Personal Finance Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of September 28, 2020 |
- Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of September 28, 2020
- Am I an idiot to leave a job with a pension early?
- Deceased father’s former employer notified me of data breach
- Father died on Friday (retired). He did not live in the US at the time. What now?
- Mortgage Refi - 15 years at 1.99%. No reason not to, right? $5500 closing costs.
- Leaving an IRA to be escheated to the state can now cost you significantly.
- Recently laid off with the most savings I've ever had and looking to start a career in Infosec, can't decide if I should take out a loan or pay cash.
- Do I leave a comfortable job for an unknown that pays much more?
- Was just offered an apartment for $300/ month. First time living on my own and working on my budget. What am I missing?
- Parents putting their house in kids name??? Yes or no?
- Need Help With A Possible Elaborate Cash App Scam
- How can I make more than enough income to pay for a mortgage on a house, but not enough to save for a down payment on said house?
- Paying taxes on gambling winnings?
- $34,960 in debt, currently creating a plan but I need advice and guidance
- [Canadian] Age 27 debt free for the first time - where should I put my savings?
- I don't make much money, and I need a few thousands in the next 3 months. What are my options?
- Reopening a Chase Savings Account
- I want to refinance my mortgage, but I don't know how
- My lease ends in a month and I want to buy the car.
- Cashing a check for someone else
- Mortgage interest rate
- Investing in Index Funds
- University is trying to collect debt
- Please help, I think my friend is being scammed and he won't believe me.
- should I Refinance my car loan?
| Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of September 28, 2020 Posted: 28 Sep 2020 04:00 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]  |
| Am I an idiot to leave a job with a pension early? Posted: 28 Sep 2020 06:50 AM PDT So here's the situation. I'm not happy with my current job and have a very in demand skillset, so finding new work will be extremely easy. What's keeping me here is the pension. I'm about 9 years away from having a pension locked in that will set me up for retirement with something like 85% of my current salary when I reach the appropriate age. Currently, I contribute 10% of my income to the pension and my employer adds 12% I started a job search about three weeks ago and I've already gotten a few offers that pay upwards of 35% more than I'm making now. If I put 25% of the new income in a 401k or similar, I'd still be putting away more than I am now, but I'm torn about the two retirement plans. Am I crazy to leave the pension before I've got it filled out? EDIT: Thanks for all of the help to those that contributed advice. I think I'm going to pursue the new job and plan to put away at least 25% for retirement. At the higher salary, that will be a larger contribution than I'm making now and still leave me with more cash in pocket at the end of the day. [link] [comments]  |
| Deceased father’s former employer notified me of data breach Posted: 28 Sep 2020 06:52 AM PDT My father died two years ago (we're in the US). I am 90% sure at the time I notified Equifax etc. that he was deceased in addition to notifying all relevant banks to close the accounts. I just got a letter from my father's former employer that the company was subjected to a data breach and that personal information may be compromised, suggesting that all current and former employees do a security freeze. Is there anything else I can or should do? Edit: Thanks everyone. I was concerned as someone did steal my grandfather's SS number after he died and I was too young to remember how my father resolved that issue at the time. [link] [comments]  |
| Father died on Friday (retired). He did not live in the US at the time. What now? Posted: 28 Sep 2020 07:29 AM PDT Hey so, my dad died on Friday. He was my only parent. He was a US citizen, retired and collecting social security while living in Poland with his wife (they got married in Poland within the last 10 years) he was 72. She is not a US citizen, but apparently they filed paperwork a while back and she finally recently started getting some money thats paid into her account. My father's social security payments come at the begining of the month into his Chase account apparently. His wife has access to the bank card and pin, but isn't officially named on the account. She will draw the final payment on the 3rd of Oct - apparently it's payment for the previous month. Is this going to be ok since he's no longer alive yet bank activity will continue one last time? Today he is getting cremated and she will get a few copies of the death certificate. The document will be in Polish - I assume I will need to get it translated and notarized before I am able to file any documents, close any accounts and so on? Lastly - now that he died how do I ensure that his wife continues to get paid, and is she going to receive a bit more directly? Is she able to handle this piece on her own at the US embassy, or will I need to do any work on my end here in the US in order to notify the government that he has passed away? He did not have an estate. All that I've asked her for are small memorabilia items that we will pick up next time we fly to PL. He has a vehicle, I assume she can take ownership of it with the death certificate. Death sucks. [link] [comments]  |
