Personal Finance 30-Day Challenge #1: Get on top of your credit (January, 2019) |
- 30-Day Challenge #1: Get on top of your credit (January, 2019)
- Is the standard rule "rent should be 1/3 or less of your monthly income" unrealistic?
- 19yo joining the military wondering about how to invest $14k of unexpected income while in the service.
- I'm young and everyone tells me to invest now. I know absolutely nothing and it stresses me out, is it worth it to learn?
- Criticisms of Dave Ramsey from Seasoned Financial Experts?
- Hospital is in-network for wife but out for baby???
- Dad died unexpectedly out of state. Have no idea what to do with his home and vehicles.
- Avoid Bank of America if you can be linked to an OPAC-sanctioned country.
- Hoping to Start Strong in 2019
- 15 yrs old, given $1000, how should I use this?
- 17 years old, working a minimum wage job and my family is "working class" to put it lightly. No experience with budgeting or finance in general. How can I save money?
- Woke up to a Mint alert that I have delinquent student loans
- The only thing I would’ve done differently when I purchased my home
- Possible new job, bonus on the line
- Term Life Insurance
- Honestly, how are we doing? I can't figure out if we're drowning or crushing it?
- Has anyone purchased a home with a zero-down or low-down payment loan? Is it a good idea/worth it?
- Help!!! Got a CP2000 in the mail for over 10K
- Filing self-employment taxes: Are transaction fees considered "business expenses"?
- Questions Buying First House
- Whats the best credit card to earn flying points?
- Buying my first house, seeking advice
- When to transition extra savings from bank account to investing?
- I don't understand YNAB's inability to have a negative budget. How do you make it work if you don't have enough in savings at the start to cover a full month's expenses?
- Buying out a car lease - Can someone please explain to me how this is adding up? Doesn't seem like a fair deal...
| 30-Day Challenge #1: Get on top of your credit (January, 2019) Posted: 06 Jan 2019 05:05 AM PST 30-day challengesWe are pleased to announce that we're continuing our 30-day challenge series. The schedule spans the entire year so be sure to keep an eye out each month. This month's 30-day challenge is to get on top of your credit. Here are some concrete steps you can take: Check your free credit reportThere are three major credit bureaus in the US: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. These companies each gather credit histories for individuals and sell that information to credit card companies, lenders, and other financial institutions. You can go to https://www.annualcreditreport.com to get a credit report from each credit bureau once per year. It's often recommended to stagger your requests so you can get one every four months so you may only want to request one report at this time. You can use a calendar reminder to stay on top of this. Now, your free credit report won't include your score and it also won't include credit monitoring, but you absolutely don't need to buy those from a credit bureau because there are free options. See below. Note that the security questions will sometimes ask about intentionally false information (e.g. made-up loans), so "none of the above" may be the right answer. If you can't get past the security questions, you may have to write in to get your report. Also be aware that you don't have to pay for anything on the credit bureau sites. If you find yourself prompted for a credit card number, you might have clicked to sign up for something you might not need or want. Also, if you have trouble with the web site, try temporarily disabling browser ad-blockers and privacy extensions. See the Credit Reports Wiki for more information! Sign up for free credit monitoringYou don't need to pay for credit monitoring. Some options:
After exploring your options, sign up with at least one of them. More information contained in the Credit Scoring Wiki. Find out your credit scoreYou can now get your FICO score for free from Discover without a credit card. In addition, a number of credit cards actually give you a free FICO score as a benefit of having their card. Brands providing FICO scores include Discover, Citi (branded cards only), American Express, Bank of America, and Barclaycard. Here's a full list of options. In addition, you can get your VantageScore from Credit Karma or Mint. VantageScore is used less often by creditors than FICO, but it's a usually a good estimate of your FICO score. Paying for your credit score is silly unless you're considering getting a major loan like a mortgage. Get rid of pre-approved credit card junk mailOptOutPrescreen.Com is the official consumer credit card reporting website to opt-out of offers of credit or insurance. It's an easy win to reduce junk mail and reduce the risk of identity theft (from someone stealing your mail). I recommend signing up unless you're in the process of building credit and actually want to receive pre-approved offers. Are you looking to improve your credit?Once you have a score over 740, most credit files are solid enough to qualify for prime rate lending. This means that any additional increase of your score will likely not get you better credit products. If you are in a position where you'd like to improve your credit, here are two situations that often befall people when asking for help here:
