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    Personal Finance Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of October 14, 2019

    Personal Finance Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of October 14, 2019


    Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of October 14, 2019

    Posted: 14 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:

    1. Please make a top-level comment if you want to ask a question! Also, please don't downvote "moronic" questions! If you have not received your answer within 24 hours, please feel free to start a discussion.

    2. Make a top-level comment if you want to share something positive regarding your personal finances!

    A big thank you to the many PFers who take time to answer other people's questions!

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    Should I sell my first home with a $130-150k profit? Then rent or buy another home?

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 05:15 AM PDT

    I grew up really poor and moved around a lot. My SO also moved around a ton growing up. At one point he moved seven times in one year. When we got together and became a little more financially stable, we bought a house four years ago and we both finally felt like we had a home. The market and the area we live in is booming like crazy so we've been considering selling. 3-4 of our friends have already sold and pocked over 100k. One bought a bigger home, and the others are renting, and waiting for the market to go down. It is an option to have this be our forever home, but the prospect of a lump sum of cash is tempting.

    Should we sell our home and pay off our debts we've incurred, then rent or buy? SO is the only one working right now. I go to school and have about $60k saved up, but have credit card debt and student loans. SO has a lot of cc debt. He wants to rent and wait til the market levels off, but I want to pay down half our debt, put some money towards our wedding, then put down for a slightly bigger brand new home, while still saving a small portion to invest in index funds. We do currently rent out our rooms, and would continue to rent out a room or two in our new home to help pay down principle/create a lovely backyard. We did this with our first home to furnish our entire place within the year. What are your thoughts?

    Edit: Just woke up and trying to read through the comments, which I appreciate everyone's input. Just for clarification:

    I only have $8 grand in cc debt (zero percent interest from a balance transfer). The rest is $27k in student loans I incurred when I lost my fafsa because I started making money. $11k of it was when I was an 18 year old idiot and used the money unwisely, but stopped going to school when I was 20 to work and buy my current home. 15k I would like to pay ASAP, because it's unsubsidized loans ranging from 3-5%, but I still get a better return in the stock market, but I don't wanna pull out money to pay that down. I own my home with my SO so he would get a portion of the profits to pay down his debts as he sees fit.

    The reason i haven't entirely paid down my debt is because I'm currently laid off and I think cash is king. I can pay my mortgage, which is priority number 1 with cash, but everything else can be bought with a credit card. I will be working in a couple months forsure. My job can usually net between $50-80k if I work full time, but I haven't been offered a full time position in two years. All in total, my bills are only $950-1050/month. My car has been paid off for two and a half years and I bought he brand new when I was 18, I'll ride that bitch til It dies. Anything I make more than that pays debt. I use my credit card for travel points so there's always a rotating balance, but I do want a significant portion paid down.

    Once I start working full time again, I plan on crushing down my credit card debt and student loans within the year, especially if we don't sell the house for a profit. Unfortunately my ccs have been carrying me, but I didn't ask to be laid off. And as I've stated, you can delay paying off cc complete, but your mortgage needs to be paid with cash. We pay all our bills on time.

    My SO struggled with addiction and racked up ccs without my knowledge. He's been clean for 2 and a half years and I'm trying to help him dig himself out the hole. He makes anywhere from 40-55k. I handle all the money and try to make 2-3k in payments each month depending on how much he makes.

    12k is in 401k 47k is in index funds/Roth ira

    I rotate with about $3-5k in cash at all times because I don't want to touch my investments. To clarify, I'm not waiting for the STOCK market to go down, I'm considering waiting for the housing market to level off. I don't live in California, so it's not entirely unlikely, but like others have stated, it's also all speculation. The other option is to sell my current house and buy 5-7 min away from where I currently live to a "cheaper" area but the house is still $350k. And it would be closer to work. We bought our house for $220k brand new from the ground up and still owe $200k. We would net about $130k. Our new house would also be a brand new build.

    We have considered refinancing and taking out a HELOC, but a lump some of cash is just as enticing. It would prolly shave off $2-300 off of our mortgage which is $1550.

    Soooo if we sold I can just pay off the 8k in cc and 15k in student loans, rent in a cheaper area or put down on our forever home.

