Personal Finance 30-Day Challenge #1: Get on top of your credit (January, 2018) |
- 30-Day Challenge #1: Get on top of your credit (January, 2018)
- Friend declined pay raise because he'd "make less money".
- Why does FAFSA think my family can give me $37,000 a year for college?
- Widowed this morning and expecting a large life insurance payment
- I’m getting kicked out. I’m 18 and still in high school and my dad will be giving me a check for $25,937. I really need to know what to do with that money..
- Total Cost of Ownership in 80k miles - 2002 Subaru
- Parents took out a loan without my consent.
- Don't let your credit line limits fool you
- I did a very stupid thing.... What are my options?
- Desperately need glasses but can not afford them
- Home energy efficiency investments: payback vs. reality - what has your experience been?
- Get a car for 10% of net worth?
- I am a first time Uber driver and I have never filed taxes on my own. Please help.
- Just received Broker’s Price Opinion for our house - really, really confused now.
- Getting Paid in Cash
- Relocating to another country. How to prevent fraudulent use of ssn?
- I am getting tax bills from a property that I no longer own in Chicago IL.
- Calculating 403(b) Contributions
- Best phone plan an 18 year old can get on?
- I need help reading an employee contract for a tech startup
- Roth IRA for down payment savings when house purchase is a possibility but not a certainty.
- Credit hit from mortgage pre-approval?
- Las year I spent more than $450.0 in fast food delivery.
- Suspicious Check in the Mail
- Young, Married, Two Full Time Jobs, and Pregnant. What now?
| 30-Day Challenge #1: Get on top of your credit (January, 2018) Posted: 06 Jan 2018 05:06 AM PST 30-day challengesWe are pleased to announce that we're continuing our 30-day challenge series. The schedule spans the entire year so be sure to keep an eye out each month. This month's 30-day challenge is to get on top of your credit. Here are some concrete steps you can take: Check your free credit reportThere are three major credit bureaus in the US: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. These companies each gather credit histories for individuals and sell that information to credit card companies, lenders, and other financial institutions. You can go to https://www.annualcreditreport.com to get a credit report from each credit bureau once per year. It's often recommended to stagger your requests so you can get one every four months so you may only want to request one report at this time. You can use a calendar reminder to stay on top of this. Now, your free credit report won't include your score and it also won't include credit monitoring, but you absolutely don't need to buy those from a credit bureau because there are free options. See below. Note that the security questions will sometimes ask about intentionally false information (e.g. made-up loans), so "none of the above" may be the right answer. If you can't get past the security questions, you may have to write in to get your report. Also be aware that you don't have to pay for anything on the credit bureau sites. If you find yourself prompted for a credit card number, you might have clicked to sign up for something you might not need or want. Also, if you have trouble with the web site, try temporarily disabling browser ad-blockers and privacy extensions. See the Credit Reports Wiki for more information! Sign up for free credit monitoringYou don't need to pay for credit monitoring. Some options:
After exploring your options, sign up with at least one of them. More information contained in the Credit Scoring Wiki. Find out your credit scoreSome credit cards actually give you a free FICO score as a benefit of having their card. Brands providing FICO scores include Discover, Citi (branded cards only), American Express, Bank of America, and Barclaycard. Here's a full list of options. If you don't already have one of those cards, you can get your VantageScore from Credit Karma or Mint. VantageScore is used less often by creditors than FICO, but it's a usually a good estimate of your FICO score. Paying for your credit score is silly unless you're considering getting a major loan like a mortgage. Get rid of pre-approved credit card junk mailOptOutPrescreen.Com is the official consumer credit card reporting website to opt-out of offers of credit or insurance. It's an easy win to reduce junk mail and reduce the risk of identity theft (from someone stealing your mail). I recommend signing up unless you're in the process of building credit and actually want to receive pre-approved offers. Are you looking to improve your credit?Once you have a score over 740, most credit files are solid enough to qualify for prime rate lending. This means that any additional increase of your score will likely not get you better credit products. If you are in a position where you'd like to improve your credit, here are two situations that often befall people when asking for help here:
What to do if you find information you don't recognizeEven though credit reporting is automated, mistakes can still occur. The most common errors can involve names and addresses. If your name is similar to a parent's name, there are also instances where a line of credit is reported on the wrong file. The simplest course of action is to dispute the information with the bureaus. Here are direct links to initiate a dispute: Finally, if you believe you've had your identity stolen, read and follow the steps in our Identity Theft Wiki. Challenge success criteriaYou've successfully completed this challenge once you've done 3 or more of the following things:
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| Friend declined pay raise because he'd "make less money". Posted: 27 Jan 2018 05:55 AM PST A friend of mine recently declined a pay raise because he believes that the higher income would somehow result in him making less money due to taxes. I didn't get into too much details with him, but he mentioned this is a result of Earned Income Tax Credit. I know the US tax system is based on marginal rates and there's no way you can "earned less by making more", but is there ANY validity to his thinking? Is there any way you can loss money by earning more or vice-versa? Edit: Thank you all for your thoughts and opinions. All of you were very helpful. I think I may suggest that my friend speak to a tax professional or a CPA. I agree with (most) of you that an increase in income likely won't negatively affect him. Edit2: Okay here's what I learned today, and I hope some of you don't have the same thoughts as my friend;
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| Why does FAFSA think my family can give me $37,000 a year for college? Posted: 26 Jan 2018 07:57 PM PST FAFSA says I don't meet requirements for any financial aid, as my "Expected Family Contribution" is $37,000. Where does this number come from? I was fortunate to be allowed to borrow an old 1990s car for school (that I'm grateful for), but that's far from $40,000. Edit: Spelling [link] [comments]  |
| Widowed this morning and expecting a large life insurance payment Posted: 27 Jan 2018 05:12 PM PST The title pretty much says it all. My husband (30 years old) passed away unexpectedly this morning while in a different state. He had a life insurance policy of over a million, and I'm a stay at home mom with four young kids (7, 5, 4, and 3 months). We owe a mortgage on our house and land of about 40k. Our van paid off but is not in the best shape, and we have no outstanding debt. We have been fixing up our house; siding is the only thing that absolutely must be put on in the future; everything else is okay for now. We had a joint retirement account and college accounts for our three oldest kids. I am lost. I'm 28 years old and didn't expect to be a widow before I even hit thirty. What should I do in regards to the life insurance account? I could finish my teaching degree (only a few credit hours left), but teaching doesn't pay much and takes so much time away from my kids. I would like to try to use the money to make a sort of fixed income and stay home, at least until my baby is a little older. Is this possible? He was a custom harvester with his brother, so I have no idea what his shares in the company are, or what business ramifications will be involved in the future. I can't think of what else to add, as I am numb and my brain is foggy. Please help me. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Jan 2018 12:01 PM PST Long story short I'm getting kicked out because of decisions I've made. I will be getting about $25k so I will find a place to live. I will also have to start paying for my own insurance on my car because I used to be on my fathers plan where I paid about $140 a month. Right now I have two jobs. One at the Home Depot making $10/hr and another one at a swim school making about $9.25/hr I'm still in high school so I can't really have a full time job but once I can get one which jobs should I look at? I'm looking at jobs that have apprenticeship programs perhaps or some type of construction or something like that. I'm adopted so I'm not sure if I have any benefits in my state. I live in Illinois by the way. But yeah if I could get any help I truly would be grateful. I'm scared as shit because I don't know what's gonna happen now. But I guess we'll see [link] [comments]  |
| Total Cost of Ownership in 80k miles - 2002 Subaru Posted: 27 Jan 2018 03:38 PM PST tl;dr: Cost of owning my 2002 Subaru Legacy over past 7.5 years in upstate NY and Boston: $32,485.74 or $4380.10 per year or $0.406/mile (doing zero work myself) Inspired by two recent posts - Corolla TCO and Altima TCO, I did a rough calculation of the total cost of ownership on my 2002 Subaru Legacy L wagon. I purchased it used in summer 2008 and have used the Fuelly app since September 2010 to track every fuel, service, and inspection fee. Costs are since then, 7 years and 5 months. It has 133,000 miles on it now. I know nothing about cars and did no work myself (other than change the occasional windshield wiper). I followed the maintenance schedule in the owner's manual fairly closely.
