Personal Finance Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of March 25, 2019 |
- Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of March 25, 2019
- Three companies, including my bank, don't know where my money went. They're all redirecting me to each other.
- Im 24 and I feel like my financial situation will suffocate me for the rest of my life.
- Nurse at a clinic wrote me down as a daily smoker (im not), will this make insurance more expensive?
- Do you believe in doing extreme saving for limited ammounts of time?
- Dental Insurance won't pay for impacted wisdom teeth. I already paid. The Dental Office assured me I'd get reimbursed
- Used savings to pay off student loans, phone dies. Can I cancel processing Navient payment?
- Married with Joint Bank Accounts vs. Separate
- My husband and I are 24 and we’ve screwed up so much financially. Any advice?
- Any thoughts on the new Apple Card?
- My manager got first blood?
- Spouse is turning 62. Social Security?
- Finding a job feels impossible.
- Im 21 and my financial situation is absolutely horrible
- With the current state of the market, where should i put my savings?
- Whats your opinon on young people (18-22) buying a house while in college or right after?
- Understanding the Case for Switching from Actively Managed Funds to Low Cost Index Funds
- 50 grand lie idle.... In Russia
- I’ve been saving just my receipts (not itemized) for the past 5 years and reimbursing myself through my HSA. How screwed am I if the IRS finds out?
- Aggressively pay off loans (student, car), save, or invest?
- I quit my job at McDonald's a year ago, a new manager has taken over since, and refuses my W2 request; how can I get my W2 properly?
- Wedding in 7 months. Any issues with opening new cards to get into bonuses?
- Estranged Father Wants To Name Me Beneficiary
- 19 No debt No rent Making $1500 a month with $15000 saved.
- Has anyone ever moved back home for 1-2 years to stack up savings??
| Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of March 25, 2019 Posted: 25 Mar 2019 04:07 AM PDT If you need help, please check the PF Wiki to see if your question might be answered there.This thread is for personal finance questions, discussions, and sharing your success stories:
A big thank you to the many PFers who take time to answer other people's questions! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Mar 2019 03:06 PM PDT Background: Several weeks ago I accidentally purchased a $100 Starbucks E-gift card through the Chase.com website on my computer browser. I wanted to send my sibling a belated gift of direct money. Within 2-5 minutes of sending the money and realizing my mistake, I called Chase and Starbucks to cancel the transaction. Chase said they could not cancel it because the transaction was already completed and $100 had been debited from my checking account. A representative from Starbucks redirected me to Cashstar (the third-party company in charge of E-gifts). The Cashstar representative cancelled the transaction. I was supposed to refunded my $100 a month ago, but I have not seen my money yet. This is the summary of what has happened. Chase:
Starbucks:
Cashstar:
Me and My Sibling:
I am at a loss as to where my $100 is. I keep getting redirected around and around and I have spent over 10 hours on the phone and at the Chase branch talking to people trying to get my $100 back. My bank claims the money was sent out, the other companies say the money was never received. [link] [comments]  |
| Im 24 and I feel like my financial situation will suffocate me for the rest of my life. Posted: 25 Mar 2019 12:38 AM PDT I'd like to be a little open about all my finances for a second. I'm hoping maybe I can gain some different perspectives from you guys on r/personalfinance and choices/paths I can maybe take. I'm currently 24, graduated with a BFA about 2 years ago and now I am currently in a toxic salary paying job and feel seriously stuck and moderately depressed about my life. By stuck, I mean I feel like my financial situation is significantly preventing me from taking risks, or switching careers, or pursuing my career in a different state. My salary is 61k/year. I am contributing around 5-6% to my 401(k) and the company matches 100% up to 4%. For monthly bills, I've got: Mortgage: 1358.00. Totals to: 3760.00 Obviously I'm negative each month, but I am a 3D artist so I usually pick up some side projects to keep me a float. I guess I'm frustrated because I feel like I am always working, day and night and at the end of the month I have absolutely no money left. I've gone into a deep depression because I haven't been doing anything fun in my world because I've been working my butt off to pay bills off each month. I went into 3D because I was passionate about it and really wanted to make a career out of it, hopefully to make a decent amount of money where I had a little freedom to save up for stuff. But after getting out of college I've come to realization of how savage the industry is and how it would be impossible for me to take a junior/mid level position in the states where most of the jobs are posted. (California or Vancouver) Happy to answer any additional questions, Greatly appreciate any response! edit: Wow, I did not expect this to blow up... I have to go to work right now but I will make sure I read everything and respond when I can. [link] [comments]  |
