Personal Finance 30-Day Challenge #2: Check your percentages! (February, 2020) |
- 30-Day Challenge #2: Check your percentages! (February, 2020)
- Someone broke into my car and took... nothing
- Why does Venmo want to let everyone in your contact list know who you are paying ?
- Windfall at age 22
- Using Turbo Tax for filing
- Boss died. But now...
- My dad died last month and I sorta became an investor over night... DIY or financial adviser and other big questions...
- Former employer is asking for my social security number to keep on file. Is this right?
- Employer massively under-withheld federal income taxes
- My friend is living in a house without water (and sometimes food). We're both too young for jobs: how can I help her when her parents won't?
- Can someone give me an example situation of when my tax bracket in retirement would be higher than now?
- A friend is being manipulated to spend thousants into "get rich quick" seminars
- Car just failed catastrophically
- Our tax return was denied due to my wife's ex
- Filing taxes as married for the first time!
- Low ER and gains or diversity for late 20s?
- Missed my open enrollment date for my company’s SIMPLE IRA- what now?
- Question regarding low involvement investing in IRA.
- Need a second opinion on downpayment advice
- Does anyone have experience with Varo Saving Account?
- How to be responsible with a substantial increase in income?
- 25YO lurker curious about next financial steps
- Credit Karma Tax - Invalid zip code
- Credit bump from the 10-year limit drop of student loans in the process of rehabilitating them, should I continue?
- Best 401k allocation for 22 year old?
| 30-Day Challenge #2: Check your percentages! (February, 2020) Posted: 01 Feb 2020 05:07 AM PST
30-day challengesWe are pleased to continue our 30-day challenge series. Past challenges can be found here. This month's 30-day challenge is to Check your percentages! There are two different challenges this month depending on your position in the "How to handle $" list of steps.
First challengeYour challenge is to pursue improving your interest rates. You've successfully completed this challenge once you've done 2 or more of the following things:
Second challengeYour challenge is to audit your investment expenses and emergency fund. You've successfully completed this challenge once you've done 3 or more of the following things:
The idea here is that you might uncover some expenses you didn't know you were paying, which in turn might give you a reason to make a change for the better. The impact of costs on investments can be depressing. If you find a clean slate, sleep well knowing that your money is working for you first and your investment company second. Another way to sleep well is to ensure you have enough set aside for emergencies. You may have set up your emergency fund goal and met it a number of years ago and perhaps times have changed for you. It's a great time to ensure you have an appropriate amount set aside for your expenses and risk tolerance. More information on investment expenses:
Challenge success criteriaYou've successfully completed this challenge once you've done 2 or more of the items from either the first or second challenge. You may substitute an item from the extra credit if you run out of items that apply to your financial situation. Extra credit
[link] [comments]  |
| Someone broke into my car and took... nothing Posted: 01 Feb 2020 10:19 AM PST So I went out to my car this morning to grab a bottle of medicine I left in the car from the night before. I find the driver's side door slightly ajar. Inside the car, my glove compartment and center console open and the contents strewn across the front two seats. I had a duffel in the back and its contents (two blankets and a pillow) we over the back seat. But they didn't take anything. They didn't take the $200 sunglasses in the center console. Nor the bottle of medicine (it was a dietary supplement for my gf but you couldn't tell that). They didn't take the registration or insurance paperwork. Anything I need to be on the look out for? I assume the thief was looking for something specific? [link] [comments]  |
