Personal Finance I love Ally. They helped me out managing my shutdown finances. |
- I love Ally. They helped me out managing my shutdown finances.
- A positive experience with retirement savings that can hopefully help someone see how it goes.
- I've had the same BofA Visa card for 30 years. Last month I missed a $29 payment while traveling. My credit line was reduced from $50,000 to $700 and my credit score dropped from 820 to 700. Do I have any recourse?
- Tips for getting a job and negotiating a good salary
- Fidelity Now Has Personal HSAs
- Is it ever okay to splurge?
- Lender acquired by Synchrony Bank, who canceled automatic payments with no notification. My credit score dropped by nearly 60 points.
- How to launch a career for a green card lottery winner?
- Mom on the verge of breakdown, need help figuring out a plan
- Contemplating a 1099 side gig
- I’m coming in to a $1M payment soon. If I invest the entirety decently well in mutual funds, what could I reasonably expect the value to be after 1 year?
- Asking for a raise in busy season (Long Post)
- Looking into switching banks
- Single dad looking for ideas
- HSA receipt problem
- 30 yo lost job with $30k saved in Fidelity
- Help with list of finances
- FAFSA application rejected, Student loan inquiry
- Maintaining a 12 year old car versus buying a new used car.
- I haven't filed a return for 17 years. Where do I start?
- What do I need to know as a W-2 worker and a 1099 worker?
- ELI5: Progressive Tax Brackets
- Buy a house or continue renting?
- Roth IRA question
| I love Ally. They helped me out managing my shutdown finances. Posted: 08 Jan 2019 04:51 PM PST I'm scrambling to deal with unexpected loss of income during the shutdown. I had $25k in an Ally CD as my emergency fund . . . I'd gambled last year that I wouldn't need the funds soon and locked them up in a 12-month CD, thinking that I could break it open and take the 60-day interest penalty if an emergency came up. Enter the shutdown. Usually I'd be ok for awhile, but I'd just made a large purchase in November that needed some belt tightening and budgeting. I hadn't budgeted for a complete loss of income. It wasn't dire, but I needed to pull the first parachute cord and liquidate the CD. I called Ally and got David from the Arizona call center on the phone and asked about the penalty and told him about my shutdown situation. He said "wait on hold a minute if you would" and he took the situation up to his supervisor who waived the penalty and also refunded a couple of overdraft fees I'd incurred in this mess. I've read your stories about WF being cold as shit to people impacted by the shutdown. I'm super grateful to Ally for their help during a stressful time. David, if you read this, thanks a bunch! A really professional and kind operation. [link] [comments]  |
| A positive experience with retirement savings that can hopefully help someone see how it goes. Posted: 08 Jan 2019 06:52 AM PST I'm 34. I grew up poor but I've always had a goal of retiring one day. Not a super special retirement, just a retirement that wasn't full of financial worries (though, I guess that is a special retirement these days). Anyway, I started saving for retirement at 25. My job offers a simple IRA with an employer match of 50% of my contribution up to 3% of my salary. I started at 6% to get the full employer match. It took a few years of slowly increasing my contribution up to the maximum simple IRA limit but I've been hitting the maximum for a few years now. I've gotten a raise every year and the first thing I did each year was increase my IRA contribution so I've never really felt the sting of paying the increase - if my pay went up $3,000 and my contribution went up $1,000, it was like receiving a $2,000 raise. It really did make the retirement contributions easy to live with and help prevent lifestyle creep. I'm in a Vanguard Target 2045 retirement fund. So far, me and my employer have contributed $139,374.90, which is crazy when I think about it. My investment returns are $55,094.60 for a total of $194,469.50. Over $55,000 in returns! That was 1 year's salary when I started this job! My retirement was actually ~$210,000 just a few months ago before the market tanked but since it should recover by 2045, I'm not sweating this downturn. This is probably a buying opportunity since I won't need the money for 30 years. The real reason I posted is because Vanguard reinvests a dividend, LT gain and ST gain at the end of each year. At the end of 2018, Vanguard gave me $4,537.74! Let's say it goes up to $5,000 and never increases again which is unlikely to stay that low given my increasing balance... Vanguard will have given me $150,000 over the next 30 years plus any money I make on those payments. So at this point, I'm maxing out my simple IRA contribution without feeling it because I never had the money in my hands in the first place, work is giving me 3% of my salary (which is climbing nicely now at this stage of career) and Vanguard is giving me pretty big year end contributions. It's hard to see how it's all going to work out when you start, especially when there's nobody in your life making these choices. But now that it's been almost a decade, it's so obvious to me. It really does work. Please do what you can to start saving for retirement despite how daunting it may seem because it really does come together later on. EDIT: To clarify, I do know it's common for the manager to reinvest the money. It's just that this number has been climbing each year, is a material amount and it's something nobody really mentions when you first start making your contributions. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 09:47 AM PST I've never had a late payment in 30 years until now. I have spent many hundreds of thousands of dollars on this card since I first got it through MBNA (later Bank of America) in 1998. I had auto-payment set up from my checking account but forgot to update it with new bank account info. I also had subscribed to auto-alerts by SMS and email, but did not get any alerts. Customer service has been useless, I am having conversations with Filipinos who are exceptionally polite and utterly disempowered. How can I talk to a real manager and get some respect for all the years of business I have done with them? Edit: In response to the question about whether there have been any other recent adverse events that would have affected my credit history or credit limit with BofA, there are none that I know of. I have no outstanding debts with anyone, and usually pay all credit cards in full each month. [link] [comments]  |
| Tips for getting a job and negotiating a good salary Posted: 08 Jan 2019 03:40 PM PST Just wanted to share my experience and a few tips for getting a job and negotiating your offer Current Position: Mechanical Engineer Current Salary: 90K (underpaid) New Position: Technical Program Manager (Junior) Company's 1st Offer: 115K base + 5K one time bonus My Counter Offer: 130K Company's 2nd offer: 126K base ResumeFirst thing that recruiter sees. Make sure your resume is awesome. You should read your resume and you should go... "WOW! This guy is awesome!". TIP 1: DON'T BE MODEST IN YOUR RESUME Reflect... dig deep and find out how you have contributed to the company... don't look at only your direct contributions... look at indirect contributions as well... If you gave an idea and it helped grow the business, find out how and how much it helped... even if its an estimate, that's ok... But you should be able to stand by it!... Don't bluff (obviously), but also don't undersell yourself. This takes time and you will probably go through a hundred iterations before you it right. TIP 2: MODIFY YOUR RESUME FOR EACH POSITION Use key words directly from the position description in your resume... Phone InterviewTIP 3: DON'T PICK UP THE PHONE (when the call is not scheduled) What I mean by that is, if you get a phone call from the recruiter that you are not prepared for let it go to voicemail. If you pick up and they want to dig in to your resume and do a phone screen right then... say "This is not a good time... Can we reschedule this for an hour/ a day from now?". Take the time to PREPARE and PRACTICE. Do all the things the websites tell you... Sit up straight, dress well, smile while you talk... but most importantly PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE... Go over your resume... don't just read it to the recruiter but tell it like a story... Write the whole script down... Write down all possible questions and their answers... And PRACTICE... InterviewCongratulations... if you got the interview you are 80% closer to getting the job... but be prepared to work even harder now... After my interview I know I did very well and they liked me. That is why they offered me the role! The role was open for a month before I applied... I prepared HARD for a week. There are tons of resources online now to know what kind of interview questions you may be asked... The more you prepare the more confident you will be... Write down answers to the most common behavioral questions... If you are early in your career you may not have dealt with many situations... so make up answers for those situational based questions... Again... WRITE the questions and answers... and PRACTICE... Read about the company... knowing more will boost your confidence... and help you decide whether you want to work for them. Read about the products... especially the one you will be working on... Read about the people on linkedin who will interview you... if you don't know who they are... ask whoever is scheduling the interview... TIP 4: MORE PREPARATION, MORE CONFIDENCE, BETTER INTERVIEW Don't give a numberTIP 5: NO MATTER WHAT, DON'T BE FIRST TO GIVE A NUMBER "I would first like to see if I am a good fit for the position before we discuss compensation" "I am sure the company has budgeted something for this position. Would you be able to share that information?" "Where you value this position is a critical piece of information for me to evaluate this opportunity. Would you be able to share that information?" "I'm sorry I don't feel comfortable sharing my salary information with you" "I would really appreciate if we can first talk about how I fit into this role. I would like to find out more about the role and the team" Do your research, know how much you should be paid before you discuss any numbers and try your best to not give a number first. It will get awkward, but you will get past it! OfferI was super confident coming out of the interview that I will get an offer... Partly because I had prepared my ass off for the week before and secondly because they said they loved my resume... A day later I get an offer... TIP 6: IF YOU GET AN OFFER, THAT MEANS THEY LIKED YOU & YOUR INTERVIEW WENT WELL. DON'T DOUBT YOURSELF. Now the offer I got was 28% higher than what I currently made. I should be thrilled and accept it right away right?!?! Well, I knew I could get higher based on my qualifications and market value. I was thrilled and jumping inside to have received the offer but I didn't show that. I said "I am very happy that the team found me to be a great fit. If you can send me the offer letter, I can evaluate the overall compensation and get back to you" Find out when to get back, what all the other factors (vacation, sick days, 401K match, etc) are and how they factor in. There are online calculators