What to do if you find information you don't recognizeEven though credit reporting is automated, mistakes can still occur. The most common errors can involve names and addresses. If your name is similar to a parent's name, there are also instances where a line of credit is reported on the wrong file. The simplest course of action is to dispute the information with the bureaus. Here are direct links to initiate a dispute: Finally, if you believe you've had your identity stolen, read and follow the steps in our Identity Theft Wiki. If you're not in the United StatesThe PF wiki has many more countries covered. If you would like to add information for your country to the wiki, please message the moderation team. Challenge success criteriaYou've successfully completed this challenge once you've done 3 or more of the following things:
If you're outside of the US, you've successfully completed this challenge once you've done the following things:
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| Is the standard rule "rent should be 1/3 or less of your monthly income" unrealistic? Posted: 06 Jan 2019 04:33 PM PST My rent is $700 and I make about $1800 a month after taxes. After all my bills are paid I still have some money for recreation and money to save. I live in Upstate New York and I know most people here are definitely not making 3X what they pay for rent. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jan 2019 06:29 AM PST A few days ago I received an unexpected check for about 14 thousand dollars from the US Treasury (long story, tl;dr SS backpay), and it is currently sitting in my savings account. I leave for basic next month, my contract expires in July 2022 (3yr 22wk). I was thinking I should put this money into a cd or some other low-risk investment that I can also have access to once I am out, in case I need it. What do you guys think are some good options for me to consider? Thank you in advance! EDIT 2: Thank you all for the advice! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jan 2019 02:13 PM PST I'm young (early 20s), and I hear all the time people telling me to invest NOW. They say they wish they invested when they were young because the returns 30-40 years later would be incredible because of compounding interest or something. However, I don't know a single thing about investing, and I don't know much about money in general either. I didn't study commerce or finance or whatever, and all I knew about money growing up was to earn it and save it with a bank that has a decent interest rate on savings accounts. Honestly, I've been reading up on investing and it confuses and stresses me out a lot. It stresses me out to think about my money being elsewhere, how much I don't know, and going up against people who do this for a living or who know much more than me, etc. Is it worth it to put in effort to learn how to invest while I'm young? I'm not here trying to get rich (would be nice) but I've heard people say that it's to protect yourself from inflation or something? That other people are losing money by just saving regularly? I dont know. Any advice would be appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Criticisms of Dave Ramsey from Seasoned Financial Experts? Posted: 06 Jan 2019 04:29 PM PST Hey guys, So I have no qualms with Dave Ramsey. I listen to his show a lot and have read one of his books. I truly enjoy his content and advice. With that being said, can anyone think of anything Ramsey advocates for that should be taken with a grain of salt, or anything that he's outright wrong about? I've heard in the past that Ramsey advocates for mutual funds so heavily because he gets a kickback from a mutual fund company that's he's partnered up with, or something along those lines, whereas index funds typically outperform mutuals. Anywho, I'm excited for your responses! [link] [comments]  |
