Personal Finance Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of October 07, 2019 |
- Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of October 07, 2019
- GE freezes pensions for 20,000 employees - aka why I always urge people to invest in their own retirement funds
- How to invest 1 M cash so monthly return is 2500$ after taxes ?
- Just received a bill from 10 years ago
- Someone attempted to change my direct deposit info at work - action required?
- Doing my annual shopping around for auto insurance. What coverage do you purchase and why? What if you have good health insurance and rarely have passengers?
- Brother fell victim to scam, need advice on what to have him do.
- Need Help Creating A Wedding Budget
- Mom has $60k+ debt from parent plus loan from ITT Tech. What should we do?
- I was billed for services I did not use and it went to collections. Am I proceeding correct?
- Lost $5k because I didn’t receive FSA claim rejection notice
- Anyone regret buying a home to "grow into"?
- $500 saw was delivered to me that I did not order
- How to open a bank account while hiding it from my parents?
- Venmo instant transfer never appeared in my bank account. Both Venmo and my bank claim they have no idea where this money could be. Please help!
- Laid off now they want me back
- How to negotiate between different positions in the same company?
- My in-laws are letting us live with them while we save for our own place. We agreed to pay rent - do we need to draw a lease to prove that we actually live there and protect both parties?
- Is health insurance a taxable benefit?
- 30-year-old thinking about investing $30k that's sitting in a HYSA.
- PLEASE be wary of the Amway or any multi-level marketing/network marketing (aka pyramid/borderline pyramid) schemes!
- Someone just purchased a lot of games on my PS4 and locked me out of my account.
- I need a car but I also need to be smart about this
- I just got reminded to double-check my deductibles. Don't get overcharged.
- $800 randomly taken from savings in 1 month
| Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of October 07, 2019 Posted: 07 Oct 2019 04:07 AM PDT If you need help, please check the PF Wiki to see if your question might be answered there.This thread is for personal finance questions, discussions, and sharing your success stories:
A big thank you to the many PFers who take time to answer other people's questions! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Oct 2019 05:44 AM PDT I see a lot of posts here about pensions vs 401ks, or people who say "I'm not worried because I've got a great pension plan", or something to that effect. Well, this is a stark reminder that pensions are not bulletproof. Yes, ALL investing is some form of gambling, but with 401ks and IRAs it's at least YOUR money, which you control and can withdraw as needed. I am not saying that pensions are inherently bad and that no one should ever use one. They are a great cushion to your other assets. But please, please, please: do not SKIP other forms of investing because you think you're going to be set for life in retirement thanks to a company pension plan. [link] [comments]  |
| How to invest 1 M cash so monthly return is 2500$ after taxes ? Posted: 07 Oct 2019 04:37 PM PDT Hi all, Thanks for reading and commenting on the post in advance! Is there a way to invest 1M$ Cash in any kind investment that would return $2500 monthly after taxes? EDIT: I need the money monthly not annually. thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Just received a bill from 10 years ago Posted: 07 Oct 2019 12:12 PM PDT My hubby just received a collections notice for a hospital bill just shy of 10 years ago. What can we do ? Given the time span we have no idea if this has already been paid or not. Edit: —Bill is under $1000 —Bill does not list our itemized charges which we find odd it simply has a date and an amount Edit 2: I just contacted an attorney. Our state has an 8 year statue of limitations. We do not have to pay. [link] [comments]  |
| Someone attempted to change my direct deposit info at work - action required? Posted: 07 Oct 2019 09:05 AM PDT So this morning our HR person came up to me and handed me a form to fill out, I asked what it was for. She just kinda of looked at me confused. HR: "It's to update your direct deposit info" Me: "Why do I need to do that?" HR: "Because...you told me you wanted to..." Me: "I definitely didn't make that request" HR: "Well then you must have been hacked!" She brings me to her computer and shows me an email from "me" that essentially went: "Hi HR Person's Name, I need you to help me change my DD information due to a pending issues I have with my current bank. Please find the new bank information attached. Regards My Name" The email was from "me" in that my name was in the sender field but the address was not me, it was "iinfo@mailbox.org". There