Personal Finance Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of June 07, 2021 |
- Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of June 07, 2021
- I have the money to buy a car for cash. My boyfriend still thinks I should take out a loan. Thoughts?
- 4 Companies in 5 Years: The Benefits of Job Hopping
- I have made nearly $12,000 this year from doing a food delivery service and haven't set aside any money for taxes.
- Living at home while in college
- Homeless with dog, help me decide path forward
- What to do with large graduation gift?
- Salary negotiation help?
- Just found out im "next of kin" for deceased grandfather's 401k plan, what do I do?
- Does it make sense to get life insurance for myself only?
- Surrender whole life insurance or is there a creative opportunity?
- Bank denied loan help?
- 401k loan to pay off large personal debt - yay or nay?
- Starting 401k at 28
- Cash out refinance for debt consolidation
- Student loan forbearance + perkins
- How to shift from life insurance retirement investments to other vehicles
- Patreon Taxes; Send Help!
- How do I purchase a reliable car?
- Credit score dropped from 780 to 720
- Is it worth paying $1K for a fraction of a percentage point on the interest rate when purchasing a home?
- Looking to buy a home
- Should I talk to boss about health issue or take short term disability
- The bank lost our mortgage
- first time setting 401k at work
| Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of June 07, 2021 Posted: 07 Jun 2021 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]  |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2021 07:16 AM PDT His reasoning is that it will boost my credit and increase my likelihood of getting approved for a mortgage in the future. I've only recently begun building credit (713 currently), from a small student loan ($1.5K) and monthly credit card payments. Is he correct by saying that I will experience future difficulty if I don't have a significant loan/repayment on my credit history? Say that I can find 0% financing - should I keep my car payment in an HYSA and just make the monthly payments? Edit: I didn't expect this to get as many responses as it has! Thanks for all the feedback all - once I'm off work I have a lot to look forward to reading. [link] [comments]  |
| 4 Companies in 5 Years: The Benefits of Job Hopping Posted: 07 Jun 2021 08:33 PM PDT Hey all (Throwaway as I don't want personal details attached to my main account) As a recent grad (graduated in 2017), I've always been warned about switching jobs and companies too often at the risk of being looked as a job-hopper by potential employers. However, purely looking at things through a financial perspective, I have made large gains in salary and benefits by switching often and anytime a better offer has been presented. A timeline of of job history is below:
I'm not sure if I've just gotten lucky with the companies that I've interviewed with, but Companies B, C, and D never went in-depth on the reasons why I'm leaving or why I had only stayed for a short time. Apart from the standard question of what I'm looking for in my next role, no company I've interviewed with has given any negative impression of such short tenures. Unless I really, really like Company D such that I have no incentive to look anywhere else, I will probably be following the same M.O. and begin to start interviewing elsewhere in about a year's time just to see if another 30-50% salary increase is out there. I am by no means recommending the same for others, but just presenting anecdotal data to showcase what can happen by switching often. Happy to answer any questions others may have! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2021 01:52 PM PDT Hey everyone. I actually do Favor delivery, a Texas based delivery service similar to Door Dash. To get straight to the point: I've started doing Favor at the begining of this year as my main source of income, doing it rigorously to save up money. Foolishly, I didn't know I had to set money aside for taxes. I also haven't been tracking my mileage. (the Favor app does say the estimated mileage driven when doing an order but not between orders) I was recently told I should have been saving money for taxes. I have not been paying quarterly taxes. I now have a job and will be using Favor as supplementary income. I'm aiming to earn $1,000 a month for the rest of the year. Overall, I expect to make anywhere between $18,000 - $20,000 this year. What should I do? Should I hire an accountant? Change the tax percentage I pay at work? Thanks everyone! [link] [comments]  |