| Nurse at a clinic wrote me down as a daily smoker (im not), will this make insurance more expensive? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 04:03 PM PDT Im not sure if there's a better sub for this question, if so direct me that way please & thank you. So I just came back from a 'CVS minute clinic' to get a throat culture (I thought I had strep). I've when before to do the same thing and they always ask the same general questions. One of them being if you smoke cigarettes. I don't, however for a bit in college I would smoke on the weekends. Two years ago when I had gone to the same clinic I had told the nurse practitioner that I had occasionally smoked cigarettes on the weekends but don't anymore. But this women wrote down that I was currently an everyday smoker. I just realized that this information is still listed in there data base as it was printed in the summary I got before leaving today. Won't my health insurance company get this information? Will it affect the cost and coverage I get in the future? Can I get this information removed in any way? Could this affect life insurance policies as well? -im 22, in the USA (MA) [link] [comments]  |
| Do you believe in doing extreme saving for limited ammounts of time? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 04:07 PM PDT Hello, I just hit 30 and am experiencing, for the first time in my life, a need to do something...different i guess. My situation - I flunked college 5 years ago. Since then became a freelancer and landed a cushy job for my country's situation. I make 1400 usd a month, my rent is cheap, 120 a month and my utilities around 50 a month.. so as you can see it's a pretty good situation. Problems are that i spend all my money on going out, alcohol mainly and drugs ocassionally too. I am not addicted but i do have plenty of bad habbits. I live with 3 roomates and the general routine involves going out and spending a lot of money every weeekend, and often on work days too. I also tend to blow any meager savings manage to keep on travel. I have 2 trips, one in April and one on July alread planned. April one is paid for but July one still planned only. I have 400 dollars saved up and struggle to save anything more than a 1000. My plan - Go to my parent's house (they would have no issues with that) and start saving hard core for 2 years. After that i would buy a flat. I dont have a saving account but i plan to open it and put 1000 a month in it,starting next year. Flats in my home city cost 13-14 000 usd. Food is cheap too and i could live ok with 400 a month (average pay is around 300 a month). I can't take a credit because i am a freelancer and my income is not registered at all. Do you think this plan is somewhat reallistic? Is there anything you would do differently? Thanks to everyone who replies. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Mar 2019 04:40 PM PDT So back in December my impacted wisdom teeth was giving excruciating pain and so I looked at my dental insurance Aetna and went to an in-network Dentist office near my work. The Dentist office took my insurance and submitted the claim to the insurance, but after not getting a response from the insurance company, they told me that I could get a reimbursement for the wisdom tooth extractions (3 teeth) since they said it was basically without doubt that I would be covered. And so they charged my credit card and I had the procedure done. Now it's March and I haven't gotten a reimbursement and I called my dental insurance and they're saying they won't cover it b/c it's impacted wisdom teeth and that's medical. They then redirected me to my medical insurance who now says that this Dentist for medical is Out of Network and they probably can't cover... Does anyone know what to do in this situation? Is it possible to appeal my dental or medical insurance? Or ask the Dental Office to help send a letter of some sort? The bill was extremely large and I will have difficulty paying off my credit card now.. Please please give any tips or advice [link] [comments]  |
