Personal Finance Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of October 02, 2020 |
- Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of October 02, 2020
- I’ve gotten a $10,000 balance down to $4500, and the card is now offering a promo balance transfer rate , so I could potentially max it out again with balances from other cards.
- Mixed feeling about spending $500 on something with a part time job as a teen.
- [United States] California State University released unemployment resource to help combat unemployment crisis
- I have a well paying job, and people always tell me I'm wasting money paying to rent when I could just get a house w/ cheaper mortgage. Is that true?
- Received a large medical bill - Will seeking a payment plan with the hospital affect my credit score
- Refinanced to 2.125% and got chase to match
- Best workflow for tracking family budget, per category limits, accessible by 2+ people
- Are there any websites that just show you average mortgage rates without having to get a call from a salesperson?
- I have a $72k inheritance that I've been ignoring. What should I do with this?
- Is it ok to close my bank account if I want to buy a house?
- A friend of mine wasn't taken off the payroll of his old Job- he's been overpaid 5000, he spent it all and says its not his fault
- I am 32 without any savings at all.Worried about the future, Need some financial advice.
- Hey there! 26 years old and never had a credit card, should I get one?
- How much interest do I owe my grandpa?
- TX: Speeding ticket gone to collections from over 6 years ago
- For the avalanche method of debt repayment is it better to pay off the loan with the highest total interest rate first, or the loan with the highest interest added per day?
- My dad passed away and my mother has no source of income.
- Can you have too many credit cards?
- Hesitant to Freeze Credit
- Looking for a new credit card to build credit after many years of not having one.
- Travel or purchase home?
- Company is reporting a collection account for a phone account they accidently opened when i switched to them. Have records of them acknowledging this but my credit dispute was a failure
- Trying to get my mom's retirement funds in order
- Recently Separated
| Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of October 02, 2020 Posted: 02 Oct 2020 02:00 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]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2020 06:19 AM PDT I have 4 credit cards. I can't apply for anymore. My biggest one has a 24% APR unfortunately, and I've lowered the balance by $5500 in a year. I've been making the minimum payment on the other 3 cards, two have $1500 balances, and one has $2000. The big balance card is offering me a balance transfer promo, where the balance transfer APR will be 9.99% for the life of the balance. The minimum payment each month amount will apply to the balance transfer balance, and then anything above and beyond the minimum will go towards the balance that accrues 24% I'd keep paying $500 a month, and then throw the payments I've been making towards the other 3 cards to the one card. Does it make sense to do this? The other 3 card interest rates are all above 20%. Oh, and there is no balance transfer fee. It will result in having a card with almost a $10,000 balance, which will psychologically suck, but I think it makes sense in the long run. [link] [comments]  |
| Mixed feeling about spending $500 on something with a part time job as a teen. Posted: 01 Oct 2020 09:00 PM PDT I'm a teenager and work about 8 hours a week at McDonald's and I've been debating if I should spend my money on the $500 console or not. I've been saving my money so far (I haven't worked for a lot of hours so I got about $900 over the past 3 months). And I've pre-ordered a new Xbox for $500. I'm conflicted on whether I'm making a bad financial decision but the other side of that I'm overreacting on making a purchase this big. I know this is probably a dumb thing to be debating about since it's so insignificant to the financial problems you guys have in the real world but I thought I'd ask for some advice anyways. Hey this really made me feel better about this little thing. Thanks guys [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2020 12:40 PM PDT Came across this resource on my reddit feed today. I thought I'd share it here for those who are not aware of this till now. CSU (California State University) posted an update on their website announcing a remote employment resource for US citizens during this pandemic. Seems like a good exhaustive list and helpful for the needed. Here is the link to their university webpage: [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2020 07:48 AM PDT I get that mortgage is cheaper and you're acquiring assets. But just because I have a well paying job doesn't mean that I can afford a house yet, right? Wouldn't it be better for me to eat the loss on the rent payments for a few years, build up savings and funds, and then buy a house later? Yeah, it would be nice to purchase a house while I'm young and friends/relatives always say I should, but I feel like it's just not responsible. What are some situations where you guys feel it's justified to buy a house at a younger age with a smaller amount of savings? It just seems to me that younger folks with a solid salary want to jump into buying a house a bit to quick. EDIT: Lots of differing viewpoints here. Let me ask you guys this: Do you feel like the housing market and bank loans are at such a good state right now that it's worth taking the risk with a lower than preferred level of savings? [link] [comments]  |
