also. Can I claim him as a dependent while doing my 2015 taxes?

The person must be a U.S. citizen, a U.S. national, a U.S. resident, or a resident of Canada or Mexico. Since your brother was presumably none of those things during the tax year, the answer is probably no.

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: The past couple weeks my parents have told me they claimed my daughter for the year 2015. I am 27f, turning 28 in a month and I have an 8 year old daughter. My daughter and myself lived with my parents until July 20, 2015. I worked out a deal with my parents for rent by buying groceries throughout the year. I have paid for all of mine and my daughters other expenses (Transportation, clothes, school, school, etc.). I was able to do this with the student loans I had received throughout the year or two. I graduated college in the beginning of the year and got my first salary job which I started a couple days after July 20th. Since moving out of my parents, I pay approximately 600 dollars a month for the school child care and I also pay for all school fees etc. I need to do my taxes asap. What should I do?

a person can only be a dependent on one tax return. if you both claim her. you'll both get notices from the irs for one of you to amend your taxes. if neither of you amend, you'll both get audited. you can both do this to see who should be claiming her. https://www.irs.gov/uac/Who-Can-I-Claim-as-a-Dependent%3F

There is a worksheet, I think it is on p. 30 of Publication 17, for calculating support. If you provided more than half of your daughter's support, only you can claim, and get the child tax credit, file as Head of Household - hm, you can do that anyway - maybe EIC? And credit for child care, as you mentioned.

Human: My internship owes me $120 for two weeks of work that should have been paid already. $60 is two weeks late and another $60 is already one week late. I have contacted my boss and she keeps on saying that she'll look into it. It seems like nothing is being done and that they're just pushing it off. What can I do about this situation? Assistant: I would contact the Department of Labor in your state. My mother and some of my friends have had experiences with the California department immediately showing up to raise Hell when they get reports of labor law violations. Do not hesitate to file a report or get an attorney if they refuse to continue to pay you or start acting malicious towards you. I have no idea if this is the same for all states or for all employers though, the places my mother and friends were working at were paying employees minimum wage. Human: The company is based out of New York and I work in San Francisco. I get paid 10.74 while the minimum here is 12.25. Could this be another issue I could bring up even though this is technically an internship?

Minimum wage is minimum wage. They're taking advantage of you and stealing from you. I would absolutely open a dispute with the department of labor. If they pay you, cool. If not, that's on them, not on you.

Minimum wage should be based on where you're working, not where the company HQ is.

Human: PLEASE HELP! Resources, suggestions or advice very appreciated! Okay, so I just recently (last month) got a secured credit card (Finally!) with a limit of $200, after years of trying to get a CC (without knowing that applying a lot hurt my credit) and finding out that my Mom ruined my credit by using my name for countless utilities bills and other bills when I was under 18 that she never paid. My current credit score sits at 538 (the average). I have lived off purely cash/debit on my own since I was 16 yo. In regards to moving forward, I know to pay off my statement balance right after its due in full each month, and to keep the statement balance under 30% utilization of my credit ($60) and to keep using and paying off this credit card for as long as I can before opening any other Lines of Credit to maximize my score. I am also going back to school this summer and am taking out student loans for roughly $60,000 over the next 4 years which will cover my tuition and school expenses. My living expenses are minimal because of my boyfriend, who covers most of rent and food, but I do live in (and will go to school in) the SF Bay area which is super expensive. The main problem: Apart from the stuff my mom did (Most of which has been removed after 7 years, but not all of them for some reason, Please advise on this!), I erroneously took on some debt of own that I never paid, nor attempted to pay in the last 5 years. Mainly 2 medical bills from the emergency room (for a total of ~$2150) and a loan for $541 from AMScott for a total balance of $2,734 of unpaid debts. What do I do??? Basically I don't know how to go about dealing with these debts, whether or not to pay them off in full or in part, leave them untouched until the statute of limitations is reached, or reach an agreement with the creditors. Is it better to pay them off or leave them alone in regards to my credit score and securing lower interest for my student loans and future loans??? I've read conflicting stuff online on what to do and am seeking the advice of Reddit to help me understand what I should do. I know I have made mistakes but now I want to fix them and move on with my life and get it on track in regards to my credit. Tl;dr: My mom (Mainly) and myself ruined my credit score, and I need advice on how to salvage it, Please Help! The stats: My (current) income: $30,100 (annual) $2500/month ~$1600 after taxes/month My total current Debt: ($2,734) Future debts: will have ~$60,000 in student loans debt after 4 years Future income: Approx: $50-70k for my major and career path. Income during school (will go down as I go part time, but I may switch back to serving to make more) Main costs (Monthly): Rent: (My portion) $600 of $2150 total a month (screw SF Rents) Variable costs and bills total: $800-900 GM: ~$100-$200 a month left over for misc and random costs. Should I put this money towards the debt I have or save it for extra college costs? what would help my credit score the most??? If you read all of this and can help I would really appreciate it!

Dispute the items with the credit reporting agency. You were under 18. They're not your debts.

> I erroneously took on some debt of own that I never paid, nor attempted to pay in the last 5 years. Well, you could just wait for two more years for these items to fall off of your credit report as well. In the meantime, build your credit report with the smart and good use of your secured credit card, and in two years time it will look much better. You can dispute any of the items that are over seven years old directly with the credit reporting agencies. The credit reporting agencies should take them right off, as they have passed the seven year mark.

Human: My brother is in Drexel's undergraduate environmental engineering program. Its 5 years long and he is in his 3rd year. His last year is a co-op. He believes he will make a starting salary of $100K or more. He explained that Drexel also pitches this and its true. He will likely have a bit over six figures of debt as he doesn't have any scholarships. I know Drexel is a great school, but I can't help but be cynical. I knew engineering grads from my alma mater (TCNJ) who graduated and landed salaries of $50-70K (higher end for BME, Chem and lower for mech and civil). The co-op adds one year of work experience but I find it hard to believe that a bachelor level environmental engineer with one year of work experience would make six figures. And even though he is paying for the name, I don't know if $45K a year is worth it. Perhaps its because I graduated right in the middle of the recession. Anyone know more about the matter?

Depends on location, industry and how well he did in school, but $100k+ entry level salaries are the exception, not the norm. Maybe it's different for environmental engineering, but Drexel is nowhere close to being a top engineering school.

Your brother will not be making $100k right out of college. The BLS lists the median wage as ~$83k, and if I had to guess, a fresh undergrad would fall in the half below $83k rather than the half above it (because it's the median wage not mean wage..), so probably around $70k. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/environmental-engineers.htm

Human: I am 35, Married, plenty of kids. I'm not sure what I will be making at the new company, but I think pretty safely in the range of 75k-100k per year. I am woefully uneducated in retirement savings. What should I do with the 38k sitting in my 401k. I might be able to move it into a different 401k with the same firm that manages it now... if thats an option, what kind of questions should I ask? Not sure if this is relevant, but the new company is set up as an LLC, with each of us owners setting up personal S-corps. (I say that like I know what I'm talking about.. but I don't really). I was not an owner in the company that is going out of business.

roll it to an IRA at vanguard. do a direct rollover so it never touches your hands.

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 currently attend a small community college and will be earning my associate of science of engineering in May. I was recently accepted by the University of Champaign-Urbana's college of Engineering and am looking at over $35,000 in tuition next year and am scared shitless. I have no current debt, I'll get $0 from FAFSA, and only have $5,000 saved. Reddit, what do I do other than fill out a shit ton of scholarships to keep my head above the wave of college debt?

Congrats on your education so far! I know PF hates student loans, but $70k over two years and graduating as an engineer is not generally a bad deal. I work in an engineering field, and the starting pay is good enough that everyone I work with has paid them off within 5-10 years. You can reduce that number by working and grabbing at small scholarships, but you realistically aren't going to get from $70k to <$10k in loans. You did the best thing you can to reduce that on the front end by attending community college- you probably already saved yourself $60k.

Instead, just buy the new $35k tesla and become an uber driver.

Human: I'm not looking for moral advice. My old work keep paying me, I left 3 months ago and they have continued to pay me and send me a wage slip, although the wage they are now paying me is slightly larger than what I was earning when I worked there. A third of the money has gone into my overdraft, so if I were to close my account that money would be taken and if I was forced to pay back my old employer then I would have to find the money elsewhere. Is it possible to stop my bank from accepting their payments? If there isn't then I'm torn between letting them continue to pay me and see how it plays out or sending them a letter to advise them it is happening. I'd like to know if they could take me to court and demand the money back, the error is on their part after all. I know the right thing to do would be to contact them and pay the money back in full and that is probably what I would do, I just want to look into other options as the money would do a lot of good for me and the company is so large it isn't going to miss a couple of grand.

If you don't alert your previous employer, they can press charges and make you pay it all back when they find out. This happened to two people that I know. Just be careful.

What state do you live in? Check your state laws, some of them require you to agree to give it back(California). Also, many times, it is just cheaper to let you kee it then to go to court, so the longer it goes on, the better chance they would sue you.

Human: Hi Reddit, My husband and I recently got married and we're looking to buy a two family home in a busy college town. We would live in the larger unit while leasing out the one-bedroom to cover about 50% of the mortgage. We both have good credit (720 and 750), but do not qualify for a conventional loan because I'm a student and not earning income (postbac pre-med), and my husband is a fourth-year resident about to enter fellowship. He is the sole income earner, has about $30,000 in retirement savings and $230,000 in student loans. However, I am debt free and have $380,000 in investments which return about 10% annually. My understanding is that mortgage companies calculate an applicant's risk of defaulting based on their debt-to-income ratio. Since my income is zero I don't qualify for a conventional loan, and because my husband's debt is so high relative to his current resident salary he doesn't qualify either. We've been offered a FHA loan but that sounds like complete shit when it comes to the PMI. We've looked into a physician's mortgage but they don't seem to really help our particular situation since they are designed to allow soon-to-be-doctors with high earning potential to buy a house with little to no money down in exchange for a slightly higher interest rate. Since we have plenty of cash, we really want to minimize our interest rate (and other monthly expenses, such as the PMI for FHA loans) and aren't worried about the amount of money we need to put down. We've even considered paying cash for a home, but I don't want to put all of my money into a single piece of real estate. Due to these circumstances, would it be a good decision to completely pay off my husband's student loans so that we can qualify for a conventional mortgage? Doing so would leave me with enough money for the down payment with about $70,000 left over. Thank you in advance for your advice!

>my husband is a fourth-year resident about to enter fellowship So he's doing extremely well for himself and will be able to pay off his student loans with ease. There is no rational reason to even bring up having you pay them off. If he were planning to be a dependent "house husband" and you wanted that, that might make sense but he is planning to work as a doctor. Therefore this would in essence be a 230K gift to your doctor husband, which you would have no claim on in the event of a future divorce. It is excessive, makes no sense, and is not worth talking about. >I am debt free and have $380,000 in investments which return about 10% annually. What do you mean "returns about 10% annually"? What kind investments are these? At any rate, if you really think that buying real estate is a good idea, you can take out a loan against that portfolio, or just cash it out and pay all or a high percentage of the price cash. Whether buying is a good idea depends on how likely you are to stay in that area you are in now, and the liquidity in that area, among many other things. It does not seem like a good idea based on a superficial reading, but more details would be required to make that judgment. As to whether you should hand your husband a six figure gift, that answer is obvious. (A fair number of comments in this forum are thinly disguised boasting. They usually take the format "I am a highly paid professional or studying to be one, and I also have a pile of money, please tell me what to do with it". These comments may be appropriate for r/investing. They aren't personal finance questions, and the OP's know that.) "Should I give my new husband, who is a doctor, $230,000 as a gift?" is a personal/relationship question, with a rather obvious answer. I bothered to answer here to give that answer. Potential personal mistakes with money do come up here. They are better dealt with in a therapist's office or, as a very poor substitute, a reddit sub about personal issues, but they do come up here and often the correct advice is given. "I have $380K in a portfolio and I am wondering about a real estate investment" is a relatively high level investing question and nowhere near enough information is provided here.

Yes. Help them pay his debts. Its not two of you now Now you guys are one in Jesus Christ Your money is his and his is yours and both incomes are now under a financial planner who can also be your living God. Trust him and you will see Thanks An ex- atheist

Human: He's 35 years old, no assets, no dependents but its complicated as I had just financed to own a brand new car in my name with him co-signing to help his bad credit. Like an idiot I didn't add it to my policy and let him drive it off the lot with a promise that he'd shop around because he is also expensive to insure for past accidents that were small in scope and tickets. I didn't expect that I'd lose my brother and now I am probably on the hook for a new car that looks to be totaled. Not sure who is at fault yet my parents got the call from the coroners office earlier this morning in the AM. Not sure if the other person got hurt. My parents are getting older and it usually fell on my older brother or myself to handle things and he was the financial guy. It was usually my brother that handled most of it. So this falls on me now and I am lost. My family is living month to month and doesn't have much to work with. Can anything be done? Can my family get sued? I haven't called my auto insurance provider yet. Besides the car, any other advice will be appreciated. Thanks for reading. Edit: Didn't add the car to my policy* Edit: Haven't slept yet. I will answer any questions after I wake up. Thanks again. Update 10pm 4/9* Thank you for all your help and well wishes. I called my agent and he did confirm that my policy has a 14 day grace that can be back dated to cover the car. I filed an initial claim and I'm waiting to hear back from the claims adjuster. The police are still trying to collect evidence and it may take a little while. Assistant: I'm so sorry about your brother. On the car, does't your insurance cover it even if someone else is driving? Human: Thanks. I haven't added the new car to the policy. It was less than 10 hours since it was driven off the lot

You're almost certainly covered by your existing policy then. Call and tell them what happened.

In that case you almost certainly had coverage on the car at the time of loss. Most states require automatic coverage as long as the car is added within a certain number of days agter being purchased. This number may only be a few days so call them now.

Human: My brother is interested in leasing a car. Our parents helped him in high school, and he put some money in it when things broke of course, but just recently, the engine failed, and the car is worth less than the 1500-3500 to replace it. He is now interested in leasing a car for 36mo. He is seeing the $0 down offers in the papers, X amount per month. Is it really only what it says? I'm curious about hidden fees, or surprises at turn in. For Those who have used these leasing offers, are they too good to be true? Can the dealers accept the broken car to turn in? He will have to tow it in

Leasing is a rip off and is the most expensive way to obtain a car. Your brother would be better off buying a nice used beater car with cash. Ironically, by the time you figure up what he'd end up paying out of pocket for the lease fees PLUS the depreciation, he would likely pay less in repairs and maintenance on a used car during the same time frame of the lease. Have him buy a used car for $2k cash and then pay himself a $300 /mo car payment into a savings account for 20 months (which gets him $6k) and then he could sell the $2k beater and take the $1k to $1.5k proceeds and add it to the $6k he saved up and buy a $7k-$7.5k nicer car. Then have himself pay himself $300 /mo into a savings account for another 20 moths (another $6k) and sell off used car #2 for $5k-$6k and take the $6k he saved and buy himself a nice used $10-$12k car! Smack some common sense into him!!!!!

Don't lease a car unless you have money to burn or you need to write off the cost of the lease as a business expense. Your brother needs to go buy a cheap used car in cash. Buy it from a dealer if you must, but know that the purchase process is as bad as the lease process with respect to additional fees, taxes, etc.