articles, salary.com, payscale.com tons of other sites that will help you. Go to all that you can find. TIP 7: DON'T THINK ABOUT YOUR PREVIOUS SALARY WHEN EVALUATING YOUR NEW SALARY My CounterTIP 8: NEVER ACCEPT FIRST OFFER Go back and give them a counter offer. Prepare Prepare Prepare. Watch this video: How to Negotiate Your Salary, with Ramit Sethi - YouTube Know what they liked. " Well first and foremost I want to say I really appreciate the offer and I am very excited about this role. This is the job that I want, and it aligns well with how I envision my career progression. That being said, the experience that I bring to the table and the value I've been able to demonstrate in my prior roles warrants a much higher salary than xxx" " Based on my research, what I have found is that a similar role in this area has a base salary in xxx to xxx range, with another xxx to xxx compensation in annual bonus, equity or other forms." Recruiter: We have no budget! " Well I understand that there may be budgetary restrictions, but I would really look at this as an investment. During my interview, we had discussed my success in my previous roles and the significant contributions I was able to make (give examples). I believe the interview panel would be in agreement when I say that with my skill mix and experience, I will be able to replicate that success in this role." Recruiter: We have to keep in mind what we pay others! " I understand that. But again, given my experience and the what similar roles pay in this industry and area, I believe my expectations are fair. I am extremely excited about this role and my skills and experiences align well with what this position demands." TIP 9: IF YOU WANT XXX, COUNTER WITH AT LEAST XXX + 10%. Offer # 2Have 3 numbers - a. Your Ideal Salary (highest, dream salary)... for me this was 140K b. What you think is fair... for me 123K c. Lowest you will accept... for me 115K If offer # 2 is between a and b, well you nailed the negotiation! If it is between c and b, either rinse and repeat, or suck it up and accept. This landed me up with an offer 40% higher than my previous salary and 12% higher from their first offer. [link] [comments]  |
| Fidelity Now Has Personal HSAs Posted: 08 Jan 2019 08:29 PM PST I think Fidelity has just blown the competition out of the water for people who want to use HSAs for investment purposes. No maintenance fees and low fees on buying ETFs. All the other HSA options I have seen seem very subpar compared to them. I'm transferring my HSA to Fidelity so I can avoid the $36 annual maintenance fees and 0.40% investment fee per year (on top of the fund fees) at HealthEquity. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 08:44 PM PST I was always thought to live frugally. I only buy what I need. I always ask myself if I really need that product before I buy it. Problem is I love watches. I don't need one, I already have a beautiful watch I got as a gift. I had it for ten years. However, I do want another watch. I'm working six days a week this month so I have extra money coming in. My finances are in order. I don't have any debt. I have 6 month emergency fund saved up. The watches I'm looking at are around $500, which is 56% of my weekly income (after taxes) this month. Is it ever okay to splurge like that? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 02:26 PM PST Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.. I held a loan through TD bank, who I believe sold the debt to Synchrony bank a few months ago. I only found this out when I received a call on a Saturday afternoon stating my payment is 2 months late. According to the individual that called, they did not transfer over any automatic payment information during the loan servicing transfer, so none of my monthly payments had been made since then. It's not an account I check every month, so I missed the fact that two months had gone by without the payment going out. Honestly, when I received the call, my first thought was it was a scam, as I didn't have a loan with Synchrony and the caller was requesting my bank account information over the phone to make an immediate payment. I informed them I would go online and pay it that way instead of providing financial details , but, lo and behold, they were telling the truth. They also had the wrong address on file, so I had to call back and correct it so they could send me a statement and I could bring my account up to date. Now, as of January 8, I see my credit score had dropped by 57 points, and this payment is still being reported as past due, despite me paying (more than) what was owed and my current monthly payment. Is there anything I can do to get this remedied?? I know I'm at fault in this situation as well, as I should be checking my statements monthly, but needless to say I am very frustrated with Synchrony and hope this does not permanently decrease my credit score. TL;DR -- Credit score dropped by 57 points because of two missed payments caused by automatic payments on my account getting cancelled. Brought account to current but it still being reported as late on my credit report. Again, thank you for any advice! [link] [comments]  |
| How to launch a career for a green card lottery winner? Posted: 08 Jan 2019 02:47 PM PST Hi all. My brother is a green card lottery winner and just arrived in the US, he lives in Raleigh, NC. Before he got there, I asked you here for some advise and we received huge help. Now he asked me to contact you again for some tips to get a job in there. He already got a new job as a shopper at Amazon but only 10 hours a week for 15$/h. He's looking for the same type of jobs but full time. His english is not perfect, he understands well but cannot speak it fluently. Are there any conpanies he should target to find a job or is he stuck at 9$/h jobs? I hope you understood what I meant, I know my English is not perfect. [link] [comments]  |