| Mortgage Refi - 15 years at 1.99%. No reason not to, right? $5500 closing costs. Posted: 28 Sep 2020 02:34 PM PDT Have a 30 year right now (26 years left) at 3.5%. Income has increased a bit and want to get this house paid off by the time I'm 50 so shopping around and this is the best rate I've got (1.99% for 15 years) no ponits. Closing costs will be $5,500. No PMI required. Outstanding mortgage balance is $350,000. Monthly payment will increase by $500 but that's not a big deal. Any reason to keep shopping rates? Most quotes were 2.25% but then I found this online lender who offered the 1.99% when I turned down their initial offer of 2.25%. They don't have the best of reviews, but they're gonna sell my loan after closing anyway and in the 4 years I've had my current mortgage I have had to call the mortgage company exactly 0 times. Any advice? [link] [comments]  |
| Leaving an IRA to be escheated to the state can now cost you significantly. Posted: 28 Sep 2020 06:57 PM PDT In the past it wasn't a big deal to leave small IRA's open. It's not the best idea, but now it's a terrible idea: >Unclaimed property holders should take notice of IRS rules concerning the escheatment of individual retirement accounts effective Jan. 1, 2020. In Revenue Ruling 2018-17, the IRS ruled that the escheatment of an IRA or annuity to a state unclaimed property fund will be subject to federal tax withholding and reporting. In other words, escheatment will be treated as a designated distribution to the IRA owner subject to withholding at a 10% rate. This assumes there is no withholding election by the IRA owner. I am not affiliated with this agency, but their summary is very clear. I would hate to see someone pay this withholding for no reason. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Sep 2020 05:16 PM PDT Hey Reddit! As the title says I've recently been notified that I will be laid off, and I've been fortunate enough to have a good amount of savings along with a severance at the end of my contract with my current employer. I'm looking to get a certificate in cyber security or Infosec, since I want a trade so to speak, that will allow me to have more steady employment and diversify my skills (I currently am a career ops manager) and the cost looks to be about $13k. I know this is a tough industry to break into, but I'm determined to learn more about it and get a job in the industry given the forecasted growth and current job opportunities there. Currently I have about $24k saved up (8-10months emergency), and typical take home is $4k/mo and I save about 1200/mo with my salary with two more months of employment left and I will receive another $16k plus unemployment at the time of separation and out placement assistance so I'll ( hopefully) have very little time without income flowing in, even though I'm quite aware of the challenges that the current job market presents and am prepared for a tough road ahead, and the worst case scenario. Retirement is nearly on track, and I also want to start investing more eventually, but this is also the most money I've ever had to my name and I'm scared shitless to spend a dime so I'm not sure whether I should just shell out the money for the certification or get a loan (I currently have 0% interest options) so I can preserve my liquid cash in case I don't find a new job soon enough. I'm leaning towards taking the loan and I'm open to risks but I'm just not sure how to proceed given the uncertainty of everything right now. [link] [comments]  |
| Do I leave a comfortable job for an unknown that pays much more? Posted: 28 Sep 2020 03:30 PM PDT I've worked at my current company for a little over 5 years. I worked in a different department for the first 3. I started out at $13/hr, with a promise that if I was doing well 6 months in, I would get a $1/hr raise. After a bit of reminding (when the 6 months was up), it was given to me. About 2 years later my old work place contacted me offering $16/hr. I didn't want to leave, but the offer made me contemplate my worth. I contacted my boss immediately and explained to her what happened, she spoke with her boss, and a day or 2 later they offered me $16 to stay. I did. A "promotion" in another department came up, and I had numerous co-workers suggest I show interest. I did. After a bit of commuting (the new position was at an entirely new office about 45 minutes way) for training purposes, I was given a raise up to $17.25, to compensate for the commute, and started a new position. I've been in my new position for 2 years. I relocated very close to the new job, to make things easier. It also put me closer to my 9 year old son. As Covid has been for everyone, it's been chaos in my industry. We are BUSY. But within the first month my company let go of some people that couldn't do their own jobs from home. Half of my department was allowed to work from home full-time, and the rest of us were now stuck doing the work of multiple be on a day-to-day