Personal Finance Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of January 29, 2021 |
- Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of January 29, 2021
- Urgent warning, FreeTaxUSA is computing Schedule-D (1099-B) adjustments incorrectly right now. Don't hit that file button until it's fixed!
- Looking for a higher paying job and failing. Feels hopeless.
- Dad had stroke. Only about 8/20 days of rehab stay left and he isn't getting better.
- (CAN / USA) I'm a Canadian / US dual citizen from birth, but have never lived or worked in the US. I just discovered that I might have US tax obligations...? What now?
- Financial advisor suddenly pushing annuities
- Just bought a house - husband has cancer - USA
- I went to open a new checking account today. I was denied and told it was because ChexSystems is reporting “ACCOUNT ABUSE”. All negative balances from prior institutions have been paid. I’m so confused. What options do I have?
- Trying to understand COBRA. Getting laid off Feb 1st
- I inherited a 401k account ($8000). It was through Merrill Lynch, I had them deduct 20% towards taxes. Will Merrill Lynch send me something regarding this for my upcoming tax return?
- Show I claim or should I go....The wife just backed our full coverage insurance vehicle into our barebones coverage vehicle in our driveway should I file a claim .....
- What's a good mix of accounts & cards?
- 40K judgement from Chase... but what do I do now?
- Inexperienced with personal finance and seeking a short-term, private, and easy set-up secondary checking account for $1k+ transfers/expenditures
- (ID) - US Citizen's husband sick in Indonesia, doesn't know what to do.
- Worth it to pay $480 for accountant to file taxes?
- How to sell a paper stock certificate
- Wealth management options early in career?
- Is it worth buying down APR?
- best free app for the stupid (AKA me)
- received 1099-MISC from Tesla after solar & powerwall purchase?
- Should I leave my wife off the mortgage to get a better rate?
- Retirement Account used to be a matched savings, but I no longer work with that employer. The online portal shows that I'm being charged a 'recordkeeping' fee. What to do?
- Is Capital One Shopping or Honey better?
| Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of January 29, 2021 Posted: 29 Jan 2021 09:00 AM PST 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: 28 Jan 2021 10:39 PM PST Edit: It's fixed! (As of 9:31 AM EST)
Edit 5: It's fixed! (As of 9:31 AM EST). [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for a higher paying job and failing. Feels hopeless. Posted: 29 Jan 2021 05:44 PM PST I'm 25 and been in the hospitality industry for about 10 years. Covid has crapped all over me. Was making $42k as a catering manager in Boston. Now I'm married and about to have twins in California where I'm only able to make $15 an hour as a cashier. Wife uses car to get to work and soon she'll be on bedrest and unable to work for a time. I need to do something to be able to make enough money to cover our expenses but I have no clue what I'm doing. Feel stressed and its hard to think straight when life puts the pressure on. Idk what my options are. I only have a few months to figure this out. Any advice or resources would be invaluable to me. Thanks for hearing me out. [link] [comments]  |
| Dad had stroke. Only about 8/20 days of rehab stay left and he isn't getting better. Posted: 29 Jan 2021 11:53 AM PST Hello everyone! My dad had a stroke Christmas day and we found him lying on the ground. He went to the hospital and Ill skip those details. He could only move the left side of his body some, and can not speak or swallow. They transferred him to a facility for Rehab/nursing care. Medicare covers 20 days. It has been over a month since his stroke and he doesn't seem to be getting better. We are frustrated he is at a bad facility because when we try to get details they say they don't know and give us a phone number to call and they never pick up. (Details such as, has he gotten a covid shot, how can we facetime him, how is he doing) The main issue is that it seems he isn't really getting better and he only has 12 days of care left. I do not live nearby (2 hours) and the only person to care for him is his mother who is getting older though she is in good shape. We can't afford to extend his time, and we are not sure if he can even get better. He is legally blind and doesn't work. We only need him to be able to care for himself and we are not sure if he will be able to. Any help would be great. Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2021 04:07 PM PST This is really hard to put in a title, so I'm going to try to explain it here. Also, I am resubmitting this post to meet sub rules on mentioning... current events. TL;DR at bottom. Context: I was born in Canada, and while my mom is fully Canadian, my dad is fully American. My dad registered me as a US citizen born abroad a few months after I was born, but never really explained it to my mom. When I was 2 years old, my mom and I moved to Texas to be with my dad. Things only lasted a few months, however, and I came back to Canada with my mom. I have never lived in the US since then, and have never worked in the US. However, at some point, I got a US SSN in my name. This might have happened when I was a newborn, when I was registered as a US citizen born abroad. But regardless, I didn't know at the time and neither did my mom. My mom never saw the papers, and while I wound up getting photocopies a few years ago, I didn't really realize what situation I was in. Over the years, a lot of stuff happened that was never fully explained to me. Either that, or the laws changed sometime in the last 10 years. Over the years my family in the USA would talk about my citizenship from time to time when I went to visit them, and told me about all the cool stuff I was eligible for. Free passage between both countries, a US passport that I could get, the ability to live and work in both countries, and so on. My aunt, who worked for the IRS, actually went and set me up with... some "things" that automod does not like me saying, but I am apparently the beneficiary for some "things". You can likely guess what they are. I don't think it's worth too much, but they exist and my aunt pulled them up on the computer when I was a kid and showed me that they would be mine one day. I don't think I'm legally responsible for them right now. But to make a long story short, my family also told me that I would not have to pay taxes on anything unless/until I "claimed" the benefits of my citizenship by doing something "active". Like moving or working in the US, voting, or claiming my "things" from my aunt. And my aunt worked for the IRS, so this seemed like solid info. But this was over 10 years ago. Anyway, after many years and getting a Canadian passport - but not being able to claim dual citizenship because my mom and I didn't have the papers - my dad gave me this stack of photocopies. I think I was about 18. The front page was a document showing that I'm a US citizen born abroad, and it was dated to when I was a newborn. Then, a bunch of pages of legal-ese looking papers followed, that I stupidly ignored. I tucked them away in my room. My SSN was on the back page and I just found it yesterday. Situation: So flash forward to this week, I am 24 years old. Due to current events in the financial world, I decided that I wanted to set aside a small, fixed budget and open an account related to these events (which automod does not like me mentioning.) However, when I go to sign up, I see a warning asking me if I have any claims to US citizenship in any way, or any possible chance I could be within "US Tax Residency". This sends me down a rabbit hole. I decided to pull out my photocopies from my dad, since this account said that I was legally obligated to disclose my US SSN if I had one. Sure enough, I found a photocopy of my SSN on the back page of this stack, and it's definitely mine. I decided to go research why this Canadian account is asking me to claim a US SSN to open a Canadian account... I thought that since I've never lived or worked in the US, I didn't have to do anything with it. After all, my aunt who worked for the IRS told me as a child that I was fine unless if I decided to move or work in the US and basically "activate" it. So I vaguely knew already that I had a SSN, but it never crossed my mind that often because I thought I hadn't "activated" it yet by "using" my US citizenship. Anyway, to make a long story short, I think I might be in trouble. I've been faithfully filing my taxes yearly to the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) ever since I turned 18, with no problems at all. But I've never filed anything with the IRS. I've never done anything to "use" my citizenship like vote, open a US account, buy major property (unless if those "things" my aunt got me used this SSN without me knowing), or received any benefits like social supports. Also, here in Canada, I wouldn't call myself wealthy. I have an emergency fund and enough money to comfortably pay the bills and my student loan. Most of my money goes into savings. But I'm very frugal, live with family, and use public transport. I'm just a few months away from paying off my student loan. I work almost full time (was full time pre-COVID) in food service, and earn a few dollars above minimum wage. Other than my chequing and savings accounts, the only "special" things I have are my student loan... and a credit card that I faithfully pay off every month. When I do my tax returns, I always got refunds, and have never owed taxes that I had to pay. We'll see about this year because