vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Since there isn't a good benchmark for a target date fund, the managers tend to buy whatever they feel like and it may not be what you would prefer if you were choosing. However, the fund you mention has a pretty low expense ratio and the difference between that and your own allocation to an equity index fund or a blend of equity and bond funds is small in expectation. Plus, you can change your allocation whenever you want. You are not locked in. The investment options you mention are reasonable enough that the difference between portfolios is not critical. More important is optimizing your taxes and paying off your debt in the right order. Your interest rates matter more than term does. Paying off debt with more debt will help you if the new debt has a lower interest rate and it won't if it has a higher interest rate. Normally speaking, longer term debt has a higher interest rate. For that reason shorter term debt, if you can afford it, is generally better. Be cold and calculating with your debt. Always pay off highest interest rate debt first and never pay off cheap debt with expensive debt. If the 25 year debt option is lower than all your other interest rates and will allow you to pay off higher interest rate debt faster, it's a good idea. Otherwise it most likely is not. Do not make debt decisions for psychological reasons (e.g., simplicity). Instead, always chose the option that maximizes your ultimate wealth.
To make a long story short, so far I have successfully sued 3 of these collection companies and settled for more than $5,000 out of court. All it cost me was $35 and 20 minutes per suit. Making these companies pay is the only incentive for them to stop their illegal and harassing practices. If more consumers knew their rights and actually took a few minutes to stand up for them, it would become less profitable for these companies to conduct business the way they do now. -Source And whether you have a cell phone or land line, It is illegal for the debt collectors to tell you they are calling to collect a debt for someone else under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (wikipedia, ftc docs). What Remedies Are Available If The Debt Collector Violates The Law Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you have the right to sue a debt collector in state or federal court within one year from the date of the violation. If you win, you may recover damages in the amount of any losses you suffered as a result of the violation, plus an additional amount of up to $1,000.00. You may also be able to recover court costs and attorney fees. If the same debt collector has engaged in unlawful conduct with a number of consumers, it may be possible to find a lawyer who will file a class action lawsuit. -Source With regard to whether you can sue under FDCPA if you are not the debtor, one FDCPA lawyer (take with grain of salt) says yes: Did you know that it doesn't matter if you owe the account the debt collector is calling you about or not? If a debt collector violates the FDCPA (the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 USC 1692 et. seq.) that debt collector could be liable to pay you statutory damages, actual damages, attorney's fees, and court costs. -Source"
"I am not a Financial Advisor, but I an tell you what I did in exactly this situation - which is pretty much what you are proposing.  I put money into the offset savings account until I had only a small amount of mortgage ""balance"" left (less than a year's worth of mortgage payments), then I set it up so that each month I did the transfer from the offset savings pot into the mortgage itself. This depleted the offset savings in line with the mortgage debt, and the interest on the two balanced out almost to zero. This was self-sustaining and meant that I kept the same margin owing over time (i.e. if I was in this situation for 5 years, for the whole 5 years I would effectively have 1 year remaining on the mortgage). Meanwhile, since I now didn't have any mortgage outgoings from my regular income, I put any spare money into ISA savings. No need to withdraw money from the mortgage to move to the ISA. The benefits of this (as opposed to just paying off the damn mortgage already) were that I kept the full liquidity of the mortgage amount - I could withdraw all the offset savings pot if I wanted to, although I would then have to have funded the mortgage payments differently, and as that liquidity went down over time I was building up other savings in parallel. It worked well for me. It almost doesn't matter what the offset mortgage rate is since you are effectively paying it off by keeping the offset savings pot so high."
If your debt will all be less than 25% gross (yes, I see you said take home) you are in great shape. I'd get the car and not worry.  The well written mortgage is 20% down, with a housing payment (which of course includes prop tax and insurance, as noted by mhoran, below) under 28% and total debt under 36%. You are well within the limits, not even close. That's great.
"CDS spreads have little to do with the already issued debt itself. CDS spreads broadcast ""riskiness"" for current and future market participants.  Since existing debt is constantly bought and sold, higher CDS spreads mean the existing debt becomes ever more illiquid. It means that those who do hold that debt cannot price it accurately as a result of said illiquidity and cannot sell it without taking a haircut.  It also means that new debt cannot be issued without the existing debt taking a haircut or being defaulted on because at least part of the new debt would ostensibly be used to pay off the old debt.   If shares are used to securitize debt than a fall in those shares puts into question the ability to fully service that debt. The collateral is the balance sheet of the debtor.   MF global doesn't issue their own currency. They cannot devalue their debt."