| Hospital is in-network for wife but out for baby??? Posted: 06 Jan 2019 01:44 PM PST Hey everyone, I've tried reading through some posts here but couldn't find one with my specific issue. My first son was just born before the new year! We got two letters from insurance. My wife got a letter saying her OB and location where approved and in-network. The hospital was listed as Hendricks Regional Health (the over arching organization). My letter was for the baby as it said the NICU pediatrician was out of network (I've read about how to fight this) but the hospital was called Hendricks Regional Hospital and was out of network. My wife and baby were treated at the same hospital. We have anthem and they offered us a social worker to help us go through bills but I want to c educated when we talk. What options do I have with the different labeling of the hospital? Thanks in advanced for any advice everyone! Edit 1: I think I found it. Anthem and my health group have been fighting about mini hospitals. They recently drew a line in the sand and said mini hospital near me was out of network but the main facility is still IN. We were at the main facility, so it had to be a mistake in coding. The hospital is on my call list along with insurance. Anthem said theyd give us a social worker to help with this stuff so here is to hoping they are actually a patient advocate! [link] [comments]  |
| Dad died unexpectedly out of state. Have no idea what to do with his home and vehicles. Posted: 06 Jan 2019 05:34 PM PST My brother and I were notified today that our dad passed away unexpectedly, appears to be natural causes. We are flying from Texas to Michigan tomorrow morning to take care of his remains. He has a will and my brother has access to his accounts. He was not married and has no family left that can help us. We know we have to do all the normal notifications to banks, pension, social security and veterans benefits....utilities. We will probably only be able to stay in Michigan for a week for now due to our jobs. We need to secure his property for now, but we really can't be there to take care of selling his vehicles, his not so nice trailer on land and personal belongings. We will ask a trusted friend of his (that we don't know) to hold on the some of his personal belongings that have meaning to us, but we really only can take back pictures and paperwork for now. We hopefully can find his cat who should have food and water, so we can try to find her a home. Is there anyone we can hire that can arrange for the sale of his belongings/property for a fee? He lived in the country and we are at a lost, while trying to process his death. We are beyond devastated. [link] [comments]  |
| Avoid Bank of America if you can be linked to an OPAC-sanctioned country. Posted: 06 Jan 2019 06:43 PM PST (I am not seeking advice or assistance. This is intended as a warning for others. This is also not intended to spark a discussion about OFAC sanctions.) Background: I am a citizen of a NATO country. But, by accident of birth, I am also a native of certain OFAC-sanctioned country that doesn't allow its nationals to renounce citizenship. This makes me a dual-citizen of that country, like it or not. I've never hidden that fact the very few times when it has been relevant, but I also don't disclose when not. I only hold a passport for the NATO country. I moved to the US about 5 years ago with an H1B and opened, in person, my first checking account and a starter credit card with BofA. I think my IDs at the time were my passport, SSN card and foreign drivers license. They didn't ask anything about my citizenship, I suppose they inferred it from my passport. Since then, I've opened accounts at other banks without trouble, listing all my citizenships when asked. About a year ago I finally got my green card, updated the residency status in my account and transferred my investments over to them. Shortly after, I got a pre-approval notice for a better credit card from them and I decided to go ahead. The application form asked about dual citizenship which I answered truthfully without giving it a second thought. To my surprise (pre-approved, 800+ credit score, 4 years relationship including a previous CC, "platinum honors" with over $200k in assets with them), the application was instantly denied. Phone support agent just told me to wait for mail, which I got a week later. The problem was my second citizenship. They needed a copy of my US passport, my green card, or my asylum claim (H1B was explicitly disallowed for my country of birth. I believe this constitutes illegal discrimination by country of origin, as they had been fine with my H1B status before this). The letter blamed the OFAC sanctions, which contain no such requirement. Nonetheless, I had a green card and they've known it for a year! So I go to the branch to confirm. Yes, they still had the green card on file, they don't know why I got that letter, but there is no one they can contact to tell them that my documents are already on file. I phone support again (and again, and again), they insist that they can't access or update any detail of my application, only that it had been denied. One of the agents even hung up on me when I requested to speak with her supervisor. So I mailed a copy of the green card to the address in the letter