Human: Recently my wife and I did some exhaustive research when deciding to purchase a new vehicle for the first time in 15 years. I hope this info will be informative. You can scroll to the end for the TL;DR info. ### 1. Know the True Cost ### So you budgeted for a $400 a month payment. Do not forget property taxes (if they apply where you live) and the fact that your insurance rates will go up. Factor these things in. They do matter. A lot. We worked out a $365 a month payment, but after calculating the property tax and insurance costs, the price raised to over $500 a month. If you have a vanishing deductible policy, I would recommend calling and upping your deductible on your insurance policy before buying a new car. This allows you to shoulder more risk, and keeps your insurance premiums down. Also, many state and local governments have property tax estimators for new vehicles. You can get a very good idea of what you're walking into so you don't have a massive surprise in the mail a week after your car purchase. ### 2. The Game has Changed ### Car buying ain't what it used to be. The information age really has changed the game and car manufacturers and sales are not stupid. They all understood they had to change or get left behind. After we closed the deal, I asked the sales manager and our salesman a few questions privately and corroborated their answers with other subject-matter experts. The indication is that most customers are going to walk into the dealership these days armed with the value of the vehicle, what the invoice price is going to be and what the bottom line price they can expect to pay for the vehicle. Getting the best price is no longer a problem. Now dealers are focusing on service, features, safety, warranties, etc. This fact is going to affect several other items on the list. ### 3. The Salesman is your Friend ### So, item #2 may not seem like a big deal, but it is because it affects several other things. Because of #2, dealerships can no longer rely on making a ton of profit in the sales price, so their cheddar comes from moving a lot of units. In order to facilitate this, salesman make a flat commission on new sales regardless of how much they sell it for. This makes the salesman your friend. He wants you to buy that car as badly as you want to buy it. He does not care much or how little the dealership profits. The salesman really is working for you. He wants the sales manager to give you the best possible price so you'll buy. Please don't treat the salesman like an adversary. Treat them like the two of you are working together to get the best price and deal, because you actually are. Additionally the salesman gets bonuses for units sold. More motivation to get a price for you that you'll say "yes" to. ### 4. How to Get the Best Price ### -Focus on one thing at a time. When negotiating for a car, your one and only concern is the "out the door price." That's your bottom line. The out the door price includes all taxes, tags, fees, convenience charges, add-ons, etc. they try to add on top of the sale. Some dealerships will pitch you a lower price then tack a bunch of crap fees on the backend. Don't let your salesperson ask "What payment do you want to make?" or anything like that. Let's talk price first, and talk payment later. "Do you have a trade-in?" Maybe. Maybe not. Let's talk price first, then trade-in and payment later. -Timing matters. And some old rules still do apply even though the game has changed. As a matter of fact, #2 has probably made some of these rules even more pronounced. So buying at the end of the month really is a thing. Since dealerships and sales personnel make their money on units moved, getting a deal done at the end of the month is a great motivating factor to squeeze an extra sale in. You never know, that dealer couuld be just one sale away from that big bonus, and it would actually benefit them to sell you a car at a $5,000 loss just so they can get that $10,000 bonus. Also, in the US at least, buying in the spring time is about the worst time to buy. A lot of people get their tax returns in spring and start car shopping. The dealerships are flooded with customers and pre-owned inventory. Not saying you can't get a great deal, of course, but the Spring just makes it a little more challenging. -Know the invoice price for the vehicle you want. It's not difficult both [Kelly Blue Book](http://www.kbb.com) and [Edmund's](http://www.edmunds.com) can give you invoice pricing on new vehicles. You can certainly pay at or below invoice pricing for just about any vehicle. -Getting below invoice pricing isn't difficult. The first step is to know your rebates. You qualify for certain rebates; military, college students, teachers, law enforcement, Uber drivers all qualify for rebates in some shape form or fashion. This is a good way to get below the invoice price. You can do this before you even walk into a dealership to have an idea what you're going to be able to pay. -Pit dealerships against each other, and don't be ashamed to do it. We got two dealerships into a bidding war for this transaction. When their prices got to within $100 or $200 of each other, we opted for the one that provided us with the better service, patience, attentiveness, and responsiveness during the bidding process. This might make me a bastard, but I don't care. What I do care about is saving thousands of dollars. That being said, once I made a commitment, I stuck to it even when the other dealership called me back with an even lower offer. I also used as a bargaining chip, "Get me out of the door for X price and I will cut off communications with the other dealer and come buy from you right now." If they agree to your demands, be prepared to follow through, though. -Another way to get below the invoice price is to tell your sales person that you plan to use dealer financing. This is a bargaining chip he can use when presenting your wants to a sales manager. You can get a lower price if you use dealer financing, even if you plan to pay the loan off (just make sure it's a loan with no penalty for an early payoff). You're most likely to get a good price on a slow car sales day. Go car shopping when the weather is bad, when it's cold outside, whatever. Basically when customers are not in the store, that's when you should go. ### 5. Beware of Internet Pricing ### When you see some crazy-low price on the Internet, it probably has all the rebates built-in to the price. That means you could qualify for that price if you were a military veteran, police officer, college student and teacher who moonlights as an uber driver. I learned this the hard way. ### 6. Leasing really isn't a terrible option ### I know a lot of financially savvy people scoff at leasing, but hear me out. It really depends on your needs. There are some great videos and resources online that explain leases in more detail than I care to go into on this thread, but they can actually be finanacially viable. Like anything else, the key here is to do your homework. Leases can be bad, really bad. Or they can be really good. There's a lot of traps to avoid and a lot of things to be aware of. Knowing these things can get you into a super lease. **EDIT** Forgot to mention in the OP, the car we got was MSRP $33,000. The invoice price was $31,500. We were able to negotiate a price of $26,100, out the door, which included all taxes, tags, fees, etc. ### TL;DR Version ### A lot has changed about the car industry. Sales people are motivated to sell you a car, they don't care how much or little the dealership makes. You can get a car below invoice pricing fairly easily by knowing the invoice price and knowing your rebates before you go in. Pit dealerships against each other, and opt for the one with the better service (in my opinion). Internet pricing can be dodgy and don't automatically dismiss leases as an option to keep monthly costs down.

Salesman is not your friend. > salesman make a flat commission on new sales regardless of how much they sell it for. This makes the salesman your friend. That does not equate to them being your friend, unless your idea of friendship is very warped. More likely that line you spewed is what is taught to salepeople as a canned response to push the buyer into buying. "we are paid a flat commission, therefore I am your friend"

Relevant. Recently just bought a new to me car. Salesman was awesome. We'd been working together a few weeks to find me the right car. He knew I was anxious about the negotiations process and gave me the price I'd asked for with no haggling, almost 1k less than what it was listed for. I got the car for less than I expected because I went in with a number lower than what I'd been hoping for to begin with, so that was a huge win! He told me they weren't just selling me this car, they were selling me all the cars I would buy in the future. This is probably one of the strangest things most people will hear, but it was an amazing experience and they won my business. That is the first place, and hopefully last place, I will go when I buy my next car.

Human: So I've got debt from my younger years including a phone that has a year to paid off, $600 in credit card debt and, $3000 on my car payment. I have enough to pay for my monthly expenses and sometimes a little extra that I save up, but something always seems to come up when I save up enough to make a difference in my debt. I make around $900 a month right now at my job with incredible opportunities to increase rapidly but I'm having trouble getting into my stride. I spend $600 - $700 a month to pay for my expenses. Is there anything I can do to speed up this process of paying my debt? I want to go back to school eventually as well, but my debt makes it hard for me to make the financial commitment. I was thing about joining the air force to get that paid for. Edit: I work as a personal trainer so it's not hourly based but I get paid around $9 pet 30 minute session. It requires actively going out to get new clients. A second job is an option but I want to keep my eggs in one basket as I've invested a bit into my personal training career Edit 2: Ok so not drowning but I'm 23 and feeling overwhelmed.

You have an income problem not a spending problem. And your debt is very manageable. A few hundred bucks on a CC and a small car loan is not drowning OP, so don't worry about that too much. $900 / month sounds like you're not even working full-time. An $8 / hr job 40 hours / week is more than that.

At $900 a month you can't be working many hours as minimum wage at 40 hours a week is like $1300 a month. Get a second job.

Human: Ever since I was 16 and worked a part time job my mother asked for the occasional loan, with the promise that she would pay it back. My parents split up when I was 15, leaving her in a financial mess with 3 kids to look after. It was only the odd £50 here and there which was a lot for someone on the minimum wage but I thought if I didn't then my 2 siblings would lose out. Fast forward to now and I've worked 6 months into a graduate engineering job at £30,000, I ended up saving quite a bit due to me not paying the 20% Tax band as I had not earned enough that year. My rent is £400 per month at my mothers place, however every month she asks for £100-£300 as 'We've had a really big bill come out and I haven't got the money' Some of it has been paid back in drips and drabs but overall She owes me £1500. On top of this, my father decided to quit his job 3 months ago, and has been begging me for £1000 to cover his rent while he searches for a new job with the promise he will pay me back as he will earn £1400 a week as a private contracter. In total, my parents have borrowed £5500 and I have lost my entire savings, Being honest I don't expect to see this money again and I'm now avoiding conversations with both my parents in fear of another loan I cannot afford to give. It's my family and I dont have the heart to say No. It's starting to impact my relationship with my parents, My mother will go out every weekend and smoke 20 a day. When I mention the fact that they stop doing that to save some money I get the response "Don't tell me what to do with my money" Has anyone else experienced this problem? and any advice on how to confront my parents or even get some % of my money back? EDIT 1: When writing this post I let my emotions take the best of me, Honestly my parents are really nice people. They are just unfortunately not very good with money and are frequently embarrassed when they have to ask. I accept this is my fault as Im too soft to say No but Im just worried if I don't give them money, they'll just go to a payday lender and just acquire more debt. I'll sit down with my mother and phone my father tomorrow and just tell them the situation I'm in and ask to work out how much is coming in/going out as I wont be able to help.

If you're in a position to do so, tell them the last money they got from you was all they'll get, and that everything up until now was a gift. It's amazing how much people can get their spending under control when the money train runs out. You're currently enabling their spending habits, and they know that you will never want to see them out on the street, so they're flat out taking advantage of you. Edit: I'm also only saying to write this money off as a gift because A: The likelihood that you'll actually see this money in full is slim to none, and B: writing it off as a gift will be the best way to ensure that you hopefully don't deteriorate your relationship with your parents any further.

1 - You give money to family. It is not a loan. Don't ever expect to get it back. 2 - Your parents seem incredibly irresponsible. Who just quits their job without a backup plan? You need to sit them down and lay down the law. Set the expectation that if they expect you to give them anything, they need to tighten up their finances first. 3 - If you cannot afford it, then you cannot afford it. They don't have to know all the details of your finances. Hell, you don't even have to tell them the truth about your finances. Just explain that you have already given them a lot of money, those gifts have had a serious negative impact on your own finances, and you currently don't have the resources available to give them anything else. It's hard to fault you for not giving if you don't have anything to give.

Human: If I want to contribute to my retirement plans for this year, do I need to wait until after tax day to do so, or that is only the deadline for the previous year to contribute?

No.

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: - [Retirement Accounts wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/retirementaccounts) - ["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: First, I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this, so I apologize if it is not. Anyway, I'm 28, and I am an international private-client tax lawyer in the U.S. Currently, I work for a widely-recognized (in my city) international private-client boutique law firm and make about 130k with bonus. That will go up 15-20k each year, and each year I can expect a bonus of the same amount. Partnership track should be another 6-7 years, and earning capacity would be much more after that. I'm pretty much guaranteed to make partner at my Firm, and later-in-life earning capacity there I would estimate to be at 500-700k per year. Because I have great experience, I constantly get hit up by legal recruiters. I finally decided to check out a BIGLAW job which I was certain I would be offered if I applied for, and, sure enough, I got the offer. Base salary is 200k and estimated bonus is 50k. Base would go up 15k yearly, and bonus would be estimated to be the same. If I made partner at this BIGLAW firm someday, a realistic estimation of earning capacity would be $1MM-$2MM per year depending upon the quality of the book of business I am able to develop. The caveat: my current firm, while having an amazing reputation, is chill as hell. My required billables are 1650, although I usually bill 1750. The guys at the Global Private Client Group at BIGLAW firm international tax department are billing in the 2500 hours per year range. To me, that's insane. I want to have a family someday, and I'm recently engaged. I'm inclined to say no to the job offer, especially because I'm content with my current job, although I know I could make much more money elsewhere, and big money is hard to turn down. Also, I have no debt, but I don't own any assets at all. What I'm really looking for is to hear from attorneys who have worked in BIGLAW and their experiences there. I want to know about quality of life and anything and everything else you think is relevant to discuss here. Really, I want someone to tell me that I absolutely shouldn't take this job! Any advice / insight regarding your life in BIGLAW and/or people in other professions but who made a move under similar circumstances would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I think your question is better suited to a subreddit for lawyers, as your question isn't really looking for financial advice per se

Might be more of a law reddit question as to the likelihood of partner in one firm vs. the other. From a /r/personalfinance perspective, I'd take the base rate by the billable hours + a reasonable cushion of non-billable hours (I'm sure you have that figured out by now) to get your total hours of work divided by your base rate to figure your base hourly rate. Is it that substantially different? I've taken a pay cut for work/life balance and it was great at the time. The pay cut was too big to raise a family on, but luckily that wasn't a consideration at the time and it looks like that's not the case for you.

Human: Hey personal finance, I closed my savings account today and according to the bank's website I have $520.02, but the branch only gave me $500.02. I didn't realized I had an extra $20 in the account until I checked my online statements. Is there any way I can get this money back? Or should I consider it as a $20 lesson? Assistant: go ask them about it. Human: The branch closed three hours ago, is there anything I can do right now?

wait until they open.

You should be able to call their toll free call center. Most of the call centers that do actually close don't close until 8 or 9/est. If you didn't put the $20 in there that may have been their error which could be why you didn't get it.

Human: Hello, /r/personalfinance I am a college student transferring from a 2 year college to a four year university to pursue a degree in philosophy this fall and am having some issues paying for tuition. I recently received my financial aid package which was approx. 10,000 short of paying for the entirety of my tuition. Despite having a near perfect GPA (3.75) I have not received any scholarships that I'm aware of. Should I apply for private student loans and if so where? I should also note that I do not have any cosigners available to me. Assistant: Did you receive any grant money? Or was your financial aid package entirely loans? If you didn't receive any grant money, your going to most likely have an astronomically large amount of money to pay back after you graduate. What job are you going to be pursuing with a philosophy degree? Human: I did receive a Pell Grant (4,000 annually), along with the Sub/Unsub loans (6,500), and student worker position (3,000/y). Edit: Currently I have absolutely no idea what job I'm pursuing after college. Assistant: Have you considered pursuing a degree that has some job options? It's an awful lot of work and debt to put yourself in to study something just for fun. Human: I have thought about that, but the idea of going to school for 2-3 years pursuing something I absolutely hate would be unbearable. I greatly enjoy philosophy and history (my minor).

You can greatly enjoy and pursue philosophy as a intellectual hobby and not ruin your financial life over it. Student loans are an investment in your future

Those are 2 fairly unemployable majors... how do you feel about working retail or food services for the next 50 years for minimum wage? Thats far more unbearable to me...

Human: ACTIVATION REQUIRED, YMMV Logged onto my Discover account today and saw an offer to activate 2% back on grocery stores, on up to $500 in purchases monthly, now through 9/30/2016. For those with the card it might be worth it to check out the offer. This is in addition to the regular 5% back on Restaurants and Movies for this quarter.

This is a targeted offer. It is not available to everyone.

best cash back https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/top-credit-cards/nerdwallets-best-cash-back-credit-cards/

Human: My parents are moving in to a much smaller house after my sister and I have moved out. He is buying it in cash and wants to put it in my name? He says it will only help me. Seems a little 🍌 to me. 1. Is it possible? 2. Will it hurt or help my current credit having that equity? 3. Is he doing anything illegal. Thank you for any info you all at /r/personalfinance can give me. If it helps, the house is about 60k

It wouldn't hurt you to have assets that you don't owe on, but then you'd be legally responsible to pay for the taxes and insurance, and also for anything that happens there. For example, postman slips on the ice and breaks his leg, you would be sued as the home owner.

There might be gift/estate tax consequences (or benefits - the reason he's most likely doing it) but its not illegal to give your kid a house. I don't see why it would help your credit but I'm not an expert on FICO scores. I suppose if they fall behind on property taxes and have liens place on it maybe that would hurt your credit.

Human: Hi . i know next to nothing about credit repair or finance . but today my girlfriend received a summons from capitol one bank letting her know they are suing her in justice court for just under $1000. why would they sue for that little ? could this be a scam ? what kind of options does she have not being able to afford a lawyer ? what other subreddits can i ask for advice ? like i said we know next to nothing about these matters and anything we could learn would be appreciated Assistant: >what kind of options does she have Does she legitimately owe the money? If so, then she should pay it back. Human: in her name , divorce involved , ect.ect. why would the bank go from straight to litigation without payment plan option ? she hasn't even seen the card in over 5 years .

