Personal Finance I am autistic and have difficulty discussing complex matters through text. I need the phone. The IRS system will not let me through to a human. What can I do? |
- I am autistic and have difficulty discussing complex matters through text. I need the phone. The IRS system will not let me through to a human. What can I do?
- No matter how desperate you are, ALWAYS be weary of third parties on freelancing apps.
- Girlfriend unexpectedly quit her job. Not sure if I can manage taking over all of our bills. Please help
- I found $800 worth of bonds issued to me, any idea what to do with them?
- Check stolen from contractor, check fraud
- Are Roth IRA contributions a good idea even if 401(k) isn't maxed?
- Is it possible for parents to have near consecutive social security numbers?
- Can someone take my dad's 401k if they have his social security number and birthday?
- I feel stuck with this horrible timeshare we're in
- Previous Landlord Won't Sign Paperwork for NACA Mortgage
- Why Would I Ever Buy a House (Chicago area)
- Burnt out with work. I would like to take time off
- HELP! My mom has all her retirement money in ONE STOCK!
- 20yo college student, just moved to a new town just to find out the community college doesn't do student loans. What else can I do?
- 26 years old, dad is retiring with 65k any advice on how to invest?
- Are there any good long-term projection apps for personal finance?
- Should I spent $3000/month on a mortgage?
- $38k medical bill in collections from burning my face off- just let it sit??
- Factory is shutting down and moving to China. Should I take out a 401k loan before they shut down?
- I want to cash a rather large portion of a mutual fund my parents gave me in order to pay off her debts. Please I need advice
- G/F will be leaving her part-time job to finish her Master's Program, I'm considering a second job to keep us going in the meantime.
- My girlfriends paycheck is 10 hours under what she worked.
- Total annual income
| Posted: 08 Aug 2019 12:10 PM PDT |
| No matter how desperate you are, ALWAYS be weary of third parties on freelancing apps. Posted: 08 Aug 2019 07:39 AM PDT Tl;DR at the bottom. About a week ago, I almost got scammed. So as a side gig I use Wag!/Rover, which are two apps for dog walking and sitting. Rover typically takes a chunk of the payment, so I tend to use it to find contacts and I do business with them outside of the app. I was talking to a customer, wanted to pay me $300 a week to dog sit. He says he's having trouble with with venmo, so can he mail me a check? Sure, mail me a cashier's check and that'll be fine. A couple days later I ask if he sent the check. Whoops, I guess he sent it to the wrong address. Heres where everything goes south. Because he sent the check to the wrong address, his financial clerk wants "more information" to give me the money directly. First red flag: why couldn't he just mail a second check? Second red flag: this information would likely be my account number and routing number, which means that he could probably make a charge to my checking account. At this point I go and look at his rover profile. Surprise! It's been reported for suspicious activity. I send him a text, say the only payment I'll accept is cash on hand when I meet him and the dog. I havent heard a word since. These people are out there trying to take advantage of people who really need the money. They offer a large amount of money to get you hooked, and try to distract you with excuses and lies. Make sure you NEVER give your account information you dont know. And no matter how much you like the person or they seem trustworthy, they're still an unknown. Caution can save you thousands of dollars. Be careful out there. TL;DR: When using freelancing apps, be careful of people offering large amounts of money but need extra information. Never give your bank account info to anyone you dont know. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Aug 2019 12:16 PM PDT I rent a house for $1100/month. My household is myself, my girlfriend, her 6yo son, and our 6 month old baby. I currently net $1100 bi-weekly ($45.5k gross). We both work but currently have no savings. After maternity leave ended, she developed anxiety that went untreated due to her not feeling like she had time to go to therapy. Today, she snapped and quit her job. I need advice or tips on any way I would be able to support all of us until she is able to get back on her feet. Our current goal is for her to see a therapist about her anxiety while she looks for a new job. The bills are: Rent (including utilities except electric): $1100 Electric: ~$200 (I expect this to go up as she will be home all day now) Internet: $53 My car payment: $275 My car insurance: $85 Netflix:$16 Spotify:$15 Hulu:$12 Gym:$22 Obviously, the streaming services will have to go, and that doesn't include her phone, car or insurance either. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm freaking out at the thought of how I'm going to manage this. [link] [comments]  |
| I found $800 worth of bonds issued to me, any idea what to do with them? Posted: 08 Aug 2019 11:06 AM PDT While I was going through my dads stuff a few years ago, (2016 ish) i found $800 worth of bonds issued to me between the years of 1997-2002. I put them back and found them again. Im now 22, so the oldest are the same age. Theyre 30 year bonds, i thought they were 20, and could cash most of them, but alas. According to the National Treasury's bond calculator on their website, theyre all over their face value by a couple dollars. I have some questions about them.