I'm out of school right now and working. So... this is where I'm at right now. I've never filed a thing with the IRS, since I've never lived or worked in the US in my entire conscious life. But I think I might be in trouble now, because I'm reading that the USA may tax me on my Canadian earnings even though I've never lived or work in the US. So... both countries taking tax off everything I do. My US family always told me I didn't have to file unless I "used" my citizenship, but now I'm not so sure. Tonight I'm going to reach out to my dad and my aunt and see if they know anything. I need to ask my dad if he has the original documents (because the ones I have are bad photocopies and some stuff is cut off), and I need to ask my aunt who worked for the IRS if she knows what I'm supposed to do. That, and the "things". So... my question is on what I'm supposed to do now. Am I in a lot of trouble or do I just need to file what I missed? Should I brace for fines? I'm reaching out to family but I'm really lost on what my next steps are. If any. However, I do want to get this sorted out, one way or another. TL;DR: I'm a Canadian/US dual citizen, who lives and works in Canada only. My dad registered me for a SSN when I was born, as an American citizen born "abroad", but I only lived in the US for a few months as a baby. I have full dual citizenship to both countries and have not revoked either one. I'm 24 now, and have never filed US taxes with the IRS, because I thought I only had to file Canadian taxes. Am I in trouble? What now? [link] [comments]  |
| Financial advisor suddenly pushing annuities Posted: 29 Jan 2021 01:08 PM PST I've been with my financial advisor, who is truly a fudiciary, for about 3 years. He's a very nice older gentleman that has helped me in all facets of personal finance. I have zero complaints or concerns. I just received my EOY review for 2020 and he included several articles showing the benefits of annuities. I've been listening to Clark Howard for 10+ years, who treats annuities like four letter words. Should this be a red flag that it's time to find someone else? My FA's son is taking over the business with promises of modernizing the organization so this may be a new trend. [link] [comments]  |
| Just bought a house - husband has cancer - USA Posted: 29 Jan 2021 10:34 AM PST We were smart about our home purchase. $1450/month morgage and rent in our area is $1000-$1500. It's a nice half duplex and we got a good deal somehow - realotor said we could replace the carpeting and sell it tomorrow and get our money back. We weren't planning on it. Husband just got back from the doctor. Kidney cancer. He only has one kidney as it is so... Not great. He might have to lose another half kidney. Maybe go on dialysis. It depends. Husband does not get paid time off or sick leave. When he got kidney 1 out he took 3 months off work. I recently took a lower paying job. We have some savings. Neither of us are high earners but we get by okay. I can use my 401k since I have two wealthy family members leaving me money when they pass. Is there financial help available for situation like this? The hospital knows are income and pay surgery we only had to pay 30% of our deductible. I'm more worried about food, electric and mortgage. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2021 03:15 PM PST I had several money accounts before my life went to shit 3 years ago. Nevertheless, I'm not denying it, I was terrible with money. After disaster struck my credit union was left with my overdrawn checking account of about $1.5k and another bank was left with an overdraft of about $320. I was able to pay off the lesser debt within a couple months. But, before I could pay off the negative balance to the other bank, they rebranded into another entity, during which they charged off the debt I had. The charged off account was reported to ChexSystems, Inc., a service provider financial institutions use during the screening of potential account holders. I tried several banks but none would allow me to open even the most basic account. I'm going to jump through the hoops to dispute this with my previous bank and ChexSystems, but I'm not confident I'll prevail. Are there any reputable banks that don't prescreen for such things, or am I literally stuck using fucking Walmart reloadables for the rest of my life? [link] [comments]  |