and waited... Couple of weeks later, I get the same letter asking for US Passport, green card, or asylum claim again. At this point I realize the danger of having most of my assets with them. They had not frozen them, but a web search found they are not shy about doing so. An acquaintance from my birth country revealed that BofA had also refused her service unless she presented an asylum claim (she was also on H1B). Would they lock access to my accounts for the "lack" of green card, then refuse to acknowledge mine? I wasn't going to risk it. I transferred everything to other banks (plural!). I kept trying, unsuccessfully, to reach any BofA employee who would even look at the application, then closed the accounts. On second thought, perhaps everyone should avoid BofA. While the trigger for this incident was their discriminatory practices, the support experience was atrocious. Most agents (phone or in branch) were unable or unwilling to look at the problem. All steadfastly refused to even look at their stated problem ("missing document X") and my account ("document X is already on file"). Edit: OFAC, not OPAC. [link] [comments]  |
| Hoping to Start Strong in 2019 Posted: 06 Jan 2019 12:43 PM PST I thought I would just share with everyone here my initiation to becoming financially independent. When I got my last paystub for 2018 I did an assessment of what I would "need" to spend for 2019. While I dont make a lot of money, my projected yearly expenses for 2019 equates to half of what my net income was for 2018 and yet I didn't have anything in savings. My casual spending basically pissed away 50% of my income. I have an auto loan and credit card debt like most people, and I still wasted a lot of my money. Things needed to change! So I just sold my truck to carmax and shaved off $17,500 of debt. However I did have to finance an personal loan to cover the negative equity. I understand that I could have gotten a better deal with a private party but the feeling of moving in the right direction (along with other factors) have me happy with my decision. Especially knowing I can dedicate the "freed" money that I used to pay for the truck ($685 loan,gas,insurance) to quickly pay off the amount I borrowed. Everyday I will attempt to write down everything I buy and document it in a spreadsheet with a date, amount, what I bought, and (what I think is key) WHY I bought it. A goal of this is to establish an average on things I spend that support my living, i.e. toiletries, detergant, medicine, etc. Things that aren't bills necessarily but are still required to live the lifestyle that I'm living. Plus the fact that I probably could have saved $10,000 had I tracked exactly what and why I was spending money. With all of this in motion now, my goal this year is to knock out all of my remaining debt while getting my expenses to only cost about 30% of my income. I feel great to know that I have a plan in motion. Now I just need to start learning about investing so that once I am debt free and have some savings I can make my money work for me. [link] [comments]  |
| 15 yrs old, given $1000, how should I use this? Posted: 06 Jan 2019 03:41 PM PST As the title says, i'm 15 and how could I invest or use this $1000 that I've recieved to better my future. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jan 2019 05:20 PM PST Title says it all basically. I'm 17, I make $7.50 an hour working part-time at a camp, and I want to have a financially stable future. Luckily I'm not paying any rent and not usually buying a lot of groceries, although I cover them when mom can't. I do pay my own phone bill and car insurance which comes out to just over $100 a month when combined. Because I work at a year-round summer camp I work about 15-30 hours a week at the moment, but that will easily reach 40 a week or more when summer hits. What are some things I can start doing now to help save money, build credit, and ultimately increase my disposable income? [link] [comments]  |
| Woke up to a Mint alert that I have delinquent student loans Posted: 06 Jan 2019 07:56 PM PST I've never taken out a student loan, but yesterday I downloaded Mint and set it up, and today I woke up to notifications that I have two loans that are delinquent and have been sent to collections. This caused my credit score to go from 664 to 417 overnight. I graduated in December 2017, and Mint reports two open accounts with "Navient/Dept of Ed", for about $3600 and $2400, both opened the month I started college. Both of them have a payment history in Mint showing that all payments were on time for Jan 2015-Oct 2018, with no payment received for Nov 2018. I've never received mail from Navient, nor has my mom. I tried to log into their website, but of course I don't have/know my user ID, so I tried "forgot ID" and put in my SSN and DOB, and Navient said that there's no account with those credentials. I called my mom and she confirmed that she never took out a student loan for me. My questions are:
Thanks for your help! [link] [comments]  |
| The only thing I would’ve done differently when I purchased my home Posted: 06 Jan 2019 08:06 PM PST I shopped around for mortgages and picked the "best" one. Went with a local bank (about an hour away. I live in the city and bank is pretty rural). It even had a few positive reviews online. One thing I never asked about was being able to pay my mortgage online, foolish me assumed that was a given. It's been one year of getting my bank to mail checks to the mortgage lender. The worst part is that if I want to make an extra payment on to principal, I need to physically drive to the bank during business hours. I can send a check, but they "can't guarantee" it will be applied to the principal. Moral of the story: make sure you aren't giving up modern day conveniences to save an extra $200. [link] [comments]  |
| Possible new job, bonus on the line Posted: 06 Jan 2019 04:39 PM PST Greetings. I don't know if this is the right place to drop this. If not, and another sub would be good, let me know. I have been approached about another job at another company that would be, in essence, a small promotion. This includes a nice bump in salary. The problem is, that if an offer is extended, they will likely want me to start within the next month. At my current employer, bonuses are paid out mid-March, and are generally considered forfeit if the employee no longer works for the company at that time. The bonus will be somewhere around $15,000 pre tax. The card has a one year 0% APR on the charges which expires in July. The problem here is that I have a significant balance on a credit card due to an emergency replacement of a medical device for my wife (around $5,000 for the device, about $3,000 on the card). I was willing to do this because the bonus was going to cover it before the interest became an issue. Now, I'm not sure what to do. I know this is probably dependent on the employer, but would I be likely jeopardizing the job by asking to start after mid-March? If I do ask that, do I make it clear that it's because of the bonus? Do I bring it up and see if maybe the new employer would extend a smaller sign-on bonus, enough to cover the small medical expense? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jan 2019 06:05 AM PST I am currently about to get out of the military and will lose my 400k life insurance coverage. I have heard that whole life insurance is something to avoid and term Life is much cheaper. My question is how much should I get and what are some good companies to look into getting a policy from? Factors: Age 27, wife no children, only debt is home mortgage of 175K, annual combined net income is roughly 75K. [link] [comments]  |
| Honestly, how are we doing? I can't figure out if we're drowning or crushing it? Posted: 06 Jan 2019 04:53 PM PST My wife and I sat down last weekend and wrote down our goals for the year and I seem to oscillate between we are drowning and we are crushing it. One day I wake up and feel great about our prospects, the next I feel like a failure. We're having our first kid in August, and I'm concerned we're not ready. Feels like I'm swimming in debt, and cannot get ahead. Despite doing reasonably well with income I feel like we're paycheck to paycheck. Adding a kid to is a combination of excitement and stomaching knotting fear. Relevant Stats: Income: Me: 28, salary of $85K/yr with small bonus ($2K) opportunity each year Wife: 26, salary of $50K/yr Total: $135K gross Take home: $80K ~ Budget off of $6.2K/mn Expenses: Mortgage: $1,600/mn, 30 yr fixed @ 4%. $185K left on house appraised at $210K. Zillow says it's currently at a value of $240K. Bills (Electric/Water/Insurance etc.): $830 Consumables (Groceries/Gas): $650 Discretionary Spend (Restaurants/cleaning lady/personal purchases etc.): $1,000 Total: $4,1000 Debts: Credit Cards Total: $10K on 0% interest for 15 Months, paying at $1K/mn plus any extra incoming, with tax return, bonus & tuition reimbursement I expect to be done in May Students Loans: $100K total @ average 6% interest. Paid at $250/mn as part of income based repayment plan to be forgiven by PSLF in 9 years Parent Plus Loans: Pay $250/mn to in-laws Car: my car is owned outright, 100K miles. She has a 2 yr old CR-V with 40K miles, note has 20K remaining, $360/mn Total: $1,860/Mn Savings: Emergency Fund: $2K (too small, I know) Sinking Funds (car/house/pets etc.): accounts @ $500, add $200/mn Total: @ $2,500, $200/mn Investments: 401K: valued @ $15K, I put in 8% annually, $520/mn, employer adds $250/mn 403B: valued @ $7K, wife required to put in 14% which is match by employer Trad IRA from former employer: @ $35K ROTH: @ $10K, add $50/mn Total @ $67K, total investing at $1,950/mn Child card: Estimated at $1,350/mn currently putting $2,500 child care FSA, which will offset at $200/mn. between the FSA and moving our credit card spend to here, it should cross out [link] [comments]  |
