Personal Finance [OC] I tracked every dollar I spent over the last 8 yrs. You can too! (Spreadsheets/instructions for 2019 included) |
- [OC] I tracked every dollar I spent over the last 8 yrs. You can too! (Spreadsheets/instructions for 2019 included)
- If I add my wife as an authorized user to one of my $0 balance credit cards will it boost her score a bit?
- Over $130k in credit card debt, don't know what to do
- Stay in the military or leave?
- According to Credit Karma, having more open accounts will raise my score, but any utilization lowers my score. Am I supposed to open a bunch of credit cards and then stuff them in a drawer and never use them?
- It is starting, 18 months into the work force and I'm starting to spend money like crazy. How do I stop myself?
- Going to be getting a promotion, will need to negotiate pay and I have no idea what I need to do
- Went into a Fidelity years ago when I was young to deal with assets and I’m not sure what happened
- Is day trading a lucrative investment?
- Helping a sibling with over $30,000 in debt
- What are some important financial things to do before the end of the year?
- Getting a little over $50k from a settlement.
- Next steps
- I could use some help forming a plan on how to get out of this hole I have found myself in. Credit Cards, Student Loans, and now a debt in Collections. Cue breakdown.
- MIL wants to gift down payment on a house for wife and I, but will only do it if house is in wife’s name. Should we accept?
- Email Currently Being Spammed Sign Up -- What Precautions Do I Need to Take
- Is it a bad idea to carry forward a lot of capital losses?
- Roth 401K or IRA?
- [Advice Wanted] 29 year old looking to buy first property
- In a very frustrating situation
- It’s almost the end of 2018. Are there any year-end last donations I can make to charities that will help me when it comes time to do my taxes next year?
| Posted: 30 Dec 2018 11:27 AM PST Happy New Year! Here is a snapshot of all my finances over the last 8 years. I made a spreadsheet to keep track of my spending (will provide updated link to new spreadsheet once moderators allow me to) and here are the instructions for how to use it. Shout out to all the people who have helped me debug and improve this spreadsheet over the past few years. Your continued feedback/encouragement/support makes me very grateful to contribute to this wonderful community. Cheers and see you again next year! 2018 YEAR IN REVIEW:
2019 GOALS:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Disclaimer: Everything here is original content. I'm cross-posting to r/financialindependence, r/personalfinance, r/dataisbeautiful for maximum visibility. Everyone has my full permission to use/share/repost. Edits: Fixed formatting [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Dec 2018 05:22 AM PST We're buying a house in a month or so and everything is in order...but her score is at a plateau at the moment. Adding her to one of my $0 balance cards would not negatively affect it, right? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Over $130k in credit card debt, don't know what to do Posted: 30 Dec 2018 03:34 PM PST So I am a college student and my parents have been telling me more about their financial situation. They have a crazy amount of credit card debt (we listed all the balances and it added up to more than $130k). They also have a mortgage which they still have $210k left on and about $15k in car loans. So apparently this credit card debt got racked up when my dad was unemployed a few years ago for about 6 months. They were paying their bills and mortgage using these cards. However, I know it has to also do with some terrible spending decisions (such as international travel) and absolutely no budgeting. They are seriously trying to stop this debt and want to get better but are right now just paying minimum payments on most cards and paying full balances on the ones that they are using to pay for groceries, cable/phone bills, etc. Some more info: My dad makes about $6500 a month. My mom makes about $1500 a month. We are a family of 7 (I'm the only one in college and able to pay most of my expenses thankfully) Their expenses (water, groceries, electricity, gas, cable, phone, insurance) are about $2500 a month The mortgage right now is about $2000 a month So we are basically living paycheck to paycheck right now with really no savings. I think my dad still has a 401k which he makes contributions too, so he has his retirement savings. He also has like $10k in a 529 account for my siblings colleges. Finally, we have about $80k in home equity that we could use (this is the plan that my parents want to go with) So any advice on how to help them with this? Is selling our home for the equity a good decision? Should they file bankruptcy? Should they seek credit counseling? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stay in the military or leave? Posted: 30 Dec 2018 02:20 AM PST This probably isn't the right place to ask this question, but I've come to think of the sub as a good place for advice if this nature. I'm currently enlisted in the military, and just hit my 8 year mark. Because I lacked foresight, I haven't pursued my bachelor's degree as hard as I should have. I'm rectifying that now, majoring in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Embry-Riddle. It'll take me a few years, but I'll have the degree before my enlistment ends and I have to make a decision; reenlist, attempt to commission, or leave. At that point I'll be at twelve years, more than halfway to the military retirement. My dilemma is that I don't enjoy the military as I once did. I feel like I'm walking on a path filled with briars and thorns, or like a thousand tiny bugs are gnawing away at me. On the other hand, I have a wife and two kids. I'll be coming out of the military with a lot of experience, but not in the field that my degree is in. I can attempt to commission and be a Logistics officer, but there's no guarantee and if be looking at eight years that I'm not using my degree, and I'm afraid of the person I'll be on the other end, bitter, jaded, remorseful. I'm looking at two paths. One that is guaranteed painful, but with a clear light at the end, or one that is completely dark and unknown. I know I have to make the decision on my own, but I'd really love to hear some advice and different perspectives. I don't really have anyone I feel I can turn to. Help me please. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Dec 2018 08:56 AM PST | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Dec 2018 11:38 AM PST I had 30 dollars in my bank account when I graduated, so for the first year and half with a full time job, I would barely spend 30 dollars a week on myself, I was just so used to saving money in college. Now that i have a decent income and money in the bank, im spending 100-200 dollars a week on going out and eating/drinking and I can't save like I used to. How do I get that savings mentality back into my head?? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Going to be getting a promotion, will need to negotiate pay and I have no idea what I need to do Posted: 30 Dec 2018 06:00 AM PST Not sure if this is the place to post, please let me know if there is another sub. Located in Australia for reference. I have recently been in a trial for a supervisor/team leader position in a tech support call centre after a department reshuffle. The trial was for 3 months and it started in early November, so it's getting close to the end. I have heard from my manager that I will get the job. I received a small pay increase of $1/hr during the trial with the ability to negotiate pay after the trial has ended. I have a rough idea of what I want to be getting, but I have no figures to reference as they are all new positions so I feel like I might be asking for a bit too much. What are some techniques and questions I should be aware of while negotiating pay? And what is a fair figure of pay for a Level 2 position for a call centre in Australia? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Went into a Fidelity years ago when I was young to deal with assets and I’m not sure what happened Posted: 30 Dec 2018 01:41 AM PST This is in California, not sure if this is better suited for legaladvice instead. A few years ago when I was 18, immediately after my dad passed away, my mom took me to an well known investment service to get some things sorted out from my father's end. I know it was related to me because my siblings didn't go and she told me I had to be there. I'm almost certain that this was related to my dads assets and I was told by an employee there that after every x amount of years, I can withdraw x amount of money once I reach a certain age (not 100% sure). Honestly the whole thing is a haze to me and I can't remember what exactly happened because my dad had just passed. I completely forgot about this until recently when one of my coworkers and I were talking about wills and I briefly mentioned this incident. My coworker said it sounded like I have a trust. One of my siblings asked our mom if our dad had left us a trust and she said that he did not. My mom and I do not have a good relationship and so I'm not in the position to ask her what happened years ago in some financial service office. My mom is not exactly the best person to me and I would not put it past her if she had been doing something behind my back by taking me there. So I'm wondering: 1.) Does anyone have an idea of what this could be? 2.) How would I find out more information about this? My coworker says I might have a Fidelity account that I don't know about. If I go there, is it possible to find out information about this with my ID alone? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Is day trading a lucrative investment? Posted: 29 Dec 2018 09:40 PM PST My husband has been day trading for about a year now and hasn't really made a significant profit. I was shocked to learn that he's used 20k from his Roth's account to invest in this "hobby". Should I be worried? Is 20k a lot for day trading? Are the risks significant? I really don't understand what goes on in the trading. I'd love to hear positive and negative personal stories if you have them!! [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Helping a sibling with over $30,000 in debt Posted: 30 Dec 2018 05:12 PM PST Long story short my sibling has dug herself a deep hole. She came to me for help, but I don't know a whole lot about paying off debt/strategies. The plan is to have everything paid off in 3-4 years? We set up monthly payments and created a small budget for her other monthly bills. She got a second job to help pay and moved into a smaller house with a friend. I have access to all her accounts now to track her spending and hold her accountable. This is what we have so far... Any suggestions? Sorry if formatting is weird, I'm on mobile. Monthly Income with 2 jobs- $2600 -Debt- AMEX - $12,600 at 26.24% Car Loan - $7800 at 9.78% Capital One - $3,400 at 24.74% Wells Fargo - $3,400 at 13.45% Discover - $3100 at 25.4% Kohls - $500