| Trying to understand COBRA. Getting laid off Feb 1st Posted: 29 Jan 2021 04:09 PM PST Hello, I really hope you can help. I am getting laid off Feb 1st due to COVID. I have a variety of therapist and psychiatrist appointments set for the Feb 6th. I am afraid that I will have to pay for these sessions and for the medication out of pockets. I hear that COBRA is an option and that it applies retroactively. But I am confused on this part. Will I still be able to go to my sessions on the 6th and have insurance pay for them? Will I have to pay out of pocket then get reimbursed? Sorry this is a stressful time and I am not sure the best way to continue my coverage and my medicine. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2021 01:31 PM PST |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2021 05:55 PM PST The title says it all. My wife backed up our newer vehicle into my 9 year old daily driver. It scraped the back quarter of one and the front fender of the other. I don't know if its worth filing a claim? Haven't had a claim in over ten years.... Any input would be great. [link] [comments]  |
| What's a good mix of accounts & cards? Posted: 29 Jan 2021 05:33 PM PST I'm looking to get away from my weak Wells Fargo Savings, Checking, & Credit Card accounts, and want to get serious about my financial set up. Here's currently what I'm thinking: one checking account, a high yield savings account with a diff institution, and 2-3 credit cards with cash back / rewards programs I like? Anything I'm missing? [link] [comments]  |
| 40K judgement from Chase... but what do I do now? Posted: 29 Jan 2021 04:33 PM PST I need advice. I hope someone here can offer it. The basic story so far: I had a business, and the business exploded unexpectedly, leaving behind a personal high-limit Chase card I was using to handle daily expenses/float. Ordinarily I was paying the card off every month (50k a month). I thought my business was going to the moon, and I was investing heavily in it to push myself further when an unexpected regulatory change wiped me out at the worst possible moment. The expected pay didn't come. I ended the month with a $50,000 credit card bill and no way to pay it. I moved forward. I returned to the wage-slave workforce, and I spent the last few years clawing my way back. I managed to save my house, and I kept all of my other bills paid, but that Chase bill was eating me alive. They worked with me for a little while, reducing payments, but it put me on the very edge of solvent, barely scraping by paycheck to paycheck. I managed to pay down about $10,000 of it, but life decided to kick me in the teeth one more time and a death in the family forced me even deeper underwater. I couldn't pay Chase AND keep my house. I pled for them to give me some time. They stopped working with me. They made a final offer - pay $20,000 right now and all this goes away, or we're taking you to court. I didn't have $20,000. I had no way to access that kind of money. I made the only choice I felt I could. I kept my house. They made their choice. They went to court and, in the end, they received a judgement for the remaining 40k. And then... nothing happened. A month passed. Two. Six. I'm sitting here a year later. I was expecting a letter, a call, a garnishment, or something... but nothing has come. It feels like a sword is hanging from the ceiling, just waiting to drop on me. I was expecting a big garnishment to slam me, or my meager savings to be raided, putting my family at risk, but nothing came. I know I probably should have followed up and called them, but as time passed, I didn't want to poke the hornet nest while I had no way to reasonably handle the debt. In the meantime, I've been putting my life back together piece by piece. I've clawed my way back. Life has gotten better in every way. My credit has improved. My income has improved. The stress has gone away. And with some careful saving and a recent windfall, I've managed to put $40,000 into my savings account. So... what do I do now? I want the judgement to go away. I want to get it out from over me... but at the same time, I hate to part with my entire savings to make it happen. I'm almost scared to call them... like the sheer act of making that call will have them instantly strip my bank account without notice. So... Does anyone have advice here? I don't even know who to call. Am I supposed to just call Chase and have a chat with them? Should I try to negotiate? Can I negotiate after a judgement? Should I just ignore it, leave the cash on cold-storage, and hope they never come knocking? Should I just pay the whole thing in one lump and call it a day? Should I negotiate payments and set aside a lump sum to pay it piecemeal? Has anyone ever dealt with something like this? Any thoughts are appreciated... [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2021 04:31 PM PST Californian here, if that's relevant. My situation is that I'm partially financially dependent on my father, but have accrued a significant number of application writing hours, compensation from which I have yet to request be transferred to my account. I do not want this money transferred into my preexisting checking account for two reasons