were also no attachments with the email (must have been stripped out by our email filters/security). I pointed this out to the HR director to show it wasn't from me, as well as a reminder to always check the actual sender address, not just the name it shows (I work in IT here so this situation/training comes up occasionally). No harm came of this, as at our work, HR needs to have the employee fill out a paper form with their new banking info, so obviously my direct deposit information hasn't been changed. As for how this happened, I have a rough idea. I work for local government, and though my contact info isn't posted publicly on our website, it has been before in certain articles or info that has been publicly accessible in the past. The HR person does have their info on our website, as they are responsible for other matters besides HR that requires their contact info be public. So technically someone could have a list of potential employees here and just be going through and spoofing emails from them to HR. I told HR this and advised them to watch for similar emails coming from "other employees". All of my passwords are unique and randomly generated through a password manager app. As a precaution I did change my personal email, work email, and banking passwords, as well as enable two-factor authentication where it was offered on those services. Do you think any further action is required on my part? I don't believe it's necessary to cancel and cards, close accounts, or freeze credit, but just wanted to check and see what you guys think. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Oct 2019 02:28 PM PDT |
| Brother fell victim to scam, need advice on what to have him do. Posted: 07 Oct 2019 03:43 PM PDT My brother (19 y/o) received a call from someone stating that his social security number was being used for drug trafficking and money laundering and he ended up giving them $300 and the last 4 of his social security number because he panicked and was scared. After yelling at him repeatedly for telling him he's stupid, I wanted to be proactive in helping him avoid additional penalties. I suggested he get life lock for at least a year but are they any additional measures I can have him take or less costly alternatives to a credit monitoring service? [link] [comments]  |
| Need Help Creating A Wedding Budget Posted: 07 Oct 2019 07:03 PM PDT My fiancee and I just got engaged 2 weeks ago and it seems like the first step in planning a wedding is setting the budget, and we have no idea how much to spend. We talked about it today and narrowed it down to more than $12k and less than $50k, but we'd like to have something much more specific to aim at before moving forward. Here is our financial situation:1 401ks: Maxed Housing: Bought a house in May. Still owe >450K. We're not paying PMI. We are putting in an extra $1k a month on the morgage each month so far. Debt: None other than the house. Emergency funds: Got em. They won't be included in the savings numbers below. Savings: Him: 7k. Me: 29k earmarked for a wedding. 24k earmarked for a house downpayment that didnt end up getting spent. I am adding ~$1800 a month to this fund. Total savings right now: $60k. Our Parents: Willing to help, but not sure how much right now. So we are in a good situation and feel like we don't have to go super budget on this. We can afford to throw a decent party, but our values are frugal, we'd be horrified at spending 100k on a wedding, and we keep thinking about the compound interest that could be gained for each dollar we spend on the house instead of the wedding. Should we aim for our area average (38k). Should we aim on the low side and just be ok with overages? I'm having trouble finding advice for this situation online. Most of it seems to be "Save as much as you can then spend it all". We don't want to spend our full 60k, so how do we choose a different number? [link] [comments]  |
| Mom has $60k+ debt from parent plus loan from ITT Tech. What should we do? Posted: 07 Oct 2019 04:37 PM PDT Hello all. So my mom told me today that she received a letter from National Recoveries Inc, stating that she owes $60k+ in student loan debt from parent plus loans. The loans were taken out between 2008 and 2010, but I only went for maybe 4 semesters total and never got a degree from there. I've since graduated from another institute for a few years, and have started paying MY student loan debt from the institution, but also I have already paid off my ITT Tech debt. My question is, since the school closed, is there any way that she ends up with this debt discharged? The institution scammed us, and closed down. I am not sure what course of action we have at this point. Any help would be greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| I was billed for services I did not use and it went to collections. Am I proceeding correct? Posted: 