Thanks in advance for any help :) Edit: more info: Okay so i looked into the link u/m300300 posted. They have variable interest rates, so the original interest rates were close to 6%, but is now in the 2-3% range. That would explain that. It also explained that they reach at least their face value at about 20 years but continue earning interest until 30 years. Second edit: crediting user who posted the link [link] [comments]  |
| Check stolen from contractor, check fraud Posted: 08 Aug 2019 01:13 PM PDT In June, we hired a contractor to repair our HVAC system. We paid them with a check ($990) We noticed it was deposited in a few weeks, but didn't pay much attention to it. Then it was deposited AGAIN, a few weeks after that (so about 4 weeks after we gave it to them). The money was paid out, but then almost immediately returned to our account; the bank flagged it as having been deposited already. That seemed weird, but we didn't follow up. Then we get a call a few days ago (about 6 weeks after we paid the contractor); apparently the contractor tried to deposit it for a 3rd time and the bank notified us about possible fraud. We can see the checks online; apparently someone altered the check, writing their own name on it, endorsing it and depositing it. As in, we wrote a check to "HVAC Company" and they altered it to "HVAC Company Bob Jones", signed it "Bob Jones" and deposited it using a mobile app with a photo of the check. They didn't alter the photo; they took the check while it was in possession of the contractor, altered it, and left it with the contractor. Reviewing the other checks, we can see that the scammer then copied the check details onto a new check (it looks like a payroll-type check with printed details) and cashed that against our account as well. We filed a police report & reported the check fraud to the bank. The bank gave us a new account# and says they'll refund the money that was paid out to the scammer. When we initially reported the 1st altered check to the bank, they didn't care. They said the bank paid out the money, and if the contractor didn't get the money because a scammer deposited it first, that was the contractor's problem. They only decided to open an investigation when we reported the 2nd check drawn from our account. Do we need to do anything further at this point? I assume that with a new account#, the scammer can't print any more fake checks against our account. We reported the fraud within the 60-day window our bank gives us for reporting, so we're going to get our money back. Also, in general, we don't like checks. We pay contractors with checks because we're trying to be nice and save them from paying credit card processing fees, while still having some kind of proof that we paid them (vs cash). It seems that if someone mishandles your check, there's nothing stopping a scammer from cleaning out your checking account. If there's any contractors that have an opinion on this topic, I'd like to hear it. The contractor says they have no idea who the scammer is, or how they got obtained of the check and altered it. They said they've written off that money and aren't asking us to repay them, even if we get that money refunded to us. [link] [comments]  |
| Are Roth IRA contributions a good idea even if 401(k) isn't maxed? Posted: 08 Aug 2019 10:32 AM PDT I'm getting close to 40, and I feel like I should be maxing out as much as I can for retirement. Right now I contribute roughly 17k a year into my 401(k). I also max out my Roth as well as my wife's Roth each year. I've been doing some reading, and I'm seeing some people say that it is foolish to max out the Roth IRAs if I'm not maxing out my 401(k). I'm almost maxing out the 401(k), but I do feel that I should balance my contributions so I'll have a blend of pre and post taxed retirement accounts. The vast majority of my retirement money is in my 401(k). My thinking is that in retirement I'll withdraw up to the tax bracket limit and then anything extra I need I can pull out of the Roth IRAs. Is my line of thinking off? [link] [comments]  |
| Is it possible for parents to have near consecutive social security numbers? Posted: 08 Aug 2019 12:07 PM PDT I am gradually taking care of more and more of my parent's finances. My surviving parent is over a 100 years old, and my other parent would have been over a 100 if still alive. I know that my parents were childhood sweethearts and grew up in the same neighborhood. Is it possible that their social security numbers vary only by the last digit, or is it more likely a mistake that my parents made in their old age, remembering one number and not the other? [link] [comments]  |
| Can someone take my dad's 401k if they have his social security number and birthday? Posted: 08 Aug 2019 11:53 AM PDT A scammer called my dad and he gave them his ssn and birthday. Im going to do everything it says to do in the article on identity theft, but he's worried theyre going to steal his 401k. Can they? [link] [comments]  |
| I feel stuck with this horrible timeshare we're in Posted: 08 Aug 2019 07:49 PM PDT I'm currently on vacation with my parents, they went to their mandated "2 hour" meeting with a salesperson and I figured that my mom would be able to say no to any pitch they tried on her, but it's been over 4 hours now and she's called me telling me that the salesperson says there's no way out of our membership so she might as well purchase up to a new tier or plan to get the most out of it. We've been trying to get out of our diamond resorts timeshare for a while but it feels like they have us trapped. I'm hoping that someone can give some solid advice on how to get out of this. I'm incredibly frustrated and we just want to get out of this timeshare. [link] [comments]  |
