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    Personal Finance Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of May 04, 2018

    Personal Finance Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of May 04, 2018


    Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of May 04, 2018

    Posted: 04 May 2018 02:06 PM PDT

    If you need help, please check the PF Wiki to see if your question might be answered there.

    This thread is for personal finance discussions, questions, and sharing your success stories:

    1. Make a top-level comment if you want to share something positive regarding your personal finances!

      Instead of posting individual threads for positive success stories of how you've funded your emergency fund, made progress on your debt, saved for a future goal, reached a certain net worth, or anything else you would like to share, let's consolidate everyone's stories into one weekly thread!

    2. Please make a top-level comment if you want to ask a question! Also, please don't downvote "moronic" questions! If you have not received your answer within 24 hours, you can feel free to start a discussion.

    A big thank you to the many PFers who take time to answer other people's questions!

    For past threads, please search the Weekly Archive.

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    I'm looking for an App that I can take a photo/scan a receipt and it will itemize it in an excel type program

    Posted: 04 May 2018 07:05 AM PDT

    Something like this program called itemize. My end goal would be for example: I go to target, buy 20 things. I'd like to be able to extract that data into excel/sheets/numbers/etc so I can manipulate what I spend on paper towels, groceries, electronics, etc.

    Thanks!

    **** Edit **** Thank you all for the great suggestions. I have some researching to do.

    submitted by /u/ohh_ok
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    Boss won’t let me take off work as a high school senior?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 04:55 AM PDT

    Okay so I've been working at this local, family-owned deli for about 8 months. I work as a delivery driver and I work Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 5-8:30ish. I say 8:30ish because we close at 8 but I stay after to clean up the restaurant which can take anywhere from 30-60 minutes. So, onto the problem. As I'm graduating high school in less than a month, I'm going to be very busy with senior week, grad parties, and vacation. I texted my boss a month in advance for the grad parties that I am taking off for, which is only two dates, June 15,16, for my really close friends. Now my boss says that I can't take off for those days because they aren't legitimate reasons to take off. He also told me that this is real life because it's a real job. While I understand that to a degree, I'm still a high school senior, I have a lot going on in my life and I can't keep a steady 4-day schedule forever. I'm also 95% certain that a friend that works there, my classmate who is also a senior, requested off for grad parties and he had no problem with it. So basically I'm confused because I really don't want to miss the grad parties but I also don't want to get fired. What do I do?

    Edit: pretty much everyone is telling me to quit, but it will really hurt their business for a bit if I quit because they do not have a replacement for me as there are many cashiers and such, but only 3 delivery drivers including me. I also am friends with everyone there and would like to leave on... idk the right word... better terms?

    submitted by /u/ChocolateLurk
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    I need to pay off 19K in CC debt. Should I use my 401k or take out a Personal Loan?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 07:17 AM PDT

    I need to pay off $19K in CC debt. I haven't charged anything in YEARS and I'm still paying $550+ a month and I'm tired of it. I would like to either withdraw from my 401k or take out a personal loan.

    (I am currently trying to refinance my students loan, by July. I'm not sure if getting a personal loan will hurt or help me.)

    401K ROUTE: I know that withdrawing from my 401k is a bad idea and that I need to save for retirement. However, I need to get rid of my CC debt. To lessen the tax load, I would like to withdraw about $2k-$5k a year, and pay off one card each year.

    PERSONAL LOAN ROUTE: I am open to getting a personal loan to pay off my CC debt, if the interest rate is low, and payments are lower than what I pay now.

    Here's my financial picture:

    28 yrs, no kids, not married but have a boyfriend, who I do not live with. Credit Score is maybe 650? (No missed payments or negative remark, just high CC balance %)

    Income/Assets:

    • $44,880/year
    • Income after tax, insurance, and 401k: $631.80 a week.
    • Savings: $350 (had a lot more but just paid income taxes and car taxes)

    401k:

    $2,344.93 (increases every week). (Only giving $17.18 a week, and company matches. At this time, I cannot afford to give more and take full advantage of my company match. Hope to do so in the future.)