| Received a large medical bill - Will seeking a payment plan with the hospital affect my credit score Posted: 02 Oct 2020 07:07 AM PDT Hi We recently received a large medical bill. Our insurance covered some but the copay is still a whopper. If I were to call the hospital to attempt to set up a payment plan, would this have a negative affect on my credit score? We don't have huge savings and taking a big hit this second would be great to avoid. Many Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Refinanced to 2.125% and got chase to match Posted: 01 Oct 2020 02:23 PM PDT Just used bankrate dot com to find a company that offered 2.115 15-yr mortgage rate with 0 points, and about $4800 in fixed-fee closing costs. Called chase who I currently have mortgage with and they offered a 2.675 rate at 0 points. Got them to "match" the rate at 2.125 with 0 points and $5200 in fixed fee closing costs. Edit: Houston, TX 450,000 mortgage, 20% down, 790 credit score. Currently have a 3.5% 30 yr loan and refinancing to 2.125% 15 yr loan. From my calcs it saves me $400 a month on interest with a ROI of a little over a year. Closing costs are 1500 origination fee charges, 600 appraisal fee, and 2800 in title fees, plus other minor tax fees and recording fee. I also chose bankrate to shop rates because I didn't have to enter in any personal info to get rates. Smartasset does the same thing. [link] [comments]  |
| Best workflow for tracking family budget, per category limits, accessible by 2+ people Posted: 02 Oct 2020 06:43 AM PDT Hi! Me and my wife decided that we need to start tracking our funds and set some per-category limits and try to stay within them. So I'm looking for a best way to help us automate\track this. We currently mostly use same bank, and cards connected to same bank account. And while I love our bank and their IT side and apps, and they do allow to set per-category limits, it's only available for the owner of the account, even though her Visa is on her name, she can't see anything but current balance on it. Which is a bummer. There's also an issue that I'd like to also keep track of savings and stuff that's in other banks\paypal, etc. So next logical step is Firefly III. It's a great piece of software! Love it. I do have it hosted on my server, and I use it occasionally, however obviously there's no realtime tracking of anything. Sure I can import a csv file, and it works relatively great. However I still need to manually adjust transactions between banks and even between different accounts in the same bank. This takes time which I could spend actually earning more money, and it also has a chance to introduce human errors. So the question is a general one. What would you recommend? How do you approach this? Is there some other better software for this? I would prefer self hosted but open to non self hosted options as well. Or is there some kind of workflow that could make it more comfortable? The more automated the better it would be. I do appreciate the sort of familiarity you get from tracking all expenses manually, respect people who can do that, and it can be nice for larger transactions, but like adding every single chewing gum grade purchase manually - that's just too much time for me. If nothing better comes up I think I will try to get a habbit of weekly Firefly III update. I'd love for us both to be able to see detailed per-category money movements daily, but I am not sure that's possible. P.S.: If you suggest some service that supports automatic data pulling from banks, it should not be limited to just US or Canada and should support following banks: Russian Alfa-Bank, Russian Sberbank, PayPal (well not technically a bank but still an account). And without disabling 2-factor auth. I don't think such service exists, sadly. P.P.S.: Is Budgeting or Planning a better flair for this? Thanks! I hope this is the right place to ask this. EDIT: Well, thanks everybody! I guess I'll stick with Firefly. But I decided to start clean, wiped all transactions, adjusted starting amounts for all accounts. Learned about "Reconcile" functionality that's built into Firefly, that could've helped actually, if I learned about it before wiping everything :D And I will make it a habbit to update Firefly at least weekly. Because leaving it without updates for longer makes bringing it back up to speed a really daunting task. And will also take away a bit from YNAB's approach by making a budget for every penny that I know I will earn in a month. All income that's above that will just go into one of the savings accounts. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2020 09:22 AM PDT Very frustrated because I am in the early stages of figuring out if I want to buy a home or not and exactly what I can afford if I do. There are plenty of "calculators" available that plug in various mortgage rates, but nothing that tells you what a reasonable range of rates is in the first place. I made the mistake of plugging my info into one site thinking at the end it would show me some sort of number or range of numbers but instead I am now getting daily calls from lenders. I won't even be ready to start a pre-approval process until next year and I don't want to deal with people trying to sell me a financial instrument before I am ready to pull the trigger on the process. But I can't even do research right now because I can't see any comparative rates. Every site says t9 comparison shop, but does that really mean reaching out individually to a ton of lenders and going through this invasive process every time just to get numbers? Can anyone point me in a better direction? [link] [comments]  |
| I have a $72k inheritance that I've been ignoring. What should I do with this? Posted: 02 Oct 2020 04:24 PM PDT About 4 years ago both my grandparents unfortunately passed away and both left me a sizable chunk of change. I'm a soon-to-be 21 year old in community college studying computer science and working a part time job. I know I'm going to (absolutely rightfully) catch some flame for this but the inheritance is sitting in a brokerage account managed by some guy and that's the extent of what I know is being done with the money. I know it's invested but I don't know what exactly it's invested in. When I first got the money he put it in what he called a "high risk account" and grew it from around 68k to 73k. After I graduated highschool he put it in a "low-risk account" with the belief that i would start taking money out at a 4-year university. That never happened though, and now I'm paying with my own money to go to community college. I haven't touched a penny of the inheritance other than when I payed the taxes on it and it's still sitting in low-risk investments. When I look at the investments all I see is that it's 15% equities, 52% fixed income, 8% "multi class investments", 4% "cash alternatives" and 19% "alternative investments". Should I do anything with this money or leave it as is? I'm debt-free, have a personal Roth IRA, investment account, and savings, and near-to-zero necessary expenses as I still live with my mom and dad and they're kind enough to help me pay for some of my expenses. Is the market too volatile right now to up the risk on the account? Thanks guys! [link] [comments]  |