| Why does Venmo want to let everyone in your contact list know who you are paying ? Posted: 01 Feb 2020 11:57 AM PST I am mystified as to what the purpose of this is ? I have a ton of people on my contact list - some of which are competitors of each other. I uninstalled it promptly since it its default posture was on of share all versus share nothing.. But I can't imagine why anyone would want others to know their money business ... If you are a venmo user care to share your opinion ? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Feb 2020 04:08 PM PST My family received a huge settlement after a loss in the family and a week from now I will be getting $2,100,000. I've been informed that in our case I won't need to pay taxes for it. I'm 22 years old and I'm living with my girlfriend of a year. She knows about the money but nobody else does. I'm not concerned that she's only in the relationship for the money. She moved in with me while I was sleeping on an air mattress and I was broke as shit. We both work minimum-wage jobs so already we mostly cook at home/don't eat out much. We're both pretty happy living a frugal lifestyle. She helped through a lot including chores, helping me pay rent, and is just an all-around amazing person. She also brought up that we should sign a prenup if we ever get married. I love her so much and we both trust each other. I make about $18,000 a year working a part-time minimum-wage job. I don't have any savings, only $150 in my bank account. I have $900 in credit card debt but other than that no student loan debt or any other debts. My car is paid off but it is a junker and I'm concerned it will break down on me soon. My rent is $675/month plus ~$60 in utilities and my lease ends in September. We plan on moving to a different city with better job opportunities once our lease ends. It's all a little overwhelming but I've had a couple months to let it sink in. I don't plan on using any of it for a while, I know that when most people get a large sum of money they will lose it within 3-5 years and I don't want that to happen to me. My plan is to just live my life like normal and keep working my job and living in my apartment until my lease is up. Me and my girlfriend want to take some classes over the summer. I want to take some financing classes and she wants to pursue a career as a teacher. I've read online that I maybe should talk to lawyers (in case I do have to pay taxes) and fee-only personal financers (set up a plan for my portfolio) to figure out what to do. I also have a connection to a family personal financer I plan on talking to this week. I have an idea of eventually putting most of the money into index funds and bonds and living a little bit off of that income but mostly let it grow. For this year I plan on dumping the money into high-yielding bank accounts and CDs while I figure out what I want to do with my life. Part of me does want to withdraw 1% of the money to put down for a new car, go on a week-long vacation, and for some breathing room. On the other hand I realize it's going to be tempting to use a lot the money without concern and that's a slippery slope to losing it all. I'm looking for any advice, I'm clearly unexperienced when it comes to wealth but I'm willing to learn anything and change my plans to insure that I don't lose it all before I'm 30. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Feb 2020 08:51 AM PST Me and my wife are W2 employees, and get 1098 for our mortgage. Most of our assets are in retirement and we are not taking any contributios or borrowing against it. We have two kids in College and are paying for them, no student loans. We get few more forms for health care and savings accounts. HandR was doing our returns for years, and their fee was $650!!! Then two years ago I was reccomended a CPA who did our returns for $300...only to charge us $450 last year, same documents nothing changed, but it was last minute return and I let it go. How difficult will be filing our own return for the first time w turbo tax? I am tired of paying this much money for something that takes 30-45 minutes to complete? I am familiar with 1040 somehow bcs I review them for my work. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Feb 2020 04:16 PM PST Hello /personalfinancers, I'm in a strange predicament and am not sure how to proceed in fixing it. So me and my boss ran a very small business. Me and him were the only employees. Sadly, he passed away about 2 weeks ago. But now, I have to figure out how to get all my ties severed so I can move on. My situation is, I won't recieve my 1099 since he's passed away, so I won't be able to file taxes. I can of course call the IRS and get that settled most likely, but the plot takes a turn. As it turns out, my boss ran his business without a business license for a little over a year. I recieved checks from him that were business checks, with a company logo and whatnot. Does this change anything? Since he was running a business without a business license, does that effect me or how I file in any way? Or should I just call the IRS and tell them the situation? The business was ran in California if that means anything. Thanks for any input everybody! I appreciate it. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Feb 2020 04:02 AM PST Hey everyone, my dad died a month ago and I found out that I'm about to inherit 2 IRAs and an investment account. I have always been good at holding down jobs and living a pretty comfortable life but I haven't really thought much about the future and retirement. With both of my parents gone now, I'm sorta thinking that it's time to grow up and think deeper about all of this stuff. My current situation: I'm in my late 30's, I've worked as a teacher for the last 8 years with a state sponsored retirement plan, I have about 150k saved up, no real investments outside of 20 shares of Apple stock gifted to me years ago. It's just my wife and I as two DINKs (no kids planned, just our pup). My goals: - Keep working towards retirement even though I'm rather skeptical about the upcoming decades... - Buy a home and investment property, if possible - Diversify - Retire early, of course! Who doesn't? The new inherited numbers: - roughly 100k in IRAs - roughly 400k in investments Big Questions: 1) Do I get a financial adviser or can I learn this stuff on my own? Any recommend resources? I'm worried about taxes... 2) I'm considering Vangaurd for simplicity sake, good choice? I understand the mutual funds thing that comes along with this choice vs. more control. 3) Do I liquidate half of the investments and put them in a high yield savings account because I'm worried the market is about to dive after all of this crazy growth and reinvest later in the market or in real estate once things mellow? 4) Should my wife and I get life/disability insurance? 5) What else should I consider? Thanks for any and all insight! Edit: he died in the last few days of 2019 [link] [comments]  |
| Former employer is asking for my social security number to keep on file. Is this right? Posted: 01 Feb 2020 09:22 AM PST I was an independent contractor for this guys irrigation company this past summer. Filled out paperwork when I started, a 1099 I believe. And today he is asking for my ssn to keep on file. Why does he need it it now when he got it when i started?Is this correct, or no? Seems fishy. This is in Texas. [link] [comments]  |
| Employer massively under-withheld federal income taxes Posted: 01 Feb 2020 05:10 PM PST Just finished filling out tax forms this year and found out my employer massively under-withheld my federal income taxes so I will be paying a penalty for underpayment. Is there anything I can do about this? Edit: Looks like I won't have to worry about paying a penalty because my tax liability last year was 0 and my employer deducted more than that this year. I just need to get my 2020 deductions in order asap. And thankfully I have more than enough saved to pay the taxes that I owe. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Jan 2020 10:00 PM PST I'm sorry if this is the wrong place for this. I'm 15, about to be 16, and I live in a low-income area. I ended up meeting my friend who is also 15, but it turns out she lives in a much poorer area than I am. Her parents are both unemployed although I don't know why. They haven't had running water for over a year (they buy it bottled), and when her dad goes out to get groceries he normally purchases "fun" foods for her and her little sister (who is only 4) that simply don't do a good enough job at feeding them. I've tried giving her snacks and water to hold onto but when her parents find out they get mad at her for "needing charity". But they don't have those things, so I don't understand why her parents are mad. She doesn't want to say anything, though. Another thing is that, although she has an phone, she doesn't have Wifi at her house or any data and because of that she can't do a lot of her schoolwork unless she does it at school. She also isn't able to drive herself places, in our state (NJ) you get to do that at 17, and her parents aren't home all day. Thus, she can't use public libraries or even stay at school after hours (my family would take her and her sister in but we are actually around 45 minutes away, I only met her when she was with her foster family, but even if we could my family wouldn't be able to afford to feed another 2 people). The school apparently knows about her situation so she is able to get cheap lunch and a milk but that's only one meal and her sister can't get anything. I've asked her multiple times about contacting CPS but each time she says no: she was with the foster family for a while and her parents just got her and her sister back and she doesn't want to lose them again. Apparently her foster parents weren't good to her either and their house was even worse than living with her parents. I really don't know what to do, so I asked my older brother and he said to come here and ask you all since you're good with budgeting and with the little money she and I could get (around 50 dollars) you could make a plan that would help her? Sorry again if this isn't the right place, but if it isn't could someone tell me where it should go? Thank you all! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Feb 2020 10:04 AM PST I'm struggling to understand why I should invest in a ROTH IRA and the answer I've heard everywhere is that I should invest in a Roth IRA mainly if I believe that my tax bracket in retirement will be higher. For that, I have no idea why that would be the case. The whole point of retirement is to stop working so wouldn't I be in a lower tax bracket? Am I missing something here like Social security income, withdrawals from my IRA/401K? Passive income from investments? For more background info I live in a medium cost of living city working a steady software engineering job so I'm decently paid but below the national average for my profession. [link] [comments]  |