| Used savings to pay off student loans, phone dies. Can I cancel processing Navient payment? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 04:16 PM PDT Hey guys! So I made an exciting step today and paid off my remaining student loans in one big payment using my savings. I have a good job, no other debt, low rent and wanted to be free of debt and in the black. Well, my phone just died. As in black, unresponsive, and a paperweight. As a Pixel 1 it's well out of warranty. I could get enough to get a new phone in a few weeks, but ideally I'd love to cancel my "processing" Navient payment. Does anyone know if this is possible? [link] [comments]  |
| Married with Joint Bank Accounts vs. Separate Posted: 25 Mar 2019 02:53 PM PDT I was just reading about the baby formula post on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/b5edse/aita_for_thinking_formula_should_come_out_of_my/ Then it got me thinking. It appears that a significant amount of redditors maintain separate bank accounts with their spouse. And honestly, this is a foreign concept to me because myself and everyone i am close to maintains a single joint account with their spouse and for the group of us (and I assume most of you), this would have never come up. So I was wondering about everyone here and what your reasons are for joining or separating all of your finances. I am sure there are a lot of good reasons for either case. As a final thought, in my case I don't think it could ever work to separate out our finances because I make several times more than my wife and I can't imagine a life where I get all of the nice stuff and she has to make do. How would you even explain that to your kids anyways. [link] [comments]  |
| My husband and I are 24 and we’ve screwed up so much financially. Any advice? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 10:06 AM PDT I've never posted here, so bear with me. My husband and I are both 24. We live in the Midwest, have been married for 3.5 years, and both suck with money. I thought I was better, but it's clear that isn't the case. Right now, we're sort of staying afloat. However, we justify spending we don't really need to be doing. I shop too much (and have for awhile) due to low self esteem and an addictive personality. We've (obviously) spent money we didn't have. I just feel stuck. We've opened credit cards that offer the 0% APR for x months, and we panic when that time period expires and we face the new, extremely high interest rate. We've taken out 1 personal loan each to help avoid that, but our Amex has ~$4k on it and will jump to 24% in August. It hasn't helped that my husband was out of work medically for 3 months total in the last year (2-1.5 month periods). The obvious solution is to keep paying and dig ourselves out. However, I'm curious if there are any solutions we've missed to consolidate this and get us on a path to being free of the unsecured debt. Frankly, we aren't incredibly worried about our credit scores going down. We can fix that over time. I see all this debt relief stuff and I don't know wtf to do. Okay. I'm rambling. Below are some of our stats. Monthly net income: $3000 (husband is supposed to be getting a significant raise, but isn't sure when? Health insurance comes out of paycheck. No 401k offered. Hubs Score: hovering around 750 My Score: hovering around 650 Rent: $725 (we prepaid and don't owe till August) Car #1: $220 Car #2: $220 Personal Loan #1: $380 Personal Loan #2: $290 Utilities: $150 Internet: $70 Medical Bills: $150 Groceries: $400 - we could save here, but how? Gas: $300 Misc (Apple Care, Spotify, etc): $60 Car insurance is $800/6 mos and we try to pay in full. Also, this is not including us paying the $3000 balance on one CC (0% APR till mid-2020) and $4000 on another (0% APR until August). Please don't judge. I'm frazzled. I feel stuck. I don't know what to do. Thanks for reading! Edit: Both personal loans are unsecured through random companies. One is for $15k, one is for $7.7k. Edit #2: I'm trying to respond as much as possible. Thank you all for putting me in line. I'm embarrassed and disgusted with how bad this has become. Trust me. I've also added some info that people have asked for in comments. I will say that this also got bad when I wasn't able to work for health reasons. That's no excuse, and it's been well over a year since then. My job just cut my hours, so I'm applying everywhere I can while trying to keep scheduling in mind (we have a dog and I don't want him to be left alone for more than 8 hours if possible, so second shift work would be best). In addition, I'm sending my information in to Uber Eats. I'm in a larger city, so the money should be good part time. I'll just have to be careful with taxes. EDIT AGAIN: Our official rent is the $725 mentioned above. However, our landlord has delayed a minor repair in our apartment and deducted $100/mo. from our rent until it's fixed. That said, I believe it will be fixed by August when we have to pay again. [link] [comments]  |
