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Human: Hey, I just really need some advice right now. I fucked up, I know. I'm a recent high school graduate, and was set to go to college this fall but things came up and i'm now unable to go. Because of that my mom is kicking me out. I'm going to get 1k from my dad every month to help (he lives out of country and can not help more). Rent where I live is insane and i'm not sure what to do. I will probably be able to get a job that pays minimum wage. I'm really not sure what to do. My mom said she would give me at most a month to stay. I wanna eventually go to college if possible. Id also like to know if there are any high paying jobs I can do right now. Thanks for reading.

Hey man I know it’s a lot right now but I too was kicked out and it’s not the end of the world. Do everything in your power to save money. Try to find a job and remember to stay optimistic, it will be hard at first but the smiling man will get hired over the frowning man 100-1. Try to live as bare minimum As possible and start adjusting your diet now while you have access to food. I know it might sound dumb but if you go from eating 3 good meals a day to budgeting 1000$ on food/house/transport, a month ur gonna be in for a surprise.

Take a short term lease and tough it out in a shitty apartment, use the time to try and find some work. Don't get hung up looking for the perfect job; just get something and then you can look for better work. Your goal should be to build up your finances so your not reliant on your father. id suggest pushing collage back a year or so you can use that time to build decent savings, then you are in a position to study without the stress of food or a roof over your head. Don't rush this, you're young. Learn to cook, if you can make a few staple dishes you will save alot of money, look to make food in bulk for cheap, use rice or pasta; better yet get a slow cooker they are the shit. If rent is proving insurmountable you may need to look for shared accommodation, benefit of this route is they will have furniture and maybe free internet.

Human: So, a company I worked for 21 years was bought out by another company. Both companies offer a traditional pension plan and a 401K plan. Ex company who I had 21 years vested in is offering a one time lump sum of $61k. My age now is 46. If I wait until 55 to start drawing on the pension annuity, I can draw $569 single life and $529 joint life annuity. At 60, $755 single - $686 joint. At 65, $923 single - $816 joint. I have to make this decision by 10/15/18. Company says they more than likely won't ever offer the lump sum again. So, I feel like this is not a very good offer. At, 55 if I took the $529 a month, I would draw almost $140k by age 77. Wife would keep getting the same amount until she died. Of course, those numbers would increase the longer I wait to draw. On the other hand, I could roll the $61k into an IRA or one of my 401ks and try to capitalize on probably another 15 - 20 years in the market and just draw a % each year of retirement. The "safe" side of me likes the idea of the monthly check to go along with the monthly pension check from my new company along with SS checks to give us our cost of living income with our 401k nest eggs to be used for things that come up and fun things like vacations. I just don't think the company would be offering this one time lump-sum if it was good deal for me. I know a lot of folks who are taking the lump-sum, but I don't think most of them have thought this all the way through. Any advice or insight as to the best course of action would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

A reasonable way to estimate an anuities value is monthly payment×12/0.04 meaning a $500 monthly annuity has a lump sum value in the $150k range assuming 4% return. IMO, I think the annuity is better unless you suspect thepension is underfunded and/ or may not be fully honoured.

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

Human: I’m 21. I have 20k In savings. A reliable paid off car. And another 7k coming in next month from contractor work. I have a trusted friend to buy a house with and to make the down payment less of a burden. I found a property I could purchase for roughly 230-250k. I plan on renting out the main unit for 1200-1300 and living in the unattached studio. Market comps show this is viable. The mortgage with an fha would be roughly 1,300 with all of the taxes and insurance included. I will potentially be able to do seller financing as my realtor knows the seller (who is also an agent) personally, and is currently asking about it for me. I know breaking even is dangerous because of unexpected vacancies and damages, but I am more than accepting of that risk especially considering the value the extra studio/unit brings and potential gains for the future. Also 1200 is relatively conservative for the area and could be higher but don’t want to overestimate. After the first year when I go to college I could rent out the studio as well depending on my situation for $400-600. I see this as an opportunity to start building equity early. And make it easier to buy another house later on to build up my assets. I will put aside money each month for unexpected repairs. Make legal agreements with my partner if we decide to split costs and equity. And do due diligence with inspections of the property. What are your thoughts? One worry I have is college aid, and whether or not the equity will effect that. any pitfalls to seller financing I should be concerned with? What am I not considering that could make this a bad idea? Assistant: Well deals like this are a good thing — until they aren’t. Never assume you’ll have a steady income from the property and from your employer. If you factor in some weeks of slow work or trouble getting tenants what does the situation look like? Added to that you’ll have someone else’s name on the deed — this makes for classic problems down the line. Why do you want a house to begin with? Home ownership upsides are not what they once were. That asset bubble is already inflated. Your 250k house is not going to be worth 750k in 10 years. Tread softly. Human: My purpose for buying it would be to eventually own multiple rentals properties bringing in an income/paying off the principle. I’m not expecting the property to appreciate, but I am expecting to be able to rent it. Worse case scenario I could live in it and get a minimum wage job walking distance from the home. That of course is highly unlikely. If it came to that it would have to be a pretty bad line of events. What I do now is sales based and I’ve been doing it consistently for about three years now and see no reason I couldn’t make it though a tough patch if need be.

> Worse case scenario I could live in it and get a minimum wage job walking distance from the home. You’d need to make over 6 times minimize wage to barely afford the payments on a quarter million dollar house. You would be bankrupt and the bank would repossess the house within a few weeks.

What is your annual income?

Human: Hello fellow friends of Reddit. **I really need your help.** So my situation is that I recently was offered an entry-level engineering position at a respectable firm in Seattle, WA. I am really excited about this opportunity, but instead of being excited to be finally moving forward in my career, I'm really stressed out about my budgeting and future. I graduated with my Bachelor's in 2015, and since then have been working non-engineering jobs making much less than what I should have been making. As such, at this time I have no retirement fund started, I have about $5k in credit card debt, and about $15k in student loan debt still. I'm currently in a city semi-far away from Seattle for $750/mo. I could save alot of money by staying here, but the total commute time from where I currently live would put me on the road 3 to 3.5 hours a day. Because of this, I am looking for an affordable apartment in Seattle. So, like any responsible adult would do, I planned out my budget so I could make everything work... and I'm really discouraged. After taxes, I will bring in about $3,350/mo BEFORE 401k contribution. To get the max company match I need to take out 10%, which leaves me at around $3000/mo. **Here is a breakdown of what my budget is looking like:** Car Insurance: $100/mo Cellphone: ~$100/mo ($60 plan, $40 monthly payments on phone) Misc. Payments: ~$100/mo (Assoc. dues, etc.) Gas: ~$50/mo (Looking to live relatively close to new job) Food/Groceries/Toiletries: $600/mo Personal Funds: ~$150/mo (Goes towards random things I want like games, etc. Rest goes into Savings) Credit Card Payments: $250/mo (Minimum payment is $150/mo) (Owe $5k w/ 12.65% APR) Student Loan Payments: $150/mo (Minimum payment expected is ~$100/mo) (Owe $15k) Savings Account: ~$100/mo **Rent (w/ Utilities): MAX = ~$1400/mo** **Total: $3000/mo** As many of you know, living in Seattle is incredibly expensive. There is an apartment I really like but it's $1400/mo before utilities, which puts me out of my budget. My living space is incredibly important to me. Am I being completely unreasonable by wanting to spend basically 50% of my income on rent at my age given my situation of being in debt and having no retirement fund? Is it possible for me to live in the moment but also plan for the future? Any and all advice is so much appreciated. **Thank you so much** for taking the time to read this. Assistant: Find roommates and don’t spend anything on video games until you pay off the credit card. Human: Doesn't everyone have a little fun money though? lol

Sure, but I would pay off the credit card debt first.

Play old video games, haha. Rediscover the wonderful world of New Vegas!

Human: Hey all! I recently married and my husband just got a new job. We both need to update our w4 but I’m so confused about how the taxing process works now that we are married. A bit about us: we’ve had a joint checking/savings account for 6 years, we’ve had a dependent for 5 years, his w2 from last year is $21,000 and mine is $18,000- I expect these numbers to be slightly higher for 2018 as he got a raise and I was able to work full time after May due to graduating college. I’m so lost on how the w4 and filing process will work for us now that we are married. Any advice of helpful links would be greatly appreciated.

If you look at most recent pay stubs (you might have to access them online), you should find line that tells you how much federal tax you have paid in to date. See what this is for you and for husband. You may also be able to predict overall income based on year to date gross and then count what remaining paychecks will add through Dec 31. Armed with pay stub info you could use the www.irs.gov/w4app and enter your figures for your situation. It may turn out that you two have already paid in more than your tax, in which case the suggestion for W-4 will be numbers that would be high enough to turn federal income tax withholding amount down to $0 for remaining paychecks in the year. The amount that has been taken from paychecks so far is influenced by what your W-4 settings have been, and depends on whether you are using "Single" or "Married" check box on W-4. So it's not possible for us to know how much has been withheld to date because y'all might have switched your W-4s from Single to Married at some point earlier this year. The good news is that if you file jointly you get a 24000 standard deduction amount that will not be taxed and the next 19050 of your income is taxed at 10%, so if your AGI is under 43050, your tax is under 1905. If your AGI is over 43050, only the amount over gets taxed at 12%. If your dependent is under 17, you'll get child tax credit of $2000, which takes your tax down toward zero, possibly even yielding some money. So it seems likely that any fed tax you have paid in so far would get refunded to you, plus you might also get a little more. If you have already overpaid for the year, the IRS calculator would tell you the values to use on new W-4s so that for rest of year no more fed income tax gets taken. You will still have Soc Sec and Medicare tax taken from pay. Next year there may be a new W-4 that requires different inputs, so you will want to revisit the issue again next Jan, so 2019 withholding is appropriate for that year.

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

Human: They never mentioned doing this, and i got denied from a few of those places despite my good credit (745, 22 y/o). Inquires is the only bad thing on my credit now. This whole thing dropped my credit like 20 points to a 725. I worked very hard and never put to much on my credit cards to make my credit score a 745, is there anything I can do? Edit: okay so the overwhelming response is no- which I kinda figured since I did allow them to run my credit. What I didn’t know is that these should drop off quickly, and that made me feel a lot better so thank you everyone!

You can stop keeping track of your credit score like a hawk ... because at the end of the day it is not a big deal. Scores go up and down all the time. All those credit inquiries should count as one since they were all probably pulled within the same day.

From Australia here. Maybe you can call the credit reporting agencies and tell em what happened.

Human: Hey guys, So basically I have been accumulating debt for years and just recently got to the tipping point where income is barely covering debt.. I took out a personal loan and paid off some cards and have transferred what I could from what was left to a 0% C.C. but still struggling.. Only other option I can think of now is possibly some debt relief or reaching into 401k (I have about 60k in 401k).. Maybe I can just keep struggling through how I am for the next few years? Anything I am missing? Credit Cards - Monthly - 245 - Balance - 6200 Personal Loan - Monthly - 625 - Balance 17000 0% Credit Card - Monthly - 225 - Balance 8000 Student Loan - Monthly 350 - Balance 18500 Monthly Expenses - Mortage - 1000 Water - 50 Insurance - 100 Power - 100 Car - 350 Total monthly expenses - 3045 Monthly Income (Salary so no OT) - 3250

What are the interest rates on the debt? Are the student loan federal or private? Are they on any sort of non-standard repayment plan? Right now you are spending more than you earn. You don't have all of your expenses listed but I am sure you spend money on food and gas at least. So you need to figure out *all of your monthly expenses* so you can develop a plan that is sustainable. How much do you owe on the car? What is it worth if you sold it? How far do you live from work? Is there public transportation available? Carpooling? Do you live alone? How many bedrooms do you have in your house? How many hours are you doing at your current job? How long have you been there? When was the last time you looked for another job?

> Anything I am missing? Interest rates on your debts. Are those payment numbers the minimums? Your other monthly expenses. Your housing is expensive for your income.

Human: Months ago I called them and had my daily spending limit reduced to a figure I was comfortable with. I got an email today that said "based on your spending habits, we have increased your daily spending limit by $1,000. Needless to say I called them and ripped them apart. How dare they? I lowered it for security reasons and don't want that much of my money at risk. I use my credit card for everything and pay it off in full every 2 weeks. I've never paid a penny in interest and my credit card is with wells fargo also. I think they are sick of paying me my 2% each month and want me to just use my debit card more. They change it again, and I'll leave them behind. Terrible customer service.

> I use my credit card for everything and pay it off in full every 2 weeks. If you use your CC for everything, why are you concerned about your debit card? You won't be responsible for fraudulent charges as it is. You are getting worked up over nothing.

Why do you have a bank account at a bank know for ripping off its customers. Time to find a new bank

Human: Hi, I have saved up $4500 in my Ally Saving account that currently has a 1.8% interest rate. My ally account is where I keep my emergency fund. I also have a car note of $4200 with an interest rate of .9%. Is it worth draining my Ally account to finish paying off my car? It's very tempting to get it over with. Assistant: I don't think so. The money in your savings account is generating double the interest your loan is. Also that would leave you with virtually 0 savings. If the interest rate of your car was higher maybe, but .9% is great. Human: That's what I'm thinking but some friends and family were saying to just pay it off so it's off my mind.

Is this $4500 your emergency fund, or is this money above and beyond your emergency fund? If it is above and beyond your emergency fund, then the answer is to do whatever feels best to you. Your loan is cheap, but your savings interest isn’t much better, and the $20 of extra interest you could earn over the next year is peanuts in this discussion. If this money is your emergency fund, then you will want to verify that your emergency fund is adequately sized at 3-6 months of your expenses, depending on the stability of your job and your general risk tolerance. If the $4500 is not enough you should be holding off from paying extra towards your car until that is funded. If the $4500 is larger than what your emergency fund needs to be, you could throw the extra amount towards your debt if you like.

What this person said is what you should do, not only is your savings account generating more than what the loan is costing. It's also your emergency fund, so that's a double no to paying it off.

Human: Hey PF! I’m a 30 yo living in the SF/bay area and have finally finished my schooling! I’ve made about 30K/yr until now. I’ve finally been able to begin my career in medicine and and now making closer to $155K/yr. I’ve always lived a frugal lifestyle, which was honestly necessary for my living situation. I put money into savings, paying down CC, and retirement. Now what? I studied medicine not finance! Haha How do I make sure I’m doing the most with my money? I’m currently still living with my parents and the first big purchase I’d like to make is buying a home (condo or apartment). My big question is, how do I make this money, make money? Where do I start? What do I invest in? My “take home” is 6K/mo My current monthly spending is: - $400 in rent/utilities/cell (benefits of living at home) - $1,200 towards student loans - $150 groceries - $200 Gas -$200 fun I’m in an ideal situation currently that won’t last forever of living at home without any big expenses like kids or a home and want to take advantage of it to the fullest!

Sounds like you need to read the prime directive on the sidebar. Realistically, I doubt you'll have the money for a home purchase in SF anytime soon, even with that salary. Might want to look into rental options first. [Here's a good resource for medical workers, it has plenty of high earner specific advice (backdoor roth and other tax methods).](https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/)

Keep living like you only make 30k for as long as humanly possible. 150k is a great salary and you can blow through every red cent of it in the bay area. You need to save up a LOT of cash to buy in SF. Stay with your parents as long as humanly possible because your rent is going to be SO MUCH. If you suck it up for a year and bank most of your salary you will be ahead for the rest of your life.

Human: I'm an Australian currently first year out of university, working in my hometown full time. At the moment, i'm sitting on around 50k of cash earning a 2.80% p.a. interest in a savings account and a 3k investment in the ASX stock market. I live quite a frugal life with very minimal spendings (pocket around 90% of what I make) and am on a 70k net income. My current income/work situation is stable and plan to continue this for at least the next 1.5 years. note: all money is in AUD. 1 AUD = 0.73 USD My question is: - WHAT DO I DO with all this cash sitting in my bank.. barely keeping up with inflation?!? Any advice on investments that you can give me?

/r/AusFinance might be a better spot to ask since there will be a higher concentration of other australians.

Have you read anything yet? Moneysmart is a good place to start for basic information around money. In terms of investing it depends on your risk tolerance and the time horizon of your investment. Do you have a plan for when you'd like to retire? Do you want to travel while you have little commitments or save for a downpayment on a house(PPOR or investment)? Id sit down a knockout the basics if you haven't already: *budget *check your super(fees/investment options/tax advantages/first home owners super saver scheme) *risk tolerant appropriate investment options. /r/AusFinance is a good place to start and depending on how you feel towards retirement /r/financialindependance might be worth looking into.