07 Oct 2019 03:40 PM PDT I was wrongfully billed by my old insurance company after I switched insurances. I called them to dispute it and the assured me I did not have to pay it. Fast forward a month and now I find out that they sent it to a collection agency. Here's what I've done so far, in order: 1) Called the insurance company and told them to remove this charge. They agreed and told me they would do it. I told them it needed to be done ASAP because 2) I sent a certified letter to the collection agency requesting that they verify my debt and provide all of the details regarding said debt. I just used a template from online probably linked on this sub somewhere. I want to be sure the debt collection agency finds no record of debt when they contact the insurance company. 3) Returned a call from the collection agency and told them to stop calling me and that I've sent a letter. I told them I only want to correspond via writing. Do I have the right mindset here? Is there anything else I should be doing? I plan on calling the insurance agent every day until the charge is removed. Should I get this in writing and how do I do that? Would I then mail that to the debt collector? Or do I tell the insurance company to sort that shit out for me? This is ultimately a small debt around 100 dollars but I don't want to pay it or admit that I missed a payment. Because I did not. [link] [comments]  |
| Lost $5k because I didn’t receive FSA claim rejection notice Posted: 07 Oct 2019 06:03 PM PDT I filed a $5,000 claim for dependent care expenses for 2018 in March before the yearly deadline. Apparently the company my employer contracts with for FSA accounts rejected the claim because the file I attached for my child's school bill didn't go through. Except I didn't receive the notification rejecting the claim. I noticed over the weekend that I never received the check and messaged the company. I spoke with the company today and they won't give me my $5,000 even though by their own admission they only sent a single claim rejection notice by regular U.S. mail. I also received an email saying the claim was "processed" but NOT one saying it was rejected. Their site is absolutely horrible and my coworker also had her health FSA card canceled after they claimed her attachment didn't go through, so there's likely a problem with their site receiving attachments. I can appeal but since it's a couple of weeks beyond the appeal period, they say they will reject the appeal. The person I spoke with wouldn't let me speak with anyone higher up and just said "sorry for the inconvenience" of losing $5,000. I've also contacted my employer's HR and am waiting to see if they can help but would greatly appreciate any suggestions. [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone regret buying a home to "grow into"? Posted: 07 Oct 2019 06:43 AM PDT My husband and I (28-30 yo) have been on the verge of buying a house for the last year or so, and considering pulling the trigger. We have no kids, make $185k annually, and thinking of buying a home a little too big so we can grow into it. We'd like to have 2-3 kids, and not move for the next 20+ years, since both our families are in the area. House info: $430k, $11k annual taxes, 4BR, 2800 sqft, 20% down, great credit, car + student loan = $750/mo for next 3ish yrs. Our mortgage/tax/insurance payment I estimate = $2700/mo. We pay rent at $1900/mo, and are putting ~50% of income after tax in savings (retirement and high yield savings) However, I can't kick the feeling that we're buying a house that's too big. It's just the 2 of us right now, so it feels kind of weird to move into this huge home. I've always been frugal and tried to live below my means, so taking this step is outside my comfort zone. We've considered buying a starter home, or moving after having kids (in 1-2 yrs), but I would hate to have to move with more people/possessions or pay selling/closing costs multiple times. I've had trouble getting advice from family and friends, who either can't financial afford a large 4BR home, or have older kids and need the space. I guess I'm just looking for anecdotal advice from anyone (even internet strangers!) who have been in a similar situation. Has anyone here bought a house and regretted it being too big? Anyone regretting buying too small then moving? 18% towards housing doesn't seem absurd, but buying a huge home with no kids (yet) does. Thanks all! [link] [comments]  |
| $500 saw was delivered to me that I did not order Posted: 07 Oct 2019 08:00 PM PDT Hi, so today a UPS truck delivered a miter saw (a very big package btw).. I assumed my boyfriend ordered it so I didn't think much of it. When I talked to him it turns out he did not order it. I called my dad, he also did not send it to me. The slip says it is from home depot and it has my full name / address on it so it wasn't like they delivered it to the wrong house. There are no charges on my credit card and I am just so confused and worried that I'll somehow be forced to pay for it in some way? Does anyone know what this could mean? [link] [comments]  |