| A friend is being manipulated to spend thousants into "get rich quick" seminars Posted: 01 Feb 2020 04:20 AM PST Hi guys, I'm not sure if this is the right subreddit so if it isn't please do tell me where I else I should post. As the title suggests I'm here to ask advice about this situation my friend is in, as I'm worried sick. My friend works in mental health care, which made them very unhappy due to the pressure she endures dealing with high stakes situations and long hours. She did however make very good money and had healthy amount of savings in her bank account. So a while ago she started doing this "therapy" that was supposed to help her become happy and succesfull in a very short timespan. Its called NLP, from my point of view it seemed a little to good to be true. Basically they teach methods to manipulate a person or a group into feeling a certain way. Now they promised her that she can have a career doing this by selling her a course after which she got a diploma. At this point I feel she became obsessed with getting rich and happy learning secrets from "succesfull" people. Due to other people in her surroundings she got pulled into a seminar called "the quantum leap program" led by some very slick salesman people. They use a lot of financial jargon, give her the feeling that she is learning a lot about setting up passive income streams but it comes down to basic financial advise presented as some big secret which you can learn if you buy into the next seminar. Its also a very intense program where they tire you out for days and then push you to buy their stuff by creating a sense of peer pressure. Frankly it feels very cult like. They seem to be brainwashing her, they use all the mental loopholes to make it seem smart and give her advice on how to deal with "critisism" basically by deflecting and reframing. She feels like she is learning a legitimate path to succes but she is just bleeding money into these seminars, they cost as much per seminar as my entire tuition for 4 years of uni (in europe). She bought a package. The entire thing comes down to having a winner mentality and poor people are poor because of their inability to imagine themselves not be poor. Its sickening. Does anyone have experience with situations like this? And would it be possible to help them out? English is not my native language by the way, so excuse me for my mistakes. [link] [comments]  |
| Car just failed catastrophically Posted: 01 Feb 2020 08:12 PM PST My 16yo car just died. I did not expect having to get a new car. I'm stressed. Does anyone have any strategic step by step on what I should do next? I have 4k as an emergency fund that i could use as downpayment. eg. uber for a week while looking for a used car etc. I would really appreciate any guidance on how to save the most money. What would you do if you were in my situation? [link] [comments]  |
| Our tax return was denied due to my wife's ex Posted: 01 Feb 2020 01:36 PM PST My wife has a 9 year old with her ex boyfriend, whom she left 8 years ago. He told my wife 2 weeks ago that he needed our daughters information to file life insurance for her.. and to our surprise, he claimed her on his taxes. My wife filed ours last night which obviously caused ours to be denied. According to their parenting plan (created in 2013) they are to alternate years to claim after the child support arrears are paid off (which they were this year.) However, every other facet of their parent agreement is not followed i.e. 9-10 over nights a month (he doesn't even do that in a year's time) and the child is to be insured by him (she's insured by me.) Does this mean anything in a court system? Is it worth the effort? He's the type of person that consistently takes advantage and gets away with it, treating and talking to my wife like she's a piece of crap along the way and I'm tired of it. edit: missed the word 'denied.' oof. [link] [comments]  |
