Personal Finance Macy’s - Be Aware |
- Macy’s - Be Aware
- ELI5: when does it make sense to pay off a mortgage early?
- GM Dealer wants to buy my used truck(great offer) but I have some concerns.
- The Company I work for was sold, and the new ownership group does not have a pension plan. My old pension is mine to do what I want with. What do I do?
- Starting a new job soon with significant pay increase, is a new car a mistake?
- Khan Academy is a great resource for free personal finance knowledge! Topics covered include saving and budgeting, investments and retirement, and much more.
- I want to go back to school eventually but I’m not sure I’ll be able to do so financially
- For the couples out there: how did you combine your finances??
- How to find money to go back to school as an adult
- Mom put money into an annuity starting in 2003, and now she needs the money for medical costs. (USA)
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- 18, Inability to pay emergency room bill.
- Can I afford this car?
- Here's a Simple Budgeting Plan
- Need help with long term financial planning as a stripper
- Recent Grad with Questions About Taxes
- Is getting a mortgage/home loan possible on minimum wage?
- Buying a used vehicle while active duty
- 18 years old--paying for tuition alone (student loans?)--working two jobs--came into a little money--help me plan?
- Canadian personal finance shows?
- Help selecting 401K plan
- Can I be approved for a mortgage working a part-time job?
| Posted: 03 Jun 2018 02:06 PM PDT I placed an order for a sectional couch from Macy's yesterday and got a call today from someone to verify the order. It seemed legit enough but strangely they were "unable" to find the order and suggested that my credit card number could be used to pull it up. Immediately red flags went off so I hung up and called the number listed on Macys.com but their entire customer service and later fraud department seemed completely unconcerned. Perhaps it was a legit call but why on earth would a company think it's ok to call me and ask for my credit card information? It seems surreal that a scammer somehow knew I placed an order, tried to get my card info, and Macy's couldn't care less. I hope I'm wrong though. [link] [comments]  |
| ELI5: when does it make sense to pay off a mortgage early? Posted: 03 Jun 2018 06:25 AM PDT I have been told that it is a better financial move to keep a mortgage balance rather than pay it off, because of the tax deduction. Can someone ELI5 why this is the case? If the tax deduction is only on a percentage of income and you are still paying interest on the principle I don't understand why someone who has the capital wouldn't want to pay off the mortgage and then invest the previous monthly payment in a low risk security. Any further explanation would be appreciated. Edit: to give some additional information based on the comments — my mortgage is my only current debt (66k remaining that I refinanced at around 4% two years ago). I currently max out the IRAs for both my wife and I and also contribute around 6-8% of our income to our 401ks. I have a college fund setup for my two year old son and 40k in emergency fund. Just want to make sure I'm using my free Capital in the most efficient way. Welcome and other thoughts... [link] [comments]  |
| GM Dealer wants to buy my used truck(great offer) but I have some concerns. Posted: 03 Jun 2018 08:15 AM PDT My father recently passed away and I'm personal representative of his estate and have a notarized letter of authority(non-supervised) from the Probate Court. I now legally own his 2012 GM Truck that has below 50,000 actual miles and it's in "very good" shape. Clear title, he owned it out right(so it's now mine). The dealer I took the truck to gave me a great price(he typed the VIN into Kelly Blue Book) and I had also did my KBB at home beforehand as well to get the value. He quoted me just $500 below the KBB value for some wear and tear in my truck's bed liner. Otherwise, it was a great offer. I explained the situation on why I needed to sell the truck and it seemed like they hadn't dealt with a customer before that had a Personal Letter of Authority of an Estate. So he went to "his titling manager" and they asked me if I could go to the Secretary of State to get the title put into my name. I told them I could but generally understood that dealerships can handle that portion when it's a free and clear title while saving me a trip to the dreaded Secretary of State. He told me it would be easier on them for me to get the title in my name and I told I could and that'd I do it first thing this coming week. The Dealership rep explained to me that once I got the title, to bring it back along with the truck and that I would "sign off on the agreement for the price they're giving me for the truck" but that I'd have to wait 48-72 hours for them to get me a cashier's check as they had to send the paperwork to "their corporate owner/district