You seem to think she's required to be offered a hundred chances to pay her debt. She's not.

imo, her best (and most ethical) option is to pay the money she owes

Human: My husband and I have always been very serious about not going into debt (except for the house). Both cars were paid for in cash, no school debt and we have some savings. Now I'm pregnant and we want to make sure that we don't have crazy hospital bills to take care of after baby comes. I have been bad with money lately and have only saved up about $2,500.00 so far for the hospital expenses. I'm due in mid September so I plan on working at least until the end of August. I can save $1,000 a month until then which would leave me around $7,500. If I really push then I could save $1300.00 a month. My deductible is $2,000.00 and my out of pocket max is $5,000.00 for me, $10,000.00 total for family. I had originally planned to have all $10,000.00 saved up in case I had a NICU baby or anything else came up, but it looks like I'm not going to be able to make that work without dipping into our regular savings, and I'd rather not do that if we can avoid it. Realistically how much can I expect to end up paying for a regular hospital birth if everything goes well? (no crazy complications, no C-section). The insurance lady for my OBGYN was not very helpful in pinning down an estimate, and looked at me like I was crazy when I said I was trying to save up to pay for everything with cash. Assistant: It very much depends on the rates your insurance has negotiated, and what is involved in a "regular" birth. Personally, I wouldn't go crazy trying to save up the $10k if it's affecting other things, and play the odds that you won't hit the family out of pocket max. If you do have a complicated birth/NICU baby, then putting $2,500 on a payment plan when you can save $1k a month isn't a big deal. Human: I forgot to mention that I will no longer be working after the baby is born. At that point we won't be able to save anywhere near $1k a month.

Ah, that does make it more difficult. Regardless, /u/StarryC has some good advice. All I can say is that with a relatively complicated but "regular" birth, we paid $50 with our insurance. I also know people who have paid thousands, and hitting the out of pocket max is hardly unknown.

We had to pay our whole family max for my daughter's birth. It was 10k. We had saved that much before hand though so it was OK. If you can save it - do. Having extra savings won't make you sad later. I promise.

Human: I'm a bit of a pack rat, and have every utility bill statement, cell phone, and receipts (grocery, food, gifts) of all types dating back to the 90's. Paystubs, credit card statements, carbon copies of every check I've written, DMV, you name it. I owned and ended up short selling a condo from '05-'11. "What if I need this someday?" I want to dispose of as much of this as possible, can anyone give a set of guidelines on what to hold on to.. forever, past 5 years, or never? I'm married with children, all caught up on taxes, can't think of anything in the past that might 'catch up with me.'

[Try this.](http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/how-long-to-keep-financial-records.aspx)

Most of this is garbage, IMO. Keep stuff related to taxes for around 3 years. Everything else is available online for the duration it will be necessary.

Human: For security reason I'll not go into details but hopefully I get some advice. I started a new job not long ago and I wasn't happy about how little it pays for so much work. Prior to signing the document, I did let them know how I felt and that was it. I adapted the work flow pretty well to the point that the boss impressed. I kept my heads down, followed protocols as it is a very demanding job and did the job well. As the payrolls come in, I noticed that I was earning more than I was told it would be. I kept my spendings to a very minimum so that I wont spend what isn't mine. It's been this way since then and I don't know if I need to clarify with the boss or else be fired/sued when he finds out. I'm at the stage where I want to make few financial transitions and I don't know if I should add this money to it.

I'd just call HR and ask a very generic question about if they can confirm your annual pay rate and exemptions so you know what to expect when you do your taxes.

Talk to your boss after consulting a lawyer. They can't fire or sue you if you bring this to their attention. At worst, it is a mistake by payroll .

Human: Hello PF, I've been renting from the same place for a few years now, and I've always paid them via my bank's "bill pay" which generally just mails them a check. In order to make this process more electronic and simple, my landlord has asked me to pay over paypal, which sounds fair except that it's her personal paypal. The Situation (personal info changed): - I rent from a real estate company, e.g. Michael Bluth Real Estate - My landlord, Sally Sitwell, wants me to paypal her directly at her personal email something smells here. is this a bad idea? edit: shit this got a lot of attention. thanks all for the advice! i've determined that lease is god, and if you got a problem with god, you betta renegotiate your deal.

Paypal is not a real bank. Paypal has a track record of fucking people over. I would not touch paypal with a 10 foot pole. I'd even recommend the landlord not use paypal for their own safety.

Paypal is a bunch of thieves. They made unauthorized withdrawals from my checking account on two occasions. Yes, you can open a special bank account, or use a prepaid debit card to prevent them from stealing from you, but why would anyone choose to deal with crooks unless they are dishonest themselves?

Human: How do I suggest to her to cut that tie? He wont intentionally take her money, but how do I convince her to remove him/open her own and be independent?

It's your girlfriend, not your wife. Know your boundaries

Is dad remarried to not-mom? If so, and something happened to him, step mom could get access and who knows what she's like. Or if dad writes a power of attorney, same deal but anyone he names has access.

Human: BoA has suddenly decided to start charging for my Advanced Tier Checking account. $25 dollars per month. I opened this account 10 (ten) years ago. Their excuse is that there's been a waiver .........for 10 years. But its not just mine. They're removing the "waiver" for all accounts. So if you do not have at least $5000 in the account, you get charged. Might be just me griping but there's been so many new fees lately that this is getting ridiculous. Its like my landlord suddenly charging for my carpet. Edit: Great info everyone. My intention with this post was just for awareness. I'll be switching banks myself. These fees are getting out of hand. They'll do what protects their money by taking ours it would seem. Edit #2: thx wcgryphon. This is the fee in question. "I just checked the fee schedule on BoA's site and here's what's posted for Advantage with Tiered Interest Checking: Fee: $25 monthly maintenance fee To avoid the monthly maintenance fee, meet one of the following balance requirements during each statement cycle: $5,000 average or more - Checking or linked Regular Savings $10,000 average or more - Checking with linked savings, CD and IRA $15,000 outstanding or more - Linked installment loan or line of credit Any amount - A linked Bank of America first mortgage loan that we service $15,000 or more combined assets - Linked eligible Merrill Edge and Merrill Lynch investment accounts. (See the Personal Schedule of Fees for details about which investment accounts are eligible to be linked.)"

They don't need an excuse. They're a business offering a service. If that service no longer makes sense, they'll stop offering it at a given price point. Regulations made small deposits unprofitable, specifically the Durbin amendment of Dodd Frank. Not the banks fault for responding to incentives or the removal of profitability.

Jesus. You people still use Bank of America? edit: at this point, you guys deserve every fee they charge you.

Human: Gimme some hot tips. Wife and I are married, both work full-time, combined income of ~$110,000.

Kid expenses are very ego based. It's all about what we think our kids 'should' have to be seen as good parents and successful in life. We love our kids and want to give them the world, so we buy them things because we love them. It makes us feel good because we think it makes them feel good. In reality a child's needs are very basic. They don't care what they wear. Too many toys just creates chaos. Keep life simple. Don't go overboard buying things to prove your love. Spend time not money wherever you can.

Not having kids works great for me!

Human: I'm starting to furnish a new home and expect to be purchasing quite a bit of furniture on Craigslist. Some items, like couches, can cost upwards of $1000. Complicating matters, I don't have a truck or van so I'll be trying to schedule pickups altogether on a certain day when I can rent a UHaul. Sometimes this may mean I pay a deposit on an item a week or so before I'm able to pick it up. I feel like it would be very easy for a seller to take my deposit and sell the item to someone else and I would have little recourse. How should I go about documenting purchases or deposit payments? Should I just accept this risk as part of dealing on Craigslist?

Cash should change hands on the same day as the item. Giving cash to a stranger on craigslist before you take receipt of the purchase is recipe for fraud.

Never put down a deposit on an item from craigslist.

Human: Hi reddit! I've been reading up a lot on personal finance, the wikis, and you all seem to be extremely knowledgeable people. Before I seek out a financial adviser, I'd like to get some advice on how to set my self up for a great financial future. Personal finance seems to be going over my head as I'm trying to understand all of the jargon and numerous options available. Background: So I am now a 25 year old, full time pharmacist, making a little over 100k. I graduated last year with 125k in debt but managed to get that down to about 95k refinancing my loans. I'm really hussling to pay it off and estimate to be done within the next 2-3 years if all goes well. I'm living with my parents now so don't have any expenses. I've already opened a 401k with CVS and have set aside 5% (they match my investment up to 5% of my paycheck- that is maximum). Will put more in later, but deciding to put enough to maximize their match and then target my loan. My current 401k plan is an aggressive lifestyle (as suggested by another fellow reddit user) that has 6% cash as part of its holdings, ~28% stock, 28% international stock, and 19% bonds. I also recently opened two online bank accounts (thanks personal finance for introducing me to this!). Savings account earns 1.05% and checking earns 0.76% APY. I also opened a citi double cash back card, and will only use my chase freedom for the 5% categories, the everyday purchases will go on citi card (2% better than 1%). That is what I've done so far to try and "invest money." I also have about 10k for emergency fund set up too. Now, I want to know if there is anything else I can do with my money. I'm obviously focusing on eliminating my loans now, but going forward, I wanted to know what other investments I can make. I don't want to rely solely on my savings. Should I look into an IRA or Roth IRA? Index funds? Life insurance? I guess I feel like I want to do more investing than the 1% I get from savings, and a 401k where I wont see the money for a long time. Just looking to do more while I am single, have a good job, and don't have expenses at the moment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Put most - but not all - of the extra into debt repayment. Obviously get match money in the 401k, but you should also open up and max a Roth IRA. If you happen to have a high-deductible health plan, you should max your HSA as well. With your high income, you'll likely end up with few options for tax hedging while distributing in the future. Add to those options while you can. You won't get much out of a traditional IRA. Your income is too high. P.S: you and every other pharmacist you know are going to have lots of people (Northwestern Mutual and others) that will seek you out, looking to handle your money. They're selling you things you don't need. Steer clear.

At that debt load, I'd put in the 5% match and put the rest into debt repayment. You're good on the emergency fund. YOu don't need life insurance since you don't have dependents.

Human: I'm posting this on a behalf of some relatives. Their daughter is intending to attend college on student loans, the amount of which I feel is slightly concerning. Helping them gather some opinions about whether this is a smart career path to start on. Without giving out too much information, basically she has 3 options to take, all in Computer Science. There are two nearby schools which will amount for $80K total in tuition. Possibly less if she commutes from home, but she seems to want to dorm to make friends (not sure if it's worth the extra living fees?) There is also the option of a better school out of town for $200K total in tuition + living costs, which I personally think is overkill for an engineering major regardless of how prestigious the school is. ALL of this money is coming from loans as I don't think their family has any funds to spare. I feel like any of these are too big of an investment and she could just pick up a few IT certs to make the same amount of money somewhere down the road. She also seems to be on the fence about the major, only considering it because it will potentially pay more in the future which I feel makes less sense to get into debt over it. Is this an expected amount for a BS in CS, and is it worth it?

Are we talking $200k for an undergrad? That seems close to obscene to me. Honestly the best advice I've heard for people starting on college is go to a community college to knock out your core classes and get your feet wet before taking the plunge on a 4 year university. Spending extra money to live in the dorms and end up with almost a quarter million dollars in debt because she has a romanticized idea of what dorm life would be is beyond stupid.

$200k for a CS degree is an awful lot. Edit: If her family's only option is loans, then she really doesn't have the option of living in the dorm to satisfy a quality-of-life preference. She will be spending money she doesn't have for a frivolity and won't ever be able to discharge in bankruptcy. Also, what if she bails out of CS into another degree program at the $200k school? There is a reason so many kids are coming out of college with loads of debt these days, and that's because they do not understand the years it takes to pay off student debt of that magnitude. Some of these debt figures are comparable to the cost of a house, and most mortgages are for a 30-year term because that's a lot of money to pay back.

Human: My fiancee works at a costume shop for 8.50/hr and make approx 800-1000 take home per month. She wants to finance a new car between 13-18k with a 200-300 monthly payment. I run my own business and our finances are separate. I have never owned a new car and never plan to. I put 40k plus on my vehicles yearly and I think quality used cars are a better option for me. I advised her against buying a new car and it caused a fight ("you just don't want me to have something nice" type of stuff.) Am I wrong in thinking that she should stay away from financing with an hourly not guaranteed stable job? Or am I being overly cautious?

That is one of the worst ideas ever. With her acting that way (entitled as shit), I'd reevaluate my relationship.

Just show her this thread.

Human: Late 20s, been working in radio for nearly a decade just scraping by. I have two kids which I have about 40% of the time. Currently living in a small two bedroom apartment with no savings. However, I just landed a great job with a much bigger company that pays significantly more than I've ever made in the past. I have no idea where to start to get on track to have a well balanced budget as well as an emergency savings. I've never been able to be frugal enough to keep any money in my pocket let alone keep my bills paid on time. I'm about 15k in debt for various irresponsible decisions that I need to take care of as well. Any advice would be helpful, I'm ready for change!!

1) List out all your debts with balances and interest rates. Pay off the highest interest rate debt first. 2) Once all that is done, create an emergency fund in an FDIC insured account with 6-8 months of expenses. Yes this takes time. 3) Try not to let lifestyle creep get to you. You're making much more now and don't let that entice your into spending much more. You have a ways to go with step 1 & 2. 4) If your firms offers a 401k match contribute up to the match even while 1 and 2 are going on. 5) New apt? 6) Once all this is done, open a Roth IRA with Vanguard. 7) Low cost 529 plan for kids?

/r/financialindependence

Human: I'm 23 and have inherited $220,000. I have $10,000 in student loans and am graduating in 5 weeks with a bachelor's degree in Communication Studies. I have had three internships and a few job offers already, so I think I'll be able to find full-time employment when I graduate to support myself with my own earnings. I have considered investing somewhere around $200,000 and keeping $20,000 in savings in case of an emergency. I don't even know where to start with investing $200,000 though. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thank you!

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

Please read the information found in the [wiki](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.

Human: Hi, FP. Never posted here because I never seemed to have enough of a pressing need, but I need to get some objective advice. Apologies for the wall of text, but I want to be as thorough as I can in explaining my situation. (**TL;DR** at the bottom) Since June of 2015, I've been renting on a month-to-month basis from the owner of a 3BR/2BA condo. Right now it's only myself and one other roommate, who only has about 3 weeks left on his internship before he moves back home. The owner lives somewhere nearby, I believe in the same condo complex. Its location is ideal for me, since it means a short commute to where I work, and I suspect the month-to-month convenience is because a lot of seasonal interns and contractors make up his tenants. Before I moved in, I had asked him what the policy would be on repairs for the unit. I explained I'd had a bad experience at a previous place where the washing machine unexpectedly died, and how poorly the management/repair people dealt with the problem. He assured me not to worry, that he'd get right on any such issues. That proved to be a lie pretty early on, but those issues he never worked on are not related to this, and far more minor. For the last ~3 months, my roommates and I have been warning our landlord that the clothes washing machine was starting to go. It was making a burning smell when we ran a load, and some pretty unsettling noises (squeaks bordering on shrieks). This became more of an issue when we discovered bedbugs had invaded our unit, because when you have bedbugs, you need to wash and dry (on highest available heat) basically every possession that you can. We pointed out that this would mean an increased strain on the appliances, and he said he'd get someone to look into it. Every week or so, we'd email him again to see if there was any progress on the W/D, though at the time, we were mostly worried about the bedbugs. Now that the bedbugs seem eliminated (fingers crossed, you never know with them), focus returned on the washer. Two weeks ago, it finally gave up the ghost, and now won't finish a load. He said he'd look into getting them fixed, but in the meantime, he said we should take $20 off our monthly rent, for the cost of using the coin-op washer and dryer on our floor. So, because he seems to not consider this a pressing matter (no companies would "entertain his ask" he said), I got frustrated and did the research myself. I found a place <2 miles away, confirmed they could come out as soon as the next day, and got their pricing info. Including the phone call, this took me around 15 minutes. I forwarded all this information to the landlord, and he had scheduled a visit for Friday. The next day, he said that the repairman wouldn't inspect the units until the dryer had been unstacked from the washer. The landlord asked if my roommate and I could help unstack it. I wasn't happy about the prospect of doing this for free, especially when it could entail injury, and simply told him no. Still, he came by at some point and pulled them away from the wall. This mostly blocked the passage into the apartment, but at least he was making progress. I came home today to find an email telling us that he's decided to not get them fixed. No mention of getting replacements; no discussion about lowering our lease rates to offset the extra cost, effort, and risk of running them in a public space in the building (there isn't even room to sit down in the laundry room, so I can't mitigate that last factor); not even an apology. I sent him a reply asking if he has plans to get replacement units, explaining that part of the lease rate is the presence of in-unit W/D, but if that wasn't the case anymore, we would need to renegotiate it. I live in the Seattle area, where rent is horribly high. I don't get paid very well, and I have only my own income, which makes options very limited. I'm going to start looking for other solutions tomorrow. I do have a friend that is about to close on the purchase of a 2BR/2BA house, but it's located a very long way from where I work, which would mean ~2 hour commute to work each day. My current commute is about 15 minutes. She also wants to charge me about $150 more than I think I can comfortably afford, and that's before utilities (they're covered in my current place). In a conversation with our friends, she also let slip that this rate is more than she would be paying. I've been considering jumping jobs to work with her, which would mean an easier (if not great) commute, and while we get along great and I think we could be tolerable roommates for one another, this would mean being around one another every waking hour. There is a low-income housing complex just up the street from this place, but I hear it's a very long line to be approved for a unit, if you are approved at all. I've also heard that such places are typically inhabited by unstable folks that I'd probably not want for neighbors, and that the units are pretty low quality. Am I being unreasonable for losing my patience with my current landlord? I feel like continuing to pay my full rent, despite bedbugs for several months and nonfunctional (or barely functional) appliances, is more than reasonable. And now that those appliances are not available, renegotiating the lease seems like the proper next step, but I have very little leverage, especially when I think the landlord's goal is to push me out anyway. Any thoughts or suggestions on how to move forward would be appreciated. **TL;DR:** Landlord has been habitually lazy about unit repairs, especially for major appliance breaking. Now I suspect he's just being difficult to convince me to leave, so he can replace me with tenants not familiar with his bullshit (or the recent presence of bedbugs). A friend just bought a house, but moving in would be more of a strain on my finances, and a nightmare commute.