| Any thoughts on the new Apple Card? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 10:39 AM PDT In their March 2019 special event, Apple just announced the Apple Card. It sounds pretty intriguing. Any thoughts from a PF perspective? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Mar 2019 03:33 PM PDT Creating a throwaway for reasons. I've worked as a software developer for a corp for over a year now, and we're in the end-of-year review season. I've worked really hard over the past year, sometimes working nights, taking up lots of new responsibilities, trying to not only produce results, but also grow. Now, We haven't actually sat down and had our reviews, but my manager just told me in private what my annual salary increase was going to be and told me that the amount is not subject to change. We will have our reviews later on, but I was really hoping to sit down with them to go over where I was when I started, what I have achieved over the course of the year, etc etc and then talk about where I'm headed, how to achieve it, and then finally the pay. Now, I'm not really upset about what I've received/will receive, but I'm more disappointed by the fact that I wasn't given the chance to discuss this matter or even try negotiating in my upcoming review and I've just been locked down. Am I overreacting to this? How would you guys with more years of experience under your belt respond to this? [link] [comments]  |
| Spouse is turning 62. Social Security? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 02:54 PM PDT Hi... As I showed in the title, my wife is turning 62 in a month, and we just realized that she's eligible to obtain Social Security (USA). I understand if we wait until 67 or 70 that you get more per month, and the break even point for all three plans is somewhere around 79-1/2. I am only 58 and plan on working into my mid-60s, if possible. We really don't need the income from her SS eligibility at this time to live on. My question is: If we started collecting her social security at 62 and deposited 100% of it into an investment account (like a Roth IRA?) until I retire, would you expect we would come out ahead of all the other options? ...or is the return by waiting for 67/70 better than I could make in the market? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Finding a job feels impossible. Posted: 25 Mar 2019 07:32 PM PDT Im 20 years old and just finished an employment skills course. Have done plenty of work experience and voluntary work. But i still feel as if I'm behind the curb.. and majority of jobs require 'Experience' how the fuck can i get experience if most places dont even do work placement? Is there any tips you guys know ? Should you keep pestering people til you get a job ? Is there more you can do after you hand in your CV ? [link] [comments]  |
| Im 21 and my financial situation is absolutely horrible Posted: 25 Mar 2019 05:57 PM PDT Alright so it's going to be a bit of a long one. I got a car back in 2016 brand new Nissan Sentra (under my sister's name as I had no credit) at the time the payments were a breeze I was living in Austin by myself with zero worries I could pay all my debt and still have a bit to spend on me. I was building up my credit to transfer the car over to me Now silly me moved to Amarillo TX and oh boy I can't find a good enough job I currently get paid 11.00 working about 38ish hours a week. Before this I wasn't able to keep up with my payments (was a gas station assistant manager made 9.15 an hour) so I took out a $3000.00 loan my car needed new tires so since I did not have enough money I had to use my credit card I couldn't pay bills so I had to use my credit card again, now that's maxed out. During an ice storm I got in a wreck while traveling, lost control of car and I busted a headlight and front bumper on passenger side is completely gone. Since the insurance was under my sister's name, she didn't want a claim to be put in and I have yet to fix that it's going to cost me around 800ish (low estimate). I'm currently living with my mom so thankfully I don't have to worry about rent or bills, not that I don't get yelled at or told how much of a waste I am because I'm abusing my mom's generosity, because it's totally my fault that no one offers good jobs that aren't minimum wage...but I digress. Currently I pay 483.00 car payment 135.00 insurance 143.00 student loans 105.00 bank loan 98.00 credit card 20.00 on gas every 2 weeks 30ish on groceries (idk how I'm still alive) And once I start "making money" throw in my half of living costs 325.00 on rent 80.00 on bills Hopefully I'll get something back once I file my taxes and hopefully I can fix my car and I don't know should I do a volunteered repossession? Trade it for something cheaper? I have paid off about 5k on it I don't want to ruin my sister's credit score but I'm in a hole and I honestly don't know how to get out. [link] [comments]  |
