Personal Finance Tax Thursday Thread for the week of April 01, 2021 |
- Tax Thursday Thread for the week of April 01, 2021
- Very late retirement planning for mother with $60k in savings
- VISA flagging ChargePoint payments as fraud.
- What is the best thing to do with money left to my kids from an inheritance?
- How Much for Car Maintenance Fund?
- Saving too much
- Can I prevent new bank accounts from being opened?
- I was given an LTI (Long Term Incentive) award at work of 1,094 RSUs and our company is slated to be bought later this year. Very new to stocks and I have some questions...
- Need advice on Rural home loan please.
- 401k Retirement Plan Advice
- Does it make sense to pay a lump sum to get rid of PMI?
- Thoughts/confused on getting a “vacation” house (small, modest, nothing major)
- How can I get an apartment if they want me to have an income 3 times the rent and/or must do a 12 month lease?
- I work 50 hours a week, but don't get paid. Am I un-employed?
- Help understanding study on insurance products in retirement
- Career advice-moving family to a new state, leaving jobs
- Claiming my neice as a dependent
- Apartment buyout fee is all 6 remaining months of rent. Is there a way to get out of this?
- Gig jobs - Create a consultant company or get paid directly
- Which solo 401k providers allow mega back door Roth?
- Transunion Social Security Number Scare
- Should I take a job 2 hrs away/no benefits for experience?
- Any advice for a 18yo soon to graduate high school in two months
- Any tips on securing a rental as a college student?
- Convince me I’m not crazy
| Tax Thursday Thread for the week of April 01, 2021 Posted: Please read the PF tax wiki page to see if your question is answered there before posting.This weekly cross-sub thread will be posted through mid-April to give subscribers a chance to ask basic tax-related questions in a consolidated thread. We are also very lucky to have some folks from /r/accounting and /r/tax joining us here to help out. Since taxes can be a very complex topic, the main goal is to point people in the right direction, provide helpful information, and answer questions. (Please note that there is no protection under §7525 or attorney-client relationship when discussing matters in posts on a message board. Consult a reputable tax advisor in person if your situation demands it.) Make a top-level comment if you want to ask a tax-related question! If you have not received your answer within 24 hours, please feel free to start a discussion. For all of the Tax Thursday threads from this year, check out the Weekly Archive. [link] [comments]  |
| Very late retirement planning for mother with $60k in savings Posted: My mother is in her late 40s and has been working a minimum wage job for more than a decade and done her very best to save every penny. As a result, she's managed to save almost $60k in cash but as she gets older, she's been starting to think more and more about retirement and how that would play out. She's never learned about IRAs or 401Ks before so I've been doing my best to learn for her and help set her up. For context, she is a naturalized citizen working and residing in NYC. Due to the job she has, 401Ks, as appealing as they are, seem to be out of the question as there definitely won't be any employer-matched contributions. I definitely would like to open a ROTH IRA account at Fidelity for her, but given that contributions max out at $6,000, I'd like to look into any other accounts I could possibly open for her. I believe a HSA account may be viable but I think I'd have to look into the details of her insurance plan for her. I would greatly appreciate any input on what accounts I could consider opening for her, possibly where would be best to open them, and as for the ROTH IRA, what investments might be best to consider. So far, I think the best bet will be safe ETFs or index funds such as VOO or VTI. I am very open to any information you all could provide and would like to do the best I can for my mother. Thank you very much in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| VISA flagging ChargePoint payments as fraud. Posted: I drive a Chevy Bolt EV. Most of the time I charge it at home, but occasionally I drive out of the area and rely on public charging stations to get home. The last 2 times I have gone out of area, VISA has refused to replenish my ChargePoint account with $25 so I can get home. I called the number on the card and the automated message finally said that there was nothing they could do, call my bank, and they hung up on me. I called my bank and they said VISA was flagging the transactions as fraud and there was nothing they could do. They couldn't even come up with a number for me to call at VISA. Is anyone else having this problem? Or does anyone know how to contact VISA outside of the number on the card? Thank you for any help. [link] [comments]  |
| What is the best thing to do with money left to my kids from an inheritance? Posted: Each of my children were left about $65,000 cash in an inheritance. We are a lower middle class family and have little financial experience. We'd like to put their money away for them but are unsure about the best way to do that, or even who to call to help us. [link] [comments]  |