I'm fairly certain that this violates your lease. Go back over your copy (assuming you still have one saved somewhere) and read about what exactly you signed. If he is in violation of the lease, contact the housing authority for your city/state and file a complaint. Honestly, if his goal is to push you out, that sucks, and it is probably going to get worse from here. I would go ahead and start looking for placed, maybe fill out the application for the low cost housing, and wait until they get back to you. Since you are month-to-month you can walk away at any time so as soon as they say you can move, GO!

As a tenant, your leverage is either to withhold rent if you believe you can do that legally, to file suit if it comes to that, or to leave. You can't make the landlord do anything by your own volition. You can't make them renegotiate the lease, for example.

Human: My family and I have a lot of issues with my father but that's a whole other story. This is my (21F) first time ever filing for taxes since I just got a full time job last year. Due to the fact that our school system does not help us figure out how to do taxes (or other real world problems), I was totally clueless about how to go about filing it. Thus, I went straight to paying for turbo tax to have it do it for me. After answering all the questions in turbo tax and then submitting/filing for the 2015 taxes, I received an email a few minutes later. To my surprise it stated that I was rejected due to the fact that I have been claimed on someone else's taxes. My mother and I get along well so I know that it wasn't her. Only option left is my dad. He likes to cause all sorts of trouble with my family and I and will put himself first before anyone else (but as I said, he's a whole other problem). Anyways, it seems like he has claimed me as a dependent and after further research I realized he has no right to do so. I make more than the 3.9k yearly amount, not a student, I'm over 19, and he doesn't house/support me in anyway. I read another story here regarding almost the same situation, however no one really gave a direct answer on what to do. So at this point I'm not sure really where to go from here. I'm a newbie to taxes and I understand I'm at fault for waiting last minute as taxes are due in a little over a week. I was just wondering what I could do to fix this issue in the least complicated way. Who should I contact? And can I not use turbo tax anymore? (Which will be a bummer since I paid almost $100 for it) Thanks so much for the help! ♡

You are not his dependent, from what you say, so you should file as someone who is not a dependent, claiming your own personal exemption. Once someone has used your SSN on a return you cannot efile, as you have found out, so your only option is to file on paper. To do that you print out your return (the one that Turbotax produced will be fine), sign and date it, and attach the federal copy of your W2 to the front of it. Then just mail it to the address shown for your state [here](https://www.irs.gov/uac/Where-to-File-Paper-Tax-Returns-With-or-Without-a-Payment) on/before April 18th. (If you file state taxes, do the same with your state return, using your state copy of your W2 and looking up your state's paper file addresses.) After a short to medium wait the IRS will send both you and your father a letter, saying you both claimed you on your returns, and one of you must amend. You will probably have to talk to your father at this point and explain the issue and that he must amend. If he refuses (and you refuse, because he's in the wrong) then the IRS will examine both your situations, probably ask for more info, and decide who is correct. That person will get your personal exemption. If it's you, that's when you'd finally get your refund and your father would get a demand for some of his refund back.

Sounds like my dad, except he's been claiming my mom and now he's being sued.

Human: My fiance and I are beginning to combine finances and working through our plan for that. That's not the problem. 1 year ago my fiance paid off my car loan to help me with the accumulating interest. I had/have every intention of paying him back and now I'm in a financial situation where I can. However, our incomes are now going into our joint bank account and it's basically "our money". We talked about putting the repayments into a seperate account that is essentially "his", but we're not sure if that's the best way to go about it. I will not be able to pay this off completely for a couple years as we are saving for a house as well, so we don't want to wait until I finish paying him back before combining finances. TL,DR: I owe my fiance $25,000 and we are completely combining accounts and finances, how do I pay him back now that it's all "our money".. Thanks :)

Is he really that set on being paid back the $25k? I would rather that money go towards the down payment on a house or to help pay for the future wedding. If it's "our money" then you forget the $25k.

Have him "gift" you $10k first though. :)

Human: I'm applying for a mortgage right now, and I'm wondering if I'll qualify for a good rate. Here are my details: **The good:** Married, wife stays home, 2 kids: 14 months and 6 years old. I make $74K/year, plus bonus. This year is was $10k. That's all before taxes. I have just under $12K in a 401(k) I've been with this company since Feb 15 (I actually started 2 days after my son was born). I worked for another company for 10-ish months before that, and I was in graduate school before that making peanuts (*and science*). **The Bad:** I owe $75K in student loans. $68k to gov, $7K private. I'm paying 171/month to both. IBR repayment plan. I'm paying so little because....... $20K credit card debt. I'm putting all of my extra money toward my credit cards. It was 3 cards last year. I'm paying them off and cancelling them as fast as possible. It isn't the best for my credit score, I know, but my priority for a while has been to get debt free. That's also why I'm paying so little every month on the student loans. The interest rate on the card is higher, so I'm paying them off first. I owe $15K on a Hummer H3. I know what you're thinking: "Who the heck buys a hummer when they owe that much, and right in the middle of grad school?" It was kind of a big "up yours" to my hippie ex-wife who hated hummers. I do a lot of off-roading and I have a work car so I don't spend a lot of money on gas. I don't spend a lot of money on other stuff, seriously. No TV, and I sold a lot of stuff related to other hobbies. I know the smart thing is to sell it, but then I'll end up sitting around and doing nothing and going a bit crazy. Anyways, the interest rate on it is really low and I'll have it paid off in 3 years. I also owe my parents some money. They loaned me some to get out from under the credit cards. I have no down payment. I'll borrow from my 401k and then pay it back with next year's bonus. Credit score - 643. I have no late payments, but high credit usage because of the way I've been paying off cards and cancelling them. I have a collection on my record. I went to school for 3 weeks or so, decided it was a bad idea, and dropped classes. They charged me $2500 and I didn't want to pay it. Now it's in collections. **The Ugly:** Right now we live in a 2 bedroom apartment. It's tiny and driving me nuts. Rent is $1095. Square footage is less than 800. I'm looking for a small-ish, less fancy house. I want to pay less than $180K for it. I found one that's not huge. It has no backyard and shares walls with the neighboring houses so I figure I can save on watering and HVAC. I am aiming for total mortgage (PMI, insurance, taxes) to be less than rent. Home prices in my area are also pretty low. I have a pretty good idea that they are going to come back up in the next couple of years. The houses I'm looking at have mother-in-law apartments. My brother may need a place to live and I'll probably let him live with us for pretty cheap. I planned on living in these apartments for another year after the lease ends in August, but I'm honestly going a bit crazy. It's a tiny apartment and I think my money is better spent on putting it towards a house and spending less on shelter. OK thanks for feedback.

You may get approved for a mortgage, but the terms would not be favorable. Your debt to income ratio is high and you haven't been at your job long enough. Even if you did get approved, though, I would highly encourage you to not do this now. You have no money and a ton of debt. Buying a house is asking for trouble. Houses are expensive and things break. When you rent your landlord takes care of all that, but when you own and the furnace goes out or a pipe bursts or the roof leaks, you're on the hook for it. And if you have to borrow from your 401k to make the down payment? Double nope. Tighten your budget, work hard to pay down your debt, starting with the credit cards and your parents. Get that car paid off then build a sizable down payment in cash. And build an emergency fund on top of that. Then you can think about buying a house. In the mean time, if you have to find a better place to live, then do that. But keep renting for now.

With no down payment, you might qualify for an FHA loan. They are relatively easy to get, but require PMI. Your credit score is barely at the minimum and your debt to income ratio and credit utilization are working against you hard. You also aren't going to get a mortgage from anywhere with an account in collections. You'll be required to settle or pay up, and depending on how long it's been in collections your FICO will take a ding when you make that collection "recent" again with a payment. Your 401k is woefully underfunded and you don't mention having 6 months of emergency fund set aside. Those are your priorities rather than getting a house. While it's nice of you to worry about your brother, I wouldn't make a decision on a house based on whether or not he might need a place to stay. If things get real bad, he can take the couch and you drop the cost of your house $10k. Also, while you are really trying to see the silver lining about not having a back yard and sharing walls with neighboring houses, this will slowly drive you mad over time. Your kids are young now, but they're going to want a sandbox or a swing set eventually. Also, absolutely never close a credit card that you have a good payment history on. Pay it off, cut it up and don't request a replacement. Age of your longest account history makes up 10 percent of your FICO score. Sell the Hummer and get something a little more family friendly. You'll save on gas and can buy something 5k or so to get around town.

Human: I'm graduating with a degree in business at the end of the month and I want to continue into graduate school to get an MBA. I currently work for my family's business, and I plan on continuing to work there into the future. I'm sure that I could find a job that will pay for my continuing education into graduate school. But my question is, how can I convince my Dad, who is also the owner of the company, to pay for my graduate school? Are there any tax breaks involved with a Sub-s Corp paying for continued education for its employees, specifically family members?

Getting an MBA right after undergrad is a huge waste of time and money. The top MBA programs are much more about the network you form than the classes and skills you learn. On top of that, the classes will frequently require you to draw on past business experiences, of which you'll have none. If you're not planning on going to a top program then it's just another checkbox that doesn't really offer you much (other than missing out on 2 years of your life).

Push pause on the MBA idea. Get into the company and start working for a few years. Then you will be able to make a better decision on of you want to still get an MBA and have an actual understanding of business going into it. Right now you don't. You have a great opp in front of you - take it.

Human: I live with 6 other guys in a flat. In November our boiler broke and we notified our housing company on that day. Later that week a plumber came out to fix this. We needed a new part and were told to use the immersion heater until it was fixed (2 months later). As a result of this out next electricity bill was £600 (£480 more than the previous one). When we received it we went to our housing company to attempt to get them to pay (or compensate). They have consistently failed to turn up to arranged meetings and now we are beginning to receive collectors bills in the post as we have delayed paying the bill. Is there anything we can do?

That's an annoying situation, but it also sounds a bit like you're overestimating your rights in this situation. Firstly, it's your electricity bill, you have to pay it. The liability for utilities doesn't transfer to your landlord just because you have a dispute. Pay the bill and there's one less party in this situation, and you stop trashing your credit rating by failing to pay a bill that's rightly owed. Secondly, for future reference, when the landlord failed to repair the boiler in a timely manner, you had the right to have the repair done yourself and recover the cost from them. However, that ship has now sailed. You might be thinking about withholding rent. Sorry, but you don't have the right to do that (you might have a claim against the landlord, but you're not entitled to extract funds yourself by witholding rent, two wrongs not making a right and all that). You need to work out how much you're actually disputing. Presumably this is £480, minus whatever your gas bill usually is. Then divide that six ways, and think hard about whether the £75 or so you end up with is really worth escalating the dispute. If you do decide to take it further, then get clear on what you claim the landlord has done wrong, and what you want in recompense: "Because the landlord did not repair the boiler in a timely manner, we want £XXX in compensation". Now you put that to your landlord, in writing (you are beyond the point of face to face meetings, it's letter writing time). If they don't respond in a reasonable amount of time (usually a month) then start small claims proceedings (https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-rights/legal-system/taking-legal-action/small-claims/). Once you're in the legal process, think carefully about how your actions will be considered by the court: * Are you sure you didn't consent to the delay in repair when you were advised to use the immersion heater (and maybe you said "OK")? * Did you tell the landlord that they were going too slowly? Do you have a written record of you chasing them to repair the boiler and them failing to comply? * Are you sure you haven't done anything wrong yourself, such as withholding or delaying rent? Anything you've done wrong could count against you in a dispute. Personally, I would probably not bother taking this to the small claims court, given that your share of the disputed amount is less than £100. However, it's up to you.

Don't know the rental laws in the UK, but I would pay the energy bill and deduct the overage of your energy bill from the next rent payment.

Human: I'm a SAHM and my husband works a regular job plus does some contract work on the side. He started this 1099 job in December and as of yesterday he has made $13,500 for Jan - April. (As of the end of March, he has made $7,000). Do we need to file quarterly taxes even if his main/primary income is from a regular job? What is the penalty if we don't? Can someone show me what forms we need to fill out and is it too late since we are already in April? Thank you in advance!

For 2015 taxes, the 1099 income he made in December will be part of the 2015 tax filing. Whereas his wages will go on 1040 line 7, he'll use line 12 to report his contract work profit. Use a 2015 Schedule C-EZ or C to find his profit (revenue minus deductible business expenses). Also, if he earned over $434 in self-employment in 2015, he should be paying SE taxes on it -- which support Social Security and Medicare. Use Schedule SE to find that amount and put it on 1040 line 57. You also get to deduct a number equal to 1/2 SE tax on 1040 line 27 before you calculate income taxes. --- For 2016, do a projection of the 2016 total adjusted gross income (using his W-2 job plus 1099 work, after the line 27 deduction you expect for 2016), and use this on 1040-ES worksheet line 1. Work through the worksheet to determine a good approximation of the 2016 tax liability. Then to find out how much to send in as estimated tax ... * Calculate 90% of 2016 tax liability. * Calculate 100% of 2015 tax liability (110% if higher income). * Take the lesser of those two numbers. * Subtract out your projection of the total workplace withholding that will happen in 2016. * The result needs to be sent in via estimated payments, and you can divide it by 4 and make four equal estimated payments. [That's my paraphrase of some of the key steps in the 1040-ES booklet worksheet.] That's the way to avoid an underpayment penalty. Another method is to increase his withholding at W-2 job via filling out a new W-4 form at work. Sending in the additional taxes that way during the year works too. At tax time next April 2017, you'll know the *actual* W-2 income, W-2 withholding, 1099 revenue, 1099 expenses, 1099 profit, SE tax related to that profit, and will calculate your actual 2016 tax liability. On the 2016 Form 1040, line 64 will show his W-2 withholding and line 65 will show *the total estimated tax payments* that you paid during the year and then you'll be able to see if you still owe anything or if you get a refund.

Taxation is Theft!

Human: Looking at a $190k house. By July we will credit to optimum level. But we won't have hardly any cash to put down. It's our first home, so we would qualify for first time home buyers loan. In October I will get a bonus of $6k guaranteed. Should we wait until October and go with a traditional loan? Would that mean we wouldn't have to pay pmi with $6k down?

Buying a house with no savings is a very bad idea. There are many costs associated with buying a house, not just down payment and closing costs. You may have repairs, maintenance, furnishings that you need to deal with on day one.