| Living at home while in college Posted: 07 Jun 2021 07:47 PM PDT I'm 29 going on 30 and decided to go back to college a couple years ago, I got 2.5 years left until I get my bachleors in computer science. I've worked my whole life and had a job up to this point I have quite a bit of money saved up with no bills. I wanted to live at home personally to focus on getting my degree. I know at my age it's pretty sad living at home but considering the circumstances and I've been fortunate. Is there any shame in living at home considering I'm trying to get my degree? Otherwise if I wasn't and I was just working yeah I would have my own place. Also dating wouldn't be ideal so I just don't do it. I just want others opinions on this matter. [link] [comments]  |
| Homeless with dog, help me decide path forward Posted: 07 Jun 2021 12:08 PM PDT Male 32, with pit mix dog (registered ESA) have been living out of my car for last 2 years. Got sober 1 year ago and been trying to straighten out my life. Work full time as 1099 doing deliveries pulling in roughly 48k per year pre-tax and expenses. Can't do much else as I have to take the dog everywhere I go. Car is maybe worth 2k to a private party but dealer trade in offer is barely above scrap value. Have had a credit card for 5 months with 300 limit that I have been paying off multiple times a month. Finally realized to make sure balance was zero when statement was generated and got my credit score to bump up to 635. Savings got depleted recently due to car maintenance but I have a couple hundred at the moment. ——— If I take a loan to have money to rent somewhere, my score will drop a bit but still likely be above 600. I presume this will make it difficult to be approved to rent anywhere. Considering asking for a large credit limit increase though I am unsure if I would be approved and whether this would be enough to put down for rent (capital one). Considering just financing a new car which would give better gas mileage, be easier to sleep in, and have working a/c. ——— I really just don't know what I should do to move forward that will get me best out of my situation? The thinking is once I get a place for us to stay, I can then attempt to obtain a better full time job and keep delivering for supplemental income. Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated! —————— EDIT: —————— Thank you everyone who has taken the time to chime in. Some good advice and some who missed the point of what I was asking entirely. That being said I've not even lurked on this sub before so that might be on me. I wasn't really looking to go in and breakdown or justify everything in my budget and I recognize people that were enquiring were simply trying to be helpful. I fully intend to go through my finances now and get a clearer picture of exactly what I'm dealing with. To clarify for everyone though: - 48k gross is a generous estimate based off rough and RECENT numbers, realistically it is likely lower and doesn't take into account any of my expenses which are significant. All I do literally everyday is work/drive and hit an AA meeting. - I am located near Raleigh, NC and COL is moderate but has proven to be a much better location than previous areas I've lived as far as opportunities - I have previously tried sober living houses and was denied despite having ESA paperwork for my dog. While ESAs are protected under the Fair Housing Act, in practice landlords often are able to get away with denying the animal. I could try to bring a lawsuit but there really is not much point. - My dog is a true ESA as I have a number of diagnosed mental health issues. Even still I have looked into finding someone to watch him for a few months while I got housing/job but was unable to find anyone able to. I am unwilling to completely give him up. He has literally saved my life on more than one occasion. - I have avoided living with strangers as the wrong environment has proven to be disastrous for me. - I have previously been able to save up several thousand but engine cooling trouble meant living in the car was untenable and forced me to spend that money on repairs and a rental for a month which wiped out those savings. - Previous research into local housing programs that were currently active seemed to target families. They put up families in hotels last year and helped line up affordable housing but as I don't have children I was denied. This may have changed and is worth looking into. Rough math at that 48k gross considering mileage 120k/yr and 12 mpg shows me really around 20k and that I really should be looking at a place that is <600/month but is only realistic with roommates. Without roommates I'm in a Catch-22 where I can't feasibly make much more without having a place for my dog while I'm at work and I can't seem to get a place without a change of employment. But that 48 is high end… if I rework those numbers to low end it could be 36k with the same expenses… I know I need to change something if I want to get anywhere. I'm thinking due to my inflated "income" I may qualify for a loan which I can use to move into a place and then gain better employment. I guess what I was really looking for was if that was sound thinking. Risky yes but my options are few. [link] [comments]  |