manager" to sign off on the agreement and send a cashier's check back to them to give me for the full agreed upon amount. All this he explained while THEY KEEP MY TRUCK and I only walk out with a "purchase agreement". I told them I had never, ever heard of this before and why wouldn't they just cut me a cashier's check on the spot, hand it to me and then I give them the keys to the truck. He cited "it's our dealership policy" again. So I told him to hold on and went outside and called my Estate Attorney who's handling all my legal matters and my estate lawyer told me he had never heard of this practice before either(he's been in practice for over 40 years) and didn't understand why they wouldn't give me payment on the spot as soon as I provided the title with my name on it, etc. I told my attorney that I'd fax him a copy of the "purchase agreement" for him to review before I signed off on it and he said absolutely and that I should expect some clauses in there where the dealer could conceivably "pull out of the deal" I signed with them ie: they find more damage, etc. I told him that I had already fully disclosed EVERYTHING with the truck, the slight issues which they had already looked over(and had taken it out for a quick test drive) and said no problem and that they had ran the VIN number so they know all the options along with them pulling a "Carfax" report. At which point my Attorney said it still "sounded strange" to him. So going forward, I will be getting the title transferred over to my name at the Secretary of State(obviously taking all the proper paperwork to get it switched over to my name). However, I am just not comfortable signing off an a "agreement" for the dealership to buy my truck for the agreed upon amount while they make me wait 48-72 hours for the cashier's check and they take possession of my truck immediately. My plan going forward is a) getting the the Secretary of State to get the title in my name b) calling back the dealer and telling them I have the title in my name. c) telling them I will only sign the "agreement" if they give me instant payment before I give them the keys or I'll sign the agreement but I KEEP the truck in my possession until my payment "comes back from Corporate in their 48-72 hour time frame" at which time I'll drive the truck back up there, get my payment and hand them the keys and title. If they balk at that, I walk away. So any other Reddit Lawyers or Car Dealers who can give some guidance here as well? Is that now a "normal practice" for a dealer to buy your vehicle from you, take possession of it but then make you wait 2-3 days until they actually pay you while they KEEP YOUR VEHICLE? Thank you so much anyone with advice/tips and I love and miss you dad. -Ultrazilla P.S. for anyone recommending "why don't you just keep the truck"? We already own two vehicles and I have other family members I have to share inheritance with. Thanks again! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Jun 2018 10:39 AM PDT The Pension account has approximately $31,000 in it. My wife and I would love to sell our home and buy a larger house in the future. Is cashing the pension and paying penalties and taxes a bad idea if it helps us with a larger down payment? Should I ignore the pension money and just roll it into another investment to avoid taxes and penalties? Edit: NY State Edit 2: Financial info: We bought our current home 6 years ago to build equity and to stop renting. It was our starter home, not our 'forever' home. We have our first baby on the way now. Current debt is approx 40k student loans, approx 70k left on mortgage, one car lease, I own my car outright. About 4k in misc. 0% interest debt (had to replace a refrigerator, etc) all set up to be paid off while the accounts are still 0% interest. We both have 401k plans with company $.50 per $1.00 match and we're a 150k income household. We have approximately 15k in savings right now. We've been improving our home since we bought it thus the lower savings number but we're able to save month to month a fair amount. [link] [comments]  |
| Starting a new job soon with significant pay increase, is a new car a mistake? Posted: 03 Jun 2018 11:10 AM PDT For some background, I'm 18, graduated high school last year and have been working retail for about a year as well as doing an internship for the past 10 months in my chosen career field. I still live with my parents and pay my dad a small amount each month for rent and to use his car but I will need to get my own car within the next 6 months. I just accepted a job offer in my field that pays anywhere from 10-15k more than what I'm currently making. I made some budgets with exaggerated expenses and I determined if I stay w/ my parents short term I could expect to take home 1-1.5k after all expenses each month or .5-1k if I move out. Im also planning on starting college in the next 1-3 years and would like to be able to pay for as much of it as possible out of pocket to avoid