Personal Finance Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of June 26, 2020 |
- Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of June 26, 2020
- Employer changing time cards (rounding the time worked down)
- Should I wait to sell my mutual funds at Edward Jones and move everything to index funds at Vanguard?
- I'm used to working at or just above minimum wage. I live on my parents' couch. I just came into money and I don't want to blow it.
- Is it a good idea to start a Vanguard account at 15?
- Credit One telling me to send them my bank statement
- Can I invest a sum as small as $200?
- Ambiguous Promotion and Pay Raise Situation
- Inherited mutual fund with high expense ratio: sell w/ taxed capital gains or keep?
- Medical Insurance made a mistake and is now billing me 20 times for wart on my finger.
- Can I purposefully overfund me 401 to get a better match?
- I owe a university $10,000.
- Failed to report a capital gain on last year's taxes, should I amend my return?
- Should I use my savings to pay off my credit card?
- Is there any catch to Discover Cash Back Card?
- Would it make sense financially (and legally) to move back in with my parents
- Solar panels or utility solar?
- Forgot to pay cc. Bank froze all accounts and is not unfreezing even after I paid. What can I do?
- Having issues with Zelle...
- Pay off home or invest?
- What point in life, somebody can take it easy on savings and start bit of spending.
- What starting credit card should I get?
- (US) Why does my interest rate seem to go up when I pay more?
- Should I stay on my parents health insurance or utilize the benefits of an HSA?
- Take a partner buyout?
| Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of June 26, 2020 Posted: 26 Jun 2020 02:05 PM 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]  |
| Employer changing time cards (rounding the time worked down) Posted: 26 Jun 2020 11:42 AM PDT I asked my manager to print off my time sheet to show me my clock in and clock out for the past few pay periods and I noticed an immediate discrepancy. All clock in and out times are rounded to the nearest 15 minute mark. I know for a fact that I punch in a little before 7:15 every day (between 2 and 10 minutes early) but every punch in says 7:15. Is this legal? I live in MN if that matters. If this belongs in a different thread please let me know. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Jun 2020 08:34 AM PDT My wife and I started working with an Edward Jones advisor when we first got married as young college students. He was very helpful in getting us set up with Roths, etc. We've just stayed with him over the last 7 years and it's been fine. But looking deeper at the fees we're paying and our long term investment strategy, we want to move our money to index funds at Vanguard. Should we wait until the market is less volatile to sell our mutual funds and move everything over? Is there something we should be considering that we're not thinking about? Any help would be appreciated! Edit: thanks for all the advice! Everything is in Roth, 401k, or traditional IRA accounts, if that helps. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Jun 2020 12:46 PM PDT I graduated college with a (as of now) useless degree. For a couple of years after I rented with my friends and worked in a pizza kitchen and as a personal care assistant to a college buddy who has a disability. When he moved away and my lease ended, I moved to my parents' state and planned to crash on their couch for a few weeks while I looked for a job. I ended up working another kitchen job and sleeping on their couch from September til now. I'll be the first to admit I have not been good with money in my past. I paid my rent, utilities, and insurance then blew the rest. But late last year I tried to start getting my stuff together. Because of the CARES Act plus my own savings, I now have more in my account than I've ever had before. (A few thousand) And I'm only paying my super gracious parents a small amount for rent. How do I invest/use this money responsibly? I don't know much about mutual funds or stocks; I was never taught that sort of thing. I owe five figures in student loans, but I'm on a $10 a month payment plan and interest is temporarily frozen. I've already put a portion of my new money into it. My actual passion, longshot as it is, is to write for television. I don't have any connections, though, and I doubt just using this money to pack up and move to Cali would be wise. I've thought about investing in a super cheap TV pilot like the Always Sunny guys; or even going to grad school primarily to make those important connections, but if that fails that's just more money I owe. Right now I'm leaning toward mutual funds, just based on what I've heard. It's just that most financial advice seems to be to young professionals with a spouse and kids. I don't want to start a traditional family. I want to do what's best for me, and my own independence. I'm tired of squandering what I have because of impulses or bad choices. I've never posted anywhere like this before, but I could use some help. [link] [comments]  |
| Is it a good idea to start a Vanguard account at 15? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 07:17 PM PDT I'm 15 and my mom said she would start one for me if I gave her the $500. I have the money so is it a good idea? Or should I wait until the markets are better [link] [comments]  |
