Personal Finance Amazon seller fraudulently used my husband's SSN and now the IRS wants us to pay taxes on income they generated selling. |
- Amazon seller fraudulently used my husband's SSN and now the IRS wants us to pay taxes on income they generated selling.
- Right now you can cancel your 24 Hour Fitness membership with no penalty. It’s because of the towels.
- As we sit at all time highs for several indexes, if one has cash in savings they want to invest, should you trickle that into the market periodically?
- Merchant won't give me my money back. I am about to file my first ever chargeback. Anything I should know?
- Don't be afraid to look at your finances
- Rent vs buy Math
- Getting married next year, fiancee has a ton of CC debt.
- My father is planning on retiring in < 5 years and his 401k spanning 38 years is 100% invested in company stock
- My mom is unemployed, and we could lose our house. Advice urgently needed.
- Someone cashed my parents IRS check at a Walmart (it's not nearby) for $2200
- How much do you float in your checking account?
- 24 years old, 55k, no kids, living at home, 52k debt. How to budget to pay off my student debt as fast as possible
- Purchasing an investment property with my siblings - terrible idea?
- Privately owning a vending machine for a few extra bucks?
- Trying to help my parents as they transition to retirement with very little retirement savings
- Should I pay this woman $100 for her troubles? I'm a broke college kid.
- Dumb Question! Is Charles Schwab approval instant??
- AT&T Wireless Misled Me and I Can't Afford My Bill
- Is taking the Experian credit monitoring over the $125 really worth it?
- My mother is "keeping my money safe" and blackmailing me with it.
- Pay off car loan now or continue making payments until the end of the loan?
- How do I handle a collections agency?
| Posted: 30 Jul 2019 10:03 AM PDT We got a letter from the IRS stating they had adjusted a previous year's tax return to reflect an amount of adjusted income reported and we now owed a huge amount of taxes and penalties. This shocked us as we each have a single job and certainly no additional income on the side, much less enough to generate a tax burden in the tens of thousands. A couple phone calls revealed that my husband's SSN was fraudulently used in association with an Amazon seller account that generated enough income to require tens of thousands in income tax owed. We never sold a thing on Amazon so this is an obvious case of identity theft / fraud. So far the IRS and Amazon have not been exceedingly helpful and it seems the onus is all ours. We'll take the obvious steps one should take when a victim of identity theft, but im curious if anyone has dealt with this before. Amazon is so prolific I can't imagine this hasn't happened before. TIA! EDIT Thank you for your suggestions and concerns about validity but you've not uncovered a victim of a fake IRS letter. EDIT again. I truly do appreciate the fervor with which you guys are ensuring we're not getting scammed by a fake IRS letter writer. This is NOT THE CASE. Two identical letters were received one addressed to me, one to my husband. Both had my SSN on them (I filed as primary that year). My husband called. The fraudulent income indicated in the letters was associated with his SSN which was nowhere listed on the letters received. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Jul 2019 02:59 PM PDT I just learned that 24hour has stopped providing towels. I found this petty and insulting and spoke to the membership staff about. Canceling. They said that they are waiving the penalties for ending the contract because this constitutes a "loss of amenity ". Might be a good opportunity for anyone wanting to cancel for any reason. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Jul 2019 08:35 AM PDT Sitting on a fair amount of cash in high yield savings. While this is churning 2.2% right now, I recognize statistically I'm missing out on 3-4%+ by it not being in the market. My concern is putting it into the market while we are at all time highs. I've told myself we are looking at a cycle soon, so why put any in now. Why not wait and buy at a discount? But the market continues to sing along. So my question is, should I take that cash and make weekly/monthly investments spread out over the next year? Two years? Wait for an obvious cycle downshift? These funds are not applicable for retirement accounts or other tax advantaged investments. I cannot contribute more to those this year. Only debt is a single car at 2.94% and mortgage at 3.25% Also, the plan would be to keep a 6 month emergency fund in cash. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Jul 2019 07:29 AM PDT This is the first time I've ever been in this situation, and I just want to make sure that I'm checking all my boxes and I haven't overlooked anything. Basically - I paid for a photography session. The photographer had half price specials going on and enthusiastically said she could get me in that week. So I paid. It honestly took forever to reach her after the first interaction. I finally got a time scheduled and she cancels due to it being too hot. We go through the same thing and she cancels AGAIN due to it being too hot. I then ask if she has any morning/evening sessions to beat the heat. No reply. She is very flaky and difficult to reach and I don't trust her anymore. This has been going on 6 weeks now. I then said I wanted my money back. The cost was $200 and she said she will only give me $100 and is holding the rest as a retainer. But there were no services rendered, she didn't lose out on another client due to me canceling (the only two sessions we ever actually scheduled, she canceled) so I don't think this is fair. She came groveling back after I threatened a refund and offered to come up to my location and be flexible, but with her track record, I can't take the risk. I DID sign a contract before the first session (that she canceled) and in the contract it says that she can retain an "appropriate" amount for a retainer, but again, I didn't cause her to lose any business (and $100 fee for doing nothing!?) My only other recourse other than small claims court, which sounds like a headache over $100, is filing a chargeback dispute with my bank. Will this have any unintended consequences for my credit score or anything like that? I understand they freeze my debit card until it's resolved, which sucks, but I'd rather have that than be out $100. Any wisdom, advice, etc. is greatly appreciated. For some reason I feel like a jerk for doing this, I wanted to resolve this nicely but I feel that her 'retainer' and bad business/communication skills aren't fair to me. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Don't be afraid to look at your finances Posted: 30 Jul 2019 12:52 PM PDT I've lurked on this sub for many years, using the wonderful information I found to pay off all my debt, increase my credit score by 200+ points, and find tips for general living that helped me plan and spend my money better. But this post isnt about me. When I first started dating my boyfriend I realized that he started checking his phone before figuring out which card he was going to use to pay for dinner/groceries/etc. While he didnt have the checkered past I did that lead me to this sub initially, it turns out he had little idea on what he was doing financially. He had 100% on time payments but maxed out 3 credit cards and only paid the minimum each month. So we sat down and started making plans. We figured out budgets that worked for him, hes already paid off 1 card and will have the rest paid off by the end of the year, it's a great start! But we took it further. It turns out through USAA he was overpaying for auto insurance. We did some shopping around and found a policy that covers more but paying in full for 6 months costs less than $50 more than his old monthly did. Look through your finances people! Shop around, budget and make plans to erase debt. It makes a difference. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Jul 2019 08:24 AM PDT Hey all - Quick question; I use the NYT calculator to look at the finances behind rent vs buy. (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html) I'm currently in a really nice side by side townhouse that serves my wife and I extremely well. We do like the idea of home ownership from a lifestyle point, but I it seems like renting always wins financially here. I just wanted to share my numbers and make sure I'm not doing anything wrong. Rent for our 3 bed / 2 bath townhome is $1700 a month. To get into a house in the neighborhood we want that is similar in niceness to this we are looking at ~$300,000 - $400,000. For my other variables
My end result is worst case its $500+ less to rent every months. Best case the home will win out for a while... but due to opportunity costs in the long run rent always wins. I just want to ask / check... am I doing something wrong here? Are my variables unrealistic? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Getting married next year, fiancee has a ton of CC debt. Posted: 30 Jul 2019 06:42 PM PDT My soon-to-be spouse and I are of two different worlds -- I've by nature been a churner, 800 credit score, stashing money for retirement, etc. She revealed to me that she is in a considerable amount of debt. $33k+ in CC debt, $150k in student loan debt. She makes around $42k/year. I've never really had to deal with this, so I'm kind of piecing things together. Read through the FAQ and wiki, trying to figure out where to start. Here's the breakdown that I have from her: Card debt:
She is currently in grad school, graduating next year. This will lead to a bigger salary, defers a good chunk of her loans for the time being, and we're thinking of applying the excess student loans to paying off some of the CC debt. We've stopped all unnecessary spending and have a good rent situation in a major city. We've altered our wedding plans to something extremely minor that would require very little financially. I understand the avalanche method and all that, but should we explore a card with a 0% interest intro deal and a no fee balance transfer? Should I help her explore bankruptcy as a possibility? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Jul 2019 02:35 PM PDT My thoughts are to get him to reallocate his investments into a Retirement 2020 Target Date Fund that his company offers instead of 100% company stock. The company really isnt at risk of going out of business any time soon but I fear being that heavily invested in stock is too risky if he'll be retiring very soon.. Also, if this is the right course if action, how do I convince him to do this? I don't think he will heed my advice since the average annual returns over a 10 year period on company stock is +25%. Thanks. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| My mom is unemployed, and we could lose our house. Advice urgently needed. Posted: 30 Jul 2019 06:43 PM PDT Hi, everyone. I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this, or if such a post is even acceptable, but my mom (62) and I (23) really need some financial advice. My mom is an art teacher. At the beginning of April, she was informed that the school she was working at would be closing its doors permanently. Since the beginning of June, she has been unemployed, despite tireless efforts to try and secure a full-time position. She found some part-time work, but the hours aren't going to be reliable. She has been receiving unemployment benefits in the amount of roughly $600/month, but that obviously doesn't hold a candle to the about $2000/month she was making before. From what she tells me, expenses on the house (including utilities) total to around $1500/month. As we approach August, my mom is running out of the money she set aside to get through the summer, as she didn't expect to still be unemployed by now. To add insult to injury, there is a roughly $80,000 ParentPlus loan (currently deferred) under my mom's name, and another student loan of considerably less under my name. I am a full-time master's student going to school mostly on scholarship, with some help from my father (who refused to help pay for my undergraduate education). This means that I obviously can't be of great help to my mom. To make matters even worse, she has un-diagnosed nerve pain in her legs which prevents her from driving long distances and also from doing vigorous work. We can't even do anything about it right now given that she doesn't have insurance. I filled out a Medicaid application for her, but we have yet to hear back. What do we do, reddit? I'm not the most financially savvy person, so I can't help my mom as much as I desperately want to. Should she try retiring early, or possibly try to file for disability? The way things are going, there's no way we'll be able to keep the house, and my mom might be forced to return to our home country. Any and all suggestions and advice would be most welcome. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Someone cashed my parents IRS check at a Walmart (it's not nearby) for $2200 Posted: 30 Jul 2019 01:24 PM PDT the check says FOR DEPOSIT ONLY (but they cashed it) we're getting the refund sent again..but how were they able to cash so much money? for $2200.... Any advice appreciated, thanks [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| How much do you float in your checking account? Posted: 30 Jul 2019 11:01 AM PDT I have a checking account that I used to pay everything and do monthly extra savings auto-transfer to Vanguard. I've been doing some rolling month averages and minimums. I have aimed to keep 1 month of expenses/spending as the minimum for each month. (My e-fund is in a different HYSA) Is there a better way to look at this? Most of the time I seem to have much more all depending on what is due when. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Jul 2019 04:52 PM PDT Hello all, longtime lurker, first time poster. Just looking on general advice on the best way to go about paying student loans? I just graduated and start my new job next week making 55k (so I guess 44k after taxes) and am living at home. Would the best thing to do be to just throw a thousand dollars at my loans every month (like rent) and save half of my remaining money and use the rest for expenses and whatever remains of that for fun? I'm not good with budgeting and stuff so I apologize if I sound stupid, just need some slight guidance. Thank you [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Purchasing an investment property with my siblings - terrible idea? Posted: 30 Jul 2019 08:03 AM PDT Hi reddit, Throwaway cause i don't want people to know my business (yet here I am on the internet telling people my business). Anyways. My brothers and I (32, 29, 27) all have good jobs in the US making (65k, 90k, 80k respectively). We decided that we wanted to buy a property to invest in & put on airbnb. We're thinking of purchasing a beach front apartment in Puerto Rico sometime this year. Here is our current plan/thoughts/questions.