| Mom on the verge of breakdown, need help figuring out a plan Posted: 08 Jan 2019 08:42 PM PST Hi everyone, my mom is on the verge of a mental breakdown concerning her finances and asked me for help. I am not very financially savvy, so I am turning here for help. I will try to keep things short and to the point. She is about to turn 60 and works as a nurse. She takes home, after taxes, about $4,000 a month, $48,000 a year. My father passed away in 2017 and she is single. There are two large debts she owes that are making her struggle - she owes $120k to the bank for a refinance on the house, and $270k on Parent Plus school loans. The refinance costs her ~$1,380 per month, and the loans are now going to cost her ~$1,450 a month. In August of 2017, she qualified for the Public Loan Forgiveness and Income Driven payment plans and was paying ~$845 to the loans monthly. Shortly after is when my father died. The Income Driven plan needs to be recertified every year, and in October of 2018 she was given the new amount of ~$1,500 monthly. She reapplied twice, and each amount given was only a few dollars lower. There was a .75 cent increase in her hourly pay, and the death of my father, but no changes other than that. Is this enough to make the increase over $600? The people at FedLoan are no help when she calls. Her other monthly expenses, not including food, (insurance, utilities, house taxes etc.) are costing her about ~$1,400 a month. So now, with the student loan payment increase, she will be left with little to no money for food or anything else depending on when she pays the bills. Is there anything we can do to make things work? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 08:28 PM PST Hi all, I'm a 25M make 38k/year at my full time job currently. It has all the health benefits/401k etc so I wouldn't be solely reliant on this contract work. It's a part time gig making roughly $30/hr. I would be responsible for filing/deducting my own taxes from the pay - something I've never had to do as it's usually already done for me (tax withholdings etc). Is there anything I need to take into account before I pull the trigger? Anything weird about 1099 taxing I should know about? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 08:10 PM PST |
| Asking for a raise in busy season (Long Post) Posted: 08 Jan 2019 05:04 PM PST I work for an accounting firm and the busy season is about to start. I just had a performance review in September and got a 4k/year raise. However, I had a job interview this week for basically the same job I have now and when compensation was discussed I gave a number that was 8k/year above what I make now post raise, the employer immediately said that they were comfortable with that figure. I was surprised at this and when I did some research I found that the median for my job at my current level of education and experience in my location is about 8k/year higher than my current salary. I'm wondering if now is an appropriate time to ask for a raise considering it's a stressful time if year and I'm not considering the other job offer due to other factors (no retirement savings matching, less vacation time, and equipment and technology used at the other job is less advanced). If it is an appropriate time, how should I go about asking for a raise? I almost always work unpaid overtime, clients request me to do work for them and I have recently started training new employees. I'm also young and a woman, and so I am naturally nervous about asking for a salary increase. Any feedback is appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 07:48 PM PST I recently have been seeing some people rave about how great Ally is and I'm currently looking into switching from Wells Fargo to Ally. I've been with Wells Fargo for just over 4 years and with them being my first only bank I've had, what exactly should I look into when switching. PS: I also have the option of opening an account with my workplace's FCU. Would that be a better option in this situation? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 09:30 AM PST I am a 40+ single dad (mid career engineer) with a 8th grader. Trying to figure out the best way to set him up for lifelong success without going into soul crushing student debt. I have been pretty disciplined with retirement saving(tax deferred low cost index funds) and emergency funds and am not too worried about my personal finance. I also have about 60k invested in low cost index funds that I plan to continue to contribute to. I never set up a 529 type account since I was never sure where and if he was going to school. My thoughts were that he would take out student loans if he decided to go to college (strongly advised, starting with two year community college) and I would help him with the payments after graduation from the investment account that I will continue to fund. I know this is a bit nebulous but is my idea completely nuts? Also wanted to say that this subreddit is amazing in its wisdom and how much compassion it shows to people in distress. You all are amazing!! EDIT: To clarify 1) Since I am not certain that he will go to a 4 year college I did not set up a 529. My idea was that he would take out student loans if he decided to go and use the investment account to pay off as much as possible. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 05:38 PM PST Last year, our insurance didn't cover autism. So we gave our own home based therapy with an RBT certified therapist who was supervised by a BCBA. We paid her using HSA checks. The therapist now refuses to give any receipts saying it's not under the rule of her board to be seeing a child on her own without an agency. I'm very worried. How can I work on this during tax filing? [link] [comments]  |