    Cash Spending:

    • Rent & Utilities: every single thing housing related is under $700/month. This includes rent, water, internet, gas and power. Sometimes it's only $680/ month. This amount will decrease when I move in with my boyfriend, in June
    • Budget: $10/day for eating out, $18/week for gas, and $30/week for Groceries (I usually don't spend all of this.) Misc. expenses come from what is rolled over from the week, after bills. I usually have about $50-$100 extra each week. Some goes into savings or additional CC payments

    Debt:

    • Car: $217/month, Balance $11,171.50, 6.95% (I know, horrible rate. Will be paid off in 5 years.)
    • Sallie Mae Student Loans: $1,000/month for 2 loans: $70,509.15 & $21,623.94 @8.875%. Loan term is only 12 years and they are currently deferred until July. I need to refinance! I cannot afford these payments. Need it cut in half at least and/or loan term doubled!)
    • Navient Student Loans: $48/month, Balance $3,664.22, 9.35%

    CC debt:

    • BoA: $100.month, Balance $3,143.08, 24.49%
    • Cap1: $35/month, Balance $1,270.55, 21.30%
    • Chase: $118/month, Balance $4,575.63, 17.49%
    • Citibank: $70/month, Balance $2,264.15, 23.49%
    • Barclays: $130/month, Balance $4,727.69, 20.49%
    • LAFCU: $62/month, Balance $2,035.31, 8.49%
    • AMEX: $35/month, Balance $1,384.31, 16.74%

    With that being said: Take from 401k or get a personal loan? Will getting a personal loan hurt my chances of student loan refinancing?

    THANK YOU FOR READING!

    submitted by /u/djrainbowpixie
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    $75,000 combined income with $65,000 in student loan debt please help

    Posted: 04 May 2018 07:35 AM PDT

    I think we have a pretty common story but thanks in advance for reading. My wife and I are 26. I am finishing up graduate school. I just got a full time job that pays $32,000 and she has a job paying $43,000. I will be able to apply to better paying jobs (45,000 to 60,000) after I finish my thesis. We have 5 student loans (3 private and 2 Federal) they range from 3% to 7.74% we have been paying the minimum on all of them except the highest interest rate one we put an extra $200 a month. I read a book by Dave Ramsey on debt and he said to get the momentum going start tackling the lowest amount loan first. We have about $16,000 saved which I know is a higher emergency fund than needed. But we are about to buy a used car for around $7,000 so that we don't have to make monthly payments on our car lease. I am wondering how much money should we be dedicating to our student loans and how much should we start putting into savings/retirement account. We currently pay about $700 a month in student loans. We budget about $1,250 in rent, $130 in utilities, $400 in groceries, $300 for everything else. We also have an Acorns account that puts about $50 a month into the stock market.. The rest has been going into savings. This was when we were making far less (around $55,000) Now that we are making more what makes the best financial sense in terms of student loan repayment and saving for future expenses like a house and retirement?

    Edit: sorry new to reddit. My wife is eligible for employer match retirement account in about a month or two. We do spend a lot on groceries but we are usually under budget because we meal prep and plan out for each week and use the extra for eating out. Also I agree Dave doesn't seem to understand science. We are uncomfortable with a low emergency fund and would like to save for at least 3 months of expenses. I am finishing up my thesis and then will be applying to new jobs and my area is social science with an emphasis on research design and statistics. Also we got out of our lease without having to pay anything it was a full buyback which was awesome (went on the last day of the month).

