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Moving abroad. Best and most cost effective way to transfer USD to Euro?

I will be living in Ireland for about 4 years for school. I will be getting biannual loan amounts of $30,000. This is a family loan, so means of transfer can be very flexible. Things I've been looking into: Banks with low to no wire transfer fees or exchange fees between accounts. Transfer wise

Unless you want to convert all that currency at once you might want to just find a credit card with no foreign transaction fee and pay your bills in USD. That way, assuming you will eventually return to the States, you will not pay fees in both directions.

I spent a year abroad in the UK and traveling Europe, opened a Charles Schwab checking account that I adored. It was free, easy to transfer money into from my external wells fargo accounts (took about 4 business days), had no international conversion fees and always had THE most up to date exchange rates based on international markets. Not sure if there'd be something better that's more long term but I was really pleased with them.

personalfinance

silvertongue83

t3_4nef1u

Coomb

d437ax0

maddiesh

d43erhq

Let's learn from each other's mistakes. What costly mistakes have you made?

I'll go first. I had invested in silver starting almost a year ago. It was up +60%. I didn't look at my portfolio for a few weeks and my investment in silver went down to -5%. So my mistake was not paying attention to my portfolio everyday. What's your costly mistake?

I had a 401(k) from my first two years of working, then transferred abroad and was unable to continue making automatic 401(k) contributions. After ignoring the account for years, the account management company cashed me out. I took a relatively huge penalty for failing to roll it over.

Usually follow a well diversified LTBH strategy (a HYP, in fact). Every now and then I have a smallish go at a more "trading" style, looking to get in and out of a share over a period of about 1 month. I bought into one share based on a bit of light analysis from a respected bulletin board poster. His post had the usual caveats, DYOR etc. I bought (SCHE.L, a healthcare provider) with almost no research on my part. The company went bust within a month as its lenders refused to roll over loans, and its landlords refused to drop rents. On reflection, it turns out that the company was always set up to fail. It had previously owned all of its properties, but had been bought out, then been split in two, SCHE being the healthcare provider, and another company taking on the properties and leasing them back to SCHE. So all the capital assets had been stripped from the company to make a tasty profit for the asset strippers. The refloated SCHE had no assets and needed to keep turnover high to continue. As soon as government started reducing the number of old people going into private care, turnover dropped. The lesson learned wasn't so much DYOR, but more about staying away from companies that get spit out after corporate raiders have sucked the goodness out of the operation.

investing

Zurevu

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CopRock

t1_c2sfeqn

c2sfeqn

ErroneousBee

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c2sgwrr

Offered new job, do I accept?

Without getting much into too much details, my current position is for a well known company in the field. I was offered a position by a competitor with better hours, but a worse commute. Better take-home pay, but their retirement contribution would be half of my current. If I made up the difference using the pay bump, it about equals out with my current wage. The competitor is THE name everyone around the world thinks of when mentioning this field, absolute top and has been for decades. I'm young, early 20's. I've got a small, but important role in a larger team at my current company. The competitor would have me take on a larger role on a smaller team. I was thrilled at first, but as I learned more and asked more questions, it feels like I may be pigeon-holed into that role if I switch. On top of that, I've only been at my current role 2 years. I built myself up with them, and feel like switching this early might be taken as betrayal. Am I just paranoid with that? Am I playing too safe by staying where I am comfortable? Does it seem as though I simply chasing a name if I go? How have you dealt with similar circumstance?

Ignore money and hours.. ask yourself which job would I be happier at, because happiness is what keeps you going, doing something you hate for better pay is the fastest way to digging yourself a grave into depression then you won’t be good for anything, do what you love and you’ll be better for it. But also be honest with yourself, it’s easy to be in a job for a while and get comfy and make excuses for not leaving, but if you are truly happy then make that your top priority.

I built myself up with them, and feel like switching this early might be taken as betrayal. Just FYI, there's no such thing as company loyalty anymore in the 21st century. Job-hopping every 2-5 years is expected and necessary to move up in the world.

personalfinance

Arctic_Wolf_lol

t3_chk312

Alps_Vlog

euu44z2

slykrysis

euwsx0r

I am 21 and 40k in debt. Any advice is welcomed.

Hello Reddit. I've been very depressed and stressed about about my debts. I'm finally reaching out for help because I can't keep it to myself anymore. Long story short I opened 4 credit cards in the last two years. Paid for dinners and dates and even a vacation with my ex girlfriend. I was making about 2k-4K a month depending on how busy the restaurant I was serving at was. Then my car takes a shit.... So I decide that a new car is a great idea even though I've been told never to buy a new car and I knew I would be strapped if i went thru with it. So I got a new scion iM at 9% interest and I owe a total of almost 30k on it. Now here's where it gets fun! The restaurant I was working for closed, my girlfriend (who I thought I was going to marry, and she was going to help with the money we had spent) broke up with me, and now I need to find a new place to live by January because we rent our house and the owner is selling it. I'm so fucking stressed I can't sleep well, I'm gaining weight from eating and drinking, I don't know what to do. I'm selling anything I have that isn't a guitar or my bed, and I'm working at a new job but it only brings 400$ a week. Right now I have 6k in credit card debt (17% , 10%, 28%, 22% interest)and the car loan is 433$ per month. I am a payment behind on my car loan I know I'm in a horrible spot. Please if you have any advice let me know I need it... Thanks! Edit 1: wow I didn't expect this many responses. Big thanks to everyone for giving me advice. I'm at work right now and I will be home in a few hours to read every reply and to answer more questions. Thank you all so much, I'm already starting to feel a little better. Edit 2: what would bankruptcy do? (Would I lose all my money, car, and assets?) I only have read a little about it. I'm definitely ready to pick up another job. I talked to my current employer and I am able to work 40 hours a week at 15 an hour. This will definitely help but I need a car because my work is 30 miles from my house Edit 3: how do I go about doing a voluntary repo of my car? How much would I owe from said repo? I could save a few grand and repo the car, then buy a cheap one cash and that cuts my debt down like crazy. I think the $433 per month plus insurance and gas is just too much for me. I'm also hunting for a second job as we speak.

The car is killing you. Sell it and get something cheap. So cheap your friends make fun of you. Then, work a snowball plan where you pay all the minimum payments, but attack the smallest debt with any extra income. When that one's paid, use the money that was going to the smallest debt and apply it to the next smallest. Here's a link to the plan I'm referencing: [7 Baby Steps]( I've personally followed this plan in the past and it's the only thing that gave us any traction with getting out of debt. Disclaimer: I know about interest rates and why reddit likes to crap on Dave Ramsey.

Sell the car, get a new better job or a second job and work your butt of for the next two years. It's a hard way to learn a lesson but you won't do it again.

personalfinance

MoreSeriousUsername

t3_52x4eu

LevelOneTroll

d7o10rq

tommymonsternz

d7oahlz

HR gave me one salary range, but Manager gave job offer well below. How to proceed?

I was called by a recruiter for a company I applied to on their own website. The position was for purchasing and the HR lady told me the salary range was between 55-70k a year. (I made the mistake of putting my requirements on the application, but she told me I was def within range) I ended up getting and interview which went well, and pay was not discussed. I was called in for a second interview by the branch manager who eventually brought up salary and told me that 49K a year was the best he could do. my response to him was thanking him for the opportunity, and I was glad to see they thought I was a good fit, however my previous employment had afforded my 55k a year salary (with 10 employees) and that my hope would be a company of his size (900 employees) could afford to be more competitive in their pay. His response was "theres a lot of room for growth, I can get you up to 55-60k but not right away, right now the best I can do is 49K" So I asked him if i could consider the offer over the weekend, and he agreed. I have to respond monday. My question is this, should or can I contact the HR department and verify that the position range was what she told me over the phone or am I forced to just accept what she said as hearsay and take the managers word for it that that really is the best he can do, even if I'm disappointed in the initial offer? What are my best options? EDIT: Wow this absolutely blew up. It'll take me a minute to sift through all the responses, but I appreciate the advice and time y'all took to respond. Thanks!

If you aren’t hurting for a job, I don’t think there is any harm in you contacting HR and saying “We discussed $x-x as the range and when I was given an offer, I was told that $49k was the best that the manager could do. I’m really interested in the position, but the offer is below the range I put on my application/we discussed, and I cannot comfortably leave my current position for less than $x annually. Is there any room to negotiate this?”

Hey, great question. I am a Senior Recruiter at a large health system and we have pay grades similar to what you are talking about. When we calculate an offer, it is based on equity, experience, and education. All of our offers meet the minimum of the pay grade or higher. The only thing I can think of is our purchasing/sourcing team has multiple levels. Maybe they interviewed you and deemed you were like a Purchaser 1 instead of a level 2? Still very poor communication on the companies part but could be something to discuss. It is more than appropriate to ask the hiring manager on Monday about the pay grade. I would recommend saying, " I am very interested in the role but I was told that the minimum of the pay grade starts at $55k, may I ask why the offer was not at least at that rate?" A reputable company will not have an issue with you asking that as every offer at your level typically has some negotiating involved. Let us know how it works out! Happy Holidays!

personalfinance

SpreadEagleKegel

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Cpcr1203

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airjordanballa20

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Why is Credit Karma free?

Sorry I'm not sure if this is the right place (or appropriate) to ask but why is credit karma free to file taxes? It feels kind of sketchy, kind of like they are stealing your information or something. Thanks!

It’s not really stealing if you voluntarily give it up. But they use the data they collect on you to target various offers to you (like credit cards, refinancing, etc), as well as have ads that generate them revenue.

In part because CK tax returns is a relatively new-ish program. It's only a couple years old, so in trying to gain traction and get enough people using the service, it makes sense to start free. In addition, there is the conversion benefit--how many people will be happy enough with the tax filing program, and then try out their credit programs? They get paid by their credit card/loan partners to promote those products to people who have a certain range of credit scores.

personalfinance

Akayrdt

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Default87

eealint

alwaysdaruma

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Helping my Dad Apply for SS: 3 Months without progress, is that normal?

Hey everyone, trying to help my dad retire and so I helped him apply for retirement via SS a little over three months ago now. I can't find any info on how long this is supposed to take online, (everything seems to be for disability, not retirement). When I check the status of his allocation at the SS site, it shows that it was submitted three months ago, but hasn't yet moved on to processing. I tried calling, (waited on hold for 5 hours, holy cow) only for them to tell me they had no idea how long it would take and that they couldn't check the status of his application. He's currently disabled and can't work, but didn't apt for disability on advice of a lawyer who said that the combination of long processing time, my dad's lack of savings and low expense needs made SS retirement a better path. Anyone have any knowledge on this? Trying to help him plan this out but it's a lot harder than I realized.

I work for a wealth management firm doing support work for client meetings so I have to deal with Social Security often for our clients. I highly recommend going into the physical office with your dad to get this resolved. It will be horribly painful and prepare to wait for hours, but this seems like an urgent issue. Be sure to check the office's hours, because I'm fairly certain they're closed during lunch hours and any other time that might be convenient for people.

Did you mark that he was disabled on the application? I worked for a disability lawyer and SS disability will deny 90 + % of 1st time applications. I helped file hundreds and the only time I saw applications go through the first time was if the applicant was deceased.

personalfinance

Cantfigurethisoutwhy

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brennanmac71

dbdtv47

terdfurg

dbeg4yd

Being given $6000 from a CD. Don't want it to negatively affect my student financial aid.

