Personal Finance Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of February 24, 2020 |
- Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of February 24, 2020
- I’m getting kicked out at 18 and I don’t know how I’ll avoid being homeless.
- Can I leave a temporary job I had in high school off of my resume?
- Why are IRA contribution limits way lower than 401k limits?
- Is it crazy to pay half my salary in rent just so I can live alone?
- How to support a disabled parent who recently became homeless?
- Life Insurance for a stay at home mom
- Should I trust a gym that requires my bank account info?
- Home Buying Sanity Check
- Tired of struggling
- Starting a Career/Finding a Better Job? (Recent Grad/Early Career)
- Hand Holding on Today's Likely Market Drop
- Can you refinance too many times?
- Started first steps on credit repair. Next steps?
- Vanguard account number?
- 26 years old and drowning in my debt. At an absolute loss for what to do
- Question about getting past tax returns
- My girlfriend and I are expecting our first child. Who should claim him on our taxes?
- I am a college sophomore with $6500 in student loan debt. I have about $8000 in my bank account. Is it smart to pay off all my loans now or should I wait?
- How can I help my parents save money?
- High deductible plan vs PPO?
- Mortgage refinance worth it?
- I recently hit for $10k
- Am I handling my medical bill correctly?
- Should I open a CD with chase?
| Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of February 24, 2020 Posted: 24 Feb 2020 03:07 AM PST 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]  |
| I’m getting kicked out at 18 and I don’t know how I’ll avoid being homeless. Posted: 24 Feb 2020 08:28 AM PST Hello, my name is Jess. I'm 17 going on 18, and a senior in high school. Due to a complicated family relationship, I'm more than likely going to be kicked out after I graduate (In June.) I don't know what to do. My high school is a trades school, so I have some of my intro IT certifications. I don't have a car or any savings, but I am employed now. I live in Philadelphia, and grew up here. I don't know where I can go and afford to live. I don't know if I'm going to college, I don't think I can afford to. There is a community college in the county above me that offers student housing, but I would end up in a LOT of debt. I don't know how I will get a job that supports me without going to college, but I don't know how I'll have the money to even keep a roof over my head and make payments to a college. Does anyone have tips living on your own as a just graduated 18 year old? Should I go to college in the fall? I have no financial aid because my parents make too much, but they won't even be supporting me. [link] [comments]  |
| Can I leave a temporary job I had in high school off of my resume? Posted: 24 Feb 2020 11:17 AM PST I'm in high school right now and I quit my part time job because the amount of hours I was working prevented me from really focusing on my school work. I only worked there for a month and don't want to include it on my resume. Is there any way my future employers could see that I worked there and that I only worked for a month? [link] [comments]  |
| Why are IRA contribution limits way lower than 401k limits? Posted: 24 Feb 2020 01:45 PM PST Given that both are vehicles for retirement savings and reduce taxable income, why do 401ks have higher contribution limits? I'm self employed and save in an IRA. Seems strange that I can't save as much as someone who is employed by a company and uses a 401k. [link] [comments]  |
| Is it crazy to pay half my salary in rent just so I can live alone? Posted: 24 Feb 2020 03:24 PM PST My roommate is leaving our flat soon. We each pay 500€, which covers rent and utilities. When he leaves, I can either find a roommate, find a room, or eat the extra cost. I'm 26 and make around 2.1k€/month. My fixed expenses (subscriptions and a small interest free loan that will be paid off in summer) are ~300€/month. I'm meh at saving up, but working to improve - I have 3 months of salary saved up. Am I being irresponsible if I want to keep the flat to myself? It's cheap for the area, they can't raise my rent for another 4 years, and I'm really really tired of roommates. Should I bite the bullet and share for 500€/month? [link] [comments]  |
| How to support a disabled parent who recently became homeless? Posted: 24 Feb 2020 01:51 PM PST My father is disabled and recently became homeless after a family friend could no longer house them. He is completely broke and called me when he had nowhere to go. For now I've put him up for a month in an airbnb since it was better than trying to pay for a hotel room. As you can imagine though this was very expensive and not a sustainable option. He has about 3 more weeks there I've paid for. I've talked to him about affordable housing, section 8, etc but he has never applied. He has brain damage and has pretty severe memory issues so this is somewhat understandable. He is also terrible with money. I am ok with having to support him financially to some extent, I make a comfortable living and am somewhat resigned to it (have been giving him money ad hoc for years already). Just trying to figure out how to keep him from being homeless in subzero weather without hurting my own financial future. I live several hours away so it's a bit hard to help from a distance. His income: 800/m from disability 100-200/m (sometimes) from SNAP. They keep taking this away though every few months and he has to go to the disability office for hours every time. Rent for an apartment where he lives is around 1200/m. He is open to a roommate situation but he can be kind of a pain in the ass to deal with at times, so finding a roommate who can deal with him might be a challenge. For a room it's usually in the 400-600/m range. One of the biggest challenges is I don't think I