    Edit: Just so happens that the highest loan rate is also the lowest loan amount around $5,600 left

    submitted by /u/geewhizz123456
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    Financial podcasts worth listening to

    Posted: 04 May 2018 02:48 AM PDT

    I am trying to find new podcasts to educate myself about different aspects of personal finance.

    submitted by /u/voomdama
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    < 4% Unemployment. Brace for Impact?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 06:33 PM PDT

    I noticed in a chart today that every time we hit a low low unemployment rate, we soon hit a recession. 1) probably the wrong sub, but what's up with that? 2) besides "don't look at your balances and don't change anything" when the shot hits the fern, anything we should be doing differently with investments in the meantime?

    I don't know formatting voodoo, and I'm on mobile, but link if anyone's interested: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/business/economy/jobs-report.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

    submitted by /u/took_a_bath
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    Help! Parents are both 56 and have almost nothing put away for retirement plans.

    Posted: 04 May 2018 04:24 PM PDT

    So as the title says, both my parents are getting close to retirement. They only just contributed to a traditional IRA for the year of 2017 and maxed it out (mostly to help with taxes) and they do plan to fully contribute each year. My dad would like to retire pretty much asap, he cant keep up the work he's doing for much longer. Mom can plans to stay working pretty much as long as she can or decides to change her mind.

    Neither of my parents work places really provide much retirement benefits/options. I believe my dad will be receiving some type of pension from his employer and the Union he's under after retirement, Mom told me it'd be in the ball park of 1500-2000 a month but not sure. In case it matters, combined they make at least 82k a year but usually around 100k because my mom makes commission. They do have an emergency fund sitting in a savings account that is around 35 - 45 thousand.

    Anyway, the main issue is we're unsure how we should start distributing investing the money in the IRA. They are with Vanguard so I was looking at the target retirement funds. Is this just the best way to go if they plan to retire in 5-10 years? Should we be worried about a potential crash in a few years, especially for my dad who plans to retire sooner?

    After retirement Dad will make between 1500 - 2000 so I guess lets say 1750. If my Mom stops working then it'll be pretty much nothing but like I said she'll probably keep working for another 10 years, her individual income is at minimum 46K but usually around 70-80k. Expenses at the high end 3500 (don't have the exact numbers on me)

    Any help would be much appreciated and sorry for the wall of text :)))

    Edit: Stuff and words

    submitted by /u/SleepIs4DaWeak
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    Weird/Phishy Credit Card Situation Turned Out To Be Legitimate

    Posted: 04 May 2018 09:46 AM PDT

    I had an odd situation unfold over the last few weeks and thought it would interest some of you.

    An 888 number called and I let it go to voicemail. The message they left was "Hi this is Ms. Jackson with the Capital One Fraud Department. There was some recent activity regarding your account ending in -1234 and we'd like you to verify a few things. Please call me back immediately at 1-888-xxx-xxxx".

    I ignored the number they provided and went to the Capital One webpage. Under their contact info page, I called the number for their fraud department (note, the only 1-888 number on their page was for marketing). I spoke with someone and explained the voicemail and I was wanting to verify my account standing. The representative on the phone told me there were no flags, no holds, and no comments on my account. He then mentioned "Yeah it was probably just phishing. If it were a legitimate hold, we'd get in touch with you a little more creatively than that!"

    So then a couple days go by and I attempt to use my card for the first time since I got that call. Card was declined. Interesting, maybe a glitch. Use another card and forget about it. Then a few more days, try my card again, and once again it is declined again. Okay something is going on.

    I call Capital One Fraud and ask what's happening, they say there's a hold on my account for possible fraud. I ask what I have to do to unlock it and they say that my account is being handled by some kind of special fraud team and it can only be unlocked by, you guessed it, "Ms. Jackson". Then there was a lot of irrelevant bs about Ms. Jackson being away for the week and no one else being able to unlock it... Anyway, the next week Ms. Jackson comes back to work, I call the Capital One Fraud, they transfer me over to her, and it turns out someone managed to get their hands on my credit card checks! Tried writing themselves 3x $500 checks. I verified those were fraudulent, and Capital One cancelled the account #, got me a new one, and all is well.