    Long term: -Finish school. -Destination wedding (I know people have strong opinions, but as we get older this may be the last time our friends and family can get together before life takes up all the time). Plus traveling is very important to us. -stay in current home or buy our next forever home -keep funding my index funds

    Thanks for all the comments and insights! Going to watch joker right now, but will continue reading the comments when I get a chance.

    Thanks for the my first gold!!

    submitted by /u/yoshismaster
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    Are my parents getting scammed on their "529" account?

    Posted: 13 Oct 2019 08:44 PM PDT

    My parents believe they are contributing to a 529 account for my two children, but a number of things seem... off... to me about the details they share.

    • They claim that they have a "joint" 529 for both of my kids, but as far as I know 529's can only have one beneficiary
    • Mom sent a pdf letter from her financial advisor which claims to be a confirmation of a recent deposit from Bright Directions (529), but it looks shady as hell to me:
      • The beneficiary shown listed is "Amaurer3210's Grandchildren" which is weird because a) I dont have grandchildren yet and b) surely you can't open a 529 with such nebulous beneficiaries??
      • "Union Sank & Trust" is misspelled
      • It's signed merely by "John P"
      • The footer looks like an idiot designed it
      • Screenshot available here: https://imgur.com/a/4JqV9Fz
    • I interrogated Mom about how she opened this 529 and, in short, she said she asked her financial advisor to do it for her. She said she gets "confirmations" like this from time to time from her advisor, but when she tried to go to BrightDirections website directly and view her account shes couldn't because of a "computer issue" (she did call Bright Horizons for help and she insists that they tried to scam her by asking her for personal information etc).

    So my concern is that her financial advisor, who controls ALL of her money and account, is scamming her across the board. But this 529 is really the only thing that seems fishy, and I will admit that I don't know anything about how advisor-managed 529's work.

    What say you?

    submitted by /u/amaurer3210
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    Any advice for a working teenager?

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 03:26 PM PDT

    Hey, I'm a teenager (16f) and I work as a cashier making $10/hour i've been doing so for 2 years now. Right now I have $4,000 saved up and am paying the family phone bill while also lending money to my parents and brother when necessary. (Dad makes less than $20/hour, mom is disabled, we get no help from the government). I'm not super worried about money right now, but does anyone have tips for me now or in the future?

    submitted by /u/issanoemi
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    I'm donating my eggs and receiving $8K. How do I report it to the IRS?

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 03:50 PM PDT

    I can only find form 8300 but it's for $10K+.

    submitted by /u/tayryanw
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    I chose to leave a FT role and contract for the same company. Now they want me back because I'm too expensive as a contractor.

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:23 PM PDT

    I need some advice on an employment-related situation I am in:

    - I've run a successful service-based online marketing business in California since 2009. I'm a sole proprietor. I work about 20-30 hours/week on it.

    - Back in 2017, one of my clients began trying to get me to come on full time with them. They make software for my industry, had about 20 employees, huge brand clients, and had no competition. In short, a successful company with a great future.

    - At the time I suddenly had some new health-related needs arise. I decided to accept my client's full time offer. Conditions were that I would still be able to run my business, all work was remote, benefits, etc. We negotiated a salary that met these conditions that was lower than a 40-hour/week salary, but still very competitive. Basically, I wanted the benefits and I was one of only a handful of folks that knew the software and the details surrounding how to apply it to large clients.

    - By late 2018 this software company I worked at FT had grown (as expected), but I had signed the biggest client of my life with my own business. The hours and stress got out of hand.

    - In early 2019 I worked out an agreement where I would leave my full time role and go back to contracting with the company at an hourly rate for 20 hours/week max.

    - Fast forward to the present and the software company has had difficulties this year and had to let some people go. The owner (who I report to directly) has flat out told me I'm too expensive as a contractor alone. 80 hours/month contracting = my previous annual salary. He has asked what it would take for me to come back in a full time capacity or how i can simply help more so he can continue trying to do sales rather than doing more hands-on work. He offered the following options and wants to discuss:

    1. Come back on full time, at a higher salary, benefits, etc.
    2. Figure out a way where I could still contract with him, but also leverage my own contractors to take on more work for the cost. This would take time to get contractors trained up and would require that I still be the point of contact.
    3. Lower my hourly rate.
    4. He is open to any other ideas.