-Current Monthly Payments- AMEX - $400 Car - $350 Capital One - $115 Wells Fargo - $100 Discover - $120 Kohls - $100
-Monthly Bills- Groceries - $200 Gas - $100 Car Insurance - $144 Phone - $60 Rent - $350 [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What are some important financial things to do before the end of the year? Posted: 30 Dec 2018 02:45 PM PST Things like contributing to Roth IRA, tax loss harvesting, or spending your HSA. Anything important I'm forgetting? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Getting a little over $50k from a settlement. Posted: 30 Dec 2018 08:19 PM PST Long story short I was in a car wreck when I was 18, now about to be 22 in a couple weeks and I will be receiving the compensation this week. I already know not to go wild with my money but ive been driving an 03 f150 that has given its all for me and my family since we bought it new and I need a newer more reliable vehicle since this one is starting to give me more and more problems. But anyways my question is how would I go about financing about a $20k car? I need to start building credit and I know I don't need to just buy it straight up cash.. Any help with that and how someone my age can do the right thing with my money. I'm on my own as far as help from my parents go. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Dec 2018 05:51 AM PST I am 18 y/o college freshman with ~20k in savings from working since 15-18 y/o. I really want to invest but don't know where to start looking for suggestions(stocks, bonds, savings roth ira, not sure which is best). Bit more info: No cc debt No student loans(mom saved money for college since I was born just enough to cover the 4 years) No other form of debt Will be working again very soon so I will have taxable income [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Dec 2018 08:09 PM PST Using a throwaway as this is so embarrassing. I thought I could crawl out of this hole alone but alas. Long story short, my parents weren't great models for responsible spending. I left their home at 16, and have made it on my own every since. The day I turned 18 I applied for a credit card in my name and here we are 10 years later and I need help. Some background: I am a full time student working on my masters (in counseling so no big bucks there) and I work full time at the university and I am a parent. Current Salary: $33,000. After taxes, mandatory 401k 6%, and a loan payment withdrawn ($97 per paycheck), I make $1780 per month. I have $0 in savings, and $13 in my bank account right now. Student Loans Credit Cards (balance/max balance/minimum payment) APRs on these cards are 18-26%.
(this Discover one is new. I applied for this one last month because it had a 0% APR offer for balance transfers) Car Payment I have $4,140 left to pay off my car. I pay $350 per month. Personal loan from a previous consolidation loan that was awesome until I got married and had to have a dream honeymoon. Ug * $1,698 remaining on this. This is the balance mentioned previously that comes out of my paycheck every month. I pay $194 monthly on this. Other monthlies: (this is my half of the cost)
My husband makes $35k yearly and pays his half of monthly bills listed here, and our cell phone bill ($100 per month) and child support at $500 per month. He has paid off his car, but received a DUI a few years back and pays almost $300 a month for car insurance. He also pays for our Hulu subscription. This is our only recurring payment "nicety" I am freaking out today as I received a letter in the mail from a collection agency. Last year I had to have a surprise surgery and left with a $3,500 medical bill. The hospital did not have a way to set up automatic payments, and I forgot to pay since August. They sold my debt to the agency. To this date, I have only one missed payment, when I paid off my Lowe's credit card at an awkward time and was charged interest for the month after I paid the bill. It was something like $20 that I didn't know was still on the card and therefore didn't pay for a few months until I noticed it hit my credit score. So, I will receive around $8,000 in student loans in the Spring. I planned to use these loans to pay off the Chase card ($4,800) and some on the Capital One card (probably $3,000) as they are the two cards with the highest interest and then transfer the remaining balances to:
But now with this medical debt in collections... I am not sure what to do. My husband says to ignore it for a while and let it roll in to collections, pay off what we can of the credit card debt and then start to try and inch our way out with the collections agency. If our utility bill is on the lower side, I pay about $1,600 in bills every month, and bring home $1,780. The other $180 goes to gas and food. I try to throw any extra dollars I have towards the cards at the end of the month if I have any. My husband buys most of the other groceries and toiletries. We hardly ever go out for dinner for dinner or movies. Once a month or so we try to do something fun with the kids. We have them every other weekend and 2 nights during the week. Basically, should I ignore the medical debt collectors and continue with my previous plan? We are unable to sell his car and only have one car. We work in opposite directions and have inflexible hours. That was my first thought. I watch this sub quite a bit and I really thought I had a handle on things until I realized I didn't. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Happy to answer questions or expand on things. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Dec 2018 05:11 AM PST My wife's mother should be coming into some money soon (because she is getting divorced from her husband) and told her that she would like to put a down payment on a house for us, but with the condition that the house be in my wife's name. so she has "assets." Is this smart? Should I refuse? My gut is telling me to refuse and save on our own until we can buy it ourselves, but it will take time. Probably years. My wife is a stay at home mom, which we both want, so I'm the only income and I will be the one paying for the house ultimately. My wife is all for this idea because she wants more room for our daughter. What do I do? Say yes? Say no? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Email Currently Being Spammed Sign Up -- What Precautions Do I Need to Take Posted: 30 Dec 2018 07:54 PM PST In the past 30 minutes, my email addresses are being spammed with "sign ups" to various different websites (I'm talking over 100+ signups now). Not sure how this happened but I want to make sure all of my banking is safe. What are some precaution I need to take? Thanks in advance! Edit (add on):
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| Is it a bad idea to carry forward a lot of capital losses? Posted: 30 Dec 2018 07:40 PM PST I have about $27,000 in capital losses for 2018, almost all short-term losses from company stock sales of RSU and ESPP shares. $3000 can be applied to my income, but would it be a mistake to carry the other $24,000 into 2019? In theory, I could use that for the next 8 years to offset income and interest, but holy cow, that is a long time. I could also just harvest $24,000 in gains that I have in some taxable ETF shares that I have (sell and immediately rebuy) and be done right now. Does anyone have some advice? I tried searching for some advice on capital loss strategies, but came up empty on this question. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Dec 2018 12:05 PM PST Apologies if this is one of those "Not this again?" questions. tl;dr: Roth 401(k) vs. Roth IRA pros/cons, all other things being equal. I'm turning my titanic of a financial system around. I'm currently saving the full amount that my employer matches (only 4% :( ) into a traditional pre-tax 401(k) plan. Yes, that's not nearly enough. I know. I also have a personal Roth IRA with some money in it, but I'm not contributing at the moment (had to divert contributions for a while to handle an emergency). The company's 401(k) offers a Roth option in addition to the traditional. I want to increase my contributions, and I believe I want to put those added contributions into a Roth somewhere. Doing so in the company's Roth 401(k) would be super-convenient and all, as it would be payroll-deducted and I wouldn't have to think about it at all. But I have fewer investment options (I'm more of a set-it-and-forget-it guy with this though). I've heard that beyond the match amount, it's advantageous to put further retirement savings into personal IRAs so that they're not tied to the company and you have more control the investment options. Is this really a big deal if I'm not planning to spend all my spare time tweaking and optimizing allocations and fund choices every week? I can send the money easy enough to my existing personal Roth IRA, but it will be a monthly bank account deduction instead of biweekly payroll deduction (I don't think they offer the latter), which is just a bit harder to budget. I'm fighting old bad habits and temptations and other issues, so making it as seamless and thought-free as possible is an advantage here. For purposes of discussion, assume all other things are equal, I'd make basically the same investment choices in either case, etc. etc. I'm not sure what's kosher vs. necessary on revealing exact personal $$$ info. Advice? Should I make additional contributions into the 401(k) or into the personal IRA? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [Advice Wanted] 29 year old looking to buy first property Posted: 30 Dec 2018 03:04 PM PST As the title suggests, I am looking for advice on purchasing my first property in Los Angeles. I am a single 29 years old that makes 9k per month (take home). I have $200k for the down-payment and $50k for everything else like closing costs, appraisal, fees, etc. I max out my 401k and IRA contributions every year and is already accounted for in my take home amount above. Everything reminding after my monthly expenses I put 50% of it to savings/investing accounts. I own my car, I don't have any debt, I have a stable job (been there since I graduated college) and plan on being here for the foreseeable years. I still will have a sizable savings account and investments accounts, as I don't plan on touching those. The main reason that I am looking to purchase a home somewhat soon is because I got a great deal on the table with a bank. They are offering an additional subtraction of 0.25% through 0.5% to my pre-approval amount (sub 4.0% for a 30 year) if a put a certain amount of money in their bank during this time and will be freed up once I close. This works out perfectly because some of that money will be used for taxes in April so want to capitalize on the money now. Current Breakdown