Human: that’s my main question but let me explain... I am an IT Recruiter and every month I get a standard paycheck in the middle of the month and then my commission check (always varies) which is my standard amount + commissions. sometimes I get a pretty large commission check if a big bonus has gone through and my check literally gets cut in half from taxes, it is crushing. yes, I know taxes suck for everyone but I was curious if it makes financial sense to split the bonus and ask for it in addition to my next month’s paycheck. I have heard people doing that in my company but coworkers are telling me it really does not increase the money you will receive. any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

Split checks within a year won't make any difference to your taxes. They might make some difference to your with holdings, but it will all come out the same when you file your tax return in April. A really big check if it was split between two tax years, might make a difference to total taxes. Good luck.

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

Human: This is my first time posting in here, and I've got a sickening student loan story... ​ I graduated in 2007 with a bachelor's degree that took 9 years to complete. I could blame a lot of things from changing majors three times and taking a semester off to ADD, but it all boils down to me being indecisive, ignorant, and immature. ​ Though I worked all through college, I always pulled out the max amount of loans to pay for tuition, books, and to help pay all my living expenses since I didn't make much. When I graduated, I had amassed over $60k in student loan debt. I had no idea that I was putting myself in such a bad spot, thinking it was "normal" and what everyone did. ​ But this is where it gets stupid... ​ I had a hard time finding work after college (the crash of 2008 was upon us and I had a vague and fairly useless degree), so I resorted to grooming dogs like I had in college just to get by. I was in a consistent paycheck-to-paycheck loop, so I had my loans deferred for a bit because I was struggling to make ends meet. ​ After I didn't qualify for deference, I switched to forebearance. And kept living paycheck to paycheck. ​ I'm ashamed to say that I've lived this way for the past 10 years now, and my loans have slowly grown. They're now over $80k and I'm feeling overwhelmed and desperate. I even defaulted on a smaller one after I didn't qualify for forebearance anymore. ​ I have no excuse for myself and take full responsibility. I adopted an avoidance attitude where I stuck my head in the sand and hoped for "better times" that never came. ​ Unfortunately, I'm still living paycheck to paycheck (though I finally got into a good field and I'm climbing my way up, so though money isn't great, I have a brighter future), but I'm ready to pull my head out of the sand and do something about my abysmal situation. ​ The thing is, I have no idea where to start. I don't know who to trust, what's a scam and what's legit, or who to go to for help. ​ I contacted a couple credit counseling agencies, and they said they only help with unsecured debt (?) like credit cards and whatnot. ​ Does anyone have advice on where I can start so I can finally dig myself out of this miserable hole? ​ P.S. I know I've been an idiot and made bad choices, but please try to be kind and not rake me through the coals too much. ​ Edited to add: I have a variable income and make anywhere from $2,000 to $4,500+ per month gross. Right now I'm averaging about $3k right now. ​ I have a budget that I'm not good at following, and my variable income makes it ever harder to stick to. My expenses are about $2,800/mo, give or take, not including self-employment taxes or health insurance (which I don't have). ​ Thankfully I do have a small savings account to keep Murphy's Law at bay, and my only other debt is a credit card with a $700 balance I'm doing fine making monthly payments on. ​ I'm so in the dark with my loans that I'd need to dig to find the exact loan balance, now, as well as the rates and terms. ​

This is just a math problem. Spend less of your paycheck. Work side hustles to make more money. Make bigger payments to your loans. Keep doing that.

OP, you need to get a handle on your budget. Your monthly expenses are $800 than the minimum monthly gross income. Holy s%&#! You have a horse, a dog and feral cats you feed... You need to get rid of the horse, that alone is $400 a month. Probably need to stop taking care of cats that aren't yours... In addition shop around for you cell phone, and auto insurance. You also need to look into saving on your utilities. As long as you are drawing hard lines on spending you won't give up, math will continue to draw a hard line on you. Also, don't eat out, find some side jobs you can do to make extra income, etc. And since you are freelance, do you have health insurance, retirement savings, etc? You *really* can't afford your life right now. You think you are broke now, just wait until you get sick, or retire on SS only... You are trading your future away to tread water today...

Human: So as the question states, I am contemplating quitting my job. I have another job, but I do not have a 401k through that employer. I don’t have much in my current 401k because I wasn’t contributing much to it each paycheck, but I don’t know what to do with the money that is currently in there. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

You should roll it over into a traditional IRA, no taxes and no penalties and it's still a retirement account

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

Human: UPDATE: he agreed to $5250/month!! The anxiety was real though because I emailed him at noon and didn’t get a reply until 4am lol Hi all! I got an office manager job offer at a biotech startup yesterday in Silicon Valley. I’m actually back in school for my second bachelor’s in business admin (first degree was in Biology) so I’m doing part time until end of December and then transitioning to full time and then taking evening classes. I’m wondering if the offer they’re giving me is fair because I’ve been hearing differing opinions. I want to add that the reason why I’m taking this job is because I want the experience and opportunity to grow within They offered me $3500/month with health and dental benefits for PT then I was able to negotiate for $5000/month salary for FT. I’ve been told that you should get equity at a start up but in the email the CEO said that can be revisited when my role grows. My living expenses are super low - I only have to contribute $500/month for rent. And I plan to open a Roth IRA soon. Because my rent is so low, I’m going to saving a lot of my paycheck for a house in ~5years. Would love to know your thoughts. Thanks! Edit: I should add I’m 22F. No dependents. Graduated in 2017, with a year experience in a start up as an admin manager (so basically this job) before this position.

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me, but I don't know how that pay compares to similar jobs in your area. Anyway, take it. If you later find that there are better jobs around, you can switch. Good luck.

Take it. This can be a huge stepping stone for you in your career and life in general. Congrats.

Human: My folks are gifting me money to help with a down payment. Originally they were going to give me roughly $50K and I was going to pony up about $20K. Based on this: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/frequently-asked-questions-on-gift-taxes It looks like they can exclude $30K from gift tax ($15K from mother and $15K from father) and then give me another $20K next year, tax free. However, I talked to my loan originator and he said that you don't have to pay down payment assistance from family gifts, but that I should consult a CPA to confirm (lets all agree on that point). I'm also wondering if the $50K should be a "loan" instead (though that might be more of a pain). Question: - How can I avoid having this gift be taxed and up to how much? - The underwriter is going through Freddie Mac / Fannie Mae, should I use a private underwriter instead? Thanks in advance. Edit: Sadly my parents don't have $11 million to donate and I just read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/59o2z5/you_are_never_going_to_pay_a_gift_tax/ So, they'll have to report, but it won't affect their taxes.

$15K/per person per year is just the reporting limit, they won't pay taxes until they each gift $11.2 million in their lives.

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

Human: whats the point? at 65 ill be at the end of my life, and die. whats the point of saving the money till than. ​ when i can invest in the present? where im actually young.

> at 65 ill be at the end of my life, and die At 12, I thought I knew everything.

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

Human: I’ve been working at a place similar to an escape room. My pay depends on how many events I work for the day, and if it is 1 hour long or 1.5 hours long. I’m required to get there 30 min early to setup the room, and i leave about 30 min after the event ends to close things down. I am about to burn the bridge there cause I recently got another job that actually pays my bills and the schedules interfere with each other too often. I’ve told my manager I can’t come in and I’m told that I’m liable to find someone to cover my shift. As I quit this job I want to know if I should take action about this unpaid work. If you need more details please ask, I’m at my reliable job atm and will try to respond asap.

Looks like you got the sane answer you needed. Sorry your job sucked as well, but that's work for ya. Enjoy the sweet respite of a better job, and try to bow out gracefully from your current one because you never know.

You aren't liable to cover your shift, that is your manager's choice to cover it or fill it. If you don't value your relationship with the company or as a reference you have no obligation to not just quit with no notice.

Human: So I just graduated college and I'll be starting a job at the end of the month making 62-68k annually. I have no student loan debts and my rent is fairly cheap at 57-$/mo. I also need to buy a car and the ones that I want are in the neighborhood of 28-34k. Is this dumb or can I afford this? Edit: The cars that I'm looking at are 2018 BMW 2/3 series and Mercedes Benz CLA class

You cannot afford either of those cars. Rein it in, buddy.

Work a full year and save up the cash to buy it outright (with tax, and add a year of insurance costs on top for good measure). If you still want it then, go ahead. Get the cheapest rolling 4 wheels you can find for now.

Human: Hi, so in the past two months I have been arranging to find a place for my mother to stay for 3 months near my college(she's a professor and she will be on sabbatical). I found a place on a blog that the residential office by a local resident. After a few emails and having found the accommodations quite good for the price, we digitally signed a lease agreement. He said he was in Hawaii temporarily for work but he could make a trip back to show me his apartment sometime in early September. So I initially paid a deposit and one month's stay via PayPal. This is where it gets REALLY suspicious. Later, he requests for the last two months to be paid for as well because he needs to purchase insurance for the apartment. I agree, but this time he refers me to a different PayPal account in which the transfer has to be made from US Dollars to Euros. I questioned if this was correct and he said yes. Also, the day before it was planned for him to show me the apartment, he said he couldn't make it but his wife would. I agreed, however the next day his wife didn't show up either. 2 hours after the appointment time, he said that his wife had had an accident on the way to the airport that morning and he would mail the key to me instead. From then on, he was extremely unresponsive and would occasionally say he would mail the key as soon as possible. He has not responded since last Thursday. Should I contact a lawyer in this area? In hindsight, I trusted this person way too much but I assumed he was legitimate because we had signed a lease agreement and I tracked the IP address of his emails and they were from Hawaii. What should I do? My mother is planning to move in in less than 2 weeks and I'm not sure what to do.

Start over. Scammed. Plain as day. Sorry OP

I would also add that if you revealed any personal info in your “lease” agreement you could also get your identity stolen. Freeze your credit now!

Human: So my mother needs a bank account but is afraid to get open one or even get a normal job for fear that the money will be taken out automatically bc she owes child support. We were in the foster care system for 10 years and I think that's how she accumulated the amount she owes. She didnt work all that time and even has trouble finding a job now. I want to open one for her or put her down on my account so that it's easier to send her money when she needs it. However I dont know exactly how to do it, or how it would work as far as her owing child support. Is this even a good idea?

Any account she owns or co-owns can be garnished for past debts with a valid court order.

Please don't do this in your name. It's at least a couple felonies in my state. /r/legaladvice Having a joint account with someone with legal judgments against them means your whole account can get scarfed. That's the point of a judgment, especially a government one like child support.

Human: So, to preface, this is a mildly long story, but I’m not knowledgeable at all when it comes to insurance matters, so I wanted some advice. A few weeks ago, in the flooding in Madison, WI, I drove my truck out to my roommates place of employement because she couldn’t get her car through the flooding and I thought my truck would be able to handle it. Turns out, it couldn’t, and it died while trying to get through a particularly large puddle. Being mechanically inclined as I am, I knew not to start it after being flooded because that’s how you kill a vehicle, and had it towed and filed a claim with my insurance. They immediately have it shipped off to a salvage yard, for ‘storage and inspection’, which from my understanding is fairly standard procedure. Two weeks go by and I hear nothing. I’ve been provided with thirty days of a rental vehicle from my insurance so I’m mildly ok with waiting but got fed up and called them. Got told they were passing me off to a total loss expert and that id hear from them soon. Another week goes by and I got nothing, until they called and said that the salvage yard had my truck running and driving, which initially had me very excited but as I thought about it, very much confused me. Insurance goes to take my truck to a mechanic to get it checked out, and the mechanic calls me and says the motor is completely seized and most likely threw a rod, which for those of you who don’t know, means the motor is completely shot now. This could have ONLY happened as a result of the salvage yard running and driving a hydrolocked vehicle, and I know this because it ran before they drove it, and didn’t after. Insurance is now quoting out a replacement motor for me with 140000+ miles which I’m not pleased about, and I’m about 5 days from having to pay out of pocket for my rental. Where I need advice, is on how to proceed from here. Obviously, I understand that I caused the original damage to my vehicle, so I’m on the hook for some of the repairs, but had my insurance had the vehicle looked at before the salvage yard randomly, and without permission, drove it and subsequently totalled the motor, the damages to me could’ve been significantly less. I would’ve still had to pay part of my deductible, but most likely not the full $1000, which to me, is a SIGNIFICANT amount of money. I feel like I’m being taken for a ride and don’t know how to proceed. TLDR: truck was damaged in flooding but fixable, but then a second party salvage yard caused catastrophic damage and now I’m on the hook for more of the cost. ALSO, Apple air pods disappeared from the vehicle before I could get my things out of it, and a $200 Bluetooth speaker was thrown in the bed of the truck by someone not myself to get rained on and destroyed while sitting at the salvage yard.

Document everything. See if you can get the mechanic to provide a written description of the damage that he assessed and then send that to your insurance company. The more documentation you can provide, the better, because that's the only thing an insurance company will respect and be forced to act on. They know you are in a position of weakness so be ready to state your case and support it with evidence. They are used to angry phone calls, not people who have receipts.

This is more of a /r/legaladvice thread, but IMO you killed the truck when you drove into the standing water -- it stopped because you'd killed it. *Even if* that isn't the case, you'll never be able to prove it.

Human: Hey guys, I financed a Hyundai from the dealership about three weeks ago. Signed everything and left with the keys. I got a call from the dealership saying that the lender isn’t approving the loan and that I have to find a co-signer. Do I have any options to not have to find a co-signer? Please let me know.

Most laws allow 10 days for the dealer to find a lender, if they haven't by then they assume the loan and you will make payments direct to the dealer. Find out what your state says on loan shopping by dealers.

Thank you everyone for your replies! I believe I have enough advice from everyone. Happy Thursday to everyone and enjoy the upcoming weekend! Mods, please lock this thread.

Human: I apologize for how long this will be, so TLDR at the bottom. Someone close to me struggles financially. He is 23, he lives at home and works a hard labor job, so in summer makes roughly $2000-$3000 a month, and in winter roughly $800-$1200 a month. His family is not well off, and his mother struggles, so she expects him to pay $150-$250 a week to her to help with bills. He doesn’t own his car, she technically owns it, and claims that the money is for the car, but still won’t let him take it when he wants to. He pays all the gas for it which is quite expensive due to his job. His sister does not pay anything at all. Because his mom takes so much money from him, he struggles. On top of this, he does drugs, but is currently trying to stop. I obviously know that that part of this story is completely his fault, and I encourage him to stop his drug use. Now for the harder part. He owes his bank $400 from overdrafting and god knows what else, and got speeding tickets last month, resulting in $300 in fines and $500 for a lawyer. He just paid for repairs on his car which was another $200. Every time he gets into rough spots (which is regularly) I end up sending him money. I sent him over $400 since August 15th, $60 of it just in fees for sending it over the internet. I told him to get a bank that accepts Venmo, but because he owes his current bank $400, he can’t open another bank account. I can’t afford to send him this type of money, I make less than he does a year. I feel trapped because I don’t want him to ruin his future, so I feel like I have to send the money when he needs it. Like he had to spend $100 to plead not guilty so he didn’t lose his license, and he didn’t have the money and it was the last day to pay so I ended up sending it so he wouldn’t lose his job. I can’t afford this, it’s stressing me out and I shouldn’t have to change my lifestyle to bail someone out regularly. He currently owes me almost $800. Any advice would be appreciated. TLDR: guy doesn’t make a lot and his mom takes $1000 from him a month, he keeps getting into bad financial spots and I end up bailing him out. I can’t afford it anymore, but don’t want him to ruin his future.

You have to learn to say "NO". It's hard, might ruin the relationship, but him borrowing money is already doing that anyway.

>but don’t want him to ruin his future You aren't ruining him, he is doing it to himself.

Human: Hi, I'm interested in buying a salvage car. Its a luxury car but the only problem it says that it was in a car accident. However the price dropped around 12k because of the accident? Does this make the car have a salvage tittle from 1 car accident? Is it worth buying the car because of the price dropped? I'm willing to pay the whole amount all in one go, I'm just worried down the line I'm going to be facing other problems from the car accident. Do I have to buy the car fax report for the car, if so how accurate is it?