basis for 6 months. I do get to work from home on mondays and tuesdays, but I'm just as busy as if I were in the office. I just get to be busy in pajamas. A little over a month ago a co-worker that I was close with let me know she took a job with a rival company. I dont know what she was making, but I believe I was making $1-2 more than her at my company. Her new job pays her $24/hr. My company informed her they couldn't come close to matching and she left. I jokingly told her that if they ever had another opening that she should let her boss know. Well...they have an opening. She let her boss know. I spoke to him very briefly on the phone last week to set up a time to meet. That time is tomorrow morning. I really do love my co-workers. My company has been great to me. But, I make $17.89. I just recently had to get a new car. Living in the city is expensive. Child support. Etc.... What I mean to say, is that $24.00 would be a large difference in my pay check. I don't want to make the choice based strictly on pay. But, it's hard not to think about it. Maybe they don't offer me the same amount. I guess I shouldn't be throwing that exact figure out there. But, I have at least 1 more year of experience in the industry than my co-worker did when she was headhunted. Anyhow...I've asked her a bit about her new workplace. The downsides that I can recall, from her, are that her new co-workers definitely don't seem to like one another anywhere near as much as my current ones do. Their means of doing the work that we do (I'm in the Title Insurance industry) is much more archaic than my current company's. They also gave her an extra week of vacation, so that's another positive to think of. Sorry, this post is incredibly long, and my mind is all over the place. I figure that this should be an easy "yes", but I would like to hear what others have to say. I'm a bit scared of the unknown. I know what my company offers, and I'm happy. I'm overworked at the moment and I have stress levels I've never seen before, but I know what I'm doing here and I do it well. I just don't want to make a big decision (for me) without gathering some sort of insight from a others. Thanks, and I appreciate any words of advice. Questions are also welcome, if anyone wants to know specifics. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Sep 2020 05:53 PM PDT My take home pay each month is $2,158. My job pays 100% of my health/vision/dental and I have no credit card debt. I was just offered a place to stay for $300/m and that includes water. I'm a single 24yr old guy so my expenses are light. I have broken my monthly budget down into:
I'm not a big TV guy so I'm forgoing that. After all this I still have $413 left at the end of each month. I'm trying to think of anything I missed and what I might need to take into account. My parents aren't much help with this stuff, so any insight or advice is welcome. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Parents putting their house in kids name??? Yes or no? Posted: 28 Sep 2020 09:59 AM PDT My father owns his home and wants to put the house in my and my brothers name. I know nothing about this kind of thing but wanted to know the risks involved. He will pay the insurance and taxes on it. He's just concerned that if my mother or him got really sick, the house could be taken from them if insurance ran out. For example, if one of them was in the hospital for months, then their insurance might cap them and then come for their assets. Something similar happened to my aunt years ago and another similar thing happened to some of their close friends recently. So, would this be something to avoid? I would hate to tell my dad no. But if it could cause a financial hardship to me and my family then I would have to. [link] [comments]  |
| Need Help With A Possible Elaborate Cash App Scam Posted: 28 Sep 2020 04:31 PM PDT Just to preface, my identity was stolen in 2018 (most likely from the equifax breach) and my info was used to try and open multiple credit cards and a paypal account over the past two years. Since then I have placed fraud alerts and credit freezes with all the major credit bureaus. Someone even tried to open a Kohls credit card last week with my info. But something I received in the mail today is thoroughly stumping me. I received a cash app debit card in the mail registered in my name. The issue obviously is that I don't use cash app or any other money app and I've certainly never applied for anything of the sort. The Card isn't even activated until you scan it with the app it seems. My biggest question is what would a scammer/thief be using this account for? Is there a significant risk with this type of account that I'm unaware of? Also has anybody had any experience with this situation and how should I go about getting this account closed and making sure this doesn't keep happening? throwaway because my normal account has personal info linked to me. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Sep 2020 09:00 AM PDT Is it because rent is so inflated in my area, making it hard to save up maybe? Edit: thanks for the replies, it gives me a lot more options to think about that I hadn't thought about before. [link] [comments]  |