| How Much for Car Maintenance Fund? Posted: When I paid off my car a few years ago, I decided to keep socking away ~$200/mo for repairs and eventually to pay for the next car. Well, now I've saved $4k in this account, which seems excessive. I also may keep this car for up to another 10 years, and I don't want to keep that much cash idle for that amount of time. I've decided to start investing that monthly amount. The question, though, is how much cash should I keep around for car maintenance? $2,500 feels like enough to cover just about any significant repair, but would like some second opinions. I could easily divert investment money to replenish that account if unexpectedly drained. I also have enough e-fund cash to replace the whole car if necessary, not to mention good credit if I needed a bridge loan. Vehicle in question is '14 Corolla. Edit: thanks everyone for the award and the lively discussion. It seems many of you think I'm being overly conservative, which I don't dispute. I guess the end result of what I'm doing is paying for repairs as they come up (in the form of replenishing the now-robust mx fund) instead of setting aside the estimated average cost every month. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: I hear some people, including friends in my life, suggest that saving too much is just as much of a problem as saving too little. There's probably some truth in that, but it certainly doesn't seem like a direct comparison. I'm perfectly happy living on less than 50% of my take home income. I try to make sure I'm not being too stingy. If my friends are going to a restaurant or brewery than I tag along and spend just as much as they do. I've just chosen to cut back in other areas that aren't important to me. I have a small apartment in the part of town I want to live in, which is more than sufficient for me. I drive a Honda and I plan to keep it until it becomes unrealistically expensive to repair or self driving taxis become a thing (so like indefinitely). I could get a nicer car or buy a big house, but I don't think that would meaningfully improve my life. Money buys me options. In maybe ten years I can choose to not work if I want to (though I hope that doesn't happen because I enjoy my work and get at least a little sense of meaning out of it). But if the apocalypse arrives the day I hit my FIRE number or I get terminal cancer in 9 years I don't think I will look back on my life and think I should have had a nicer car or a big house or an expensive watch. I was probably happiest in my early 20s sharing a tiny three bedroom apartment with two (or sometimes three) roommates, eating ramen noodles and driving a 20 year old motorcycle I bought for $500. Saving my disposable income right now gives me more enjoyment than spending and I feel no need to keep up with the Joneses... even if some of the Joneses think I'm a bit weird for not trying to keep up. [link] [comments]  |
| Can I prevent new bank accounts from being opened? Posted: I had two instances this past week were I got a notification that a bank account was opened in my name without my permission. I closed both without issue but I'm worried about this happening again. Is there a way to prevent anyone from opening a new bank account in my name? I'm thinking of something similar to a credit freeze. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: So basically, I was awarded this LTI that consists of 1,094 units that are currently worth $25,500. 50% will vest one year from now, another 25% a year after that, and the final 25% a year after that. Our company is supposed to be bought later this year. I also have stock through an EPP and we were told that those stocks would be cashed out at $25 a share, minimum. Current price has been hovering around $23. For the RSUs, the message I have been hearing is that those will get converted to the new company's stock. Where I am profoundly confused is that value of the stock of the company that is purchasing us is about 14x our current company's stock. Is that really something that could happen? When something sounds too good to be true, it generally is, so I am hoping to get educated on how this might work or what this whole process might look like. I think there are some resources at my company that I could ask some clarifying questions, but I want to make sure I'm asking the right questions. This is an incredible community full of people far more savvy that I am, so I would love to hear anyone's thoughts! [link] [comments]  |
| Need advice on Rural home loan please. Posted: Hello all, I am looking for advice on rural home mortgages. I currently live in a neighborhood. I am selling my house and looking to move semi in the country, 5-10 acre lot with a house already built. I am a military veteran and typically would use military banks. However, I was told to look into rural loans (I don't know anything about) as they offer better rates on rural properties. Is this correct? What advice and recommendations would you suggest for rural property mortgages? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: Currently I have two accounts, current employer's Principal 401k and former employer's Prudential 401k. Linked is an image with both account's current and optional investments. Rate of return to date for Principal is 15.75% and Prudential is 52.58%. Both accounts were the default investments. I'm 24 and would like to reallocate both accounts to 85/15, 90/10, or 95/5 stocks/bonds. Planning to replace all international holdings with US stocks. I'm not concerned with short term fluctuations due to my time horizon of 30+ years. For the stock portion I was thinking 70% US large, 15/15% US small/mid cap, and diversifying between different funds within the asset class. 