can rely on him to find a place or apply to any welfare programs for affordable housing. Questions: Are there any social services who can help him apply to some of these programs (like, literally sit and walk him through the forms)? He's in NC, USA. I've looked online but it mostly seems to be resources telling you to go apply for housing. He's terrible with money. I'm thinking about talking with him about removing his access to his disability money and managed that for him. Anyone have experience doing this? Was thinking I could setup his accounts to give him $100 a week in spending money and keep the rest in a savings account for him for when issues come up. I have some family members who are supportive and I can likely get some financial assistance from with this, but honestly it's an ongoing expense not a one time thing they can contribute too. Are there tools to help automate this? I was thinking I could have them give me money via something like venmo, but having to beg for money every month is tough. As far as where ever he ends up living unless it's completely informal I'll likely end up needing to co-sign with him because he has terrible credit. Any way to protect myself in this situation? Just don't want to end up getting screwed. [link] [comments]  |
| Life Insurance for a stay at home mom Posted: 24 Feb 2020 05:51 PM PST My husband makes about 130k a year. I am a stay at home mom. We have a policy on my husband for 250k. We recently found out our 2 year old has autism (he's our only child.) I am now worried about what would happen if I die. He would need a full time nanny to take him to/from school and supervise his therapy. My husband travels a lot so it would have to be someone who could even do over nights. That would be really expensive and it's got me thinking I need to get life insurance on myself in case I die. Can I get insured with no job? How much should I get? Can I keep a policy forever so even if I died in 20 years he could get the money for whatever his need are at that time? [link] [comments]  |
| Should I trust a gym that requires my bank account info? Posted: 24 Feb 2020 03:20 PM PST I want to join a particular gym, but they require you to pay by giving them access to your bank account (routing and account number). There is no card or debit option. I don't really feel comfortable with this, but this is a large established gym with lots of other members. It's also within my price range. Should I just pass and not go to a gym? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2020 10:58 AM PST Wanted to get a sanity check on a potential home purchase... Single young adult in HCOL area. Late twenties, no debt. Gross take home is $3465 biweekly. Net is $2254. I currently have ~$60,000 saved. I am pre-approved through my bank for a $400,000 home with 10% down. Mortgage calculators put that to be about $2,400 including PMI and taxes. Purchasing that home would be about 35% of my gross income, but about half my take home. Let me be frank, I really want a home. I want a garden, and a dog, and space to do my hobbies. But I am a fairly cautious person, and I want to make sure I am not getting in over my head. I worry a lot about the 28/36 rule, but the reality is in the area I live it will be many more years before my income would support that kind of financial conservatism. I live a frugal lifestyle. I live in a bike friendly city with good public transit. I have good job security. Do not own a car and do not want to own a car. Have no dependents. Do these numbers make sense, or am I a getting too impatient? Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2020 07:26 AM PST I need some options on how to reduce some credit card debt. Me, my wife, and 2 yr old child. I work full time, making 63k a year salary, my wife just started a job after being off with the birth of our daughter, working 2 days a week. $16/hr. We've accumulated some high interest credit card debt somewhere in the neighborhood of $9-10k. We also have about $3k in medical bills that need paid. The problem isn't making enough money to pay the bills, its that there are enough payments that we can't make headway on paying them off. I wanted to explore consolidating the payments into something more manageable. Unfortunately after carrying the load for the last 2.5 years, my credit has taken a hit (now at about a 580) with missed payments when something a hospital copay needs to happen or vehicle repair. I'm tired of shuffling money around. So what are some realistic ways to getting back on our feet? Thanks in advance. Edit for added info We live in Northern Indiana, heartbeat of the RV world. I have a salary position, no OT available. I do search out side work to fill the voids but October through December prove to be slow times in the automotive world each and every year. The wife works two weekdays and we swap child care with another family so to save both of us the costs and allow each wife to work. We have a budget which at this point is more of a rough idea and running total of our bills. [link] [comments]  |