If you don't know anything about salvage cars, you shouldn't buy one. You need to check if it's even insurable.

I don't think this is a good idea. You don't have the necessary knowledge to buy a salvage car.

Human: I'm working to help a start-up non-profit in its foundational stages. As they do not yet have any money to pay me (though a written offer for future employment has gone back and forth with some revisions), they suggest keeping track of the hours I devote to the project and calculate how much I *would have* made had I been paid the rate that I would be making. I am told I can deduct this amount from my taxes as a charitable donation. I have a couple questions. Is that legitimate? How do I do that? What is the limit for how much I can claim as charitable donation?

IRS Publication 526 has the answer: >Value of Time or Services >You can't deduct the value of your time or services, including: >* Blood donations to the American Red Cross or to blood banks, and >* The value of income lost while you work as an unpaid volunteer for a qualified organization. https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-526

As far as I know, you cannot deduct time from your taxes. Volunteering is more a pat on the back

Human: I'm a college student from Canada living with my parents and I need a new phone. I was thinking about buying the iPhone 8 plus for 250$ up front and paying 90$ (tax included) each month... with Koodo (my provider right now) since I don't have many expenses and my books have been paid already.. is it a good idea to get myself that phone considering that I only work 8h a week with 14$/h salary + occasional tutoring here and there…... I recently got my credit card limit raised to 2000$ and I feel like I could make it but it still seems a little high compared to my 35$/month bill right now Sorry if thats too much information I'm trying to figure it out asap

It’s a great life lesson not to buy things you can’t afford.

This might sound a little dickish but you probably need to hear it. You make, what, $450 a month? Act like it. Do you need the plus version? Doubt it. Do you need an 8? Probably not. Do you need it new? Maybe depending on the provider? I don't know how it works with Koodo, but I could get a used phone in good condition for that $250 you were planning on spending right away and not have to give $90 for however many months you would. Mentioning your credit limit increase is concerning. If you credit goes up $100, that doesn't mean you made $100, that just means you're capable of going $100 more into debt, usually at an absurd interest rate.

Human: Almost a year ago i tried to buy a laptop on amazon. I looked really shady but i had assumed since it was on Amazon it would be okay. In my naivety i payed 296euros. I tried mailing amazon but didn't get a response, in my embarrassment i didn't say anything to my parents. Last night when i finally told them i heard I could've gotten my money back. Is this still possible? I have his contacts and still have proof of the payment including mails we exchanged.

Amazon is starting to get cluttered with these weird 3rd party sellers

You should have opened a complaint through the Amazon website, they would have at least opened an inquiry.

Human: I currently make more than I spend. And I live a relatively frugal lifestyle. So why are my future needs calculated as a percentage of my income rather than based on my spending profile? What am I missing? Thanks!

Because most people sadly have no clue what their expenses actually are but know exactly what they make.

It is called the "replacement ratio" and its use in retirement planning seems largely influenced by the [Aon Consulting Replacement Ratio Study](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sylvester_Schieber2/publication/269101360_Why_American_Workers%27_Retirement_Income_Security_Prospects_LookSo_Bleak_A_Review_of_Recent_Assessments/links/5626525d08aed3d3f1383419/Why-American-Workers-Retirement-Income-Security-Prospects-LookSo-Bleak-A-Review-of-Recent-Assessments.pdf), first published in the 80s: >For many years, replacement ratios have been used to measure retirement adequacy. Typical users include employers reviewing plan design, financial planners and employees preparing for retirement. This report shows the replacement ratios that “average” people are expected to need at retirement to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living. These ratios are based on averages. Adjustments should be made when analyzing retirement needs of specific individuals. Basically, it's an easy starting point for retirement planning that takes two seconds to calculate. It seems to have a lot of modern critics that would agree with you. See [https://www.forbes.com/sites/kotlikoff/2018/06/22/the-70-replacement-rate-in-retirement-is-rubbish/](https://www.forbes.com/sites/kotlikoff/2018/06/22/the-70-replacement-rate-in-retirement-is-rubbish/) for example.

Human: I'm not sure if this is the right spot for this, so I apologize if it's not. Little bit of background: I come from a lower middle class family, and have supported myself since I was 18, but unfortunately didn't quite learn how to budget appropriately until recently, so my credit score is "fair," not quite 700. After changing careers a few times, I'm heading into my master's and won't be working very much; just enough to contribute to basic bills like rent and food. My fiance comes from an upper-middle class family of doctors and is heading into residency himself. His parents have helped him financially so he wouldn't be drowning in loans later...so his credit score is well over 750. This will be his first full-time job, and the projected income for a resident is 60-70k. We live in Brooklyn--our rent isn't terrible because we share a bedroom in a 2-bedroom apartment, and we aren't sure if we want a place of our own yet since I'm going back to school. I'm just not sure how to approach our finances. He's much better at budgeting and stuff than I am, but I also feel a sense of pride because I've been on my own for so long. I've heard some people share a specific percentage of income, and keep a small portion to do with whatever they want. I'm just curious, beyond the typical joint accounts, what some other married couples do. Sorry for the rant. TL;DR About to get married and looking for finance-sharing options beyond the typical joint account. I'm going back to school, and fiance is starting residency.

I think the best bet is just to merge your finances and work as a team. Go through the wiki on the sidebar: "PRIME DIRECTIVE: How to handle $" together, and follow the steps and the flow chart. If you do, you will be managing money better than 90% of Americans. Here is a link, in case you are on mobile: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics Good luck.

We plan to merge our finances once we marry this year. I’m excited to stop doing the math and determining who pays what. We’re thinking about a system where we create and agree on a shared budget. We should each still keep a personal account for our monthly spending money, but any spending over the agreed upon amount would need to be discussed.

Human: So I have been interviewing for 3 weeks and made it to the finals! Last interview was a ride along interview, so I can see if the job is for me. My interview went well, however, I fount out part of the job was evicting people out of their homes. Should I led that get in my way?

Some people can do work like that, some people can't. You have to decide if it's something you can do.

I would still take it. These people had notice and I think it would suck sometimes yet it's not like things weren't spelled out when they signed the lease.

Human: Hello all, My girlfriend and I were thinking about getting a home. We would be first time home buyers and we have a couple of questions about the best route to go. We both have credit scores of ~720. We both have Bachelor degrees and full time jobs. She makes about $26,000 (gross) a year and has had her job for about 4 years. I just left a job where I was making roughly $60,000 (gross) a year that I had worked at for 2 years for a job selling manufactured houses. The 5 other salespeople bring in $90-120k a year so I'm hoping I can see similar numbers. The problem is the deals take a long time so for a few months I won't be able to prove income, and because it's commission I've heard banks like to look for years of history? The other thing is, she has no debt but I have about 75k in debt between student loans and my vehicle loan (65k student/10k vehicle). I pay about $850 a month in these debts. We're tired of renting and would like to get a home, but did I screw out chances of buying a home by switching jobs? Would it be best for me to hunker down and budget for 2-3 years and focus on paying off my debt before we get a house? Additionally, is there any benefit to getting married before getting a home? We've been together 8 years and plan on getting married after getting settled on everything - but if we would get better interest rates or approval chances we would do it sooner. Thank you for your time,

You have too much debt and not enough salary history to be buying a home right now. Budget, pay down your debts, and build up a down payment. Also, don't by a home with someone you are not married to.

It’s not a set rule to live by, but one measurement of mortgage/total debt rule that I like and used as a guideline is the 29/41 rule in which your principal, interest, insurance and PMI if applicable doesn’t exceed 29% of your gross income, and your total debt payments doesn’t exceed 41%, which would include the same expenses in the 29% rule in addition to your student loan payment, car payment, and any other minimum payments such as credit cards. I don’t think the bank will give you a loan off a new job with no generated income yet, it seems to risky on their end. Just an opinion, but what you can do is take into consideration your debts you have now and see what you feel you can comfortably afford down the road. You don’t have to use the above 29/41 guideline, but it could be a good reference point. Once you start getting income you can work out the rest. Also, I know renting isn’t ideal but don’t buy a house with someone you aren’t married to. Just ... don’t.

Human: I just found out about this retirement investment strategy. Distinct from a back door Roth, this is buying a cash value life insurance policy and then borrowing against the payoff value over time, beginning at retirement age. You are making the lender your beneficiary and spending a portion of your own life insurance payoff. It is a means for people who make too much for traditional IRAs to reduce the tax burden on their retirement investments. Here's a recent article I came across. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrae/2018/09/20/rich-person-roth/amp/ One key to minimizing fees associated with this tactic is to use an insurer/lender who offers a "Zero Net Loan" deal. I'd like to know the opinions of folks who are more familiar with this method than I am, and also any recommendations for companies offering the right kind of cash value life policies and zero net loans.

I am stunned that a CFP wrote this article and was never really honest about the fees associated with this type of product and the cost of those fees over a life time. You could save in a taxable account and practice tax loss harvesting over 10-20 years and be in a much better position net of all the fees associated with these types of products that usually run in the 3-4%+ range It's dishonest marketing crap.

I'm too poor to consider whole life insurance as an "acceptable" option just because it's not taxed...

Human: I.e. If I had a 4% loan and the current rates were 15%, is there any way I could financially benefit on that?

Primary residences are not investments. Say it with me: primary residences are not investments. Once again: primary residences are not investments. If you were to buy another home and use this as an investment property....possibly? But then you'd be paying that similar higher mortgage rate on that property.

If you can yield more than 4% after tax risk free then you should make the minimum payment on your mortgage and invest all extra income. In an environment where mortgage rates were 15% the risk-free rate would certainly be much greater than 4%. The only reason for such high interest rates would be high inflation, which is another good reason to delay paying down debt as long as possible. When the opposite is true and a 4% yield is hard to get, it makes sense to pay extra on the mortgage.

Human: Hello all and thank you for taking the time to read this and possibly give your two cents. I am on mobile so please forgive formatting. There’s no other way to say it - I am AWFUL in regards to money and budgeting. My main issue is my complete lack of self control with credit. I got my first card at 18 and it was like a drug. I maxed it out like it was money I had. I am extremely fortunate to have a father who had the ability to pay the card off for me. Did I learn my lesson? Of course not. Once the card was paid off, my credit score skyrocketed and I started receiving mail for new cards. Temptation won, and so I went again down the hole. Today, I am 22, a full-time student and working part-time. I have a total of 6 credit cards, and a few no interest financing deals through Samsung and Affirm. Total credit debt: $16,000. I’ve been avoiding coming to terms with this for a long time. In addition to my cards, my monthly bills include my car lease - $261, insurance - $285, rent - $600, and a fixed personal loan - $110. My net monthly income ranges from $2,550-$2,850 depending on how many hours I work. I am ready to pay these debts off once and for all and close the accounts down for good. I am tired of paying the minimum on everything and not making any progress. I have tried to take out a debt consolidation loan but due to my high revolving debt, I cannot get approved. In your opinion, what is the best plan of action for me?

Start spending a fraction of what you are spending

Make a list of the things you need in order to survive for a month. Spend money on those things. Spend all of your other money on your debt that has the highest interest. Start making $1000 payments per month against a credit card loan. You will get out of this mess. It will take time.

Human: EDIT 4: I'm re-arranging and cleaning up the post to show info in a clean format, so as to answer many of the questions than has been asked, because I can't answer questions timely any more, because this post blew up. But I want everybody to understand and use this opportunity. **What is a credit freeze?** A credit freeze is when you put a hold on your credit record, so that nobody can get access to it without your permission. It protects you against identity theft. Even if a hacker knows all your info, including your SSN, he won't be able to use your account to get a new credit card, because you will have to unfreeze your info before they can be released. Now by law, the credit reporting agencies have to respect your wishes, as to who has access to your personal credit record. Once you freeze your record, it can only be accessed after if you unfreeze/thaw it. Other replies: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/9hlps3/credit_freezes_are_now_free_starting_today/e6dk0sx/ **Why is this news important now?** Many experts agree that freezing your credit report is the strongest way to protect against identity theft. Starting Friday, you'll be able to do it free of charge. In the wake of a massive data breach last year at Equifax that exposed personal information for about 148 million Americans, Congress amended the Fair Credit Reporting Act to require reporting agencies to freeze reports for no charge. Equifax is one of the three major credit reporting agencies in the United States. [The bill was passed in May](https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/22/pf/free-credit-freeze/index.html). [It is effective as of today.](https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/20/us/free-credit-freezes/index.html) **How can I do it?** To set up your own credit freezes, go to the freeze page at each credit agency's website individually: [Experian](https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html) [Equifax](https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp) [TransUnion](https://freeze.transunion.com/sf/securityFreeze/landingPage.jsp). [ChexSystems](https://www.chexsystems.com/web/chexsystems/consumerdebit/page/securityfreeze/placefreeze/) [Innovis] (https://www.innovis.com/personal/securityFreeze) [NCTUE] (https://exchangeservicecenter.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp) You will be given a PIN that you'll need to lift or remove the freeze in the future. **Do I have to do this with all credit agencies? I only have one credit card** Yes you do. Your credit card reports to multiple credit reporting companies. **Does this mean that I can freeze my credit score at 810? Does freezing affect my score?** No. A credit freeze only freezes who can *see* your credit record. Your credit score will still be based on how you pay off your lenders. Freezing does not affect your score. **Is credit unfreeze/thaw also free?** [Yes.](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/9hlps3/credit_freezes_are_now_free_starting_today/e6d4v8e/) **How long does the “thaw” process takes before credit is available to be pulled?** If you do the thaw request online, the law requires it to be done within 3 hrs. 24 hrs, if you do it by mail. **What if I lose my PIN? How do I recover it** From several posts I saw, there are methods to recover your pin/ and access your account that involves snail mail. You get letters in regular mail, which I assume is for confirming your physical address. **How accurate is this info?** To the best of my knowledge. I will update as I find better info. **Where can I find more info?** https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/09/credit-freezes-are-free-let-the-ice-age-begin/ http://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/credit-freeze-and-thaw-guide/ https://youtu.be/vsMydMDi3rI **Original Post** EDITS: Thanks to /u/tjtwmfl , /u/graphitezor , /u/shawn_sarmin , /u/Indushydi , /u/pingpong , /u/Volim_Da_Mislish /u/DangitImtired /u/bobsmithhome /u/honorious for their contributions. Thanks for the gold!!! Assistant: How much does it cost to unfreeze? Human: Great question. I don't think they will charge you for unfreezing. Because unfreezing benefits them. When you freeze they no longer can share your data; which is how they make money. So unfreezing will let them make money off you. But then again, they can hold you ransom, when you are on a deadline to get a loan approved; and charge you an "expedited service fee" etc. So far I haven't been able to find an answer. If somebody knows, please post.

I think in the past when they were charging, it was more like "oh you froze your credit? Well we couldn't use it and make money then. So if *you* want to use it now, please pay $9.95 to reimburse *us* for not being able to use it." I think it was TransUnion that still tried to charge me to lift after I moved to a new state, so I flat out kept putting my old state which had a law that they couldn't charge. I can't opt out of this shitty system and I'm not paying money to jump through YOUR hoops in a game I DON'T want to play.

I was looking for examples of how early you'd need to notify them for a temp unfreeze and didn't consider this. The possibility of "expedited service fees" is a real concern. I wonder, did the law consider this situation? Like a requirement for credit bureaus to unfreeze within 1-3 business days.

Human: So me and my buddy are moving into a house that I’m buying. Everything’s going to be in my name but we’re splitting the mortgage, Basically he’s playing rent. So we’re trying to decide how to do it fairly as far as when I sell the house. (I plan to sell it or rent it out in 3ish years when I move). So would it be more fair for us to document any expenses that he paid towards improving the house ie. helping build a back porch or something that will increase the value of the house. And paying him back what he put in or for us to spilt what profit( if I make profit) I make from selling the house. We’re really good friends and we’re just trying to make it as fair as possible.

"Basically he’s playing rent" Stick with this. You put up the equity, took the risk. But he shouldn't be expected to pay above market rent. If he helps build a deck etc.. you should consider the value of his labor. If you pay him directly for his labor it qualifies as a home improvement expense. Considering this as "splitting the mortgage" may lead to trouble down the line..........

I know lawyers can get expensive, but it might be worth it for both of you if you had expectations agreed upon up front. (You could try this without a lawyer but obviously a good lawyer would include many more contingencies than you would even think necessary.)