Fuel: I tracked all 254 fill-ups with the Fuelly app.
Maintenance, Insurance, Inspections, Excise Tax: All work was done in mechanics' shops. This includes new brakes and tires as needed. Some repairs were random one-offs (e.g., $211.44 to replace a side mirror that was knocked off; $171.57 to replace the hood latch), but like many Subaru owners, I faced expensive repairs for the exhaust system and leaking head gaskets. I broke those out to give a sense of costs.
Insurance: Average $710 per year. This could have been cheaper since I carry collision, comprehensive, and zero deductible glass repair (yes, I know those do not make much financial sense with a car with value of $2k...I will change that...). Overall, my total cost of ownership has been $32,485.74 over 7 years and 5 months, or an average of $4380.10 per year and $0.406 per mile Interesting, the fuel cost per mile ($0.135) is almost exactly 33% of the total cost of ownership. Edit: These numbers do not include EZPass tolls or the once-per-year car wash. [link] [comments]  |
| Parents took out a loan without my consent. Posted: 26 Jan 2018 09:40 PM PST Little backstory: parents took out a 15k with a 11% APR personal loan with a under my name without consent. Also made 5 credit cards and putting me in additional 7k debt. I am currently job searching as a recent college graduate so there's no way of me dealing with it on my own for now. I want to take charge of any finances under my name but, I need some advice how to. Update: I don't want to file a report or get the police involved until its absolutely necessary, I still love my parents deep down for their flaws and good. I tried sitting down and talking to my mom about how we can come to an agreement to pay the debt and loan under the my conditions. Which is I will manage all my accounts and if she ever needs money, just talk to me and Ill try my best to reason with her. However, she went bat shit crazy instead without giving a valid reason, and saying why would she do something like that, it's not my money. She wants me out of the house but, she has already used $3500 from the loan and refuse to tell me what she spent it on. I don't think I can leave until she pays me back the $3500. Then I talked it over with my dad which he was more understanding and willing to follow by my conditions. What would happen if I filed a report? Is there a certain time period I should report before it becomes too late? [link] [comments]  |
| Don't let your credit line limits fool you Posted: 27 Jan 2018 06:04 PM PST I had a eye opening experience last week and I wanted to share my story in hopes of preventing others from doing what I did. I am 30 years old, and have lived a very good life. My parents weren't rich, but as a child I never went without, and got almost everything I asked for. My family lived in an apartment most of my childhood (free of charge as my mom was the property manager), so my parents had more disposable income than they would have had if they owned their own home. They didn't seem to ever manage a budget. My wife comes from a very well off family, her mom never worked, and she literally got everything she wanted. Her family definitely never had to worry about a budget. My wife and I live in Orange County, have good paying jobs, a house with great equity, 2 cars (financed), a HELOC, and a plethora of credit cards (we did the whole points thing for vacations). I'm embarrassed to say that I've worked in the finance industry and barely created my first budget at the age of 30. Fast forward to last week. My wife has absolutely no idea about finances, and I've never really given her the opportunity to assist as I've taken the "I got this, I'm the numbers guy," approach. I'm good at paying bills on time, moving money around to avoid interest, etc. She will be the first to admit she doesn't know much about finances, and has paid only 1 bill in her life, her Amazon credit card. One of her goals was to become more aware of our finances, because lately her shopping problem has gotten worse and she is worried about her spending. This is where things get interesting. I download a generic Excel Budget and plug in our income/expenses and am absolutely shocked by how much money we have after everything is said and done each month. We make ~$8k after taxes/401k/Roth IRA contributions, and we spend $7700/mo between our house payment, taxes, insurance, utilities, car payments, 529 contribution, day care, food, and entertainment. I knew that we weren't saving money, but I always figured we could if we wanted to, but I was dead wrong. Over the last 7 years we have been using credit cards and our HELOC to support a lifestyle we cant afford. Since last week I've cancelled our cable TV, shopped our home owners and car insurance for a savings of $800/annually + better coverage, and set up a weekly allowance for fast food/entertainment. We will be operating on a cash basis going forward. It feels good. All I am saying is make a budget, it's eye opening in the best way possible. Super basic budget template I used: https://templates.office.com/en-us/Personal-budget-TM10000134 [link] [comments]  |