| Has anyone purchased a home with a zero-down or low-down payment loan? Is it a good idea/worth it? Posted: 06 Jan 2019 06:32 PM PST I make in the 55k-65k ballpark with good credit, and I hate paying rent, because I'm essentially paying someone else to make their mortgage payment. I'd love to be making my own mortgage payment, but I don't have $60-80k for a down payment. Virginia has VHDA loans, which have somewhere between a 1-3% down payment. Are these always a bad idea? What are the negatives? For reference, I'm in Arlington, looking in Arlington/Alexandria, where a 1 BR condo will run ~300k. Are these types of loans a bad idea or something worth looking into? [link] [comments]  |
| Help!!! Got a CP2000 in the mail for over 10K Posted: 06 Jan 2019 07:26 PM PST I got a letter in the mail from the IRS saying I owe $10,000 It is saying that I have unreported income due to my investment account. Is it possible that they could make a mistake. After looking at the forms its showing that I traded a particular security and reported 0$ and the reported by others is around 50k. This is not possible as I did not make this much money. In fact over the 4 times I traded it I came out with a loss on that particular security. I cross checked my forms from my broker online and I have a Short term loss for that year of about 1k. I have $0 in long term gains that year. I'm not accountant but it looks like they are charging the amount of the security and not calculating the price I paid into it but rather just charging me for the sale if that makes sense I dont understand how could an average joe get 50k in securities for free?? I don't know what to do as I've always filed online never had an attorny or cpa. I cannot afford to pay this. Is it possible they made a mistake. My actual income was under 10k last year Can provide a photo of the redacted form for anyone thats willing to help [link] [comments]  |
| Filing self-employment taxes: Are transaction fees considered "business expenses"? Posted: 06 Jan 2019 11:47 AM PST I do some freelance work on Upwork, and now I'm getting ready to file my 2018 taxes. They don't provide a 1099 form so I have to enter everything manually. For every job payment, Upwork takes out a 20% transaction fee. Should I report my net income on my taxes (after subtracting the fee, which is money that I never actually see)? Or do I report the total payments, and then add the transaction fees as a business expense? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jan 2019 05:54 PM PST Hello, my girlfriend and I (both 23 y.o.) are currently looking at houses/apartments as we are expecting our first child in July. We currently live with my parents with minimal expenses here, but we are definitely going to need to move out by May or June. Currently we have about 15K$ in the bank and are looking at houses around 275-325K. We do not have 20% saved up for a down payment. If we were to take out a loan for a 300K house putting 15K down, we would be looking at about 2100/month on the house (including property taxes) versus about 1400/month on a typical apartment (Massachusetts). Between the 2 of us we have 14K in college loans that are luckily out of mind for a year, about 225$/month expenses(car insurance/phone). I currently make about 70K/year and my girlfriend is unemployed for the time being. By the time we would move into an apartment/house in May I predict we will have a little over 25K in savings. Initially I wanted to move into an apartment and live frugally to save up about 55-65K for 20% down. I was convinced by my family that a better idea would be a house "because you're investing in property versus just throwing rent $ away". We were looking at houses today, but I feel like I just finally came to my senses and realized that I cannot afford a house without that initial 20%...right? Let me know if you guy need more information, I am effectively clueless about all this stuff. Was hoping to read up on most of this stuff in the next few years instead of now lol, but life is calling and I am just curious whether you would go (1) apartment and save for 20% down (would need to save another 35-40K) or (2) go for the house with 5% down.... and more importantly, why?? Thanks!!!! [link] [comments]  |