I've done some research about credit unions and it seems like they all have very specific requirements. What I want, which it seems is often not allowed, is to open account with $0 in it (no debit/credit deposit or transfer from/linkage to my primary checking account) before making large transfers/expenditures to/from it. I can't do balance minimums or monthly expenditure requirements. TLDR: Question Any suggestions for a bank/credit union that will allow me to set up an account that I intend to use solely for infrequent and sporadic money transfers of $1-3k without balance/monthly expenditure minimums, which I will probably exhaust and thereafter not use again? Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| (ID) - US Citizen's husband sick in Indonesia, doesn't know what to do. Posted: 29 Jan 2021 06:18 PM PST Obligatory throwaway account. Also, I couldn't find a better sub for this, so please let me know if I should post this elsewhere. TL;DR: Sister + Husband are US Citizens and broke in Indonesia. He had a massive stroke and now they cannot pay mounting hospital bills. Husband is also an Indonesian citizen. I am reaching out to Reddit to see if someone here can provide some high-level guidance on what to do if, as an American citizen, you're facing a Medical Emergency in Indonesia. This is for my sister and her husband. Sister's a US Citizen, her husband is a US Citizen (also Indonesian Citizen, which I don't think is allowed). He's originally from Indonesia, but both were married and living the last 15 years in the US. They decided to take a long vacation after being furloughed from their jobs (in the US) to her husbands home country. While in Indonesia, the Husband had a bad stroke, and is currently in an ICU. They had to do emergency surgery. Has spent about 11 days in the ICU so far. He's currently sedated and has not been conscious since. Before they would perform surgery, my sister reports she was told she had to pre-pay the costs, and so she put it on a credit card. There was another surgery, and then costs for ICU and a Vent, all which I'm told racked up about $20k so far on her credit cards. The cards are all maxed out now, and the bills keep mounting. She's told she owes now another $10k, and she's flat out broke. Some basic facts about them: Neither have any notable savings and live pay-check to pay-check. No assets, close to minimum wage. They canceled their COBRA insurance before leaving for the trip because the premium was too high. He does have family that lives in the city where he had the stroke, but they seem reluctant to help financially or even help my sister navigate this, even though they are actively visiting him. I get the impression they are also broke. I do not know how to advise her. She's already given the hospital $20k, and I understand that these are likely inflated prices (they had him in a VIP room for the first few days). My sister, being in a panic'd state, just handed over her cards to the billing office whenever they asked. She can no longer do that. Some other things/Questions:
My family's not a rich one, and if my siblings & I pool our money to throw at my sister's husbands treatment, we're worried we'll quickly find ourselves broke too. I need advice. [link] [comments]  |
| Worth it to pay $480 for accountant to file taxes? Posted: 29 Jan 2021 03:13 PM PST Historically, I've filed taxes myself with Turbotax for 4 or 5 years. I got audited and ended up owing my state some money for incorrectly filing some taxes. I've since been paying HR Block and some other firms to do them for me. They charge around $450-500 because of certain forms I need to file. I do this mostly for the peace of mind that professionals know this much better than I do. My tax situation is sort of complicated. I work out of state so I need to file two returns. I have a mortgage and have a couple of investments where I incurred capital gains tax. Is Turbo tax still the easiest way to do this? I noticed their software costs $55 and $40 for each state return ($135 total for myself). I'd be saving a little over $315 doing it myself. It's enough to make me contemplate doing it myself again. [link] [comments]  |
| How to sell a paper stock certificate Posted: 29 Jan 2021 10:22 AM PST I have a paper stock certificate in a very thinly-traded stock. My stock broker (Vanguard) won't accept the paper certificate for some reason. How can I sell this stock? [link] [comments]  |
