Personal Finance Don't ever feel pressured (young people especially) to spend more then you have to or want. |
- Don't ever feel pressured (young people especially) to spend more then you have to or want.
- Student loans paid, now I'm receiving new bills.
- Pay yourself first!
- You can get a degree for under 5 grand without athletics or academic scholarships.
- What is the best way to utilize “unspent” money?
- I took out a personal loan to pay down my credit cards, and now the credit card company is closing my accounts.
- Do actively managed funds have lower volatility than index funds?
- First time budgeting please critique.
- If you are renting from a corporation, don't jump at a lease renewal with a higher rate.
- Buying vs building a home
- $35,000 loan with .75% interest and I don’t know what I’ll be doing with the money.
- I am leaving a company that gave 401k with matching. I will be working with a new company as 1099 for three months then will be hired as employee with benefits. Where should I put my 401k ($10k) money from the first company during this process?
- 1 income, possibly close to losing job, wife needs disability
- I need financial help. What am I missing?
- This is really more or a I f*cked up my life rant.
- How do I get over my irrational attachment to money?
- Serious: Why do people think paying cash for a car will increase their negotiating position?
- Question on how social security works if you no longer contribute to it.
- Turning 25 and Life Insurance
- Question about HSA’s
- What can I do to have a better banking experience?
- When do you use your 3 free credit reports?
- Looking for ideas for food budgeting
| Don't ever feel pressured (young people especially) to spend more then you have to or want. Posted: 04 Nov 2018 09:10 AM PST I'm 23 and graduated last year and was offered a full time position making decent money out of school. I've come to notice that ever since taking the job a lot of my peers constantly hint that I should be spending every dime I make on a new car, clothes, going out every weekend etc. At first I was pretty bad since I live alone am lucky enough to debt free and don't have any obligations outside of monthly bills which leaves me with decent amount of wiggle room. I'm usually left with around 500$ every month and instead of investing/saving I would spend most of that 500$ for the first while. I've come to realize there's better places to put my money. I've noticed that a lot of people my age have very short sighted goals when it comes to money. Instead of taking that extra cash every month and investing in retirement, emergency fund etc. we tend to blow it on useless crap that we think will get us notoriety among our peers. There's probably a lot to blame for this mind set (social media etc etc.) that I won't get in to. Not saying every millennial does this but it's something I've noticed through my friends, and just in general. I'm definitely not saying don't treat yourself every once and while but 100$ a month spent on stuff you probably don't need versus 100$ a month in a savings or retirement account can go a long way. Don't let peer pressure make you look back and wish you saved more! EDIT: A lot of great replies. I just want to stress that this isn't some attempt to make people feel bad for spending or try and say every young person has it the same. I am also not trying to demonize anyone I'm just talking from my perspective and my experiences for people who may be in the same boat or find themselves in a similar situation. Especially in today's world where materialism is more and more prominent with social media you'd be crazy to not think that "peer pressure" I talk about isn't there even if its not directly stated by people around you. EDIT #2: than* ... heh. Also for the all people saying it's okay to enjoy life, you're absolutely correct! But it's also okay to prepare for the future which is what I'm getting at. [link] [comments]  |
| Student loans paid, now I'm receiving new bills. Posted: 04 Nov 2018 07:09 AM PST I had about $6,000 in student loans in 1994 and 1995. I paid them off back in 2003. Yesterday I received a bill saying I owe $5613.00 In principle and $2,750.00 in interest. The letter said I can send proof of payment, but I surely don't have records that old. Everything I might have had was lost in Katrina. What are my options? Is this common? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2018 06:22 AM PST This is something that took me a very long time to get into the habit of - before paying down debt, bills, or thinking about spending money on non-essentials after pay day - pay yourself first! For many many years, I would empty accounts to pay off debt, prepay bills in advance, or purchase things without thinking about saving with a "who cares" attitude. My wife and I auto deposit at least 30% of our pay checks every pay period into a separate account where we can only withdrawal the money in person (no debit card). This account has only been used to pay unexpected bills like home repairs, auto repairs, medical bills, etc. After several years of this, I can confidently say that in any situation that may arise in our lives, money (or lack thereof) is certainly no longer a driving force in decision making. If you aren't paying yourself first, you're essentially working only to satisfy your creditors and loathing in financial servitude into perpetuity. [link] [comments]  |