Is this a terrible idea that will only end in everyone hating each other or can this work if we put everything in writing ahead of time? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Privately owning a vending machine for a few extra bucks? Posted: 30 Jul 2019 05:04 PM PDT For context, I'm a 21 year old with almost no experience in investing. This is mostly just an idea I want to explore for fun, but if it's feasible I would totally go through with it. I work at a medical office that shares a building with 10 other offices. I believe the building is owned by the hospital since it's on hospital property (even though none of the offices themselves are affiliated with the hospital) It didn't take long to notice a complete lack of vending machines in the building. On the bottom floor there is a soda shop but nothing of substance; employees are often forced to drive and get food to sustain them if they're working late. Our clinic alone sees anywhere from 60-120 patients per day, and we have 40 people on staff. Assuming the other offices are the same, there's an influx of about 7,700 people coming into the building every week and 30,800 every month. I feel it safe to assume that the building could definitely make a profit off of a vending machine or 2. My questions are: -would there be a reason for the building to purposely not have vending machines? -who would I look to contact? -would the landlord charge for a "rented space," a commission percentage, or merely the electricity costs? -would they even take me seriously being that I am so young and don't have an established business? Edit: formatting [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Trying to help my parents as they transition to retirement with very little retirement savings Posted: 30 Jul 2019 06:16 PM PDT So a brief statement: my parents, 61 and 60, never seriously saved for retirement and spent basically all they had on my brother and I (27 and 31, respectively) so we could go to the best schools, play all the sports we wanted, etc. etc. My father was a fireman, who worked a side job for an imaging company hanging signs, and my mother was a part-time bookkeeper for a local town-housing company. For a while my father developed a gambling problem and blew through a bunch of the family money during our teens and twenties. This eventually led to my parents becoming separated, though never getting divorced. Lately, as my brother and I have both begun our careers, got married, and each purchased our own house, they have been on much better terms, although still living separately. My father did what's called the "drop" program(?) or something called the "drop" with the fire department, where basically they allow him to continue working for 5 years after he technically retires. I'm not entirely sure how it works. Anyway, he has officially retired from the fire department but has kept his side job. My mother still holds her part time job. I'm not entirely sure of their monthly take-home pay, but I would say it's probably something like $2500 each, give or take a few hundred bucks. Let me say this too, neither of them know much about finances beyond basic budgeting and saving (i.e. investing, retirement accounts, etc.). My father has $290,000 in his fire department pension, and my mother has about $100,000 liquid cash right now currently in a high-yield savings earning I think 2.5%. They had a meeting a couple weeks ago with a commission-based financial advisor, which they asked me to come sit in on. I got some bad vibes from this guy, despite him sounding like he had their best interests at heart. He basically told them about a number of different accounts they could open, where each has certain benefits. Two of the accounts he sold my dad on each lock a portion of his pension up for 5 years and 7 years, but one account is guaranteed to never lose money, even if the market tanks. My mother on the other-hand, is trying so hard to put half her $100k into a high-yield savings through Discover, and half into another MMA yielding 2% through her current bank. I'm trying to convince my mother to keep about 30% liquid in the high-yield savings account (HYSA) at 2.5%, and put the rest into a Roth IRA where it can earn more than 2-2.5%, but it's hard convincing her to do that. As for my father, I have no idea how fire department pension plans work, in terms of rolling that money over into an account, liquidating it, etc. but their financial advisor basically said it would be taxed no matter what once he begins withdrawing from it or liquidating it, not necessarily if he transfers it to an investment account. My question(s):
I am trying to get them to a point where they will have enough to at least be able to maintain their lifestyles through retirement, without being taken through the ringer by a commission-based financial advisor. Unfortunately, I don't know too much regarding pensions and how they're taxed when moving money around. I just want to help them through this transition since they've helped me more than words can describe. Any insight is appreciated. TL;DR - My dad has a $290k pension and my mom has $100k liquid money. A commission-based financial advisor recommended quite a few different accounts to both of them, with a couple locking up their money for 5 and 7 years. They're not entirely sold on what to do, and I'm trying to help them plan for retirement with the money they have saved. What's the best thing to do for $100k liquid money for my mom, and the $290k pension for my dad? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Should I pay this woman $100 for her troubles? I'm a broke college kid. Posted: 30 Jul 2019 09:48 AM PDT I go to a university where it's a good idea to network and to avoid burning bridges. The situation: I'm a broke college student and this summer I needed housing. Last week, this graduate student posted that she was renting out her room and I told her I would take it, so she took the listing down. It's Tuesday now and I'm supposed to move in on Thursday. Rent + Utilities = $500. I haven't paid her yet. I should also mention -- $500 goes really far in my life right now. I live on $4,000/year. My school financial aid office FINALLY just reached out to me saying they'd give me free housing. Unimportant detail: My school has a tendency to make students like me squirm a little in order to prove we actually need the help and so they wait last minute to reach out. Obviously, I'm taking the free housing -- but at this point I don't think the graduate student I was renting from will find someone to pay her for this month and I feel bad because (1) I don't know her situation and (2) she could very well be my TA or colleague in the future. I was going to text her explaining briefly how I got free housing but for her troubles, I'd give her $100. My mom thinks that I'm being too nice and that I don't have to give her anything at all. What do you think? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Dumb Question! Is Charles Schwab approval instant?? Posted: 30 Jul 2019 06:31 PM PDT Just curious, I just applied to Charles Schwab brokerage account, mainly to use their checking account. After the application It said " Your Schwab One Brokerage account is now open " but also " Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking account is pending." I'm able to login but just wondering if there is still a possibility of being denied? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| AT&T Wireless Misled Me and I Can't Afford My Bill Posted: 30 Jul 2019 02:24 AM PDT I called AT&T to see if they would match a deal that my employer has with Sprint, and one of their "loyalty" specialists agreed to match the deal ($125 a month for two phone lines, unlimited data). I asked several times if the $125 was the final price of my service after fees because I'm more concerned with lowering my bill than getting the unlimited data; she lied. She signed me up for one of their most expensive data plans, knowing that it would increase my monthly bill, and lied and said that my monthly bill would decrease by $75 even after adding taxes and fees. Now, I have a nearly $300 phone bill, AT&T customer service won't help, I can't afford the bill and I'm going to lose service. I don't have a house phone, and I'm not sure what to do. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Is taking the Experian credit monitoring over the $125 really worth it? Posted: 30 Jul 2019 08:07 PM PDT I have read through the settlement agreement and it states all the features you will get with the Experian credit monitoring service, but it doesn't seem that much better than the free service you get with something like Credit Karma. Has anyone used Experian for credit monitoring? How does it compare to a service like credit karma? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| My mother is "keeping my money safe" and blackmailing me with it. Posted: 30 Jul 2019 08:04 PM PDT My mother got ahold of one part of my pocket money, not a small sum though. I kept my cash (I wanted to deposit everything in banks, common sense, but I was underaged, and when I became, some other things happened and I forgot to) in two stacks. I have one at me. She has it for some time now. I don't think we've mentioned it recently, but the kast time we have, and whenever we have, she says "it's my money but she's : keeping it for me / not going to give it back until I'm behaving how she wants" and she keeps saying how it's my money and she's going to give it back. She's just "saving" it for me so I don't recklessly spend it or something like that. What the fuck do I do in this situation? I intend on leaving this toxic home for quite some time now. I don't even spend time here, only sleeping and having breakfast, and it's too toxic still. Can't live with these people - I can't remember a breakfast, or one day where I didn't have to listen to her nagging and bitching shit. How do I get the best of this situation? I would prefer to get the money back. Thank you in advance for commenting. [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pay off car loan now or continue making payments until the end of the loan? Posted: 30 Jul 2019 05:43 PM PDT I have 37 months remaining at $317 per month on a 60 month auto loan. I requested a payoff quote through the manufacturer the other day and it came to be roughly $11,800. Interest is already factored into this amount, there's no way of getting out of it by paying it off early because of how it's structured. I will have 6 months emergency fund in expenses plus another 7k in savings if I pay it off in full right now. Would it be smart to do this simply for peace of mind and being 100% debt free? [link] [comments]  | ||||||||||||||||||
| How do I handle a collections agency? Posted: 30 Jul 2019 07:48 PM PDT We recently moved out of an apartment. Since the move, our old landlord never contacted us about owing any extra fees. Instead, we(each resident from the previous apt) ended up getting a notice in the mail from collections that we owe $200. Is it legal for them to just send it to collections automatically without giving us any prior notice that we even owe them money? Can I dispute the collections agency to make sure this doesn't end up on my credit report? Do I contact the apartment manager or do I go through the collections agency at this point? [link] [comments]  |
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