Consider waiting on the house purchase. You say that your PITI will be $400 more than your current rent. Save that $400 each month and wait until you are in a better financial position to buy. If you spend 100% of all money that you take in each month and none goes to savings, you aren't in a position to purchase a house. Something always comes up

Human: We live in Tampa, FL as an FYI. Yesterday my roommate received a text from our landlord asking if we planned to rent our house for another year. He also said that our rent was increasing $200 a month because of tax increases and insurance increases. Split between four people, this isn't a huge deal but paying an extra $600 a year individual will have a toll on our college budgets. We have been great tenants since we moved in last May so we see no reason why he would try to scam us. But he has already shown signs of not showing great concern with our house. Back in August we discovered that the house had a major leak in the roof and our landlord did not have anyone fix it until mid-late October. So I just want to know if this seems suspicious for the $200 a month increase in our rent, or if we should at least ask some questions?

Landlords can raise rent with proper notice. You can certainly ask whatever questions you want to.

Not fixing a leaky roof in a rental property is not so much a sign of having no regard for the tenants as a sign of being a moron and terrible business person. That shit gets more expensive than shingles and roofing tar real quick. He has probably businessed himself into a financial hole and is hoping to squeeze some cash out of you to take the pressure off himself. Where I live there are rules as to a maximum yearly rent increase for tenants staying in the same unit - unless improvements are to be made and the tenants agree. If the lanlord's costs go up that is his tough luck and he should have planned ahead. Do some research and see if there are any rent control laws in your jurisdiction. Don't let your landlord bully you.

Human: I'm a 14 year old boy in 9th grade with no motivation to make money. I have opportunities to make 15 dollars an hour whenever I want while I work for my aunt but I never do because I just don't want to. The only times that I actually work is when I want something, like a phone case or something and I put some of it in my bank account. I know that I need to start saving early and all that, but I have no motivation. Help me please, give me reasons to work

Concentrate on getting good grades.

Ask your parents to drive around a big city and stop by the homeless shelter there. I'm not saying that's where you'll end up but it's usually a good motivator. Here's another thing. Think of a way you can make money. What are you good at? Is there some way you can share that with people and make some extra money? Or you could find a need and fulfill it. Mark Cuban says that he walked door to door selling garbage bags when he was a kid.

Human: My parents are pretty comfortable (5-10 million) and we live in a cheapish town where it is plenty - they don't have expensive tastes and are in their 60's. I am in my late 20's and have a brother in his 30's (neither with expensive taste). As it stands they're transitioning managing their investments to me to help manage. I recently quit my job, and am working in unpaid charity work which I enjoy a lot. I do have a relatively small mortgage, a wife who works and 2 little kids. The mortgage is slightly going backwards, but not by much. Is it silly to just continue working at the charity.. i probably can earn a reasonable amount if i got a job but not huge. I'm just thinking i'll manage the money and continue at the charity. Is this being stupid - should i be out looking for a job?

What do you want to leave your kids?

You are in a fortunate position to set your own fate. If you like the charity go ahead and work there. 2 things though: If you blow the money you will have minimal job experience and gotta remember.. idle hands breed the devils works

Human: I'm considering selling my house and renting this year but it looks like I'll owe about $4,000 extra in taxes every year. Does that sound correct?

If you don't pay any mortgage interest you can't deduct it...

Yes.

Human: Last month's check never showed up, and the landlord didn't think to tell me until the last of the month. He said he didn't really care and that he was out of town so it wasn't a big deal at all. I know he has returned now, and I sent THIS month's check via certified mail because several letters I sent out with last month's rent never got to where they were supposed to be. It is now the 10th, the certified mail with my check was sent out on the 1st of this month, but tracking information still shows it is at the Post Office waiting for pickup. I have texted him to let him know there was a notice at his address and that he would need to go sign for the envelope or arrange redelivery. Is this weird? I have almost 3K sitting in my checking account that I am pretending isn't there. Landlord says he doesn't really care, private renter, am I covering all my bases here? Should I truly not worry? Edit: Problem has been resolved by some of you fine Redditors in here. I didn't know the post would get this big. RIP my inbox.

I have a checking account just for rent and use bill pay. It makes it easy to ignore those funds and I don't have to remember to pay each month.

Maybe he's dead.

Human: Okay: $2,000 in credit card debt Student Loans: $3,150 @ 6.8% $4,900 @ 6% $3,000 @ 6% $34,500 @ 5.1% I can choose to have them take tax out or be liable for taxes next year. I rent and have a decent job. I need help figure out how I can pay the least in taxes as possible as well as deciding if I should throw all of it at my debt or not. Thanks!

You'll owe income taxes on that, so depending how much you make already and where you live, that will reduce your cut by at least 25% and maybe 30% or more. So you're looking at about $35,000 or so. Paying off much (~25,000+) of the debt seems like a no-brainer to me. You got lucky. Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be.

You can gift it to me!? I will make good use with it. Promise.

Human: Hi Reddit, I'm 25 years old. I started an online business with 2 partners about 3 years ago while I was in college, and now we are being bought out. I graduated with a degree in Community Health Science (pre-med), but I have learned so much throughout this business venture that I want to continue my education in the business field. However, I glanced through a decent number of job postings and realized that almost every position requires years of prior field experience. My question is, will my experience at my own company be a credible source for these employers, or am I going to have start interning at companies? I'd really like to get my MBA because I'm fascinated by the curriculum (except for accounting), but the idea of interning for next to nothing pay for 3+ years is a huge turn off for me. P.S. - From branding and marketing analysis, to managing employees and finances, I have acquired and exercised most, if not all, the skills and experience these employers are seeking. P.S.S. - I will only be considering top tier MBA programs: Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, etc.

Don't waste your time. If you've sold an established company, you've experienced a great deal more then those looking to hire MBAs. Go start more companies or join a new startup. You can always fall back to an MBA in another few years, they'll always take your money.

better off asking in /r/MBA. I'll break this down two ways: first addressing the comments in this thread saying don't get an MBA, second saying what top tier mba programs look at. First, getting an MBA can have great value if you know what you want to get out of it. Most start ups fail. You were at a successful one. Great. An MBA can help make sure your next one doesn't fail by building experience, technical knowledge, your credentials, and your network. Getting a stanford MBA will open financial doors you otherwise will not have available to you. It's also great if you don't want to stay an entrepreneur. I go to a top tier mba program, and many of my classmates started companies, and are looking to change industries and careers. Second, it sounds like your work experience checks the work experience box - it sounds like you demonstrated leadership, teamwork, and business experience, but 25 is still on the young end of the spectrum for an MBA (average is 27/28). But an MBA admissions officer sees tons of entrepreneur applications, you still need to have a strong over all application. That means strong GMAT and undergraduate GPA and undergrad program. Sounds like you want to do west coast. Stanford is the single most selective business program. You will probably need to have a 3.8 gpa from a top 10 program and 750 gmat. UCLA is much less competitive. 3.3 GPA from a decent school and 710 gmat would probably work. UCLA is somewhere in between. Don't know what you mean by 3 years. MBA programs are 2 years tops. You could also look in to accelerated 1 year programs, but the pros and cons of those are too numerous to list here.

Human: I got married December 19th of last year. My wife's parents are claiming her as a dependent in 2015, so we're filing separately for 2015 and planning on filing jointly in 2016. We made about $15,000 in 2015 while going to school, [and I see here that this means we are above the income limit](http://www.rothira.com/roth-ira-limits). This seems ridiculous to me though, I wasn't married when I made those contributions. What are my options? Should I withdraw the $1200 and contribute it to my 2016 limit? Can Vanguard do that for me without me having to withdraw/recontribute?

Marriage status is determined on the last day of the tax year. Married filing separately is an undesirable tax status designed for unique situations, and you lose **a ton** of benefits/perks. This is just one of them.

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: - [Retirement Accounts wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/retirementaccounts) - ["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: Hello PF, I am working on a flowchart to point friends to who constantly ask how they should spend their money best. Below is a URL for people to look at, I would be interested in hearing peoples comments on how to improve this flow chart so it can be used as a teaching tool for individuals who need to learn how to wisely manage and prioritize spending. Edit 2: Link: http://imgur.com/g6j4IRu WOW, this blew up, I was NOT expecting this to be all that popular, maybe 10 comments at most! Thank you everyone for looking at this, and I'm glad so many people like it! I have made many more changes for version 3, please take a look and tell me what you think! 1. Further consolidated Necessities: I moved Essential Bills and Essential Items into a single node instead of two nodes that follow each other. 2. Modified the disclaimer for the "Pay Income Earning Expenses" node. 3. Changed disclaimer on RothIRA to avoid TIRA/RIRA debate. 4. Added disclaimer for mortgage in moderate interest debt box. 5. Removed Venture Investing from last node. 6. Added self improvement to the "Save for large purchases" node. (I would like to hear some peoples opinions on where this should be placed. Before Moderate interest debts? Before Max IRA, or right where it is at?) 7. Multiple spelling and grammar fixes 8. I would be interested in hearing peoples opinions on the placement of Health Care. Should I merge this with essential items, should I put this after income earning expenses, minimum balances on loans, etc?

than, not then

Needs to be massively simplified. e.g. Have a block for housing expenses, then list all the things under it in dot point in the same block (rent/mortgage, heating, etcc, do the same for crucial personal expenses (food, toiletries), etc.

Human: I recently discovered by pure chance that at times when I had to stay late/come in early (sometimes at the request of my manager), that my hours were being changed on the time sheet to show that I had instead worked my normal shift, when I had in fact had not. I am extremely frustrated and don't know how long this has been happening. I know that it has been for at least a week (Twice in that time period). What do I do about this?

Look for a new job and document from this point forward the hours you have actually worked.

Document every day. Ask for the o.t. when you resign. If they don't pay you file online for free against them though your states dept. of labor.

Human: I was injured at a music festival, and I am currently in the middle of a settlement with the company that hosted the festival, and my lawyer. I was wondering what would be the best way to proceed as far as investing the money I could potentially receive. One purchase I am almost certain I will make is a 2015 Lexus is250 as I do need a new car because what I am driving right now is costing me more than helping me in my daily commute. After paying my lawyer fees, if the settlement is accepted, I would be receiving around $70k. I was wondering if I could get suggests as to what would be best to invest my money into so it's not all going to waste.

Invest in a cheaper, used car.

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 check m t bank statements once a week, but i got this weird feeling today (3 days after i checked it) that i needed to check it again and lo and behold someome in Richfield Minnesota used/tested my card and bought $10 of misc shit at a best buy. I called my bank and they automated voice told me they'll "close" my card or account (forgot which one they said) for 48 hours and if i dont reactivate it then they'll cancel it or something. So i went to an ATM to make sure it didn't work and i was filled with relief when it didn't. I'm wondering how they got my card number without possession of my card and how can i prevent this in the future?

> I'm wondering how they got my card number without possession of my card You can ask your bank if the card was processed by a swipe, manual entry, or as an online card not present transaction. If it was swiped, it was probably skimmed or hacked from someplace you physically went. If it was a manual entry, then it may have been stolen from a database or something with dummy info in the magstrip and your information on the front of a fake card. > how can i prevent this in the future? Frankly, you can't, short of never using the card. Chip and signature/PIN will (hopefully) reduce card present fraud (but won't do a damn thing about card not present fraud).

I'm also wondering. Friday I had my main checking account drained by someone at WalMart

Human: Hi PF. Let me start by saying a bit about myself. I am a 17 year old high school senior who skipped my junior year of high school. I have maintained an effective (3.98) 4.0 GPA throughout my 3 years in high school, and have participated in numerous extra-curricular activities (BPA, FFA, LCYAC, TATU, ASB, sports and a few others). I've worked at a local grocery store for the past 3 years (I recently quit due to lack of time) where I worked my way up to $10/hr (minimum wage is still $7.25 here) Last year I started a computer business, repairing/troubleshooting anything involving computers and made decent money ($20 for the first hour and $10 every hour after) From these two jobs plus any other random money I've accumulated over the years, I have around $8,000 saved in a checking account at a local credit union. For the past year or so, I've entertained the idea that I would be taking a hiatus from college for a year to move to California with some friends that currently live there. My rent would be no more than $300~. My insurance is paid for, and food estimates would be around $200 - 250 and other monthly bills adding up to a total of (including rent) roughly $700/month. The friends I would be living with would most likely be able to land me a job at a local Costco (anywhere from $13/hr@20hr to $15/hr@40hr(worst case/best case)) I would hopefully be able to look at jobs in my field as well, possibly even taking an apprenticeship if available. This dream led me to completely disregard anything to do with college and skip applying to any/all scholarships and schools. I'm currently in a place where I feel like I've completely doomed myself to a life of mediocrity and homelessness, although I'm sure that this isn't true. What is my best course of action from here? Is taking this year off completely screwing me out of any chance of offers from colleges and scholarships? Where should I go from here? I'm also in the market for a new bank account, for reasons unnamed it would be terribly unwise for me to keep my money in an account that could be frozen or confiscated at any point in time. The problem that I'm running into is that nobody will take a 17yr old as a primary on an account. I was trying to get better rates at the same time, but it seems like everything is either barred from me or completely crap. Even with a parent to become the primary, the options are still pretty crap. Any advice here is greatly appreciated. I would really like to start getting some certifications at the local community college while I'm in California, or even possibly attempt a programming 'boot-camp,' but I have absolutely no experience with either. Again, advice here is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for reading this, let alone replying. Any help is good help.

If you have the drive to start a small business at 17, I cannot fault you for having this mindset. A Friend of mine has a similar story and landed a 130k job @21 in IT. Everything is relative. For some, not going to college will lead them to a life of mediocrity, where others will skip the debt and use that time to develop skills and contacts.

For your bank account you should get several, there isn't any that does everything well. Ally has a decent savings interest rate, Schwab rebates all ATM fees, wealthfront is better for investing, local banks may be better for inter bank transfers, and currency investing banks do cheaper international wires. Just put in your birth year wrong when you apply online you shouldn't have an issue, if they want to see your ID let a smudge get on the last digit of your birth year. If you want to have fun in a scheduled environment where you meet people through situational encounters, if you want a back up plan, or if you want to study hard then go to college, otherwise don't. regarding scholarships just start applying now anyhow, your grades are great, look at international schools too. 8K is decent savings for your age, try to budget so that in a given month your balance never decreases, just goes up, even if slowly.

Human: I live in California, a community property state. My husband owns a home that is only in his name although we were already married when he bought it. If he were to die would I be forced to leave the house while inheritance was established. Also, would I be subject to any taxes on the inheritance. The house is worth about $400k. We have lived here together for about 20 years; we both worked and I paid certain bills (such as car insurance and groceries) during that time. He does not have life insurance and there is not much to inherit besides the house, so if there were taxes I wouldn't be able to afford them.

With property like that, it is important to meet with a lawyer to square away anything prior to anyone dying. An estate lawyer is who you would want to talk to, to answer your questions and make sure that after death, things go as smoothly as possible. A lawyer will tell you if you are screwed or not, and give you some alternatives, depending on what you both want to do moving forward. You really don't want to deal with problems while trying to organize a funeral. My husband's side of the family through his mother still have issues over estates not settled over a decade ago. Money and property does weird things to people who think they are owed an inheritance. I was not invited to a funeral of a great aunt because they assumed I was going to ask for the property. I would never do that. But apparently, all the cousins were already fighting over it.

Generally, the spouse has a high standing and gets to remain in the house. Here is an example of the rules for Texas http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/intestate-succession-texas.html

Human: I tried to get pre-approved for a home loan at a local credit union and was denied. My credit score is almost 700, I have %20 down, I owe no money, and my income and job history are both ok. The loan agent said I didn't have enough open credit accounts. I was told I needed 5 credit accounts and that I should open (for example) 3 credit cards and make good on payments for a year then come and inquire about a loan. Anyone have suggestions on lender(s) that wont hinge a loan on the amount of credit accounts I have open on my credit history? Thanks for the advice everyone! It sounds like I should look shop around for different lenders, find someone who will consider manual underwriting, and lastly a new credit account to increase positive payments history.

"Almost 700" isn't that good as these things go. Your choice of a lender is going to vary depending on where you are. A mortgage broker would be familiar with your options, and could advise as to what lenders might want to handle your situation.

Try a company that does manual underwriting, like Churchill Mortgage.