Somethings to note is that lunch is provided at my work place during work days so I usually tend to eat out for dinner instead. Another thing is that I currently live close to work (3 mi) so gas and car maintenance is typically low. Looking at PocketGuard, I am average about 6.2k in monthly expenses (including everything I listed above). This could potentially be a bit high because of Christmas shopping in November and December. Property 1 (House)The cost of this property is 700k and I planning on putting down 28% ($196,000). With that, I am estimating the home cost breakdown to look something like this:
Things to note here is that this property does not come with washer/dryer, refrigerator, or alarm system. There is also small work that I would have to be done to this property as somethings look 'unfinished' or not my style but this is thinking for some other time. This property is also much much further away from my job (~17 miles away) and therefore I am adding a 'Car Maintenance' fund in the break down in the case that there is an issues with the car. This could also turn into a savings fund for a new car when the current one wears out. It is also in an area where cost of living is a bit lower so I am assuming groceries and eating/going out will decrease by a small amount. Because it is so much more further from work, I am also estimating that the average commute time will go up from about 18 mins to about 1h30 mins. To me, this is the biggest downside of this property as I would be spending a significant amount of time of my day driving. The second biggest downside would be that I will be a lot further away from friends and co-workers. If you live in LA, anything further than 5 miles might as well be a day trip. Property 2 (Condo)The cost of this property is 900k and I planning on putting down 22% ($198,000). With that, I am estimating the home breakdown to look something like this:
Things to note here is that this property does come with all appliances so wouldn't have to be paying for washer/dryers and installation of them. This property is also closer to work than where I am currently living so I could potentially bike into work a few times a week. I am planning to cook more as the kitchen is bigger and nicer than my current kitchen and I actually enjoy cooking. I am hoping that a new place would motivate me a bit to cook more. I am assuming expenses will stay more or less the same outside of the higher baseline of "rent" (+$2,400) I love both of these properties about equally, so I want to know if this is even a smart move for me to do and, if I should do it, which property is probably best for me. I took a look at this guide and also looked at the rent or buy guide but I want to know your thoughts. I am very certain that I will be living and working in Los Angeles for the next 5 - 10 years. Any guidance, advice, comments, or concerns would be greatly appreciated. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In a very frustrating situation Posted: 30 Dec 2018 06:45 PM PST So I'm 21 and have absolutely no credit and can't get any. Over the past 3 years I've tried all I can do to get some kind of line of credit. And being told "we can't give you a credit card because you have no credit. You should go build credit" is extremely infuriating. Back story on my personal finance- I pay 600 for rent and make about 3000 a month. I have no student lines, never missed a phone bill, no outstanding parenting tickets, absolutely nothing. When I log onto credit karma everything is blank, everything is just 0's. Nothing. Over 3 years I'd applied for a chase card (don't remember what one) a Best Buy card, a Walmart card, a card with fidelity (who I bank and invest with) a capital one secured card. All denied. Well the fidelity one said "we can't tell you if you are accepted but you'll get a letter with more info" and I thought heck yes I got a card, normally they deny me right away. Just to get a letter saying fuck you 2 weeks later. I've looked through the FAQ and I don't have the option to be an authorized user on anyone in my life, I don't need a car loan since I paid for mine in cash. I do my taxes. Who gets denied for a secured!?!? After that happened I just ran here for desperate help. Update- I'm just an absolute idiot and for the recent capital one secured card instead of telling them how much I make a year I wrote how much I make a month. So basically I told them I make 3,000 a year. Everything is looking better now with the secures card. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Dec 2018 06:41 PM PST |
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