1) I'm unsure if I should rollover the former job's account (Prudential) to a) current Principal account, b) keep it in Prudential, or c) open a personal Fidelity rollover. I'm leaning towards Fidelity due to more investment options and I believe (?) there's a better options with lower ERs. Also interested in ETFs. 2) For Principal I'm currently in the plans QDIA. They're in the process of shuffling holdings and the current holdings in the 2060 are not all accurate compared to the updated available options list, so I excluded the specific funds and included asset allocation/returns. I want to transfer to a stock heavy build, but would it be better it keep it in the 2060 since it has a low overall ER of 0.29? 3) Is there any significant benefit to the Qualified Interest Account in Prudential or is it the same as bonds? 4) Unrelated to these accounts but hypothetically.. if a friend believed a market crash/further correction was coming within a year - what would be the best approach to switch to a stock heavy portfolio? Hold off on stocks for now and redistribute current holdings to a 40/60, 50/50 or less to preserve capital, then switch to the stock build during the recovery to maximize return? Not sure if 401ks work like that. Appreciate the help! [link] [comments]  |
| Does it make sense to pay a lump sum to get rid of PMI? Posted: The basics.... House appraised at $416k Original mortgage amount is $407k Outstanding mortgage amount is ~$343k Monthly PMI is $132 We have a number of larger house projects planned for this year but we're sitting on a fair amount of cash. Am I doing the math correctly that an extra ~10k toward principal would put us at under 80% LTV, and eliminate PMI? Saving ~1.5k/yr for ~15% ROI? [link] [comments]  |
| Thoughts/confused on getting a “vacation” house (small, modest, nothing major) Posted: I live in a major urban area (DC area) that is very expensive for housing. (Think at least $800+ for a decent townhouse or house in the suburbs, if not over $1M. Even more in DC proper. I'm a young adult and rent an older apt for what is actually a "decent" rate in the area. I know it's going to be very hard for me to get a piece of property in the immediate area but there are lots of nearby locations that are a lot more affordable and close to the outdoors, which is what I'm looking for. I considered keeping my city apartment but purchasing a little getaway place maybe a couple hours outside the city. I am just confused on where to start because I don't know if it's better to buy land and then build up your own house or just find something that's already built up and buy it. I don't want to spend over $100k. Please note that I'm looking for something very modest like a tiny cabin, trailer, hunting cottage, etc. I wouldn't live in it all the time but it would be something to go away to on the weekends and work remotely. Im just confused on how to start, the zoning laws, who to talk to, etc. For this to happen, what is a minimum amount of money that I should have? I currently don't have any debt and make over around 70K a year. I own my car and live pretty modestly. Single. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: I got accepted to a 2 month internship which pays 15/h. And right now I'm panicking that I cant find an apartment. The apartments need me to earn at least 3 times the rent which sounds a lot. My internship is in Sumner, Washington. What should I do? My process is looking up apartments mostly in apartments.com and calling the numbers of the said apartment. Is there anything I should do different? [link] [comments]  |
| I work 50 hours a week, but don't get paid. Am I un-employed? Posted: A little backstory, my father opened a restaurant a couple of years ago, and it has just never taken off. The harsh reality is it will eventually close. I have been working there since he bought the building, for no pay. We are the only employees, neither of us gets paid, and if one of us left it would close up within 3 months. Luckily I live in a fairly low cost of living area and my wife has a good paying job through USPS, and it has afforded me to be in this situation. I wait tables, and do bring home $100 or so a week, but its all cash and there is no record of any of it. Anyways, we need to enroll our daughter in pre-school, as a previous family friend watched our daughter when we worked. However, we are running into the issue of my employment. We can only afford pre-school with the family assistance program, which we do qualify for, but I don't know how to say I have a job but have no income. It's tough putting the situation I am in into words, I am essentially a volunteer. Edit: I guess I realized that I don't have a job, but can I report 0 income despite working x amount of time so I could prove that I actually do work. [link] [comments]  |