| You can get a degree for under 5 grand without athletics or academic scholarships. Posted: 04 Nov 2018 07:55 PM PST Here's how: Go to a 4 year school and pick a few degree requirements that you're interested in. Than get a transfer list between that school and your local community college. For 2-2.5 years take all the first year classes at the community college. Than look at your favourite 4 year degree school class requirements sequence and do those classes at year 1-2.5 (look at the will transfer class list) After this transfer the classes to the 4 year school and finish the classes that you can't take at the community college. While this is going on start working part time at McDonalds they now have a generous part time tuition reimbursement. Other replacements are Home Depot, Chipotle, UPS, Starbucks and T mobile. (You only have to work part time)[Some of these companies require 90 days or a year of employment before the tuition reimbursement but it's ok because most of the cost will be in the last 2 years] Also getting a marketable degree helps in your pay rate hope this helps! [link] [comments]  |
| What is the best way to utilize “unspent” money? Posted: 04 Nov 2018 05:55 PM PST After years of struggling, I've finally gained control of my finances. I paid off all my credit card debt. I have ~$2500 in my e-fund (and contribute $850 monthly). I pay all my bills (which equals ~45% of ONE paycheck... I get paid biweekly) the first of the month, and after that I'm bill-free until the next month. So, after my bills are paid, I have a decent amount of money left in my checking account, and I notice that I tend to want to (key word being want... I've been decent at talking myself out of it!) spend it, or at least justify spending it on "useless" items (clothes, Starbucks, etc). I don't want to fall back into old habits of buying stupid shit, so my question is....does anyone have any tips/suggestions on figuring out how to utilize this unspent money of mine? Should I figure out a percentage of my "leftover" money (after bills) and put it in my e-fund? How would I calculate an amount? Should I have a "savings goal" aside from my e-fund contribution? Again, how would I determine a dollar amount? Right now, I could easily take ~30-40% of my current checking account balance, transfer it to my savings and easily not struggle until my next paycheck, but after living paycheck to paycheck and in debt for so long, "draining" my checking account and going back to having a low balance is psychologically distressing for me.... just thinking about having a low balance makes me anxious! Any tips, guidance, advice or suggestions are welcome and very much appreciated! More info available upon request!! Thank you!!! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2018 02:47 PM PST I looked back at the document the bank sent to the credit card company and it said "pay down and close out this credit card/loan". It was dumb of me to totally miss that detail when I signed it, but I was assuming the "close out" part was referring to if it was a loan. I called the credit card company to ask that they reverse the account cancellation and they said they'd try, and that it would take 2 weeks. Is this common practice when people get personal loans? Who would want to close a credit card? Is it to ensure that I don't rack up more credit debt and miss payments with the bank? The whole point was to help my credit score by lowering my balances, but now I've got closed credit cards and lower limits on my record, so I'm actually worse off. Edit: Just to clarify a few things, I took out the personal loan to pay off the credit cards because the rate of the loan was half that of the cc, and also to lower my card balances so that my credit score can increase. I'm not struggling to make the minimum payments, and I'm not in a crisis in any way. I was just curious about the fact that the bank asked the credit card company to close the cards. I am aware that it was dumb of me to not read the payoff letter more thoroughly before signing. The language said "I authorize you to apply this payment to pay off and close the line of credit/loan", which I took to mean that the actual amount would be "closed out" like you close out a position when trading stock, not that the actual account would be closed. Again, I UNDERSTAND THAT THIS WAS A MISTAKE. Honestly, though, I'm going to try and get a better credit card now that those cards are closed, so I'm actually better off. Thank you for the comments. [link] [comments]  |
| Do actively managed funds have lower volatility than index funds? Posted: 04 Nov 2018 06:25 PM PST I am assisting my parents, who are retired and in their 70s, who need help in managing their portfolio. Their portfolio consists of taxable and IRA accounts, and is big enough to give them a comfortable retirement income alongside Social Security. The holdings in these accounts are mostly index funds (including bond mutual funds). One investment advisor at a reputable national wealth management firm has made an argument that we should hold fewer index funds and more actively managed funds as a general rule. My response was the standard well-known answer that most active managers do not do as well as the indexes, and those that do better do so by random chance. His response was to agree, but that we should switch to actively managed funds because of their reduced volatility, which is obviously more important to people at their age. Some google searches don't bring up any thing on this. Obviously actively managed funds increase income to the firm, which is another reason for my skepticism. I never heard the volatility argument before. Is this a valid concern? [link] [comments]  |
| First time budgeting please critique. Posted: 04 Nov 2018 06:26 PM PST Hi PF, I recently got married and we have been keeping track of our expenses for the past 4months. We did not really budget and I felt we spent a little too much a month. This is the number we have come up with. Our fun money will be 500 each person per month which we can spend on clothes, gadgets, trips, and eating out. The amount can roll over if not spent. The goal of this budget is to save and to allow each person to splurge if they choose. Everything else is going towards saving up for a house. [link] [comments]  |
| If you are renting from a corporation, don't jump at a lease renewal with a higher rate. Posted: 04 Nov 2018 12:46 PM PST My corporate landlords emailed me options for renewing my lease after it ends in January. All of the options for various terms include some level of rent increase, which varied depending on the length of the lease extension. I'm planning to move out, for unrelated reasons. After giving them notice that I'm moving out at the end of the lease, I'm now receiving daily voicemails with better offers than the ones in the email. The most recent offered a six-month lease extension at the same rate I'm paying now. I'd recommend chatting with a human first before agreeing to any rent increase. At least with this company, which has dozens of apartment complexes all over the USA, the onsite rental agents seem to be incentivized to keep the units occupied. You may be able to get the "please reconsider your decision to move out" deals just by asking for them. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2018 05:12 PM PST Coming up on getting my first home, is there any good pros and cons of either and any tips or tricks to maximize our $ in our very first home? [link] [comments]  |
| $35,000 loan with .75% interest and I don’t know what I’ll be doing with the money. Posted: 04 Nov 2018 12:19 PM PST I'll be getting a loan of $35,000 and I don't know what to do with it. I'm not sure if I invest it or get into real estate, do I get myself into mutual funds? I have no debt and great credit I'm 22 and I don't know if I should even get the loan. The loan is given out to people commissioning into the military by USAA or navy federal. So I'll be having a steady income, and a lot of peers take out the money and either buy a car or invest or get into some business or real state. P.S. the .75% is not a typo Edit: added the last paragraph. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2018 12:12 PM PST |
| 1 income, possibly close to losing job, wife needs disability Posted: 04 Nov 2018 04:46 PM PST Hey guys and gals of Reddit, I'll try to give as much information and follow up with any replies as best I can! Currently, I'm 35/M and been married to my wife for just over 10 years, we also have a son who is just over 2 years old. We live in Texas. Some additional background info... When I first married, whom shall now be named Mary, things were great. Her and I worked full time and with only about a year under our belts we moved into our first house. We were just barely making enough money to make ends meet, not to mention the house needed some work. Mary unfortunately has various mental and physical issues that have plagued her nearly since birth. Things such as major depression, anxiety, OCD, a blood mutation disorder, an issue where half of her body's bone structure is slightly off which tends to cause physical pain, and a few other things that I probably I can't think of right now. These issues have slowly worsened and caused her to work less and less over the course of the next couple of years. She changed jobs a few times but eventually stopped officially working altogether. For a few short years she helped a friend of her's "under the table" by help with small house work and computer things. Mary had a lot of flexibility this way but it just wasn't enough income. At one point even her sister live with us and we still scraped by a little longer. After living about 8 years in the house and behind on mortgage payments it started going into foreclosure. We made the decision to file bankruptcy.. can't remember if it was Chapter 7 or Chapter 10. Essentially, we gave up our house and any other secured debt, but still got to keep our car thankfully. Wouldn't you know it, she just happened to get pregnant about this time! We moved in with her parents to try to get back on our feet. Unfortunately, about 6-7 months into Mary's pregnancy, her father passed. Mary's mom can't live by herself due to her also having health conditions, so we have since been living here. Things have of course been easier living here in terms of finances and raising our son, but things have gotten worse. Now we can get to the more pressing matters happening now. With Mary's conditions, she sees doctors regularly as well as a psychiatrist every few months for her mental medications. She also has a lawyer who is attempting to get her onto disability. Mary applied for disability on her own and was denied. A little less than a year ago, the lawyer made his attempt and was denied and is currently trying to appeal the decision. As for me, I'm reasonably healthy, a little overweight with slightly high blood pressure.. doc says just a lifestyle adjustment to fix that. I work full time, 401k, full health benefits, dental, vision. I make $15/hour which is about $30k a year. There's about $20k saved in the 401k and only about $700 in savings. Her and I each have about $1500 in credit card debt, each card has around 24% interest rates due to the bankruptcy leaving our credit scores around 500. In terms of bills, per month, we pay $60 total for both cell phones together, $80 for the car insurance, $100-$200 on each credit card depending on funds, $300 for day care ( 3 days a week), $200 to pay off a shed we built in the backyard (we had a storage unit that was breaching $300/mo), $200 for a medical credit card (0 interest) we opened to pay for a medical procedure for our son -- I don't remember how much we owe on that one. Lately, Mary's condition leaves her either in too much pain or (rarely) too depressed to care for herself or our son during the day meaning I have to call off work. About a year or two ago I only to call out 1 or 2 times every few months, then it was maybe once or twice a month. The past year to now, it's at the point where I may work for a week and then have to call 3 or 4 days the next week, one time I had to call out every day for a week. The only reason I've been able to keep my job is an Intermittent FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) I enrolled into.. it allows me about 400ish unpaid hours over the course of the past year where I can call out of work at least an hour before my shift without consequence. I feel my call outs have gotten so bad that I'm sure my boss is just looking for some other reason/technicality to fire me despite him being aware of my situation at home. I just renewed the FMLA, but being its on a rolling calendar year, I only have about 40 hours worth until mid-January for them to be restored. It doesn't really matter if I do morning or evening shifts, either way I still end up having to call out of work if Mary isn't feeling well. Our son's daycare is helping a little... Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, 8a-2pm gives her a small break but some days I still have to call out. There are some daycares in the area that could do Mon-Fri but I was blown away at how expensive it is and still wouldn't cover a full work day for me. Mary did physical therapy for a few weeks and it seemed to help, but some days she even had to stay home from it and the program had to drop her. I love my wife so much, but things have just gotten so stressful I'm having a difficult time thinking that if I lose this job, it would impossible to find another job that would even consider accepting me due to my "absenteeism" . I'm not too sure what sort of advice anyone out there has for me. There are few programs out there that offer financial assistance, but I'm pretty sure I make too much to qualify. I have spoken to Mary many times about this and she always says she will try to do better, but things for her seem to only get worse =(. There isn't much help from my parents, as my dad passed about 5-6 years ago, and my stepdad passed a year or so ago. My mom lives by herself in a trailer in what I'd call the "country", but she's soon going to be moving to Ohio to live with her mother who probably has less than a few year left. Good god, I know some of this is partly me venting over the situation and can't believe how much I've typed. tl;dr - Wife, 2 y/o son, and I live with her mom, hopefully don't get canned from my job due to excessive call outs from work since my wife is too ill to care for herself or son [link] [comments]  |
| I need financial help. What am I missing? Posted: 04 Nov 2018 07:26 PM PST This is my first post ever so please go easy on me. I just turned 27. My girlfriend and I have 2 kids (both under 3) and I'm the only source of income. I have a salary of $48,000 a year and get paid weekly (if that matters) and can afford our current bills but can't seem to put any money into past bills or savings. My current credit score is a 570. Below are a list of current bills and collections. Any advice would be really appreciative, I just want to be able to live a comfortable life and provide for my family the best I can. Current bills Rent - $780 Car - $210 Insurance - $100 Phones - $200 Utilities - $75 Food - $200 Gas - $100 iCloud - $3 Child daycare (3 days a week) $160 a month Secured credit card - $25 Collections $1500 old apartment final bill Old insurance company - $98 Old phone bill - $1100 Old medical bills - $500 That's everything I can think of. What are your thoughts on how I should tackle all this and work towards renting a house in the future? Thank you all so much. [link] [comments]  |
| This is really more or a I f*cked up my life rant. Posted: 04 Nov 2018 12:30 PM PST I am really struggling with serious financial depression and anxiety. My husband lost his job earlier this year. We decided to use savings for him to get certification in another profession as he was deeply unhappy in his previous career; this has since not generated much income. We were stupid and waiting/hoping for things to turn around, with leads constantly not panning out. We burned thru all our savings and racked up immense debt. Before new baby, we pulled in about 180k / year pre-tax and our expenses monthly reflect that previous income: 2k mortgage, 1.5k car payments, living expenses, food, etc, All said and done we are now drowning in bills and debt. I am starting a new job right away and hubby is also job searching, but daycare for all of our children will be about 2500/month, which won't allow us to make ends meet or save/reduce debt. We are about to lose our house and vehicles and it's our own fault. We took a risk and it failed. It just hurts so deeply. I know we did this to ourselves, but it cuts so deep. It's giving me uncontrollable stress and anxiety. I don't know how to deal with it and I am spiraling so hard into depression. I have developed severe insomnia and almost constantly feel this deep stinging in my chest. I want to cry constantly but cannot show my hurt around my children and refuse to allow my own problems to affect my ability to parent. I guess that's the end of my rant. We ruined our own lives and now I can barely deal with the stress of it. Even with savings, sometimes risks don't pan out and you lose it all. Think and plan very carefully before you take financial risks: lesson learned. [link] [comments]  |