| What to do with large graduation gift? Posted: 07 Jun 2021 10:08 AM PDT My son received a very large sum of money as a high school graduation gift from a wealthy family member. It has the potential to be life changing as he will be able to go to college with no or little student loans. They simply wrote a check for the full amount and we aren't sure how to handle it. He is starting a state college in the fall. Should we put it in his 529? All of it, some of it? Frankly we just aren't used to dealing with this much money at once. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2021 06:52 PM PDT I recently got offered a position within my company as a field supervisor, im currently an armed security guard making $16-19/hr. I was asked recently what I desired salary wise for a 50 hour week as a supervisor. In the past, I made $720/week for a 44 hour week. But now I'll be working a 50 hour week, and I have more experience then I did at the previous job. What would be an appropriate number to ask for? (The company refused to make the first offer). Would $1000/week (+benefits) be acceptable to ask for? Or should I ask for closer to $850/week? [link] [comments]  |
| Just found out im "next of kin" for deceased grandfather's 401k plan, what do I do? Posted: 07 Jun 2021 08:34 PM PDT So i got a letter in the mail today saying Im "next of kin" to a retirement plan for a company that both my grandfather and my great grandfather worked for. The letter doesnt give any details about which of my grand fathers its for, or any details at all, they're just asking to get in contact with the policy owner. The letter is addressed to me. Both my grand fathers aswell as my father are deceased. The letter is legit because I called the number on their site and gave them the SR# to verify it. However the representative didnt have any information, the only info they have is my name and address. What do i do from here? The rep gave me another number to call, but they're closed for today. [link] [comments]  |
| Does it make sense to get life insurance for myself only? Posted: 07 Jun 2021 09:02 PM PDT My father wants me to attend a life insurance meeting with him. He has a policy with some company and I think he wants me to get my own policy. I'm in his policy along with my mother and 2 other brothers. I don't know anything about life insurance. I'm single, 24 years old, and healthy. Should I get one? [link] [comments]  |
| Surrender whole life insurance or is there a creative opportunity? Posted: 07 Jun 2021 06:26 PM PDT My dad got whole life insurance for me in the same year I was born and now that I'm in my mid-twenties I'm thinking about surrendering the policy to cash out. I transferred the policy around last year to my name and I have been meaning to cash it out and invest that money in my brokerage account. Since I don't have my own family yet I don't see any point to have life insurance right now, and if I did it seems term life is the way to go. The premium is $397 per year, and currently the policy has a net cash amount of $15,631, of which $4876 is the net gain amount. I understand that I would be paying taxes on this gain, but I was wondering could I do anything creative with the cash value of the policy instead of cashing out? I have the option to take a loan out against it at 4.5% (was told by the representative it would be lower than this if I took out a smaller loan). I would need to at minimum make the interest payment annually which I could cover if maybe I invested the loan amount instead - I don't know if it's worth it though? I'm pretty convinced cashing out is my best option, but wanted to see if anyone else knew anything creative I could do to take advantage of the cash value of my policy. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2021 06:22 PM PDT Bank denied my personal loan of $3000 for getting an apartment. My Fico is a 586 my vantage is a 593. I was approved for an apartment. And they want a months rent and security. I have the first months rent & applied for the loan for the security. I can afford the apartment. With work. Just won't get paid again until the 24th. I know payday loans are a terrible idea but what would be my best option for getting one or best option for a loan? [link] [comments]  |
| 401k loan to pay off large personal debt - yay or nay? Posted: 07 Jun 2021 06:22 AM PDT Essentially: I have roughly $25k left on a debt consolidation loan (balance is a little lower, payoff amount a little higher per last statement). Interest is fairly high and I'm paying roughly $900 a month for it, with resolution expected in May 2024 if all payments are as scheduled. There is no early payoff penalty. I can do a 401k loan from my current employer, who I have no intentions of leaving, for pretty close to that full amount needed - there's small enough difference that I can scrounge up for. Payback would be an after tax payroll deduction for 5 years, so roughly $416/month - almost $500 less. I also presume my credit score would go up - currently fair, could be better, this seems