| Help understanding study on insurance products in retirement Posted: Hey I recently came across this study by E&Y about integrating life insurance into retirement plans. I've personally always followed the PF Wiki advice of just doing Term insurance and investing the rest to avoid insurance co fees, but I was wondering if anyone more knowledgeable on the stuff they talk about in this paper had any thoughts. My uneducated TLDR summary of their report: They looked at 5 scenarios: 1) Investments only, 2) Term life + investments, 3) Permanent Life + investments, 4) Deferred Income Annuities (never heard of these before) + investments, 5) Permanent Life + Deferred Income Annuities + investments. They looked at 3 different couples, all saving 20% of salary: 25yo, 35yo & 45yo, and had some assumptions about predicted market performance in investments vs insurance, etc. They ran a Monte Carlo simulation and their metrics of success were 1) how well did the strategy do at maintaining 90% after-tax retirement income, and 2) legacy protection (I think they're talking about how much is left at end-of-life, but not 100% sure). They concluded that "integrating insurance products into a financial plan provides value to retirement investors," but I had trouble interpreting what the actual results meant. Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Career advice-moving family to a new state, leaving jobs Posted: My wife got offered a job in a different state. We are currently full-time/W2 employees with full benefits. The job she is taking is as a 1099 contractor. Combined, we take home $115K in a low cost-of-living area. Our total compensation with bonuses, retirement and PTO and benefits probably comes close to $200K+ annually. Her new job looks to be around $145K per year gross (conservatively, it seems like she can net $80K). I don't have a job yet. I assume I will eventually find some job, even if it's just for health coverage as that represents about $18–30K in non-monetary returns since we wouldn't have to buy health insurance off the exchangee (minimum $1500 per month for lowest plan). Unless I make substantially more, which over a few years I'm confident I can grow my own business, we are probably looking at roughly making the same in total compensation, but also taking on a lot more risk. We have a home where we can realistically net about $150K from the sale. Because of the change into being self employed and income (essentially zero, as far as a bank looking at a home loan is concerned) we will have to wait two years at least to buy a house. She will need to show tax returns for 2 years as a contractor to get approved for a loan. Renting for two years in that area will cost us about $40,000—may not be a bad thing as home prices are jacked up right now. Is this a good move for us financially? [link] [comments]  |
| Claiming my neice as a dependent Posted: Okay so ive been looking around and i cant seem to find an answer that makes sense to me... im doing my own taxes, and im at the point of choosing head of household. Now my sister lives with me along with her husband, my mom and brother and his fiance. If i file for head of household and put my niece as a dependent will that affect my sisters taxes ? She wants to make sure she gets the child credit for her daughter... how exactly does that work in this situation? [link] [comments]  |
| Apartment buyout fee is all 6 remaining months of rent. Is there a way to get out of this? Posted: I bought a home recently and I knew this was a possibility. Lets say my rent is $1k a month. I have just about 6 months left on my lease and must give 60 days notice to leave. I'm on the hook for rent over the next 60 days, plus a buyout fee that is equal to the remaining rent, so 6k in total. 4k would be due a few weeks after I give notice. 4k at once is a hard pill to swallow but I can if I need to. Subletting is an option to get out of this, if I find someone that the complex will approve. I have a ton on my plate and was hoping to not have to do this as well. My state's laws say that if a tenant leaves, the landlord needs to make reasonable efforts to re-rent the place, and cannot charge rent to the previous tenant after a new one is found. I'm guessing that's why they charge a buy out 'fee' instead of saying 'pay the rest of the rent.' Do I have any chance to get out of a full 6 months rent other than the subletting option? I have no experience with finding someone to sublet, and I'm worried that I'd end up paying a good chunk of the remaining lease anyways while I fumble around looking for a tenant. Convince me that I need to suck it up and start looking for a sublesee? Edit: The landlord is a big company and has only gestured towards their policy when I asked about other options. They've also said that the policy does not allow subletting. My lease states that subletting is possible with their consent, but it sounds like I won't get that. Thanks to those who read and provided their suggestions. Edit 2: So basically there is an addendum I signed agreeing to a fixed buy out fee as my only option. The buy out fee is fixed at 4k. Even if I wanted to buy out with 3 months left, I would still have to pay a 4k buy out. The timing just happened to make the buy out fee equal to the rest of rent for the term. This was my own dumb fault for not looking through the addendums more carefully. The addendums aren't included in the main lease document, so I overlooked them. I asked about options anyways, and they made it clear that they wouldn't work with me. Thank you so much to everyone who read my post and commented. [link] [comments]  |