Okay so we are assuming that you can sustain 6% or more return on your investments.   Personally I would compare that rate to what lines of credit are going for and do what ever is least expensive.   Either way your risk is the same.  Your net worth is the same.  Your assets will be the same. Your liabilities will be the same. Its just a matter of who you owe it to and what the rate is. Don't be afraid of having a second mortgage.  If the stocks go down either way you have to sell what's left and pay your debt. Or what I should maybe say is don't be more afraid of a line of credit more than margin in your investment account.
I would be very careful with annuity products. If you don't mind sharing, what are the terms for the annuity?  Usually I would recommend not to use retirement account to pay off debt, mainly because of the penalty that comes from withdrawing prematurely. But in this case, First of all, stop contributing to the annuity account if you're not contractually obligated. Second, try to convert your annuity assets to more common equity/debt products. Thirdly, try to cut back on spending to pay off debt, assuming you stopped paying 2X on housing, since 30k debt shouldn't be that hard to pay off with 100k income. Lastly, if all of the above are impossible, you can withdraw from that account to pay off your debt.
"Story printed literally as the only thing that can hold on value to the currency..   OK so I'm printing unlimited money to pay off my debt,  so hey debtor I can either give you this useless currency or I can't pay..   Japan is heading for default,  their currency is only holding value because people have ""Hope"", the only reason for hope is because this article ""says"" people don't know..  They know  .."
"Already a lot of great answers, but since I ask myself this same question I thought I'd share my 2 cents.  As @user541852587 pointed out, behavior is of the essence here. If you're like most recent grads, this is probably the first time in your life you are getting serious about building wealth. Can you pay your loans down quickly and then have the discipline to invest just as much -- if not more -- than you were putting towards your loans? Most people are good at paying bills in full and on time, yet many struggle to ""pay themselves"" in full and on time.  As @Brandon pointed out, you can do both. I find this makes a great deal of practical sense. It helps form good behaviors, boosts confidence, and ""diversifies"" those dollars. I have been paying double payments on my student loans while at the same time maxing out my IRA, HSA, & 401k. I also have a rental property (but that's another can of worms). I'm getting on top and feeling confident in my finances, habits, etc. and my loans are going down. With each increase in pay, I intend to pay the loans down faster than I invest until they're paid off.  Again -- I like the idea of doing both."
That is something mostly beyond his control and can really hurt when a person is just starting to take control of their life. So yes, I would send a check in that case. However, that choice is yours. For perspective, when my son was 18 he came to me for help with habitual bounced checks. He wanted me to pay the fee and probably pay it every month that he went crazy. I paid the fee once, and I provided the education he needed. After that he learned and was quickly a self-sufficient adult. I also made it very clear that I would only pay it once. My situation was normal, parents should teach their children. Your situation is insanity. There is no way you should be put in the situation you are in with your father. He needs to grow up, and you will have to help him somewhat. If nothing more you should cut him off financially."
First off, I'm very sorry for your loss.  Depending on when the money comes in I would park it and give it some time.  After that, one of the best investments is paying off debt.  Right now your net worth is less than 30K and that is really not even accessible until retirement.  If the money is there to pay off the house I would do that.  If there isn't enough to pay off the house then I would pay off the automobile and put all or a sizable portion of the remainder into the house.  Now you have very little risk in your life and most likely much more monthly income to invest in 401K, IRAs, college funds or any other investment. Life insurance is mostly to replace your income if there are people counting on that income (spouse, kids, etc).  Normally this would be invested to hopefully replace that income with the growth of the money.  In your case it doesn't sound like you were relying on your father's income, so this can go to clean up current debt. Finally, depending on your relationship, what kind of person your father was and how he was with financials, what do you think he would want you to do with it?
"From what I understand, they basically hold on to your money while you stop paying your debt.  They keep it in an account and negotiate on your behalf. The longer you go without paying, the less the debt collector is willing to take and at some point, they will settle.  So they take the money you've been putting into their ""account"" and pay it down.  Repeat the process for all your accounts. I basically did this, without using a service. I had $17,000 on one card and they bumped the interest rate to 29%, and I had lost my job. I didn't pay it for 7 months.  I just planned on filing bankruptcy.  They finally called me up and said, if you can pay $250 a month, until it's paid off, we will drop the interest to 0% and forgive all your late fees. I did that, and five years later it was paid off. Similar situation happened on my other cards.  It seems once they realize you can't pay, is when they're willing to give you a break.  It'd be nice they just never jacked up your rate to 30% though. So, forget the service, just do it yourself.  Call them up and ask, and if they don't budge, don't pay it. Of course your credit will be shot.  But I'm back in the 700s, so anything is possible over time."
edited you's to they's and I's =)  Further, I'm not ballsy enough to go all out on this. I actually am slightly in debt buying silver. But in a hyper-inflation event credit is cheap to pay off. If one was confident enough they could hypothetically go into silver on large margin and pay it off quite easily after the hyperinflation occured. Much like what the government is doing with it's debt. At that point you are betting the government will continue doing what it is for a long while though. Just a thought.
Does the average debt of over $5000 per person count debt that is less than say 6 weeks old? I set my card to auto pay in full each month but I always have a few thousand that I owe since it's not due for a few weeks. I funnel all my spending through cards to take advantage of points.
First, I must say I am a Ramsey fan. Here's the thing, the borrower is slave to the lender, so if you eat Thanksgiving dinner with your generous relative next week, the food will taste different.  Before I was a Dave fan, I borrowed money from my cousin once, and that debt was always hanging over my head.  At times, it made hanging out awkward since I had money to 'go out' but not money to 'pay back.'  It felt great once I paid him off, but the awkwardness was never cool. I'm sure some will disagree (Dave wouldn't), but if you TEMPORARILY stop your 8% contribution, and combine that with your current margin, you could pay off the debt from your cash flow and complete your emergency fund.  Since you said that $11k is 1.5 month's expenses, you would essentially need to double that for a three-month fund or quadruple it for a six month fund.  I know $300 may not seem like a lot, but since I value family over money, I would pay that off today out of the $11k and then replenish and fill the emergency fund.   Also, your expenses will have dropped by $300/mo., so it will take less money to get to three or six month's expenses.  Once that's complete, get your full 8% contribution. FYI: I consider margin to be the difference between your income and your outgo.
"I would recommend to draw 25000 from annuity at 10% penalty. Its important to understand that you pay the interest on credit card debt per annum. You pay the penalty on withdrawal from low-yield annuity only once! Imagine that you don't pay your credit card debt for 3 years. It explodes from 25000 to 33116 (more than 8 thousands wasted!)! The average APR of your card debt is (minus for you) 9.82%. That is you pay your penalty each year! I didn't get exactly how your annuity works, but given 1% of ""guaranted"" effective interest, I wouldn't expect much above it. If you want some kind of mixed solution and gain some time, you could first pay off the card debts #2 and #3, then the APR goes down to (minus for you) 7.24, i.e. that of the card debt #1. However, even in this case you should draw money from annuity at penalty, if you can't pay it down in let's say 1.5 years."
"Step one: Contact the collection agency. Tell them that they have the wrong person, and the same name is just a coincidence. I would NOT give them my correct social security number, birth date, or other identifying information. This could be a total scam for the purpose of getting you to give them such personal identifying information so they can perform an identity theft. Even if it is a legitimate debt collection agency, if they are overzealous and/or incompetent, they may enter your identifying information into their records. ""Oh, you say your social security number isn't 123-45-6789, but 234-56-7890. Thank you, let me update our records. Now, sir, I see that the social security number in our records matches your social security number ..."" Step two: If they don't back off, contact a lawyer. Collection agencies work by -- call it ""intimidation"" or ""moral persuasion"", depending on your viewpoint. Years after my wife left me, she went bankrupt. A collection agency called me demanding payment of her debts before the bankruptcy went through. I noticed two things about this: One, We were divorced and I had no responsibility for her debts. Somehow they tracked down my new address and phone number, a place where she had never even lived. Why should I pay her debts? I had no legal obligation, nor did I see any moral obligation. Two, Their pitch was that she/I should pay off this debt before the bankruptcy was final. Why would anyone do that? The whole point of declaring bankruptcy is so you don't have to pay these debts. They were hoping to intimidate her into paying even though she wouldn't be legally obligated to pay. If you don't owe the money, of course there's no reason why you should pay it. If they continue to pursue you for somebody else's debt, in the U.S. you can sue them for harassment. There are all sorts of legal limits on what collection agencies are allowed to do. Actually even if they do back off, it might be worth contacting a lawyer. I suspect that asking your employer to garnish your wages without a court order, without even proof that you are responsible for this debt, is a tort that you could sue them for."
With a credit card debt at 17%, you should basically not eat in order to pay the balance off.  This should be gone within the month.   That being said, I would have a hard time reducing my contributions below the 4%, but would certainly do it to the 4%.  However, I would also deliver pizzas on nights and weekends and work all available overtime.  Coincidentally the pizza place by my home is hiring delivery drivers however, they did not disclose how much they typically make.  Only that they make min wage plus tips. Make sure you stop borrowing first, then try to have this knocked out in 4 weeks or less.
"I have never double-answered till now.  This loan can't be taken out of context. By the way, how much is it? What rate? ""Debt bad."" Really? Line the debt up. This is the highest debt you have. But, you work for a company that offers a generous match, i.e. the match to your 401(k). Now, it's a choice, pay off 6% debt or deposit that money to get an immediate 100% return.  Your question has validity. In the end, we can tell you when to pay off the debt. After - The issue is that you are quoting a third party without having the discussion or ever being privy to it. In court, this is called 'hearsay.' The best we can do is offer both sides of the issue and priority for the payments. Welcome to Money.SE, nice first question."
"You should pay for grad school without taking loans if your circumstances permit. There is the possibility of a tax write off for interest paid on student loans, but it's slightly complicated and it's very much a ""give me $10, and I'll give you $5 back"" kind of deal. You're better off not borrowing the money to begin with, even though I tend to think that borrowing for things which appreciate-- e.g., a house-- or which can significantly increase your earning capability-- e.g., the right kind of graduate school-- is generally better/wiser/more permissible than borrowing for something which depreciates, like a car. Having no student loan debt after graduation means you have greater freedom than someone who is laboring to pay student loan debt in addition to all of their other bills. My $0.02"
It would probably never make sense to do that. Why would you? You'll end up in the bankruptcy court either way, since you won't be able to pay off the loan, and you cannot maintain the monthly payments without getting into more debt. IRA is shielded from bankruptcies, in most States, so it will probably stay with you afterwards. In any case - it will provide you some income when you're old and cannot keep up working. Unfortunately, Federal student loans are also shielded, but the rest of you debt - isn't. I suggest trying to fix your budgets and see how you can improve your earnings to be able to maintain your payments. I can't understand how you could have racked up $140K student debt and have a career at which you earn $55K/year for an experienced employee.
"I fear this question may be impossible to answer, beyond the options you already seem to know about.  It depends too much on the details of your situation, some of which you say you don't know.  If you don't even know how much debt you have, I think you're going to need some kind of professional advice to assess your situation.  One place to start is the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.  This organization can provide free or low-cost advice about your situation, including bankruptcy options. That said, the main missing piece I see in your question is your expenses.  The first thing you should ask yourself is: what am I spending money on, and can I stop spending on money on that in order to save and/or pay off debt instead?  You say that you can ""live comfortably paycheck to paycheck"" and ""routinely"" put money into savings.  Can you start living uncomfortably and thus put a lot more into savings, or towards debt repayment?  Whether this will work or not depends on how much debt you have, but it definitely needs to be part of your thought process. Likewise, if you continually are wiped out by unbudgeted expenses, start budgeting for them."
If you want to pay them off as quickly as possible, pay the minimum payment on the larger two and dump as much as you can into the one with the 8.75% interest.  Then, even though it has a slightly lower interest rate, I would attack the one with the next smallest balance after that, while continuing to make the minimum payment on the one with the largest balance.
So he should subsidize the broken educational system and poor decisions made by young Americans? I took out $100K in student debt, mostly from grad school. I'm going to pay it off myself, as should everyone else.
Aside from the fear that you or a loved one will spend it frivolously, I'm hard pressed to come up with another reason.  If you'll owe money in the next tax year, you have the rest of the year to adjust your withholdings and/or make quarterly payments. As both my fellow PFers state, you're better off getting your money back. Better still, use it to pay off a high interest debt.
You did not answer my question. Is it moral to steal from me to pay off someone else's debt because I payed mine off?  Is that moral?  Why is college the only option to learning skills? What about online learning or trade skills? There is a reason coding boot camps are popping up everywhere.  Tuition is skyrocketing because universities have no incentives to cut costs/prices because the Government hands out free tuition/low interest rate loans.
Yes, but Americans know how to respond to my answer, the Indians just repeat what you said because they don't understand you.   I had to call Pfizer for information about a product this summer and the first call I got an Indian who had no fucking clue about what I was asking. Then I got a clear English speaking American when I called the next day who helped me rather quickly.
The set of circumstances that 401k loans make sense, are very small.  As you would expect yours is not one of them.   You make 70K per year and need 6500.  Interest rate is not your problem, budgeting is the problem.  Pay this off in three months not the 48 you are proposing. Why is borrowing from your 401K a bad idea, especially in this case? Look, been there done that, been the over spender.  The sooner that you learn how to handle your money the better.  I was in my 40s when I learned, if you can do this now you can be really wealthy by the time you get to be my age. Dream a bit.  How much margin would you have in your life if you were able to pay this off in 3 months?  How much better would your life be?  Go forth and do great things.  I believe in you.