| How to open a bank account while hiding it from my parents? Posted: 07 Oct 2019 03:05 PM PDT Hello, I've recently turned 18, and am trying to figure out a way to open a bank account while keeping it a secret from my parents for the time being. The reason I want to keep it a secret is because I don't trust them not to steal my money, as they've made a habit of that in the past. I've been looking into opening an account with an online bank but all of the ones I've looked at automatically send out a debit card to the address you sign up with, and they won't allow me to sign up with a PO box. Any ideas? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Oct 2019 01:23 PM PDT Early Sunday morning I instantly transferred my venmo balance ($138, so $136.62 after fees) to my bank account. Now, I understand that sometimes these transfers are not literally instant, but they say they should not take more than thirty minutes. Now, thirty-six hours after I transferred the money, it is still not in my bank account and is gone from my venmo balance. I went to the bank, they claimed that I did not have any processing or incoming transfers, and could not find anything from venmo on Sunday related to my account. Venmo on the other hand is nearly impossible to reach, their support line was on hold for over an hour yesterday, and they are yet to respond to my email or my support request, however on their site they claim that if an instant transfer isn't showing up it is your bank's fault. Now, $136 is a lot of money, and it is money that I am clearly entitled to. If this trend of the bank blaming venmo and venmo blaming the bank continues, what reasonable and rational steps of escalation should I be looking to take? Any and all help is appreciated, bank is Bank of America. [link] [comments]  |
| Laid off now they want me back Posted: 07 Oct 2019 05:46 PM PDT Last month I got notice that I will get laid off, my last day being mid-Nov. This is due to the closure of our sister branch, which results in my supervisor being relocated back to my branch. Fast-forward a month, the company now wants to rehire me as my supervisor gave his resignation. The GM says I will be filling in the supervisors role, in addition to my current duties with the exact same compensation. I graduated last year and I had been with this company for 1 year and a few months. I believe this is a low-ball offer as I am the only option the company has right now to fill this position without additional training. If I were to take the offer, I believe I may work even longer hours (10+ hours/daily), with no coverage for my holidays. Even though I have been dealt a strong hand, I am not sure of how much I can get. In terms of compensation, my supervisor only makes 25% more than me, and he has been at the company for 10 years. I feel like crap, because the company dragged me over the coals and now wants me to work more while being paid the same. Does this seem reasonable? Need some guidance on how to play my hand correctly. [link] [comments]  |
| How to negotiate between different positions in the same company? Posted: 07 Oct 2019 04:47 PM PDT Hi PF, so I'm in a bit of a dilemma. I lost my job a while ago and I have been quite aggressive in my job search this last month or so. There are only a few major players in my job field and I basically applied to all the positions within those companies which I could potentially be a good fit. I just had an onsite interview today and was given a verbal offer (HR will come back with the official offer within the week), as you can imagine I was pretty estatic the whole day. So this is job A. An hour ago I received a phone call from another manager from that same company, took me a while to realize this was for a different position, let's call this job B. I told him about my informal offer for job A, and he asked if given the choice which would I prefer, having been caught by surprise I gave a pretty noncommittal answer, saying there's appeal to both roles. The thing is, all things being equal, job B is a better match for my existing skills and potentially more fun. But having met the rest of the team for job A I feel a certain level of commitment to it, so jumping to B seems a bit of a betrayal (probably being too dramatic, but hope you get my point). Also I'm asking this on PF, because of course my decision would be heavily influenced by how much they are willing to pay me for each role. I will be working closely with the other team regardless of which I join, so I certainly don't want to pit them against each other. I don't want this to be awkward or leave any bad feelings with either side. Any advice on how I should approach this situation? TL;DR Offered a job for one position (job A), and was just contacted by another manager at that same company to interview for a different job (job B). Prefers job B, but job A is already a sure thing. Unsure if job B will pay more or less. Please advice! Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Oct 2019 01:29 PM PDT |
| Is health insurance a taxable benefit? Posted: 07 Oct 2019 01:49 PM PDT My employer is not large enough to offer health insurance through them. Instead, I have found my own insurance, and my employer writes me a check every month for the cost of my health insurance. Last tax season, I was issued a 1099 for the cost of my health insurance, and I was told the IRS considers the check written to me each month as income. Is this correct? Instead of paying hundreds of dollars of taxes, I asked my boss if the company would just pay the health insurance directly, instead of writing me a check that will be taxed at the end of the year. He thinks that health insurance is a "taxable benefit". Is he correct? Thanks in advance. Any advice is appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| 30-year-old thinking about investing $30k that's sitting in a HYSA. Posted: 07 Oct 2019 12:20 PM PDT I posted here almost a year ago and got some helpful feedback, so I thought I'd try again. To paint a picture of my current financial standing: ~$8,000 in 401K I don't have any debt other than my car loan, which is for 3 more years but it's at 0%, so I'd rather keep making the monthly payments rather than pay it off. My monthly living costs will be going down soon, giving me about an extra $400 a month. I'm thinking about saving that to go towards my Roth contribution for 2020. I want to keep about $15,000 in my HYSA for an emergency fund, but I feel like I should be investing the rest and earn more than the 1.90% that Ally currently offers. I've tried to read about investing, but it gets confusing so I currently have both my 401K and IRA in a Target Date Fund. I won't be buying a house for at least another 5 years and don't think I'll need the $30,000 in the foreseeable future. Should I leave the $30,000 in the HYSA for now until I learn more about investing? Or is there another hands-off account that I can put that money into? Thanks in advance for any feedback! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Oct 2019 08:00 PM PDT I'm sure this has been posted about a bunch before, but want to post a reminder as I was just attempted to be recruited to one of these! I saw right through it once she started actually talking numbers, and was skeptical from the beginning (mostly because I swear to god this girl never broke eye contact with me) but here's the story: I work at a Barnes and Noble and this girl around my age (mid 20s) came up to me asking help finding a book (After researching the scheme, apparently they target places like this! Another guy was approached at a Target) I don't remember how but we got into conversation about wanting to give back to our communities and wishing we had more money to be able to get by and spend more time doing that. The convo went on for a few mins and then ended and that was that. But then later, kid you not, she startled the hell out of me just by standing in an isle that I walked by. I don't know why I was so surprised, it's a store, so people browse... but I was. She then started the convo up again, saying she'll see what she can do, no promises, but she's in this business group where they mentor each other and make enough money on the side to get by, yada yada. Why she wouldn't have mentioned that the first time we talked, I have no idea (perhaps some psychological trick). We exchange numbers, she calls me a few days later (which felt weird; I'm not against calling, but I've never met another person my age that didn't text first if we didn't know each other) and we agree to meet for coffee a few days later. At coffee we chat and she essentially interviews me and I end up telling her my life story basically (honestly don't regret it, it was kinda nice to hear myself say it all out loud 😆) and she says I'm a great fit, but she doesn't want to give me more info yet, I have to read 30 pages of this book that she'll send me a PDF of (I forget the title but you can find it by searching Amway scam lol), and we agree to meet again. God this sounds insane, typing it out haha. Second meeting was tonight. She asked me some more questions, and then finally I get to see what this secret business is all about. What do you know, Amway! Graphs of literal pyramids! $218 start up fee! Having to buy all of your household products through the company! Making $9 commission from $300 sales (which she said was amazing and I had to stiffen a laugh)! More talk about how exclusive it is! How she's had such great mentors through this! I can soon get $3,000 a month, even though that math doesn't add up! Immediately after the meeting I called my best friend and told him everything and we had a laugh. I googled the scheme and found boat loads of similar stories. Out of curiosity I texted her a link to a video about the scam, and she sent me a block of text that sounded like a Scientologist explanation ("Don't believe any negativity! Everyone else is wrong, we're right!") Thought I'd share the story in case anyone got or gets tricked into this. She was good. Thought for a hot sec I might have made a new friend, a group of like minded business folk, and some extra cash. Of course though, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. One good thing that came out of it was that now I'm more motivated to find a real group like this in my city. TL;DR young, enthusiastic girl started a convo with me at a Barnes & Noble, talked about some exclusive business mentor ship group that made good money on the side, interviewed me & told me to read a book... annnnd it is a scheme. Beware, folks! The schemers are relentless and at a store near you! [link] [comments]  |
| Someone just purchased a lot of games on my PS4 and locked me out of my account. Posted: 07 Oct 2019 08:01 AM PDT Woke up this morning with several emails from playstation saying I purchased a bunch of games. I have my paypal linked and I tried contacting them, but they said they can't do anything because of the merchant agreement with playstation. My paypal is linked to my bank account and they can't do anything since nothing has shown up on my account and the PS4 support line is currently not open. What should I do? [link] [comments]  |
| I need a car but I also need to be smart about this Posted: 07 Oct 2019 07:55 PM PDT My dad "gave" me a truck he bought last year, flash forward to today I no longer have the truck because I mad my dad, he said that he's going to sell it, it is in his name after all. So since that happened I realized I need a car in my name (can't sell what isn't yours) but the problem is I'm a college student and I have a part time job. So here's where I'm at. My annual gross income is $11,700, I live with my parents so I have no bills to pay for, and I have no credit history. The plan is that if possible get a loan of $5,000 or less and get a reliable car that is easy to fix. I really don't want to get a loan but now as a family we have one car not ideal for a house with 4 adults (and one soon to be adult), that each has a job and/or school to go to. Earlier today I went to my credit union ask for a loan of $5,000 I was denied because income to debit ratio. I wasn't expecting to get approved, I just wanted to see what would happen if I tried. I did mild research into income to debt ratio, read up on it and calculated what I requested and yeah 43% is high, I read that 36% is acceptable, so I slapped that into my calculator and got $4212, shave a bit of money off to $4,000 which would give me a ratio of 34%, not bad I think I could give that a try next time I go to my credit union. I believe I can get a decent car for $4,000, probably, I can hope. But I'm just some inexperience dingus, before I make a possibly horrible decision I'd like to ask for opinions from you guys. [link] [comments]  |
| I just got reminded to double-check my deductibles. Don't get overcharged. Posted: 07 Oct 2019 12:03 PM PDT So this is just a PSA and a good thing to look into that I had not realized before today. A family member of mine paid deductible for insurance twice within a a few weeks. He did not realize that his deductible had already been met and so se paid it without questioning it. I was reviewing his records and noticed that he had already met his deductible earlier in the year. The second provider who charged for the deductible did not refund the money, they just took full payment from the insurance company. No effort was to refund the money on their part that know of. I wonder how often this happens. it was a time sink to get it resolved also. Long story short: keep track of when you have met your deductible and tell you loves ones to do it too. You might get double charged for it. [link] [comments]  |
| $800 randomly taken from savings in 1 month Posted: 07 Oct 2019 07:34 PM PDT I thought my savings account was looking low so I checked it around 30 minutes ago to find several (10-15) withdrawals/transfers, totaling to around $792.10 . I am a young college student and have no idea what it is or what I can do about it. The withdrawals each say:
with the same ID but a different trace number. I plan to call the credit union first thing in the morning, but I'm still super shaken. What other steps should I take? Will I be able to recoup my money? Does anybody know what the heck this even is? Thanks in advance, A freaked out college kid [link] [comments]  |
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