| Gig jobs - Create a consultant company or get paid directly Posted: In the near future I may be taking on a few gig jobs for corporations and small businesses. These Jobs would be contractual, 2-4 week projects for fixed dollar amounts, with well-established companies (i.e., all on the books) wholly in the U.S. I've been told it would be best if I registered a business entity and get paid as a consultant with money going to that business entity, rather than getting paid directly to me as an individual. Is that true, and why? [link] [comments]  |
| Which solo 401k providers allow mega back door Roth? Posted: I have self employment income and want to open a solo 401k and use it as a mega back door Roth by making after tax contributions beyond $19500 and then convert them to Roth. Vanguard's individual 401k doesn't allow this. I can't find somewhere that does. Can you suggest any provider that allows this? [link] [comments]  |
| Transunion Social Security Number Scare Posted: Earlier today, I called Transunion to ask why I'm not able to view my FICO score, and it turned out it's because my bank account isn't connected to my SSN (created account before receiving SSN). The customer service guy then asked me to provide my full SSN so that he could connect my account to the SSN, and so I read out my SSN and my name to him. To my surprise, as soon as I finished reading my SSN, the line went quiet and he hung up on me after about 15 seconds. I know that the customer service guy was not a scammer, since I initiated the call, but I still feel sketched out about the fact that I gave my full SSN to some guy who ended up hanging up on me immediately after without any explanation. Is this something I should be worried about, or am I stressing unnecessarily? [link] [comments]  |
| Should I take a job 2 hrs away/no benefits for experience? Posted: I'm currently working as a cashier making 11.25/hr. Varying degree of 32 to 38 hours per week. A hectic schedule changing on a weekly basis. The job makes me miserable and there's no advancement left for me. I'm almost finished with school. I've been proactively applying to entry level jobs. I got a call for a job that I'm very much interested in. The pay would be 16.50/hr with the guaranteed 40 hours per week with a set schedule. I realize this isn't much of an increase in pay, but it's an increase. Where I live currently, there are little to no relevant jobs. I've done numerous searches on the general idea of long commutes. The idea of putting more strain and miles on my car. It's 4 extra hours away from family that would be used for driving without pay. This is the part that's the most concerning to me. The job would give me tons of relevant experience that I feel I could use which I feel would open the door to more jobs. I'm stuck with the decision of taking the risk on this job, or staying with a job I dislike that has no relevance to my career choice. [link] [comments]  |
| Any advice for a 18yo soon to graduate high school in two months Posted: So I'm want to be financially stable and want to have a lot of money and avoid debt as much as possible after I graduate. I'm willing to put in the effort to achieve my goals finance wise. I already have a decent amount of discipline to not impulsively splurges when I don't have the money. I don't know what I want to do yet once I finish high school so I'm not going to dive into any schooling until I know for certain what I want to, or until I am comfortable with my decision. I have plans to become financially stable, and to have decent or a lot of money to help my mom and accomplish my goals. I currently have around 1k from flipping shoes, and 500 and some change from this program that give me 500 monthly and I spilt it with my mom. I'm currently unemployed right now because I've recently relocated to a new state and the pandemic has been making things difficult for me to find a job without a car. I was planning on saving up around 4k for a emergency funds. Then setting aside a little bit of money for splurging and traveling. Do you guys have any advice for me to help me become financially stable and having a good amount of money. A lot of people say that getting you own place isn't easy as you think it is. That I'm going to working so much just to barely get by. That Im not going to be able to go on vacations as much as would like to. just that overall life and money is extremely difficult. [link] [comments]  |
| Any tips on securing a rental as a college student? Posted: I'm really inexperienced at this as a young adult and I don't know if this is the right forum, but regardless I need some help. Any tips to stand out and secure housing? What do landlords care about the most? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: After years of hardship, karma has finally blown our way and our ship has come in. Our financial house is coming together and in the near future the wife (F 55) and I (M 44) will finally have the money to pay off nearly all outstanding debts, including a student loan (3% APR), a boat loan (7% APR), unsecured loan (12% APR) and a rental property mortgage (6% APR). We also have a much larger primary mortgage that we couldn't pay off. From an emotional standpoint we want to pay off all the miscellaneous debt leaving only our primary mortgage. That will provide us a lot more disposable income every month. But given the typical return in the stock market, why does it make sense to pay off anything other than the unsecured loan? [link] [comments]  |
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