Personal Finance I tracked the expenses for my German Shepherd Dog for one full year. |
- I tracked the expenses for my German Shepherd Dog for one full year.
- Talk to your landlord, push your case, and always read the contract before you sign it!
- Sophia.org offering free college equivalent credit (ACE) until end of July and many colleges will accept these as transfer credits.
- Can I afford a home? [bay area]
- Obsessed with keeping my credit card at a $0 balance. I pay it off every time it racks up a charge. Is this doing anything?
- summer camp company refusing to refund thousands in prepaid tuition..can this be a write-off for 2020 taxes.
- Renting 830 a month/ 16 per hour job
- 16 years old, currently working 30+ hours a week
- I am 21 years old college student and want to know how to invest my money
- Paying off student loans or keeping stocks
- Should I stop 401k contributions?
- Salary Adjustment not sitting right
- Married couple vanguard Roth IRA
- Calculating how much house I can afford? A formula or spreadsheet?
- Should mom sell her house or not?
- Car was involved in accident is being considered as totaled what do i do now? CALI/US
- Given my situation, should I spend $5k on a car or $10k? All cash in both situations.
- Car payment and interest rate is different than what I signed at the dealer. How is this possible?
- First time renting with pals, does our budget seem doable?
- Should I take an 8 week accounting class over the summer to graduate on time?
- Check fraud - what now
- What's the deal with prepaid phone plans?
- S&P 500 ETF vs Mutual Fund
- How do loans and financial aid work for grad school?
| I tracked the expenses for my German Shepherd Dog for one full year. Posted: 07 May 2020 09:04 AM PDT I see pet ownership discussed here a good bit. As someone who loves animals, I understand the reasoning for wanting a pet. I also understand the work and funds it takes to appropriately take care of a pet. Here are the direct costs (6.75% tax included) that I paid from May 5th 2019 - May 5th 2020 Food/Treats: $672 Vet/meds: $488 (everything routine outside of allergic reaction with bees) Toys: $136 Boarding: $465 Air Conditioning Cord she chewed: $220 Pet insurance: $420 Total: $2,401 or $200/mo I love my dog. She is an amazing companion, she is the protector of my wife and daughter when I am away, she is just an amazing animal. I am in a spot where I can afford to have and enjoy her. Some of these expenses will fluctuate over time, however when people say a dog is a car payment, they are right. Some years it'll be a used civic payment, other years it can be a new BMW payment or higher. Make a sound financial decision for you, your family, and the animal. edit: I do all grooming myself [link] [comments]  |
| Talk to your landlord, push your case, and always read the contract before you sign it! Posted: 07 May 2020 03:07 PM PDT Due to COVID-19, my internship has recently been converted into a remote internship and I no longer needed to live in New York over the summer. I contacted my landlord about canceling my lease and she said that she could make special accommodations because of the pandemic. She offered to terminate my lease a month early, which means I would no longer be liable for 1 month's rent -- awesome. However, in the early termination contract she sent over, I noticed there was no mention of the security deposit. Wanting to be safe than sorry, I didn't sign the contract and instead emailed my landlord back a simple "hey, when can I expect a refund of my security deposit?" She says, "sorry, we can only refund a portion of your deposit, and only if someone re-rents the apartment for the month that you backed out of." I was bummed. I'd be saving money by canceling one month's rent, but my security deposit was roughly equivalent to a month's worth of rent, so essentially I'd be back to square one. I thought that there might be a way out of this, so I dug up the original 43-page lease agreement and skimmed the contract until I found the clauses on early termination and the security deposit. I pointed out to my landlord that early termination was not outlined as a reason to withhold the security deposit. After 36 hours of no-response from her (she had been responding every 1-2 hours up until this point), she simply followed up with a new version of the early termination contract that stated I would receive my security deposit back and said "Sorry for the miscommunication. You will get your security deposit back in full." Boom! By talking to my landlord and reading the contract carefully, I saved myself almost $4500 in total (security deposit & rent). Granted, I shouldn't have signed a lease for such an expensive apartment in the first place, but I'm really happy with the outcome. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 May 2020 10:02 PM PDT My academic advisor told me about this. It's mostly general Ed and some basic business courses but hey, it's free for time being and each one you do is one less to pay for! Edit: you have to be enrolled in college, or be employed by a company that was affected by COVID Edit2: if you want to know if this is helpful for you ask your academic advisor if your school accepts ACE credit transfer. [link] [comments]  |
| Can I afford a home? [bay area] Posted: 07 May 2020 08:21 PM PDT The details: Married couple, kids someday. 30 years old. $270k income last year. She is tech salary, I am self employed so this can go up or down by maybe $50k per year due to my work schedule (but last year was a safe average) Additional FAANG stock vesting of around $40k/year $120k cash in savings account Retirement accounts around $150k, plus a pension if those still exist in 40 years 780+ credit scores —————— Debt: $300 month car payment ($12k left) $200 month federal student loan ($16k left) No other debt Rent is currently $3500/month for 1br. We like it here but would like a yard someday and a house A lender said we are probably good candidates for an 80/10/10 loan with 10% down. I guess there's no PMI in that one. We will stay in the bay area because we have family here and like it here, so moving to a more reasonable place isn't really an option. The houses we like are around $1 million but that is a very big number to me. I prefer to have money laying around to travel and stuff but I guess I should stop renting and start building equity? What do you finance folks think? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 May 2020 07:03 PM PDT As soon as theres credit card debt on my net worth I pay it off. I just hate seeing it. It racks up a couple hundred bucks at a time so I pay it off multiple times a month. Is this doing anything or even adversely affecting my credit score? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 May 2020 04:26 PM PDT Title says it all. One large summer camp in Northern California just filed for bankruptcy after refusing to refund parents. We are in LA and had already (before COVID) prepaid $4000 to a similar program to reserve a spot for our son while we work full time. Our program responded to another parent's inquiry about a refund by saying "we are not in a financial position to provide refunds" etc. They will not be opening or providing any services we paid for and might even also file for bankruptcy. My question is whether this can be an income tax write-off as a loss or damage? And, since we've already been contributing to an FSA in preparation for this expense, is that money also now gone? [link] [comments]  |
| Renting 830 a month/ 16 per hour job Posted: 07 May 2020 08:17 AM PDT Hello all, I would like to eventually rent a place of my own, but also have the luxury to be in a nice place. I live in the Midwest. These apartments offer a in-unit Washer and Dryer. Monthly rent is $780 , including water,sewer,trash which is $35 a month. I get paid roughly 2500 gross income and bring back 1900 after taxes. I do have one cat and monthly rental charge is an extra $25.00. I will be paying for electricity that can round up to 70-100 a month. I do pay health insurance. No car payment( my car is paid off). Cellphone is 90 a month. Car Insurance is covered via other means that I am not paying for but still being covered. Health insurance is already included within the monthly 1900 paycheck along with 401K. Gas is cheap right now and estimating roughly 60 per month. I do not travel at all. I also have 2k of savings in case things go wrong. With all this added, Utilities and food adds up roughly 300 a month. I also have no kids or a GF. Just need an opinion to see if this is doable. Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| 16 years old, currently working 30+ hours a week Posted: 07 May 2020 05:17 PM PDT As the title says, currently 16. I work at a local grocery store which pays me 9 dollars with a 2 dollar bonus. I started in early January. With other employment opportunities like cutting grass, cleaning gutters, etc. I have managed to make and save around 4 thousand dollars and only bought stuff essentuals like frozen meals for lunch (lol) and things like that. My question is what exactly should I do with my money? I would like a car, but with all the maintence and other expenses added on, something like that for my age seems a little unreasonable. Should I invest it into the market, keep it in my VERY high intrest savings account (.20% lol) or what? Any advice would be helpful. TD;LR - 16. Have 4k saved. What should I do with it. [link] [comments]  |
| I am 21 years old college student and want to know how to invest my money Posted: 07 May 2020 07:58 AM PDT I am a 21 year old male who was just accepted to a 4 year university after working and going to school full time and attaining my associates degree. While working I have saved up 9k in my savings account and I'm not quite sure what to do with it. I do have to pay for bills and housing at my university so I cannot invest all of it, I was thinking a couple thousand. I don't know anything about investing what so ever. And I also don't know if right now is a good time to invest with the market being the way it is. It all seems really confusing and I get overwhelmed when I try to figure it out. Maybe I need an ELI5 for investing and the different ways I can invest my money? Or what some of you wish you would of done if you were my age and could invest a couple thousand? Or maybe even just a general direction you could point me in so that way I could get started? Honestly anything would really help me out and I would really appreciate it! Thank you guys so much in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| Paying off student loans or keeping stocks Posted: 07 May 2020 05:46 PM PDT I have enough in stocks to pay off my private student loans which have a 4-4.5% interest rate. I would like your guys opinions on this. I am about to start working in 2 weeks and plan to put the majority of the money I would have paid to my student loans back into the market. My family is currently dealing with a lot due to pay cuts as well as a huge medicinal issue coming up. It would be nice to have some extra cash flow if I needed the money. I know on average the market increases more than 4%, but with the way things are with the economy I'm not sure about holding. [link] [comments]  |
| Should I stop 401k contributions? Posted: 07 May 2020 12:42 PM PDT Good news is financially I'm fairly sound for now. DINK, both still employed, about 7 months of expenses in a liquid emergency fund. Bad news is I wouldn't say our jobs are super secure (who really is in this environment) and we are in career fields where it would be really hard to quickly land another position even if the economy was good. In an environment like this losing our jobs could be career trajectory killers. We've been maxing out our 401ks the last couple of years. I'm wondering if I should stop, contribute the minimum to get company match, and concentrate on further beefing up our emergency fund/savings account? [link] [comments]  |
| Salary Adjustment not sitting right Posted: 07 May 2020 06:54 PM PDT I'm in Michigan; I'm sure that will matter sooner or later. If this is the wrong place for this discussion, please let me know. Likewise, if this has been discussed already, I'm happy to read up there, but nothing was showing up in my first few searches. I'm working with a small private practice as a full-time associate veterinarian, compensated on salary only. My employment agreement states the salary and expected hours for that level of compensation, including a raise schedule for the next 5 years. Five weeks ago, my employer called me into their office to discuss some business related to COVID-19. They said a lot of nothing, "everyone's bleeding right now, I won't be the only one bleeding" and so on. Eventually they get to the point, they say after talking with their accountant they need to reduce the compensation of the veterinarians by 25% until the stay-at-home orders are lifted and business bounces back. They told me they still had to work out the details of that plan, but to expect in the coming weeks some sort of paycheck reduction to the tune of 25%. All I could say at the time was "please let me know the details of the plan when it is finalized." I figured something like this was coming sooner or later, most of my friends work in the auto industry and this sort of thing happens relatively frequently for them. They've been dealing with massive layoffs and furloughs in so many varied, but meticulously detailed, ways for months now. Years even depending on which company and which quarterly goal may be coming up. Two paychecks go by with no change, and I receive no details from my employer. Business has essentially tripled since then as well, so I foolishly figured things may have worked themselves out, especially with how often my employer was sure to mention that they were applying for the government relief programs. This week my paycheck is short 25% on the nose. I have still received no communication about the details. I have spoken with one of my colleagues who spoke with my employer about this already, apparently their answer was that we are still expected to be working the same number of hours and that there is no plan to recoup the lost earnings for this period. There are 5 other doctors in the group and the rest of us are currently observing a 24 hour "cooldown." I have seen more patients in the past 3 weeks and handled more emergency surgeries in those same weeks than I had in the 3 months prior, I counted. I have a very full day ahead of me tomorrow. I feel like I just got robbed 25% of my last paycheck and that was how I get to find out that my going rate until who knows when is now 25% less. No conversation about how to reduce my hours to meet that 25% goal, no plan to recoup, no notification in writing, no "plan" that I could either consent to or give my notice as declination. There are a litany of poor business practices that I have seen going on for the past year (and have continued into this depression), most of which I haven't criticised since I was still receiving the full terms of my agreement, and the one or two times I've spoken up I was met with the "I've been in this business longer than you've been alive" lecture. Now I feel like those things are my business. Has anyone else dealt with this sort of scenario? I know everyone has something going on right now, but I'm sure there are much better ways to have gone about this. Thanks for reading my novel. [link] [comments]  |
| Married couple vanguard Roth IRA Posted: 07 May 2020 08:51 PM PDT My wife and I each opened up a vanguard Roth IRA account and have a few questions since we are unfamiliar with the process: 1. When we created the account it asked how much we want to fund for 2019 and 2020? Can I go back and max out the 6k for 2019 in 2020? We each funded the 2020 amount with 4K and plan on adding the additional 2k over the next few months 2. I'm not sure if we should purchase the ETFs or mutual funds? We want to keep our Roth IRA simple and invest in VOO/VT or mutual funds VTSAX/VGTSX. 3. In addition to our IRAs we want to create an investment account where we can make automatic contributions without the contribution limits of an IRA. Do we need to create another vanguard account for both of us? We would like to start with 10k and fund 500-1000 monthly. Any guidance or advice would be helpful. We want to be aggressive since we just turned 30 and have 0 debt. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Calculating how much house I can afford? A formula or spreadsheet? Posted: 07 May 2020 08:50 PM PDT Is there a formula or link to a spreadsheet that I can enter in a down payment, monthly payment, interest rates, taxes, etc? I keep finding ones that start from a years salary, and that requires me to slide numbers around and not quite what I want. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Should mom sell her house or not? Posted: 07 May 2020 08:49 PM PDT 85yo mom is in assisted living (a very nice one--$$) up by me in CentralCal since November. She has a house in SoCal (Pasadena area) and a year or so ago sold a rental she had in Azusa--that's helping to pay her way and, with SocSec/annuity, she's good for 4 years, maybe longer. Her health is good, but...who knows anymore, right? I have a sister in SoCal and a brother in Maryland. I have PoA and, basically, handle mom's life. Brother will agree with whatever I say because: 1) he doesn't have to and 2) I've done a good job these past 3+ years. Sister is...no-contact by her doing because she's a beeyotch, but she'll want her share of anything (I'm honest; I may not like her but I won't cheat her). Anyway, Mom's house. Due to covid, I haven't been able to get down there to get more of mom's stuff out. I'm going to try this month, a couple of trips. Whatever mom, or me or my brother, don't want, the realtor can empty and have donated or whatever. The house is a fixer, I was told $100K to fix it thoroughly (yeah), so it'll likely be sold "as is." Zillow has the house (in good shape) in the high 6-figures; so "as is" would be easily $150K less. The thing is...the market bubble is supposed to pop soon (and we're supposed to be headed towards high inflation)--but mom doesn't need the money for years. Should we try to get this sold before the bubble pops or wait things out? Real property would be worth more than cash during inflation. If the house is sold and the money in...what? An annuity that she won't need for years (or maybe never)? It can't sit in the bank, especially if there's high-inflation, that's just money lost. Any ideas? [link] [comments]  |
| Car was involved in accident is being considered as totaled what do i do now? CALI/US Posted: 07 May 2020 06:18 PM PDT Story: So my car was sideswiped in front of my house about a week ago(4/29). No one was inside my vehicle and i was at the scene immediately after it happened so the driver was identified kinda(i say kinda because she didnt want to give any information) cops got called out and they got me the info i need via police report. today(5/7) i was told by my insurance that my car is basically going to be totaled but after a third party looks it over. but its most likely going to take place between monday - wednesday of next week and at that point if it does get totaled i would have to sign some paper work and was told i would only have three days to submit it and return my rental and then the book is done at that point i purchased gap insurance at the time of buying my car but i transferred the lien holder to my bank and theyre telling me theres really nothing they can do. now coming into my issue this is totally new for me and im trying to gather all the information i can about what i need to collect and how to come out of this because im worried i might owe too much and im going to end up paying for a car i dont own anymore over something i wasnt even involved with. [link] [comments]  |
| Given my situation, should I spend $5k on a car or $10k? All cash in both situations. Posted: 07 May 2020 12:07 PM PDT I'm in a unique situation where I'll be leaving my job with a great company (in about 6 months) to finish my degree with plans of going to medical school. When I leave, I should have my house paid off and $30,000 in savings. My dilemma is that I currently drive an old vehicle with 320,000 miles. Although it's still extremely reliable, I know I'll have to upgrade eventually. I'm unsure if I should spend $5k on a used car or something closer to $10k. The next vehicle I get, I would like keep for roughly the next 10 years. I know how to keep my vehicles running well (between my parents and I, we have one vehicle with over 400k miles, two with over 300k, and another with just over 200k). My concern is over should I buy a newer car with less miles so I know it can be maintained well OR spend less. Quick example, all vague estimates: Option A: mid 2000's car, 140k miles, good condition, no major mechanical issues. Flaw is that in 3 years, it'll have over 200k miles and I'm trying to last 7 more years. Option B: 2010+ year car, under 100k miles, good condition, no mechanical issues. Flaw is more money when I'm not working a good job, may cost $5,000 more and that could be useful to someone in college full time. [link] [comments]  |
| Car payment and interest rate is different than what I signed at the dealer. How is this possible? Posted: 07 May 2020 06:03 PM PDT To lead off with my rate is two points lower then what I signed at the dealership which I'm not complaining about. But I also have a second question I need an answer too. When I bought the car I opted to get dealer financing cause I saved 1,000 dollars and after 4 months I could refinance. Because of this I was able to only put 10% down even though I had 50%. They also said that I couldn't put down this extra 40% until after the four months. Now that my loan has been assigned to a bank I got the statement today and on it the interest rate is two points lower and along with that the monthly is a bit lower as well. My question is as follows. 1) why is the rate lower than what I initially signed? How could that happen? 2) do I really need to wait those 4 months to put down my extra 40% or can I just go ahead and put that down now and save a bit on interest? [link] [comments]  |
| First time renting with pals, does our budget seem doable? Posted: 07 May 2020 05:47 PM PDT Hello, two friends and I are trying to move out. Me and one other are starting new software engineering jobs, and the other has a pretty low paying manager position. We will all have our bachelors degrees in a week. We really like this friend and he really likes the idea of moving out, but we know he doesn't have our income. If he ends up not being able to afford it, me and the other SE friend can easily afford the place and can find another roommate, but we think we got most costs (Including a discount for him taking the small bedroom and not getting a garage space, and his parents are going to be paying his car insurance for him whether it's in his name or not). We LOVE the nicer place, it has a ton of room and would be a great place to have our friends over a lot. The other is decent, but nowhere near as nice, but as low as we really want to go. Does our budget seem off or anything? We are all COMPLETELY new to this. We compiled the numbers by researching quite a bit and getting the numbers from our parents in the area. Spreadsheet with everything below. [link] [comments]  |
| Should I take an 8 week accounting class over the summer to graduate on time? Posted: 07 May 2020 01:53 PM PDT I could take an intro to accounting class at a community college over the summer to offset the amount of hours id need to take in the fall to graduate. I currently go to a larger university. I'm not a business major I'm in communications but it seems like a useful class since I want to go into business later on. This is a 8 week 4 credit class and I've never taken accounting. Ive only taken intro to stats and precalc. I remember Mark Cuban saying in an interview that while college isn't necessary, taking classes such as accounting or stats while you're there can give you an advantage. I hope to pursue a business profession despite not being a business major. My college wouldn't allow me to transfer into business and I'm graduating soon so I'm kind of stuck with this major. It's a broad major though so apparently there's business job opportunities. If I'm able to land one of those I would hopefully use it to gain experience and start my own business someday. But like I said it's broad so I may not be offered jobs in the business area so I think accounting would be useful. It'll cost me 550$ but I can drop Mid way if I wanted for half refund. What do you guys think? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 May 2020 05:26 AM PDT I woke up to discover that our account was overdrawn because of a $2500 check that I didn't write. The check had my signature, but I never wrote the check and the number didn't match up to the checks in my checkbook (check number was 450, my current supply of checks only goes up to 370). I called the bank and they filed a dispute and said they are sending me paperwork to fill out. Is there anything else I need to do? Do I file a police report for this? Has this happened to anyone else and do you get your money back? Edit: thanks! Police report has been filed. Nothing like having the cops come to your house three weeks after moving in to make your neighbors suspicious [link] [comments]  |
| What's the deal with prepaid phone plans? Posted: 07 May 2020 11:37 AM PDT I'm currently paying Verizon $130/month for a phone plan for myself and my partner. Classic postpaid plan with plenty of data. Seems we could save a decent amount of money using a prepaid phone plan, even including those from Verizon itself. I can't quite understand: why are these noticeably cheaper, despite purporting to offer the same services on the same network? Is there a catch? Are others happy with making that switch? We both use our phones frequently on the go, at least during non-stay-at-home times, so I wouldn't want to save the money if it would mean extra frustration. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 May 2020 04:51 PM PDT I want to begin investing in the S&P 500 Index. Through my brokerage Fidelity, I am offered automatic investing where I can set my account to automatically invest for me, which is very appealing. I had my eyes on buying the SPY ETF which tracks the S&P 500, however the automatic investing feature only allows investment into mutual funds. Should I ditch the automatic investing and stick to SPY because I hear ETFs are more tax efficient or am I fine automatic investing into a Fidelity S&P 500 mutual fund like FXAIX? [link] [comments]  |
| How do loans and financial aid work for grad school? Posted: 07 May 2020 06:58 PM PDT Let me know if there's a better place for this post—I'm a little inept at this Reddit thing. Some background: I rushed through undergrad (BA Writing, Minor in History) because I didn't want to change my major and I didn't want to spend too much time in school when I didn't know what I wanted to do. I finished in 2 1/2 years. Now, I'm working as an entry level environmental consultant/inspector with a small compliance firm with lots of growth opportunities. I have years of retail management experience, so I know how to lead. I love what I'm doing now. I want to go back to school to get a masters in something to help advance my current career. I just don't know how I'll finance it. I'm paying a low income based monthly payment towards my undergrad loans. I can't afford to go back to school if I'm paying out of pocket or to a loan that's not deferred until post graduation. There are 2 things I'm really wondering about: 1. How do student loans for graduate school work? Can they be deferred? Do I have to do private loans through a lender/bank? 2. Where can I get financial aid for graduate school? From what I remember from high school, it may not even be possible to get financial aid. [link] [comments]  |
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