    It's a great company, great owner, I get great testimonials and connections, and I want to keep working with them. However, I don't see any viable scenario where I don't either work more hours or lose money due to new overhead paying contractors.

    Is it worth making less profit (due to increase in overhead with contractors) just to keep the business, or better to not work with them at all anymore?

    Do I negotiate a part time agreement to give them more than 20 hours/week?

    Do I simply lower my hourly rate to those of other contractors he uses for similar work?

    I realize I'm asking and somewhat answering my questions, but I wanted to see if anyone has been in a similar scenario and has any advice on what they did.

    Thank You!

    submitted by /u/clarklitman
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    Live check was sent to my old residence. How can I get the check deposited into my account from 3,000 miles away?

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 03:46 AM PDT

    A check from my old employer was sent to my old residence. I have moved across the planet so I won't be able to pick it up to cash it.

    Can my old roommate go to my bank and deposit it into my account for me?

    How can I deposit this check without having physical access to it?

    Edit: By 3000 miles away I meant out of the country.

    submitted by /u/CaptnPilot
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    Credit card debt ballooned in the last year, and I don’t know how to fix it. Help me!!!

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:27 PM PDT

    So I've had my Amex since 2015 and for 3.5 years, I never had a balance. Since July 2018, I've raked up $7500 in debt. About $5k of this is due to dental issues (I've had 2 full crowns & 3 partials crowns done and had to get a nightguard for grinding/to protect the expensive work that was done.) Not to delve too deep into that, but at the time I thought I was going to be reimbursed, otherwise I never would have put it on my card. Didn't work out. I also had to put a $800 flight on my card that July for a family funeral. Additionally started paying for my own car insurance in July 2018 which I put on my credit card.

    I'm caught in a cycle of 'make a $750 payment the day I get paid!!!! That Amex number is going down, baby! I'm thriving! Credit card debt who??? But ohhhh noo wait it's 10 days later and I have $11 in my checking account and I don't get paid for another 4 days so I guess I have to put groceries and gas and my car insurance payment on my Amex' and repeat.

    I'm starting to feel like I'll never dig myself out of this hole, and it's kind of killing me. But it's not going to solve itself!

    Some fast facts money facts to give you the bigger picture:

    1. Make about $2400/month after taxes. (My company should make me salaried by the end of the year which would be a life changing increase, about $18k BUT it depends on a lot of external factors so it's not guaranteed)
    2. Amex rate is currently at 10%. I'm on a reduced rate promotion that expires in December. Will increase to 20%. Which is a BIG yikes.
    3. Rent: $800
    4. Car insurance & gas: $180. Car is paid off, but not doing well. I need to take it to the mechanic but have avoided it.
    5. Student loans: $260/month. $21k of federal loans - most between 3% and 4% but there's one $900 fucker that's at 6.5%. $6k of Perkins loans - 5%.
    6. Misc recurring subscriptions (Hulu, Apple Music, etc): $60/month
    7. Utilities: $50/month
    8. Live in a major SoCal city. High cost of living.
    9. Savings: absolutely zero. Big ol' goose egg. Zilch! Nada! I don't even have a savings account.
    10. I'm 25. I've never missed a loan or CC payment, and I have always paid above the minimum. I have a good credit score.

    So here's what I've done/plan on doing so far:

    1. This may seem obvious but STOP USING AMEX. No more using my whole paycheck on my monthly paycheck only to then have to use my Amex cause I'm broke. Stop adding to my debt.
    2. Moved all recurring charges to my debit card - insurance, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Apple Music. All on my debit card. Removed credit card from Uber/Postmates.
    3. I reduced my student loan payments. Was on 10 year plan, applied for income based repayment plan. It decreased by ~$100/month. I'm sad because I was really proud of the progress I had made on paying them off but clearly the CC debt is the priority right now.