starting my career in debt. Also worth noting that experience is nearly just as important as an actual degree for the career I want so starting college as soon as possible won't necessarily guarantee me a high income position. So the car: Right now I feel like I have the choice between either getting a cheap starter car for 5-8k and having it paid for very quickly or getting something in the 15-20k range (2016 Civic preferably) and start aggressively paying it off before I move out so I dont lose much to interest. I know any significant debt this young can have some pretty big impacts but Im entertaining the expensive option because I don't want to worry about whether I'll have to spend time or money on significant maintainance and would like something reliable that doesn't have issues for at least the next 5-8 years though school. For minor points I do care enough about appearances that I'd feel more comfortable in the nicer car as well as I drive a lot for recreation and would prefer something more comfortable with modern features but financially that doesn't really matter as much. Thanks for reading, any advice or reality check would be really appreciated, is a new car a big mistake or is there any sense to it? UPDATE After reading all your comments, I think i'm going to opt for something cheaper and get it paid off right away. I figure I'll start building some savings and an E-fund and hold off on something newer for now, Maybe wait for more stability and re-asses my needs then. Thanks for the advice everyone! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Jun 2018 07:22 PM PDT Khan Academy is one of my favorite sites for learning and their section on personal finance is especially awesome. Thought I'd share as I see this hasn't been posted here in over a year and they've updated with more videos since then. https://www.khanacademy.org/college-careers-more/personal-finance Topics covered: [link] [comments]  |
| I want to go back to school eventually but I’m not sure I’ll be able to do so financially Posted: 03 Jun 2018 04:10 PM PDT I'm a 21 female and I've only completed a semester in college. Failed the 2nd semester then switched to a community college taking online classes where I ended up having to drop them because I started a full time job and didn't have the time and privacy to study. I live in a one bedroom apartment with my mom where I sleep in the living room. When I'd be trying to study, she'd be in the living room watching tv, talking on the phone, and wouldn't give me the privacy I needed to focus. I already have about 8k in student loans that's effecting my credit score badly and I'm about to have more financial responsibilities: car note and car insurance that's gonna take a good deal of my paycheck and I'm also going to be saving whatever is left to get my own place within the next year. I don't want to get back in school until I have my life together but I also don't want to make anymore student loans. I was considering re-enrolling in the community college and just taking 1-2 classes online per semester so that I can pay for it myself [link] [comments]  |
| For the couples out there: how did you combine your finances?? Posted: 03 Jun 2018 07:22 AM PDT Even if you're not in a relationship, any advice would be appreciated! My boyfriend (25M) and I (23F) have been together for 8 years. He is absolutely perfect and we hope to move in together and be engaged by this time next year! We've been talking about how best to combine our finances and there's so many different options that I'm curious to see what Reddit has to say. A couple points: - there is a pretty significant income gap between us. He makes about 100k while I make about 40k
-even though there's a big income gap we still want everything to be fair in terms of saving/expenses and still retain a level of independence. His sister suggested that my income covers all expenses, and his income is purely savings. I like this idea since we'll be saving a lot of money which we can use as a down payment on a home. But I also worry that if we were to break up (not likely but you never know) then I'll have nothing saved. I like the idea of splitting all expenses 50/50 but since there is such a big income gap it doesnt seem fair to me, since I'll be paying a much larger percentage of my income than he will. What are some methods you have used when combining finances for the first time? How do you split bills? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!! TLDR: boyfriend and I are moving in together for the first time. There is a big income gap between us. How should we split expenses/savings so it's fair to both of us? [link] [comments]  |
| How to find money to go back to school as an adult Posted: 03 Jun 2018 12:56 PM PDT After posting my budget, if I can't find cheaper rent, doing all the frugal things. It has become clear I need to go back to school to expand my income. I know about FAFSA but I am not in the loop about finding new legitimate ways of finding money for school. I live in Massachusetts FYI. My apologies if there is another sub reddit I don't know about to find this info! [link] [comments]  |
| Mom put money into an annuity starting in 2003, and now she needs the money for medical costs. (USA) Posted: 03 Jun 2018 05:22 AM PDT First off, I have NO financial knowledge or background at all, so apologies in advance if I misword anything or am not describing this well. In 2003 my mom was advised by her bank to open an annuity, so she started it with about $60,000 or $70,000. She was 63 at the time. Sometime about 2 years ago she had some additional money sitting in her savings account and the bank told her that she should plug a lot of it into the annuity, so she added another $50,000. Right now the annuity has about $139,000 in it. My mother is 77 years old. In October my father was hospitalized and then moved into a care facility because he's got dementia that is at the point that he can no longer live at home. So I have been helping my mother try to apply for Medicaid so the costs for the facility can be paid. The final requirement before Medicaid can be granted is that she needs to spend their assets on his care until she reaches a total remaining balance of $120,900. (this includes their 4 checking, 3 savings accounts, 401k, life insurance, annuity etc). They have about a total of $240,000 worth of these assets, and the majority of it is tied up in this annuity. I need to help her start compiling the money to pay down the money she owes which is about $21,000/month. I do not have the contract in front of me, but the money that she most recently deposited is not able to be withdrawn until it's been in the annuity for a minimum amount of time, I think it is 7 years. We ran a couple of models with the annuity people regarding her withdrawing a chunk of money and then starting annuity payments. I think she can withdraw up to about $60,000 (leaving a balance of $80,000), and I am leaning towards this because she really needs to start paying for the facility. (Dad has been in there since October) I just have no idea what to do after she withdraws the money and needs to start taking a monthly payment. There are so many options with various 'tax ratios'. (Life only / Life & X year certain / (X year term certain) I am very annoyed with the bank for advising her to put another $50,000 into this when she was about 74 or 75. I imagine that the best thing would be to try to get the money out as quickly as possible so that she has enough liquid cash to cover any future emergencies since she is going to have to burn through most of her current cash/401k/insurance to pay the nursing facility. In this regard, there is a '5 year term certain' option where she would receive about $1,300/month for 5 years (tax ratio is 0.0%, whatever that means) Her only income is social security which is $1,028/month and income from a rental apartment in her house which is $1900/month. (she still owes about $60,000 on the house) All of my dad's income (social security + small pension) will be taken by the state now because of Medicaid. Would we be really short changing her if we elect to take the 5 year term certain payment instead of one of the longer term payments (which are a lot less per month, with much higher tax ratios). Is there any tax implication that she needs to worry about? I am also afraid if her taking a $1300 annuity payment and then next year finding out that she owes a ton of taxes on it. Thank you for reading. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Jun 2018 09:59 AM PDT My company has a stock purchase plan where you can have money deducted from your paycheck and have it used to buy company stock at a discount. In the past the discount was only 5% so I never gave it much thought, but they recently doubled that to 10% which starts to make it sound interesting. The rules of the program are that money is deducted every paycheck, and once per quarter a stock purchase is made. The shares post to your account in 2 or 3 days, and once they post you can sell them immediately. This sounds great since it's an investment with an instant 10% return. Are there any sort of pitfalls to a program like this that I am missing? [link] [comments]  |
| 18, Inability to pay emergency room bill. Posted: 03 Jun 2018 03:46 AM PDT Had severe adobmimal pain and called 911 out of nessecity, after a ultra sound doctor tells me I have gallstones, few weeks later I get a bill for 3.6k that I have no means of paying as I am unemployed as I lack a high school diploma, I am on my fathers insurance currently, live in CA bay area. I am going to try to negotiate the bill Monday morning if possible, was also curious if I don't pay the bill what are my chances of getting sued by the collection agency. Any advice is welcome. Edit: Thank you for all your advice guys, it truly is a great help to me, also here is a picture of the bill. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Jun 2018 04:32 PM PDT It's a 2016 Mazda 3. Out the door price is $12.5k (taxes, dealer fee, and new registration). It has 78k miles. It appears they're really reliable, which is number one priority. They're also fuel efficient, incredibly safe, a practical hatchback, and have some neat little features. They're selling it for exactly KBB price. Chase financed me for it at 6.9% (a little high) for 72 months with $2.5k down (20%). When I pay my first payment, I'll pay $4.5k, leaving a balance of $5500, which I'll be able to pay off in 3-4 months. I have no other debt, and bring in $3100 per month, with intermittent bonuses of between $500-$4k every few months (two decent sized ones will come in relatively soon, but we won't count on those). Tomorrow I'm going to get a pre purchase inspection on it, and if it checks out mechanically I'd like to purchase. My friends are saying it's too much; but none of them are in my situation and one just financed an even more expensive vehicle. Is it too expensive? Will this car just fall apart on me? Thanks for any help :) [link] [comments]  |
| Here's a Simple Budgeting Plan Posted: 03 Jun 2018 06:02 PM PDT I made this budgeting plan. Very simple but it shows what is the priority level of your spending. I thought this was useful to me and I wanted to share it with you guys. You can always add on to it to make it customized based on your own expenses. Let me know about your thoughts, I'm always trying to improve my budgeting. If you can make this more effective, would love to see your revision :) [link] [comments]  |
| Need help with long term financial planning as a stripper Posted: 03 Jun 2018 07:51 PM PDT I am 25 years old and I started dancing a year ago. For the past year I have been paying too much in Rent and was just learning the ropes with stripping so I haven't been thinking about the future until now. I love what I do but I realistically can only do it for 10 years tops but probably more like 8. By then I want to be financially well enough off that I could either start a small business or get a Masters Degree without going into debt (I already have a bachelors) and I want to be well into owning a home. Here are my specifics. Income: My income is super inconsistent month to month but it averages about $5,000. It has been consistently going up since I've started and I am about to start traveling to places where there is more money because my city is pretty saturated with strip clubs. My guess is that I will at least make $72,000 this year and my goal is to be in the six figures for 2019 and every year after that. As I start traveling more and with my continued improvement I am confident that I will continue to see my income increase. Debt: I am putting all my extra income towards my debt and am following the snowball method with the exception of paying off both my credit cards before my car. I haven't used any credits since August other than one $500 emergency.
Expenses: I have been terrible at keeping track of extra spending like food and fun money I usually just focus on paying a significant amount towards my debt and then just using the rest as a free for all.
Investments: A couple years ago I bought $200 of crypto currency and now I have roughly $10,000. I am in the process of cashing most of it out. When I put in the $200 I did it as fun "play investing money" I decided back then that if I did make anything out of it I would just continue using it towards investments. My current plan is to max out a charles schwab Roth IRA at $5,500 and then find other ways to invest the rest including some risky investments because I am a gambler and this is my play money. I know everyone is going to tell me to pay off debt with this money and if you make a strong enough argument for that I will think about it but I really would rather just pretend I never had this $10,000 and learn how to invest. I find it fun and it motivates me to think about and prepare for the future. Taxes: Most strippers pay very little in taxes but I am a believer in paying my taxes and it is honestly my only proof of income. If anyone has any insight into paying taxes as an independent contractor that would be great. I currently have $1000 set aside as an emergency fund/to use for my taxes in January. I know I should pay quarterly but I don't know how. For 2017 I just went to H&R block and gave them all my information but I feel like I could have been smarter about it. I am saving all receipts for work related expenses but I have a hard time knowing if some things count or not. For example I use to only justify spending $60 on getting my hair done but as a stripper I get my hair done more often and spend about $200 on it, that is an expense I would never justify except it really does make a difference in how much I make so would that be a tax write off?? Goals:
Questions:
Thank you in advance for any help. Let me now if you need any additional information. [link] [comments]  |