| Credit One telling me to send them my bank statement Posted: 26 Jun 2020 05:35 AM PDT They sent me a letter a few days ago that says this: "We recently received a payment for $____. Because we were unable to verify this payment, we have placed a temporary block on your account. In order to reactivate your account, the following documentation is required." It goes on to say that if I don't send them my recent bank statement they will close my account and it will be reported to credit reporting agencies... I called their customer service number and the lady said that I need to email my bank statement to them showing that statement, with the letterhead of my bank on it. I haven't done anything different with this credit card than past months. I know this is a horrible credit card, just using it to raise my credit from being poor, and I might be closing it and opening at another agency. Does this sound legit, or has it happened to anyone else? It's ridiculous that I have to go through all of this. Edit: Two things that were different this month, but I don't think they should affect this credit card: New debit card with my normal bank because the other one was hacked into; and I made two separate payments this month on the credit card to pay off. I've done the second before a few months ago with no problems, and I've heard that it's fine to make multiple payments a month. Update: Thank you all for the great suggestions!!! I called the company. The number listed on the card, letter, and their website was all the same. The lady said that they needed to verify the transaction because it was the second one this month, so they were wondering why I paid in more than one increment this month. I've done that before. I sent my bank statement in an email to their customer service email. I also applied for a Capital One credit card and was approved for it. I think I will wait until I activate the Capital One card and close the Credit One account after things hopefully get situated. Thanks for all of your replies! [link] [comments]  |
| Can I invest a sum as small as $200? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 11:59 AM PDT I'm a stay at home mom, no job, no car, broke asf. My dad gave me $200 dollars for some house decorations is there a smarter way I could use this money? Could I invest this small amount into something? I'm trying to move out on my own from an abusive relationship but struggling to make an income without time or child care for a real job. Was considering making crafts and selling online, was just wondering if there was a better option. [link] [comments]  |
| Ambiguous Promotion and Pay Raise Situation Posted: 26 Jun 2020 03:57 AM PDT My boss and I discussed an arrangement over a year ago where I would take on a promotion and senior tasks, and in turn train a junior staff member on my old job. We determined a target implementation date for my pay raise which would be a few months later - it was agreed upon and in writing. Despite the fact that I have been doing the full promotion job for a long period of time (a full year) and I tried for a long period of time to train the junior staff member, my boss will not honour the pay raise. He keeps claiming that because the junior staff member is not fully competent in her role, therefore my role has not been "transitioned", and he will not give me a pay increase. Do I have any recourse here? What should I do (other than obviously leave my job and find a better boss)? [link] [comments]  |
| Inherited mutual fund with high expense ratio: sell w/ taxed capital gains or keep? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 08:45 AM PDT I inherited a mutual fund that was opened in the late 90's that has a relatively high expense ratio of 0.80% and it has grown to a healthy balance. It amounts to about 7-12% of my total net worth. Since starting my own investing, I've been investing in index funds such as VFIAX with low expense ratios. Is there any harm keeping a fund like this long-term? I've been ok keeping it just because it does offer some diversification and it's performance has been acceptable. [link] [comments]  |
| Medical Insurance made a mistake and is now billing me 20 times for wart on my finger. Posted: 26 Jun 2020 02:50 PM PDT I just received a $500 bill for getting a wart frozen off my finger. Iv'e gone 20 times in the past (I've had a lot of warts), same insurance company, sample policy, and all I've ever had to pay was my specialist co-pay $30. I called to see what the issue was and why it was $500 and they told me that after doing some digging, my insurance should NEVER have covered it at 100% after co-pay. These count as surgical procedures which I need to meet my deductible for, then 90% will be covered after that. So now they are retroactively sending me bills for all the mistakes! Is there anything I can do or I am I stuck with paying several thousand dollars when I had NO IDEA it would cost this much. It was their mistake! [link] [comments]  |
| Can I purposefully overfund me 401 to get a better match? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 10:21 AM PDT Hello all. I am soon starting a new job where the employer will match 50% of all contributions. I will be leaving a company with 0% match. I have put about 10k into my 401k so far this year. When I start my new job, can I max out my 401k so that I get a free $9250 match, and then remove my initial 10k from the first companies 401k provider, or is it a LIFO policy? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Jun 2020 04:55 PM PDT I am a recent college graduate. During summer 2019, I enrolled at university B as a visiting student in attempt to get ahead and lighten my course load for my final year of undergrad. This school offered 2-week and 4-week courses. I intended to pay for my courses with student loans; I added this uni to my FAFSA far in advance and filled out my financial aid at university B. I contacted university B about the status of my financial aid a week before classes started. I was told that they (university B) were still processing things. Generally at my main university, university A, fee bills must be paid before class and I believe there's an option to get a 1 week extension. If you don't pay, you're removed from the course. However at university B, this wasn't my experience. I took 4 courses at university B. No one from the school's financial aid or billing reached out to me. I kept calling to check on the status and they kept saying it was processing. During the first week of the last 4-week course, someone finally called me. Someone from university B's billing department called me to notify me of the amount that I owe. I explained that I had filed for financial aid through the school and that I was waiting to hear back. Then I was told that visiting students weren't eligible for financial aid through university B. Beforehand I talked to someone who worked for university B's financial aid about this process and they never mentioned that I wouldn't be eligible. So I told the person who was speaking with from billing and then they contacted the person who I initially spoke with and I was told that "she thought I was a transfer student; not a visiting student". Then they just said I had until mid-August to pay them their money. However at that point, I was going to be starting my senior year at university A as a full time student and I had 35 hours remaining. Taking the courses at university B was meant to put me at 25 remaining hours. Because I didn't pay fee bill, I couldn't get my transcript. So without my transcript, I still had 35 hours remaining. I was enrolled in 19 hours Fall 2019 and did not have a job or savings, so I didn't pay them back. I received $500 for Christmas and I paid $300 to university B. During Spring 2020, I was able to find a job paying $13/hr. However because I was still a full time student, I only worked about 15-18 hours per week January - mid March. Then I got laid off at the start of the pandemic. Additionally, I am a pre-med student. I only have 1 living parent whom is considered low-income, therefore I typically qualify for most waivers and federal grants (which is why I thought I would be able to get financial aid at university B). I'm planning to start a masters program in August. There's a good chance that I'll be accepted into med school immediately after I complete my masters program. I don't think I'll have time to work until in my masters program and I definitely don't think I'll be working while in med school. Today I received a letter saying if I don't pay by May 21st, I'll be referred to a collections agency. I'm just getting this letter so I'm assuming I'll be reported any moment now if I haven't already. I don't have $10,000. No one in my family is able to give me that type of money. What should I do? I don't see myself being able to pay much money anytime soon. All the advice found online is about student loans however this isn't a loan so I'm confused on what my options are. Edit: typos [link] [comments]  |
| Failed to report a capital gain on last year's taxes, should I amend my return? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 08:17 PM PDT Title. The capital gain was about $2500 and a mix of both short term and long-term capital gains. I didn't receive any official tax documentation from the broker and it appears that I would have to manually calculate and report my cost basis/capital gain/loss. I honestly totally forgot about this when filing my 2018 taxes, and just remembered today when finishing up my 2019 taxes. I haven't been audited but I figure I should just file an amended return anyways to maybe be treated a little bit more leniantly, but how screwed could I be? Is it possible that if I amend the IRS would impose significant penalties or even attempt to prosecute? I would estimate the total tax I'd owe is $1000, not sure how much penalties and interest would add to that. One more question - should I wait until after I've amended my last year return to file this year's or does it not matter? [link] [comments]  |
| Should I use my savings to pay off my credit card? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 04:12 PM PDT Married with a 2 year old, combined finances. Annual income before tax: $78000 Biweekly take home paycheck after tax & deductions (medical, dental, auto, & rental insurance): $2,500 Monthly Expenses Rent: $1,100 Electricity: $50-$150 Gas & tolls: $250 Groceries & food: $800 Daycare: $850 Internet, Amazon, Disney+, Spotify: $130 Student loan: $113 (minimum, $5,000 left) Credit card situation: A few years ago the balance used to fluctuate between $5,000-$10,000. I'd pay around $1,000-$1,500 a month, usually more than I spent. Had a few other retail credit cards but always paid those off every month. Both our credit scores were 800+ at this point. Then had a baby and at the same time had to support a few family members for about a year from another country who came here to help take care of family with terminal cancer. Paid out of pocket for funeral expenses. Now the balance has been around $26,000 for months. Paying around $1,000 a month but the $300+ interest is killing us. $250 from my paycheck goes to a separate account that used to be for my car payment and savings. I never touch the account and the balance is now about $13,000. We got our tax refund and stimulus and they were about $10,000 total. Should I use the entire $23,000 to pay off my credit card? That was the original plan but then this whole covid thing happened. My job is fairly secure, my husband had a 2 week furlough. Now back to work but he said it's slow. We considered opening another card for balance transfer but our credit scores have gone down to 670 now. I'm thinking if we use our savings we can get it down to $3000 and the interest would be minimal in comparison to now and we should be able to pay it off in a few months. Then we can rebuild our savings and start saving up for a condo or a house. We've been in this apartment for 5 years and every year the rent would go up $20-$40. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Is there any catch to Discover Cash Back Card? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 05:27 AM PDT Thinking about getting one just because I have more than enough Delta Miles points for my American Express card, I was thinking about getting a Discover cash back card. I always pay monthly charge in full so I have never paid interest on CC, so i'm good there. it says there's no annual fee or hidden charges, but I was wondering if there was any catch to it all. Sounds like a pretty good deal for someone like me. Any thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Would it make sense financially (and legally) to move back in with my parents Posted: 26 Jun 2020 09:33 AM PDT I'm considering whether it makes to move back in with my parents in order to save money on rent and be able to pay off my student loans faster. However, I currently live in Massachusetts and work remotely. I was planning to move home to New York and continue to work remotely but I am wondering about the legal ramifications of this given all of my contact information, health insurance, and car insurance is in my current state. So here's the lowdown: Age: 29 Monthly take home: $1715 Emergency fund: $5000 Student Loan Debt: $22,000 Monthly expenses (rent, student loan minimums, car insurance, phone, food, gas): $1200 Extra student loan payments: $400 a month Leaving me about $100 a month which kind of sucks. Also, I'm beginning to grow tired of my roommate and living situation, I feel like moving in with my parents it would better enable me to live a quiet lifestyle and focus on developing useful skills, I could more easily pick up a side gig, and would save roughly $525 on rent every month which could be put toward student loans, or other needs, or free up a little more money for entertainment. On the other hand, I am worried about the legal ramifications of "moving" from MA to NY when my job is technically here but I work remotely, my health and car insurance are in MA, my voter registration is here, most of my friends are here, and there are people I would rather avoid in NY. Living with parents would also be a lifestyle adjustment and it's a bit embarrassing to be moving back in with them when I'm about to turn 30. Moreover, I'm worried about telling my job or asking permission to make the move. I am afraid that if they know I am living with my parents they might consider me more expendable if there are more rounds of layoffs because I have a better safety net than some of my coworkers. (Is it selfish to think that way? Is it realistic?) What kind of move would you make in my situation? [link] [comments]  |
| Solar panels or utility solar? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 08:32 AM PDT I want to reduce my carbon footprint so I am eager to obtain energy from carbon neutral sources. I originally considered solar panels on my roof, but now I am considering changing my electricity source through my electricity provider. I can choose to source my electricity from a relatively local wind farm (11c/kWh) instead of the default source (6.5c/kWh). I use about 800kwh per month on average. My thought is that I can use the money that I would have invested in solar (~$17,000) and invest it conservatively in fixed income sources that will generate income to offset the higher cost per kWh of energy usage. I imagine that there are factors that I am overlooking and would be interested in everyone's thoughts. What do you think is the most environmental choice and/or the most reasonable choice? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Forgot to pay cc. Bank froze all accounts and is not unfreezing even after I paid. What can I do? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 02:42 PM PDT I forgot to pay my credit card bill this month. I found that out today when I tried to use my debit card issues from the same bank and it declined. I figured out why and paid the bill in full. The bank keeps telling me the account will be unfrozen tomorrow for three straight days. I am unable to use the debit card as well as unable to transfer money out of that account. They verified on the phone I would not be able to withdraw my funds in person either. I'm 2000 miles away for work right now (thanks Arizona covid!) What is my next step? There's almost 20k in the account which they froze over a 40 dollar late fee. Is that even legal? Happy fun times of 2020. Thanks for your input. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Jun 2020 05:38 PM PDT So I recently sent a friend $200 through Zelle, and today she sent me $200 to pay me back, however, I'm not getting it in my account. I'll recieve the notification that the money was sent to me, but it'll say "to accept your money, visit register.zellepay.com". I'll click on the link, but all it will do is send me to my bank account and there'll be no notification of anybody sending me money. I'm not sure what the problem is. Anyone here with a good guess? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Jun 2020 07:07 PM PDT I currently owe around $97,000 on my home. 30 year mortgage at 4.25%. No other outstanding payments (vehicle is paid off). If I paid off the house I would still have approximately $30,000 in savings. Should I invest the $97,000 or pay off the house? [link] [comments]  |