| Whats the best credit card to earn flying points? Posted: 06 Jan 2019 04:51 PM PST I'm (somewhat) new to credit. Finally got my score up to the 700s after almost a year of spending/paying off my secured credit card. I'm looking into the best credit card offer out there that offers you flying points based on what you spend it on (either with a specific airline or not; if that's how that works??). Preferably one that has low annual payments ($100 or less hopefully). Im planning on treating this credit card like my debit card and use it for everything, and then turn right around and pay it off the second it posts. I'm in the US if that matters and mostly plan on flying to/from the West coast area to Texas. Also, I'm originally from Hawaii and would love an airline that flies to there too because I'd like to go home at least every other year (again, not sure if this matters but I figure the more info the better). I'm even open to a credit card that gives you hotel points too. But I come from a family with no/bad credit and terrible savings habits so everything I know is self-taught. And "everything I know" is pretty much nothing. Thank you in advance for your help! Edit: Due to the two people posting I have an additional question and thought I'd post it as an edit in case this post gets more answers. Would a cash back kind of credit card be better for what I'm looking for then? At least, I could try to save my cash back for tickets? [link] [comments]  |
| Buying my first house, seeking advice Posted: 06 Jan 2019 03:14 PM PST Here's the basis: 22M, currently living with parental units and I make 40-45k a year depending on overtime. Decided to get my own place, but I hated the idea of an apartment. Found a house in my price range (150k) and have pursued it. 1,100/month with escrowed taxes and insurance is very doable with my income, but I'm getting a bit nervous about it. Im currently waiting on Rural Development for closing due to the government shutdown and have taken the opportunity to pack into my savings (3,500 so far) and get ahead on my car payments. Any general tips for making sure I can do more than just make ends meet? [link] [comments]  |
| When to transition extra savings from bank account to investing? Posted: 06 Jan 2019 06:38 PM PST Hi all 27 years old - currently saving ~1000k/month that goes into my online bank account which houses my emergency fund and extra savings. This totals about 40k. Realistically I will be looking to buy a house within the next 3-4 years with my partner. I currently make about 41k. I am maxing out my IRA and contributing about 15% of my paycheck to my 403b. I am wondering when (or if now) I should start to transition some of the 40k in savings to a brokerage account and start to get things going there. I realize that since I am saving for a house I don't want to put too much in there, but as I type this out I suppose I am realizing it would be good to even put an extra hundred/mo in it and start to have it grow. My online bank acount does about as well as can be asked of it (~1.75 I believe) but I feel that I am missing out on gains by not working in a brokerage account. My goal is to up my contributions for my 403b so that I can reach the max, as well as contribute some to a 457 as I am up for a promotion with a job that offers one, meaning I can contribute the max of both of those (realistically I will not be able to though, being 27 and promotion would put me at about ~63k). But all the same, it is another vessel to save (perhaps instead of a brokerage account for now?). Just looking for some advice or guidance as to when (or if how much) I should be starting with for the brokerage account and how to manage it while simultaneously saving for a house. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jan 2019 06:34 PM PST I just started YNAB to try to get my financial situation under control. I imagine I'm not the only person who starts it without having enough money in savings to cover a full month's expenses. My paychecks cover a full month's expenses perfectly fine, but YNAB is focused on the money you have on hand. I tried researching this using their resources, but it just suggested reducing the "fun" budgets until I break even. Am I just missing some fundamental of how the software is supposed to be used? Sorry for the ignorance. I really want to get things under control and appreciate your guidance! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Jan 2019 05:17 PM PST Okay, maybe I'm bad at math but this doesn't seem right? So I agreed to lease a 2017 at $21,068.19. I should have negotiated this number but it was my first lease so lesson learned. I overpaid by like, $1-2k. So when I signed the lease, I agreed to a 36-month lease at $215/m and put $1500 down. I am 20 months in, considering doing a lease buy-out early. Here are the numbers the dealer gave me: Details:
Total price: $18,096.06 But, considering I've put $4,300 (payments) into the car so far and $1,500 (cash down), I should be closer to $15,250. Why isn't the dealer counting my cash down? Also, looks like the trade-in value hits closer to $14k at this point, low $16k for private sale, can I negotiate the sale price lower then? [link] [comments]  |
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