Human: An almost 30-something here and I have received a windfall. Not life-changing but still significant enough to put myself and future husband in a good position for starting our life together. I've already gone through the wiki pages for windfalls, age range, etc. What I'm looking for is *constructive* criticism the potential plan with the money. We are both currently in school, planning our wedding, and living on minimal income until graduation and starting full-time jobs. Potential plan: -pay off current credit card debt (less than $5k) -pay off largest student loan ($7k) with plans to pay off next largest student loan within 2 years or less -build emergency fund (at least 1 year's worth) -start/build savings fund -open a Roth and max it at $5500 for the year and retain another $5500 for 2019 -living expenses for time between graduation and starting new job -health insurance and car insurance covered for 6 months to 1 year -set aside some funds for wedding costs -continue to live frugally Am I missing any large, important topics/areas that we should consider in this plan? Our main idea is to get rid of our largest existing debt and have a bit of a cushion for the interim between degree and job. Note: Jobs are readily available in both of our career paths. Housing and other recurring expenses (though not directly listed) is already planned for. Thanks!

a windfall does not change your plan. just accelerate what you were already planning to do

Sounds about right. Personally I'd avoid the wedding ($10k for a party?).

Human: First off, I'm an idiot. I am very much aware of the poor choices I have made. Background: I just moved and I'm sitting outside a atm in my car on my phone, trying to figure out why I can't pull money out to make a craigslist deal (It was my credit card, not my debit. Yes, I am a tired dumbass). It was 7:30 pm after a day of moving. We have no furniture and I was trying to buy a dresser, to no avail. These two guys pull up in a clean white van with a home theatre logo on the side. They ask If I want to buy a projector. We had just bought a house and needed a new TV, so I thought this was perfect. Alas, I had no cash and no way to get cash (only had my credit card). Here's where I might be able to save myself: I offered to go to the grocery store adjoining the bank and buy a gift card. So I bought 2 gift cards and used my credit card to pay for them. The guy gave me his number (which is real) and said if I have any issues to call him. I get home and the projector technically works, but is not what was advertised on the box at all. The box with the screen they put in my truck is empty.... Yes, I'm an idiot and can't believe I fell for this. Is there any chance I can report this to my credit card company? Or is it just an expensive mistake? Thanks in advance for the advice.

The credit card company can't do anything, a chargeback for the gift cards doesn't work since you legitimately bought them. You can (and should!) file a police report for the scam and give the number to them, it might help to trace them down and prevent other people from being scammed in the future. But don't get your hopes up of getting any of your cash back.

Nah. Happened to me back in the day. I bought some shitty particle-board speakers for $300 out of a white van and ended up throwing them in a dumpster because I couldn't bear to keep them in the house and be constantly reminded of my decision. Hopefully you didn't spend too much but you have to chalk it up to an expensive lesson.

Human: I have quite a bit of money saved up for a person my age, 18, freshman in college, and I am wondering if there are ideas for investing or anything while I am still expense free. My parents are paying for my college and I do give them a small bit, but besides that I have nothing to spend it on. I feel kinda weird just having it sit in my bank account until life kicks in, as I want to take advantage of my circumstance. First time posting and I am a complete financial amateur. Thanks! Assistant: How much are we talking? Starting capital makes a difference in what approach you take. Human: Yeah! Around 25k. Assistant: Cool beans. So it really depends on what you are interested in. IRAs, 401ks, and mutual funds are a great long term investment option. Real estate can be as well, depending on prices in your area and the work you want to put into something. Taking some and buying stocks could be a high risk/high reward option if it interests you. Even starting a business. You have a lot of options that have varying risk and reward, and varying effort needed for success. What are you interested in doing and how much time or effort do you want to put into it? Human: Real estate intrigues me the most. But I’m at this weird point in my life where I don’t know what a lot of money is, and what is just not worth it. I guess starting to live dependently will make me realize very quick. But I never had the motivation to learn anything about real estate because I never thought I had “enough”. I have no clue what most you talk of is, but I definitely do not like high risk high reward type play. Is it worth starting something long term?

Real estate? Yeah, no.

Depending on the area you live in it could be enough to purchase land or a home, it could be chump change. I just purchased a home for less than 40k, but other parts of the country that wouldn't buy me a bathroom. Check your local prices and see if there are things that would be within your range that would be a good investment. Not knowing things about the real estate game is a big block to that though and increases the risk. If I were you, I would talk to a bank financial advisor and ask them to explain your options for long term investment.

Human: If I wanted to max out my 401k, I would want to contribute about 17% of my salary every paycheck with a Traditional. If my paycheck is $108,000 a year, that would be $108,000 \* 0.17 = $18,360 (close enough). My question is, for a Roth 401k, I would have to contribute significantly higher percentage of my pay to max it out because it's after tax right? Assuming 24% tax, that's $108,000 \* 0.76 = \~$82,000 take home. Which means, I'd have to contribute 23% of this take home to max out my Roth 401k, right? So to max out Roth 401k, I should put down for the 401k percentage "23%", correct? I'm fairly new to all of this so please excuse me if this is a stupid question.

It is still the same percentage. The pretax/posttax differentiation is about whether the money is deducted from your taxable income, not how much it is.

You still put down 23%. Your paycheck will be smaller because you will be subjected to additional withholding and taxes on your pay. Most of the time, folks are better off contributing tax-deferred rather than Roth.

Human: Hello all and thank you for reading my post. Basically what has happened is mainly my wife but me as well, have lived a life outside of our means. We have been a single income family for going on 8 years now and we used credit cards and personal loans to basically disguise that or make it to where we could live how we wanted. Now we are going through a divorce and we have agreed that I take the Credit Card debt and she gets all the school loans, roughly 22k each. The problem is that I am paying the minimums and that all adds up to around $600. After my child support, alimony, and all other bills, I basically have about $100 to my name. My car loan is only $211 monthly. I am trying to figure out ways of paying this debt off. I have thought about bankruptcy long and hard but the truth is that I am at a point in my military career to where bankruptcy can have detrimental effects on my career path. What are some of the ways other than 'buckling down' or 'embracing the suck' that I can use to clear this debt? Thanks for your input. Assistant: You absolutely need to make a budget. Many people think of "budget" as a thing you do when you try to spend as little as possible. Nothing could be further from what a true budget is. A budget is the guide *you* make to assign your dollars to work where *you* want them to. It is a document that showcases your priorities, not something that constrains you. So make a full budget. Have your total monthly income at the top. Have all of your debt listed by what it is, total amount owed, minimum payments, and interest rates for each individual debt. Then, have your expenses. Every dollar you earn should be accounted for here. The main mistake people make is only writing out "regular" bills, like rent and insurance. But a true budget needs to know what you spend on restaurants, clothes, entertainment, *everything*. Only once you know where your money is going can you start to fix things by moving money to a different category. If you don't already know where your money is going, then go through the last three months of credit/debit card statements and categorize every expenditure on it. From there you can figure out if the amount spent there is something you want to continue. And also list your assets. For things like a car, list how much it could be sold for if you sold it today. Once you have that budget, post it here. The community can help you develop a plan to pay off the debt. Human: Yea I have a pretty decent budget. The problem has been spending control.

Then you don’t have a budget. You have Disney math. A real budget is control, it tells you where your dollars go. If you have a spending issue then you don’t have a budget.

Another way to think of it; financial goals! Write down a short term (3-5 years) and long term goals (10 years). Once you have a few goals written down, post it somewhere you can see every day. Everyday you should take action to complete both financial goals. How do you take action? By decreasing spending or increasing income. Or a combination of both. A budget will help assign where the dollars go... Hopefully, you will make the goals top priority

Human: Context: I have a high paying job at a hedge fund. I interviewed at, and received a verbal offer for ~50% more salary at another hedge fund, which I am taking, barring any issues that crop up in the near near future. What is the proper etiquette--both to protect myself and to not burn bridges at my current or potential future firm? I'm not dissatisfied at my job, I think the other one is just better fit, and much higher comp, so outside of people being annoyed that I left them with my work, I wouldn't like to leave with a two finger salute. My initial thought is to accept the offer, then put in my two weeks when I have a contract to sign, but I think there's likely some timing and info around a non-compete that can be enforced that my future firm would need to know before they give me a contract. Would a recruiter be a person to ask about this? Does anyone have advice around this? Is this the right subreddit? Assistant: > but I think there's likely some timing and info around a non-compete Do you have the non-compete you signed? And is it legal in your state? Human: It's a 3 month, and on NY. it is enforceable, at employer discretion.

Then do not give your notice until the new company has been made aware of this and has included in their contract with you any necessary language so you don't violate it and shows they understand the restrictions.

/u/ElementPlanet is correct. Make sure the new employer knows about this and you have assurances about what will happen if your current employer decides to be nasty. Either way it doesn't have anything to do with you personally, it's about your current employer. If it is in fact standard practice then they'll expect it anyway.

Human: Ok so im not sure if this is the proper subreddit but r/relationships isn't my favorite place... so last nice the girlfriend and I had a talk about finances. A little background first, I grew up with what a very middle family income (parents each make 45-50k) and she grew up quite a bit less well off. We both went to college (nurse and engineer). So when we talk about future goals, she wants a family very soon and is her top priority. I also have my family as a top priority but I also feel like I didn't go to college so I can live paycheck to paycheck and I would like to be rich one day. My top priority is paying off our 60k combined in student loans in the next 2 years (she says it's not doable and I continue to show her a budget that allows our current lifestyle with 3 less trips to the bar per month). She is insistent that she never wants to be rich because it makes people rotten, and I just don't agree. I think that's the Hollywood view, not the truth if you actually learn about inspiring people who became wealthy. Am I being to aggressive here? Does anybody have any tips for how we can try to get on the same page? I don't see this ending well if we can't sort this out as it is dealing with our major short term and long term goals. Any help is appreciated.

The top priority of both of you, way before kids, should be getting on the same financial page. Not being on the same financial page destroys everything else. It's the number one cause of divorce. Even if that's not the "reported" cause of divorce the strain from being on different financial pages can push one person to do something else which IS reported as the cause of divorce. That often means that finances are a "root cause" of marriages with other reported causes of divorce (infidelity or something). You absolutely must put a stop to that stuff now. Do not pretend like there is some higher priority than that. Find time to get on the same financial page within the next 30 days and under no circumstances get her pregnant before that happens. You will need to have a "meeting" to discuss this and you want to go into that meeting with knowledge of what her concerns are and you will want to take those concerns seriously. Feel free to argue that the middle ground here lean more toward your side of things but DO NOT dismiss her concerns out of hand. You want her to feel like there is compromise going on and it's not just all on her end. You may think her position on everything is dumb, but do not betray that position. If you think that, keep it to yourself. Something you may not understand fully is that you learn some stuff growing up that gets deeply ingrained in you, right or wrong, and the lessons you get in a poor household are quite often different than those of people who grew up in a well off household. Very often those lessons differ on financial matters. Indeed, quite often poor people paint rich people as the enemy and the cause of their decades of suffering, even if an outside observer may place the cause elsewhere. You cannot just downplay this. She needs to willingly unlearn things because she thinks she will be better off if she does and that can take A LONG TIME. Using myself as an example, my whole extended family is dirt poor. For much of my life my father lived in a house that was worth $8000 according to his local taxing authority. Consequently, at 18 I was thrown out onto the street with either no financial knowledge or actively harmful financial knowledge. Sometime in my early 20s I realized just how much my extended family screwed me in this area and I started a painful process of unlearning and relearning. I am now more than double that age and at best you can say I overcompensated and I am still screwed up just in some other ways. An example of that is that our savings rate is insane as a portion of income, largely because I don't want my kids to ever ever go through what I went through. There is a huge gap between where we are now and being dirt poor and we are still being super financially conservative. Every month we buy ourselves another whole month of gap between ourselves and poverty. That requires us to have a near 50% "savings" out of take home. Not going to complain I am not still screwed up by my upbringing, at least it's in a "better" way now, though. Your fiancee, however, hasn't had a chance to unlearn and adjust yet, so her fears and stuff are still going to be exceedingly real to her. Even many years from now they very likely still will be. At the very least, though, you need to get her started on that track. Until she understands the harm her thoughts cause her to endure, she won't just flip on this because you want her to. I suggest trying to find articles and get her to read them that relate to these "rich vs poor mentality" concepts. I would suggest they have a side of humor as well. Cracked did a really good one of those. I would strongly suggest hunting that down.

>She is insistent that she never wants to be rich because it makes people rotten, and I just don't agree. You should be discussing how you want to provide a good life for yourselves and your future children, and how you can manage your finances to that end. Chasing wealth accumulation for its own sake is indeed a fairly "rotten" frame of mind, so I can see why this would upset someone.

Human: I feel like a dumbass but I am currently in the process of buying a home and have a few records that I need to collect and I'm very confused on this part of the message they have sent me: "Lastly we need complete bank statement (of whichever one of you that paid deposit) to show your earnest money deposit cleared account." I have already asked him to clarify once and I don't want to ask again because I already feel like a dumbass so maybe you guys can help me out? I put $1,000 down and I'm guessing that has to do with this

They need your bank statement showing that 1k that you put down.

Yep, they are looking for confirmation that the check you used to put the $1000 has been marked as cleared by your bank.

Human: I recently opened a roth ira, put 5500 in it, and picked out the things I want to invest in. However, the stock market is doing well. Should I wait till it goes down more? If so, do I go by the 52 wk high or low for reference? I can't find any information on this, except for one article that said not to worry about what the stock market is doing and just invest right away when you open a retirement account. Also, I calculated how many shares of an etf I could buy with 500, but it dropped the worth down to 460. Is this normal? - Never mind. Figured it out. I was being stupid. Thanks, everyone! I went ahead and invested everything.

Don't try to time the market.

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

Human: Recently we purchase a band new car for my wife. We have the cash to pay for it outright, however we opted to finance at 0.9% interest for 36 months. That's around $600 in interest over the full term, we can earn more than that just keeping the funds in the bank and a lot more investing so while I hate carrying debt it makes sense in this instance. I know this is a optional, luxury purchase and we looked at newer used vehicles, however Honda's tend not to lose value as rapidly as many other brands so it was hard to justify going that route. My wife's drove her old car for 11 years which is a reasonable life to get out of a vehicle, she is likely to drive this one at least this long, perhaps longer. In the end I believe this was the correct move to buy new vs a few years used. We did not buy any of the warranty extra's, got $6k off sticker, and by taking a car on the lots vs ordering we were able to get a top of the line 2018 model for the same cost as a mid line 2019 model. All the features were identical, though we got extra stuff that we don't care about for free. Overall, I think we handled this purchase is a responsible manner. It just kills me to spend this kind of money on a depreciating asset. Guess I'm writing this to see what the general consensus is here, was this an entirely stupid financial move or was this sensible given the circumstances. ​

As others have said, buying a new car is almost never the best financial decision. But when it comes to the car that you will be driving for the next 3, 5, 10, or more years, it is reasonable to consider factors beyond what is the best decision financially. Personally, I bought a new $36k car. I could have gotten a car with the same utilitarian value, new for $26k, or used but low mileage for maybe $20k. But, it was a car I'd wanted for the better part of a decade, I could afford it, and understood the decision I was making is not ideal when it comes to optimizing my finances. I have no regrets on the decision.

> It just kills me to spend this kind of money on a depreciating asset. Guess I'm writing this to see what the general consensus is here, was this an entirely stupid financial move or was this sensible given the circumstances. Given the sharp depreciation in the first 3 years, I don't feel that buying a new car is ever the financially smart decision. But, on the other hand, it's your money, and if you can afford it without hurting your lifestyle, go for it. I spend all sorts of money on my hobbies, which is also never a smart financial decision, but sure is a good emotional one.

Human: So I am getting a significant bonus next week....about 14K before taxes. Is there a way to estimate what I will get after taxes?

7.65% in FICA 22% in federal withholdings (assuming your company uses this method). ???% in state taxes (don't know, depends on state).