| I did a very stupid thing.... What are my options? Posted: 27 Jan 2018 03:12 PM PST About a year ago, my cousin contacted several family members desparate for help because her hot water heater had broken and she didn't have good enough credit to get a new one. Through some passive aggressive manipulation on her part, I felt so bad for her and her family that I agreed to cosign for a loan for her (I know, I know...... Promise me, I'm beating myself over the head repeatedly for this) after she promised me she will pay the loan faithfully. I guess she had some sort of deferment agreement because she did not have to start making payments until this year. The problem is is that several of her payments have been late and I have gotten letters from the loan company about a past due payments and how it could impact my credit score. I also consigned for some education loans for my brother (again, already hating myself for this) and I am worried about the toll this will have on my credit. I agreed to all of this so reporting it would be dishonest on my part. I am a 25 year old teacher who lives with my parents but looking to move out and get a condo in the next couple of years. What are my options in this situation? In an attempt to find a silver lining in all of this and not go crazy, I keep reminding myself of lessons learned: no matter what the sob story or relation, don't cosign for loans for anyone. Ughhhh. Help please? Edit: I am new to this sub and I found the post about why it is a bad idea to cosign for family members. I feel so dumb about all of this. I am afraid I won't be able to do anything of value (get a house, pay for a wedding, etc) with all of this debt attached to my name. Along with that debt, I also have my own school loans and auto loan to pay off. Edit #2: so it seems that I need to ask some more questions about the cost of the boiler.... I am not sure why I did not do this before. Thank you all so much for the support and advice. I need to be more careful about what I do with my money after all if this is said and done. [link] [comments]  |
| Desperately need glasses but can not afford them Posted: 27 Jan 2018 01:54 PM PST I am a 18 year old teenager currently living in Ontario, neither of my parents have benefits and the cost of glasses is just too much. I will get student benefits in the fall when I go off to college but I can't wait that long? Is there a cheap way I can get a pair of glasses to hold me off until the fall? [link] [comments]  |
| Home energy efficiency investments: payback vs. reality - what has your experience been? Posted: 27 Jan 2018 01:58 PM PST We have just gone through some re-insulation of our house. With a $8000 cost, but 50% paid by the state, the installer's calculations said that we should make back the money in saved utility bills within 8 years. What home energy efficiency projects have you undertaken, and how has the payback reality compared to the initial estimates? [link] [comments]  |
| Get a car for 10% of net worth? Posted: 27 Jan 2018 03:25 PM PST I drive a 2004 Nissan suv worth 3k, which I bought 5 years ago for 11k. I currently have 20k in cash. 235k in investment (401k, stocks, little crypto) Now.. I want to buy a used Lexus GX460 2012 for 26k. It's a car I drool over every time it drives by. I like it for its safety and the statement it makes on the road. Can I buy it? It's more than 10% of my net worth.. I am 32M and on track to make 160k per year this year.. I would buy it fully in auto finance and pay it back in 6 months to improve my credit score.. but my main point is, can I buy this car? I am so torn over this.. Edit: I have trauma issues with auto accident..so going for the safest car I can buy.. Edit 2: Thanks a bunch people! I am buying it!!! started to day dream about it already :P may be will put up some pictures in few days :) Need to get back to my crying baby (socket programming), but that was quite insightful.. Thanks a bunch for the wild ride of emotions and some financial reflection and introspection.. [link] [comments]  |
| I am a first time Uber driver and I have never filed taxes on my own. Please help. Posted: 27 Jan 2018 06:03 PM PST All I know is that I need to file a form 1099 and nothing else. It's extremely complicated and it seems that I have already missed the Jan 15th deadline to file that taxes. What do I need to do? [link] [comments]  |