| 30 yo lost job with $30k saved in Fidelity Posted: 08 Jan 2019 12:09 PM PST Hello- I just lost my job and I'll be out of the workforce a while to be a stay at home parent. I'm not really sure what to do with my money in fidelity. Any insight is appreciated I am not financially versed! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 02:24 PM PST I'm trying to make sure I have a list of finances/bills in case of death. I need help to make it generic for others to use. Anything I'm missing? I looked for a pre-made list and couldn't find anything specific enough to really help. I'll add space for account numbers, company name, address, phone number and possibly passwords later. Utility Bills
Entertainment Bills
Insurance
Loans
Taxes
Banking
Property
End of Life Planning
[link] [comments]  |
| FAFSA application rejected, Student loan inquiry Posted: 08 Jan 2019 12:56 PM PST I went a university for a semester immediately after high school, the whole semester I was told my FAFSA was being processed, and that it would come through eventually, a few weeks ago I was informed the FAFSA was rejected, and I would not receive the federal scholarship. I am now returning to my hometown in lou of plunging myself further into debt. My question is, how do I get a loan to pay for this semester with the previous information in mind? Thank you for your time. [link] [comments]  |
| Maintaining a 12 year old car versus buying a new used car. Posted: 08 Jan 2019 10:50 AM PST I have a 2006 Mazda 6 with about 140k miles on it. With my current financial situation, it's not very likely that I'm going to be able to get a decent interest rate to finance the purchase of a new used car. I want something more reliable than what I currently have, but that may not be an option for me, from what I can tell. Would appreciate any advice I could get on this. [link] [comments]  |
| I haven't filed a return for 17 years. Where do I start? Posted: 08 Jan 2019 05:07 AM PST Dang that was tough to write. Looking to better my financial situation. It's getting tiresome, and the older I get, the worse it feels. It's been a rough ride. I'm not going to make up any excuses because there are none. Any help or suggestions are appreciated. Thank you in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| What do I need to know as a W-2 worker and a 1099 worker? Posted: 08 Jan 2019 02:02 PM PST I recently started a new job last October as a regular W-2 worker and my salary is $75,000 per year. I've decided to do some freelancing as well, and starting February I will be working as a 1099 independent contractor and making a total of about $6700 over a 6-month span. What do I need to know in terms of filing my taxes, and how much money from my freelancing income should I put away for tax withholding? Also, what would be a rough estimate of how much money I would owe or how much my refund will be when I file my taxes next year? I am single, no dependents, claimed 2 on my W-4 and don't have any additional income. [link] [comments]  |
| ELI5: Progressive Tax Brackets Posted: 08 Jan 2019 08:49 PM PST Can someone give a simple example of progressive tax brackets with the following statement in mind? "My annual income after tax is never lower if I make more money pre-tax." [link] [comments]  |
| Buy a house or continue renting? Posted: 08 Jan 2019 08:47 PM PST Hi all, I've been looking into and trying to figure out what my next living situation is going to look like. Right now, I live with 2 other roommates and we have all decided that next time we move, we'll probably all have our own place (nothing happened between us or anything, we're just at the point where we want to be on our own). I've been researching some one bedroom places in and around my city and everything seems so expensive. So much so that I've found decent houses for sale where even with no down payment, the mortgage with PMI and taxes is around the same as what I'd be paying in rent for some of these one bedroom places. My ultimate goal is to move out of the city into a house with a bit of land and room for activities, but for right now, I really do like living in the city. Many of the houses I was finding were near one of the universities in my city so it had be thinking — I could buy a house near this university, live there for a few years or so, then when I'm ready to move out into the suburbs, either sell it or rent it out to college students. With this plan, I'd still be saving money because the rent vs mortgage cost is pretty similar. Obviously , the missing piece that I haven't accounted for is the maintenance cost when renting vs. owning. Just wanted to get your guys' thoughts on this and/or hear your experiences if any of you have done something similar. Also, if there are things I'm not considering that are important, please let me know. Edit: forgot to mention, I have student loans at pretty decent interest rates (dept of Ed loans, no private) and a car loan, also at a low rate. But again, the rent vs mortgage cost is very similar. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2019 08:35 PM PST I've been putting 15% in my 401k for 3 years now, I have one of the vanguard retirement funds as my plan. This may be a stupid question, but should I also be looking into a Roth IRA? Or what else can I do to increase my long term savings? I also have a money market account I put into every few months. [link] [comments]  |
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