    I still have no idea why the representative I spoke with the first time I called didn't see anything on my account. Maybe it didn't refresh on their systems yet? Maybe Ms. Jackson called me before an official hold or comment was actually placed on my account? I don't know.

    submitted by /u/bandit25
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    I run my own business thru an S-corp with one employee (me). My wife and I both get health insurance thru her employer, but she may be leaving her job. What options do we have? (California, USA)

    Posted: 04 May 2018 06:37 PM PDT

    Pretty much what it says above. 36, healthy, married, own my own business. I've never purchased health insurance for myself, so I don't know how "the marketplace" works, how to negotiate CoveredCalifornia/ACA, etc. If my wife leaves her company (for a gig that doesn't provide insurance), I'll need to figure it out!

    I suppose my main question is "do I have any specific options for myself and my spouse that arise from the S-corp" -- i.e. tax advantages, better rates, etc. that would come from buying insurance thru the entity rather than as an individual. Thanks in advance and apologies for any incorrect assumptions in the above.

    submitted by /u/DonkeyMane
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    I’m struggling financially, going to be homeless in the next few months. I can’t work in my area and need to move, what do I do?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 03:17 PM PDT

    I'm about £1500 in debt currently, haven't worked since February and have been living off savings. I'm about to run out of money and my rent is due in 3 weeks.

    I started stripping at 18 to get away from my abusive home life but unfortunately It's not an option anymore as I can't do it sober. The job was destroying my health.

    I'm now 20, with no actual work experience, living in an area that's unsafe for me and I have no one to rely on. Parents can't help me and neither can other family members, friends aren't in any position to help either.

    I'm just adding this backstory in for context. Scroll past for the point I can't do a normal job due to relatives being involved with the wrong people, I'm guilty by association. Meaning I don't want anyone affiliated with said gangs or whatever seeing me and hurting me. I still live very close to them and don't want them to find out where I live. I could do stripping and be safe to go out as it was nights and I could pay for taxis there and back, the money was okay but I didn't anticipate that I would stop. Because of this, I wasn't as frugal as I should have been. I'm really kicking myself for it.

    I don't think I would make enough to pay for taxis all the time on a normal wage. I don't even feel safe sleeping at night, if I need to go to the shop I walk around with my hood up and a scarf over my face. It's getting to summer so i won't even be able to do that for much longer without baking or looking obvious. I can't call the police as they won't be able to do anything.

    Anyway to the point

    I desperately need to move and want a job. It'll be okay if I'm somewhere safe where I can sleep at night. But I can't afford a deposit, first months rent or anything. I did have it saved and was almost ready to find somewhere, but my pet died and the vet bills depleted my savings by a big chunk.

    I don't know if I can get benefits as I'm registered as self employed from stripping.

    I'm just so stuck. I desperately want a job and as hard as I can I just need to feel safe in my own home.

    I just want to be clear I am in no way shape or form asking for a handout in case that's how this comes across, I just want financial advice, suggestions or even some tough love haha.

    I just need any suggestions or advice. Does anyone know of any numbers or resources out there that could help me? Is there any way I can make money at home? Any advice on how to get out of this situation would be great, or even just similar stories that ended well for encouragement. Thank you.

    TL:DR £200 left, no money and no job. Need money to move for safety. If anyone knows of any resources out there, advice or anything that could help it would be much appreciated.

    EDIT: I don't know if I'm not seeing comments because they've been removed or not. To the person who asked about camming, it's crossed my mind but I don't want to jeopardise any future career if someone finds out.

    EDIT 2: Its getting late here and I can't keep my eyes open much longer, I will make sure to get back to everyone first thing tomorrow.

    submitted by /u/i-miss-mydog133
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    We are planning a wedding - What kind of insights can you all provide?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 02:04 PM PDT

    So my now fiancee and I are planning our wedding - we are trying to realistically gauge prices for our venue and getting a headcount etc. I suspect we will be planning for some time next year in the early fall.