| Just received Broker’s Price Opinion for our house - really, really confused now. Posted: 27 Jan 2018 07:24 PM PST I'm really, really confused and disheartened right now - I'll try to keep it brief as possible. My wife and I bought our 4,500 square foot house in the Midwest almost 5 years ago, for $365,000 (cheapest house in a neighborhood of $450,000 - $1 million houses). It's not extravagant but still a nice upper-middle class house in one of the nicest neighborhoods in our town. Since we bought it we've put nearly $100,000 in improvements into it: $30,000 solar system, ripped master bath down to the studs and updated it (heated floors, new everything, etc), doubled the size of the fenced in yard, completely redid kitchen (replaced Formica with granite, cheapo oven with stainless double, new sinks, etc), new carpet in several rooms, finished off 400 square feet of unfinished space), etc. —— a LOT of work and keeping it up-to-date. When we bought the house we didn't put 20% down so have been paying PMI. With all of the improvements and houses in our neighborhood selling in the $500+ range (our neighbor across the street just bought for a little under $1 million) - we figured we'd have it re-appraised and easily be below the 20% loan to value to have the PMI dropped. The broker came out on the bank's behalf, took photos, etc. and I asked her a ballpark figure of what she would sell it if she was listing and she told us $550k - great! However, we just received the Broker's Price Opinion back and they said sorry - the house is now only worth $334,000 (a $30,000) drop from when we bought it. What do we do....!? :-( [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Jan 2018 10:26 AM PST My brother in law is working for an employment agency in Canada. The company is paying him in cash for the work he's doing at a warehouse. When he asked about a T4, they raised their hands, shaking them saying "We don't speak about that. Don't ask for one." Is he at any risk? He plans to remain honest and claim it. I can't recall, but is there an option to claim cash payments that you get from an "established" company? I've always had a T4 so I haven't had experience with that. Any input on this is appreciated, Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Relocating to another country. How to prevent fraudulent use of ssn? Posted: 27 Jan 2018 08:35 AM PST We are Australian citizens that have been living in the USA for close to 10 years. We are relocating to Australia in June, how do we prevent fraudulent use of our ssn? Do we notify Equifax, etc? [link] [comments]  |
| I am getting tax bills from a property that I no longer own in Chicago IL. Posted: 27 Jan 2018 07:28 PM PST In 2015 a property was quit claimed into my name. It was executed in June 2015 and was recorded in Feb 2017 I didn't know about this property until September 2017. It was quit claimed into my name without consent After much back and forward I gave up, paid $500 and quit claimed the property back. However today I received a $300 bill from Cook County for taxes due....however I should note that the tax bill said my name or "other owners" Also, this property had sold taxes from 2008-2015, I looked on the Cook County treasurer website and I found that there are property taxes for 2016 600$ and 2017 300$ which I assume is the bill that I got today since taxes are usually for the previous year. Am I responsible for any of this garbage? What happens if I ignore it and don't pay the taxes? I assume they'll take the property (although I am surprised they haven't yet since 2008-2015 taxes were sold and the property still hasn't been taken) however if they take the property will it affect me at all since it's no longer in my name? [link] [comments]  |
| Calculating 403(b) Contributions Posted: 27 Jan 2018 05:07 PM PST Hi all. I'm new to the working world and trying to absorb everything I can about saving for retirement. Can anyone help me with Excel sheet formulas for calculating what my monthly 403(b) contributions should be? I have a rough estimate of what I'll need to retire comfortably, but I'm having trouble figuring what that means for monthly contributions until then. I'd love to have formulas to work with as I'd like to tinker with different circumstances, savings rates, etc. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Best phone plan an 18 year old can get on? Posted: 27 Jan 2018 05:07 PM PST This might be the wrong place I'm not sure. Anyway I need to get my own phone plan. I want an iPhone and I don't want to spend crazy amounts of money. My dad makes it seem like iPhones are pointless. Can someone give me some wisdom as to how to get a phone for the first time? I've had the iPhone SE for 2 years since I got it on my birthday then. Any advice? [link] [comments]  |