| Is it ok to close my bank account if I want to buy a house? Posted: 02 Oct 2020 04:23 PM PDT Looking to start the mortgage process soon but I wanted to open a new checking account and finally close my bank of america account (had it for the last 5 yrs). Is this an ok decision or will it backfire when it comes to providing all my documents to my loan officer? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2020 04:15 PM PDT |
| I am 32 without any savings at all.Worried about the future, Need some financial advice. Posted: 02 Oct 2020 11:17 AM PDT I am married with a kid and have a job The income isn't anything special but it's good enough. However, We have been irresponsible till now. We don't have any money saved up at all. Only recently have we realised this and Now we are worried about the future. Not only will I have to pay for son's education but Having some savings would be great in case of an emergency or something. I want to start investing in the stock market. But,I don't have any knowledge about the stock market or investing though. So, give me some advice and some sources to start learning. [link] [comments]  |
| Hey there! 26 years old and never had a credit card, should I get one? Posted: 02 Oct 2020 04:58 PM PDT As the title says; never had one, only ever lived by "if I don't have the money to buy 2 I don't have the money to buy 1" However I've been getting a little annoyed with my inability to purchase things online/book reservations for things. Is it worth it to get one? How to be safe with it so I don't end up in crazy amounts of debt? [link] [comments]  |
| How much interest do I owe my grandpa? Posted: 02 Oct 2020 01:25 PM PDT Grandpa gave me a 7000$, 2% simple interest 36 month loan with no pre payment penalty. I have paid the entire loan off in 7 months. How much interest do I owe him? (I was just paying 1000$ every month) [link] [comments]  |
| TX: Speeding ticket gone to collections from over 6 years ago Posted: 02 Oct 2020 01:24 PM PDT Hey guys, just need some quick advice! This is for Texas, but I received a letter from a collections agency regarding a speeding ticket from 2014 that I literally have no recollection of. Does anyone know if there's a type of statue of limitation on these speeding tickets? I had checked my background and driving record over the past few years and no speeding tickets had been recorded on my record. I really cannot afford to pay this ticket at the moment.. has anyone been in a similar situation? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2020 04:18 PM PDT I know the avalanche method of debt repayment leads to the lowest amount of total money paid by paying off the loans with the highest interest rates first. However, I am confused about a significant detail. My student loans have simple interest and thus have interest applied only to the principle each day (interest rate divided by 365 * principle). I have one loan with 6.8% interest and a principle of $5,000, and another loan with 6% interest and $15,000 principle. The avalanche method seems to be stating that in the long run I will save money by paying off the 6.8% interest loan first, however, because of the high principle, the 6% interest loan actually accrues more interest per day. So my question is which loan would be more financially beneficial (in the sense that I will keep the most amount of total money in my pocket) to pay off first? EDIT:Typos [link] [comments]  |
| My dad passed away and my mother has no source of income. Posted: 02 Oct 2020 05:37 PM PDT My father passed away this past agust 27th and he was my moms source of income, my mom 57 doesnt work due to severe scoliosis and cant pick up something heavier than a gallon of water. I'm only 20 trying to get my life together and i have a minimum wage job which is $8.25 in FL. Idk what to do everything is going down hill and me and my mother have no one to help or guide us. we're lost at this point. [link] [comments]  |
| Can you have too many credit cards? Posted: 02 Oct 2020 04:02 PM PDT I have a thing for credit cards. I enjoy researching all the different cards that are offered solely for their benefits. I got my first credit card when I was 18 because I knew I would need to build my credit up eventually. I'm now 24 and have just gotten my 5th credit card. It's worth mentioning none of these cards have balances on them. I use them as a tool, mainly to collect the cash back from charging the card to pay my monthly bills. The cards are paid in full each month and to be honest I don't even use all of them. They have different uses for different categories so whenever I need something specific, I use the card that offers a benefit for my purchase. To keep them active, I use them at least for one purchase per year to avoid closure so some cards get used more than others. After my 5th card, I think I need to take a break. My credit age is not that high given the average age of all my cards collectively. My question to you all is: can you have too many credit cards even if you use them responsibly? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2020 07:22 PM PDT I want to freeze my credit because I read that it helps prevent new accounts from being opened in my name. I feel hesitant giving very personal details (ssn/bdays,etc) online to different credit institution. I'm not familiar in how these data are stored. I'm afraid my "data" may not get stored well and may get easily leaked compared to not giving out any info because that info may be stored differently. Am I overthinking this or just do it? [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for a new credit card to build credit after many years of not having one. Posted: 02 Oct 2020 07:08 PM PDT Many years ago (getting close to 10?) I had an issue where my credit was dinged because of a miss understanding (weird story involving toys r us, 3 banks, and a bank agent slamming her phone on a debt collector) But the issue was cleared up and they fixed my credit. However in that time my credit card expired, i couldn't renew it, and when it was fixed they said I'd have to open up a new one and I didn't want to have to deal with 3 bills, I wasn't going to buy anything I couldn't pay off so I just never bothered. Now I'm in a better position, my previous bills are either payed off or almost payed, and I can start paying off things I buy on credit and want to build it up. What are some good cards that I can get for that? Not looking to buy big ticket items unless they are investments (work related stuff) or rare very special occasions (theme park tickets for SO's birthday). Other wise just normal gas and groceries things that will get paid off monthly. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2020 06:34 PM PDT My wife is thinking of pursuing travel nursing, the pay would be significantly more than what she currently makes in Chicago, where we live. I work for a bank that has recently transitioned to a permanent work from home position. We are thinking about purchasing a travel trailer and traveling the country for the next year or two. The catch is that I don't believe that my current employer would allow me to travel while working. There's is a chance they would never know and it would be fine. Should I risk losing my job to pursue this opportunity or should we stay in Chicago and purchase a home? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2020 02:42 PM PDT So back in February I switched to Verizon. Somehow some way when we opened our account they opened up two, the phone that we have used and paid for on time since getting and another account which we never had control of. In march i received a "hey pay this bill" letter from Verizon so I got on the online chat with one of their reps. After some digging she ended up finding out about the second account and assuring me that it was marked as a duplicate account and that nothing would happen. It would not go to collections nor be reported to a credit agency. I received no more collections letters and when i checked my credit report for the end of march it did not show up.(I have a full transcript of this discussion) Checked my credit report at the start of September due to an upcoming move and making sure my credit was good enough to qualify for apartments yet sure enough the account is there marked as having been late and in collections since April. I filed a dispute on Experian as well as reaching out to Verizon's write off department to get things handled. On the phone with the write off department we went through a-lot of details and once again I was assured this was a mistake and that things would be handled(no chat records this time as it was over the phone over a period of two days) yet today I get my report back and all charges have been verified. The past due balance is very low only $50 but as I have a relatively thin credit file being in my early 20s it carries a pretty heavy weight. What is my course of action here? [link] [comments]  |
| Trying to get my mom's retirement funds in order Posted: 02 Oct 2020 06:26 PM PDT Hi, I'm a 24F trying to get my mom's (53y.o) retirement stuff in order. Recently I've been trying to get my own personal finances in order, which led me to wonder how my mom is doing because I briefly remember her mentioning she didn't have a retirement fund a few years ago. She hopped around jobs a lot and is now working at a place that uses Empower Retirement. She showed me a letter from June 2019 where they notified her they made a company contribution into her Retirement Plan. However, she has never registered for an online account so I believe the contribution was invested into a "JPMCB SmartRetirement Fund that most closely aligns with the year you turn 65". In short, I have no idea what that means but my question is-- should I seek to move whatever money is in there to a Vanguard IRA account, or just let the money grow in there? The only reason I'm considering moving it is because I'm slightly familiar with Vanguard and I've heard good things about it. I want it to be as simple as possible so my mom could easily access it and know what's going on. Also, is there a way to track down if she has any other 401K funds stashed somewhere else she might not know about? I'm still pretty new to personal finance, so I may have confused some stuff up. Any advice would be appreciated- thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Oct 2020 07:08 AM PDT Hello, Me, fiancee, and my daughter (6) just moved in together. After about three months Fiancee has decided he doesn't like the company of my daughter and is going to move out. I'm not upset. I was faced with a choice and I chose my daughter. I'd do it time and time again. I am however very very screwed financially. My income monthly: 1034.33 My bills monthly: 1031.55 Do the math, remaining after bills is just under $3. I can pay my bills, buy food, gas, but like god forbid I need an oil change or like a new winter coat. My rent is $675. I do not want to move. I'm a mechanical engineering student with 3 semesters left of school, single mom, I work part time on the weekends, moving in with family is not an option. Daughters bio-dad is a jobless meth head. I get food stamps. Live in Pennsylvania. What do I do? Edit: I have excellent credit; owe no car payments until 2022 because I paid ahead; remaining on car is about $3500; only other debt is school loans of $27000 majority of that being subsidized. [link] [comments]  |
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