| What point in life, somebody can take it easy on savings and start bit of spending. Posted: 26 Jun 2020 09:11 PM PDT Apologies in advance as this post is not about how to save money or LPT etc. TLDR: I've reasonable saving but at what time in life I can balance enjoyment vs future risks. My wife who is a homemaker thinks I too scared and risk averse when it comes to financial decision making. While I don't live really frugal live but I don't want to take bigger debts or burn cash in hand. Background: I'm about to hit 40 and I've kind of stable job which involves lots of typing in PC Keyboard to make living with yearly earning >$200K. We've two kids in school and our house has ~$400K outstanding mortgage balance. 401k Balance: ~$500K invested in various funds with decent returns. Cash/Assets : ~$450K Mostly in stocks, IRA, HSA etc. I've rainy day fund of $70K or so which we don't want to touch. Life Goal: Besides saving for my retirement, I want to fund my kids college education as my parents did for me. I'm helping my parents here and there but not a big expense as they've own pension etc. I max out every possible saving mechanism, like max allowed contribution to 401k, Employee Stock plans, HSA deduction (Which I don't use at all), Traditional IRA, Roth IRA etc. My wife thinks that we're being too conservative and we should enjoy our life bit more, may be get a bigger house. get a better car. We do enjoy decent life but I'm always worried about what if job changes or economy tumble etc. I didn't grew up in poverty but we did have to think about every expense growing up as we had limited income. And maybe this is always in my mind ? I want to ask opinion of others who might be around my age on how to plan for retirement and how to balance risk vs spending. Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| What starting credit card should I get? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 09:07 PM PDT Hello, I just graduated and starting a new job, so I'm looking to open a new credit card. My main focus is travel points/reward. I'm really interested in Chase Preffered bonus but I'm not sure if I qualified given my empty credit history. A relative opened a credit card for me couple years ago so technically it should give me some credit history, but I wasn't able to look up my credit history anywhere except Equifax (don't know why). So given that I may have no credit history, which starting credit card should I get if my focus is travel? Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| (US) Why does my interest rate seem to go up when I pay more? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 09:10 AM PDT https://i.imgur.com/3rGSDPj.png My minimum payment is $332.08, so I try to pay more. But I see my interest rate seem to go up and down. My interest rate is 4.9% [link] [comments]  |
| Should I stay on my parents health insurance or utilize the benefits of an HSA? Posted: 26 Jun 2020 09:04 PM PDT I am a healthy 22 year old starting my first career job. I will be making a salary of $68,000 and have about $30,000 in student loan debts. I plan to maximize my employers 401(k) match. My parents have very good health insurance that I am still covered by and have said they will allow me to remain on it until the 26 cut off if I choose to. Not paying any healthcare premiums seems like the way to go however, if I choose my employers high deductible plan I can start an HSA. I understand that all contributions to an HSA are tax free and can also be invested. Which option makes more financial sense? 1) Remain on parents insurance until age 26 and pay no premiums? Or 2) Choose my employers high deductible plan an start an HSA with untaxed contributions and the plan to invest the money? Finance is not my area of expertise so any advice would be much appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Jun 2020 08:53 PM PDT I am a minority owner in a mid size business. Over the years my partner has flip flopped about wanting to sell. I personally have wanted to for a while because I had no other recourse for liquidity and wanted to put some $$ away because of the fragility of the biz and just general fear.. Our relationship has also gone down hill and now she has offered to buy out 80% of my shares but wants me to keep the rest purposely so that I continue to have skin in the game and stay on. The offer is based on a valuation which is 1/3rd of what I think those shares would be worth if we did sell the biz. (Not taking into account debt, M&A fees, etc..) I think I can get the offer up 30% more, which I could live with. Also, if we did end up selling for the higher number later, and I get paid out at that point for the remaining shares my total take home would still be 2/3rds of the amount had I not sold any shares, which seems reasonable for some security.. The issue is that she wants to pay me 25% up front and the rest over 8 years. I don't like the sound of that..Are there loans or other vehicles I can suggest to her so that I get paid up front but that still allows her to pay it off via cash flow? I assume she will be skittish of a personal guarantee. I have a lawyer who can help redline the docs, but is there some sort of advisor role I can hire to help with the negotiating or structuring of the terms? I assume my employment agreement/benefits/perks will also be negotiated too. Thanks [link] [comments]  |
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