Human: Hey guys, My dad is about to retire, so I started looking into the related info for him and to educate myself. I opened an account for him @ SSA, his account is showing an estimated $350 monthly benefit at full retirement age, and the earning records seem to be correct. Granted, he only makes about 10K to 20K a year for most of the time. I didn't expect he would have a big monthly benefit from Social Security, but I neither expect a low number like this. I was shocked to learn that. Did I miss something? I also learned that SSA has a thing called "Special Minimum Benefit", can anyone explain it to me? Assistant: @ Yes its him, he will be 66 soon. @ Ethelfleda, garnished, highly unlikely. Thanks for the tip! I guess he will need to go to a local SSA and figure this thing out. I just took a close look my das's "Taxed Social Security Earnings" which was used by SSA to determine the benefit. I would assume the numbers equal to his W2, Box 3, they are off, but not by a big margin. About the Special Minimum Benefit, I think it doesn't provide any security to low income earners. To apply for it, one would need to have earning that set forth for that year, and have satisfy for at least 11 qualified years. Say one has 30 qualified years, the maximum Special Minimum Benefit is $830/month or $10,000/year. If one has only 11 qualified years, the minimum Special Minimum Benefit is $40/month or $480/year.

In every situation where a friend or family goes into the office and sit down and meets with a real person, they almost always walk away with a better rate and clear records. Just have your dad make an appointment, (go with him if you want), get a nice large cup of coffee and install Duolingo app or bring some crosswords and have fun people watching while you wait for your turn to meet with a person. One friend of mine got 3 years of unpaid benefits given to him when he did that. Other friend stopped getting all these letters from SSI threatening to cut his benefits because of not reporting income for 1 month, 2 years ago, despite trying to call it in and sending faxes.

>@ Yes its him...@ Ethelfleda tip: Those users may not see your comments, but if you format it like this, /u/yes_its_him and /u/Ethelfleda , then they should get an alert.

Human: Two suggestions that the credit card company website gave me were - 1. Proportion of balances to credit limits on bank/national revolving or other revolving accounts is too high As one of the most important score factors, FICO® Scores evaluate account balances in relation to available credit on revolving accounts. Your score was impacted because your proportion of balances to credit limits on these accounts is too high. Keep in mind: People who pay revolving account balances, such as credit cards, as owed tend to show responsible credit behavior to lenders. However, keep in mind that consolidating or moving debt from one account to another will usually not help since the total amount owed remains the same. 2. Lack of recent installment loan information FICO® Scores consider recent non-mortgage installment loans (such as auto or student loans) information on a person's credit report. Your score was impacted because your credit report shows no recent non-mortgage installment loans or insufficient recent information about your loans. Keep in mind: In general, people who purchase with an installment loan, and pay back the loan on time tend to demonstrate the ability to manage a variety of credit types. However, a new account opening, and to a lesser extent the credit inquiry associated with applying for a new account, may demonstrate higher risk in the short term. Here are some questions I have - 1. What sort of interest rates can I expect based on my score? (I know it probably depends on a lot of factors, but if I would like a ballpark number) 2. How good or bad is my score compared to most people? 3. Based on the suggestions the website gave, should I request an increase in credit? Is there any downside in doing so? 4. Is there any downside in requesting to see your FICO scores? Thanks for all the help! P.S: Oh...Stepped out and came back to your comments. So bottomline from all of you - Dont fret over it. Got it.Thanks!

776 is a really good score, there is really no need to improve it. Typically 740+ receive the best offers from creditors.

Diminishing returns. Why bother. Keep paying for shit in time, it goes up.

Human: I'm 33 with some decent savings and retirement money saved up, and for the last 2 years my Roth has been sitting in a CD because my old financial advisor quit and I wasn't comfortable with his replacement so I just parked my money there til I could decide what to do. So now I've been meeting with my friend's buddy at NW mutual and he's been trying to get me to buy all kinds of insurance and invest in annuities or a brokerage firm. All of it sounds really expensive to me and after doing some research on here I've found that I can do a lot of it myself with Vanguard and I'm just looking for some basic advice on what to do. I have about $28k in a ROTH and $7.5K in a traditional IRA that I want to move over into my ROTH if possible. I'm just worried that if I use NW mutual I'm gonna spend a ton on their services, but I also don't want to do it myself and mess up and lose all my money. I know that's a lot to cover but if anyone has some advice I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

You only have 30k. That is not an amount that warrants a financial advisor. Also, this particular person is just trying to take advantage of you based on your description.

Cancel the meeting Find a real advisor. Not an insurance agent. You'll get better advice.

Human: I got an add for this on youtube, and it sounded like a cool idea. Basically how it works is that this app will link to your bank account, so every time you swipe your card, it will round up to the next dollar and put that change in a diversified investment portfolio. I thought it sounded like a pretty easy way to just set some cash off to the side, but before I committed any resources to it, I wanted to make sure it was on the up and up.

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/search?q=acorns&restrict_sr=on Waste of time, waste of money compared to the more meaningful alternatives. Please read the information found in the [wiki](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.

See if your bank can do this for free. I have a debit card that automatically debits additional money into a savings account whenever I do a purchase. I will usually end up with about $1000 after a year. This isn't a huge sum to me and a portion of that goes to Christmas shopping in December or buying something for myself. I am already maxing out other opportunities though (401k, paying down debt, etc).

Human: I've never dealt with anything like this before and really at a loss as to how to go about it. I am not sure if this should be considered a predominantly legal issue, if so I will post elsewhere. After a painstakingly long on-boarding processes, I finally got hired as a Per Diem at a hospital where I did my internship 2 years ago. I don't want to give identifiers but just for context as to how big this organization is, this is one of the UC's. When I finally received an offer letter from them about 3 weeks ago, I was thrilled to see that it was for $46.30 per hour. Then, after doing trainings and endless pre-employment screenings, they sent me an email stating: "Attached is your revised offer letter with the corrected rate which had been mistaken for another position on your offer letter. For further questions you can call (phone #) for clarification. Please sign." This was last Wednesday, 2 weeks after I had received the initial letter. This new offer letter has an hourly rate of $36.09 per hour. Still a decent pay rate, but wow, that's a really big mistake to leave me hanging on for two weeks. (Keep in mind this is Per Diem, so I will get 2-3 shifts per month and no benefits). Fortunately some of my colleagues have my back since they know me from internship. They informed me that this has been an ongoing problem and that they have been demanding a pay raise for Per Diem's (and the whole department) for a long time with no results. They even contacted the Union, who got back to them with good news, but then retracted that news, saying, "we confused the position that did get a raise with your job description." So there is this pattern emerging, our job description is almost identical to another position which gets paid significantly more..... At this point, I have not yet signed the revised offer letter. They have sent me multiple email reminders stating the same thing, verbatim, but have not called or attempted any other contact/clarification. In the meantime I called the union to see what can be done, they have not gotten back to me yet. So, with this context, I have two questions: 1) Should I push for the original offer, am I at risk for having the offer pulled if I do so? 2) Having signed the original offer and NOT the revised offer and the pay period closing today, do they have to pay me at the original rate? And again, if these are not appropriate for this subreddit please let me know and I will post elsewhere. UPDATE: Thanks for all the comments, advice, perspectives, etc. And apologies for not responding. I finally got a call back from the union representative, who basically said: I could possibly make a case for this if I hire expensive lawyers and follow through a big dramatic process. But, as a Per Diem, I have less rights than other workers, therefore my case would be weak... "If I were you I would remain quiet and subservient" and maybe bring it up in bargaining later this year. So, I signed the revised letter, as many as you correctly pointed out, this lower wage was actually what I was expecting to get. But the fact still remains that there has apparently been a trend of my department's job description being so similar to the point of getting confused with another job title which gets paid much more. This seems to be an indicator that we (myself and others with the same position) are being underpaid overall. So I guess we'll bring it up in bargaining and hope this could be a part of the argument that my colleagues have been trying to make for many years. Oh, lovely bureaucracy. I feel welcomed to the big leagues. Assistant: In theory the original agreement may be enforceable (particularly for the hours you've already worked) but in practice the hospital has a number of options to get out of it, the easiest being to simply stop adding you to the schedule. If you want to continue working for them you will probably have to live with the revised pay rate or at least negotiate with them in good faith. Sorry. That sucks. Human: point taken, but again, the person who actually writes the schedule is someone I know personally and has every reason to be on my side (if i get higher pay the whole department has to). The person pushing the new offer letter does not have anything to do with the schedule and I will probably never even see his/her face. But they could maybe try to pull the offer all together, but I don't think that is in the power of any one person alone. Once again, I have to emphasize, this is the University of California system. It's frickin massive.

That's good that you have people on your side, but I don't think it's practical to believe that UC will indefinitely continue to employ you and pay you at the higher rate simply because you failed to sign and return the revised offer letter and your supervisor continued putting you on the schedule. Being that it's a larger organization may buy you some time but at some point the rubber will meet the road and you will be faced with a decision.

If there is a union involved then your jobs pay rate is set. No way you are going to get paid any more or less than they have worked out

Human: I worked a small part-time job last year for a few months; didn't make any significant amount or anything. Some things came up, and lack-of communication with the employer and understanding of taxes, and I ended up not doing taxes last year. Is there something I should be doing (I have a total lack-of understanding of taxes)? As I understand, the deadline for filing taxes is coming up.

File your taxes this week. It's not hard. It doesn't take much 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: - [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'm a 19 year old college student slowly digging a deep hole. I'm not doing too well in school right now and am burning away my college fund. I'm making $1,000-$1,000 a month right now. Are there any paths I can take to make and save a decent amount of money if I decide to not do college now?

Any trade. Become an apprentice. I went to college and supported many nieces and nephews through college and trade schools. Equally proud of all of them. If you don't like college, learn a trade. Tons of respect for tradespeople.

There are a number of colleges these days that are trying their hand at a more unconventional route that might interest you more than what we've come to expect from colleges and uni's like http://www.wayfindingacademy.org/home Most of them also tend to offer full ride scholarships. Hope this helps.

Human: Will be starting an IRA in the near future as I am getting finances in order. Do retirees take low wage jobs to reduce their tax bracket and therefore reduce the taxes on the traditional IRA withdrawal? If an employee is making a lot of money and wants to retire without a huge tax can they just take a low paying job for a little while? Must they be making this amount of money for some time?

The tax rate of your traditional accounts have nothing to do with how much you made in the years before you withdraw.

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: - [Retirement Accounts wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/retirementaccounts) - ["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 as of last week we (myself and 2 others) were notified that the company is taking away our company vehicles which we drive m-f for work purposes and they are to become pool cars for the office. These cars were given to us as part of our compensation for our job which was traveling sales 100% of the time. As of January there was a layoff of around 30 people due to market conditions and as an alternative to being laid off we were given a new position which requires 30% travel. Now I must travel 45 miles a day which comes out to 225 miles a week on my personal vehicle. So by using the IRS figure of .575 per mile is it correct to assume a total figure of $129.375 divided out by 40 hrs per work week that I would be taking a pay cut of $3.23 per hour? If so is there a good approach for asking for better compensation for my work and efforts? TL;DR- Company is taking my work car and now I am making less money as a result and would like to know if it's worth asking for more money.

Companies are generally allowed to reduce your compensation for future work, as long as it isn't reduced below minimum wage. Your compensation is being reduced. Generally if a company makes substantial adverse changes to your compensation or working conditions, you can quit and claim unemployment compensation. So that's an option for you: quit, find another job. You can always ask for more compensation but in an environment where 30 people were just laid off, I doubt you will be successful. The company is just as aware as you are that they are cutting your compensation.

If the company is laying off people, it's unlikely they will increase your compensation.

Human: I'd appreciate any tips or suggestions - even those that don't include anything I've talked about. Is getting a new card with good rewards a good idea since I was going to open a new card anyway? If so, which card would you suggest? I will keep this card forever so I'm looking at long term rewards as well. Assistant: Why do you NEED a $2700 laptop? I don't think anybody does. If you're doing 3D rendering, you'd need a high-end computer, but you'd probably be looking at a desktop. Please don't tell me you're just buying the most expensive macbook, because you can get Windows computer with the same, if not better, specs for a fraction of the price. Human: Ha, it's windows. I'm doing 3D rendering, mainly GPU rendering. I'm also calculating simulations. Lots of intensive 3D work. Assistant: Adding to this, why wouldn't a desktop suffice? Do you need to do 3d modeling on the go? Human: > Do you need to do 3d modeling on the go? Yes

ok build a headless rig and leave it on at your house. Connect to it from your laptop.

Good luck and hopefully whatever you're going to be modeling or doing with this laptop will generate a lot of income to pay for itself.

Human: Hello r/perosnalfinance, I work at a small incorporated company and am up for a raise in the upcoming months. At the moment I'm working as an hourly employee but the raise would put me on a salary. Personally, I would prefer to continue working as an hourly employee instead of being on salary because I work on average a minimum 10 hrs overtime but during our busy season I've worked up to 30 hrs overtime. At the moment my annual income is $54k and including overtime (which I am positive will continue) is about $70k. My new salary would probably put me closer around $75k. One of my personal goals at the moment is buying a fun sports car which I'm estimating would cost me about $40k-$45k, so about $8-9k a year. Would it be possible to ask my employer to buy me a car instead of a raise? I know I would most likely have to report it as income but it would keep me as an hourly waged employee. Would there be any benefits for my employer? So that I am not stuck at this job until it is paid off we would probably have to work out an agreement where I keep the car and pay it on my own if I were to leave. Thanks for you help and advice!

No.

There is no good reason to do this for either of you. From you're end buying a car for you is the exact same as you buying it. From their perspective its just stupid ...they want to give you $5k more a year then what you made last year not $45k. So either the car needs to be a company car and they are liable if you kill someone or they have to create a special loan contract just for you and its just bizarre. It would be the same as asking them to randomly buy you any other item or expense. When companies give benefits like gym memberships it's normally mutually beneficial. Healthier employees cheaper insurance and/or they get a volume discount and it appeals to a large number of employees. It would make sense if you worked for a car dealer/supplier or they were fleet leasers. (special pricing) There are companies who do this for executives and some even do it for sales people. For them to want to it needs to be a legitimate business expense , it benefits the employees because they can use the car for personal use too.

Human: Every year i have gotten a return of about 300$. Not much but its nice. This is the first year where i have broken even. I don't owe anything for Federal, but I also didn't get anything. What does this mean, or is there something i should be aware of for next year? I did receive a return on state.

It just means that the amount your employer withheld out of your paychecks over the course of the year basically exactly matched what your actual tax liability for the year ended up being. This is a good thing as it means you a) don't owe any penalties or interest for under-paying and b) didn't float the government an interest-free loan for the last year!

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 am not very good with my personal finances. I was wondering if people who are good with their finances balance their accounts and track cash spending? I started tracking all of my receipts into excel, cash, checking, savings, paypal, etc, and was just wondering if people actually did that? I am assuming this will be worth my time. Thanks. UPDATE: Thanks for all of your insights. You were all very helpful. I will keep tracking like am now, in hope that I will become more aware of my spending habits and just money in general. Then maybe I will "graduate" to less detailed methods, or start using a piece of software other than excel.

Absolutely, that's essentially the definition of being "good" at personal finances. It's sort of like asking if someone who is good at math does addition and subtraction.

Once a year I DL the whole year worth of income/expenses and classify them into categories. I don't bother to try to track spending, but I do like to know what the monthly averages are from past years. I wouldn't say it's worth the time. - Edit - Not worth the time to track daily/weekly/monthly.

Human: I work for a billion dollar publicly traded company. If I have to travel for work, I pay for my expenses, then file the receipts and get reimbursed. When I worked at much smaller companies, I would also pay the expenses up front (they would advance the money if needed), so maybe it is similar at all companies. Is this the standard, most common method of managing expenses?

In my experience, yes. You pay, you file your monthly expense report, you get reimbursed.

That's how my Dad did it all growing up. He had a credit card specifically for company travel stuff.

Human: I remember my credit score last month was 660. This was up from 640 around this time last year. It hasn't been good. I've tried to open new credit lines to make it better but I've been denied the two times Ive tried so I haven't tried any more. Today I look at my credit score and its 690? WHAT? I haven't paid off any cards, I still have like $13,000 in credit card debt and $100,000 in student loans. I have in the past 6 months started putting a significant amount towards it each month, more than the minimum, but still less than $1000. I make new charges on occasion despite all of my best judgments, it does happen. Literally the oNLY difference is that I moved one smaller balance ($1,500) to another card for 0% APR so i could focus on another one for the meantime (a $3,000) balance. IDK why I'm all for shuffling balances around until its done. I like doing it, maybe its pointless, only saving a couple bucks in the end, but mentally I like having fewer cards. It feels like an accomplishment even though its not, really. SHRUG. But could moving a balance raise this? trick the credit tracking into thinking I had a totally empty card, when in reality i just put the $1500 onto another card? Its weird. IDK.