| I need help reading an employee contract for a tech startup Posted: 27 Jan 2018 07:18 PM PST Hi, I'm an engineering student and was offered a business position. my role on the team is to acquire and maintain customers. i have a few questions about my contract: compensation: i get 5% of the ad revenue the company generates, no salary. this is renegotiable in 2 years. is this a standard amount of time to wait for renegotiation? and is this a small/high percentage for a tech company? since i'm taking the risk of bringing the team new customers, should i ask for more skin in the game? then the contract mentions units and vested securities and i don't really understand that concept at all or how that benefits me. then describes what would happen in a liquidity event. i would get a portion of the unvested securities. is this good? what exactly should i be asking for in the event of liquidity? any help is much appreciated. thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Roth IRA for down payment savings when house purchase is a possibility but not a certainty. Posted: 27 Jan 2018 05:59 AM PST I'm 32 y/o, married, 2 young kids living in a house with 1 bathroom. We're starting to feel like we might want to by a bigger house in ~5 years, but we like where we live so we could also imagine staying here forever. Current retirement savings are public employee pension + maxed HSA. I also have a Roth IRA that I'm currently contributing $1,000/yr. Would it be reasonable to store the savings for our potential down payment in the Roth IRA (in a Vanguard target date fund or something similar)? My thinking is, if we then decide not to buy a house, I will not have failed to take advantage of the IRA contribution limits for retirement savings. And even if we decide not to buy and need the money for something else non-retirement, we'd be able to withdraw it with no problem due to Roth. The obvious risk is that the market does badly and essentially makes the house choice for us. What are your thoughts on this situation? Any alternatively strategies I should be aware of? [link] [comments]  |
| Credit hit from mortgage pre-approval? Posted: 27 Jan 2018 07:02 PM PST Hello, My fiance and I are looking at houses, but are not necessarily in a giant hurry to buy RIGHT NOW. We found a magical property and got a mortgage pre-approval, however our offer was declined. We are still looking, but we may not offer another for a while. I'm hearing conflicting reports from people about how bad this is for a credit score. I'm being told that it's a hard pull and will cause a point drop of 1-15 points. But someone was saying that getting the approval and not using it will cause additional dings? Is that true? Is it common to have a 10+ point drop from a mortgage pre-approval? [link] [comments]  |
| Las year I spent more than $450.0 in fast food delivery. Posted: 27 Jan 2018 06:59 PM PST That's like two minimum wages in Peru and I may need help to stop this bad habit. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Jan 2018 12:59 PM PST My wife just got a pretty significant check via priority mail ($25 1 day express mail) that seems very suspicious. I have been targeted by mass mail schemes before and they are pretty obvious but this seems more legitimate? All I can think of is it is either for a class action lawsuit that she signed up for or a dividend check for company stock/land that she inherited but is unaware of. Anyone have any idea how to research this or the best steps to take? Information is very minimal, a company name and an individual name on the check. An hour of internet searching gave me very little info, the company on the shipping envelope is real and the individual listed on the check might be a lawyer that specializes in class action and personal injury. PS: If I missed the advice in the Wiki or am breaking sub rules I apologize in advance and will resubmit or delete if needed. [link] [comments]  |
| Young, Married, Two Full Time Jobs, and Pregnant. What now? Posted: 27 Jan 2018 06:54 PM PST So here's the shortest story I can give. I'm an avid saver and a school teacher, my wife is a culture supervisor for a budding business. We just bought a house in 2017. We are both college grads, and I'm working on my Master's degree in Mathematics. Between us both we have 8k in savings, no debt other than our mortgage, and two full time jobs giving about 65K a year to live on (such is life as a teacher, and a HR rep). The reason we only have 8k is because of our home purchase, and our mortgage is around $800 for 30 years, which just began. We're now discovering we are pregnant! Which is exciting but frightening. So what is the best thing we can do financially for our family and future child? I definitely want to set up a college fund as best I can, but what are the best financial tips for getting ready for parent hood, how should my budget be changed, and what should I be prepared for? [link] [comments]  |
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