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

Human: This post will be jumbled because there’s a lot of information. I apologize in advance, and please let me know if anything is unclear. Husband is 36, I’m 30. We have three kids: 10, 7, 6. Over the past six years my husband & I have both been laid off and unemployed multiple times. We had to sell our house and move to another state to live with his parents for free (two houses connected by a hallway so we have our own house but not really). We’ve been here four years and it has been miserable. My husband finally found a job two years ago making 24k/year. I just found a job last month making 32k/year. Things are finally looking up and we are feeling great. Since we live here for free, we decided to stay put for a year before looking at houses. Then, this week, the house across the street came up with sale. The house we’ve wanted to buy for a decade. It’s the perfect location because of the proximity to his family’s farm and we think the house is pretty nice. But if we buy it, I’m estimating that we will only have $1,000-$1,200 leftover after mortgage and bills (including groceries). I feel like this is too little, but I also feel like I can’t spend another year in our current house. There’s also a house in town, about twenty minutes away (walking distance to my husband’s work but farther from mine). It’s comparable in price to the one across the street but it has a basement apartment that we could use for extra income ($600-800/month). My plan would be to live in the top for a few years while renting out the bottom and then eventually move out, enabling us to rent out both units. I feel like this is the choice that is more financially stable but it puts us away from his parents, who we rely on often for childcare since we both work a lot of evenings. The neighborhood is still nice, in fact it’s my favorite in town, but we would spend more in both gas & time getting the children to his parents. I know my husband and I are both too emotionally invested and exhausted to see this clearly. I’d love to hear your opinions. Thanks! Assistant: I would be tired to stay with family as well. I would honestly go with the house close to family. How does your emergency fund look like? $1000-$1200 savings is okay depending on your financial goes. I would be comfortable with it as long as you live within your means. And I wouldn’t be comfortable with renting the basement out to strangers especially with kids that age. But people here will probably say different. But that’s just me if I were in your shoes. Human: My husband isn’t sure if he’s comfortable with it, either. He would like to buy both houses: the one in town and rent out both units, and the one across the street to live in. The bank said they could do special approval for it, but that big of a loan makes me very nervous. Assistant: With your financial situation, I wouldn’t take both houses. I would absolutely not. The bank may approve you, don’t get me wrong. But they’re not looking out for your best interest. It’s all about money for them. Don’t do it. Better off buying the house you wanted by his family. Human: The upside is obviously having the extra income but I agree that there’s too much risk to buy both. As much as I hate waking up and going to sleep crying over our current housing situation, I’d rather stay here than risk absolute financial ruin by overextending ourselves with two houses.

Extra income seems great right up until you don't have tenants and have to pay the mortgage anyway. You are not in a financial position to buy both.

Yes, extra income. But can you guys afford maintenance fees like hvac? Property taxes? I’m a landlord myself, and it can be pricey sometimes. Better off living with your parents and saving your money for a house and sticking with the house by your family. But not both. That’s risk I would be willing to take if I had a family like yours.

Human: I'm 24, and am now working at my first full time job at a publishing company (I graduated from uni in December). The pay isn't very high. I also do some part time work doing promotions with a distribution company, but that is infrequent, and also pays pretty low. I recently paid off some debt to my mom, and I've been trying to not spend too wildly. My goal was to just put away money for the future in a bank account and not touch it until I need to make a big purchase. However, my dad just bought a brand new car (2018 Suzuki Vitara) and wants to sell his old one (an older model from 2002) for $13,000. It's in perfect condition, and it's a popular brand here, so it is always easy to replace parts if necessary. I currently drive a 2003 Opel Corsa, and it's a very rare car where I live as the dealer doesn't bring them in anymore. It's hard to get parts for, and always expensive to fix. It does have some minor issues with it, like the radio doesn't work and there are some strange groaning noises sometimes. It is a bit of a liability, in all honesty. However, one good thing is that it is pretty gas efficient, which is important as my country has VERY high gas prices. My dad's car takes a lot more gas to run, and I would be spending about $60 - $70 more per month in gas. My parents are suggesting that I buy my dad's old car, as it's in better shape than mine, and would be easy to repair and fix if necessary. However $13,000 is a lot for me to spend right now (I get $2250 per month as my total salary and i have other responsibilities and bills) and plus I'm saving for a trip overseas with my boyfriend next year. I know that debt is a part of life, but I hate having it hanging over my head. I just paid off my mom last month, and was finally feeling free. Knowing myself, I know that I would not be able to spend any of my money without feeling guilty. I hope I don't come across as a spoiled brat (about my parents offering me a car at a good price etc) but it is really expensive for me right now. They told me that if I sell my current car (which they technically own, but I maintain and use) that I could deduct the money earned from that from the $13,000. I think I'd be able to get between 3 - 5K for it, so that would be a significant amount to take off too. What do you guys think I should do? Is it a good investment? and if so, how can I manage this debt? I'd like to get a second job, something part time that I could do at night after my regular job. But jobs are hard to come by right now Any tips would be really appreciated. I'm new to the whole personal finance thing, and am trying to make smart decisions. NB: I'm from Barbados, and my currency is tied to the US dollar at 2:1 - so $13,000 BDS is $6,500 USD.

Cars are not investments. $13k for a 2002 seems way overpriced. I wouldn't do it.

What the fuck? If that's your dad and he doesn't need the car anymore, he should just give you the car. Why are your parents charging you??? It's one thing to be spoiled, but a hand me down car is nothing along those lines

Human: Hello All I am 22 years old and just got a job that will pay me 120k+, great job security, and benefits but previously I was making about 35k a year in Southern California which isn’t much at all here lol, so I want to be responsible and begin saving for a house but I have no clue where to start, what I can afford, or even the process to buy a home. Is there any good first time home buyer programs in SoCal you know of, what is the general percentage I should put down on a house? Also anything you can think of that might come up that isn’t common sense? Appreciate all of the input thank you!

It would take an essay to answer all those questions, so I'll instead point you to the wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/housing

Start talking with a home buyer person. They will help look for homes based on your budget and preferences. If you find a place that appeals to you, you make an offer. This offer is different than your down payment. It may be more or less than what the seller is actually selling it for. The better the offer, the better chance you have at getting it but you dont want to over offer as you will be losing money. If they accept your offer usually you make a payment in good graces showing you are interested. This can help with escrowe costs and such and the middle man documents. This is not the down payment. If they buyer accepts your offer,you have like around 30-90days to have the house inspected,appraised, etc. You are in the contract at this point. During this process if the inspections turn up any major issues you have the ability to either cancel the contract or put in the contract to have the seller fix the issues. If everything goes through, closing costs will be determined depending on the situation, they could be covered by the buyer or seller. In terms of first time buyer, idk in socal. In my area there is one where yoi can get an interest free loan of 45k to make for a down payment. The general % down is 20%. Depending on the type of mortage. FHA and low income or VA loans can have no down or as low as 3%

Human: The title is pretty self explanatory. I’m due in January and we want to start saving a little at a time early on. Is there somewhere we’d get a great interest rate if we don’t touch it until he’s 18? What if he doesn’t go to college? Could he touch it for something like trade school? Any ideas welcome. We aren’t going to be putting in a large sum at first. Looking more to contribute a set small amount each month type thing. Assistant: Does anyone also know if 529 plans would cover a trade school? What would happen if we started a 529 plan and say, god forbid, something happened and he couldn’t attend for a medical reason or something like that. Do we just loose that money?

529 plans can be used for any post secondary education including trade school. They can also be used for elementary and high school as of 2018. You never loose the money. If you don't use it for education expenses, there is a penalty to withdraw. You can also change beneficiary and use it for the education of someone else, including yourself.

We're trying to save up enough to pay for nearly all of our daughter's school in 2032, which is a lot of money. If she doesn't go to college (or if American pulls its head out of its ass in terms of the impossible cost of college) we're going on a round-the-world trip for a year.

Human: Two things happened today - I received a letter in the mail saying that my CC company had automatically reviewed my account and increased my credit limit; a pleasant surprise. I also saw the news about free credit freezes. ​ I was considering freezing my credit with all 3 agencies, but I do wonder - will my CC company no longer have access to my credit ~~score~~ file, thereby preventing them from doing automatic limit increases like they just did?

I have received credit limit increases while having my credit frozen, so for me, no.

I haven't gotten a free credit limit, but I froze my credit last year and when I called my credit card company (Chase) to ask about a limit increase I had to give them a temporary password to pull my credit.

Human: The gift can be from the following stores: -Tiffany & Co -Best Buy -Williams-Sonoma -Lowe’s -Dick’s Sporting Goods Rules: •No gift cards, services or warranties •Only one item •Can’t contribute your own money towards something more expensive •Tax and shipping doesn’t count towards the $100 limit It also has to be placed online. I’m 20 and live with family so I don’t exactly /need/ anything. I need new tires but I don’t think that’s possible in this situation. My first instinct was to get a mini fridge but I feel like there’s something more essential/valuable that I could spend this on.

Something that will hold resale value, then sell it? Name brand, common tool from Lowes would be my pick. [Dewalt drill, with battery, $99](https://www.lowes.com/pd/DEWALT-20-Volt-Max-1-2-in-Cordless-Drill/50040962). Sell that bad boy unopened, pocket cash, do whatever you want with it. Or keep it. A good drill will last you a while and always come in handy.

Since we don't know you, it's tough to help you decide on a treat for yourself.

Human: Like the title says, I am in my mid 30s, make roughly 54K/ year, and have gotten myself into the lovely amount of 27K in credit card debt. This has built slowly and mostly in my younger 20s, and with small additions year over year which has gotten me here. ​ I am fully at fault for my terrible habits and out of control spending. I have no auto loan ( paid off) and no student loans ( paid off) My car is old, so I just keep praying it keeps running. ​ My expenses are as follows: Necessity: Rent - $895/month Car Ins - $200/month CC payments - on just the mins around $850-900/month ​ non necessities: Hulu - $40/month Spotify - $10/month ( I run a frequently and use spotify every day) ​ Thankfully my partner handles internet and utilities. ​ My take home is roughly 1500/bi-monthly, but we are switching payroll to every other week, so it will be more paychecks @ a little less. So around 1400 I'm guessing every two weeks. I usually pay rent out of one paycheck, and then bills out of the other. ​ I am at the end of my rope. I am very angry with myself and sick to my stomach with stress. I feel overwhelmed, I feel like an idiot. I have no idea what to do, or how to fix this situation. I occasionally need to use my CC for work ( and then expense it) for clients, and I literally can't do that because I have no balance available and I'm HORRIFIED someone will find out. ​ Is Bankrupcy an option? My credit is almost 600 ( like 609) so it's not like I have a great score to protect. ​ I can't: lower my ins, or lower my rent. At this point I wouldn't qualify for most places around here with my CC score, and this rent is really affordable for where I live. I live far from home, so I can't move in with any relatives to save. ​ If anyone has any advice, I would be so incredibly appreciative. I'm so upset with myself and I know I made my bed and need to lie in it, but this is over a decade of not being very financially saavy coupled with a lot of poor decisions. I'd love to un-fuck myself and I just don't know how. ​ thank you so much in advance. ​ \- too embarrassed to use normal account ​ EDIT: ​ I just wanted to say to everyone who has been taking the time to reply, your encouragement, thoughtful comments, and realistic advice mean more to me than you might think. I know it all seems really basic, but it's amazing what you can put into the "living in denial" part of your brain and not take accountability for. ​ I am still extremely overwhelmed by the amount of debt, but now I feel hopeful and motivated. You are all wonderful. I honestly wasn't sure if anyone would see this or even reply, so thank you again! I'm carefully reading everyone's advice and taking it to heart. ​ Assistant: There are a lot of expenses not accounted for (food, gas, etc.). What is the breakdown of the cards and interest rates? Human: Sorry, here are the additional details : cards ( 4) 1- Balance: $13781, min payment $334, interest 15.99% 2- Balance: $8848, min payment $ 224, interest 17.65% 3- Balance: $2622, min payment $ 120, interest 20.74% 4- Balance: $2K, min payment $100, interest 0% for 5 more months I don't have a set budget for food/gas, but I don't drive too far to work. I fill up around $40 about every 2 weeks. EDIT: Looks like I over-estimated the $ of the CC payments it is roughly $778 from those totals. Assistant: I kind of loathe Dave Ramsey because he is so willfully moronic on retirement investing, but your case is definitely one where the debt snowball approach is warranted. You've got two rinky dink debts, a medium one, and a big kahuna. You're going to feel a boost in morale if you can reduce the number of enemies you are facing. Do minimums on all but one of the little ones and throw all your efforts at eliminating it completely. Then rinse and repeat. Once you knock off the little ones, you'll feel like you can tackle the 8k. And once you take out that one, you'll be half way home and feeling way better about life because your debt to income ratio won't be quite as horrifying. Human: Thank you for this. I actually have his book. It is collecting dust. Obviously. ​ Also thank you for making me laugh by calling my scariest card a big kahuna. Time to stop being afraid of it and hiding from it and just make a plan. ​ Have a great rest of your day!

You might even find that upon tackling one card , they give you a 0% transfer offer. .

Yes! I agree with Doug and particularly vote that you pay down the one with the highest interest first while continuing the minimums on the rest. Then pay down the other little one before the 0% offer ends.

Human: So I am switching from Wells Fargo to Chase. I opened a Chase checking and savings online on 9/13. A few days later, I made a mobile deposit. The following day, I could not log in to the website and it acted in the same manner as if I had forgotten a password. I followed the "forgot password" link and received a message that I had to go into the local branch. I did this and found out that my accounts had been blocked. The branch manager was furious and took care of the problem over the phone with someone else within Chase. He apologized profusely. Cool guy. Since all I had done up to this point, with this new account, was make a deposit I was quite surprised once I was able to log in again that my account was negative by almost $300. Very odd. Same cool manager from above was very upset about this and took care if it once again. Fast forward six days and I now have received a letter from Chase that my account is blocked and set to close. It doesn't say why but does have a number to call. When I call, they show no record at all of such letter. ​ As mentioned earlier, the account was opened on 9/13 and it is now 9/21 and there is no sign of a debit card mailed to me. Not in their system and definitely not in my hands. So now they are sending one two day rush to me. VERY strange first experience with Chase and I am wondering if I should continue with this bank. ​ Does anyone have a similar experience as this? Or can you make me feel better about choosing Chase? ​ ​

Chase is a large bank. Divisions don't talk to each other much, mailing is computerized, and branch employees don't know what the mainframe computer is doing. Your account probably triggered something on the computer; branch manager probably experienced this before and was trying to fix it. With so much data breaches go on, it is somewhat expected to trigger something false-positively when opening a new account. It can happen to anyone or any bank. Important thing is whether the employees fix the problem correctly and quickly for you. Personally, I never had majorly bad experience with Chase (they missed a cash deposit once, but was corrected next day).

Hey dont be talking bad about me and my bank.

Human: I just moved into my own apartment for the first time. As a special I get a month of free rent. Would it be unwise to use it on the first month? I should be able to cover rent it will just be tight. However if I used it now I would be able to have a bit of savings. Would it be smarter to save it just incase?

I see some people telling you to keep it for use later, so a cautionary tale. We had received some concessions when renewing a lease. Well the complex changed hands shortly thereafter and the new company wanted to claim ignorance of the deal. After a lot of tooth and nail we got the concession, but the point being: Don't count on the complex to do the right thing and keeping their word.

Wtf save it Incase something happens you have an extra month to figure it out

Human: What do you think about Dave Ramsey’s advice on finances? I agree on a few topics but not everything like credit cards. Maybe he is appealing to a consumer which behavior differ from mine. I have read a few of his books.

I think he provides good advice for getting out of debt. I don't really agree with his financial viewpoints besides that.

Dave Ramsey provided behavioral advice disguised as financial advice. As behavioral advice for "the masses" it's very good. As specific financial advice for disciplined people it isn't very good.

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

After nearly twenty years of saving and investing, [we hit a household net worth of > $1,000,000.](https://imgur.com/a/RzKTJqT) Can't really share with anyone except my parents, so I'm posting here :).

I realized a few months ago that my student loans weren't showing up on Credit Karma either for TransUnion or Equifax. It doesn't bother me either way, but in practical terms should I be doing anything? I know they have my name/SSN/address for 2017 because of tax documents they sent me (I entered repayment in late 2017).