    My two big questions for you smart people:

    1. Do I transfer my balance? Because I have a decent credit score, I get zero interest offers all the time. The 20% Amex rate coming in December scares the hell out of me. Opening another card seems like a bad solution and definitely leaves me open to falling into the same traps but could it be worth it? I might be able to ask a relative for an interest free loan but it's a big ask. I also figure if I call Amex in December maybe they can extend my promotion/help me out with the rate.

    2. How on earth do you save money when you're in debt? I'm aware that my big problem has been that I've treated my credit card like an emergency fund. But trying to save anything seems SO impossible when I'm falling deeper and deeper in debt.

    So there it is. Thank you all in advance & plz be kind, I've beaten myself up about this a lot in the last year.

    submitted by /u/badteeth908
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    Citi didn't close my bank account due to interest added after I requested the account to be closed

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:54 AM PDT

    Yesterday, after coming back from a longer trip back home I found a bank statement in my mail from Citi notifying me that my savings account is $58.99 in red. I immediately remembered it was an account I closed back in the beginning of August, so I tried to log in to the online account to chat with the agent.

    So, basically what happened is that on August 6th I had $2.86 in the account which I had to transfer out to close it, which I did. Then I contacted them again to close the account and they assured me they would. Then in the account activity I see that on August 28th $0.01 of interest was added to the account making my balance greater than $0, which apparently prevented them to close the account, but they never notified me of it. Then in September they charged me the monthly service fee of $25 which led to my account being overdrawn and incurring an additional $34 in overdraft fees. I'm assuming that if I hadn't caught this in time, or changed address, those would keep piling on and eventually sent for collections.

    Luckily the Citi agent was nice and they waived both fees and will be sending me a check for the $0.01 and close the account. This time for good, I hope. Posting this just as a notice to everyone to double and triple-check when closing bank accounts.

    submitted by /u/tyr--
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    Am I spending too much on rent?

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 07:36 PM PDT

    Hi,

    I just graduated and make 55k after tax/401k/insurance in Chicago and wanted to live close to work. Spend about 1650/month rent + utilities so I can walk to work. No debt. No car or dependents. 40k in stocks. Is this too much on rent? I don't plan on or want any big purchases.

    submitted by /u/pfadvice11111111
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    Tax debt and future education

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:07 PM PDT

    Throwaway. This is hard for me- I'm completely embarrassed/ashamed, I had financial security one year ago. To start off, I'm bipolar type II, have had major spending problems during episodes. I'm finally stabilised. I'm not looking for judgement, just advice.

    Last year the company I worked for since it's humble beginnings, let's call it company X, laid off 90% of the staff, including me. They had given me stock, but it hadn't vested yet. I was being paid without taxes being taken out of my paycheck because of that, and I had put aside what I thought was the right amount for taxes. I got picked up by another company, company Y, and was paid as a contractor.
    Tax season comes and I didn't have a form from company X. They told me they were undergoing an audit. I estimated what I owed for company Y's income, paid it, and filed for an extension. Around the same time I racked up a huge medical bill related to mental health during a lapse in health care and it wiped out most of my savings. Company Y hired me, I got health insurance, and immediately got into an accident that cost me my entire max out of pocket.

    Now it's fall and I finally get company X's form, a K1. And it turns out I massively miscalculated how much I owed, and I spent a lot on health care. I owe $20,000. I still owe $5000 in medical bills, paying off on a plan. I applied for an IRS payment plan and am waiting to hear back. I also have car payments for two more years.

    I've cut my spending drastically, back to eating beans and rice and shopping at the dollar store and am starting to take side jobs. I accept my debt, and have a staff job now so it won't happen again. I know it'll take years. But I really wanted to apply to grad school this year- to a program that pays for you as well as a stipend for room and board. By then I'll have the medical debt paid off, and I can sell or downgrade the car if I get in. But I know that stipend won't have any room for payments to the IRS every month.

    Have I completely ruined my future? Is there any way to put a payment on hold for two years? I'd be willing to apply for bankruptcy but I know that doesn't cover tax debt.

    Thanks. At rock bottom here.

    submitted by /u/fakemydeathandrun
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    Advice on taking pay cut of 24 to 20 hourly for shorter commute?

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:04 PM PDT

    Seeking any kind of advice since I've been wrestling with this decision. Graduated this year in accounting, took a job in the private industry that was $24 hourly. However, the commute has been making me miserable and extremely exhausted - about an hour in the morning, 1-1.5 back home. I leave at 6 and don't get home until 5:30-6:00. I usually crash 2-3 hours after I get home.

    I found another job that's 20 minutes away, but pays $20. However, the position does align more with my career goals with giving me a ton more exposure to financial statements and actual staff accountant responsibilities (rather than just A/P and A/R).

    In terms of financial responsibilities, I have $1,000 rent and $435 in monthly car payments. My brother just thinks I'm crazy for considering any pay cut. I feel like the savings in gas and mental exhaustion would be worth it to me, but I'm not sure if I'm being totally rational about this and if I should consider other stuff.

    submitted by /u/babymonster19
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    Should I have a specific amount of money in my savings by my 30th birthday or is it subjective based off of my lifestyle?

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 03:57 PM PDT

    EDIT: thanks for all the good info, everyone, I'm learning a lot. I'm currently 26 with maybe only 75% of my annual earnings in my savings but I don't have any debts or loans I owe money on, so I'm not sure if that makes any difference?

    submitted by /u/Frozenteacher
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    Traditional 401k or Roth 401k

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 06:46 PM PDT

    My employer offers a traditional 401k or a roth 401k. I am currently 28 years old married and file jointly. Together we make $185,000 before taxes. Is it smarter to contribute to a roth 401k or traditional 401k? I am an associate dentist and plan on my income increasing significantly in the next 3 years. Also, I am in Tennessee where there is no state income tax. Thanks in advance

    submitted by /u/schneider1391
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    How can I go to college while supporting myself?

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 05:08 PM PDT

    Hey, guys. I'm a 21 year old guy that's currently working construction and I want to get out of this shit. The work isn't that bad now, but I don't think my body can hold up with this for another 25 years. I want to go to college for IT or Accounting, but I'm struggling to see a realistic path for me.

    Right now, I'm bringing in $1600/mo. and my monthly expenses come out to around $1000/mo. These include:

    Rent - $600/mo.

    Car insurance - $150/mo.

    Food & groceries - ~$200/mo.

    Gym membership - $30/mo.

    I have $8K saved up in my checking account, and I saved all this up before I moved out of my parents' house earlier this year. Moving back into my parents house is not an option. I have a weird relationship with my parents and I'm too prideful to ask for any help. I want to be as independent as possible.

    Anyways, if I went back to school, I won't be able to keep my job, and that most likely means I'd be looking at a paycut too. I could probably get a job at a used car dealership as an inventory guy, and I'd be starting at around $10.50/hr.

    I'm fine with going to community college for the first two years. Would it be logical for me to set aside the money I have saved up for my first two years at CC and take out loans to finish up at uni? I just need someone to point me in the right direction.

    submitted by /u/PoItergeist
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    Tomorrow, October 15th, is the last day to amend your Equifax claim in order to get the cash payout or credit monitoring.

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 07:27 AM PDT

    You need the claim number in the email they sent you along with the name of your credit monitoring service to prove you had it. The email should link you to https://secure.equifaxbreachsettlement.com/en/amendclaim

    submitted by /u/Jeffrey7s
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    A question about doing side work for beer money.

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:36 PM PDT

    I have a full time job and I make about 35k before taxes.

    On the side I do freelance artwork for spare change; maybe like $200-$400 a month max.

    Do I need to pay taxes on the extra? I know this is a dumb question- I usually get paid by PayPal and I don't officially have a business. It's just for beer money.

    submitted by /u/KarTails
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    Saving for Law School

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:34 PM PDT

    What is a good way to save/invest for law school. Currently an undergrad sophomore. Undergrad is all taken care of financially. Have about $6000 in a savings account but want it to grow (safely) for law school. Hope to save about 6K-10K/yr during undergrad. If for some reason I don't go, I don't want it all tied up so I can reinvest for long term.

    submitted by /u/fututioscriptor
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    In a pickle with costly car repairs

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 07:20 PM PDT

    Hey r/personalfinance,

    Recently I've been hit with a costly auto repair. Car (2012 Volkswagen) is currently sitting at the shop and I got the call today with the quote.
    In short, it's the timing belt and spark plugs. They're looking for ~$2,000.

    Obviously I don't have that kind of money otherwise I wouldn't be posting here for advice. I know I should have emergency funds, but I don't due to car repairs earlier this year sucking it up.

    I'm leaning towards a personal loan from my credit union that I bank with, but I'm not confident that they'll approve a personal loan for that much. I have credit card debt from previous financial situations that I've been working towards paying off on my record. I do have a previous loan under my belt that I paid off relatively quickly when I was younger, so I'm hoping that'll carry some weight (but that was with a previous financial institution if that matters).

    What do you guys recommend? Has anyone else been in a similar situation and knows the best course of action?

    Any and all advice is much appreciated. Me and my fiancé rely on this car to get to and from work, among other things.

    submitted by /u/Ventem
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    Moving out at 19, help please.

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:31 PM PDT

    I posted here a while back about my interest in moving out next summer and not having the help of my parents, but didn't really have the numbers laid out. So, I am a full time student at a California college, I am 19 years old, and my calculated estimated costs annually of tuition, rent, personal finances (excluding insurance and phone bill) is about $25,000 if I were to move out starting next summer. With insurance and a few other things I'm sure it would be a couple more thousand. Let's say $27,500 (correct me if I'm wrong).

    Now, I am a sophomore living with my parents, so my current loan limit is $6,500. However, I'm living with my parents saving up a bit until summer, so this year will be paid off by them. So after next summer when school starts again, I will be a junior and my loan limit will be $7,500. So, going back to the $27,500, I can shave that off with the loan making it $20,000 flat. I am not sure if this will be affected once I move out, however. Since I am no longer going to be living "With Parents" on the fafsa, and will be providing for myself, will I get more aid? I know I will still be listed as a dependent since I am 19 years old, but will I get any more student loans due to me living by myself without my parents help?

    So, I plan on working a full-time job all of next summer, 40 hours a week if I can. And then when school starts I'll have to work around 30 hours, as I am a premed student so I will be taking a significant amount of units each quarter. This approximately comes out to $17,500 after taxes based on my calculation.

    Therefore I'm dealing with a cost of $20,000 after the max amount of stafford loan help, vs the $17,500 after taxes. (Approximately). Just to be clear, I am planning on renting a room for around $500 (shared living space with others), getting cheap phone bill, etc. These numbers are not overly expensive, this is almost the bare minimum.

    What can I do in this situation to make up the rest? I do have $1,600 in my account right now. I am buying and selling stuff as a side hustle and I can make a couple thousand off of that through the year, and I will have a job soon to save up until summer comes. How is it looking for me? And if it is not looking good, what can I do about it to have a safe plan to move out and be independent?

    Again, please correct anything I have written wrong/unrealistic expectations I have. I am not very informed when it comes to all of this, I haven't been delving in this whole topic and plan for too long.

    submitted by /u/Almuharib
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    Bank refusing to return money stolen by convicted fraudsters

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 07:07 PM PDT

    At the beginning of this year, I had a break-in, in which my ID and checkbook were stolen. I immediately contacted my bank (Bank of America) to put a freeze on the account, and then opened a new account and put all of the money into it. The following day, money started disappearing from the new account. I went straight to the bank and removed all of my remaining money, but money continued disappearing while I was at the bank, the people involved making off with about $3000 by using my ID and going through the drive-through. I took the rest of my money to a different bank, and put in a claim for the stolen funds.

    Bank of America didn't get back to me on my claim until 4-5 months later, at which point they returned some of the money, minus $1000. (At this point, I'd also had issues with bill pay bouncing checks off of all the institutions I had bills set up for, even though my account was both frozen and empty, and then had to deal with bounced-check fees from those merchants.) With the help of a local branch employee, we eventually figured out that the $1000 was a check that the fraudsters had bounced off of my account around the same time all of the other things were going on. (They'd written a check on the account of someone else whose ID and checks had been stolen.) I hadn't been aware of this check, because it hadn't posted to my account until several days after I'd removed all my money from it, and so I hadn't actually lost any money from this at the time. So, I put in a new claim for the remaining $1000.