If a sudden jump of 30 points is blowing your mind, you're watching that score too closely. Just focus on handling your finances properly, and that score will take care of itself.

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: So, my dad's a guy working IT. I'm not sure about the specifics, but I do know he does backup/repair. He's paid a pretty good salary of around 62,000 a year (he also works at home). Yesterday, he told me he'd put in around 100 hours last week doing some thing for a big paying client. He's STILL working on it. They'll wake him up around 6 am and keep him in a meeting throughout the entire day. The big problem - from what he's told me - is that he's paid a salary, and therefore doesn't get any sort of overtime or raise for working more than 40 hours a week. He's literally working two and a half times the average work hours, and doesn't get any additional bonus. It's ridiculous. I know the simple answer would be QUIT, and he's certainly about to search for a new job, but he just can't quit until he knows he's guaranteed a spot somewhere. My question for you guys is: Can he do anything about it? Is there some law that prevents this kind of stuff? Thanks for any answers. He currently has no time for family stuff, hardly has time to drop the kids off for school, and is stressed beyond belief. Assistant: Your dad works 60% of the week, does he sleep? Does he work 7 days a week? Any days off or vacation? > Can he do anything about it? Get a new job. How is his health? Human: He's extremely stressed out. He's constantly on the verge of crying. I'm sure it's not helping his already high blood pressure. He gets vacation every once in a while. Even then, a lot of the time they'll still call in, so he has to bring his laptop a lot. Honestly, he SOMETIMES get Saturdays off. It's pretty depressing. Assistant: Let me put it another way, even though your dad works 100+ hours per week (meaning he could work 105 hours one week). For 50 weeks (say he gets 2 full weeks vacation), he works 5000 hours per year. For a $62,000 salary that comes out to $12.40/hour. He should consider getting a new job. Your health is the most important thing. Human: Just talked to him about it, he said that if by next week they don't reduce his hours to 40-50 a week, he'll have already applied for a position he's been looking at. Thanks for the insight. His health is already on the fringe; he can't be doing this anymore.

He should skip ahead and apply now. Recruiting people can take time and there is 0 reason to wait.

"If they don't do X in Y amount of time, I'll do Z." This keeps getting pushed and pushed until weeks turn into months, and months turn into years. It's time to talk to recruiters, pull networking strings, and to start putting his name out there now. Finish what he can for the client in the mean time, but **now** is the time to start making exits.

Human: Full story: Friday night I was experiencing excruciating pain my lower stomach. I decided to wait it out for the morning to see the acute care place near my house. I went to the closest place. They thought it was my appendix and rushed me yo the ER. After a CT scan they found a bad infection in my colon, and a mystery mass on my liver. They did an MRI the next day to see if that would clear up what it was but it didn't, and kept me while treating me with IV antibiotics for my colon. I was there saturday, sunday, and released monday. They think the mass is benign based on my age and the fact that my blood test show an otherwise healthy liver, but would like me to have an ultrasound every 3 months for a while to monitor it. I should note, this is the place nearest to my house (and work which is where I get my insurance), and was covered by our last insurance plan. We got a new plan this year, which has tiers. Tier 1 is most covered, tier 2 is less, then tier 3 is out of network. I realized at the end of my stay that this hospital and accute center are tier 2. Its going to be expensive. The last thing i want right now is to be worrying finances, but I want to know if there are any steps I can take to lessen the blow?

Most policies have a clause that says, in an emergency, everything counts as in-network. Also, read you bills carefully and ask questions. There are usually errors and you should make sure that you aren't overpaying. Take your time. The billing is a long process and you don't need to worry too much while you are waiting for the bills.

Yep. Out of network hospitals can be covered if insurance determines that you experience whatever they determine to be an emergency or even urgent care. Read your benefit details carefully to confirm.

Human: Original post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/3ra6ys/help_finally_recovered_from_ptsd_havent_opened_my/ So I finally got my shit in order. It took a few months, quite a few slightly-boozed evenings, but my finances are generally somewhat organized, and I pretty much know where things stand. If nothing else, I don't feel freaked out about my money situation anymore. I am filing taxes for the last three years, and according to the tax software I used, **I owe the IRS a whopping four dollars from 2012-2014.** I'll check in with a CPA to see if I can't get any returns, considering I made so little (<$28k in NYC) those years. This year I should get around $800 back. Cool, nice. **I also now know where I am, debt wise!** I owe $800 in student loans, $600 on credit cards (no interest yet), and I've increased my credit score from 605 to 700 (according to CapitalOne). I also have a Roth IRA I opened when I was 19 and forgot about with about $3k in it. I moved my automatic payments (Netflix, Hulu, etc) to my credit cards so I stop getting overdraft fees when I forget that those are coming. ...And to those recommending increasing my income, **I got a small raise** to $45k per year. :) I still have some shit spending habits (food delivery, booze, cabs home) but I'm slowly teaching myself to cook and becoming more responsible. Mostly what helped was making sure every financial account I had also had an online system that was easy to use and navigate. I dropped one service (a credit union, moved to Chase) because it was impossible to get my online account set up and find my routing/checking info without jumping through a bunch of hoops, showing up in person, and calling multiple people. Fuck that shit. **THANKS GUYS!!** <3

I think the key here is exactly there: Admitting you have some "shit spending habits" and teaching yourself over time to reduce/eliminate your habits. I think that is the biggest thing I have learned over the years: you can't learn finance overnight, but working on the things you know you need to change over time makes it a lot easier.

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 everyone. To premise this, I want to just say that I am 18 years old and that I don't know much about finance and the stock market and what not. My family is middle class, and over my parents' life they had managed to save up $200,000 in savings. We unfortunately put the savings into Twitter stock when it was at around 65 dollars. We have been holding out, waiting to see if it will go back up at all, but it hasn't looked good so far. My question is should we hold our stock, or sell? Please let me know what you guys think would be the best thing to do at this point.

Unfortunately putting all your capital in a single stock is one of the highest risk investment moves one can make and frequently doesn't pan out. Really no one can tell you which way to go on this. Throwing darts at a yes/no board on the wall is as good as anythingg we could tell you. This is a case study in why diversification is so important.

Be sure to keep us updated when you sell. As soon as you do - twitter is bound to explode. ;)

Human: I currently rent a one bedroom apartment in the USA that requires the tenant to give a 60 day notice before vacating. I'm trying to move to a new apartment with cheaper rent but find it hard to approach landlords because the move-in day is so far in the future. How would does one go about apartment hunting with this in mind? Most of the people that I've contacted say they are looking to rent the apartment in the next month.

If you can and want to, you can double-pay and have two apartments for a month. It makes moving much less stressful overall, but it is more expensive. We did this once when landlords wouldn't cooperate - we had to give 60 days notice but everybody wanted their apartment rented in 30 days.

What is the penalty for breaking the 60 day? In my state they can charge you for the rent, for the period of time which it remained unoccupied, (or the N days are up). Is paying the penalty cheaper than a months rent at the new place? (Especially if they find a new tennant sooner). Can you work with your landlord, offer to let potential renters see the place ahead of time, etc, I'm sure they would like it to remain occupied as much as you'd like to leave

Human: I've seen many threads about getting out of debt, but it seems to lose some of its luster for me when the OP has a 6-figure salary. So, I decided to share my story of getting out of debt. This was 10 years ago so my memory on specifics is a bit hazy, but the big figures are correct. Also, it's way past midnight and I need to go to bed, but here's the basics version. Scenario: I was 24 years old, living in the DC area, circa 2004. Rent was $1,500/month. I was working a shht job selling gym memberships, and my salary was about $25,000. I could barely make ends meet, so I used my CC to pay groceries, electric bill, etc. Before I knew it, my CC's had ballooned to a combined balance of $18,000 and i had a student loan of $14,000 (I went to community college and worked all through school, loan was only for senior year). When I sat down and did my budget, I knew it was spiraling out of control. Here's what I did to get out of debt. I'm not in finance or anything, so take it with a grain of salt: 1. My credit was good, despite having high balances, and I had a consistent work history (this is key). First thing I did was consolidate debt. I called my Credit cards and asked if they had 0% APR on balance transfers. If they did, I transferred everything to that 0%. Any leftover got transferred to the lowest rate I could get. That way, every penny I paid got put towards principal. At $175/month interest, that's about $2,000 extra bucks that went to paying it off. If it wasn't paid off at the end of the year, I did it again... Negotiated 0% or as low APR as I could find. Remember, CC's WANT you to be in debt so you can pay them interest. If you transfer to another card, like Discover, Amex, etc, they stand to make no money off you. 2. Find secondary source of income. Every little bit helps. I did odd jobs, I collected scrap metal, I even went through the lost and found (YES, with the boss's permission) and sold the sunglasses and garage door remotes in there before they got chucked in the trash. I liked firearms, and even sold gun magazines (clips, to some people) on Ebay before they banned selling that stuff. Found a place that sold em cheap, bought, then resold at $10 profit each. Not much, but $20, $30 a week equals $80-120/month. That's gas right there. 3. I realized I wasn't making enough money and I started looking for a new job. After selling memberships at $25K, I went to renting cars at $32K. Working 60+ hours a week, washing cars in a suit and tie. Hated it, but fought on. After giving it a chance for a year, I decided it was time to leave. Every customer I met that wasn't haggard and stressed, I asked "What do you do? Do you like it?" and learned quickly which industries paid, which didn't, and which I was qualified for. I applied applied, applied then applied some more. Finally got a gig in Pharma, and pay immediately boosted to $45K. Not a HUGE jump, but I stuck to my original budget, and now I had more income to throw at my debt. From the time I realized I was spiraling down to the point where I was debt free, was approximately 4 years. My max salary at the time was less than $50K. It feels like forever, but it's really not long in the big scheme of things. I'm no poster child for anything and I'm not saying this is the right way/only way, but this is the way I did it. In the 10, 12 years since I started, I saved money, bought property, rented them out, bought more property, had two kids, and got a second college degree. Income is now $100K+. I still drive that same car, and the shirt I'm wearing says "Summer Camp, 2003". Much of my income now goes to paying mortgages on rental properties, one of which is paid off. Good financial habits are easy if you train yourself to live by them. Good luck. TL;DR: Getting out of debt is doable on any salary, but to get ahead, you'll have to make a concerted effort and need to step out of your comfort zone. Assistant: What I'd add as far as tips - live within your means, like as far as actually living. If this means moving to a more affordable area or in with roomates or something, so be it (probably easier in your 20s than if you're older, though). The end justifies the means. If you live in an urban area and there's public transport in your area, chances are you can make do without a car unless it's absolutely necessary to get to work. Yes, the bus can suck. But gas, car insurance, and maintenance expenses (and lease or car loan costs if you have that) gone, you just pay fare or for a monthly pass which will be much cheaper than car expenses. Or look into carpooling if you have a long commute. If you have interest-accruing loans out, save a little nest egg and from then on apply as much as you can to the principal as early as you can to get rid of the loan faster and pay less interest in the long run. Human: Adding on to the "live within your means", if you get a salary bump and still have debt, don't start spending more money just because you have it. Put that extra money towards the debt and keep the original lifestyle that you have. Of course you may make a few more purchases with that additional cash, but on the other hand the additional cash you are now making can help decrease that debt drastically if you keep your original lifestyle. Assistant: YES YES YES! That's why I'm not impressed with the big salary earners getting out of debt. I feel like for many people in debt, they have an earning problem. For people with more money, they have a spending problem. People seem to gloss over this difference.

My brother is an accountant, the stories he tells me about how terrible rich people are with money KILLS me. People that have always had money invest in horrible ways like buying 5 rental houses right before a recession while living at pretty much 100 percent their means all of a sudden are ruined with nothing to show for it

It's nice to see someone actually acknowledge that difference.

Human: After discussing with my SO, we're not sure what my employee handbook is saying in regards to the 401k plan they're offering me. "Each employee may contribute up to 20% of his or her salary or wages on a pre-tax basis with the Company matching up to 50% of the employee’s contribution, up to a maximum of 4% of his or her salary or wages." Does this mean that the max is I can contribute 8% and the company 4%, or I contribute 4% and the company 2%?

You put 1%, they put in 0.5% You put in 4%, they put in 2% You put in 7%, they put in 3.5% You put in 8%, they put in 4%. You put in 9%, they put in 4% You put in 15%, they put in 4% You put in 20%, they put in 4%. (Can't do more than this)

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 work over night at a cheese cake factory and just started getting my paycheck. I need help with how to save my money evenly to achieve my goals of buying a car, taking a trip to nj with my gf in December and general saving for the future. Right now I only work Monday-Wednesday so my check is around 220$ a week until I start working Monday-Thrusday and my check will be about 330$ a week. I only have to pay 25$ a week rent to my mom until i move out. I want to be able to save enough to achieve my goals quickly but would still like to have a little spending money left over. Im sorry for any grammar or spelling errors i just got off work and very tired. Thanks to anyone and everyone who takes their time to read this and help me out with my situation.

I have three recommendations. 1. Go looking to another job tomorrow. There is likely a better paying job out there. Why not search for it? 2. Setup a savings and a checking account. Have your paycheck direct deposited into your checking account and have an automatic transfer go into you savings account for a set amount. 3. Do basic math. You want to buy a car. Let's say you budget $5000. Saving $125/week it will take you 40 weeks to buy a car. Want one sooner? You need to save more or make more money. Simply saving $150 vs $125 means you'll have a car in a little over 33 weeks.

Set up a saving account and automatically transfer $100/week to it, or whatever amount makes sense.

Human: I am a 35 year old small business owner, I make around 175k a year and I put about 35k a year into a SEP IRA to save for retirement. I currently have 140k in the account. It is professionally managed and this year I will pay about $1800 in management fees to the firm that manages it. Since I opened the account in 2011 the total return is -4.13%. Looking around at what the market generally and vanguard funds have done in this same time period it seems like -4.13% is an extremely shitty rate of return. On top of that I'm paying an extraordinary amount for that shitty return when I could be paying way less than half of that if I just threw it into some Vanguard funds. So 2 questions really, should I ditch the firm managing my money, and if I do is throwing it all into a vanguard target retirement fund a good idea or should I be looking somewhere else? Assistant: How the hell did anyone manage to go -4% since 2011. That simply does not compute. Ditch the advisor and go vanguard target date. Human: > vanguard target date Target date funds always underperform. e.g. The Vanguard 2045 has a 10 year return of 5.48% versus Vanguard Total Stock which is 7.4% for the same period. It's a huge payback for doing a little research. Assistant: So you recommend total stock over target retirement? Do you not feel there is some benefit to the auto rebalancing of the total retirement fund as I get older and older?

Be careful with taking stock tips from strangers on the internet.

You can do this rebalancing yourself and you probably should. I would suggest you try to get the money into an account with lower fees if everything else can remain the same. You probably are paying more fees than you realized.

Human: Hello PF! I'm sure many of you already understand that the decision to rent or buy your housing is not always black and white. However, I keep seeing a ton of posts about people wanting to buy because "renting is throwing away money." PF usually does a good job of correcting this misunderstanding, but I thought I'd share another tool I found on the subject. Khan academy has a fantastic set of videos that covers the differences in renting vs. buying, using a lot of simple math. Videos can be found here https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/core-finance/housing/renting-v-buying. If you are someone trying to decide between renting or buying, I highly recommend you spent a half hour to 45 minutes watching the series. I'm sure this has been posted before, so I apologize for the repost! I just think it's a helpful reminder to many who may not have seen it and still think that "buying is always better". Edit: Just to clarify, the videos are not advocating that buying is a bad decision. Sal (the narrator) ends up buying a home himself because it is right for him. The point of the videos is the analysis which helps you better understand the decision.

It really depends on where you live. In Texas, for example, the monthly cost of renting versus buying is a lot different than the numbers he puts out in this video (based on California). It makes it much more appealing to buy in Texas than rent.

I am waaay to young to think about that

Human: What will happen with the irs, I mean, not what will happen to our marriage.

he needs to amend his return to married filing jointly. not sure why you all didn't discuss this before filing.