| With the current state of the market, where should i put my savings? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 05:53 PM PDT I am 25 years old and I have been working for the past 3 years. I have saved up about $35K in cash. I have put $15k in a savings account and I still have $20k in a checking account making like .00001% which I am okay with. This is because I am also extremely fearful that the markets will crash in the next year or 2 so I want to keep at least 1 year worth of easy to access cash on hand in case I lose my job, which I feel like I have with my $35k. On the other hand, I save about $2000 after taxes, expenses and 401k. Starting next month, I will start having excess income that I believe I should put somewhere besides my checking account. With the state of the market/economy, how would yall suggest that I allocate my additional capital (eg mortgage, bonds, stock, savings, etc)? [link] [comments]  |
| Whats your opinon on young people (18-22) buying a house while in college or right after? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 04:00 PM PDT I'm asking this because I notice that a LOT of kids from my highschool are already buying houses and most of them are still in college,working minimum wage jobs. Only one of them just recently graduated college and bought a house. I'm not judging because it's their life. I just feel like it's some sort-of adulting contest between everyone and I guess I just don't understand what the big deal is. Like I feel like it's actually pretty irresponsible for two reasons.
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| Understanding the Case for Switching from Actively Managed Funds to Low Cost Index Funds Posted: 25 Mar 2019 08:01 AM PDT I have an actively managed mutual fund account of roughly $150k and am considering selling those shares and investing in index funds with Vanguard instead. I emailed my advisor requesting disclosure of any and all fees (mostly utilizing information from this article, How Honest Financial Advisors Should Disclose Their Fees. Here are the expense ratios he reported:
When I asked about sales load, commission, and distribution fees, this was his response:
I'm 31, single with no kids, my salary is $81k, I max out my TSP at work, and my only debt is my mortgage. I am interested in using this mutual fund account (or index fund account, if I decide to switch) as a place to invest savings towards potential large expenses down the road (like a car or property down payment in 5-10 years), but mostly for additional retirement funds that I won't touch for 20-30 years. Here are my specific questions:
Thank you for any insight! EDIT: Wow, thank you all for your insight from a variety of angles and for pointing out some flaws in how I have been looking at this. You've made it a no brainer. EDIT 2: My CPA says the tax cost will come out to roughly $8800 if I choose to sell the funds and reinvest all of them elsewhere. [link] [comments]  |
| 50 grand lie idle.... In Russia Posted: 25 Mar 2019 03:58 AM PDT Hello. I am a 30 years old data analyst and SAS specialist programmer in a state corporation in Russia. I don't have any debts and I have my own apartment (540sqf) in Moscow, not far from the center, and a good car. I have about $25k in Russian Bank with an annual intrest of 2%. This deposit is "protected" by federal Russian law. If the bank will be bankrupt, government promise to return the deposit under $25k (but in rubles). Additionally, I have $50k in cash. This lump of money doesn't work and this is a big concern for me. I want to use it properly. I don't want to exceed the level of protected deposit. Russian retirement programs are scam. Investment in Russian market is a very risky thing. So I would like to ask you, if you know any reasonable investment options, outside Russia, for a normal Russian guy who is willing to save his money? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Mar 2019 06:09 PM PDT Yes I'm an idiot, don't need to tell me that. I just kept up the habit of saving the receipt as soon as I made the purchase but then I read online that it has to be itemized. Im not sure what to do at this point, really starting to worry because I didn't do it the way it's supposed to be done. [link] [comments]  |
| Aggressively pay off loans (student, car), save, or invest? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 05:56 PM PDT A little bit about my situation:
Right now trying to determine if I should just aggressively pay off loans or even just get rid of loans completely, the higher interest student loans at the very least. If I were to just ride out the life of the loans it would cost me about $4k in interest. Or invest my money, and if this is the move where and in what should I be investing? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Mar 2019 11:22 AM PDT I called and went in for a request, they said to come the next day. Next morning I come, and they then told me to fill it out online to print my W2. For some reason, my employee ID is invalid, and the new manager isn't helping. My coworker who's a supervisor, called me, and asked for my new address, and she said she would sort it out for me. She couldn't even give me the employee ID, which was the only thing I needed to properly print my W2 myself. [link] [comments]  |
| Wedding in 7 months. Any issues with opening new cards to get into bonuses? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 08:13 AM PDT Hello all! My fiancee and I are getting married in about seven months and we're looking at about $9000 in expenses by the time the wedding date arrives. For the purposes of this post, I am not interested in cost cutting ideas or suggestions. We both have a lot of friends and family coming and the bulk of the expenses will be the per-person food and drink costs. That being said, I was wondering if it would be inadvisable to open one or two new credit cards to take advantage of introductory bonus offers. I already have two credit cards I regularly use for different purposes, and my credit score is around 730. It seems to me if I know I'm gonna have a bunch of expenses coming up, I might as well save 500 - 750 bucks through intro credit card offers. Am I missing something? Are there potential issues or pitfalls I'm not aware of? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Estranged Father Wants To Name Me Beneficiary Posted: 25 Mar 2019 03:08 PM PDT The title pretty much sums it up. He wants me to meet him at the bank so he can name my sister and I his beneficiaries. I don't trust him at all so I was hoping for some advice on anything and everything I should watch for. [link] [comments]  |
| 19 No debt No rent Making $1500 a month with $15000 saved. Posted: 25 Mar 2019 10:23 AM PDT So a little back story I'm 19 working 2 jobs I work as a paid on call firefighter which pulls in about $600 to $800 a month. And I work as an EMT with a private ambulance company. Which adds another $1000 ish. I am living at home so no rent. I also have no student debt. My fire and EMT training I paid for out of pocket. I am going to be taking Paramedic training this fall. My company is paying for tuition which is about $6000. All I pay for are books which is about $1200. My company need 2 years of part time work as reimbursement. The training is 13 months long. Once I become a medic I get a decent pay bump, and will be able to start to apply for full time fire departments. My overall plan is to get on a full time fire department. Most full time department start at about $50000 to $70000 a year. I have a 403 b with the ambulance company which I put 10% into. The 403 b has about 9% growth. I put another $100 into my savings a month. I have a chase unlimited card that I get 1.5% back on everything. I pay off the card immediately after I use it. I have $500 in my 403 b, $1000 in my savings. And a little over $13000 in my checking. So my overall question is what can I do better to save for the future in terms of investing my extra money, and saving for a down payment on a house. TL;DR I'm 19 make about $1500 a month $15000 saved. I have no debt and no rent. What should I do to save for the future like investing and down payment on a house. Edit: Sorry if this is really scatter brained this is my first post to personal finance. [link] [comments]  |
| Has anyone ever moved back home for 1-2 years to stack up savings?? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 05:58 PM PDT I'm 30 years old, and recently got a job paying 100k. The burnout rate for this job is high, and turnover is high as well. It's a sales job. Have about 20k saved up in a savings account. And $9500 in a Roth IRA. I would like to tough it out for 2 years and save up 90% of my income. Hopefully I'll save up 100k or more in 2 years. I would then like to move out and start my life. I am also interested in poetically barista fire lifestyle in 5-7 years. Is there anything wrong with stacking up to get a "head start" in life??? I pissed away my 20's doing nothing and hardly working. That's why I'm in this situation. I do have a college degree though. Located in Texas. My parents are fine with this. In fact, they want me to come home. In my culture it's normal for kids to live with their parents long term. [link] [comments]  |
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