| Paying taxes on gambling winnings? Posted: 28 Sep 2020 02:53 PM PDT My husband is a hobby sports gambler. Last year he didn't make anything, so we didn't report it on our taxes. This year he made a small bit of extra cash from DraftKings, and we're a little confused on what we need to pay taxes on. We file jointly and take the standard deduction. He bet approximately $11,000 and won about $12,000, for a net profit of $1,000. Will we have to pay taxes on $12,000 winnings, even though we only actually get $1,000 of winnings? Or do we only have to pay tax on the $1,000? I tried googling it but it was never clear to me if we have to pay taxes on total winnings, or just total winnings - total amount of bets placed. As an aside, if we do have to pay taxes on the full $12,000, can we pre-pay some of those taxes? We'll owe a good amount if so, and I'd rather just take a chunk from his winnings to pre-pay some of the taxes rather than have my employer overwithhold. Edit: as u/penguinise asked, he didn't make one bet of $11,000. He's made a bunch of individual bets that total up to $11,000 over the course of the year. [link] [comments]  |
| $34,960 in debt, currently creating a plan but I need advice and guidance Posted: 28 Sep 2020 10:09 AM PDT TL;DR: Made bad choices, currently creating a plan and I need recommendations. Situation: I'm 30, a nurse that lives at with his parents, owns a small business in NJ, and I have $34,960 in credit card debt and personal loans. I'm only able to make minimum payments and I am just keeping my head above water. My FICO credit score is currently 632 because I forgot to pay a credit card bill during the rise and peak of the COVID outbreak (I just totally forgot because work was crazy). I have a balance of $13,823 with a personal loan with Upstart and my total credit card balances are $21,137 due to me starting a business. I got approved by Freedom Debt Relief for a debt relief program but I don't want my credit score to be affected. Background: My personal loan with Upstart was back in 2015 when I was only making $34,000 as a yearly salary and the total amount I was approved for was $24,000. I used credit cards (again...I know stupid move) to start my business. I am technically maxed out again but I am making a salary of $60,000 + according to my 2019 taxes. Currently: I evaluated my poor spending and business choices. I made a budget for myself, I am cutting stupid spending habits, and I have a friend helping me with my business and business choices. I also picked up the book "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" by Ramit Sethi. I have looked into Freedom Debt Relief, got approved but I am thinking about backing out. I am going call the credit card that I have a 30 day delinquency with and fix my issues. After that, I am going to call Upstart and see I can qualify for another loan to consolidate my bills. I was also thinking of contacting Simple Path as well if Upstart didn't work. Request/ Recommendations: What guidance and advice can you all provide me with? [link] [comments]  |
| [Canadian] Age 27 debt free for the first time - where should I put my savings? Posted: 28 Sep 2020 06:26 AM PDT Hi everyone, I've been working in software sales for the past 2 years, and have just finished paying off schooling for my wife to become an EA. We have very little expenses at the moment as we are both living with her parents and contribute about $500 to monthly expenses of theirs. I have ~$20,000 saved up in savings right now and am considering different options for investing, but I'm pretty much completely financially illiterate and have had some trouble with the basics - there's SO much information online. Any recommendations on where to get started, what to learn about and get into, or what some good ideas would be to start putting my savings to work would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| I don't make much money, and I need a few thousands in the next 3 months. What are my options? Posted: 28 Sep 2020 02:42 PM PDT I only make 16/hr and I'm the only source of income for my family of 3. I have about 16k in debt between a car and credit cards. I suddenly had something come up, and I need a lawyer to get through this, lawyers are asking for minimum of 10k and I gotta have that in a month. What should I do? I've been trying to get my finances together and everytime I figure it out something like that come up. Idk what to do and I'm lost, I don't have family that could support me and I don't have any rich friends. Edit: location is Ohio [link] [comments]  |
| Reopening a Chase Savings Account Posted: 28 Sep 2020 08:12 PM PDT Hi! Wondering if it is possible to reopen a previously closed savings account at Chase. Does anybody know if it's possible to get it back after youve made the decision to close it? [link] [comments]  |
| I want to refinance my mortgage, but I don't know how Posted: 28 Sep 2020 08:08 PM PDT I've lurked for a while and am looking to refinance my mortgage but I feel kind of overwhelmed at how to start the process. I've heard that interest rates are at historic lows and should remain there for a while, so nows the time to pull the trigger I guess. I searched this subreddit and saw some people suggested to use Credible or Aimloan to refinance, but I'm feeling anxious about going forward with the process. Details on my loan:
I have only had this place for 1.5 years. I'm military and had a "surprise" PCS to a new place and just went to USAA because they made the VA loan process easy but I feel like the rate is pretty high. I've seen people getting 30 year mortgages in the mid 2% range and would love to see if I could do the same. My only worries though are if I refinance, will it retain the VA loan status? I don't like the idea of having to pay mortgage insurance. Should I be aiming for points or no points? I don't quite understand this. How much would be acceptable in closing costs? Are there loan companies I should stay away from? I'm sure there are a lot of other questions I should be asking but I really don't know what I'm doing here. Anyway, any help would be appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| My lease ends in a month and I want to buy the car. Posted: 28 Sep 2020 05:45 PM PDT I really like the car. I'm a bit over the miles and I want to keep it. I will be financing it. Should I be looking for a lease buyout loan or a used car loan? Not quite sure of the difference. Will be shopping around for best rates as well. Can I do all this without talking to the dealer I bought the car from? Thank you in advanced! [link] [comments]  |
| Cashing a check for someone else Posted: 28 Sep 2020 02:55 PM PDT Hello everyone. My buddies dad just passed away and he'll be receiving an insurance check. He doesn't have a bank account, doesn't want a bank account and really doesn't trust banks for whatever reason. Since he has no way to cash it, he wants to sign the check over to me and once it clears, withdraw and give him the money. Now my main questions and concerns are: is this going to effect me anyway? Will it effect my taxes or total income for the year? I heard you could only gift someone so much so will the money itself be taxed? Any and all insight will be greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Sep 2020 05:39 PM PDT So I am looking at a 30 year mortgage and will be putting 20% down. The finances are all good and I am getting 2.5% 30-year fixed with no points. Is this a good rate or has anyone been able to secure a better one? Closing costs a bit over 1500. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Sep 2020 07:45 PM PDT Hello, I'm currently 18 years old, and I've been putting around 100 dollars a month for the past half-year into my Robinhood account. Most of my money has been put into SPY and VOO, but I've been reading up on some resources and it seems like I would have been better off opening a ROTH IRA with Vanguard or Fidelity. I want to take out the money I have on Robinhood and put that into the ROTH IRA, but I have no knowledge of how taxes work in this scenario. Should I just wait or should I just pull everything out now to put into a ROTH IRA? [link] [comments]  |
| University is trying to collect debt Posted: 28 Sep 2020 07:39 PM PDT I need advice on how to proceed with a university in South Carolina trying to collect debt of almost 4K for Fall 2016 semester. I'm not sure I attended any classes in that semester after signing up because I moved to Texas after a series of unfortunate events in life. I honestly don't want to of course but also don't agree with the debt. They have sent letters to old addresses (even one not in SC) saying if I don't send a dispute letter or pay the debt by a certain date they will attempt to deduct it from my tax return. I'm hesitant to dispute it because I don't want to acknowledge I've seen one of these letters. It's also strange they haven't reported it to a credit bureau and it's not in collections because after my life got better I started paying my actual student loans and building my credit which is almost 750 from the 500s just a little over a year ago! I have no collections on my credit reports I'm hoping someone has been in a similar enough situation to give advice? Any advice on the course of action is welcome here. Also, I don't exactly have 4K laying around and would dispute it as far as I can before ever paying it (once again I feel like a written dispute would count as acknowledging and jeopardize the possibility of it going alway). Thanks anyone who reads this hope you are living as financially, mentally, and physically healthy as possible [link] [comments]  |
| Please help, I think my friend is being scammed and he won't believe me. Posted: 28 Sep 2020 11:07 AM PDT My friend won a 7 figure settlement. I wanted to make sure he was investing most of it wisely and asked him what he was doing. He tells me this... Friend:
Me:
Friend:
Me:
Friend:
I am afraid for him, I don't know what to tell him to realize that this doesn't add up, maybe its too late, if it is a scam they won't ever give that $ back at this point? [link] [comments]  |
| should I Refinance my car loan? Posted: 28 Sep 2020 04:38 PM PDT long story short I have a horrible car loan (13% over 7 years) that im half way into and got a call from the bank asking if i wanted to refinance for 3.99% over 5 years . Should I do it yes or no? I'm in Canada also if that means anything [link] [comments]  |
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