| Starting a Career/Finding a Better Job? (Recent Grad/Early Career) Posted: 24 Feb 2020 06:34 PM PST I graduated from college in May of 2019 with a degree in Finance; Risk Management and Insurance; and Management and Entrepreneurship (Triple major). Currently, I do not know exactly what I want to do. I am passionate about business, and consider most business related positions. I want to gain leadership and managerial experience, which may take time to get into a position with such responsibility. I was applying to jobs for months before graduating, and it took 2 months after moving home to find a contract position. I have been working with this company for over 6 months and have been searching on and off with little success. I have had a handful of phone calls and a couple of in-person interviews, but no reasonable full-time offers since. I know networking can be very powerful for getting a job, but I have yet to really grow my professional network thus far. While I have hit some of my financial goals, I am seeking to improve my career path and find more jobs to apply to. I have been mostly using LinkedIn and corporate websites for job postings. It seems inefficient to search for jobs this way. I have a hard time finding much that seems worth applying to, if anything on many occasions. Most jobs/companies that I would be interested in working with have long experience requirements for entry-level positions. I apply to some regardless, but I really want to find a decent company to work with and grow professionally. What advice do you have for recent grads/people in their early career for finding jobs to apply to? I use the filters, but it just doesn't provide great results where I can crank out applications. It seems most of my time is spent looking and coming up empty. It is depressing considering how badly I want to start a full-time permanent position, but the search/application process is so discouraging when it takes many days/weeks to find only one or two jobs to apply to and hearing nothing back. (I have applied to a lot of positions over the last 6-7 months). I also understand that there are a lot of variables to consider, such as resume, cover letter, location, etc. How did you stay motivated to continue searching when it doesn't reap any positive response from companies? How should you approach the job search process to get results in a reasonable time-frame? I know I cant necessarily put a deadline on this, as it could take much longer than I want, but I hope to move on before surpassing one year as the position lacks benefits and challenge. What are some resources that have made a big impact on your career path? Thank you for your time and input! Edit: Added a bit more information [link] [comments]  |
| Hand Holding on Today's Likely Market Drop Posted: 24 Feb 2020 06:10 AM PST Posting to say let's stay strong and limit panic with retirement accounts today! If you have a long term horizon (10+ years), don't panic and sell off investments. It actually presents an opportunity to buy at a discount. If you are nearing retirement or already retired, hopefully you have some safer investments that will not be as negatively impacted as the major indices. This is a nice gut check for long term investors and a nice real world example of why it's wise to gradually move into safer investments as you near retirement. Stay strong. [link] [comments]  |
| Can you refinance too many times? Posted: 24 Feb 2020 07:55 PM PST My mortgage person keeps offering us lower interest rates. To the point where we'd be refinancing for a 3rd time in 2 years. The first time we refi'd to get rid of PMI (Bay Area down payment cost problems) and the second time was to get us down to 3.5 (fixed, 30 year). Now she's offering 3.25 (fixed, 30 year) and I want to know is this too much? What's the catch? We didn't pay points on either refi- just the initial purchase. [link] [comments]  |
| Started first steps on credit repair. Next steps? Posted: 24 Feb 2020 04:00 PM PST According to Credit Karma I have a 403 score, according to Experian I have a 506 score. All of my open collection accounts are medical ($6-7K) & student loans (35K). I decided to get serious about fixing my credit a few weeks ago, after I came into a small inheritance and decided that the best thing to do with it is to fix my credit and put away a down payment into an investment house (duplex that we will rent out) for once my credit is repaired. So far, I have opened disputes on all of the collection accounts (accept for student loans) through all three credit bureaus to see if any of them come off. So far, 8 accounts on my Experian came back as successful and will supposedly be deleted. Waiting to see on TU & Equifax. I have also opened a $500 secured credit card through my bank, Navy Federal Credit Union, and am keeping my usage at 25% or below and have it set up to be automatically paid in full on the 20th of every month. As for the student loans, which are probably killing my credit the most, it will cost $600/month to rehabilitate and keep them current, which I honestly just can't afford in my current job and don't want to deplete my inheritance with it. BUT, I talked to them and they said they will all get deferred and reflect as "current" once I'm back in school full time, which I was already going to do in the fall. I'm hoping that will buy me enough time to graduate and get into a decent enough paying job where I can afford to pay them back consistently and properly. Once the 30 days have passed and my new credit reports come back and I see what is still on there after disputes, I will begin calling the debt collectors to negotiate settling the accounts. Hoping I can get some "pay for deletes" out of it, but realistically that probably won't happen and they'll reflect as settled. Is there anything else I can be doing right now? Or am I just playing the waiting game for now? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2020 05:41 PM PST For some reason I need to restore my account and to do this I need to find my account number. the only problem is, I don't know where to find it. Anyone know how I can get access my account number? [link] [comments]  |
| 26 years old and drowning in my debt. At an absolute loss for what to do Posted: 24 Feb 2020 07:04 PM PST So as it seems like a number of people I struggle with budgeting and excessive debt. To put it all in view: Discover CC 10,811 @17.49% Car loan 10,329 @5.19% "Consolidation loan" 12,346 @11.99% Student loans 720 @3.15% 960 @6.55% 1,425 @3.15% Affirm 475 @25.36% (this will be paid off next month) Lawyer from custody 1,133 (didn't even win it) Taxes owed for 2019 federal 1,025 Iowa 347 Ohio 84 I currently make only 15/hr more hopefully by the summer. I honestly do not know what to do to even start to fix this. I already for 40hrs a week and have a total 1 1/2 hour commute. Do I take another job? Help please! [link] [comments]  |
| Question about getting past tax returns Posted: 24 Feb 2020 03:13 PM PST My mom never keeps her tax forms and I need her taxes from 2018 to file my fafsa I tried to use the irs link tool but that didn't work. Can she get a copy of them if she goes to H&R Block even if she didn't file her taxes through them? I need them as soon as possible because the priority deadline for the fafsa is March first [link] [comments]  |
| My girlfriend and I are expecting our first child. Who should claim him on our taxes? Posted: 24 Feb 2020 04:10 PM PST Hey all! For a little bit of info, we both live in NY, I work in NY and she works in PA. I make about $42k a year. She works part time and makes around $10k a year. We are expecting our first child in June, and I have heard differing opinions on who should claim him as a dependent. Generally people lean towards saying that SHE should claim him, but some people have said that I should. I know this won't matter until next year, but I am trying to get a head start on these things. Is there a clear-cut answer on which way of filing will make the most financial sense for us? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2020 10:49 AM PST As the title mentions, I have about $6500 in student loan debt from my freshman year. This year, I was fortunate to receive a very generous scholarship, so I now have about $8000 in cash. I'm wondering what the smartest move for me is. Here's a bit more information about the student loans: Loan 1: $2500, will not accrue interest until six months after I graduate. Loan 2: $4000, has an interest rate of 5-6% and is accruing interest now. However, payments are not required until six months after I graduate. There are a few reasons I am hesitant to pay off the loans.
What would you suggest I do? I'm thinking the smartest action would be to pay off the loan that is accruing interest now but to wait until after I graduate to pay off the $2500 loan. Does this make sense? [link] [comments]  |
| How can I help my parents save money? Posted: 24 Feb 2020 02:06 PM PST As the title suggests, I was wondering about some things I could do to help my parents save money. Financially, we are quite comfortable, but with my sister's impending college tuition and retirement plans, I want to be as little a burden as I can on them. I am feeling pretty down because all my friends can afford expensive camps and programs, but I simply cannot, so I was wondering if anyone can give suggestions on ways that I can help save money while simultaneously enjoy life. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2020 03:54 PM PST I have the option of getting a cheaper "high deductible" plan for $62/month or a PPO for $212/month. This is from my new job. How do I go about picking/ comparing plans? Edit: put the cost in per paycheck instead of per month. Fixed now [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2020 04:47 PM PST I have a 30yr fixed at 4.6% Bought 18 months ago. Can refi at 3.6%. Bank is saying break even is 25 months if we lump the closing costs into the new loan. My question is: Don't I have to add 18 months of payments to the end of the loan to calculate the actual break even? My 30 years reset, with all new interest payments in those last 18 months. I don't think it's as simple as the bank is making it out to be. It seems like it is a very complicated decision to make and know for sure that it is worth refinancing. Saving $200/month is good, but at the cost of paying 18 more payments. I might have to calculate what 200/month in the bank/invested for 30 years will yield right? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2020 08:49 AM PST I won 10k on a lottery scratch off (2nd time). 1st round I took care of debt and basically stretched it to last about 2 years. This time around I want to invest it all into something I know that will for sure have me stabled and maybe making even more money down the road or maybe a little bit here, little bit there, save the rest etc. I just need some ideas never been In position like this so any advice would help. I only have $7600 on me right now after taxes was taken out but plan on holding it until I get the rest during tax time 2021, so I'll have the full 10k What would be the best thing to look up to invest in? I heard index funds is a very good outcome, someone else said saving account but I don't want to only receive $8k holding it for 30 years when I know I can do so much more with it now to make much more later. Any advice is great! [link] [comments]  |
| Am I handling my medical bill correctly? Posted: 24 Feb 2020 02:17 PM PST I have an outstanding balance of $3120 for an EEG that I had done a few months back. My doctor is "offering" me a 9 month rather than the typical 6 month plan at $347 per month. I said I can pay a chunk upfront if it'll keep that 9 month extension. They said that the remaining balance at the start of the payments needs to be at a minimum of $2,000. So right now, I am thinking about paying $1120 out of pocket and then $222 for the next 9 months. I'm wondering a few things: - Is my doctor full of shit and just trying to get the money quicker? - Can I negotiate this? - Who actually controls this time range? - Is this the smartest thing for me to do? [link] [comments]  |
| Should I open a CD with chase? Posted: 24 Feb 2020 06:01 PM PST I just got a email from chase stating that I can open a CD account for 6 months at 1.60% for a $10,000 deposit. This is my first time and I don't know much about CD account. Just wanna know if I should do it or just keep my money in my check account? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
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