Personal Finance [investing] If you have opened up a Vanguard IRA make sure you have actually allocated the funds! Step by step instructions on how to allocate funds for your Vanguard Roth IRA. |
- [investing] If you have opened up a Vanguard IRA make sure you have actually allocated the funds! Step by step instructions on how to allocate funds for your Vanguard Roth IRA.
- Opening a joint account with my S.O. was the best financial decision I’ve ever made
- 40 year old, trying to turn life around financially, is it too late?
- How difficult is it to get a $15 per hour or more job? I feel like I am not qualified for anything.
- Things are getting serious.
- Returning to college broke and Independent, but the school says I am Dependent on my parents who won't pay
- Company wants to get rid of company cars and give stipend... help?
- Condo broken in to. Feeling unsafe. Should I sell?
- Employer misclassified me (illegally), taxes due, Called the IRS and they said they cannot advise me on my situation
- Is there such thing as being unemployable? Seems like the best I can make is $10 an hour.
- Parent got a bill for $1500 co-insurance for cardiac monitor, doctor's office never explained cost. (US, Florida).
- Saving For Wedding
- Do I ask my plant manager about a promotion that is opening even though I'm not supposed to know about it?
- Can My Wife Continue to Care for My Declining Grandmother?
- Keep or Sell House
- When saving for a down payment on a house, what's the best way to save?
- Should I take company contribution to student loans or just pay them off ASAP?
- Is there some sort of financial down-side to living in a motel?
- I'm in a somewhat dead-end career, and I'm not sure where to go, if I should go anywhere.
- Best way to start saving?
- How much would a roughly $900 unpaid bill affect my credit score?
- Should i declare bankruptcy?
- Mexican about to finish a job in the US and going back home, I just invested my savings (ETF/Stock/Fixed) and need to know: Which country will tax me and at what rate?
- When does a Hobby move into a Business?
| Posted: 02 Oct 2018 09:20 AM PDT I've posted these same instructions in about 5-6 different threads over the past year and half and have had a number of people thank me after looking at their account and slapping their forehead. I felt it would be prudent to just make a post so it's easier to find when googling. This seems to be fairly common mistake, but people are opening Vanguard IRA's and then not realizing how to actually allocate the money into an index fund from the settlement fund/money market/short term reserves. I made the same mistake myself for a couple months before realizing the error and had to call Vanguard service to get step-by-step instructions. Vanguard is also fairly un-intutive from a UI standpoint so step by step below on how to do that:
Fin. Edit: Whoah, this got popular. I wonder if Vanguard is going to see a sudden uptick tomorrow in it's investment capital... [link] [comments]  |
| Opening a joint account with my S.O. was the best financial decision I’ve ever made Posted: 02 Oct 2018 06:10 PM PDT About two years ago, my significant other and I were serious enough to open a joint savings account together. I am not great with money, and I tend to spend anything I get. Often, I spend any extra money on paying off student loans, but that doesn't negate the fact that my personal accounts frequently hover close to zero. With one joint account, we each deposit a set amount every pay cycle. That money cannot be touched for anything besides the already budgeted necessities like rent, groceries and the electric bill. Because we deposit slightly more than we actually need, in a relatively short time we built up the account and now both have easy access to roughly $2000 in case of emergency. I would never have been able to do this alone, but knowing it's our money as opposed to my money means I leave it where it is. I would only use it in a real emergency. [link] [comments]  |
| 40 year old, trying to turn life around financially, is it too late? Posted: 02 Oct 2018 09:04 AM PDT Been watching this subreddit for awhile, finally decided to register and ask for guidance. I'm 41, and hoping I can somehow make a good life for myself after decades of bad decisions. Here is a little background, when in my 20's I spent most of my time going out and having fun. Wasn't career focused, spent my time at manual labor positions, not saving, and didn't think about retirement. Got married too young, had a son, and divorced. Continued to be immature and party until my early 30's. Credit score - 574. Decided I should grow up and be a man and focus on being a father. I started to take night classes for the IT field. Worked some entry level IT jobs to get experience and work my way up. Still, no retirement or savings and not making