    We live in Northern Virginia and I was curious if anyone could provide some small expenses they may have overlooked planning their own weddings or even what average rates for things like photographers and DJs are. Realistically I would like to keep the expenses below $10,000 and I suspect our guestlist will settle somewhere around 65 people. Having never done this before I will admit I am not sure if that goal is realistic, either!

    Based on my quick math and without taking into account our RSVPs at the moment I suspect the reception/food/bar alone will run us around $7,200 which is a huge portion of the budget. Should I adjust my expected minimum?

    submitted by /u/9mmlove
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    Over 100K in savings but not ready to buy. What should I do?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 08:19 AM PDT

    I am in my early 30's and I have 100K in savings.

    I currently rent a room with 3 roommates, my rent is 400$ + heating which can be 30$ per month in winter and around 10$ during summer time.

    I am very happy with the life I have, I work from home and I have good clients. So paying rent and food is never a problem.

    Last month I hit 100K in savings, which 20K are in an RRSP account, and 10K out of those 20K were invested in Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs).

    I don't feel ready to buy my own place, it's mainly because I had enough living alone and I am pretty much happy with having roommates even though I do not agree with their hygiene level. I also like the area where I live which is close to the DT.

    When I was looking to buy, my budget was 180K so I will definitely be away from the area I love and I like buy somewhere not fancy but the advantage of this is that I can pay it off quickly.

    Since I don't feel ready to commit to such a thing, I thought about renting it or placing the app. on airbnb. This could be an exiting project, but I don't know if I can really rely on renting it, I can't be sure that I will find someone to rent the place.

    I am afraid to keep the money in my saving account because it can lose it's value anytime (we are talking about Canadian money here, the loonie).

    What should I do?

    I am not into investing in stocks, I know it's very risky.

    submitted by /u/_BodyBuilder
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    Getting a “under-the table” job at $18,000 a year. How do I pay taxes on it? Washington state.

    Posted: 04 May 2018 06:33 PM PDT

    It's a medical job for an at-home medical helper if that helps. I'm taking the job because I live with my SO and she makes more money than I ever will and I don't want to make it look like I leech off of her. Edit: I just realized I'm on my porn account. Well this is a bit awkward.

    submitted by /u/PM_PIC_O_NECK_N_TITS
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    Closing my Bank of America personal checking for good - bad idea?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 06:06 AM PDT

    Long story short: tired of having the $1500 locked in there, it's virtually untouchable without paying fees if the minimum balance required drops. I'm starting my own business and will open a BoA small business checking account where I will transfer that money to, and also apparently BoA biz checking has no minimum balance requirement as long as you spend $250/month on their cards which I easily will. So now my question is, am I making a bad decision by closing my personal checking account? I was thinking maybe opening one with TD bank or something and just throw $100 in there because BoA holding $1500 just seems stupid to me

    edit: seems like people are misunderstanding. I am not "dumping BoA" and do not know why I should either since I never had any issue with them. I am simply closing down my personal account due to the $1500 held hostage, and opening a business checking account with them where I can move my money freely and even drop the balance to $0 if needed (according to their website and a rep on the phone) without the monthly fee as long as I spend $250/mth. So in the end, I am gonna be holding way way more money with BoA through their biz account

    submitted by /u/CoconutWata
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    $35K in Student Debt - RSU + Income - Looking for Finance Advice

    Posted: 04 May 2018 05:32 PM PDT

    I've done a bit of sifting through the posts and links here to get some clarity on finance, as I'm pretty inept in the subject.

    I am almost 30 feel as though I am finally getting my grounding financially after years of bad jobs and unemployment. When I got my current job, ~11% of my checks started to be garnished by USDoE almost immediately. I have done a poor job in tracking my loans and now feel a little overwhelmed as I am trying to move closer to work but cannot get approved due to the DF loans. The company grants RSU award each year to combine with the base pay. Almost 3 years with the company I now have nearly $63k in RSU(~45k vesting this year). Base pay + RSU, I make about $72k/yr. I am not sure if the best solution is to just tackle the debt or to leave the stock alone as it's doing well(AMZN).