| How do I get over my irrational attachment to money? Posted: 04 Nov 2018 08:35 AM PST I originally posted this on r/Advice but figured maybe I could get some help from here as well. I have always been a very conservative person when it comes to spending money. I was raised to be that way. It was only as of a couple years ago that I started spending more. I was very much a penny pincher and I still am in many ways. The thing is, I have no reason to be this way. I am in a very, very good place financially between my income and my savings. Here is an example: Recently, I purchased a new phone for about $600. My original plan was to sell my "old" phone once the new phone arrives. I could get $200 for it easy. However, I later had the idea to talk to my online friend group and see if anyone needed a phone, since my "old" phone is only a couple years old and is in great shape. I asked a couple people and one girl said she would be happy to take it because her current phone is crazy slow. Now, this particular girl has been through some shit, and she doesn't have a job right now. Given that I offered the phone to her rather than her ask me for it, I didn't feel it would be right to ask for her to pay anything for it. I told her that if the shipping was only like $5 I would take care of it, but if it ends up being $20 or more then I'd appreciate it if she chipped in. It all depends on the weight and size of the package. I will essentially be out $200 due to this. Despite the fact that I'm doing a nice thing for a friend who is having a rough time, I'm feeling a ton of anxiety about losing that $200. I realize that this is an issue because, as I said, I am in a very good place financially. $200 is less than 10% of my monthly income and less than 1% of what I have saved up. Why the shit do I care so much about that $200? How do I stop this? This financial anxiety has effected me negatively throughout my life and I want it to stop. [link] [comments]  |
| Serious: Why do people think paying cash for a car will increase their negotiating position? Posted: 04 Nov 2018 09:06 AM PST I work at a dealership and people come in everyday asking if we can give them a better price if they pay cash. In our world, they just made themselves the least desirable customer because we make very little on the car and most on the financing commission/kickback from the bank and the business office products. It's way easier to sell business office products on a payment instead of a cash price too so we are about ten times more likely to make money selling in the business office on a finance customer. I don't know when cash was ever better but why do people have it in their minds that it is. I seriously need to know. [link] [comments]  |
| Question on how social security works if you no longer contribute to it. Posted: 04 Nov 2018 05:54 PM PST I'm 40 years old and just began a new position with a state University. As such I will no longer contribute to social security and will contribute to the SURS, the state University retirement system. I have worked full time since I was 21. I intend to stay with the university a long time, hopefully retiring from there. How does social security work for me now? Will I lose all of those contributions for the last 19 years? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2018 08:01 PM PST Hi r/personalfinance community! I'll be 25 next month which means I'll be rolling off my parents life insurance policies as a rider and will have to get my own. This is so new to me. When you turned 25, what kind of life insurance did you get? Whole vs. term? Annuities vs. Dividends? I have no children so how much life insurance would you recommend getting? At the end of the day, it's not for me but my future family and/or my parents. Open and thankful for any insight or suggestions. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2018 05:18 AM PST I don't remember where exactly, but I remember reading an article or something where the guy said you can take out the money from your HSA tax free at any time as long as you have receipts for covered medical expenses. So let's say I'm married and we have 3 kids with a $5,000 deductible met per kid. Now 25 years later I want to renovate my kitchen so I pull out $15,000 from my HSA but when the tax man asks I can say it's for the covered medical expense from many years ago. Was the article plain wrong? Did I interpret something terribly wrong? [link] [comments]  |
| What can I do to have a better banking experience? Posted: 04 Nov 2018 12:47 PM PST I have a Bank of America account, since there's only BofA ATMs at my university. I am not an American citizen and am on a student visa. BofA has consistently engaged in a combination of unethical practices (such as fradulently "upgrading" my account to an expensive monthly fee account without notifying me) and plain inconveniences (refuses to let my transactions go through at times even after calling customer service multiple times). As such, I am looking for a better option for managing my money. As a full time student, I do not make a lot (I make about $10,000 per year, and my parents are paying tuition through their accounts). Should I look into the local credit union, or try a different big bank? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| When do you use your 3 free credit reports? Posted: 04 Nov 2018 07:30 PM PST Wondering how often folks pull their annualcreditreport.com reports? I initially pulled all three at once but going 12 months without being able to look at my report for free was agonizing, so I started staggering my reports. To help me not forget, I started pulling my Equifax report when daylight saving time starts (March 11 this year), Transunion on July 4th, and Experian when daylight saving time ends (November 4th this year). I started this a few years back and it has worked well. I get to review my 'official' report every 4 months, and regularly utilize the free sites to keep an eye on things in the interim. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for ideas for food budgeting Posted: 04 Nov 2018 07:28 PM PST I calculated my monthly expenses for lunch at restaurants. I was thinking I was spending $150-200. I was amazed that I used my debit card to pay for over $400/month for just lunch. Other than taking lunch to work, do you have any other ideas on how to budget for food including dinner? [link] [comments]  |
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