Human: We don't really care for the whole wedding shenanigans thing, but figured if we were a legally married couple we would save some money on taxes. We don't like big shindigs and keep our circle tightly knit so don't always saw it as a hassle. She makes 23/hr working as a secretary for the police department, I make roughly the same as a server. We've talked about getting a marriage certificate now for some time to get some ease on taxes/insurance and such, and was wondering if anyone has some advice/comments regarding this, or those who have done something similar! We are in Southern California, both 28 years old! Edit: neither of us ever wanted to get married because it has always been seen as a hassle to us and unnecessary. We've discussed it and have been debating how best to approach this for some time now, since we don't care for the common notion of "romance" or "lifelong partners" that the vast majority of people live with. Our relationship isn't about the whole "love and live together" that everyone seems to be assuming.

Don't make major life decisions in an attempt to save a few hundred dollars on taxes.

You can model the tax situation by using a modeler like www.dinkytown.net 1040 calculator. Try it with each of you separately using Single status and one income. Then try it using Married Filing Jointly and enter both incomes. I think you won't find a big difference in taxes, because in 2018 the standard deduction for Married is two times the standard deduction for Single, and the size of the tax brackets is also doubled. If your incomes were divergent there would be a little bit of benefit because possibly some income of the higher earner would "fill up" unused lower tax bracket space of the other earner, but I don't think that's the case for you.

Human: I was in a bad accident involving three cars awhile back and the driver at fault had no insurance so the insurance companies pinned me at fault because fault couldn’t be proven one way or the other (allegedly). One of the insurance companies settled with my insurance but is coming after me for nearly $5000 that my insurance policy did not cover, which I had full coverage at the time. That’s more money than I’ve ever had at any one time and it’ll take me absolutely years to pay this off, not to mention I’m already close to $10,000 in debt. I’m seriously considering bankruptcy, but I don’t know if that’s an option or anything much else about it. There’s absolutely no way I can pay this off without having my financial situation absolutely devastated. I still don’t even have a car at this point after the accident. Do I have any options?

Tell them to fuck off. Your insurance company still has an obligation to defend you in court regardless of the policy limit being tendered, so if they want to litigate a protracted battle for 5k, let them. They won't though because it would cost them too much, and cost you 0 since your insurance will do the lifting.

Yeah, it sucks to be in this situation. If I were you I'd pay the money to talk to a lawyer. Look at it this way. If you pay a lawyer $500 and he saves you $5,000 that's a great return on your investment. On the other hand if he doesn't at least now you know and it only adds 10% to the total cost.

Human: As a background, I am 24 and my current financial situation is as follows: - $95k/yr salary - $765/mo rent - $200/mo groceries/miscellaneous - No student debt - No credit card debt - Enough in savings to last 6 months in case of emergency - Not much in 401k or Roth IRA I don't currently have a car and my use case for potentially owning a car now is: - Need a 4WD or AWD to get through potentially unmaintained forest roads and logging roads, especially in the winter, in order to get to mountain trailheads as part of my mountaineering/hiking hobby. - I will realistically only use it during weekends, holidays, or days off at max 70x a year for an average of 200 miles round trip. - I work remotely from home now and don't need a commuter car. - I don't need a car for running errands. - I would keep it forever until the end of its lifespan so I don't want to buy something extremely old or high mileage. Using a ZipCar 70x a year and within the mileages I specified, it would cost me $5.6k a year based on the $80 they charge for full day usage. Any car, new or used, unless it's below $20k would end up with a higher yearly cost. My concern is that if my needs ever change, for example if I require a daily commuter, and later decide to buy a car, then all the money that I've spent for the ZipCar would be in vain and my total "auto expenses" for the next 10 years would actually be higher than if I bought a car now.

ZipCar contract isn’t gonna g to allow you to go “off road”.

If you do the zip car for about 3 years, you’ve spent about 16,000. It may work in the short term, but the longer you do it for the more beneficial it becomes to buy a sensible car with good resale value.

Human: Hey everyone, I'm looking for opinions on what to do with my old 401K. I just changed jobs and will have a 401K at the new job too. The company offers 4% match so I'll be contributing at least that to the new one. For my old one, I have about $26K in it. There are no fees and the expense ratio is 0.74%. I could just roll it into my new one and contribute solely to that but I'm wondering if there is a better option. I could also leave it where it is, and I wouldn't be able to contribute to it but it would grow as is. Should I move the old one to some sort of IRA, or something else where I could continue contributing to it? What else should I consider? ​

My standard advice is to never leave a 401k in place at a former employer. Always roll it over into an IRA or a current 401k. How do you decide which? If the investment options in your new 401k are unusually good, meaning you can get exactly the kind of mutual funds you want with unusually low expense ratios, move your old 401k there. Almost always, it's a better idea to roll over to a self-directed IRA at Schwab, Fidelity, or Vanguard. Once there, use a two- or three-fund portfolio of index funds and a buy-and-hold strategy.

You can also roll it over and self manage it if you are up for the risk. I did it (against advice here) and put it into a diversified portfolio of pot stocks. So far so good.

Human: Clarification: now mechanically asking how to do it, but procedurally what's going to happen? I won't have made any money on it yet because it's basically going out of one investment and into another.

You can not exchange a security into another security without tax consequences. You definitely can't exchange a security into an "asset". Also, you're a little late on the 'ol crypto pump 'n dump train.

You may find these links helpful: - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [Investing](/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: Good evening, ​ The gist of what's going on is in the title, but I'll go into more detail... ​ My wife and I are separated and getting divorced. In my separation agreement with her, because I had possession of a car in her name, I agreed to pay for it. Well it's been a year, I've bought a car and we're both looking to get rid of it. We owe 8000 on it. We took it to carmax and they told us that they could offer us 3000 for it. Now we have to split 2500. I went to my bank and they told me they don't do loans anymore. She's going to get her loan already working in the process of it. I need to get a loan for me so I can pay my 2500. I'm looking for a place to get a loan of about 3000 with a decent pay off time and a decent interest rate. Information you may need to know. I live in North Carolina. I'm 26 and have good credit. Assistant: Do you have a 401k edit: stop downvoting me noobs. The man needs money, he should take a loan from himself before even a *gasp* credit union! Human: Yes. Could I make a withdraw from it for this reason? ​

Don't do that. Plenty of other options before you'd have to consider that

No, you can take a 401k Loan out on most plans. The interest rate is market and you pay it to yourself. You act as your own bank.

Human: I had got a credit card for emergency only situations. It has never left my dresser. Still had it's "call this number for activation" sticker on it. Yet, somehow, someone managed to buy 2 tickets to fly from georgia to canada with it. I called the credit card company and let them know what happened. They took the owed amount off the card and I canceled the card. My question is how could someone in georgia get my credit card info from a card ive never used? Not even once. The only time it was out of my house was when it got mailed to me.

Sounds like the credit card company has a breach where someone got a list of numbers direct from the source.

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

Human: i'm kind of over the whole working thing after a year and a bit, i've amassed $50000 is there anything i can do to invest in something and live off that forever? i don't wanna work more than another year or 2 i'm really lazy any suggestions would be great, and any discussions on how to make this happen.

No. Not possible.

You would need another zero on that just to be able to live at minimum wage level income indefinitely.

Human: I'm not positive that this is the right sub to ask, so if it's not I'll post it somewhere else. Okay, so here's the deal. On Sunday (9/16) I called T-Mobile to sign up for a plan a purchase a phone. Gave them my information, things were going along just fine, and then there was a snafu when they tried to process my payment. The rep tried a few times, and it still wasn't going through. We eventually figured out that Bank of America had flagged it for potential fraud and I had to manually approve it to get it to go through. I did, but the T-Mobile rep said they still had not been able to process my payment. Except... the money was charged on my end. Three times. The first one was automatically reversed by the bank, since it was flagged as potential fraud (as I understand it, I don't actually know if that's how it worked). The other two charges (798.84 each) have been in processing limbo since Sunday. Bank of America says they can't do anything until the charges post, and T-Mobile has been giving me the run around since Sunday night. I can't exactly blame the reps themselves for not knowing what to do, since the processing snafu on their end resulted in zero record of the transaction. A T-Mobile account was not created for me and no order has been processed. What I am irate about is that the T-Mobile reps keep proposing solutions and then there is no follow up. Wednesday they were supposed to send an email to both me and my bank detailing the situation, and they haven't. Today I got a hold of a supervisor who was supposed to investigate the situation and then call me back at 2:30. Guess what didn't happen. I've now currently been on hold for an hour and a half with the financial department, and I have no idea what avenues are left for me to pursue. Since the $1600 is still "processing" it hasn't left my account, but... it's not available to me, right? How do I get this resolved? I'll answer any questions to explain the situation more, but I'm starting to get seriously stressed about this. Edit: My main concern is that this payment should not be taking 5 days to process, right? If I should give it more time to resolve itself I will, but at what point am I actually supposed to worry? Update: Wow this really blew up, thank you everybody! Y’all were right, I just had to wait it out. I woke up this morning and the preauth/holds were gone! I have since then signed up for a credit card and I’m looking to change banks as well. Assistant: Dude don’t freak out. I’ve been there a bunch of times. Deal with the credit card company. Every single time when they see multiple transactions of the exact same amount they understand something was processed incorrectly or there is fraud involved. Wait for it to post and go from there. Human: You better believe after this nonsense I got a credit card (for exactly your reasoning), but for this was all unfortunately on my debit card.

I’ve been looking through the comments to make sure you know that this the biggest reason you should use a credit card. You essentially authorize anyone you pay with a debit card - direct access to your bank account. There’s a million other good reasons if you use it wisely, but I’m glad you learned your lesson. This sounds like it will all work out, it just takes time, and your money/ balance will be in limbo for a bit. Good luck !

The lesson here is that you should use a credit card for everything and not a debit card. Just pay it off each month and you won’t be in this type of situation again.

Human: I turned 30 this summer and it finally started to sink in that I needed to plan my finances better. I have a university degree and am working on a certification (will finish Dec/19). I currently have zero debt (finally!) and about $7000 cash. I have a fair amount of other assets, that I have zero desire to liquidate (furniture, equipment, tools, etc.). I work full time and my after tax income is around $32,000/y. Expected monthly expenses (rent, utilities, gas, & food) are around $1180 and represent about 43% of my after tax month income($2700~). By May of next year I should be able to reduce my expenses by at least $300/m. I have been reading that a goal for age 30 is to have a years worth of savings, and by 35 2 full years. By that measure, I am well behind. With a significant reduction in my expenses, or an increase in salary I am not sure how to approach this. Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.

You're doing WAY better than most. Don't worry, it sounds like you got it. I would suggest a Roth IRA to sink extra funds into.

In order to plan properly you need to have a clear understanding of where you are now. Using spreadsheet trackers can help you do this. With a net worth tracker you would log monthly balances for all assets and liabilities. The spreadsheet can help you analyze the data or to notice trends. It also gets you in the good habit of checking your accounts with regularity.

Human: Hello everyone. I am a senior in college. I’ve always been good with money and work while I go to school. My girlfriend is also in college. I wouldn’t say she is bad with money but her situation has lead her to a lot of debt. Some being credit cards. She has a maxed out credit card of 4K+ and the interest is about to kick in and it would be something like 800$ a month in interest. She asked me to pay it off so we could avoid this. I’m a little aprehensive about giving her basically all my money. I don’t really feel like she expressed any appreciation but that’s beside the point I guess. I’ve never given someone so much money before. Is there any reason I shouldn’t under the assumption she’ll pay me back? How do I go about this responsibly? I’m sorry I failed to mention that in January she will be getting paid 2500$ a month as a research associate. Edit2: hey thank you everyone for coming through. I really appreciate all the great advice and helping me clarify this. One redditor mentioned the 17% interest is annual. So it may be like 68$ a month rather than 780$ a month. But there will be a retroactive charge of 780 if it is not paid.

Don't.

I had a suspicion and checked your post history - you should not be lending (giving) money to anyone in that type of relationship. I am sorry to say but this is doomed.

Human: I just purchased a new home home with my mother and we are both putting in $700 each to cover the $1400 a month mortgage. I roughly make $1100 bi weekly with my wife getting $600 to 700 bi-weekly from her job. We have a baby and it's taking time from us to care for him and with her stopping working, our income is going to make it harder on us. Right now, I have the following debt: * Amazon Store Card - B$720 MIN $35 * CapitalOne - B$7150 MIN $220 * CitiBank - B$5600 MIN $222 * Chase Prime CC - B$5100 MIN $155 * IRS - B$600 MIN $150 * Blue Cross - B$250 MIN $0 ------------------------------------------------ Total - B$19420 $782 The B is my current balance and the MIN on average how much I pay monthly. Without talking to a rep, Freedom Debt Relief is saying they can help with a monthly payment of $375 max. This is tempting. With my baby growing up and most of my income going into CC bills that we no longer have, what would be the best solution for me? Tackle each one via avalanche method or seek debt relief?

Run away from "Freedom Debt Relief" all they do is charge you a HUGE fee to default on all your credit cards while you save that $375/mo in an account. They are NOT settling your debts for $375/mo, they are getting you to default, destroy your credit and then MAYBE your creditors won't sue you and MAYBE they will accept some of that money you've been saving up (that Freedom Debt Relief is going to take a HUGE chunk of). ​ If you want to default you can do that on your own. ​ Your problem really isn't your debt, it is how you over spent. Unless you tackle your spending problem that got you $29K in debt you aren't going to solve anything at all.

You may find these links helpful: - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](/r/personalfinance/wiki/debt#wiki_what.27s_the_best_way_to_pay_down_my_debt.3F) - [Dealing with collections](/r/personalfinance/wiki/collections) *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 only found this out tonight (conveniently, after Florida Blue/BCBS closed for the week). I seriously don't know what to do with how much of a clusterfuck BCBS has made. Here's the story with a TLDR at the bottom. Earlier in the year I had my plan terminated. My market place coverage had changed and BCBS cancelled my auto-pay. I've had the same account with BCBS for 4 years and this is the first time this has happened. I called them on the August 24th. They told me I had an outstanding debt of +$1000. They couldn't give me an invoice for the amount or an itemized breakdown. After a 1.5 hour conference call between BCBS and the market place, both BCBS *and* the market place admitted it was an issue between them and was not my fault (but, I still had no insurance). BCBS tells me to call back next week as they try and reopen my account. I call monday and was told that BCBS had done a "complete rebill" and that I only owed my normal amount. I make the payment for the remainder of August. I had the receptionist confirm multiple times that I did not owe the $1000+ that had popped up before and that my account was active again. Fast forward to September 13th. I call and make my monthly payment over the phone as my online account was not functioning. I paid the normal amount and presumed my account was active (they accepted the payment, gave a confirmation number, etc). Was told again that I didn't owe the $1000+ and that I needed to create a new account (even though I had the same plan number as before... whatever). Fast forward to around 30 minutes ago. I get a text from my pharmacy that I owe $75 instead of the normal $10. Log into my BCBS account and find that I actually had two bills for September: one for my normal amount and one for the +$1000 from before. **AND** I have a message from BCBS dated the 7th noting that they have terminated my account after giving "several reminders" and not receiving the monthly payment for, presumably, that month and that my account had been terminated as of **mid June!**. I made a payment, which was accepted, to an account which has been terminated *prior to that payment* without giving me notice beforehand. I called the market place tonight and was basically just told to take it up with BCBS. I just don't even know what to do anymore. Do I contact the regulatory board in Florida? The news? As it stands now, I've had my account cancelled twice through, from their own words, no fault of my own. I now have $180 (normally ~$18) of prescriptions to pick up and no insurance. TLDR: Had my account terminated TWICE this year, even after they admitted it was a fault on their end. The second time, they cancelled my account without giving notice. Not sure what to even do. Assistant: Contact your local state representative constituent support/services office. Explain the issue and usually they will help you; or at least point you in the right direction. Human: I'm not even sure who I *would* contact with that. You mean the senate or house representatives for Florida?

Yes, that’s who they mean, but it won’t help you. You need to contact your state insurance commissioner or someone at the attorney generals office. If it won’t go anywhere after that, call your senator or rep. Senators will get involved but they have no power in non social security or Medicare/Medicaid issues when it comes to this kind of thing.

I'd go for your local congress-person's office. That'd be a good start. They'll get you pointed in the right place if they don't help you directly by making some phone calls.