| Filing taxes as married for the first time! Posted: 01 Feb 2020 05:00 PM PST So my wife has been filing our taxes for the past 2 years using turbo tax, she has been filing her own taxes since she was a teenager and knows way more than I do about taxes. When we filed as single in 2018 we got a 2-3k return. We got married in 2019 and are filing as married and joint which seems mor beneficial and it seems like we are going to have to pay 3-4k we are in the 24% tax bracket this year and made around 190k together. Just curious on if anybody can give us some answers. Thanks !!! [link] [comments]  |
| Low ER and gains or diversity for late 20s? Posted: 01 Feb 2020 06:06 PM PST This is my first time setting up my 401k. I read through the wiki guide and I'm not sure what option to go with. I'm stuck with Fidelity and there is a 500 stock index with an ER of 0.015% but it's 99% domestic stocks. There is a balanced fund, 70% domestic stocks, 20% international stocks, and 10% bonds, but the ER is 0.6%. Which should I go with? I'm in my late 20s with under $10k retirement savings. EDIT: I also started a Roth IRA. Perhaps I can choose the domestic stocks in 401k and find something to compensate with my IRA? [link] [comments]  |
| Missed my open enrollment date for my company’s SIMPLE IRA- what now? Posted: 01 Feb 2020 05:49 PM PST So apparently my company has an enrollment period for our SIMPLE IRA. Dumb, I am aware. I was also not informed of this enrollment period and went to sign up and was out of the window. Anyways, here we are. Am I able to sign up for another IRA type on account on my own? Background: married filing jointly, make over the income limit for Roth contributions. 30yr old. Spouse has a 401k that we will max out this year. I can sign up for my IRA through my work during the next open enrollment in November. [link] [comments]  |
| Question regarding low involvement investing in IRA. Posted: 01 Feb 2020 02:22 PM PST Hi, I am in my mid 20's looking to start investing into a Roth IRA or Traditional IRA. As far as I can tell I'm the type of person who just wants to put money into the account and not worry to much about what it's doing of where it's going. Given that I want to maximize profits and minimize my energy spent on balancing/ monitoring my portfolio I have come to 2 options and I'm wonder if any more experienced investors can chime in.
What should I do? Should I take advantage of the robo investment option and not worry about the additional expense? Or is it not worth paying someone extra to do something that I should be doing myself? [link] [comments]  |
| Need a second opinion on downpayment advice Posted: 01 Feb 2020 06:36 PM PST I was at a first time homebuyer info session today (clearly just a lead generation activity, but why not get a chance to ask questions). The realtor told me that I would be better off with a lower downpayment (significantly lower than 20%) if I could take the money I would have spent on a downpayment and invest it somewhere where it would get higher returns. Is there a world in which this is good advice? It seemingly goes against all other advice I've gotten. Edit: I'm not going to reach 20% in any scenario, so PMI might be lessened by a larger downpayment, but it isn't going away for me until I refinance. [link] [comments]  |
| Does anyone have experience with Varo Saving Account? Posted: 01 Feb 2020 06:25 AM PST I'm looking into a savings account and see that Varo offers 2.80% after some requirements - 5 debit card transactions, minimum of $1000 direct deposit, $50,000 maximum. Their interest rate seems consistent but I see no mention of people actually using their savings account or what works as DD. Does the interest start accruing after I met the requirements and pay at the end of the month. What happens if I don't meet the requirements until the last day of the month? Most DP's for Varo refer to the bonus which is not working for me after 2 transfers. Does anyone have any experience with Varo and their savings account? Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| How to be responsible with a substantial increase in income? Posted: 01 Feb 2020 04:57 PM PST I'm not sure if this has been asked before, but I'm trying to get some tips on how to be more responsible with my money when I graduate nursing school. It's a good problem to have, but still: I am 29 and work as a nursing assistant for the VA right now, and bring home about 37k/year before taxes. I am contracted to work for the VA as an RN when I graduate in May, where my income will then jump to at least 53k/year depending on the pay scale I negotiate. I have a healthy Roth TSP retirement fund and contribute 5 percent of my paycheck every pay, which is matched 5 percent by the VA. The large jump in income will be tremendous, but I'm worried because outside of keeping my bills paid, I'm not the best with saving money. This is due to my own bad spending habits. The worry is that I'll just spend more with a larger paycheck. I live with my boyfriend (apartment) and we split our expenses pretty evenly, and with bills and costs of