much of a wage. Fast forward to today, I'm 41. Credit score hovering around the high 690's - low 700's. Have been in the IT field for 7 years now. I make a good salary for my area, $70,000+. I do pay child support, but that'll be done in 4 years. I finally started a 401k, have been bumping up my contribution, and it is now at 10%. Still, I only have about $15,000 in it. I don't have any other retirement accounts, I know next to nothing about that stuff. I just blindly throw money at it, but can't help but feel I am so far behind in the game of life, like, what's the point at this age. Recently, I took a part-time job, just to pay off credit card debt. I don't have much, under 5 grand. Just want to be debt free, maybe put extra in retirement, or savings... I don't know. Anyone have any advise, is it possible for someone like me, who has been a fuck up for a majority of my life, to possibly rebound and enjoy a retirement? I feel like all I do right now is bust my ass every single day to be the best I can be, but it is too late. Feel like I'll be 70 and still be working multiple jobs dreaming of retirement. Thanks in advance for any guidance I can get. [link] [comments]  |
| How difficult is it to get a $15 per hour or more job? I feel like I am not qualified for anything. Posted: 02 Oct 2018 12:54 PM PDT
How difficult is it to get a $15 per hour job? What advice do you have? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2018 03:03 PM PDT I'm about 3-4 weeks into my new lifestyle... And my plan to get out of debt. Things started getting real today. I have a camper and a truck that both needed to go (I love them both but they are just not practical). 37k left on the camper, 36k left on the truck. I can't get rid of the truck without getting rid of the camper first, since I need the truck to pull the camper. Today I took the camper to a consignment shop and forked over 15k (From a signature loan) to cover the difference in what it will sell for compared to what I have left. That hurt :(. Now next week I'll be putting the truck up for sale, I will net about 10k on that sale. So I'll be able to put a nice chunk of change back on that 15k loan I took out for the upside down of the camper. I also cancelled all of my 18% APR credit cards (30k in debt) and just got approved for a debt consolidation loan of 12% to cover all of that debt for 5 years. I'm confident that I will NOT go back into using CC's any longer so I'm not worried about treating the symptom. A month earlier, I would have gone right back into CC debt after consolidating. One more thing, I'm selling a website that I have built over the last year. It looks like I'll be pocketing around 30k from it. So that will help pay down that debt as well (it's not for sure yet which is why I pulled out a loan instead of waiting). I wanted to get it taken care of now. Doing all of this planning, and then executing this last week has been a roller coaster ride. I told my wife earlier 'man it's hard work being responsible.'. Just whipping out a CC and paying for things, signing loans, making payments are so easy. I've got my budget out now, the debts listed smallest to largest. And I'm ready to tackle what I have left after this dust settles. Thanks PF, lots of great information here. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2018 01:04 PM PDT I have one more year left at an expensive private university in NYC. I had a falling out with my parents and they no longer will support me financially. Even though I am 25 and legally Independent, the institute still recognizes me as a dependent of my parents and won't offer me financial aid due to their income level (even though we live in an extremely high cost area). What are my options for getting approximately $80-90K and minimizing my debt coming out of college? This is all new to me. Edit: Thanks for the responses! For some clarification: I have been a student since 2011. I had to withdraw twice for medical reasons. This caused my parents to lose a decent amount of money that won't count towards anything. They were only able to afford it through a scholarship program that has since dried up for me. They are absolutely done with paying and they made that perfectly clear. As far as clarifying the Independent status, I can qualify for federal aid by filling out the fafsa as independent, but Columbia will consider me dependent on my mother and father who make to much to qualify for aid. So federal loans are definite, but it still leaves a huge amount and I am curious what the best way to borrow the rest is. [link] [comments]  |
| Company wants to get rid of company cars and give stipend... help? Posted: 02 Oct 2018 01:28 PM PDT So this won't affect me because the company gives me any car I want since I'm an exec. But my CFO brought this up to me for my sales team. To start off: I treat my guys well. I'm not interested in saving a few bucks for the company to make it worse for my team. It's just not how I manage my group. So here's the details: 1) no more company cars 2) employee must buy their own car (anything they want to buy but must be reasonably nice enough to drive a customer). 3) 450/month plus 0.17 per mile That seems low to me. Can someone help me break this down? My guys are all over the US and drive about 30k/year. The company doesn't help with anything else. Tires/oil/insurance is all on the employee. My CFO swears the guys will "make a killing". I doubt that. He's a penny pincher. Any help would be appreciated. Edit: I Must clarify a few things I justness learned: 1.) they expect a minimum car of 20,000 2.) no one wants to drive 30k miles per year in a 4 cylinder and the company has a certain expectation that a "Ford Focus is below the expectation". Also my guys drive in snow so that doesn't work. It's not being a jerk or wanting a fancy car, but if you've never been a traveling sales guy you don't realize just how important a car can be. It needs to be safe, reliable, and have pickup power for the interstate and such. 3) after 100,000 miles you must replace the car. 4) insurance (over 2500/year on average. Don't forget this isn't standard insurance. It's higher because the high miles we drive and liability if you hit someone etc. you need to be covered.) Edit 2: most people are saying "my car payment is 450. This pays it. Good deal". Please there is more to consider. Insurance alone is about 2500-3000/year for these guys. So if your note is 450 you're already losing on that end. Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Condo broken in to. Feeling unsafe. Should I sell? Posted: 02 Oct 2018 07:24 AM PDT My house was robbed yesterday. I own a condo in Seattle on the ground floor. They jimmied a 12"x12" window open to get in, and took everything that is irreplaceable, as thieves do. They left iPads and laptops but took my grandmother's heirlooms. I haven't owned very long, but I feel like I can't live here anymore. The property has appreciated, so I stand to clear about $50k by selling, but have the potential of making more by holding on to it. While the market has calmed down a bit, I still won't be able to afford to buy much else, even with a $50k downpayment. I have some debt I have been working through, but I'll be limited in what I get approved for if it isn't paid before I try to buy again. Should I sell and use the proceeds to zero out all my debt and then save aggressively? Should I attempt to rent it out to cover the mortgage and move elsewhere? What's the best move I can make financially? X-Posted [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2018 08:38 PM PDT AS the title says, Last summer I worked for a scumbag out of college, was getting paid as a contractor but was too stupid to realize. After I quit, I never received tax forms despite asking my employer several times. Contacted the State Employment Commission and despite them launching an investigation, nothing happened. Got a tax filing extension and thought the IRS would contact me with the outcome of the investigation and they said they have nothing to do with such. I am pretty tight on cash and no clue what to do. Contacted a CPA and he is not sure he wants to take me on given my situation, he also sounds expensive. What do I do? [link] [comments]  |
| Is there such thing as being unemployable? Seems like the best I can make is $10 an hour. Posted: 02 Oct 2018 03:57 PM PDT Hey all. Feeling a bit down with my current job situation currently. It seems like no matter where I apply to, I dont get the job. No matter where it is. I've applied to retail stores, fast food restaurants, customer service, warehouse jobs. It all ends the same, with nothing happening. Or getting an email stating I dont meet the qualifications for said job. I feel as if i have marketable skills: Military Experience Leadership Office experience. Customer service Manual labor. 88 credit hours total (this is total between Joint service transcripts 35 hours and college transcripts 53 hours). Most of my college education is in business courses, accounting, personal finance, economics, public speaking, etc. I guess it's hard to stay hopeful when the burger place I applied to didn't even call me back after the interview. I feel out of options. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2018 11:39 AM PDT My mom got a bill for $1500 co-insurance on an implantable cardiac monitor to monitor an arrhythmia. Parents always dicuss all costs and copayments/coinsurance before any procedures because they are broke. She was told she had to pay $383 to meet her yearly deductible and insurance would cover the rest. A month later this bill. My mom works full time for low wages, my dad is underemployed. They cannot afford a $1500 bill. We've called the hospital billing office and they explained insurance covered $8500, she had to pay her copay and she had this coinsurance no one told her about. Billing office says it doesn't matter what she was told, she owes the co-insurance. She's extremely angry right now because she got the monitor based on the $383 cost, but she was a month short of qualifying for Medicare which would have covered the whole thing without an out of pocket cost for her (beyond the cost of the Medicare Part B payment) and this was an actual conversation she had with the doctor, of whether it'd be okay to wait for the implant because sadly, money is an issue when making healthcare decisions. TLDR: Parent go a surprise co-insurance bill after the fact and they can't afford to pay. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2018 03:20 PM PDT Hi PF! I am recently engaged and having a hard time figuring out saving for my wedding. We are thinking June/July next year. We are doing something for 100 people max. We have $10,000 between both sets of parents. My fiance and I are each planning on putting in 3-5k, hopefully closer to $3-4. I'm sort of at a loss as to how I am supposed to keep putting money into a savings account but ALSO save for my wedding. Do people just say 'screw it' and not save as much for the year to have a wedding? We are not doing anything fancy, I assure you. I'm in the business and know where we can cut costs. No one remembers anything from a wedding except if they had a good or bad time. Does anyone have any suggestions? I just have a tough time saving up my money that could go into savings and instead spending it on this one day. I put away $600/month into a savings account and right now, between now and June that would be almost all of what I'd be using towards my wedding. If you need more info: I put away $600 into savings 10% into my 401K which is about $460/month. I get $140/month as my match. $100 into my Roth IRA each month I currently have $5000 in an emergency fund and $6k in a savings account. This is over $1000 a month into savings/401K/Roth IRA which I think is pretty decent. My take-home is about $1400 after my health insurance, 401K and taxes. Thank you all for your help and advice! I am sure many of you will say to do something smaller for a wedding but it's just not possible unfortunately. It's the first wedding for my parents and second for my fiance's parents. We wanted something small BUT THERE ARE TOO MANY COUSINS. I have been adamant with my fiance that we will under ZERO circumstances go into any sort of debt for our wedding. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2018 06:25 AM PDT I'm currently a technician making $45,000+OT. The tech manager/supervisor makes about $60,000-65,000 (underpaid) but is getting a job elsewhere due to WAY more money. He put in his 2-weeks and recommended me to replace him. This was a week ago and the plant manager hasn't even hinted to me about taking the tech manager role. My tech manager leaves in a week and there is nobody to replace him or learn from him as of now. I've shadowed him a couple hours here and there to pick up some stuff like invoices, but haven't heard anything about the position. Worst case scenario is them giving the job to somebody from the outside. I would lose motivation here and probably look elsewhere for employment. I mean, if they don't give me the opportunity now with an open position I'm qualified for, what does that say about my future at this company? I would probably get the $15,000 per year pay raise, which is about $20,000 under market average for my area. If I do get into negotiations, how do I make sure I'm not low-balled because my youth? The manager position is my dream job and really any money I get doesn't matter as much as being able to say I was tech manager for x years, but I don't want to be taken advantage of. I am okay with using this place a a stepping stone and take my big payday later. I'm only in my late 20s. Notes: $45,000 plus OT will still be less than manager salary. Now the only OT I get is due to a shift being vacant and I'm on call. Also, I work 36 hours one week and 48 the next and that is factored into my $45,000 salary, so that is technically more hours than the $60,000 salary where I can come and go as needed (within reason). And there will be some work at home, but minimal like throwing together a PowerPoint real quick. My tech manager is apparently not supposed to tell anybody he is quitting because in the case they offer him a huge raise, they don't want word to spread that if you threaten to quit you get more money. [link] [comments]  |