| Wealth management options early in career? Posted: 29 Jan 2021 05:57 PM PST Hello, I'm a relatively young, well employed person who doesn't have a lot of time to understand new investment opportunities or follow movements in the market. My job keeps me busy and I usually find myself behind on trends. Aside from filling my retirement accounts, I usually default to throwing extra cash into ETFs or indexes. I am risk tolerant but don't like to risk money when I'm not well enough informed. I've tried manual trading but that takes a lot of time, I've tried robotraders that are no better than indexes. I feel like a trustworthy financial advisor is what I'm looking for, but I don't know where to start. One problem is I don't have a massive amount of capital, just a strong monthly flow. I might be asking for the moon here, but does such a service exist for me? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2021 03:40 PM PST My wife and I are buying our first house and I was wondering if it would be worth buying down the APR for the loan. Our budget is $150,000 with a 2.5% APR. I expect to be there for a year or two and then buy something bigger and rent this one out. [link] [comments]  |
| best free app for the stupid (AKA me) Posted: 29 Jan 2021 07:08 PM PST so ive never bought stock in my life, never once. im 24, i work a 12 per hour shift, and i would like to start buying some stock while the prices are low what is the best free stock app i can use? i almost got robinhood until they started asking for my SS number (and then wasnt sure) what should i use and where should i start with it? [link] [comments]  |
| received 1099-MISC from Tesla after solar & powerwall purchase? Posted: 29 Jan 2021 03:11 PM PST Just received a 1099-MISC from tesla for about $5000 of income (box 3), and have no idea why. Nothing in the other boxes. I purchased solar panels & powerwalls in 2020, and, while they were eventually installed, Tesla was absolutely awful & horrendous to deal with, so I'm not particularly looking forward to dealing with them again. Anyone have any ideas why they would sent this to me? I didn't get any discounts or stuff for free. Just the price that was offered at the time that I paid my order. EDIT: so there's a phone number in the Payer box along with Tesla's name & address, but when calling it it goes to a voicemail that says "if you're calling about a 1099 this is the incorrect number, please try a different number". but doesn't provide an actual other number... [link] [comments]  |
| Should I leave my wife off the mortgage to get a better rate? Posted: 29 Jan 2021 09:28 AM PST My wife and I are buying a house. My credit score is very good (812), hers is not as good (680). I can qualify for the loan based on my own income and reduce the interest rate by .25-.5%. Doing this would put my personal DTI at 44% after factoring in my car payment. As I understand it, the main downside for her is that her credit score will not benefit from the mortgage payments, so we would need to build her credit in other ways. Should I leave my wife on the loan to build her credit and lower my DTI, or should I leave her off to take advantage of the lower interest rate? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2021 06:46 PM PST Hi personal finance, I'm going to be up front and admit that I'm a pretty financially illiterate person (I am trying my best to improve in this area), so I don't know if the answer I'm looking for is right in front of me or very obvious. So for more background on this story, I worked for a nonprofit out of college and was there for about half a year (personal reasons concerning health drew me away from the area). While I was there I was contributing to what I believe was a 403(b), with savings matched by my employer. I left there in February of 2020 and kind of forgot about the retirement account (or figured that as a retirement account it would just always be there, or sit, or... something), and I recently checked up on it and found that I'm being charged on what seems like a quarterly (?) basis for a recordkeeping fee. This fee is around $20 every time it is incurred, and it always occurs on the same date as a 'realized G/L.' I'm guessing this is Gain/Loss. My question is: Who am I paying this fee to? My former employer, or the company holding my retirement account? Is it worth continuing to have this account if it is slowly hemorrhaging money every quarter? If not, should I withdraw it/how would I go about that? I've heard that it's bad to withdraw from a retirement account before retirement so I'm just all around confused on what is going on here. Any help you could offer would be super appreciated. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Is Capital One Shopping or Honey better? Posted: 29 Jan 2021 02:54 PM PST My goal for this year is to save more money, budget better, and to actually use coupons when I do buy things. So, of course I'm looking into ways to save money and right now the Capital One Shopping extension is a hot topic that I see advertised a lot, but there's also another extension called Honey that basically does the same thing. I have the Honey extension and I've been able to save a few bucks, but I was wondering if anyone knows if the Capital One option is better? [link] [comments]  |
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