    I downloaded my student loan data; there's 11 loans listed and a lot of numbers. I plotted it out in excel to perhaps give myself a better understanding, but I don't.

    I do also have 401k setup with 5% contr. and +1 each year; employer matches 50% up to 4%. I am just looking to understand my debt situation better and figure out the best path to dig myself out of this. Any and all advice welcome!, Thanks!

    submitted by /u/njn8
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    3 years of retirement savings or 3 years of down payment savings?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 06:41 PM PDT

    Hi folks, I'm back with yet another question pertaining to retirement funds. I'm a crazy 23 year old, I know.

    After you all almost unanimously told me to max out my retirement contributions, I accepted the fact that my take home paycheck would be much lower than what I expected, and that's okay because I'd get the money back and more when it really matters. However, that didn't leave me with very much money to save, and I do want to break into the housing market within the next 5 years. Unless I want a crazy high mortgage payment through a low down payment FHA loan, I need to start saving some serious money, and if I contributed the maximum toward retirement while still saving as much as I need to, I'd have about $200 left over per month. So here's my question:

    What are your thoughts on contributing only $5k a year toward retirement for 3 years, and having the rest of the $18.5k ($13.5k) moved automatically to my savings account with every paycheck? I say this so that I don't foolishly spend the money. After 3 years, that alone is $40.5k, and I'd probably be able to save about another $20k by living more or less frugally.

    I know saving for retirement is SO important and to start early if I can, but living in Boston, any property you buy can so easily become an investment property. Renters will pay for the mortgage and then some, and I can hang on to it for as long as I can afford to. Ideally I'll be able to buy another property once I'm married or making more money, and then once I retire and the mortgage is paid off, it'll be pure income.

    In my head it makes total sense and seems foolproof, but I wanted to check and make sure I'm not missing anything. I ran it by my dad and he told to "check with that awesome reddit group you keep talking about!"

    Edit to add: My credit score fluctuates between 745-760 depending on the day- it was 795 before I took my student loans out so it's rising pretty quickly as I pay them down. My credit score is definitely not a barrier to home ownership if that's a concern!

    submitted by /u/theisraelee
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    selling my house, what next?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 07:44 PM PDT

    I'm selling my house and I expect to walk away from this with 70 to 90k depending on how well it sells. Now we (family of 5) are moving somewhere where the cost of living is low and we won't be responsible for paying rent or utilities.

    I will be going to school during this time and can reduce my expenses to 1k/ month. At 4 years I will have 48k sitting around waiting to be spent. what's a good thing to do with that money to ensure liquidity of 1k/ month?

    submitted by /u/Quelude
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    Hospital offering 50% off my two-year old $2,300 emergency room debt. Should I be suspicious?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 07:35 PM PDT

    This debt is in collections and I've been receiving calls about it pretty regularly, but today the collection representative said that the hospital is offering to clear the debt if I pay 50% as part of a "kind of special promotion," as she described it. Is this a common thing? It seems really odd to me, but I'm completely inexperienced in this type of situation. Could it be a scam? Could I get a better offer if I keep ignoring them? Should I try to bargain with them? I haven't had the means to pay the debt since it was created, but I could scrape together $1,150 to clear it from my life (they said it would be removed from my credit history in 30 days). Should I even be worried about prioritizing paying this off when I need the money for other basic living expenses?