living we are within our means right now. I'm working on cutting back on buying coffees before class and eating food from the cafeteria during clinicals and work. We're also cutting back on UberEats and the like. I have a problem with putting things on my credit card that I may want, but don't necessarily need, and then credit card bills eat up my budget. I've set up my direct deposit to place a small amount into my savings, but it seems I dig into that every pay period. My boyfriend is cutting back on his spending as well. Some short term goals I have are to save for a new car (my lease is up in September), and hopefully buy a house by the end of 2021. If I can't start getting serious about my saving, these things just won't happen. Does anybody have experience with a sudden jump in their income? How did you handle it, and what are some saving tips that anyone might have? Anyone have tips on how you got your impulsive spending under control? Any help is greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| 25YO lurker curious about next financial steps Posted: 01 Feb 2020 09:55 AM PST Hi PF! As stated in the title, I'm a 25yo (admittedly short time) lurker of the sub looking to garner further opinion on how to best allocate my finances. I'm still living at home after having graduated college debt-free and have been working full time for the last 10 months making ~$35K/year. I've saved a significant portion of my earnings thus far and have better laid out my current situation below alongside some short-term and long-term goals I've set for myself moving forward. AS IT STANDS:
MY GOALS:
SOME NOTES:
Given my fingers are about to snap off (and utilize my entire emergency fund), I'll end it here for now. My question to you all is: what further steps might you suggest I take from here? Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| Credit Karma Tax - Invalid zip code Posted: 01 Feb 2020 06:58 AM PST I found a bug last year using Credit Karma's tax prep. The issue was when entering a zip code that began with a zero, the form would not let me save my W2 information due to an invalid zip code. After entering my information thrice, on mobile and then twice on a PC, I found that if you save the form using a valid zip that does not begin with a zero you can go back and EDIT the zip code without the error being generated. I wasn't able to find any info on this and I found the work around while trying to get help from the chat (they said " There is an ongoing investigation to fix this issue. ") Same response from last year and yet the issue remains. I am posting this as I didn't find a work around elsewhere and hopefully this helps cut someone's frustration. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Feb 2020 04:41 PM PST After deciding to fix my credit (about 570ish) I figured I would rehabilitate my student loans, as that seemed, and still does seem, to be the best way to go about it. I owe ~$25,000 so it will take a while, and they were closed so I had to start the probationary rehabilitation process which takes about a year, and I'm in the middle of it. A few weeks ago my credit bumped about 20 points and it said because my student loans were taken off my record. Cool, it's not much but I'm starting to see results, so I applied for a secured card and got accepted and then my credit bumped 130 points to 735. This is kind of a surprise and enough for me to improve my situation (moving from FICO-free apartments for one), but I'm not sure if rehabilitating my loans will bring my debt to credit ratio from $0 to $300(the secured card amount) to the new $25,000 to $300 that it would be after I rehabilitate. I'm scared of my credit score dropping and losing the ability to move on, but I'm also ready and willing to get rid of the defaulted debt because I'm assuming that that will bite me in the a some day and my parents taught me to pay off my debts. Am I shooting myself in the foot by rehabilitating and handling them as opposed to letting them go credit wise? [link] [comments]  |
| Best 401k allocation for 22 year old? Posted: 01 Feb 2020 10:43 AM PST So I'm currently doing the 2065 Vanguard fund with 0.08% expense ratio. However, I kind of want more gains and I don't like that Vanguard is super conservative with 10% bonds. Here are some of the other options I was considering: 100% in FXAIX, which is the Fidelity 500 index fund (Expense Ratio of 0.015%). 25% in FSPSX (to get international diversification) and 75% in FXAIX (to get those gains) Thoughts? Another alternative was to do 2065 for 401K and all in VTSAX for my Roth IRA I'm currently planning on maxing ($19,500) 401k and max ($6,000) Roth IRA. I live with my parents so luckily I can do this. [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Personal Finance. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment