Personal Finance Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of June 08, 2020 |
- Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of June 08, 2020
- A warning about ‘Financial Advisors’.
- Does it ever make sense to put down more than 20% on a house and invest the rest?
- About to get laid off or furloughed for at least 6 months...
- Just wanted to warn others of the scam call I got about my credit card.
- I feel like a complete imposter as a financial advisor after today
- I own some mineral rights in Texas. Leased land to Oil & Gas company but they just filed chapter 11. Next steps?
- Beware Credit Karma Savings
- I haven’t filed my taxes since 2016. Where do I even begin to get caught up and how screwed am I? [Northern California]
- Apartment kitchen cabinet just fell. Am I liable for this or is the landlord?
- Moving 401k & Savings to BoA Merrill Edge (Thoughts & Input?)
- My bank received a check with my name on it from another bank I have never had an account with. What to do?
- Will debt randomly paid on my credit report restart 7 year mark?
- 26, recent college grad, full time employed & looking for some input
- I have been "offered" a voluntary incentive program - and hinted that I should take it. Severance is 8 weeks paid (plus PTO paid out) on regular payroll schedule, starting on July 1st. My concern is that I wouldn't qualify for unemployment in NY State if I did so. This is being offered to all of us.
- Almost 34 years old, nothing in retirement.
- Financial noob planning on moving out, need advice
- Stranger reported my credit card account as fraudulent? Help!
- Can I add to my 2019 Roth IRA contributions even if I’ve already filed my taxes?
- Rent increase advice?
- Best way to make lenders bid against each other?
- Advice on my wife's life insurance
- Credit newbie questions
- Problems with my mortgage broker and what can I do now
- Selecting a Fiduciary advisor
| Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of June 08, 2020 Posted: 08 Jun 2020 04:08 AM PDT If you need help, please check the PF Wiki to see if your question might be answered there.This thread is for personal finance questions, discussions, and sharing your success stories:
A big thank you to the many PFers who take time to answer other people's questions! [link] [comments]  |
| A warning about ‘Financial Advisors’. Posted: 08 Jun 2020 04:36 AM PDT So a few years ago I made a post here (on a different account I lost the login to) asking about a financial advisor that I met (through my parents) and if investing 'through' him was a good idea as I usually research things before I do them, and reddit (believe it or not) has served me well in the past. To give you an idea of the investment I was going to put in $50,000. People were asking me the fees I would be charged and I when I told them 2.05% they quickly let me know that was was too high. They recommended I just open up a Vanguard account do it myself more or less. I thought I was doing the smart thing going to a financial advisor considering I didn't know the first thing about how to buy shares, what to buy, etc. this guy was a professional so he's clearly got a better idea of what to do then I did, and I was convinced the fee he was asking was deserved. But the things people said in that thread stuck with me, and I hesitated to hand over the money. He called me and asked what was going on, I told him that I did some inquiring on the internet and 'people' told me that the fees were too high and the endeavor wasn't worthwhile. He was clearly frustrated. "Who are these people!? He exclaimed. I told him "people who have nothing to gain and nothing to loose by telling me these things". So I didn't give him the $50,000. So I did some more research and discovered that the company he worked for was 'Primerica'. Which is essentially a MLM pyramid-scheme esque company that has individual 'sellers' go out and try to sell life insurance and financial advise/investments. They primarily rely on word of mouth to get clients (which is how my parents found out about it, and how I then found out about it through them). They are also always recruiting, in my sit down interview with the financial advisor, he mentioned that I would be a 'good fit' for the job and said I could do it part time. The guy was never actually going to be handling my money, he was just a middle man. So I feel like I really dodged a bullet! I went back and found the original thread! https://old.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/8appt8/currently_24_years_old_ive_met_with_a_financial/ Some details in there that I didn't mention in this post. [link] [comments]  |
| Does it ever make sense to put down more than 20% on a house and invest the rest? Posted: 08 Jun 2020 05:13 PM PDT My wife and I have been looking to upgrade homes here in the next couple of years. We just came upon a windfall of cash and would like to use that to buy a larger house than what we were previously looking at. Prior to the windfall, we were hoping to keep our monthly payments under $3k as that's where we feel comfortable. The question we're facing is if it makes sense to use the windfall $ to put down a larger down payment on a more expensive house to keep the monthly payments to $3k OR pay ~$3.7k a month at 20% down and invest the windfall $? With interest rates so low my thought is we could invest that $ and then draw from it to help with monthly payments when we need it. Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| About to get laid off or furloughed for at least 6 months... Posted: 08 Jun 2020 10:46 AM PDT And I'm not too upset about it. The principles this sub teaches helped me and my family a lot. When Covid started in the US we started to hold more cash than normal. It allows me to have a more controlled response in a shitty situation. I don't need to jump on the first opportunity to just have some cash. Anyways, just wanted to say thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Just wanted to warn others of the scam call I got about my credit card. Posted: 08 Jun 2020 11:34 AM PDT I received a phone call explaining that my card had been used in Florida, and if I was currently traveling there. I was not of course. They said they would cancel the card and send me a new one. Repeated my address to me, then wanted me to give them the 8 digits of my card to confirm it was me. He gave me the first 7 of my card. This set an alarm off in my head. I asked why they need that info, they already know what card is compromised. I also said that they called me on my cell phone, so its not like someone else in my house is picking it up. The person then rattled off my SSN, Birthday, and address to prove they are legit....I almost caved. I remembered that this card company doesnt call you using live people, they text you, and then call you with an automated system. So I said I wouldnt be giving this info to them. They then just hung up. I called Fraud department for the card, and they confirmed no one was calling from their company, that there were no charges from Florida, and I confirmed all charges were legit. Now I have to deal with identity theft. All my credit reports are locked/frozen. Is there anything else I should do? TLDR: person called said my card has fraud charges, wanted me to give them last 8 digits of card. I didnt trust, they riddled off my SSN, Address and Birthday. I still didnt trust. Called CC company and confirmed it was scam. Edit: Not sure why I couldnt find the wiki before posting, but I am looking through [this] now.(https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/identity_theft) [link] [comments]  |
| I feel like a complete imposter as a financial advisor after today Posted: 08 Jun 2020 05:02 PM PDT Throwaway because I'm mortified with myself. I always prided myself on my job because I genuinely do love helping people with their finances. I work out of a branch of a pretty well known firm and I get to help people with their self-managed brokerage accounts and retirement accounts. Today I got completely thrown off guard by a client of mine when his wife joined us on the phone for the first time ever. Me and her husband were having our normal small talk, chattering about how the market is up positive for the year wiping out the year's losses so far and then we got down to their portfolio review. OUT OF NOWHERE this woman stars drilling me with my credentials, where I went to school, and was asking me all kinds of questions I didn't know the answers to. I didn't study finance, I actually studied history but I took on finance and got my licenses after college. I'm in my 30s and have been an advisor for 2 years. She started asking me about the futures market and admittedly I don't know anything about that. Then she was asking me about derivatives and swap defaults. I have no idea what those are. Then she goes on about sustainable investing, and I told her that sustainable investing is a trendy topic at the moment but we still like to focus on the fundamentals. She completely tore me apart saying I know nothing about managing money and she completely halted our conversation and ended the call. I'm sitting here thinking WOW, am I complete idiot?! I understand I should know better the different nuances of investing but to be honest all of my clients are pretty straightforward with pretty generic retirement goals and not all that savvy. This woman made me feel like a complete imposter. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jun 2020 02:16 PM PDT It's not a giant parcel or anything, but it used to bring in a few hundred dollars a month. With the oil market tanking, it killed a lot of small operators. What (if anything) do need to protect my land? Is there anything I should be on the lookout for? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jun 2020 09:38 AM PDT I just want to share my experience and warn other users against signing up for this awful product. I feel these are big deal breakers and this whole experience has left me very frustrated and feeling burnt out. For one, they only allow you to connect one transfer account, and thats it. If something should happen to that account, say you close it, tough, you cannot connect another one. This happened to me, I still had another account at the same bank, so thought maybe the transfer would be successful and go through, boy was I wrong. From CK savings end, they repeatedly told me it cleared and went through, when my receiving bank made it clear the transfer was rejected and there was no trace ID for the transaction for that reason. When I repeatedly asked Credit Karma to provide a trace ID number for the transaction, they said they would get back to me. They they came back and said the transfer went through, again! At that point I thought my money was lost and about to give up, did something else for a while. Then I remembered they are underwritten by MVB Bank, which -lets be honest who cares who that is- but I reached out to the am had to complain about their customer, credit karma, losing a small amount of money and not being able to help recover it. I then heard back from Credit Karma Savings and they said they would contact the bank and look into it. Now a few weeks later, the money is back and my account, and they asked me if I wanted to close the account please email them my address to confirm what they have on file and they would mail a check. After providing this, they have now come back with the "please provide two forms of ID" spiel. So I am frustrated to ay the least, but please don't fall into the trap I did, and stay away from this product like you would the plague. Happy to provide anything to mods as verification as needed. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jun 2020 02:23 PM PDT Like the title says, I haven't filed taxes since 2015. So I will have to file for 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. [link] [comments]  |
| Apartment kitchen cabinet just fell. Am I liable for this or is the landlord? Posted: 08 Jun 2020 12:44 PM PDT My kitchen cabinet just partially fell off the wall. It is a corner cabinet and at the end of a line of cabinets and looks like it wasn't actually attached to either the sidewall or the back wall and was only attached by the front. 3/4 of the attachment nails look like they ripped out and so now it is hanging down and only attached by the bottom 1/4th of nails I had some cookbooks and a stand mixer in the cabinet. I've been in the apartment about 3 months and haven't touched anything in the cabinet in over a month so it isn't like it I was climbing on it or in the process of adding something unreasonably heavy. It broke while I was in the other room. The financial question is: Do I have to pay to repair this or is my landlord responsible? Am I going to have to prove it was normal wear and tear? In MN. [link] [comments]  |
| Moving 401k & Savings to BoA Merrill Edge (Thoughts & Input?) Posted: 08 Jun 2020 03:14 PM PDT I am thinking of moving my 401k, and HYS to BoA Merill Edge (for 401k) and BoA (for Savings). I saw that if you have 100k+ in assets at BoA you get some nice perks in regards to their retirement accounts, savings, and credit cards. IE A preferred deposit account (savings) with a 2.15% interest rate, which seems to be superior to most HYS at nearly every other bank currently. Free stocks, etfs, bonds, options purchases. Free atm reimbursement for out of network atm use 5.25% cash back credit cards (travel and purchase oriented) Free checks and wires They also are currently offering a $900 bonus if you bring over 200k or more of total assets when openning an account (retirement accounts, stocks, bonds, savings, cash, etc). Does anyone have any experience with using BoA Merill Edge with 100k+ of assets invested with them? Their credit cards seem to be the best cash back cards in the industry at 5.25% (Edited: Fixed) if you have 100K+ invested [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jun 2020 04:19 PM PDT I have an IRA account with Bank A. My financial advisor (whom I trust) told me they contacted him saying Bank A received a check with my name on it from Bank B. I have never had any kind of account with Bank B -- neither has my spouse. We have accounts with other banks, but definitely not Bank B. This check for about $7k was classified as a traditional IRA rollover. The only info the Bank A rep could provide were the last 4 digits of the Bank B account. That helps me in no way because, again, I'm not aware of an account with Bank B. Bank A gave my advisor a phone number for Bank B. Advisor called and said it sounded like Bank B, but no one picked up at the extension number. What do I do? Tell Bank A to find someone else with my name? Even if names got mixed up, how could that transfer get to my account -- they'd need my Bank A account number right? [link] [comments]  |
| Will debt randomly paid on my credit report restart 7 year mark? Posted: 08 Jun 2020 05:58 PM PDT I have had about 15k in debt from about 4 different places that I have not paid in almost 7 years. It keeps getting sold over but i'm waiting for the 7 year mark so I can dispute everything and get it off my credit report. However, just recently I noticed that one of the collections debt shows that 3 consecutive payments have been made to them in 2018 and then shows that payments went awol again after that. I know for a fact I did not make these payments. will this restart the 7 year mark and how do I fight that? seems super shady to say the least so any help would be appreciated thx. Also,who would make these payments for me? it almost seems like fraud by the debt collecting agency [link] [comments]  |
| 26, recent college grad, full time employed & looking for some input Posted: 08 Jun 2020 06:52 PM PDT Hey all, Finally have mustered up the courage after being a long time lurker. I'm just hoping to gather some advice from those who have been there and done that! So as the title suggests, I'm a 26 year old grad who accepted a full time gig with a fantastic general contractor whom I was working with during my time in school. I live in California. Here are the numbers: 1) My Starting salary is $75,000 a year, with my monthly take home being $3,872 after 401k (10%), taxes and benefits being deducted. I have about $15,000 invested in my 401k and my company matches and gives ESOP which is valued currently at $2,700. 2) I have no outstanding college debt/loans 3) I owe $5800 on my car 4) I currently have $12,000 in cash between a WF checking, Savings, and in a separate investment account 5) My Roth IRA has about $6,500 dollars invested in High Yield ETF's and I have another account with about $1,700 invested in Small Cap ETF's and High Yield ETF's. 6) I have no credit card debt 7) I still live at home and don't have to pay rent (mostly help with utilities and groceries) Honestly speaking, I feel that I am in a pretty great position all things considered with what is going on in the world at the moment, but that doesn't mean I necessarily feel comfortable with what my next move should be? The obvious answer for me is to pay the car off as fast as possible, building up my emergency fund and start saving for a home DP. But that's not to say that perhaps I'm overlooking something? Any advice and shared experiences is appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jun 2020 06:45 PM PDT Current salary is $135,300. They offered me 8 weeks so that is a total of $20,815 gross over 2 months. My boss said she will give me an outstanding reference and my work history is solid. I have savings as well. Unemployment in NY state is max $504 (I believe the extra $600 a week expires before I'd start receiving unemployment). Does anyone know if this will disqualify me from receiving unemployment benefits? The letter would say the voluntary incentive program has been offered because the firm will be doing future layoffs and salary reductions due to Covid-19. Likely to be laid off if I don't take it. Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Almost 34 years old, nothing in retirement. Posted: 08 Jun 2020 07:44 PM PDT I'll be 34 in August. I have nothing in retirement. I work for the government, which means no matching 401k. Currently, I have $22,000 in savings which I'm building as a down payment to buy a home/investment. I don't plan on buying anything yet, but in about a year or two if housing prices fall due to the virus, then I might make a move. What should I do? Should I take a portion of my savings and put it into a retirement account? Should I start siphoning off a retirement cut from every paycheck I receive from now on? What do I do? [link] [comments]  |
| Financial noob planning on moving out, need advice Posted: 08 Jun 2020 01:44 PM PDT I'm a 25-yr old single dude and I make $16 an hour, about $2k per month on average and I have about $10k in savings. I'm planning on moving out with a couple friends to an apartment where i'd be paying about $850 a month in rent+utilities. It will only be for six months since one of my friends is planning on moving out after that and theres a decent chance i'll get a small raise at some point in those six months, but from what I've read this would definitely be more than I ideally should be spending on rent with my income, so i'm wondering if anyone has advice on if this is a horrible mistake or if it could be manageable. I'm generally pretty smart but when it comes to money it's hard for me to make sense of all the variables involved. I'm also doing nothing in terms of investing with my savings so if anyone has basic advice about how to get started with that I would appreciate it as well. [link] [comments]  |
| Stranger reported my credit card account as fraudulent? Help! Posted: 08 Jun 2020 07:41 PM PDT Long story short: I went online to pay my monthly minimum and unable to login into my credit card account. I have not changed my login nor had any prior issues- ever. After three hours on the phone and multiple transfers, somebody called the CC company, reported my whole account as fraudulent and the CC company closed my account and wrote off the balance as fraudulent. Whoever did this had enough info to be able to log into my account and change some contact info? And I never got proper notification my account closed. I was honest thru all the phone calls and was adamant that it was definitely not me who reported my own account as fraudulent. I am going to call again tomorrow and talk to their existing claims department. I have never heard of such thing happening to a person. It was a $9000 balance. I have had the account for 16 years and in good standings on payments. I also made sure they said multiple times that the account has been closed and the entire balance written off as fraudulent I don't really know what to do besides get a credit report and make sure no new lines of credit have opened in my name. Has this ever happened to anybody else??? Why would somebody do this?? Help! [link] [comments]  |
| Can I add to my 2019 Roth IRA contributions even if I’ve already filed my taxes? Posted: 08 Jun 2020 05:57 PM PDT So I know you can add to the previous year IRA contributions until tax time of the following year. Now the tax deadline for this year was moved from April 15th to July 15th. However, I already filed my 2019 taxes back in March. I thought I heard somewhere that you can only add to your previous year IRA contributions if you have not yet filed your taxes, however now I am seeing some people say that you can add to last year up until the tax deadline (July 15th for this year). So is that the case? Can I still contribute to my 2019 IRA limit assuming I haven't hit the $6k limit yet? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jun 2020 07:23 PM PDT My roommate and I just got our first ever lease renewal offer. There was no rent increase, but I'm not sure how good a deal that is in the current environment. Is there a place I can see real time rent increase rates in my area? Any other advice? (I live in a complex run by a company, but we are also very good tenants). [link] [comments]  |
| Best way to make lenders bid against each other? Posted: 08 Jun 2020 07:23 PM PDT I posted this in r/realestate as well, but figured I should seek guidance here too. I will try to keep this short, any guidance is appreciated! I have been preapproved by two different lenders, one is a local lender and the other is a big bank, whom I also happen to work for. The big bank preapproved me for a higher amount and a better interest rate, and was also able to complete an 'underwriting review,' so I have been using their preapproval letter when putting in offers in a hot market as it seemed much stronger than the preapproval letter from the local lender. After losing on 8 offers (all were extremely competitive with the best terms possible) I finally learned from my realtor that the listing agents were basically throwing our offers in the trash because they saw 'big bank name' on the preapproval, and weren't confident that we could close on time. I have 100% confidence that 'big bank' will close on time, especially since the underwriting review has already been completed, and I know for a fact I will save money with them due to employee discounts on rate and closing costs. However, none of that matters if we can't get an offer accepted in the first place because of the negative perception around them. Moving forward I am planning to use the preapproval letter from the local lender to at least get an offer accepted, and then have them bid against the big bank to see if they can match the offer, but I have questions:
Really appreciate the help! TLDR: I am planning to use one lender's preapproval letter for the sake of getting an offer accepted, and planning to use a different lender (or at least have them bid against each other) when it comes time to close. Looking for guidance on best practices throughout the process. [link] [comments]  |
| Advice on my wife's life insurance Posted: 08 Jun 2020 07:03 PM PDT I just found out that my wife's parents got her a flexible universal life insurance policy via Farmers when she was a child, for $100K. I really do not know much about this topic but may call the Farmers rep to learn more (although I am sure his take will be biased). The annual cost is about $500, which we would need to take over the payment for, so I am trying to figure out whether this is something we should keep or not. Currently, about 70% of our household income comes from me, although it may not always be that way. I have term life insurance for myself, for the next 25 years or so. I would appreciate any advice or insight into what I need to find out about this policy, the pros and cons of this sort of policy, the benefits of being insured ever since she was a kid, what sort of questions to ask the agent, etc. I'll take whatever valuable insight that I can get. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jun 2020 05:28 PM PDT I was one of those that was never taught anything about credit growing up (because the world is going to end before then so you dont need to know anything). Yeah well the world didnt end. So now I have a history of just a few accounts. Most often I paid cash for everything. Then I made a further mistake of not paying attention or learning how interest worked on loans and took out a couple of loans with exceedingly high interest. Now that I am a bit older and now taking a moment to look at these things and try to make some plans. My goal is to be able to either buy a house or obtain a construction loan for a house on land I own (another private loan I did). My question here surrounds how best to raise my credit score and lower the amount of interest I am paying. With the current number of loans I have, all of them will be paid off within 5 years. I would like to expedite that. And reduce my interest costs. I've seen these bill consolidation loans. Are they worth it? Will they be an option with a low credit score? Should I use my land as equity (approx 30k value, 10k outstanding note). Options or opportunities? Thanks all [link] [comments]  |
| Problems with my mortgage broker and what can I do now Posted: 08 Jun 2020 06:53 PM PDT Edit: TL/DR: broker is giving me the runaround and now says the conventional loan won't go through because of an extra $400 in homeowner's insurance. What can I do to get the back on track? I've searched the sub and have found it all very helpful but I'm still trying to understand what is happening with my broker. The realtor has said he's never seen a broker act like this and cannot understand what the problem is. A short history includes the broker switching the application to FHA without telling me because he didn't include my assets in the application despite me providing them; then back to FHA again when he unilaterally decided I needed flood insurance (I don't); and now the insurance quote he used won't work because the home doesn't have wind mitigation, which he knew, but still assured me the quote was ok so once again he is suggesting that I cannot buy enough points down to offset the cost and need to go to FHA. The numbers have never made sense to me but finance stuff often doesn't so I have not questioned things nearly enough apparently. Explanations for these issues include, an emergency vet visit for the dog, emergency surgery for the wife, and today he couldn't talk to me because it's his birthday. Mind you closing is scheduled for 12 days from now and there is zero sense of urgency to get anything straightened out. At the beginning it was "absolutely we'll get this done, no problem" and now it's "I can't be bothered to answer your calls within 24 hours". He is never at his desk between at least 2p-6p and instead says he will get back to his desk after 9p and still doesn't do what he says he will do until I pester him the next morning. While I am sympathetic to all the issues in the world right now, he has been in this business as long as I have been alive and he doesn't have small children or anything. Also if you are having personal issues the professional thing to do is pass the file on to a colleague. I waffle between being understanding and being outraged that there have been so many unnecessary issues. I also totally get that I should have done more diligence in the beginning and asked more questions and shopped around instead of relying on the representations of a disinterested broker. I'm here now just trying to figure out everything I can do going forward to push the sale through. My credit score average is around 650, loan value is $147K, lot of student loan debt (legitimate graduate degree), but solid employment history, and decent down payment (around 12%). I get that I'm not the best candidate but I don't see any reason why I'm getting this type of runaround. I put in an application to my credit union tonight and will call them in the morning to see what (if anything) they can do to get this back on track, but in the meantime I'm wondering does the broker make more on FHA? Is there any penalty in me switching to direct lender while the application from the broker is in underwriting? Can a $400 difference in homeowner's insurance really end the whole transaction? How can I contact the underwriter or lender? No information has been provided to me regarding the lender - is that normal? What else can I do to make sure this sale goes through? I really appreciate any thoughts any one can provide. I have been wanting to buy a house for several years and have worked hard to fix my credit. Working from home really pushed the issue for me and the house that I am under contract for is absolutely perfect. It's very modest for homes in my area, substantially lower sale price than the area average, and the proposed mortgage is cheaper than my rent. I am willing to do whatever I have to in order to get through close but I feel like he is actively sabotaging me for reasons I cannot understand. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Jun 2020 02:57 PM PDT I have questions about selecting a financial advisor. To start with requirements, I will not select anyone/organization that is not a fiduciary at a minimum. My main question revolves around choosing one from another. I've used the sites like: https://brokercheck.finra.org/ and other resources in order to learn how to look into the records / proof that someone indeed is a fiduciary. However, I'm finding wildly different results when I look at their ADV - part 2 documents. For example, I was looking at 1 fiduciary wherein the ADV statement has a large paragraph at the top explaining that this year, in 2020 the FIRM that an advisor works for was fined 350k for a "settlement" that the FINRA did not disclose the details of. I was looking at another firm that has at least 9-10 disclosures of conflicts of interest. I was blown away. This one doesn't seem to have any recent fines, though. All in all I am looking for any further advice on any other red flags or green lights here when looking for a fiduciary. Lastly, fees and how they get paid, is Fee-only the right way? So TL;DR WTF am I doing I need to figure out how to trust any of these people? [link] [comments]  |
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