So a family friend is giving me $6000 that was invested for me a while ago to help with my school. I want to use it to both help me pay for my schooling(I have 2 more years left) and to knock off some of my loans currently accruing interest. But if I put it in my bank account it will show up as income and negatively affect my student aid. What should I do? Get the cash from the CD and use it for living expenses then use the money I make working to pay off unsubsidized loans? Should I just put the money into my bank account when I need it and bite the aid loss? It is currently gaining 1.5% interest because it already matured. How much would this even really affect my student aid? I'm pretty poor so I get quite a bit of loan and grant help.

Scenario 1: As a gift, it need not be reported as income to you. The donor need not report it as a gift either, I believe. When you file the FAFSA for aid, it asks for a snapshot of your current bank balances. As in, you could have had 10K in the bank last week, paid off your bills of 9K, now, today you have 1K and are filling out the FAFSA. You tell FAFSA 1K is in the bank, that's all FAFSA knows. It has no idea that you had 10K last week and spent 9K of it on "miscellaneous expenses". So, if you get the donor's money now, you can pay off your older loans with it. Then it will NOT be in your bank account at FAFSA filing time and it will not be a reportable asset for FAFSA and will not affect your FAFSA aid amount for the future. And you'll have knocked out 6K of your loans. Scenario 2: You receive your tuition bill for the coming year. It includes tuition amounts you must pay. (I'm assuming over 6K). You ask your donor to pay the $6000 directly to the school applying it towards your tuition. Then it doesn't count as a gift to you at all, as income to you, or affect your aid. You pay the remaining tuition. You take out whatever loan you were going to take out, or less if you want to use your own savings to pay more. If your tuition is less than 6K, perhaps the donor would be willing to pay some now and some in the future. You won't knock out any past loans, but you won't be out the tuition for right now either and may be able to reduce your loan for this year.

It's not record-able income until it's claimed on something like a tax form. While depositing it in a bank account is a paper trail in the event of an audit, that's not what determines income. I could deposit, and withdraw the same $6000 ten times in a month- that doesn't mean I made $60k. Until you claim it as income on your taxes (which legally you ought to do) it's not part of your income.

personalfinance

Zephthrowaway

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LooksAtClouds

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ctb9hhf

fattmann

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ctb2mnx

What to do with inherited Hilton and Westgate timeshares?

I recently inherited two timeshares, one from the Hilton and the other from Westgate. The Westgate still has to be paid off, which I had to start paying for about $250 a month, and both have annual maintenance fees that are close to $1000 each. My grandfather, the person I received the timeshares from, used them for vacation all the time, but I never thought much about the details of how they work. I'm looking for some advice on what to do with them. I'm wondering if it is more worth it to try to sell them or rent out them out, considering there is only a few thousand left to pay on the Westgate, but the Hilton is paid off. I'm recently out of college, so I don't have much in savings and I was hoping I could use these, whether by selling or renting, to start to save for the future. Any advice is much appreciated.

Get rid of them. They are a money sink. Good luck trying to sell them. Most people cannot give them away. Stay far away from timeshares. They simply are a bad idea. You won't be able to rent them. They will not generate income. Look online for companies that will take them off your hands for a fee.

I got 'stuck' with a timeshare in my divorce. I used a company called Sapphire Timeshare Cancellation and was out of the contract in 6 months. Granted I had to pay a large fee (which was still less than the loan and yearly maintenance.) It sucked to have to go through it, but I'm happy to be out of the contract. I found TUG to be useless and no one wanted my TS because it was the off season (No Dec-March for a tropical location is stupid, thus why I divorced a moron). I would try and refuse it and if impossible, seek out a resource that can help you.

personalfinance

Gamarjos

t3_ako36l

Iliketocruise

ef6cutf

sugarcookieprincess

ef773d8

Hate my first job and I don't have cert.s to do the job I want.

Hello personal finance, I'm a long time lurker and I wanted to ask for your advice. A little backstory... I'm 17 and I got my first job at a sandwich shop. I don't dislikes working here, I hate it. I make around 200ish biweekly pay and I get tips(nobody tips me). I have no bills no debt but I also don't go to highschool (long story) and the only way I can take my GED is by getting an employers request to my local community college. I want to attend college for something in the IT field such as networking or even a CS degree. I love computers with a passion and have been building and taking them apart since I was 12. My programming skills are okay but I do need a little work. Right now I work with things I'm not familiar with and I'm so bad despite throwing 110 percent at it. Honestly it's horribly depressing because my social anxiety makes actually working with people give me chest pains. I want to quit so badly, but I throw away my chance to start college early. You have to be 18 to take the GED in my state. Also I do get payed $1.25 over basic wage where I live. TL:DR hate my job, need job for GED, my actual skills wasted. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and thank you for your time.

Your 17. Expect shitty jobs until your over 18. Get in good with your boss and start your GED ASAP. Then enroll in community college (it's cheap if not free) and meet with a counselor. Tell them your story and what your good at. They will point you in the right direction as far as classes go for your chosen career. hope this somewhat helps.

Honestly? Just stick with the job you have now, save up money that you earn. You may hate the job now but you'll hate being unemployed even more. The job market isn't exactly brimming with jobs, especially for people that don't have experience. Which leads me to my next topic; experience counts for so much more than degrees in almost all cases. If there's one thing I would've done differently as far as jobs go, it's get a job as early as you did and just stuck with it. I was "lucky" enough to not have to work while I went to school, and through college. Once I graduated college I was thrown into the job market with a fancy new degree, and no job experience and it has been an absolute nightmare trying to find a job. You might feel bad at your job, but with time you'll get better and it'll become easier and you may even grow to like it once you've become a bit better at it. Seriously though, just stick with it.

personalfinance

PFassitedneeded

t3_50rmkz

McGrubiDontPlay

d76f667

Kuidaore_Chef

d76fp05

Are there any brokers that accept Serbian clients and have a $1000 minimum deposit?

I have $1100, which is three month's salaries here in Serbia. Are there any broker platforms that allow Serbian citizens to buy stocks and have a low minimum deposit?

No good answers yet. The best [US-based broker]( serving Serbia with a low minimum is SogoTrade. [This site]( says Exante and Renesource might be good as well. I can't vouch for any of these.

Don't buy stocks right now. Wait until a correction. When the prices / values are less than 40% of current then start to invest. If you want to park the money until that happens look at government bonds or some type of low interest investment with minimal risk.

investing

JanBibijan

t3_7pqiga

kiwimancy

dsk17j9

macomaniac

dsjyf0j

Commercial tenants asking for rent relief

I want to help. They've been very good tenants for a very long time but I'm wondering what options are out there - for both of us. Will business owners get any relief? Should I defer rent, not forgive rent? Should I ask for receipts that show at least an x% drop in business? Any suggestions are certainly welcomed

Just imagine kicking them out and trying to get a new tenant this month. This question is simple. If it were me I'd just put it in writing and state both side's intentions. We have no idea if this thing will workout but you have a tenant in the building.

Tough situation, assume business is near zero, don’t need proof. Assuming your livelihood is not at stake , and given the fact you’re in retirement, and have good tenants you shouldn’t piss off, ask yourself if you want to go down in history as a greedy man who had a chance to help families that need it. Defer rent. Then take signing deposit and count that as a paid rent for them. Should buy you and them 2 months

realestateinvesting

praguer56

t3_fli6ui

chmod-77

fkyui7n

inmytwenties7

fkzzgw3

I will be renting a new apartment soon and want my credit score to increase before then. Should I stop paying into my emergency fund and decrease credit card balance ASAP?

I have 3 credit cards. Chase balance $1567 (limit $3700), Barclay $867 (limit $2000) and wells fargo $400 (limit $1000). I have been funding my emergency savings which is no where near complete ( just under 1k). I will be moving states soon. My current credit score is 631 (myfico.com-although creditkarma says 717?!). Should I abandon paying into my emergency fund so that when new apartment complex runs a credit check on me in the next 3 months my credit score might increase due to lower balances?

Does the apartment have really strict credit guidelines? From my experience, landlords are most concerned about your background check, your income, and having debts in collections. Having debt that you're currently paying on isn't a big deal if your income is high enough. Take your income, subtract your minimum payments, and if that is still 3x rent I wouldn't worry about your score too much.

Similar to other comments, your credit score won't matter that much. Pay stubs and good credit history are usually enough. When looking at credit scores, understand that every lender or creditor has a different set of factors they request from a credit bureau, so you will likely see different scores from realtor A to realtor B, even if they are both pulling from the same credit bureau.

personalfinance

batters27

t3_25h137

treiliae

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chh4wpv

ellakay11

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chhfsnm

How to learn options with $1000 account- great discussion on TastyTrade today

I've been soooooo into the daily [TastyTrade live show]( lately, They trade WSBs favorite memes all day long- NVDA AAPL TSLA GDXJ etc., earnings plays every day. Only thing is they are on the other side of the trade from most of WSB, which explains why they make money. Tom and Tony were ripping on FSyolo when one of you autists called in to ask if the Final Yolo was a good trade LOL Anyhoo Some young fuck called in today asking the 1 /r/all question: "I'm about to graduate, How can I get started trading like a cool kid?" No joke, they turned it into a great fucking pep talk aimed straight at us Lost-in-the-Woods Robinhood cucks looking to break into the glamorous world of (profitable) option trading! Start the Vid at 21:00 and maybe learn something: TL:DW trade small, trade often, learn how to take risk without blowing up your account. PS. If you need a reason to like these guys- they are super vocal about getting rid of regulations that restrict small-time traders, especially the $25,00 PDT rule (its fucking stupid) PPS. Tom and Tony trade memes and talk shit all morning- this group should be in love with the show

TL:DW trade small, trade often, learn how to take risk without blowing up your account. No shit, they make money on commission. Trade big, trade fewer, take smaller risks. The less you trade, the less you get it wrong. You make money by avoiding bad trades.

PPS. Tom and Tony trade memes and talk shit all morning- this group should be in love with the show I watched when they were shittalking French Canada. The guy with the weirdo hat kept saying, "there's no skill in this, it's not worth doing, there's no skill." Seemed arrogant, like, "No guys, this is an art I do. I paint pictures with hedges and leaps. You amatures don't even wear stupid hats. You come into MY WORLD bare-headded and think you know this place?? You are a child here. Buy my book to find out more."

wallstreetbets

collegefurtrader

t3_5swcb8

BobbyJeffreyHill

ddic510

ProGnuRights

ddj4obd

At the age of 26, still confused about Health insurance.

Just completed my first week at my new job (United Airlines). I have until December 1st to choose my health insurance for 2020. My old job, I chose a health insurance with a $3,000 deductible that had a HSA and I contributed $1,000 for the year 2019. In 2019, with all the doctor visits I had went to, the total summed out to be $721 (sad face). Now, my new company has a WHOLE bunch of health insurance options. They also include one that has an HSA plan. So I'm going to attach screenshots of each plan and what they will do. To add, my company will include $800 to the HSA (HDHP) or HRA (PPO). The thing is, HSA is not capped while the HRA is capped at $4,800. They also have a whole bunch of EPO plans that does not include any type of savings account. To add, this new company will be paying me a 40% higher salary with a better 401k plan that actually matches contributions 100% upto 4%. My old job had a shit 401k plan that did not match. I will be contributing alot more into my 401k as well as looking into an IRA. But that is a different topic for another day when I need help with that. *please tell me if you need any other information. Love y'all big kisses.

Nobody can tell you what to choose without information about what these cost you per paycheck. Generally speaking, someone with relatively low medical costs, and $721 is relatively low, will come out ahead with an HDHP/HSA combination because the premiums you have deducted will be the smallest value. But if you get a good deal on something with a lower deductible, it's possible to come out ahead, it's just very unusual.

I’m curious, what’s your salary going to be now? Can you tell a timeline of how you became a pilot and jobs and salary of the jobs? I was thinking of becoming a pilot as a career option.

personalfinance

jose_smilez

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yes_its_him

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telos656

f7os4m0

My 60 month car loan has a .9% fixed interest rate. Should I bother to pay it off early?

I'm usually averse to debt, but I can't think of a compelling reason for paying off this loan early with such a low interest rate. What's the case for retiring this debt early, aside from the satisfaction of not having it? I do have the discipline to regularly save/invest money and I wouldn't otherwise be spending it on hookers and blow.

0.9%? I can literally invest the money in i-bonds (which are backed by the US govt and virtually 100% risk-free), and assuming inflation is higher than 0.9%, make more money than the loan costs in interest. From a purely mathematical perspective, there are numerous investment options that will likely yield a >0.9% after-tax earnings, so I would personally not pay it off early.

The advantage to paying off the debt early would be that you would be able to take the monthly payment and invest it. It's pretty easy to get a ROI over .9%.

personalfinance

nkotowsk

t3_17eh0n

lightcloud5

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c84rp3r

matty_nice

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c84r9l7

Roughly how much would I save in taxes if I had a child? I make about 70K, my wife makes about 55K. We live in Washington state. Would if be different if she stopped working; or is it the same?

Well , you'll get an extra deduction ($3950) and the child tax credit ($1000). So if you're in the 25% tax bracket, about $2000. So way less than you'll spend on a child.

If your AGI is less that $110,000 then you will get a $1000 child tax credit. You also have the opportunity to write off day care for a deduction, I forget what the income limit is on their though. You will loose a lot more on her income, than anything you would gain from extra tax write offs.

personalfinance

Lars9

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Werewolfdad

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ckivx6n

jeepbraah

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ckivwhu

Questions about investing 100% of salary next year to catch up on retirement savings & general investment strategy

Thank you for taking the time to read this post and please do not hesitate to share your thoughts. This is my first time posting to this sub though I've been a long time reader. Background: Since starting a salaried position with the state a few years ago, I allowed my savings account to pile up when I should have invested. This past year I opened a credit card, money market, 403b, 457b and Roth IRA. I bank with a credit union. I moved all funds in savings to the money market. I keep a small amount in checking to cover the credit card which is paid off automatically each month to avoid fees. I have $73k in the money market that I can't funnel into retirement accounts. Contributing to the 403b and 457b is done by salary reduction and I'm only able to contribute to my IRA from my savings. Earlier this year I started deferring my entire paycheck into the 403b. I am planning to invest 100% of my salary next year into the 403b and a 457b. I verified I can contribute $19k to each of these totaling $38k. Additionally, my employer takes 6% of my salary and matches it into a retirement plan - this is all pre-tax. I have no control of this and cannot contribute more. This is where I'm at after working on financials this year: Age - 30 Salary - $65k pre-tax Marital - Single, no kids Debt - $0 No car payment, credit card debt, or loans Monthly expenses - $850 for rent, utilities, internet, food Money market - $73k Employer sponsored 401a - $55k 403b - $19k Roth (by end of year) 457b - $10k Roth (by end of year) Roth IRA - $11,500 (by end of year) Questions: Since I'm contributing 100% of salary next year, should I make them pre-tax contributions to help lower taxable income? I've opted for Roth contributions thus far given the low tax rate in my income bracket and to balance the pre-tax retirement account from my employer. I will still have funds in the money market that should be invested. How much should I invest? I'd like to keep $10k as an emergency fund and want to have some extra money available to spend on entertainment/hobbies. How should I invest? I do not have any large purchases planned in the future. As of now I am not planning on purchasing a house, car, or having kids in the next few years. As I am single I have no plans of getting married but would like to if things work out in the future. If I am approaching investing/finances wrong in any way, can you offer suggestions? &x200B

At your income level I would do: $14k pretax 457 $5k Roth 457 $19k Roth 403 $6k Roth IRA $3.5k HSA (reduce the pretax 457 by $3.5k and increase the Roth 457 by $3.5k if you start an HSA) This drops you down to the 12% tax bracket from the 22% bracket. You want to put pretax dollars into the 457 first because the pretax 457 has no early withdrawal penalty.

The [Investing]( and [Retirement]( wikis are a good place to start. I take it your living expenses are coming out of the money market which allows you to use your employer plans to the max. This topic [Roth Conversion Ladder]( might be of interest since you seem to be on a path to early retirement if you keep this plan in place for a considerable amount of time.

personalfinance

bassackwards_

t3_da06py

Econ0mist

f1mc6sl

Desperate_Plankton

f1mf1lw

How do couples navigate merging their finances for the first time?

Curious to know what other people do! I'm getting married soon, and we're starting to talk about what that will look like for us.

Depends on a lot of things. Is this going to be post wedding, home, furniture, etc. costs? Create a joint savings account with Capital One, Discover, or Ally Bank. All 3 of them provide 1.15-1.2% interest. Majority of money should go into there until you decide what assets you want to purchase. At least 3-6 months of monthly expenses should be in that account at all times. Have another account for you and another account for your spouse (separate, so a total of 3 accounts). This is where a small portion 5% of monthly joint income should go in each. This money is for spending on whatever... designer clothes, going out, etc.

Currently, he makes 40% of the household income, so he pays 40% of the recurring joint bills, I pay 60%. We have separate bank accounts so he pays the bills and I write him a check each month. It's usually roughly the same amount. We then look at our credit card bills and flag anything joint and then even out if needed. Rarely are there joint charges, so the entire process takes maybe 15 min a month for all bill paying/financial stuff. We have separate retirement, checking and savings accounts, and that money is ours to do what we want with. We both max out our retirement funds each month and we both save a fair amount of our take home pay each month. Putting aside any philosophical reasons behind keeping them separate, we also just don't want to add a bureaucratic headache to the whole process. Right now, the finances are simple. We have joint bills which are pretty predictable. We then both keep track of just what we buy, and our individual income coming in. All I have to do is look at my account and make sure I have enough to buy what I want. Let's say we put all our money into one account. Now we have to A) Keep track of what we put in B) Keep track of what the other person puts in, as there are variations from week to week C) Keep track of any purchases and very crucially, inform the other person of any plans to buy stuff so they know, on a daily basis D) Keep track of the other person's purchases and make sure they are keeping you informed of what they plan to buy, on a daily basis E) Coordinate any purchases over a small amount of money (maybe $20?) to make sure you don't bounce anything F) Make sure you project out with the other person to see if any purchases could lower your account too much. It seems like this would have to happen on a near-daily basis. It seems like even if I thought that one bank account was philosophically the way to go, the management is laborious at best in comparison. It also means you have to keep more money in a checking account where it does nothing, vs being able to put most of the money in investments, which is what we do. So we make money too.

FinancialPlanning

tinypaws26

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peach____tree

dn9mvqm

PotentialParent

dnf4nkc

A tenant in my town house neighborhood committing crimes

I'm not sure this is the right place to ask but here goes... Some of the information I am provided is based on neighbor discussions but here are the details I have gathered: There is a family that rents in my town home neighborhood. One of the family members is 17 years old and on house-arrest. The county I live in does not have a juvenile detention prison so the person continues to be on house arrest. Multiple burglaries have recently occurred in my neighborhood. On the neighborhood web board people have posted of seeing a person looking into their house on their porch and running when seeing the lights come on, successful burglaries, as well as a person break into a house and fleeing when being seen within the house. There has been multiple car thefts. One neighbor close to the house in question claims to have seen the 17 year old with a brick in hand about to smash a window. The neighbor banged on their home window and got the kid's attention apparently preventing the car theft. Additionally, a recovered stolen car was said to be found with a drivers license and keys of his in the car. There have been multiple events of police cars visiting his home. The family will create rows of his siblings in front of the entrance when police are present. Again, some of the events are what I am hearing from neighbors which have the chance of being exaggerated or untrue but based off of observing the tenants for about a year I'm inclined to believe that issues exist. I would love for us to live harmoniously but I am concerned about my family's safety. My question: What, if anything, can I or my neighbors do about this? What would you do if this was in your neighborhood?

Form a block watch, be visible. Go knock on doors and make sure everyone knows about the effort to stave off crime in the neighborhood. I would knock on the offending person's door to and invite them to participate on the block watch so they know there are extra eyes on the area. Don't direct any attention to the suspect, keep it general, the last thing you want to do is seem to target them. I would also be the squeaky wheel to the police and ask for increased patrols. In my area police are very interested in community outreach and will help set up block watch programs and provide signs and advice. I would not be too worried about property values, from one troubled teenager, and a renter at that. They will move on eventually. I would also look up the court paperwork and see what the terms of the house arrest are. If they violate those, at 17 they could easily end up in an adult facility. Contact their court monitor and let them know if you observe any violations.

I sat in court on a prowling case. This sounds like that. You could repot that you've seen him prowling, which is lurking illegally on someone's property looking for the opportunity to commit crime.

RealEstate

RawlsTofJ

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wamazing

dcdwkfa

Forgot_namen1562

dcepyux

Where would you increase/reduce your exposure to make your portfolio marginally more ethical?

I know thoughts on making ethical investments get shat on a lot on this sub, but consider the following scenario: All firms create value for consumers in a society, and the exchange of that value is returned to shareholders. The act of producing some goods and services and supplying them to the markets has an externality to society that is positive or negative. Let's say I'm a fund manager for a social index fund. My goal is to take a regular index fund and rebalance it to some degree so that companies that produce social good are weighted heavier and companies that produce social bad are weighted lighter. OR at the very least, you want to put some guardrails so that companies that produce social bad are divested from. In a perfect world, this fund would trade higher than we would otherwise expect based on risk/return because some element of the social return that didn't show up on the balance sheet would matter to investors, who would pay a premium to know they weren't contributing to social harm. (All this is admittedly really hard to quantify.) My question is: which firms/sectors/business practices produce the biggest externalities in either a good or bad direction?

Costco. Fantastic company and model, everyone wins. The CEO makes a salary around 350-700K and total compensation is reasonable at around 5 million with many restrictions in the stock options. Yes, 5 million is a lot, but considering how other CEO pay is ridiculous, this is refreshing. The employees are paid great. Avg 21 dollars an hr with great benefits + stock options, promote from within, high starting wages, low turnover. I have asked employees and friends, they told me they enjoy working at Costco. You know you're investing in a company treats employees well. Their profits are from membership fees and small margins on sales (1% or so), so they will negotiate the best whole sale price for customers and the sellers win on volume along with exposure of their product. The goods sold are pretty high quality as well. Shareholders have great voting rights and they pay a strong consistent dividend. Special dividends of 7 dollars a share at certain times. The customers are treated well and they take proactive approaches to protect customers if mistakes are made. Costco is one of my favorite companies, I feel much more comfortable shopping there and investing as opposed to a place like Wal Mart who makes society worse through many questionable business methods. Oh yeah, it's actually ran well too from a fundamental stand point and balance sheet. oh yeah, free samples???

I've always wondered about this. If i make money off a "bad" industry, does it hurt the industry? Am I siphoning money from it or maybe even inadvertently helping them? What if one short it?

investing

ragingdobs

t3_7oud83

KissmyASSthmaa

dscgmla

phazer16

dscte1j

HOA fees jumped 32% this year. Is this normal? [PDX]

I bought a condo in Portland, OR 4 years ago, and over that time, the HOA fees have gone up 64%. This first three years weren’t drastic, but this year the fees rose 32.5%! I was paying $298 when I moved in and now they are $489. When I asked the HOA why there was such a steep increase this year, their response was that HOA fees were initially low but they needed to raise them due to keeping the the building maintained over time, inflation and the cost of living. (Not a very specific answer.) They claim that what I’m paying is still low comparatively by HOA standards. I’m concerned that this dramatic increase might be indicative of things to come and that fees will continue to rise in this manner (more than the 10% per year increase as in previous years which seemed acceptable.) The owner before me was paying $271, which means that fees increased more than 80% over the course of five years! Am I wrong to be shocked by this increase? Is Is there a way to find out what comparable buildings’ HOA fees are in my city? The building is 13 years old and has 13 units, if that's helpful.

Have you read the financial report each year? Have you had a reserve study done recently? Is this money going towards the reserves, or is it going towards operating expenses?

HOAs are supposed to build reserves for maintenance calculated over a 10 or 20 years maintenance timeline (roofs, sidewalks, resurface pool, tennis courts, etc.). You only replace a roof once every 15-30 years, so you have to constantly build reserves to address that when the time comes. But, you get assholes elected to the HOA whose only interest is lowering their HOA dues, and occasionally they are successful. What they do is stop contributing enough to the reserves. Eventually this turns into a drastic jump in HOA dues, as the maintenance still has to happen, but instead of collecting enough money to do it on a 10 year timeline, you do it in 5 or fewer years. Unscheduled maintenance without reserves can have an even greater impact on your dues. Before buying a condo, get a financial statement for the condo association and find out what kind of reserves they have vs. their maintenance schedule. Also see if their maintenance schedule is grounded in reality.

RealEstate

VirguleOrSolidus

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blamsur

dtz22eo

midnitewarrior

dtzlcfe

Bulls, at what point do you consider buying Puts

Alright firstly, Im a fuckin retard who burns through cash faster than the Nazi's book burnings. I've been holding VXX calls since SPY first hit 290. In all seriousness though, is there a number where you'd be like "oh fuck, ya this aint right" Like i love the permabull, America greatest country on earth mentality, but lets say SPY hit 350 tomorrow. Would you consider a pullback in a month or two or still "sToNkS oNlY gO uP"? Godspeed fellow autistic fucks

Right now, any long term play for me is going to be a call. But half of my same day trades on SPY have been puts. It's pretty rare to see a thick green candle and then no pull back in the same day on SPY. Just need to be able to sell and be willing to accept you're probably not gonna sell at the perfect time. I've seen so many people "let it ride" only to see a 20 percent gain turn into a 50 percent loss. Yesterday actually is a good example. I got puts on SPY near the top. Saw a loss of 15 percent to start, then sold with a gain of 24 percent. I lost out on a gain of 35 percent, but as we all know there was a late rally, and I would have lost 70 percent had I tried to hold.

I'm not trying to time anything that's the retarded thing most people lose their shirts on. I'm going to start going short once we drop significantly from the top and the trend is broken.

wallstreetbets

OzzyBuckshankNA

t3_e2guk8

ZeusThunder369

f8vc60l

CuziGaming

f8vf000

[Employment] Unexpected Job offer for 20k more

I currently work in an affordable city in the US and was approached by a former colleague for a position in their company at a $20,000 raise. The actual salary wasn't given, just more of a "would you move for 20k then you make now?" The colleague would now be my boss and the move would essentially be a lateral move. Here's my question, I LOVE where I work now, the firm is about half the size of the firm courting me and only has 1 office vs several for the courting firm. Both firms are privately owned by just a few people, but my gut tells me to stay where I am. Thoughts? I can provide answers to questions - obviously this is a throwaway account.

people work for income and many fear change....and why they stay in jobs making less. You need to discuss the offer more to get specifics. I will safely say this, you have no idea at this moment whether you would NOT love the new job in a year....of hate your existing job in a year

You are on /r/personalfinance so a lot of the opinions you get will be financially-slanted (which makes sense). I will tell you, however, to do what makes comfortable/happy. For some people, making more money and having the opportunity (if they play their cards right) for more financial security is what makes them comfortable and happy. For others, the social aspects of their lower-paying job, the corporate culture, the area, or any of a number of other non-financial considerations are what keeps them going. You need to examine this for yourself - do you want more money but no guarantee that you'll like the new job (and no guarantee that you won't) or do you want to stay where you are financially but have a known quantity as far as job satisfaction goes? No random strangers online can really make that decision for you since it's so subjective.

personalfinance

jobseekingthrowout18

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decaturbob

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xelman

dfeeuze

Help!!! This middle aged lady needs some advice!

I will try to make this quick and to the point. 1. I live in a home that is 30% underwater and no sign that will change in the next ten years. Value today $70,000 on a good day. I owe $104,000. 2. I have $26,000 in credit cards and I'm using Greenpath to make payments $300 bi weekly. 3. I have one car I'm buying $11,000 loan; one lease that ends In July but I'm over miles to tune of $1800. 4. I make a good salary over $85,000. 5. I have about $6,000 medical bills. 6. Single and get no child support (17/25 he old sons live with me) cuz I'm technically married but living apart for years cuz I can't afford a divorce either! Problems: - my current bills exceed my income; as I also have two loans from 401k so my take home is like $2100 after insurance and taxes. - my house loan is thru a credit union and they are not federally backed so even if I go bankrupt the credit union would fight back and win (so says bankruptcy attorney)that house not be included in my bankruptcy. -I need a new roof and my neighborhood is getting more violent and crime ridden every day. I have house note $960, two car notes $370 each, plus credit card and medical bills. I rarely eat out, grocery shop at Aldis and my one extravagence is cable at $130. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can improve my situation. I'm interviewing for low paying second job, hopefully I get it.

Replace cable with Netflix: Savings $120/month What are you paying for cell phone? If you use one of the 4 major carriers (Verizon/AT&T/Sprint/Tmobile) you can get a lot of savings by switching to an MVNO such as Ting: Savings $70/month (assuming $100 current cell phone bill, Ting would be about $30/month) Medical bills will not go to collections as long as you keep paying a minimal amount, see if you can work out a payment plan with them so you are paying something like $25/month Why do you have 2 cars being single? Your 25 year old can pay for his own car, your 17 year old doesn't need a car and if he wants one he can get a job. Reading between the lines it sounds like you are preparing to buy the $11k car because your lease is ending soon? Get a $3000 car instead.

You might have incorrectly formatted line breaks. To create a line break, either put two spaces at the end of the line or put an extra blank line in-between lines. ([See Reddit's page on commenting for more information.]( I have attempted to automatically reformat your text with fixed line breaks. Your text might contain incorrectly formatted list(s). To format a list properly, add a space between the bullet points and list items, and add a blank line before the start of the list. I will try to make this quick and to the point. I live in a home that is 30% underwater and no sign that will change in the next ten years. Value today $70,000 on a good day. I owe $104,000. I have $26,000 in credit cards and I'm using Greenpath to make payments $300 bi weekly. I have one car I'm buying $11,000 loan; one lease that ends In July but I'm over miles to tune of $1800. I make a good salary over $85,000. I have about $6,000 medical bills. Single and get no child support (17/25 he old sons live with me) cuz I'm technically married but living apart for years cuz I can't afford a divorce either! Problems: my current bills exceed my income; as I also have two loans from 401k so my take home is like $2100 after insurance and taxes. my house loan is thru a credit union and they are not federally backed so even if I go bankrupt the credit union would fight back and win (so says bankruptcy attorney)that house not be included in my bankruptcy. I need a new roof and my neighborhood is getting more violent and crime ridden every day. I have house note $960, two car notes $370 each, plus credit card and medical bills. I rarely eat out, grocery shop at Aldis and my one extravagence is cable at $130. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can improve my situation. I'm interviewing for low paying second job, hopefully I get it. ^(I am a bot. Contact) ^[pentium4borg]( ^(with any feedback.)

personalfinance

Annabell841

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pzxc0

dedf2yh

LineBreakBot

deddwfi

Always denied for credit cards/loans. Terrible credit, need advice.

I have terrible credit. I checked my score with Credit Sesame and it said 569. I have 7 year old credit card debt from when I was 18 that I defaulted on and tons of unpaid medical bills because I never had a decent job until now. please, what are my options? I have a family now and no means of purchasing a house or a car with this score, I need to get out of this hole I'm in. Any advice?

Your best bet is probably to start off with a secured credit card, used responsibly and pay off the statement balance before the statement due date every month, and your credit score will improve. This will take time though so you're going to have to be patient. It's quick and easy to destroy a credit score. It's takes a whole lot longer to repair one. You might have to stay renting and to only buy cars with saved-up-cash for a few years before your score improves for decent loans.

You can still get what you want ie: house, car, credit card etc... it's just that the interest rates will be so high that it would be stupid to do so. My suggestion is to rebuild your credit with a secured card to begin with and if you need a reliable car then instead of getting yourself into paying too much for something with a 20% interest rate for 6 or 7 years go check out Drivetime.com and find a lot closest to you. You'll only need $500 for a downpayment and you can LEASE a car for a year or two while rebuilding your credit. It will be under warranty for the whole time as well. A friend of mine put $400 down and got a 2003 Honda Oddyssey with 110k miles on it for a 2 year lease at $400 a month.

personalfinance

[deleted]

t3_281tgn

lilfunky1

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ci6jjlt

DrunkMonkBoxing

t1_ci6opgd

ci6opgd

Did I just see a glitch?

see picture:

Whoa. From [This Article]( The tweet came after hackers made repeated attempts to steal the passwords of AP journalists. Am I confused here, or does this mean that multiple journalists have access to the official AP News twitter account? If one tweet can dive the DOW 100 points in seconds, it is incredibly scary that they have what appear to be such loose controls on their twitter account.

Interesting to compare this to the flash crash in 2010. Whatever "stops" they developed in response to the flash crash appear to have worked here. Right? In 2010, didn't it just become a snowball effect where the market was falling because the market was falling? In this case, the market flashed, but then corrected itself immediately without the snowball effect.

investing

MalcolmPecs

t3_1cy3vz

[deleted]

t1_c9l4fth

c9l4fth

[deleted]

t1_c9l4axk

c9l4axk

If you max out 401k early, do you still always get full company match? (Has anyone actually checked?)

Let's say your company matches 4% of your salary. But you max out in 6 months because you contribute a high percent of your salary. Do you still get the full 4% of your salary for the entire year? I always assumed this was the case. But has anyone actually confirmed this is how it works at their company? Does it vary by company?

You absolutely can lose out on match in your example if the company doesn't do a "true-up". Some plan documents call for them, others do not. Let's say your company matches 1/2 of a % for the first 6% of contributions,you make $10,000 per pay check and get paid once a month ($120k total annual salary) and the most you can contribute is 18k which is the 2015 limit. If you want to contribute the max allowed by law, you would set your contribution at 15%. Anything higher than that and you will lose match. For example if you set it at 20% you will max out in August and earn $2,700 in match. If you set it at 15% you will max out on the final pay check of the year and earn $3,600 in match. In this example any deferral percentage between 6% and 15% will earn the maximum match. Anything higher and you will lose match.

Can someone confirm this means my company "trues up"? " If your contributions to the 401(k) stop before the end of the year due to reaching your annual limit on contributions, any additional match to which you are entitled will be contributed to your account on the last business day of the plan year."

personalfinance

rhandle_stephens

t3_2zdk03

swalsh411

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cphwn3t

grhotz

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cpibdj4

What were your moves today, April 4, 2017

discuss

Well I posted a daily thread on agricultural futures that has been deleted. I do not know why. Anyway I will try again tomorrow.

sold my non JNUG or JDST gold miners position missed the spaceshuttles AMZN and TSLA go to the moon because my money is tied up elsewhere :/ bought BBBY Puts

wallstreetbets

some_thing_else

t3_63gnq4

sammyakaflash

dftxjrc

cm4521

dfu61zh

Young or old is the best time?

One fundamental personal finance/investing idea that I have learned through books (Intelligent Investor has an entire chapter on it), classes (most intro level finance classes), and apparent common knowledge is that it is better to have more risk in your investments when you are younger than when you are older. For example if you invest in a bad stock or bond when you are young and it blows up in your face you have plenty of time to remake that lost money. But when you are old you don't have that much time to remake that money. I want to know why my counter-argument is false (or maybe i'm right). I think that the younger you are the investments you make have even more importance, because of the amount of time you can have your money tied up. So if you put in x amount of money now in a near zero-risk bond, over your life time you can make serious profit. But if you lose that money today you lose out on even more money in the future. This opportunity cost-ish idea leaves me to believe that you should have more freedom in your investments when you are older than when you are younger. Hope I asked the question clearly and hope my grammar isn't too bad (i've been only speaking Chinese for the past month so my english is slipping). Thanks

A neat-zero risk investment would also be a near-zero return. If you want to make money, you have to take risk. And us young guys can afford to take more now vs. later in life.

The way it was explained to me: riskier investments tend towards higher returns over time, but also tend to be more volatile (greater swings in price). So the issue isn't your age, the issue is how long it will be before you need the money, and your willingness and ability to wait out the times when your investment isn't performing well. As an example, regardless of your age, your kids' college fund will likely be more conservatively invested than your retirement fund, simply because you will need the money sooner.

personalfinance

WoMeiYouQian

t3_2bdi4p

JrDot13

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cj494kj

scofus

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cj4eczf

Just found out my wife is pregnant. Insurance or no?

This might be long and I suck at titles but bear with me. We had an appointment today with an insurance broker at the local clinic where the doctor works that my wife would like to see during her pregnancy. Her sister-in-law recently gave birth and highly recommended this doctor. Anyway, the lady basically just put our information into the state website for healthcare. We live in the state of Washington and for a family of two, we have to make less than ~$31,000 a year to qualify for free healthcare. Going strictly off of our hourly wage at 40 hours a week, we make about $45,000. If we choose to insure both of us, we get a $145 tax credit which would bring our lowest monthly premiums to about $200 a month. Now, that isn't so bad but there is a $13,000 deductible, which I think is insane. I can't imagine a pregnancy racking up those numbers. That's $15,000 out of pocket before the insurance company will do anything, and even then, they will only cover 60%. Now, if we insure just her, then we do not get a tax credit so the premium would be about $180 a month with a $6,500 deductible. We were thinking about no insurance so we made some phone calls and that same clinic gives discounts for patients paying in cash, but they only give cash discounts to those people below that same poverty line who already qualify for free health insurance. This makes no sense to me at all. We also called the hospital. Best case scenario, we are in the hospital for one day. Costs for delivery and that one day stay for the mom and baby would be right around $8,000, but the hospital instantly gives a 35% discount for not having insurance, and an additional discount for paying in cash, which starts at 10% but could go higher depending on the situation. Now, not having insurance, we would have to pay full price for all the clinic visits, which is a minimum of $106 per visit but would be higher depending on what the appointment is for. There would obviously be higher costs for the blood work and things like that. We are just completely unsure of what to do. Everyone we talk to has different opinions. If there are any complications, obviously insurance would help because if there is, let's say, the need for an emergency c-section, the charges for that and the mandatory 3-4 day stay afterwards would cost us well over $20,000. Anyway, that about covers it I think and I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, I was just looking for advice. Thanks in advance to all you wonderful people.

One person I know had complications during childbirth. Baby was very premature, and spent 6 weeks in ICU. By the end, the bill was over $500,000 I think you are underestimating the costs (and potential costs). And something doesn't sound right abut a $6500 deductible. I would suggest you discuss the plans with dinnertime to make sure you understand their costs ACS benefits.

You can get plans that only cover things like the NICU or complications for cheap. I've always had my family insured but usually on the lowest plans that only covered catastrophic events like leukemia, cancer, or ICU treatment. For everything else it was just cheaper to pay cash. Remember that the medical rates are not mandated anywhere and are fully negotiable if you can talk to the right person. Don't receive services that you haven't first negotiated the price for. We had doctors offices negotiate prices with us only to throw huge bills at as for imaging services. Find yourself a good doctor who still understands the value of money and they will be more likely to work with you. Avoid practices with multiple doctors as their fees will be harder to negotiate as they share business expenses amongst the group. TL/DR: Get catastrophic insurance that you probably won't use and go in as a cash patient.

personalfinance

CoSat2023

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shell_shocked_today

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cqe6sh7

WizardOfIF

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cqeghwj

My girlfriend was just diagnosed with breast cancer..

My sweet GF was just diagnosed with cancer, and I'm trying to figure out things for her financially. We don't live together, in fact I'm currently living in another state. She came to this country over 13 years ago and doesn't have family here. She has a college degree, and works in medical field but surprisingly her Company doesn't offer STD as a benefit. She will need to go through 18 weeks of chemo, medication, surgery, more radiation, more and more meds.. while trying to keep her job, so she can pay her bills and have insurance to fight this cancer!! How do people cope with this financially? I can't believe we live in a country where if you get cancer, you have almost zero safety net. I need advice for her, I want to make sure she is never in a position to be homeless or have no money.

First, I am very sorry to hear that you two are going through this. There are some things that I would recommend. She should speak with her HR department and let them know the situation, and ask what options are available to her. Although she may not get paid if she needs to take time off, if her company is greater than 50 employees, she should be entitled to FMLA, which will enable her up to 12 weeks of unpaid time due to medical issues. This will enable her to protect her job and insurance. Does her company have LTD? If so, she may be able to utilize that benefit after the qualification period (typically 12 weeks) This is a terrible situation, and unfortunately there are not many avenues through which she can maintain a steady income while fighting the cancer. If she has retirement savings, she may qualify for hardship withdrawals; though it is never advisable to withdraw from retirement funds, this may be a situation in which retirement funds can provide a temporary source of income to prevent her from going into financial ruin due to something completely out of her control. It is something to consider.

Sounds like your GF may be eligible for FMLA--learn more about what it is and how to use it here: resources for your GF: Gilda's Club (google to see if there's a local one in your area) (cancer support) Susan G Komen helpline

personalfinance

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New Members interested in trading

With the exploding success of this sub, due in part to our revolutionary market moving trades involving $MSFT, $TSLA, and lately $ROPE, there is an influx of new, young, inexperienced traders looking to learn. You might even be one of those people, wading through pages of this high brow trader speak, trying to answer for yourself some of man’s most important questions: How do I make a trade? What’s a good brokerage? How does an option work? What is a put credit spread? What does $SPY 3/21 $250 mean? What’s a bear and why do they always have a rainbow emoji? To those searching for the answers, allow me to be the first to say: THIS IS NOT THE SUB FOR YOU. Not because of our elitist attitude. Not because we’re unwilling to teach. Not because of the fast paced, high volume of information exchanged in our little 1 million member corner of the internet. We just have no fucking clue either bro lol I google “investopedia option strategies” before every trade. Good luck when in doubt deposit more funds and lie on the options upgrade questionnaire.

I just want until someone says something I like then I hit the button Been here 1 day made $260 dont know how taxes work so I'll be in jail by this time next year

HELP. So I bought a Uber 3/27 put and in trying to use the Etrade interface, I ended up closed it out a few minutes later. My account now displays an unrealized gains number, which is negative and fluctuating?

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Worth it to buy a home short term?

Recently got a job offer across country. It is my intention, to only be there for 2-3 years and then look for the next job offer. (Norm to jump every positions in IT every few years to get that increase in pay and responsibilities) But, is it worth it financially to buy a home, just to leave 3 years later? Is it better to rent in this case?

The transaction costs to buy and then sell a home are significant. Depending on what agent commissions are, you will spend 4-6% of the home’s value between the buy and sell transactions. Plus you’ll potentially be paying closing costs on a mortgage. The home will need to appreciate by at least that amount in order for you to break even. Also, time to sell a home can be significant. You’ll need to factor in at least two months, between staging, showing and closing. The general rule of thumb is 5 years or less is better for renting. The NY Times has a good buy vs rent calculator to evaluate scenarios.

No. Let's for example look at the house I just sold. 6% realty fees up front. Also $1500 in legal costs and survey Also another .4% of purchase price to my state because hey fuck you is why (that's what my state says to people who sell houses). So in new york state for example if you buy a $200k house and sell it the next day you're already in the hole to the tune of $14k. Great investment, huh? And that's just to sell. Don't forget the $5k+ in closing costs you paid when you bought it. I just closed on another house and it ran me $11k in closing costs. Again, it's higher in new york, but yeah. TLDR: Buy a house in my state for $200k and you need to make $20k in equity just to break even.

personalfinance

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I have only filed my taxes once, when I was 18. I just got a letter from the IRS, I'm 36. what do I do?

I filed my taxes once when I was eighteen, then basically ignored them. I was living off of the grid for about ten years, then five years ago, I hopped back on the 'real world' train and although I have been having my taxes deducted from my paychecks I haven't filed. Right now I'm making about 70-100k per annum. I just got a letter that from the IRS about contacting them regarding 'issues' with my tax status. It was pretty vague, but also pretty scary, garnished wages, penalties, interest..etc.. I remember hearing about using an 'Enrolled' agent if you have tax issues ( basically someone who USED to work for the IRS) What should I do? What should I expect? How fucked am I? Any insight and any referrals in the Chicago area?

I hope you've got some serious savings set aside to cover your tax liability plus interest that's been accruing. But yeah, find a tax attorney as soon as feasibly possible. Don't use those "IS THE IRS HASSLING YOU ABOUT BACK TAXES? CALL US!" infomercial services. There's already been at least one class action lawsuit against tax masters.

I am not sure, but if you have been paying taxes via your salary, I tbink you may be OK. Either you have a small debt, or you might even get a return. Get some good help & learn how to do them yourself next year...

personalfinance

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How diverse is your portfolio?

I have the entirety of my Roth IRA in a single Vanguard index fund: [VTSAX]( It has, to make an understatement, been awesome. I'm 30, and I have a long time before I need to pull out this money. I understand why diversification is important in cases of calamity, but is it important even if I don't plan to take the money out for a really long time? How should I diversify? I read the [Lazy Portfolios]( Wiki page on the Bogleheads forum. Do you all follow one of those ones? What do you do? //

Diversification != number of mutual funds. The mutual fund you mentioned is a total stock market fund, which means it seeks to replicate the entire US stock market. It holds shares of over 3600 companies. The only thing it doesn't hold are international stocks and any bonds.

meh, i have about 85% in aapl, about 7% in some other individual stocks, and about 7% in mutuals like vanguard funds. it's working out well so far. i know i'm completely overbalanced on aapl, but i'm riding this one until it breaks.

personalfinance

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Gov orders all Nevada nonessential biz to close tonight at midnight (Yes, that means ALL casinos)

[ _1762d600-67fc-11ea-8f29-9f3991ee8c8c.html]( TLDR: Vegas is closed for 30 days starting Wed at noon. GTFO. Wynn and MGM had said they were going to close before and the Cosmo announced yesterday but this is the big one. I am still trying to find out when exactly is "nonessential". But all the casinos and other large properties have to close. Not sure how they plan to do that. These hotels have a couple of hundred-thousand people in them at any time. Sorry folks, get out, good luck finding a flight? WTF? Most casinos have stated that they will offer full pay and benefits for the full time of the shutdown. All schools are already closed so at least it solves that issue. All grocery stores and related establishments have been looted. Good luck finding ammo and you can't buy a gun new because they can't get through to the feds for the background check. Also, all exercise equipment is sold out. I have no idea, don't ask. Yes, I'm a Vegas local and for full disclosure, I have Puts on CZR $4 for 4/3. Et tu, Brute? Oh hell yeah. EDIT: The new logo sucks

You heard it here first bois. Donald Pump and crew are only going to allow this shutdown for 2 weeks. After that they are going to end it. They are doing this so that everyone can pretend they did something to stop the virus, when in reality they are letting the ZOOMER REMOVER run its full course. Everything will return to normal soon. Better kiss your grandma goodbye.

Fuck! I just bought a ticket to go to Las Vegas a week ago ‍️ Guesd I need to reschedule my flight for next month! Was really looking forward to next week

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As people who are clearly interested in accumulating capital, how much do you donate to charity (if any) and why?

I think it's interesting to hear what people who are working hard to improve their own finances donate to charity, if anything. For instance, here's a Get Rich Slowly post from last fall with a lot of discussion - answers really run the gamut. So what do you donate, how often and to whom? Would you ever donate to charity if you were in debt (and does it matter what kind of debt - for instance, a lot of people who donate to charities probably have mortgages)? Does it matter what country you're in? (European redditors - is donating common across the pond, or is the assumption that the government does enough?) Not here to judge, just interested in getting some opinions.

I donate because I feel it's the right thing to do. I save ~30% of my income, and donate ~10%. Sure, I could cut out donations and save more, but what's the point? I feel that I have the ability to give money to make a difference now for people that aren't in as good of a situation as I am. Why would I not do that?

United States - partner and I dug ourselves out of a fairly significant debt hole so we feel it's important to give back now that we have enough. We did not donate while we were aggressively paying back credit cards and loans. We budget minimum $50/month which often goes to a project on donorschoose.org (but not for ipads or laptops. NO class needs iPads or laptops). We've also selected and donated to public radio, public television, and the salvation army. In addition, we make annual local donations to the high school booster clubs ($~400), zoo ($150), and the cat rescue we got our incredibly sweet and wonderful cat from ($100). I'll probably average another $20/month getting equipment to work with the dogs I'll be handing for a rescue, though that needs to be budgeted or I'll let it get out of control. This does not total a significant percentage of our take-home pay. We could donate more, and I acknowledge that, but it's enough that I feel we're contributing something.

personalfinance

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RedReina

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Mom has been asking me for money for the past four months. How to deal with this?

Over the past three and a quarter months, I have been helping my mother financially due to her situation. Let me put things in context. I graduated college in May of 2018 and in January, I ordered a hotel room for my mom to stay during graduation. In May, my mom told me that she didn't have sufficent funds to pay for the hotel room and asked me if I can give her about $740 US dollars. So I agreed. Given that I occasionally helped my mom out financially during college, I didn't thought any different. After my college graduation ceremony, we head back home and that's when things get frustrating. My mom was struggling with unemployment, underemployment, and a depleted savings account. So from May to now (early August), I have been financially helping out my mom by giving her my money. I started with about $11,300 in early May and now (early August) I am about $3,100 and I am expected to be down to $2,500 next week since my mom has a mortgage payment to attend to. I am currently unemployed and I would feel very guilty and frustrated when my mom ask me for money. At one hand, I don't want to be inconsiderate to my mom's needs, at the other hand I don't want to sacrifice my financial well-being just to keep my mom afloat. To me, she is an adult (longer than I have) and should be capable of taking care of her finances. I am unsure if she is manipulating me since I am her only child and she is a single parent. I have read other threads on this subreddit about giving a parent financial help and overall the impression I got was that I shouldn't help my mom for too long. That said, she raised me all by herself and supported me when adults and my child peers ignored and avoided me. This is so difficult, I feel so much pain from giving my mom all of that money. I felt like I did something very wrong. She is currently leasing a SUV (something I don't approve of), is paying off a finance plan for kitchen appliances, and is currently living as if she is paycheck to paycheck. Please help. I'm tired of this bullsh*t. I know my mom loves me and is there for me in tough situations, but this is becoming a nightmare TLDR: I am an only child of a single mom, and my I've been supporting my mom for over three months. She promised to stop asking me for money by the end of this week, but I am skeptical. I honestly don't know what to do.

Stop giving your Mom money. You don't have an income and have given her thousands of dollars. That's enough. You need to get a job. And you need to get out of her house. Also, put a fraud alert on your credit reports so it's less likely that anyone uses your credit fraudulently.

This is an r/relationship_advice problem and not a personal finance problem. You do not have the money to give her and you shouldn't keep giving it to her but that's up to you.

personalfinance

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My income is increasing greatly in two weeks, I need some help determining what to do with an unusual company. (USA)

So, I received an offer from a new company for pretty much 60% more than my current salary (74k to 110k + 10k end of year bonus assuming I don't screw up). However, this is an unusual company, as it's owned by two guys who contract out 80% of the work. I'll be working from home most of the time as they don't have a place of business, really, for me to work in (and I'm not complaining, since my current commute is 3+hours round trip). I also have the option of using my own equipment if I prefer (and I greatly do, for a lot of reasons I'd rather not go into). I have a few questions: 1) Even though I'm a W2 employee with full benefits, can I still write off work-related expenses, such as a new laptop I'll be purchasing, and the software related to this as well? 2) They don't offer a 401(k). Obviously, I'll be tossing the max possible in a traditional IRA. Since I live pretty comfortably on 50k (pretax) now (aside from the fact that I am a very, very unlucky person (I had almost 15k in unexpected health, pet, car, and housing costs last year!) (This year I'm already up to 7k, I think I beat last year's record!)), where else should I start stuffing money to retire as early as possible? I'm not looking to purchase a house any time soon. Renting is enough for me at the moment, since knowing my luck, the house will catch fire the day after I move in and my insurance won't cover fires caused by ficus trees or something. 3) I owe 200ish in federal taxes for the 2013 year, is there anything I can do this year to reduce it? From my understanding, since I made ~70k last year, I'm not eligible for a traditional IRA deduction since my previous employer offered a 401(k). Just curious. 4) As a point to above, I was working with my new company for a few months as an independent contractor (and will be for the next two weeks as well). Does this mean I should purchase the stuff now in order to get the tax deductions, assuming the answer to 1) is no? 5) I started doing independent contracting in December, but didn't get paid until Jan. Does that mean that I have to mark the income from contracting on my 2013 or 2014 taxes? 6) Anyone know of where to get a good CPA to answer the above? Oh, and for anyone wondering: Current debt/Info: Various credit card debt that gets paid off at the end of the month (I only pay tolls in cash, and sometimes the pizza guy) Car: 14k owed, worth 12k... hopefully (biggest financial mistake of my life) Emergency fund: 5k Age: 23 Location: East Coast Thanks

Very serious question, as I might know these two guys personally. Is this in Boston (or the business owner living in Ashland, MA)? If so, PM me and I'll debrief you on what I know from personal experience with previous business relationships (not positive) with these guys.

You pay tolls in cash? I don't know where you live or if something like this is available, but in Illinois we have I-pass for the tolls. Huge discount for using it, and it costs nothing except the money you load onto your pass.

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20F in an abusive home, are student loans my only way out?

EDIT: thank you all so much for the helpful advice! I've decided that my mental health is more important and if I study hard I know I can land a good job that will allow me to pay the loans back. I'm going to see the financial advisor on campus soon to find the best loans for my situation. I don't want to go very deep into the situation at home but what matters is that my father is very emotionally abusive and controlling, and his crazy rules are really starting to affect my college education. Some information about me: I live in Florida. I'm currently on my third year of public college getting a bachelors in Computer Science and a minor in Translation. I have only been living in the US for 4 years and I've been a permanent resident for about 2. My tuition is fully paid by financial aid but I don't get much in refunds. I have a part time job that gives me $10/h and 20h a week. Out of my biweekly paycheck of $400, about $100 goes in taxes and health insurance benefits, so I'm really getting $300 every two weeks. Dorms go for 2k to 3k per semester. I have been applying to other jobs but it's really hard to find something that will allow me to keep studying and still pay enough. I'm really desperate to move out but my father would probably cut contact with me if I told him that I want to live on my own and I don't know if that is something I'm willing to risk because I have a little sister (12) and I don't want her to be alone. The only thing I can think of is getting loans for the rest of my time in college and telling him that they're grants for housing. He wouldn't be very happy about that either, but at least it would just seem like an opportunity I got and not me doing whatever it takes to get away. I know taking loans is getting myself in a financial hole but I don't know what else to do.

Student loans are not a terrible option here. 8-12k is very little debt compared to your earning potential once you graduate. The general rule is no more debt than your expected starting salary. In your case you're in the clear, and if you have good spending habits from living on your own you'll be in even better shape.

AmeriCorps!!! That's how I got out of Florida. If you do an AmeriCorps program and have student loans, your payments are deferred while you're doing your service. They provide housing, and a living stipend. As well as different length terms. And when you're done, you get an education award. The amount depends on your length of service. People that serve a year get like 5500 for school. But the stipulation is that you can only use it for school. Whether it's buying supplies from the bookstore, paying for classes, or paying off student loans. I'd give it a look. It's a very serious program, but afterwards you make a lot of great professional references and gain great experience. Each state has its own conservation corps that hosts AmeriCorps programs.

personalfinance

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What are my options if I can't afford my bills after my boyfriend leaves me and our 11 mo daughter?

This is still pretty raw but my boyfriend has struggled since we had our daughter and now it seems he has left. It's been almost 3 weeks and I am struggling to say the least. Should I tell my bank? I'm scared to lose our home. I am due to go back to work in 2 months but even then how will i afford childcare alone. I have 240 in the bank at the moment to see us through until the bills come out on the 1st June. We also have 4 thousand on my credit card he was paying off so I will be stuck there too. Any advice is appreciated. I don't know the next steps at all. Thanks strangers.

You need to file for child support. The support is for the child and is the father’s legal obligation. It doesn’t matter if you are on maternity leave or if you were wealthy since the support is considered the property of the child for you to use to take care of them. That may not solve all your financials problems but it’s something you must do ASAP. Also get a lawyer (family law, legal aid) to help with the custody situation.

It is imperative that you seek child support through the courts, I know women who for one reason or another refuse to do so and subject of their children to poverty which is unacceptable imo. You can’t force him to be in your lives but he is financially responsible for his child.

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Debt Paydown, Retirement Saving, or Both?

I'm trying to decide which option is better long term, I'll provide more details and actual numbers further down, but generally: -Increase retirement savings percentage (pre tax) meaning slower payoff of debt but more saving -Maintain retirement savings percentage to obtain maximum company match, but no retirement savings beyond that, meaning paying off debt at a moderate pace (current strategy) -Stopping retirement savings entirely to focus down car debt, then upping again once car is paid off, meaning fastest pay off of debt, but no retirement saving for 1-2 years Numbers: Debt: Car - $27k @ 5%, 5 yrs remaining w/min payments House - $180k @ 3.5%, 29 yrs remaining w/min payments Savings Options: (Current strategy) I save 6% pre tax for retirement to get the 3% company match (maxes out company match) and I can put ~$1k extra towards my loans each month. Effectively works out to ~$500 to retirement saving (incl. company match), $1k extra to debt (car loan first) Bumping up retirement to 15% pre tax, it'd be ~$1100 to retirement (incl. company match), $650 extra to debts (car first) Going with no retirement savings would mean ~$1350 to debts Car Payoff: Option 1: ~19 months Option 2: ~24 months Option 3: ~16 months All Debt Payoff (Assuming rolling monthly car payments into mortgage after car payoff): Option 1: ~8.5 yrs Option 2: ~10 yrs Option 3: ~7.5 yrs Additional details: Salary - ~$70k - ~$4100/month after 6% retirement and taxes Expenses - ~$3100/month I'm not really sure what the best option is financially. Risk wise, paying off debt is safer, but by the numbers I'd guess the higher pre-tax retirement savings is substantially better in the long run. Any advice you could give me would be much appreciated. Thank you! [

Pay off the car, up retirement to max, then worry about mortgage. Personally, I’d never put an extra dollar towards a 30 year mortgage at 3.5%, but that’s not for everyone.

Definitely keep your 401K up to the company match. That's a no brainer, as others have noted. It looks like you have a healthy (\~3 months) emergency fund, so your second step is covered (conservative would be 6, but I think 3 is plenty). I would throw the rest at your cars until those debts are paid off. The reason being is that they are negative monthly cash flow, guaranteed. Cash is king after all, and that is why you also put money aside for an emergency fund. You have to come up with the cash for your car (and mortgage) payments regardless of whether or not you are bringing in income. Plus, paying off 5% debt gives you a 5% guaranteed rate of return. I'm not sure you can get a risk-free 5% rate of return in the market. There is a further side benefit in that once you are done paying the cars off, those two payments would no longer need to be covered by your emergency fund in a worst case scenario. It lowers your risk in other words. All things being equal, your best long-term bet is to invest. But IMO, your best bet over the next two years is to knock out your vehicle debt to lower your leverage and free up cash in the short to mid term. Then you can fatten your emergency fund, up your retirement savings, etc.

personalfinance

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Opened a Roth IRA through vanguard. Contributed the $5500. What now?

EDIT: Thank you for the responses everyone. I opened up a target date retirement account and am going to look into a solo 401(k) for self employed I have read through the IRA wiki and am talking mostly about this "A good strategy that will serve anyone well is the 3-fund portfolio. In the 3-fund portfolio you aim to hold broadly diversified index funds in the three major asset classes: US stocks, International stocks, and Bonds. By investing in this manner you are instantly diversified across thousands of different securities, will never significantly underperform the market, and are mathematically certain to outperform most investors doing differently." So I got my $5500 moved over to vanguard and on my dashboard it says "Roth IRA Brokerage Account #####" $5500 So where do I go from here? Am I now in the process of trading for US Stocks, international stocks, and bonds? If someone who has vanguard can point me in the right direction on my dashboard that would be great. Any tips on asset allocation in regards to this situation is appreciated. I am 27 and married, once I get my IRA figured out I plan to do the same thing for my wife

I would go with a target date fund, this is a set it and forget it approach and on average you likely won't beat it by actively managing it or having it actively managed. The target date fund appropriately diversifies between stocks, bonds and international investments based on your age. I hear support at Vanguard is fantastic too if you want them to help you get it setup properly.

I'd suggest an SP500 index, mixed index or global index fund. Hell you could disperse it across all 3. If you do that then I'd suggest 60% in the SP500. Target date funds are nice. However I prefer the control of the index's I mentioned above. After all it's an investment that will grow over several decades and isn't that difficult to manage yourself.

personalfinance

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I get why people have been high on $MSFT leading up to recently, but even with Azure's growth, aren't they already priced to perfection?

After being on here for the past year, it seems the community thinks of $MSFT as a no brainer. Though, when you look under the hood and how it is currently priced, I'd have to say that it may be one I'd stay away from. &x200B I work in the SaaS industry, and I can confidently say that all of our most transformative clients all choose AWS over Azure. Azure is viewed more as a legacy infrastructure, one that configures easily with .NET applications. Almost as if the "safe" option rather than one that can transform how a company looks at its infrastructure. The reason I bring this up is because it demonstrates the loyalty factor with Azure vs AWS: people go to AWS because they believe in the vision of being "best in class". People go to Azure as a cost efficient, safe bet. &x200B Which do you think is stickier? &x200B And, if you look at $MSFT's history, besides their operating system, they have copied an existing a competitive solution/product and brought it to market to gain market share. (Bing, Zune, Xbox, Surface, Microsoft phone.., etc) This is not a company that prides itself on innovation, but rather a company that won the OS battle early and, arguably through predatory actions, maintained it through the rise of the internet. This caused them to be sticky within the tech scene for years and so have utilized their high margins to stay afloat by copying transformative tech. &x200B Enough with sentiment, here are the biggest fundamentals that scare me: PEG: 2.02 PE: 30.17 Dividend Payout Ratio: 39.11% (Way too high for competitive tech industry) Azure's Market Share: 16% (AWS: 33%) &x200B (TL;DR) So all in all, you get an objectively overvalued, 2nd rate company that pays out nearly 40% of it's earnings in dividends, which holds it back from fully re-investing into future tech revolutions. In tech, I truly believe in investing in best in breed, and there is virtually no vertical where MSFT is the best in breed.

You work in tech and can't think of any vertical Microsoft is best of breed in? Really? They've had the dominant operating system and office suite for about 30 years...

I like MSFT And think it’s the most understated of all the major tech stocks. I’m interested in what tech stocks you do like as a substitute to MSFT in the large cap space, and your reasons?

StockMarket

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et1spyn

Should I buy an apartment in NYC?

I've been living in nyc for a few years now and I love it here, but the rents keep going up. This year they're raising the rent on my apartment by 15%, which seems like a lot. I could probably move into a cheaper apartment now, but in nyc its usually necessary to pay a brokers fee of 15% of the first years rent plus moving costs of course, and chances are they would just give the same increase next year. I'm basically in this same situation every year or two. Anyways, renting here sucks, so I was wondering if buying might work out better in the long run. I started looking into apartments to buy I would like in the area and went to the first close open house that looks nice to get an idea of apratments in the area. It was a nice 1br for 570k that is twice the size of the 2br I currently rent with a roommate and could be converted to rent an extra bedroom to a roommate. [The rent vs buy calculator]( for the rent I pay say I should buy around 430k to do better than what I am currently paying, but I dont think that takes into account whether I could rent out a room to a roommate (in the one I just saw they claimed I could put up a wall and do that, there was certainly space for it). The [how much mortgage can I afford]( calculator on zillow claims I could afford 530k (70k down, 120k a year income, no debt, 500/month hoa dues). At 430k I could put about 16% down (70k), but it sounds like putting down less than 20% is bad. I think it might be worth it in nyc where renters can get screwed so badly. Also, if I can find an apartment where I could rent out one of the rooms, how should I be taking that into account on those calculators? Would it be reasonable to add it to income, even though it would be an estimate or should I be leaving it out entirely, or maybe add 50% of what I think it would be to account for times it might be vacant? Where I live finding a roommate seems almost assured since there is so little vacancy. And If I were to rent out one of the rooms should I then compare it against my aprtments total rnet, including what my roommate pays? I know these tools are just guides but I'm having a tough time figuring out if it would be worth it in the long run to buy. Any tips or opinions?

Long story short. You shouldnt rely on a renters income in any situation. If you can afford it without a renter then run with it. If you must rely on rental income you're overextending yourself.

Keep in mind that most "how much can I afford" mortgage formulas inherently assume one has a car. If you live in Manhattan, and don't have the expense of a car (incl. maintenance, insurance, parking, and gas) then you could perhaps go a bit higher, percentage-wise, on what you spend for housing. The general rule of thumb for how much mortgage you can afford is that PITI should not be more than 28% of your gross income, and total debt load should not be more than 36% of your gross income. One must also factor in condo fees, keeping in mind that there still may be maintenance and repair costs, or "one-time" assessments not covered by those. Many will recommend buying the "most house you can afford." This is generally because one's income increases over time (both through inflation and by promotion) at a greater rate than variable housing costs increase, meaning that the burden of one's home decreases over time. Good luck!

personalfinance

BoldnessReigns

t3_2edblp

keith200085

t1_cjye745

cjye745

LasciviousSycophant

t1_cjyw7eg

cjyw7eg

Is it possible to simply copy other successful stock traders?

Everyone and their mother is always looking for advice to build their own portfolio. Rather than master this, are there any websites (I'm thinking of those stock-trading competitions) where you can view player history (to see who consistently gets the best returns) as well as all their positions?

Hedge funds are the typically good choices to find a pool of decent stocks . The 13 f file which they release every quarter details their positions. The current 13 fs are 2 months old which means they are pretty obsolete as far as catalyst timing goes. 13 f files have to list calls puts and stock shares but not short sales. Therefore you could see a fund that has a call in one stock, but actually has many more shares shorted and is only using the call as a hedge. Most of the time it's simple to tell what positions are missing shorts. If your going to dig through hedge funds like I do when 13fs are fresh then I would suggest staying away from big ones. Stick to assets under management below 10 billion and preferably above a few hundred million. I'll give you a freebie. I picked up Kate spade because of Melvin Capital's position in it and my own discretion. It's fund manager is very smart and an ex SAC analyst.

The hard part would be finding which sites are bullshit, which sites are Cramer status (only tells you when it's too late), and which are legit. I feel like the ratio is very unbalanced between shit and legit, but hey... YOLO

wallstreetbets

rexmorrow

t3_5o3x02

NUmbermass

dcgfuuq

alexslacks

dchi6gj

I’m 17 and going to community college for just one year. I have a little over $4.5k saved up and a job that pays me pretty well (though I hate it). What should I do to keep saving until I move out and how much should I have?

Sorry for the long title. My parents are in a good financial situation (for now) and will pay my way through CC, but I’m going to move in a year for a job in LA (while going to school there). What should I do to avoid accumulating tons of student loans and save money?

I mean there's not really much we can say except save, save, save. If you're looking for places to stash your money, online banks such as Synchrony, Ally, Marcus, and some others pay ~1.6% in their savings accounts. Apply rigorously for scholarships, and don't overlook some of the smaller ones that can really add up. Apply for work study if applicable. If you have to take out student loans, the order of preference is subsidized federal > unsub federal > private. Avoid private loans if at all possible (high interest, horribly predatory).

What should I do to avoid accumulating tons of student loans and save money? Why would you have student loans? Your parents are going to pay for you schooling, and you're going to have a job.

personalfinance

LiveFromJeffsHouse

t3_8m28d5

thatonecoolkid99

dzk6yp3

CapitalNumb3rs

dzk75mj

Dropping 5500$ in IRA every January.

Am I correct in thinking that dropping the entire 5500$ in January instead of just a little bit every month will net me more interest over the life of the IRA?

Vanguard did [a paper about it]( and came to the conclusion that 2/3 of the time you benefited from putting the money at the beginning rather than dollar cost averaging.

Dropping the whole $5,500 into the IRA in January will most likely net you some extra dollars (see pier71's link). But the other important question is will you have that kind of money ready to be invested each January? It can be a lot easier for people to simply set up the a monthly contribution. Otherwise, come December, you might not have saved as much as you wanted and struggle to transfer the full $5,500 into your IRA. At that point, it becomes somewhat of a DCA if you add in pieces, except it has no structure like monthly contributions.

personalfinance

bobloadmire

t3_29zuv6

[deleted]

t1_ciq4990

ciq4990

TurboCamel

t1_ciqah68

ciqah68

The IRS took more than $7,000 out of my bank account today as a tax payment, but I didn't owe them anything and they actually owed me

I went to check for my stimulus deposit and instead found an external withdrawal for IRS - USATAXPYMT of more than $7,000. I filed my taxes last week and was due a refund of close to $3,000. The amount taken out of my account doesn't resemble anything on my 2018 or 2019 tax forms. Not sure how this could happen. And of course the IRS is not taking calls now due to the virus. When I was finally able to briefly get through to my bank, they said it appeared to be a legitimate IRS transaction and told me I should contact the IRS. When I told them the IRS wasn't taking calls, the told me to fill out an unauthorized debit ACH form. How do I get to the bottom of this? UPDATE: I got a call today from the enrolled agent who did my taxes. They had been my first call when I noticed the money missing -- before calling the bank -- and they assured me that everything was in order on their end and that they had no idea why such a payment was made. After further investigation and other client complaints, it turns out that the firm in early April had made the decision to file extensions for some of their clients whether they owed taxes or not to "mitigate the risk" of possible penalties later. I was not made aware of this, did not ask for this, did not approve this and did not need this. Well the person who filed the extensions is junior, was working from home without supervision due to the virus and somehow forgot to void out an estimated payment that was hypothetical -- based on past years information -- that appeared on an early draft of my 2019 return. Because their tax software had my banking information on file, when they filed the extension it "inadvertently triggered" an estimated tax payment for that amount to be made April 15. The person who then finalized and filed my return last week was unaware that payment had been scheduled. The extension was not in any of the paperwork that I looked at, so I had no idea to even consider that. Anyway, I spoke to the bank and gave them the update and they say given the circumstances and that the money is with the IRS already there is nothing they can do at this point. If the IRS doesn't catch the over payment when they are processing the return, my tax preparer will move forward with doing what is needed to recover the money. It will come back, but could take months. It's annoying and frustrating, but at least I know what happened. And at least the IRS didn't randomly go taking money from my account. Thanks for all of your input and advice.

>When I told them the IRS wasn't taking calls, the told me to fill out an unauthorized debit ACH form. Sounds like they told you the solution... the unauthorized debit will get IRS's attention, you'll probably get some form from them in the mail, and you can reply hey that wasn't me.

The IRS can remove money from your bank account(s) if you owe back taxes. But they typically won't take this step unless you haven't made any effort to resolve your tax debt case. The IRS only resorts to a bank levy or other aggressive collection actions after multiple notices asking you to contact them. This is the payment services phone number from the IRS Website below. I say contact them to see if they know anything. This is the web address where I got the information below...[ Call IRS e-file Payment Services 24/7 at 1-888-353-4537 to inquire about or cancel your payment, but please wait 7 to 10 days after your return was accepted before calling.

personalfinance

thaipedo

t3_g1x0xe

sparked_

fnio1dh

MikeMikeT90049

fnklwxo

(UK) Final year student severely in debt and out of money, do i have any options?

I have never really posted on reddit before besides the odd comment consisting of two words but i have a serious problem and i dont know where to turn to and since i seem to have no options i thought i might as well ask on here. I am currently a third and final year university student in England, i however have been encumbered by huge financial problems, i come from a poor working class family, my mother a single parent makes roughly £14k a year which she uses to support herself my brother and my grandmother who works about 1 day a week. she receives no benefits and she suffered from debt herself so money has always been tight. However over the summer whilst i was back home from University, one incident after another occuered which required money to fix ( our only shower broke, our washing stop working which means we have to wash clothes by hand so on and so on) we had no money to fix these problems and i had no money with which to help. I was given a £2k overdraft by my bank ( the co-operative bank ) which i had already sunk into because i had to buy supplies for uni such as a laptop before my first year started so when i started my course i was already indebt, however over the summer i was forced to take out several payday loans in order to help my family survive. the current situation i am in is that 1. i am £500 over my overdraft limit ( which means im down 2.5k ) 2. and when the payday loans are up for collection i will owe roughly an extra £1000, i currently have no money in my wallet except £5 in change which i plan to use for food. that being said i have been only eating one meal a day consisting of cooked pasta in order to survive for as long as posssible ( the fact that im in a manic phase of my bi-polar is helping with this, reduced appetite and all) the only thing keeping me from suicide is the thought of abandoning my family to poverty and the mess i created. is there any thing i can do or avenue available to me in order to give myself some breathing room, and preferbly get some food whilst i sort this giant mess out? i realise this has been long, so if you read this far thank you very much TL:DR Student in the UK way in over his head and cant see light at the end of the tunnel

First thing to do, most UK universities will have a hardship fund. First thing Monday go and talk to support/welfare team they should be able to authorize an emergency interest free loan/grant so you wont starve while you get things in order. I'm assuming you're getting a student loan how much and when, your university (which uni?) may offer a grant based upon your income (if they do you'll certainly qualify) the welfare team will be able to advise on specifics at your institution. Don't panic you aren't in a great situation but whilst your still at uni there are people whose job it is (student union/ welfare team) to help you through this! EDIT: Others will be able to advise you better on how to deal with lenders/budgets etc, but I just wanted to make sure you knew that there are resources available to help.

I would suggest contacting a charity company called StepChange, you can fill in a questionnaire online with your incoming and outgoings and they will give you advice. Even deal with all the companies for you if they can set up a payment plan on your behalf. I have found them very helpful and non judging. They are a charity and don't make any charges to help you so all money you pay them goes towards paying off your debts and not into their pockets.

personalfinance

Kaanj19

t3_2izhw6

skukza

t1_cl6yjyd

cl6yjyd

Princ3ssPyro

t1_cl772bt

cl772bt

How much do you make off of laundry?

Hey fellow investors, was wondering if you could share some of your numbers on this topic! How many units do you have and how much do you make off of laundry each month (after expenses if you know)? Also, do you rent the machines or own outright? What have been the pros and cons for each option for your situation?

In the 80s when you were paying a couple hundred for a 4 bed people were happy to walk to the laundromat. Now when people are paying a third of their home income they want laundry in building at the very least. It's not about profit, it's that most tenants view it as non-negotiable at this point, and it's hard to argue with that.

I have a triple decker (3 bedrooms / unit) and make about $90 a month in quarters. I charge $1.75 for a wash and $1.75 for a dry. I dont think all tenants use the dryer.

realestateinvesting

savagesaver

t3_bqmggo

rocherealestate

eo62sm0

PMMeNiceBasics

eo8b7bc

18yo, in the military with $10,000 saved, what should I do with it?

I'm sitting on 10 grand right now with no bills and a steady paycheck, what should I do with it? I really have no idea.

Please read the FAQ. Thanks for your service.

Assuming that you'll have access to Post-9/11 GI Bill education money when your service ends, you have a great opportunity to save for other goals besides education. A solid retirement fund is definitely an important goal and you have access to the Thrift Savings Plan which is one of the best retirement savings accounts out there. My suggestion would be to try to contribute as much as reasonably possible to the TSP. You could even temporarily increase your contribution percentage to the point where you need to spend some of your $10k savings on monthly expenses, but keep some of that cash (maybe half) for an emergency fund. Within the TSP, I would recommend simply using one of the L (Lifecycle) funds. That will diversify your investments across domestic stocks, international stocks, and bonds.

personalfinance

Pazzeh

t3_271oof

aBoglehead

t1_chwj46p

chwj46p

dequeued

t1_chwl44r

chwl44r

Possible collision of HOA management company and “investor” who is buying up units.

I am currently helping renovate and then sell a condo in Tempe, AZ for one of my friends. This complex (36 units) has very dated units and looks a little run down. Lately they have had to do some pavement of parking lot and replacement of wood beams in front of each condo. Which they have used to justify increases in the past. A new management company stepped in and immediately doubled the HOA to $350 a month for condos that value for about $150,000-$175,000. This is causing a lot of people to sell their condos because their HOA is approaching 50% of their mortgage payment. I found out today from a neighbor that there is an investor who has stepped in and has successfully scooped up a majority of the properties in the complex. Could the HOA be colluding with this investor to buy up all the units to use the space for another real estate project? Is this illegal? How can I prove it?

Anything is possible today. Unsure if it’s legality but finding evidence that could be used in court seems nearly impossible to me. The problem with old condos is that the HOA needs to keep up with wear and the older a building gets, the more wear and the more costly the repairs. I’ve seen HOA fees dead even or higher than mortgages, and these properties were almost always 40-60 years old, right around when everything is truly turning to shit and major repairs are coming. The investor could be taking advantage of the age and condition, forcing people to sell for cheap to avoid the higher HOA fees, only to renovate and flip the units for top dollar.

For us we have 5 board members that make the decisions. One company could only occupy 1 seat. They could of course create 5 companies, but then it would be clear that foul play is involved.

RealEstate

aces613

t3_c8kowo

modmetadotcom

esnmcwv

no_use_for_a_user

esoergb

Using VIX as IV input for SPY option price calculation

Hi Optioners. I've built a little option backtesting framework in python. Basically I'm pulling SPY historical end of day data since 1992 or something and VIX for the same period. I'm using both Black Scholes and Binomial Tree to calculate option prices however since I am not planning on paying CBOE $2,500.00 for historical option data just yet, I don't have the historical IV for SPY or any other ticker. Question is, could using historical VIX end of day prices as IV input to module SPY historical option prices net an accurate result? Or am I missing something when I assume i can use historical VIX price as IV input to model SPY options?

Question is, could using historical VIX end of day prices as IV input to module SPY historical option prices net an accurate result? Or am I missing something when I assume i can use historical VIX price as IV input to model SPY options? The VIX is "one number". It represents a kind of "average" (or probably more accurately, a "central tendency", as it's a somewhat intricate calculation) of a set of slightly OTM puts and calls on a couple of relatively short term expiration cycles on SPX options. The reason it's calculated like that is because different options have different IVs. This is often referred to as the volatility smile. If you input "the VIX" into your model for all the options, you'll get something like "what the option price should have been, if its IV was equal to the VIX". That's gonna give you very inaccurate and unreliable results. A potential solution, depending on what you are trying to do, is to purchase historical data for a volatility surface model, and then use that to calculate your historical prices. You can buy it for incredibly cheaper than the Cboe's $2.5k dataset. I have used some daily data I subscribed to on Quandl, they were decent. If you need minute level timeseries, I'm not sure where to find, though. Here are some links with a few options, depending on what you're trying to do: [ [ [ Note: seems like Quandl is having some non-sense going on, and is giving me a 403 Forbidden error on those links, if I try to open them while logged in, because I'm not a subscriber. Weirdly enough, if I open an Incognito Window (i.e., not logged in), it opens the pages normally.

[ is a good visualization of how complex the SPY options are for a given date. Every option has a different IV. VIX is one number its a very simplistic representation if you use it to value all the options.