| Can My Wife Continue to Care for My Declining Grandmother? Posted: 02 Oct 2018 04:57 PM PDT Alright so here it goes... My newlywed wife and I are both 24 years old and live North of San Diego. While our rent is high, we live pretty meagerly with one car and a tight budget aimed at paying my wife's student loan debt off ASAP. My own situation is fairly simple: I work a normal 9-5 job, make a decent salary (~$55K), and do some small consulting stuff on the side as well. Easy peasy. Now here's where it get tricky: This July my wife and I got married. Right before the wedding, my grandmother's health started declining rapidly due to her Alzheimer's. My wife comes from a background in skilled nursing management and she's AMAZING at it. Like crazy good. She loves my grandmother and volunteered to step out of her normal job to be my grandmother's full-time companion/caretaker so that she wouldn't have to go to a nursing home. My grandmother pays my wife a meager allowance around $2000 so that we can make ends meet living in SoCal. We aren't currently paying taxes on my wife's allowance as it's only been a 3 month thing and we wanted the dust to settle. Now that my wife doesn't have healthcare, we've run into the obstacle of having to get healthcare @ $200/month. Between that and if we were to deduct self-employment tax to this, she wouldn't have much of an allowance left and I fear that we'd have to get my wife back into the workforce. We're trying our best to make this work to alleviate stress on my parents, but it's really hard for my wife and I to make ends meet w/ basically only my salary. The overarching question: Is there a creative way to financially justify my wife keeping her current situation with my grandmother? Also: Is there a preferred way for us to file taxes? Will my wife's current income/employment effect our ability to get a mortgage in 2 years? Do you have any tips for something we can be doing better? This is a very stressful time for my whole family and I'd really hate to add financial complications to the mix as well. I'm more than happy to provide any more information if needed. Thank you all. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2018 09:57 AM PDT Looking for advice. Currently own a house (3 bd/2 bath) that was purchased in December 2016 for $270k, but due to life circumstances moved out and am currently renting it out. The house was built in September 2016 and is brand new (no major repairs or expenses have occurred in the past). It has a potential market value today of $300k-330k. The mortgage is $1540 and will drop to $1480 in December 2018 as PMI comes off. I currently rent the property for $2,500 split between three tenants ($1,050 (A)+$750(B)+$700(C) respectively). Tenant leases expire as follows: A ends in March 1, 2019 and will not be renewing; B ends January 1, 2019 and will not be renewing (the creep), C ends May 2019 and may potentially renew. After expenses (water, garbage, gardener, etc.) I have a monthly return of $750. I moved out of the home July 2018 to move in with my girlfriend in an Apartment where my share of rent is $1,200 (girlfriend did not want to move into the house as one of the tenants was a creep, and I agree; she also doesn't want to share our living space with others). Also I can easily afford the mortgage of $1540 by myself, but not both a mortgage and an apartment. Due to how the leases are structured, it creates a tough situation where I would have significant cash outflows before the property is vacant and I could move back in. In the event I sell the property, it creates a similar situation. I also receive significant pressure from family members who think it is crazy to rent out my house, "there's no way you are making money," "that's dumb etc." While I know that it is profitable, the stress of continually having to defend my decisions at 25, tenant requests, finding new tenants, evaluating the tenants properly, is emotionally draining and cumbersome. My Financials -$88k income before bonuses (save $500/month after 11% into retirement) -$13k in liquid savings The options I've considered are (1) Keep renting the house and save for a 2nd house; (2) Put the house up for sale in April 2019 and eat the vacancies from January - June (but attempt to find short term tenants); (3) Move in to the house in July 2019 and eat the vacancies (but attempt to find short term tenants). What am I missing? Edit: My current Apartment lease ends June 31, 2018. [link] [comments]  |
| When saving for a down payment on a house, what's the best way to save? Posted: 02 Oct 2018 05:28 PM PDT Do you just start throwing money in a savings account or do you think it's good to invest it in something to grow it faster? If so, what? Thanks y'all! [link] [comments]  |
| Should I take company contribution to student loans or just pay them off ASAP? Posted: 02 Oct 2018 08:10 PM PDT I have a total student debt balance of just over $21,000 spread across 6 loans with an average interest rate of 3.9%. I began paying the debt off in Jan 2018 and paid off my highest interest loan first ($18000 at 5.1%) My company is offering a student loan assistance program giving $6000 spread over the next 5 years. This contribution will cover the entirety of the accrued interest each month and a small amount of the principal for each loan. Do you think I would be better off taking the full contribution over the next 5 years, making the minimum payment each month and using that money to max out an IRA instead? Or should I just continue pounding the student loans and forfeit the $6000 company offering? My only other debt is a car lease at $164 a month with 8 months remaining and I'm currently contributing 8% to a 401k which my company matches 50% along with a core contribution of 4% of my income. I will gladly give more info if needed, just trying to avoid making this post too lengthy. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Is there some sort of financial down-side to living in a motel? Posted: 02 Oct 2018 05:14 PM PDT I saw a motel advertising a per month rate that was pretty competitive with lower end apartments, which surprised me and got me thinking... Living in a motel has the significant benefit over apartments in that one could pack up and leave at a moments notice and not be out thousands of dollars. Given that most people don't live in motels though, I assume there must be some significant disadvantage. Does anyone know what it is? [link] [comments]  |
| I'm in a somewhat dead-end career, and I'm not sure where to go, if I should go anywhere. Posted: 02 Oct 2018 03:40 PM PDT Basic info: 25 years old, 60k in student loan debt, working in the mental health field, I make 31k if I hit all my needed goals. Basically, I made a shotgun decision in college to get a degree in regards to mental health due to my whole family before me doing so. I'm not unhappy in where I am in life, but I'm definitely not happy. Any issue related to money is a crisis and I'm living paycheck to paycheck. I need 600 bucks in dental work and 800 done on my car, and I can't even do those. I'm saving.. but it's going to take awhile. I've recently gotten into personal finance a lot more, and am starting to realize that even though my career is fine for the moment, I don't think it will be able to carry me towards a comfortable future, especially if I want a family. I'm juggling a lot of ideas on how to advance my financial stability: Get another degree? Go to trade school? Try and luck out on some random career I have no experience in? I really have no idea. I'd like to not get into more student loan debt, there is always the possibility of moving back with my parents in order to work full time and go to school part time, but that would really only work towards an associates degree. I don't think I'd be able to pay my way through another bachelors degree at a 4 year university. If I did move back with my parents, I'd have about 700 a month leftover after bills. I can obviously get a part-time job to stabilize myself a bit for the short-term, but I'm really trying to shift into a long-term mindset. Any advice would be awesome. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2018 07:00 PM PDT I'm in college, still live with my parents. My college is through TN promise( free college as long as you do volunteer hours)and my car is paid off. The only thing I am really expected to pay is the gas for my car. I know I am pretty lucky, but I want to start saving for when I won't be. I make 8.50 an hour as a pharmacy cashier and I usually work 25-32 hours a week depending on my schedule. I get paid weekly. I already put 50 in an account, but I don't know where to go from here. What would be the best way to start saving? Edit: Details [link] [comments]  |
| How much would a roughly $900 unpaid bill affect my credit score? Posted: 02 Oct 2018 08:57 PM PDT I opened my first credit card about four months ago and I only put about $30 or $40 on it a month, so i have almost no credit history. The electric company where I used to live billed me for 3 months, after I had cancelled my service because I moved out. I called them about 5 times and everyone I get on the phone says they can't help me as they have no record of me cancelling my service. Twice I have spoken to the customer service person who answered's supervisor who then tells me they can not help me either and then I ask if I can speak to somebody above them and they said I would receive a call within 24 hours and I nobody has ever called on those two occasions. Paying the bill would not be very difficult as my paycheck on most weeks is about $1500 after taxes and have just about no bills since I moved back in with my parents, but I really do not want to pay this bill simply because I feel as though I should not have been charged in the first place. I also sent them a letter and received no response. They just recently sent me a final notice before they send the unpaid balance to a collection's agency. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2018 05:03 PM PDT I'll leave out the sob story... Here's the numbers: I make just under 40k a year I owe 125k on my current mortgage, the payoff is 135k I have 40k in credit and personal loan debts I owe 14k on the new well already installed I tried to refinance and the appraisal came back at 165k, about 60k less than expected I have no savings, no stash, nothing. If I sell off all my belongings I may be able to come up with 10k, which of course will take a little time. What are my options from here? Who should I contact for an honest opinion on what to do? My credit score is 725ish, but my debt to income ratio is a disaster. Where do I start? Please help... I'm drowning. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2018 06:30 PM PDT I've read there's tax treaty between my country and the US to prevent double taxation and I understand parts of the portfolio will be taxed differently: - Fixed income and dividends - Capital gains I've read conflicting information, nothing is explicit enough. Where can I find reliable information? Can I chose which country will tax me since I will no longer be living in the US? [link] [comments]  |
| When does a Hobby move into a Business? Posted: 02 Oct 2018 08:41 PM PDT So I am looking to make a bit of profit in the next year or so selling some cloth goods on etsy to make a bit of extra money paying off bills and to pay for my wedding dress. It wouldn't be a large amount, I want to make at most 2500 and honestly I'm expecting the total income to be around 1200. That is without cost of materials and the like. I was reading the information on what is considered a hobby vs what is considered a business on the irs website and I really can't honestly answer yes to more than three of the questions, one of which is profits. The questions are: Whether you carry on the activity in a businesslike manner and maintain complete and accurate books and records. I mean I am keeping records kinda? I haven't been saving receipts or anything like that but I will if I need to. I do have the reciept from my last purchases for the items I am making that will be sold in the next few weeks. Whether the time and effort you put into the activity indicate you intend to make it profitable. I will be trying to make it profitable but it is going to be a part time only on weekends thing as I still have a full time job. Whether you depend on income from the activity for your livelihood. No. This is purely supplemental and to get out of debt faster. Whether your losses are due to circumstances beyond your control (or are normal in the startup phase of your type of business).I am not currently tracking losses and as long as my items sell there is no loss. I have around a 50% profit margin so I don't have to sell much to make it back. Whether you change your methods of operation in an attempt to improve profitability. I have no plans on changing anything, such as hiring help or changing the items I use to make things to my high quality standards. I have no way of knowing how I would improve profitability to begin with. Whether you or your advisers have the knowledge needed to carry on the activity as a successful business. I have no idea how to run a business and no advisers. I am not planning on this growing or to take it to the next level so to speak. Whether you were successful in making a profit in similar activities in the past. I have made small profit in the past but this is the first time I am trying to make more than a couple hundred dollars over the course of a year. Total profits (declared as secondary income for taxes) in the last 5 years has been sub $1000 with $300 of that being one order my second year. Whether the activity makes a profit in some years and how much profit it makes. I haven't been tracking to see if I've been making profit but I am assuming I have made a small profit unless labor is factored in. I am very slow at what I do so if I was paying myself minimum wage I would likely be taking a loss. Whether you can expect to make a future profit from the appreciation of the assets used in the activity. I expect to make small profit but do not expect for my business to grow. I currently reside in Massachusetts. I will be selling off Etsy and do not have a brick and mortar store so I do not have to worry about sales taxes (if I am wrong in this please correct me!). I am worried about something that I consider a hobby being classified as a business for the year I really work hard at it to make it temporarily profitable. Edit: Formatting and changing a number to proper one. [link] [comments]  |
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