    Several more months pass, then Bank of America gets back to me with a form letter denying my claim because I was supposed to report the fraud within 60 days of its occurrence and hadn't done so. I have an appointment at the local branch again tomorrow to try to resolve this - though all the local branch people do is put in claims with a department elsewhere.

    In the meanwhile, the fraudsters wound up getting arrested and pleading to some lesser charges with respect to ID thefts against a dozen or so people. The police weren't ever terribly communicative with me and I don't know the details of who did what or what type of evidence they have in my specific case. I assume the fraudsters have been spending their ill-gotten gains and wouldn't actually ever pay a judgment against them, if I could even prove which one was responsible for the bounced check.

    I am feeling at the end of my rope here. So, Reddit, any advice on this situation? Am I out $1000 because I didn't report the bounced check within 60 days even though I had reported that fraud was occurring on the account and had frozen and emptied the account before the check ever posted? Shouldn't Bank of America have notified me that this activity occurred when my account was frozen and fraud had been reported? What is the best way to go about getting my money back? I've already had to miss a not-insignificant amount of work time meeting with folks at the local bank branch and the better part of a year has passed since the break-in, so I'm more than ready for all of this to finally be over.

    submitted by /u/Merle8888
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    Secure Yourself

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 09:07 PM PDT

    If you haven't done it already create accounts at Equifax, Experian and Transunion. Experian won't give free credit locks but will freeze your credit easily here.

    Don't know the difference between a credit freeze or lock, you can google it but basically a freeze gives you legal protections and a lock is faster and easier.

    Also while your at it create accounts at the Social Security Administration and IRS. It would be so easy for someone else to make it for you with very little information.

    submitted by /u/the_second_potato
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    $300 charge on my debit card for Spectrum cable?!

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 12:20 AM PDT

    I hope this is the right place for this type of question! I was looking over my bank statement last Wednesday and saw I was charged $300 by Spectrum. Never heard of Spectrum before and apparently it's some sort of cable provider. I've never had cable TV and my landlord handles the wifi for my place.

    I am so bewildered to see this since this has never happened to me. I'm tried my best to remember if I accidentally downloaded any apps on my TV, but my Fire Stick is linked to my credit card, not debit. I went to the Spectrum site to see if I had an account, but there's nothing associated with my number. I only have 1 phone number so someone must be using my card to pay for their own cable.

    I called my bank right away to dispute the charge made on my debit card. They filed a claim, cancelled my debit, and are sending me a new card.

    Should I contact Spectrum about this? I thought you needed to have a social security number in order to get cable services. Does the name on the SSN have to match their form of payment? That's what is really concerning me! I know my bank will handle the claim, but what if this person used my identity and debit card to get an account with Spectrum? I wish there was a way to check to see if my SSN is associated with any account.

    I'm also confused on how this happened. I haven't been using my debit card that much lately. I usually pay with my credit card or Apple Pay. This is a pretty scary situation and would appreciate any advice possible! Thank you.

    submitted by /u/Lil_pupusa
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    "Serious delinquency" cited when applying for credit but nowhere to be seen on my report?

    Posted: 14 Oct 2019 08:10 AM PDT

    As the title says.

    Any time I apply for credit of any sort, I will see "serious delinquency" listed as a reason either for being denied or for getting a worse rate/lower limit.

    Thing is, there isn't any such thing on the credit reports I'm able to see. I go and pull my info on annualcreditreport.com and...it's not there. Similarly, I can't find it anywhere on CreditKarma. Yet every creditor seems to think something is there.

    I know of one time I did default on a student loan, but it was more than 7 years ago. I check every year, and sure enough the 7 year mark is when it stopped appearing on my credit report that it had defaulted.

    I guess that's probably it, but how could I be sure, and how could I make sure that potential creditors no longer base a decision on such an old item that I can't even see anymore?

    edit: Should clarify, I did try taking this up with a creditor. American Express, for example, says that they see it on my Experian report, and if I want to see what they see I can...got to annualcreditreport.com. Cool, but I did, and nothing is delinquent on there.

    submitted by /u/buttcrack
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