| Recent Grad with Questions About Taxes Posted: 03 Jun 2018 07:04 AM PDT Hi all, I recently graduated college with my BBA and accepted a great marketing job at 40k (plus a guaranteed 8k/year from consulting I do for another business), but as I begin budgeting for my post-college life, I've run into a few questions about taxes that I couldn't answer while googling. So I've mocked up a VERY basic and conservative spreadsheet (you'll notice that the general spending cell is really high. I just like to assume worst case scenario for what I may spend in a month just so I'm never in a rut) that you'll find below. Any general tax advise/corrections to my math or red flags that you folks notice? Additional Details: I live in a state without state income tax. Thank you for your help and for your time! I will be meeting with my accountant next week to do more serious financial planning, but wanted to be more educated going into the conversation. TLDR: Recent college grad with tax questions. Is the math in my spreadsheet below correct? Spreadsheet: https://i.imgur.com/inDwA4C.jpg Update: Fixed post issues due to my total misunderstanding of how standard deductibles work, and updated the spreadsheet. [link] [comments]  |
| Is getting a mortgage/home loan possible on minimum wage? Posted: 03 Jun 2018 07:14 PM PDT I work full time making a little more than minimum wage (CA min wage is $11/hr, I make $12). I work full time at this job. I am wondering if it is possible to get qualified for a home loan? Looking for like $50,000 to get a manufactured/mobile type home. I am scared to go to the bank and get laughed at so I thought I'd ask here first...thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Buying a used vehicle while active duty Posted: 03 Jun 2018 06:58 PM PDT Got about 3 months till I leave AIT (training after basic training) at Fort Gordon, looking to buy a used vehicle. Could use all and any tips. Relocating to Washington state. I opt in a POV (privately owned vehicle) travel. So I'll be driving from Georgia to Washington Already have USAA and NavyFederal. My situation is, I am unable to leave post to go buy a vehicle, so I plan on getting my parents to buy a vehicle before I leave. My parents do not live too far from here, so I'm considering on getting them to buy the vehicle with my money. How can I get this vehicle under my name without being present at the dealership? Is it even possible for them to buy a vehicle without me being present under my name? Are their any possible ways of buying a vehicle without leaving post? What are some recommendation for a solider as their first vehicle. Salary is around 20K, have a bonus of 7K within 30 days of finishing my training. What is a good budget? I'm considering 12K for something that will last 4 years. I prefer a sedan, Accord, Fusion, Civic, Jetta, Altima, Corolla, and Camry. I would love a reliable, gas efficient, and 5 year lasting vehicle. I don't plan on racking up a lot of mileage within these 4 years. They will come to my graduation in the new vehicle so I'm not worried about how I'm gonna get it here. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Jun 2018 06:30 PM PDT Hi and thanks ahead of time, So I'm 18 years old and headed for college after summer. I am looking for help maximizing the money I have, planning my tuition payments, students loans, and just generally being good with money now that I'm on my own. Here's the basic of my life rn:
I'd really appreciate it if anyone could help me figure out a financial plan. I need all the help I can get. If you have any more questions about my situation feel free to ask. [link] [comments]  |
| Canadian personal finance shows? Posted: 03 Jun 2018 06:29 PM PDT I recently found out about the likes of Dave Ramsey among other people that host podcasts on the subject and I've really been enjoying them. But being a Canadian, I was just curious if there's any Canadian counterparts? I'm definitely learning a lot from these podcasts, but at this point I think I might know more about USA personal finance than my own country! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Jun 2018 06:21 PM PDT Hello everyone! I just got my first real job, and am fortunate to have a generous employer 401K contribution. However, I'm clueless as to which type of plan to select and how much to contribute. My (non-exhaustive) options are: VFWAX, PIRMX, PTTRX, MVTIX, SWPPX, TR60A, TRIAA, TPLGX, TEGIX, MVTIX, TSNIX, or BLRYX. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Can I be approved for a mortgage working a part-time job? Posted: 03 Jun 2018 06:15 PM PDT I was trying to find an answer to this question, but cant find a direct one online. My current situation: 26M, part-time job as an event manager making $45 an hour, live at home with parents (get me out!!), with about 58k in the bank. I've been working at this current job for about 8 months now. [link] [comments]  |
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