Human: Not sure if there’s anything that I can do, but looking for advice on potential ways to get these guys. Received a call on my cell phone from a blocked number. I didn’t answer. Message gave the standard “this is a process server and we’ve tried serving you at xxx (listed my address) next we will be going to xxx (listed my work address) then gave me a number to call back with a case number. I ignored it, because I know how these work. An hour later, I get a call from our HR manager. He said that our director of employee relations received a call from this same person saying that they needed to serve me and to see if I could be served at work. At this point I get a little nervous. I’ve never had a scammer actually call my employer. I call them back later, they say they don’t know the person who called me, but he is with xxx named a law firm and gave me his number. He said he was a paralegal with the firm and the person who called me must have been the server. He said I was being sued for defaulting on a credit card in 2015 for $2,500. He named a credit card I think I may have had many many years ago, which would be past any type of statue of limitations and definitely never had a credit limit high enough for me to default that much. Also, my credit report is clean and we got a mortgage in 2016 so I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have done that if I defaulted in 2015. I told him all of this. He agrees that my credit was great and started reading off who had my mortgage and who we originally got it from. Basically reading info from my credit report I guess. I told him he needed to give me the account number he said that I was in default for. He started talking over me and reading addresses and things from my report. I repeated myself and he got pretty angry and raised his voice. I continued asking for the account number and he finally said that they would just serve me and good luck, so I hung up. I usually ignore these types of calls, but they called my freaking employer. A place I’ve worked 8 years and worked very hard to develop a strong, professional reputation. I’m sure they used a spoofed number and gave a fake name but I can’t let them get Away with this. Is there anything that can be done? Or any advice for someone in my situation?

Tell your employer you're being scammed. If you've worked hard and reliably there for 8 years, odds are they'll believe you. This'll be compounded by the fact that phishing this year has been almost unnaturally prevalent. they'll likely know a scam when they get one. Also, check any medium possible to see if this "paralegal" exists, be it with the law firm's database, social media, etc. Then if it doesn't exist, or the paralegal in question doesn't show up on any database, go about your day.

Yes the scammers have gotten rather bold, they've even started targeting people at work. I would recommend checking your credit and filling a police report, then let your work know about it, it's possible someone else in the building will also get targeted.

Human: I had one of the best interviews ever, it was with a company that has been around, the position was inline with my profession, lots of growth potential, we were clicking, was confident I'd be a great fit, and the salary and benefits were worked out. It's important to note that the salary was negotiated to be reduced to less than I make now for 90 days while I get some great training and then my full salary would kick in if I stayed. On my way out of the interview I said something to the effect of "I look forward to seeing the offer and I'll let you know". The interviewer broke eye contact, gave a odd smile, snickered, and said, "No you have to take our word". At first I though he was being sarcastic and laughed; he was serious. I left it at that to think about some more and called back that night to clarify some of the benefits and to ask again. I was met with the same uncomfortable snicker and told that their reasoning was so that I wouldn't take the offer to my current boss to request a raise. Confused by this minor barrier, I called some other respectable professionals that night that knew or had worked for this company before and was unequivocaly told, "stay away from them, they trap people". My gut feeling had always been that they would not follow though on the salary bump, I'd be trapped at too low of a salary, and I knew that I would never be able to get my current job back once I left. So the next day I tested the water more and asked for my full pay up front, none of this 90 day BS, and that I need to see my benefits written out. They gave a firm "NO" and would not budge on anything. They rambled on a little about us both taking risks, that they trust me, and that I should trust them (It's only been 24 hours with these guys and they want trust!). I wasn't buying it since my mental risk assessment told me that I was taking the bulk of the risk and would have no leverage after I join the company. I finished the conversation by saying "I decline because I don't feel secure agreeing to this reduced salary if something so simple as an offer letter can't be drafted, and that I would expect that they wouldn't operate without written contracts as well. ​ So what are all the other ways they could have screwed me over that I may not have thought of?

You made the right choice. A written offer is something simple to produce; the fact they didn’t is a big red flag. It’s possible that without the offer signed and terms disclosed they could’ve just fired you before 90 days is up or it turns out none of what they said they’d offer you is true. Too big a risk to take in my opinion.

You should consider writing a review online about this company. More people should be aware of their bad business practices. If more people did this we would have better employers to choose from because they would realize that their reputation is at risk. Please do everyone a favor and write that review. You could save so many people the hassle of being lied and mislead.

Human: Hello r/personalfinace, please help me. I've been saving aggressively since I graduated and started working in june to pay down my student loans. ( Job pays $60k potential excluding bonus and I owe 14k). I'm more than half way towards my goal of saving $7000 by the end of the year. I also expect a $3000 tax refund, so by early next year, I should have made a huge dent on my loans. Problem is, I don't have a car and I really, really want one now. Here are my options, I could stay focused on my goal and continue taking the bus for 45mins to and fro, and suffer through the cold winter weather and slight embarrassment of being the only one in the office who takes the bus to work. Or, I could use my 5k savings to buy a used car (2005-2007 Camry or Honda) and start saving all over again. Or, I could buy a REALLY cheap beater car (1000-2000k range) with my saving and sell/trade it after my debt is payed off. I absolutely do not want to finance the car. Please don't suggest it 😀. No more debt for me ever again. What should I do?

Easy man.. Take the bus still. Tuff it out. Cars are a money pit

Not the guy to tell you anything other than, do not buy the really cheap $1-2K car. Unless you are a car person, and can do your own repairs. I am. So I can do that, if looking for the right things. However, $4-5k is about as cheap as you can go, and still get a semi reliable vehicle. I am no financial person, you will get better advice from others on that. But I am very much a car person.

Human: I went to my local dealership with a Pre Approval from NFCU looking to get pricing to see if they could get close to the Pre Approval after everything. I even went through the process of getting my truck appraised for trade in value. When we talked about financing, I made sure to say we had an amazing Pre Approval that they could not beat and to not do their financing. Just checked my Credit Karma 2 weeks later and there is a Hard Inquiry on there from them. Can they do that? If not, can I fight to get it removed and how? Thanks in advance. Assistant: I doubt it will really matter. You had already applied for a car loan so their hard inquiry should just get lumped with the first one. Human: I had room for one hard inquiry, which was why I went with NFCU. The one from the dealership bumped me over the good/fair threshold and dropped me 20 points. Hence the post. 🙃 Assistant: That's weird. Multiple hard inquiries of the same type in a short period of time are usually lumped together as one because they know people shop around for a loan. Human: Mine have personally never lumped together. When I got my truck, there were 3 Hard Inquiries from the dealership and my bank that were all on there for 2 years. Same with my Fiancé and his truck.

They all appear on your credit report but are considered as a single pull by the scoring models

I’m not exactly sure what the time frame is (either 30-90 days), but your credit score doesn’t decrease each inquiry for your car loan. Your Credit Karma’s score may decrease because it’s not a real score. They don’t weigh out multiple inquiries like a real FICO score would. It’s just a approximation of what your score is based off of your credit report. To sum it up, Credit Karma sees everything as black&white and your actual FICO score knows how to think outside the box (grey areas).

Human: I feel like I’m a bit of a strange spot due to life occurrences and need some advice on how to continue to maximizing retirement savings. I am 35 earning ~$138k (but only for the past 3 years) yet my 401k and rollover IRA is only worth $119k. I’m clearly behind by benchmarks but out of ideas how to grow my retirement within the ‘norm’. Backstory: Previous company ended up making some mistakes in my relocation negotiations with my that ultimately cost me about $50k in combined YOY earnings-couldn’t sue so don’t suggest. (Promised salary increase never came, was signed on and reiterated that it was coming- for 4 years. ) I stayed with that company despite this, contributing little to my retirement. All considered, I shouldn’t have stayed that long but That ship sailed so no use in rehashing. So it’s now 2018- I finally changed companies in Jan 2016 I have been maxing my 401k since then. Just started maxing my IRA as well but am still short in value for my age. Not sure where/how to keep socking away pretax money bc all accounts will reach their max contribution by end of year but it still doesn’t get me to the benchmark minimums for my age We don’t have an HSA Due to our benefits plan that better fits our family and we contribute $400/mo to each child’s 429 plan (my husband’s HTDO). Also- Backdoor Roth for the Rollover IRA doesn’t seem like a good idea right now because it’s lower value than my 401k. How can I accelerate retirement savings at this point?

Not all retirement savings needs to be with pre-tax money. You are free to open an investment account earmarked for retirement and invest all the money you want in it. ​ ​

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

Human: Posting this here because maybe I can help someone else NOT fall for this BS. Going down the road today on my way home and I get a phone call; caller ID says its my bank, USAA. I answer and this nice young man and I had the following conversation: THIEF: Mr Sumo, this is USAA's fraud department. Have you just attempted to make a $1000 purchase in a Target in Denver? ME: Ummm... nope. I'm literally in Texas right this minute, so no. THIEF: OK, sir, I'm going to quickly authenticate you with our system. You're going to be getting a text message from us with a PIN, I need for you to read that to me. (I get a text message from USAA, my phone recognizes them from previous security checks, so I think I'm good, right? Nope.) ME: I read the PIN THIEF: OK, thank you.... hang on my computer is being slow.... We had a little more conversation but here's the gist of this: While he was calling me, his buddy in the next room was on the phone with the real USAA telling them that he needed the account PW reset. They, of course, sent a two-factor authentication PIN to my phone. I read that PIN off to my guy, who fed the other guy and BOOM, they were in. Clever girl. Before I could pull over to handle this I had a flurry of emails from the bank in my mailbox: - Your account PW was changed. - Your account name was changed. - Your security questions were changed. - You added Joes Blower as a payee (the literal name they used!) - You transferred XYZ to Joes Blower (this one repeated for several attempts) Understand that I work professionally with computers and am super skeptical about most things. I stay up to date on scams and security. My radar was up the entire time I was chatting with him and I STILL walked into it. From my POV this was the real deal. The part that I missed, and the part I want to convey... Large companies like this will almost NEVER call and start asking you for info. What I SHOULD have done was this: As soon as he mentioned the Target transaction, I should have said thank-you and hung up, then looked up the number for USAA's fraud and called them. I thought this was them, I fell for it. The credit union is already working on returning the cash. Because these guys didn't try transactions here in TX the bank shut things down pretty good and the thieves only got a few hundred. I'll get that back. But now I've got a shiney new login that I have to use and worries about what info they might have seen while in there. Yay! Plus, USAA is sending me one of their nice two-factor key fobs that would have stopped this. Strangely enough I just read a few weeks ago that SMS PIN's were hackable. I thought the article meant that you could hack them electronically. I never expected a literal man-in-the-middle attack!!

Thanking for posting. I always appreciate PSA scam alerts. And I don't agree with people commenting how it's a common and obvious scam like they'd never fall for it. It's one thing to know about a scam and an entirely different thing to experience it yourself. A month ago I got pickpocketed on the subway for the first time in my life. Everyone knows you shouldn't keep valuables in your pockets and to be aware of your surroundings in public spaces, but I was tired, had a headache, and protecting my pockets wasn't the first thing on my mind. An older lady sat next to me, I scooted over to make room, but it was still a tight fit. I didn't pay attention to her shifting around because I knew she was just getting comfortable. It wasn't until I got home that I realized the $15 dollars that had been in my pocket was missing. Sharing your experience reminds others to be careful.

Christ almighty, people. Don't discuss personal finance information on the phone or internet. If someone calls you asking for information, ask for theirs and meet in person at their place of work, or not at all.

Human: My parents (mother and step father) are complete and utter failures when it comes to managing their finances. I have been a lurker on this sub for a while, and given them as much advice pertaining to personal finance as I have been able to, but I no longer know how to help them after learning the real horror that is their financial situation. What I have done so far: * calculated and and averaged out their monthly income * added together all of their monthly expenses * advised them on a few cost cutting measures Here is a breakdown of their monthly finances based upon the information they have given me: * Monthly take home between the two of them, after insurance etc= $3,150 * Bills: * **Rent**=$650, **Car**= $450, **Car insurance**= $125, **Cable**= $150, **Phones**= $130, **Electricity**= $280, **Propane** (house in the country)= $500, **Food** (groceries only)= $170, **Credit Card**= $200, **Gas**= $400, **Furniture financing**= $230, **Internet**= $60 * **Total=**$3,345 I saw that their monthly budget exceed their monthly income, and I have paid their early termination fee to cancel their cable. The rest of their finances are pretty much locked in. They owe more on the car than it is worth, so it is unsellable. They have a cheap prepaid phones, but the problem is that one of them has financed a phone costing them an additional $50 monthly (which they can't afford obviously). Their gas expenses are so high because my stepdad works an hour away in another city, and nobody lives close enough to carpool according to him. So I am not sure where else they can cut. They both have credit scores in the 400s. And the worst part is, They owe the IRS $1300 from money they made getting bought out of a previous house, an MY MOTHER DID NOT PAY ANY TAXES ALL YEAR FROM HER CHECK AND HAS YET TO FILE. Any and all advice is helpful. I am trying to be tough on them, but I am in no way, shape, or form a financial expert myself.

Well, you either leave them alone to sink or swim, or you keep giving them your own money and scew yourself out of a happy life. There's no middle ground. Sorry.

It doesn’t solve everything but get them a prepaid plan for their phones (like cricket, my SO and I pay 70/m for an unlimited plan for the both of us.)

Human: Hello all! This is my first time posting and I am posting on behalf of my 24M brother. My brother is currently in Spain working as a nanny. About a week ago he was rushed to the hospital because he had a lot of blood in his stool. At first they thought it was Chrons disease but throughout the week they ran a number of tests and weren’t able to come up with anything. He’s doing well right now and was released from the hospital today. After he was released he received a bill for 50,000 euros and was basically told that he won’t be able to go back to Europe until he’s paid his debt. He is heart broken because he loves his job and doesn’t want to leave the country and also because he has no idea how he will pay back such a large sum of money. I’m looking for any advice anyone has. He’s very distraught right now so I would love to be able to give him some helpful advice and point him to any sort of direction in how to handle this situation. Thanks in advance for any help! Assistant: I suggest he ring the hospital and see if he can negotiate a payment plan. Also, did he not have health insurance? Human: He has health insurance here in the states but it doesn’t cover anything international.

That’s hard to believe. While they usually “don’t cover anything”. In truth they often cover emergency situations.

Call the insurance provider and ask. Otherwise, he's been wasting his money paying for something he can't use. The insurance company may treat it as an out-of-network provider. Aside from that, Spain is a part of Europe.

Human: Basically, I'm looking for an alternative to a savings account. I don't want to put my money in there and have it lose value over time due to inflation. My Roth IRA is too high risk, as the market could dip any time and if I have to pull the money from there, obviously I'm massively screwing myself over. So I'm looking for somewhere to periodically put money that I can draw from, if needed, without being heavily penalized or having to pay an arm and a leg in taxes, that will also earn me at least some return so that I can keep up with inflation and then some. The one idea I have is government (or perhaps corporate) bonds, although from what I see, you need to pay federal income tax on the interest earned, if I understand it correctly, and you also have to wait at least 1 year before you can cash in the bond, so I'm not sure how that would work if I'm periodically investing in bonds like I'd like to. I currently have no savings account e-Fund. I've recently started investing 15% of all paychecks into my Roth IRA. I'm considering changing things up and investing 10% into the Roth IRA and 5% into some sort of savings account alternative. Also, I'm pretty sure my bank charges me for each time I transfer money from the checking account (where paychecks are auto-deposited) into savings, which complicates things even if I wanted to put money in there. Any suggestions? Thanks.

You're wanting a good return with no downside whatsoever? That just doesn't happen. If you want to keep your principal intact, just use a high interest savings account and you'll at least be matching typical inflation.

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

Human: I've been making payments to my truck for the past year but I just lost my job & I don't need to car for work. I took out an auto loan with capital one to buy the car and I have no idea how to go about selling it or releasing myself from this responsibility I just can't manage right now. Would love some advice on where to start... Its a 2017 Nissan Fronteer SL I've paid ~$10,000 so far total amount financed $27,021.99 Total Payments needed if I continue in my contract is $40,402.80 Assistant: How much is the car worth and how much do you owe? Human: Its a 2017 Nissan Fronteer SL I've paid ~$10,000 so far total amount financed $27,021.99 Total Payments needed if I continue in my contract is $40,402.80 Assistant: What is the payoff amount as of today? What is the KBB value with all your vehicle options? The link to KBB gives too big of a range for us to guess. Human: 72 Payments at $561.15 & I've paid ~$7,000 total of Payments after everything is done is scheduled for $40,402. I'm not expecting to get anything back I just need to get rid of the monthly payment or lower it than the $600 a month I'm currently facing.