    Side note, I'm uninsured, and was uninsured at the time of the original bill. I no longer live in the same state, and have been earning well below the poverty line for the duration of the debt.

    submitted by /u/Piscolabis
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    (California) My mom want to add me to the deed of her house to claim a tax credit. Can anything go wrong?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 02:16 PM PDT

    My mom wants to convert her house to solar power and there's a program that allows a $9k tax credit as an incentive. However, due to her income situation she pays essentially no tax. She wants to add me to the deed of her house (not the mortgage or anything) so I can claim the tax credit against my taxes and give it to her. I'm not super well-versed on taxes or mortgages (I rent currently), so I wanted to know if this could go wrong in any way.

    submitted by /u/amethyn
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    So I’m trying to figure out the minimum amount of money I need to make a year to live comfortably, but I’m terrible at explaining.

    Posted: 04 May 2018 04:48 PM PDT

    I live in the eastern part of Washington. I have $8000 in student debt. Minimum currently $0 but it would be $74 when I get hired. $420 every two months for helping with bills $420 every month for food and monthly bills. Not involving minimum wage of Washington what's the minimum I need to have to pay all these bills and maybe have some cash extra

    submitted by /u/DKuelanaz59
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    Medical bill that should have been covered by insurance has been sent to collections. Should I pay it or fight it somehow?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 06:51 PM PDT

    tldr; I kept getting billed for something I didn't have to pay. It's now been sent to collections. It's ~$66. Should I just pay it?

    Longer version: I maxed out my out-of-pocket expense on my medical insurance last year due to something unexpected. In theory, that meant that all my necessary procedures from their on out had no out of pocket cost for me. Sure enough, over the course of several follow up procedures, I kept getting billed $0. It was great.

    During my very last follow up appointment (with a new doctor), they did some lab work with an outside lab. The doctor had no problem billing me, but the lab couldn't seem to get their act together. They kept telling me my insurance was invalid and kept sending me bills.

    Due to my stubbornness, I never paid; but due to my laziness, I never called my insurance company about it.

    Now, ~6 months later, I got a letter from a collections agency.

    This is all over about $66.

    I know that I don't technically have to pay this money - my insurance is supposed to cover it. However, I don't want to waste any more time dealing with this.

    Am I better off just paying at this point? Will this affect my credit in some way, (which is otherwise perfect up till now).

    submitted by /u/HolidayStation8
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    Open multiple 0% APR credit Cards for a large purchase?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 11:53 AM PDT

    Hi PF,

    I've been reading that it can be a smart way to pay for a large purchase, if you have the cash on hand already, to open a 0% interest credit card that offers cashback rewards as well as a signup bonus.

    Would it be wise to open multiple of these cards to collect all of the bonuses? What would be the credit implications for opening 1 as compared to multiple new cards at once?

    For instance say I was making an $3,500 purchase (and assuming all of the cards below are newly opened) and I pay $500 with a Chase Freedom card ($150 bonus + 1.5% cashback), $500 with a Capital One Quicksilver ($150 bonus + 1.5% cashback), $500 with a Bank of America Cash Rewards Card ($150 bonus), $1000 with a Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa Card ($200 bonus + 1.5% cashback), and $1,000 with a Blue Cash Everyday Amex ($150 + 1% cashback).

    In this scenario I would earn $840 dollars in rewards points bringing the total purchase price down from $3,500 to $2660.

    What am I missing here, why would this not be a wise move?

    Cheers,

    Edit: Thanks to everyone for the advice! I will certainly check out r/churning as it was mentioned several times, and on first glance it appears to be a great resource for this exact thing.

    submitted by /u/peepusher
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    Financially stable with little obligations, what's next?

    Posted: 04 May 2018 04:00 PM PDT

    I'm 28 years old and still single and little obligations to anyone except my parents and siblings with 50k in immediate savings. My job doesn't offer 401k, and I'm about to max out my Roth IRA. Rent is $1500, groceries, bills, transport, eating out and miscellaneous purchases come out to about $600 a month. I make about $1400 a week on average.

    I don't have any intention of buying a house anytime soon or doing anything huge with my life. So, the question is: what now? I don't know if I should keep putting money into a savings account or do something with it, but if so, then what? Any advice?

    submitted by /u/spokenhypothetically
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