You have to file for divorce before April 15th

Human: I've never gone to a dealership for a car; I've always bought them outright for a couple of grand (which results in me having unreliable vehicles - the latest one died on the highway on Sunday). I want to get something used but reliable - I'm thinking Toyota or Subaru. I do have some savings ($10k total), but my credit is around 620 (according to CreditKarma). Suppose I want to get a $15k used car from a dealership - will they give me financing with a credit score like mine? I've never done this before so I'm pretty clueless as to how to proceed, but I've got to get a car within a week or so. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks.

If you have $10k in savings, I would buy a car for around $6k or LESS. You need an emergency fund. For the next time something similar to this happens, unexpected medical expense, broken fridge, etc. I would NOT finance anything with your credit score, you'll pay a painfully high amount of interest. Get a secured credit card and fix anything else on your credit, so in the future you aren't in this position.

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: PNC just sent me an email stating that since "You've done a great job managing your credit card account" that my credit card limit had been increased from $2000 to $3000 effective immediately. I had not requested it nor given any approval. I assume it will not have any impact on my credit score, but still was surprised. Is this typical? I've never had this occur with my other cards.

Credit limits can be increased or decreased with no warning by your card issuer.

It's nothing to worry about, continue to use your card responsibly.

Human: I recently moved into a new townhome and just brought over my queen size boxspring. It's 2 years old and in great condition and originally cost me $500. The problem is My townhome has a staircase with a low ceiling just before a turn and there is no way to get it around. I checked and the ceiling is 3 inches below the minimum required by my local building codes. Is there anyway to recoup some of the costs of the boxspring from my landlord? My other options are to sell it and buy a split one or cut it and fold it to go up the stairs. Assistant: FWIW, You can unupholster the box spring, take out the supports that make it unbendable, take it up the stairs, and put it back together. My SO did this with our box spring, though he had upholstery experience. It will take a couple of hours, but its cheaper than a new one. Human: This is what I'm looking at doing. Guess I was hoping for a sue your landlord for all he's worth response. That doesn't appear to be an option though

That's a bad attitude to have. It's not his fault that you didn't think this through.

How is this the landlords fault? They have nothing to do with this. It is your furniture. There is no way he is responsible for you not being able to move in the furniture.

Human: I'm fully willing to accept any amount of flaming for this completely ignorant post. I just got done watching The Big Short, and the movie has me pretty paranoid about my retirement savings. Right now I have an Roth IRA that I come close to maxing out each year. Every dime of that money is invested directly into a target date fund. I also put 6% of my income in my 401k that I believe is invested the same way(Vanguard 2055 Target Retirement). Now while I will try not to go too far off the deep end with talks of a similar situation to what occurred in 2008 I was very concerned about the conversation between Mark Baum, and an Asian gentleman who I believe was a "CDO manager". In this conversation we find that the man says that he works for his investors, while also disclosing that Wells Fargo essentially provides him with Clients, money to run his business, and the funds they wish to sell. Forgive me if I'm misquoting some of this as I'm drawing this up from memory. That discussion made me think about bias in the industry and how I have a decent amount of cash invested in things I barley understand. How can I ensure that my money is invested in a diverse non-biased way? Its a scary thing to entrust your entire future in a complex system that would seemingly take years just to learn the surface of.

The fraud that The Big Short talks about was constrained entirely to tiny slices of the US bond market. [Look at how Vanguard allocates your money](https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=1487&FundIntExt=INT#tab=2). Almost 90% of your money is split between Total (US) Stock Market and Total International Stock Market. You essentially own a tiny piece of almost every public company in the world. The other 10.1% of your money is in bonds, 7.1% in US and the rest in international. [Look at how Vanguard allocates the US bond money](https://advisors.vanguard.com/VGApp/iip/site/advisor/investments/portfoliodetails?fundId=0635). More than 60% of it is parked directly at the US Treasury, or is invested in government-guaranteed mortgage loans. Only 2% of it is in "Commercial mortgage-backed" which is what The Big Short was about, and these days the type of fraud that the movie illustrated isn't really possible. 2% of 7% = 0.1% of your investments. You have nothing to worry about.

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: - [Retirement Accounts wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/retirementaccounts) - ["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: Hello Reddit, I recently got a nice job at Oregon paying 100k before taxes. I am single, debt free with no expected expenses other than: - Housing with utilities (~ $1500) - Food and entertainment (~ $1000) (probably exaggerating) I want to buy a ~$56k car with a 15k down payment. Is it possible? I am eyeballing any estimates so it would be nice if you guys could steer me into reality. Thank you.

Don't forget to see what your insurance will be.

What kind of car?

Human: so basically disputed a $450 charge on my credit card, this was a while ago maybe 6 months. And got the money back, as it was fraudulently charged, now today I'm getting notices from a collections agency that if I don't pay them the $450 it will go on my record and credit score. Is this legal? is there really no way to get around it and basically I have to pay money for something I didnt do if i dont want it on my credit score

Is it from your credit card company or the company the merchandise was purchased from?

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: BPAS inherited my 401k after my previous employer booted me from their plan. Here's the message I received (from BPAS) after trying to initiate a transfer through Vanguard: > I have received your request to process a transfer in kind of your funds to Vanguard. Unfortunately, we are not a brokerage firm and do not honor Transfer In Kind Requests. We will have to liquidate the mutual funds then transfer. Please complete and return the attached IRA Distribution Form. Are there any penalties for going this route? Obviously I can't just liquidate the account and put the money in my pocket. What sort of restrictions should I be aware of? Reading the fine print of the above-mentioned form, I can see that their is a fee to liquidate ($50) but I'm having trouble finding any information about the process generally.

When transferring, there are two ways you can do it: 1. Transfer the actual stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc from one brokerage to another. 2. Liquidate everything, transfer the balance as cold hard $, and then buy assets (stocks, bonds, mutual funds) at the new place. Sounds like BPAS can't do #1 so they're asking you to fill out the forms to make #2 happen. This is very common. Because this is a 401k, there will be no tax consequences to the liquidation, though as you point out there may be a fee. You can also call Vanguard and ask for their advice here--since you are transferring assets *to* them, you will likely get the best customer service from them.

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: - [Retirement Accounts wiki page](http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/retirementaccounts) - ["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: **Income background**: Married, No dependents, Filing Jointly. ____ **My income** W2 - $42225 Fed withheld - $6147 State withheld - $1837 1099-misc - $14680 ___ **Spouse income** W2 - $80000 Fed withheld - $13220 State withheld - $4799 ___ So using [TaxCaster](https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/) I inputted all my info EXCEPT my 1099. Result is I get a refund of **$2373**. Next I input my 1099. Result is **-$3112**. My question is how did my refund drop **$5485 (37%)** after adding my 1099?? Putting just my 1099 in the calculator, it say I owe $1571 [married] and $2315 [single], nowhere near that $5485. Any help? EDIT: Can someone please break down the math so I can properly estimate my taxes for 2016. This entire year I'll be 1099. Currently I've been putting only 25% of my paychecks to the side.

Assuming you had no Ordinary and Necessary business expenses, the federal self employment tax liability on $14,860 is ~$2,100. This is *in addition to* your total income tax liability. You evidently made no Estimated Tax payments, nor did you adjust your federal withholding from your wages.

I added topic flair to your post, but you may update the topic if needed ([click here for help](/r/personalfinance/wiki/flair)). You may find these links helpful: - [Tax Software Megathread](http://redd.it/41dew6) - [Taxes wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/taxes) - [Understanding tax brackets](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/taxes#wiki_eli5.3A_taxable_income.2C_tax_brackets.2C_marginal_tax_rates) - [W-4 IRS Withholding Calculator](http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/IRS-Withholding-Calculator) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: I have a friend who has a history of drug abuse. He's done pretty much every drug you can think of. He almost od'd on heroine, did meth to try to lose weight, a bunch of prescription drugs, and I know he actively does coke and LSD. I'm a weed smoker myself, but that's as far as I go. I've talked to him many times about getting rid of this shit and getting completely clean for a while until he feels better. He keeps excusing himself from getting completely clean and it's a vicious cycle of stopping coke, and getting back on it, along with a bunch of other drugs. I really can't say anything to make him change his mind. His brother doesn't really know the extent of it all. His parents are pressuring him into focusing on school even though he's emotionally unstable which is probably why he feels the need to do all this stuff. If he was my kid I would send him to rehab for a term, but it is what it is. A while ago, both of us being young and stupid, decided to try to do an online business thing where we ended up getting scammed. Before I had a chance to get paypal to fix everything, he freaked out and pulled out and paid the excess amount on paypal, and since I got him to get into it and we used his paypal account, it was basically my fault. I decided to pay him, which was a total of $400. I paid $200 to him pretty soon afterward, but being low on money, I didn't pay him for a while, and then I found out about all this drug shit. I want to pay him back, because it's just my character to pay back asap, but I don't want to enable his drug habits. I know some people can control their coke habits, but tbh with his past, he shouldn't touch the stuff ever again. Not to mention I think coke in general is terrible. What should I do? If i tell him that i won't pay him back until he proves that he's off it, he'll just hide it and pretend that he stops. Or he'll just act like it's not a big deal and want me to pay him anyway. We also live far away from each other so I can't really keep track of him. Should I just pay him and let him make his own decisions? tldr - friend has problems with drugs, cant control himself. family doesnt know. tried talking to him multiple times, but he wont listen anymore. should i pay him and let him make his own decisions or should i keep money until i know that he wont keep doing this shit?

You owe him money. Get off your high horse. It's the same as owing a credit card company. Pay the debt and move on.

If you're worried about $200 going to coke, give him the $200. If you think it's rightfully his money, he can spend it how he wants. You aren't buying the coke.

Human: It's a long story. He has an old Victorian house that he bought as a forclosure for less than 50k. It needs *a lot* of work. 11 months ago I had just received insurance money from my motorcycle being totalled in a parking lot, and in *total* I had 6k cash between all of my assets. I told him I had 4k since in my mind I needed to have 2k savings. He said if I let him borrow 4k for a few weeks to pay the back-taxes on some of his other investment properties (while he got a loan) he would "let me" fix up the house with his tools etc and sell it to me. He ended up getting 4k, then another 2k cash the week after. I now had absolutely nothing. He never turned the electric or water on, told me I was immediately responsible for all the bills associated with the property since "I was going to buy it" and said "after I graduate college I can buy it for a bit less than market value" which he thought to be 130k-150k. I immediately abandoned the idea of buying it and demanded my money back. He convinced the family that I said I didn't want it back immediately and they believed him. Obviously I didn't know anything regarding the above paragraph would be the case since I didn't think he would stoop so low as to be that unreasonable. And to add onto my ignorance, I believed him when he said "This is your only chance to buy a house since it's almost impossible to buy a place as a college student now" and with him being a real estate investor I believed him. So, fast forward 8 months and I call up Quicken Loans and they say that with my current salary *if* I had 7k in the bank I could qualify for up to 210k pre-approval with my fiance. I have since (in the last 11 months) amassed a new worth of 7.5k in assets (mostly my 5k car) and bought another 1k in cool stuff for myself (1440p pc monitor etc) and have around 1500 in my bank account with no credit card debt or any debt besides a sizeable amount of student loans. But regardless, I still only have 1500 in my bank account which will not pay the down payment on an FHA loan and therefore disqualifies me, and I need to buy a condo or place to live (around 100k ASAP because I am vehemently against throwing money away on rent). How can I possibly get my money back? He told the family that the loan wasn't meant to be paid back for years (blatant lie) but they believed him because "he's the adult" and he is extremely smart and manipulative. I need the money because when I graduate the full deferred student loan debt actually will make it hard to get a home loan and I need a place to live right now. He has also claimed me as a dependent on his taxes the last few years and I haven't lived at his house, eaten his food, or anything in that time. He has used all of my student loan deductions etc for all they're worth and not even insinuated I'm entitled to any of it. (20k in loan debt, 4k credit for being a student, etc) I would love to just trash his credit score and make him waste days in court at this point. He has literally financially ruined me. Between the ages of 10-18 I probably worked well over *6k hours for him for absolutely nothing (mother pays housing bills, so didn't even get a roof over my head from him) *70 hour weeks for 16 weeks a year for at least 6 years working construction TL;DR Father essentially stole 6k cash from me 11 months ago and I now need it to be able to buy a condo before my student loans aren't in deferment. I need it back, but how? Edit: http://i.imgur.com/UiB5bkJ.jpg That is a copy of the document my family agreed to after I convinced them that he was supposed to pay it back at some point (even though he was supposed to pay it back almost immediately.) He now says I didn't work all the hours and won't pay, a year after I gave him the money. Assistant: >And to add onto my ignorance, I believed him when he said "This is your only chance to buy a house since it's almost impossible to buy a place as a college student now" and with him being a real estate investor I believed him. As a real estate investor, he's wrong. The lender won't care if you're in college or not as long as you have pay stubs, W-2's, and bank statements showing you have the appropriate income and you can show up to closing with the money needed for the down payment. As a father, that's messed up. He bought a foreclosed house, used *your* money to fix it up, puts you on the hook for the bills (*do not pay these if they are not in your name until you clear this up*), and then wants to sell you the house after he's done fixing it? >How can I possibly get my money back? If you want to buy the house from him at a reasonable price, have him take it off the list price or pay $6 grand in closing cost help. If you don't want to buy the property, you may have just learned a very expensive lesson. Not to mention the free labor. >he is extremely smart and manipulative... Sounds like it. I would bite the bullet, find a cheap place to rent while you save up for a down payment, and don't lend him any more money or work for him any more - maybe even cut ties, because this sounds really shitty. Also, if you don't plan on sticking around the same area for more than 5 years it may be cheaper to rent than to buy. You can Google "rent or buy calculator" and you'll find some resources to show you why it may be worthwhile renting if you plan on moving in less than 5-10 years. Human: Thanks for the detailed response. Since I gave up on the whole house buying ordeal a couple months after he still wouldn't turn on the water etc. he has since decided to continue fixing it and rent it to someone else who he's also manipulating. I told them briefly the reality of the situation but they honestly have no other choice but to follow through with it since they're in a really shitty financial situation. Renting seems blatantly stupid though. I would literally be throwing a large portion of my income away every month with nothing in return. My plan was to buy a nice 3 bedroom 2 bath condo I found and went to see that was listed at 115k, then rent out the couple extra rooms to some really trustworthy and close friends for next to nothing. It would have been much cheaper than any comparable rental situation that I can find (1200 + utilities for any place remotely comparable).

> Renting seems blatantly stupid though. I would literally be throwing a large portion of my income away every month with nothing in return. No, you'd be receiving reliable housing in return, with someone else taking most of the financial risk involved. Can you afford to replace a heater or a water heater if it dies in the middle of the night with no warning? How about a special assessment or deductible on a large insurance claim in a condo? If you can't even afford an FHA downpayment after nearly a year of saving, you're not in a position to own safely. Don't think of renting as burning money, think of it as exchanging money for a place to live while you save up to potentially buy your own without the exposure to the financial risks of owning a home and being responsible for all the expenses.

> Renting seems blatantly stupid though. I would literally be throwing a large portion of my income away every month with nothing in return. > You do that with home ownership too. Property taxes, mortgage interest, PMI, home owners insurance and maintenance won't give you anything in return any more than renting will.

Human: So my single, fifty-something year old uncle wants to buy a house under my name. He is paying it all up front so I wouldn't have any debt tied to my name. But what are some other downsides to this? What would I need to look out for in this situation? He is very close to me and my family and he has no one else other than my parents and my siblings and I. He told me the reason he wants to buy it under my name and not his and I would rather not share the details of that on the internet, but basically he isn't sure of his future or if he will live in the country for the rest of his life. I will say that I have no reason to believe he is trying to do anything shady to screw me over. I am hesitant however because there are probably a lot of factors that come into play when a house is tied to your name. I'm young and haven't owned a home or lived on my own before so I'm ignorant as to the problems or responsibilities that come with owning a home. Would having the house under my name be a good thing or how badly could this screw me up? I should also say I'm a student and I'm only working part time so my income is very low. EDIT: The home would be a $60,000-70,000 dollar home. He has always been single with no children and does not have many expenses. He has been saving money for a long time so please don't think this is drug money or anything of that nature. EDIT2: If I do go through with this I would end up getting an attorney to make sure I'm protected this post was just something to help me see things from another perspective. I assure you guys that the money is legal and this has more to do with my uncle being alone and having no other family. To me it seems like he wants to help me out and leave me something because he does not have much family. Thanks for all the replies.

Sounds like trouble. Avoid.

You should definitely do this. Especially if he's dying. Free house.