Forget all those numbers, you need to know what you owe, what the balance of your loan is today. Look on your last statement.

If you financed $40,402 at 72 payments and you’re paying $561 then your interest rate is tiny. That means your payoff is going to be right around $33k. If your car is worth that then you can sell it and be done with it. So, run your car through KBB including all the options and see where you stand. Edit: saw elsewhere that you financed $27000. If that’s the case and you’ve paid $7000 then you’ve probably paid off about $5k of the principle. That means you owe about $22k on the loan. If your car is worth more or equal to that then just sell it and be done.

Human: This blog post highlights a lot of the negative aspects of owning a home: [https://lifestyletooling.com/2018/09/21/homeownership-worst-decision/](https://lifestyletooling.com/2018/09/21/homeownership-worst-decision/) Do you think owning a home is a bad investment? What are some of the advantages from a personal finance perspective?

There is a whole generation of Gen Xer’s out there that lost their homes in the bust. That was traumatic. First real estate is always a good investment. Then prices fell. Now to some people real estate is never a good investment. The fact is, we all have to live somewhere.

Came here because OP snagged this photo from Google by typing in Houses or Homes then used tool to sort the images by usage rights. And stumbled upon the only cool house on the first 3-4 pages. Edit: you should evaluate your options. Reach out to a mortgage lender to check your credit and determine what size house you can purchase based on what you want to spend per month. If that value is less than the average rent in your area, I'd say it's beneficial.

Human: I’ve got cystic fibrosis which is a degenerative disease. I’ve been doing well, but recent info makes this the beginning of the end. We’ve got $50k in savings. About $40k in her 401b. And $11k between my 401k and with ira. All emotions asides, how do I make sure she’s in ok after I’m gone in 5-10 years. We’re both 30. Thxs.

Does your wife work? If not, looking at these numbers the best thing would be to get her ready for the work force, my wife and I have always strived to be able to not have to change the family lifestyle if one of us were to pass (we only have one child as well), without counting on a penny of life insurance. Higher education or trade schools could be a viable option as well.

Are you able to get life insurance or disability insurance through work? If not, I'd look at possibly switching jobs to be able to get access to some insurance plans that would not require medical evaluation. I have an autoimmune disease so every time I switch jobs I carry over my old plan and add more life insurance at my new job. Most places allow you to add 1-3x your salary in life insurance without doing any underwriting.

Human: I missed 4 days I was scheduled for because of Florence. The store was closed so there was no possible way I could have worked. Is my employer required to pay me anything for those missed days or am I just screwed?

Act of God. You're screwed.

Some companies have donated pay missed to employees for natural disaster but its few and far between.

Human: In May I was car shopping and I explicitly stated to every dealership that I went to. I do not want to do a hard credit pull until after I finish shop around for the best deal. Today I decided to do my usual 6 month credit report and one of the dealerships did a hard credit pull without my authorization. I explicitly stated that I didn’t want one. Do I have any recourse? Assistant: Why give them your info if you didn’t want your credit pulled. Certain info is needed to pull a credit inquiry. I assume they’ll defend themselves with that. Human: Thing is they told me they needed some information just for verification purposes. No talk of a credit pull.

But to his point, there’s nothing to verify if you’re not buying from them. Just don’t give them the info in the future.

I suppose you can contact the bureaus and explain your situation. I only advise this if it heavy effected your rating, which I doubt *if* this dealership was the only one to do a hard inquiry. If more than one did inquiries, it won’t make a difference anyway, so honestly contact would be pointless. If your credit dropped a few points, hell yes, contact bureaus. I don’t see recourse with the dealership. They can’t take it back.

Human: So this is a short story, I live in Ontario Canada my girlfriends land lord charges her an extra 150 dollars a month on a already 1200 a month rent. If I'm there for a decent amount of time out of the month. This just sort of sounds weird to me I've not heard of something like this. If this is true is there a certain amount of days I should shy away from. Side note: she has 2 kids that aren't mine. If that's of any importance occupancy wise. Thanks also if this isn't right subreddit I apologize I havent looked into something like this. Other note: I'm suspicious of this landlord because hes pushed her around on some other incidences that I know hes in the wrong. Edit: her lease says 50 for additional occupants. Also I might add that I do not have my own belongings in the house I only come by frequently and stay some nights of the week.

Most leases are restricted to the named occupants (and minor children) and having another person move in "for a decent amount of time out of the month" is a violation of the lease and certainly grounds for a pay extra or else demand. ​

Is he picketing the money or does he gown the place? She can just get you added to the lease as an occupant. If the firm doesn’t charge per occupant - ie if a married couple with two kids wouldn’t have paid for 1200 then she shouldn’t be paying 1350 just because there are two adults in the bedroom.

Human: I opened a Barclays Apple Rewards card to finance a new MacBook. That account is currently maxed out. It’s my second credit card and I don’t even have a year of credit history besides student loans. I got a ton of credit report alerts that I was too scared to check. Today I got the guts to check and it turns out my score went up from 651 to 677 which was kind of a shock. I was so sure the 100% utilization on this new account plus the hard inquiry would drop my score. Should I still expect a drop?

Don’t stress to much about it.

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

Human: My wife and I make ~300k combined with two toddlers not school just yet. We have opted to pay her parents 1700/month to take care of the girls while we work. I work three days/36 hours a week and she works close to 50, from my research 1700 is fair market for in home daycare in our area (large city in south Texas) for two children. We’ve been paying them with checks alternating months between FIL and MIL so we stay below 15k annual gift limit per person because they “just want to be done with taxes” My question is, how much are we losing out by not claiming that cost? Also taking into consideration she could “start a business” and pay each of them 10k and they still wouldn’t have to “mess with taxes” because they made so little? I think we need a CPA.

I think you need a CPA.

Yes, you should get a CPA. That being said, these payments are not gifts--they are income for your wife's parents. You do not get to choose whether to treat it as a gift or income. Where do they watch your children? If it is at their house, this income will be reported on their Schedule C, as if they were self employed. On the other hand, if this is at your house, they are technically household employees and the income will be reported as wages. You may also need to withhold taxes and pay for unemployment insurance.

Human: I am having a hard time saving up $700 for the CISSP exam that I failed and lost $700 a few months ago. It took me a long time to save up cash to do it. What is the best way to pay for it? Put it on a credit card? Or save up cash which will take me quite a while again. My dilemma is I want to take the test in the next month or so, however, financing is difficult due to rent, student loans, phone bill, etc.

Sell stuff to raise the funds Or Get a second job to raise the funds Or Cut expenses to free up the funds. Don’t go into debt for the exam unless you have a guaranteed job waiting on the other side and are 100% sure you’ll pass.

Pass it the first time.

Human: Hello, I live in an area with a limited transit schedule, so I pay about $40 - $100 a week on taxi expenses to get to and from work when the bus doesn't run. I am thinking about getting a used $2000 or under car in good condition to commute back and forth to work to save myself some money. I do have 2 other credit cards in good standing that I pay in full each month by the due date. I also have a good credit score. What do you think is the best credit card with 0% intro apr for 12 - 18 months to do this with?

Just make sure the dealer will take the credit card. They might even add a processing fee.

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

Human: I recently discovered that my soon-to-be-ex husband opened 4 credit cards in my name and had everything sent to a PO Box that I was also unaware of. I only figured it out when the girl working at FedEx Kinkos asked me if I lived on XYZ Street, and that they had a box full of mail for me. I'm faced with approximately $15k of debt I did not incur. My problem is that this happened (as best I can tell) over 13 months ago, so all of the bills have since gone to collections. My ex moved out of state and we're in the process of going through a divorce. I've put a freeze on my credit, submitted a police report, have paid off 1 of the debts and am in the process of paying off another one right now. (I'll get to the remaining 2 eventually). Because these payoffs are with collection agencies, they have been willing to work with me in terms of settling for less than the full amount, but I'm wondering how screwed I am going to be come tax time when the 'forgiven' dollars will be considered as income? Assistant: Quit paying on the debts, immediately. You are not responsible for debts you didn't incur. Inform the collections agencies and credit card companies the debts are fraudulent. Show them the police report if necessary. They should remove from your credit report. If not you can dispute directly with the credit reporting agencies. I'm sure they're happy to take your money but you don't owe them a dime! Human: This. Why are you paying debt that isn't yours? You're the victim of identity theft. Assistant: My credit score dropped to low 500s; I figured if I at least paid off the debts that I could work on repairing it. I am fortunate enough to be able to do this and I know it sounds crazy, but it seemed like the quickest way to get it all taken care of.

If you start paying off the debts to the lenders you seem accountable for the debt. This is not the case. Stop.

No. By paying the debts you are accepting them, and keeping them on your credit report for years to come. Had you disputed them, they would go away. The whole point of getting that police report is to use it to dispute the debt. Please stop handling this yourself. Get your divorce attorney in the loop. If you don't have a divorce attorney, get one immediately.

Human: New to the sub; hello all, I've recently been considering purchasing a home to get away from rentals. I found a very interesting listing on Zillow that appears to be a great price for the area, but the listing shows the following: -Cash only no financing -no rentals no investors -Condo -$70k I have ~&10k saved and I make $70k/yr. What are the implications of the limitations set on the listing? Are these because it is a condo? I need to understand these before pursuing further. Thanks and any advice will help! Edit: Everyone has provide some excellent points! I have reached out to the property listing agent and the owner of the Condo, and at this point is seems like the the condo does not meet owner-occupied ratios required to get financing support from most banks. I think that the current seller needs out and has lowered price simply because they cannot sell otherwise (buyers get no financing). I don't think I am prepared to take on the same risk. Thank you all!

They want someone to write them a check for $70k. If you can do that, it's yours. I assume by no financing they mean they won't finance it, and won't take any offers contingent on financing.

Not sure sounds like someone doesn't want to claim the taxes or income from sold goods and property. It may be legit but I'd double check on any titles, leins and any property history. May as well check with utilities and back charges or if any service is or will be needed like a new mains line or pipe coming in.

Human: The title says it all. Moving from my crappy apartment to a great new private condo rental. My new landlord is super old school and has requested that all payments be made directly into his bank account. I've been using my Chase credit card to pay for my monthly rent, (due to great rewards) and then paying off the card every month to build credit. I'd like to continue this setup with my new place. Does anyone have any recommendations for sites/services that allow you to pay directly into someones bank account using a credit card? I called Chase today and they explained that you can only do this through Chase if it was a merchant or business. Thanks in advance! I hope everyone is having an awesome weekend.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/pay-rent-credit-card/ You'd have to pay a fee of 2-3%, probably negating any benefit.

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

Human: So I'm an idiot. I set my student loans to auto pay and haven't really paid that much attention to them. Today I just happened to open one of the bills and noticed the payment had gone from $306 to $310 so my last payment was $4 short. Instead of paying off four of the loans and having one be short they spread it out so all 5 were between 30 and 99 cents short. So did I just get 5 late payment dings against my credit or one? Any way to fix this or am I just going to have to accept it as a lesson learned? How quick does this show up on a credit report can I check it now to see the damage or should I wait a little bit?

You may have caught it in time. Call the lenders immediately, explain what happened, and ask if there’s a way to have this not reported as a late payment if you make full payment now. If they want to charge a late payment fee, ask if that can be waived or reduced since it’s your first late payment. Be nice, acknowledge your mistake, and tell them you appreciate whatever they can do to help.

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

Human: I'm applying for a manufacturing job in the Bay Area that requires a lot of travel overseas. They said roughly two weeks every two months, barring issues that require extended stays and emergency travel. I have folks up there but only one has a spare bedroom and they may sell the house in the near future. Another brother might look into buying a house with me but that's at least another year out. I was thinking maybe Airbnb or extended stay hotels and that would keep my local commute down as well. I'd be happy and welcome to hear what pf might say about my situation!

That isn’t “a lot” of travel. It’s essentially one week per month that could be consecutive days or interspersed. That level of travel will not impact your standard of living to a ooh t where you feel like you are never home.

If you’re not sure if you’ll be able to deal with the job, you could consider a month-to-month lease. Otherwise, I don’t believe that two weeks of travel every two months should be enough to dissuade you from renting under a standard lease.

Human: I graduated in May with an associates degree and immediately found a job at 22/hr. Over the summer I slightly inflated my lifestyle by renting my own apartment (no roommates). In two weeks I’m starting a new job at 38/hr. I have ~$15,000 in student loans (still in grace period) ~$600 on my CC (no interest 12 mo. ) My monthly expenses for rent, utilities, car, insurance and phone is roughly $1300. I want to build an emergency fund and pay off my loans aggressively and then invest in a vanguard fund or something. Should I build the emergency fund first because my loans are in grace period? or pay off debt first? Advise me PF peeps thanks Edit: also what’s a reasonable amount for an emergency fund? Assistant: I wouldn't do the emergency fund yet. Pay off both loans while they're still in grace period. The interest on the loans will likely outpace any gains you might get in a savings account or investments. Human: How aggressive should I be? I was thinking 3k/mo towards student loans would wipe it out in 5 months? Any reason to be more/less aggressive?

As aggressive as you can afford it. I think that avoiding interest would be best so you don't have to pay more for your loans than what you borrow, but don't starve yourself to achieve that goal.

Only as aggressive as the interest rates. Otherwise, you are burning opportunity for better investments.

Human: I work at a software company. This company hires hourly contractors. I am not one of them. I am a company employee. For 5 years I have been the only company hourly employee in my department of over 40 full time employees. I have tried many times to have my status changed to salary, but have been denied or ignored. My question: is there any legal basis or timeline where this can no longer continue? I have the same responsibilities as the other full time employees. I feel alienated and uncomfortable with this situation. I have to worry about extra rules and stipulations due to my employment status. Any insight appreciated

Nobody is required to be paid a salary

why would you want to go from hourly to salary?

Human: I'm a high schooler working at an unnamed fast food joint. A month or two ago my gm told me that I was getting a dollar fifty raise effective as of the next paycheck. I just assumed that it went in and didn't realize that my paycheck stayed the same as I began to work less when school started. Today I found out that our scheduling app shows wages in a certain tab and that I was lied to. I never got the bump. How to I handle this?

"hey boss, you mentioned I was getting that $xx raise thiat paycheck, and thank you for that, but it doesn't look like it went through. Does it take too long to process or did something change since our conversation?"

Ask him for it, if he says no then Start moving stuff around and hiding it that he needs, maybe start with a pen, then some paperwork, maybe a key from his computer pops off and no one can find it. Maybe someone gets that raise then stuff stops “disappearing. Funny how that works. And if he doesn’t give you that raise he slowly goes completely mad and quits and you get his spot. With assumingely a much bigger raise then he promised in the beginning

Human: A little bit of background: After many hiccups and scares about actually being able to go to college, I can proudly say I'm currently in my freshman year at university. I've worked summer jobs 3 years since I was 13, and I had a full year job for the last year of my high school career. All of that time and money has equaled about $9,000, during my time in high school I had other expenses too, such as a car and insurance, and general expenses like a girlfriend (very costly)! Unfortunately in the end it didnt work out but anyways my first bill is due by October and its about $10,000. I was able to get a couple of scholarships to bring my cost down to about $8,500. So this means that essentially 3 summers and a full year of work, plus just the overall money I've earned in my life, is all being spent for a single semester at school. My family's income is just high enough to avoid federal funding but they're unwilling to pay for any of it because for one they don't agree with my decision, and they don't have the money themselves. As an 18 year old I don't have any credit history, therefore can't get any money through loans, and my parents aren't willing to assist me with this. I've applied for scholarships online but a lot seem like one in a million drawings, and those internet surveys that promise scholarships after completing "one more survey". What am I supposed to do? Can I not afford it? Should I dropout before I waste anymore? Assistant: You are assuming college costs and fees are set-up for people to actually 'pay for college'. It's not set-up that way. It's set-up for people to borrow for college, like they borrow for houses or cars. It's the nature of the whole college system now. It's a broken system. I just sent my daughter to university in Europe and tuition is under $1,000. Dorms are under $500 a month. Human: So American college is set up to send teenagers into debt for the first 20 years of their life?

Yeah that is correct.

Yes, absolutely. The price was raised at a speed the population was able to absorb with debt permitted to be assigned to students, then debt assigned to parents was popularized following that. Accredited universities collude on pricing behaviors and many other policies. Other countries have kept tuition fees much more modest as they were in America 40 or more years ago.