| Previous Landlord Won't Sign Paperwork for NACA Mortgage Posted: 08 Aug 2019 02:54 PM PDT Hello! I'm trying to get a mortgage through NACA. My counselor has sent paperwork to my last landlord requesting written confirmation that I made all rent-related payments on time. My former landlord is refusing to provide this, and I'm not sure why that is. We finished the lease on good terms and I received my security deposit back early and in full. I've tried talking to my landlord about this a few times. They've nicely but firmly said they will not sign off on any of my paperwork. Where do I go from here? Is there any way I can force them to sign the paperwork? Ideally, I'd like to avoid that; however, it would be good to know what my options are. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Why Would I Ever Buy a House (Chicago area) Posted: 08 Aug 2019 07:09 PM PDT I think I'm missing something, if I am please help me understand what it is. I currently live in a lower cost area of Chicago, paying ~$1k a month in rent. I was recently looking at some houses, and it seems foolish to buy something in this market instead of renting. To specify, to have a similar living situation (2 br, 1 ba) I would end up paying roughly 40k down on a 200k condo. With extremely high property taxes (that are unlikely to go down), in the neighborhood of 4-500 a month, and highish HOA fees around 100 a month. Once you factor in property insurance, mortgage interest, and maintenance I would be straight up losing money relative to renting. Adding to this, if I were to save the equivalent amount (that would be paid towards a mortgage), and invest it in the stock market I would end up being better off in the long-run, especially since the real-estate market here is not poised to appreciate. Something is not adding up here right? The only thing I can think of doing is just buying a multi-family property and living in one of the units. [link] [comments]  |
| Burnt out with work. I would like to take time off Posted: 08 Aug 2019 04:37 AM PDT Hello All - I have been a lurker for awhile. I'm hoping I can get some advice on my current situation. I would like to quit my stressful job and take a few months off. I don't know if I can afford it. Some background: 35 years old. Single. No children. I was over $40,000 in debt. Mostly due to being in denial and stupid with credit cards. I finally sat down, created a spreadsheet, and forced myself to look at all my debt. Fast forward a little over three years later, all the debt is gone and I have saved $30,000 in HYSA. I also have 30,000 in my 401k. I buckled down and worked a lot to make this happen. I'm in a high stress / high pressure career that pays a decent salary ($100,000/year). It's finally taking a toll on my mental health. I have noticed my work quality declined dramatically and I'm caring less about it every day. My expenses: $1,700 Rent (I'm in a HCOL area and have 8 more months to the lease) $100 utilities $50 online subscription —I can get rid of once I quit $500 health insurance if I quit my job No car — I ride my bike and take public transportation $600 groceries / going out to dinner — I can cut this dramatically if needed (I did that when I was paying off my debt) [link] [comments]  |
| HELP! My mom has all her retirement money in ONE STOCK! Posted: 08 Aug 2019 08:18 AM PDT Hi all, I just found out recently that my Mom has all of her retirement money in ONE STOCK. She is 70 years old, and has approximately $200,000 (~100k in gains) in a single stock for a semi-conductor company. I want her to diverse her portfolio and/or move the money to more conservative locations but she refuses for the following reasons:
What is/are her best options at this point? Can she transfer the money/account into my name, and then I can manage it for her? I'm literally at a lost of what to do. EDIT 1: For those who will read. Yes my mom is VERY VERY Conservative in her views and i will openly admit, not the smartest/best critical thinker out there. She believes that she can just leave the money there and she might never even use it so the market will always correct itself eventually (Trust me, crazy thoughts. No way of convincing her otherwise). Again she does not want to report the gains to my Dad. Is there any way to move the money to me or someone else without reporting the gains? Or does she have to wait until my Dad dies? EDIT 2: For those disturbed by my mom and dad situation. It's a very strange situation, and I have encouraged her to divorce him many times/years now. I'll be honest, if you are a non-american from a super conservative country you probably "understand' the dynamic moreso. If you follow a more westernized, american culture it will never make sense. HELL it doesn't make any sense to me, but she firmly believes in her outdated customs and conservative ways. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Aug 2019 04:14 PM PDT I've been going to community college for a year already, and I paid out of pocket for that with money I saved up during a gap year. My dad got a job in a new (and nicer) town so I applied to the community college here, got accepted and moved here about a week ago. But because of his new job (and cause of my garbage grades) I don't qualify for any financial aid. My plan was to apply for student loans, then get a new job and work as much as I can to save up and build credit. I went to the college to apply and lo and behold, they don't do loans, they won't give any financial advice and I need to pay everything right after I register or I can't take any classes. I spent all my savings on my last year of college, my parents can't afford to pay either, my whole family's pretty broke, they've all got bad credit and I have no credit. Is there anything I can do to get in this fall semester or do I just have to take some time off? Edit: I got things a bit confused since I'm pretty stressed out. I've already done my FAFSA for this year, and I'm not eligible for any aid. my dad's been making a higher income for a few years now but it's mostly gone towards paying off debt and moving here, so we don't have anything saved up. I went to the school's financial aid office and they told me that they don't offer loans and will not help me get any loans. This if what their website says on the main 'Financial Aid' page: "While [local community college] previously offered federal loans, the college chose to opt out of the federal direct student loan program" If I can somehow still get a federal loan, great, but they've said in multiple places that I can't. [link] [comments]  |
| 26 years old, dad is retiring with 65k any advice on how to invest? Posted: 08 Aug 2019 06:05 PM PDT Like the title says I'm 26 years old and my dad is retiring with 65k, I'm not very savvy when it comes to investing any advice is welcome 🙏🏽 [link] [comments]  |
| Are there any good long-term projection apps for personal finance? Posted: 08 Aug 2019 03:50 PM PDT I am wondering what apps anyone would recommend to make semi-long term or long-term financial projections for personal finance. Essentially, I want to input my current account balances and cashflow controls like income and expenses, and then ask questions like "what would my accounts look like in 5, 10, 30 years, if...."
After looking around for a few days, I've mainly just seen recommendations to use Excel. There's also PocketSmith, but it looks like you'd have to be a premium user to get long-term projections. Others have said that these kind of predictions are generally so inaccurate that they're not very valuable. I have to disagree with that—it's not their accuracy that is valuable, its just being able to change some variables and seeing where things could end up which brings the insight. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Should I spent $3000/month on a mortgage? Posted: 08 Aug 2019 04:19 PM PDT My family is losing their shit about my mortgage cost - looking for opinions. I'm 32 (I make $140,000/year), maxing my 401k at 6% leaves my net take home at $6600/month give or take. I have almost no debt, no credit cards, a small car payment and $8,000~ left on student loans (I intend to pay off the student loans after I close on the house - I'm putting down a lower down payment so I can pay those off). This leaves me with about $3000/month in free cash after everything is said and done. Does this sound excessive given what I outlined above? [link] [comments]  |
| $38k medical bill in collections from burning my face off- just let it sit?? Posted: 08 Aug 2019 06:39 PM PDT So, last August I had an accident and burned my face- superficial 2nd degree. I was DRIVEN to the hospital by a friend who was there, got checked in, they determined I was stable, no fire damage in my eyes or throat passages - gave me morphine, mentioned I'd need to take an ambulance to nearby hospital that had a burn center. I asked how long the ride was, they said 40 minutes and one of my friends could come with. About 5 minutes later, two guys roll in saying 'the helicopter is ready, let's go- sorry, no friends can fit'. They lift me over and strap me into a gurney, then wheel me out and shove me up the butt of a helicopter. I think a clipboard was passed to me to scribble on in my morphine-induced haze. Now, I'm sure many of you here know the deal with these helicopters. I was sent a bill for $54k. After wrestling with my insurance, they agreed to pay $16k, and I couldn't get them to pay more. Air Methods wanted me to sign papers allowing them to pursue my insurance company, but my father and other people advised me not to sign anything. My father's advice was to do what I'm doing now- let it go to collections. Apparently they wouldn't settle with that my insurance paid. Well, it finally appeared on my report, my score took a hit, and now I'm wondering if that was the best option. Is there anything else I can do at this point, once it's in collections? I'm in my mid-20s living in NYC, it'll probably be over 7 years before I consider buying a house or something anyway. (Paying it is NOT an option. I have 22k in student loans to pay off, and I feel like on principal the helicopter was a scam, because I was determined stable, and then once I got to the new hospital I was left sitting for 45 effin' minutes before someone came to clean the debris and burnt skin off my face. They never communicated to me about the helicopter- in fact they SAID I was taking an ambulance. I will NOT give Air Methods a single dollar out of my own pocket. ) Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| Factory is shutting down and moving to China. Should I take out a 401k loan before they shut down? Posted: 08 Aug 2019 06:35 PM PDT From information I've gathered here's the breakdown. The loan is to be paid back directly out of my paycheck. If I lose my job before the loan is fully repaid I will owe taxes on it as if it were earned income and a 10% penalty on the remaining balance of the loan. Why would I do this? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Aug 2019 04:56 PM PDT *My parents gave my newlywed wife and I a mutual fund worth 100,000 which blew us the fuck away. My wife, while trying to help her parents pay for our wedding (in our culture the brides side pays for the wedding), took out 20000 in loans and paid for a lot of the wedding. Between her maxed out CcS and these loans, she has about 35,000 in debt. We both work but this could take a very long time to pay off. I want to cash out 40,000 and pay off her debts. She flatly refused saying she doesn't need help and that she feels guilty since my parents gifted us this money. My question is, how much would i get taxed for removing such a large amount? Are there better solutions? I'd really like to do this in best and smartest way possible. Any and all advice is appreciated. *** [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Aug 2019 01:10 PM PDT TL;DR is pretty much the title, some detail in the somewhat lengthy explanation below. I'm happy to clarify if you have any questions! First things first, if this is the wrong Sub, I apologize, please don't lambast me, I'm not 100% sure where a question like this belongs. Second, for the sake of any misleading by the title, I want to clarify that my salary will keep the bills paid, including the mortgage, but the margin is so slim after that, that I can't be sure if we'll last the month in between paychecks. She'll be in school until next May, so this is going to be a fairly lengthy lifestyle change as I currently see it. I'm here for a couple reasons: One, I'm hoping I can discuss this with you for the sake of both assurance and perspective, and two, for some ideas or suggestions for low-impact jobs I could do on evenings or weekends. I'm in my early 30s, work in I.T., consistent 9-5 (not my actual hours) Mon-Fri. I've got experience in other unrelated fields, primarily warehouse and labor, but I'm open to just about anything I can learn. Since this is semi long-term, I'm willing to bite most bullets to make it work, but I know I can't possibly conceive of every avenue, so here I am. My initial thought is that I'll have to land somewhere in customer service, stores that are open nights and weekends, that kind of thing. This income is meant to be primarily supplemental. She has leftover student loan money, but that's not something I want to continue spending or rely on in any way, I'd rather throw as much of it back into the loans as we can when she graduates. Even with budgeting, which we've been conducting and adjusting as needed, we don't have any additional money beyond what I'm paid. No emergency fund, savings, anything. I've read a lot about setting that kind of thing up through here, and have subsequently kicked myself for not starting sooner, but discipline has never been my strongest trait. My head is a bit of a mess right now, so I'm sorry if this is meandering or unorganized. This is the first time I've written it all out, and I'm just kind of thinking as I go. Am I thinking in the right direction? What factors am I potentially missing? What would you do in my position? I dunno, there just feels like a lot to consider right now, and I know I'm causing myself undue stress by overthinking it, but I want go about it the right way so we're not stumbling while I try to maintain footing. Yes, we knew this was coming, no we did not properly prepare for it financially. I'm not mad about it, and I'm not looking for sympathy, just some help clarifying. I know I've probably got some long hours ahead of me, and I'm ok with that. If you made it this far and have questions or suggestions, I thank you. EDIT: She didn't ask me to do this, we've been discussing our options and this is my contribution. We won't be destitute, but it will be a thin enough margin that I feel it's more of a risk than I'd care to make. I'm just trying to explore this as a possibility among people who have no personal involvement in the situation, but may be able to contribute based on experience or the like. Thank you to everyone who's contributed so far! [link] [comments]  |
| My girlfriends paycheck is 10 hours under what she worked. Posted: 08 Aug 2019 03:33 PM PDT Basically the title but I wanted to know what she should do and if she should cash this weeks check if we eventually wanna get the full thing. Info: She worked 62 hours and 55 minutes and only got paid for 52. She gets time and a half after 40 and her check states she worked 10 hours less than she did. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Aug 2019 07:58 PM PDT I'm about to apply for my first secured credit card and it asks for a total annual income. I have a part time job at a retail store. Do I put how much I've made in the last year? [link] [comments]  |
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