to be the big thing holding it back. Potential pitfalls: Unrealized gains on some market activity. If I leave my work before the payments are up, the full amount is due immediately. Edit: need to clarify this second point with my 401k company (Fidelity)- may have until tax day or worst case have it considered a distribution and have IRS penalty and taxes to pay. Potential gain: Credit score up, personal debt on high interest gone, $400ish a month vs $900ish a month - extra $500ish to do as needed as life happens. Would probably be great to pay a little extra back on that 401k loan if possible. Is that a good grasp of the situation or is there anything I am overlooking/not considering? Edit: small bit of info. I am repaying my debt lender at 22.9%. A 401k loan would have me "repaying" myself at 6.25% interest. Update: i called Fidelity. under my current plan, i could not make additional payments to pay the loan off quicker. But conceivably would i could do is make extra 401k contributions with the realized monthly savings, thus injecting my 401k with as much as possible so as to not missing out on possible earnings, which I'd consider the primary goal, while missing out on the secondary goal of paying off loan quicker. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2021 01:12 PM PDT Long story short, I was able to double my salary in the past 2.5 years (56k in 2018, $105k for 2021) which is great but I never started a 401k until this year. I am now maximizing my contributions at ~19% of my gross. Will I be in okay shape for retirement if I can keep this up even having lost potentially 8ish years that I should have been contributing? Is there anything else I need to consider if this won't be enough? [link] [comments]  |
| Cash out refinance for debt consolidation Posted: 07 Jun 2021 10:14 PM PDT I feel like our situation is a bit unique in that we have and make quite a bit of money but got ourselves in trouble early on and then have just been very bad about paying this off and getting on track. Now I feel like cash out refinance is an obvious answer but I want to check my logic. There are several main reasons why I'm leaning this direction.
The details: House value: ~535k I owe: ~ 350k CC debt: ~40k I know that there will be plenty of folks with the spiel about it being dangerous to transfer my debt to my mortgage. I understand. This leaves me with over 20% of my equity still intact (in a hot market that we aren't leaving for a while) and we haven't spent money on our CC's in a few years now (after learning our hard lesson). Also, one of our girls is about to start public school next fall. Meaning in a year our cash flow changes significantly in our favor (on top of these savings). Should I do this or are there other considerations I'm missing here? [link] [comments]  |
| Student loan forbearance + perkins Posted: 07 Jun 2021 05:23 PM PDT I have a ton of student debt from med school, over 200k total. Most of them are Stafford and grad plus loans, which are in forbearance through the end of September due to covid. Those interest rates would otherwise be between 5.3-6.3%. I also have one Perkins loan that's about 10k which is not in forbearance, with an interest rate of 5%. Does it make more sense to put spare money towards the loans in forbearance right now because they'll kick in with higher interest rates later, or to pay on the Perkins which is the only one accumulating interest currently? Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| How to shift from life insurance retirement investments to other vehicles Posted: 07 Jun 2021 08:15 PM PDT Long story short my sister in law was sold on life insurance as a retirement vehicle. She didn't know anything about financial planning and unfortunately was scooped up by a salesman and not a real financial planner. So what's the best way to fix this? From my small amount of knowledge it looks like you can take out the principle up to a certain amount without paying heavy taxes. I don't know her full financial details but it wouldn't surprise me if she wasn't even maxing her 401k company plan while dumping money into an insurance vehicle. Trying to help get her more on track but I'm totally unfamiliar with the life insurance thing minus the fact that it's not the way to g. Appreciate all the help! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2021 09:47 PM PDT I'm a freelance writer that works majorly through Patreon where people subscribe to a tier and receive monthly custom stories. With Patreon, they report to me my gross income, which doesn't include their heap-load of fees. What I get in my bank account (what Patreon calls net pay) is different after the fees. For February through June, I made 678.16 but only saw 574.33 after the fees. My questions are: when calculating my quarterly taxes, do I use Patreon's gross or net pay? Also, my paychecks fluctuate drastically, month to month. It's difficult to pinpoint an estimated annual income. Would it be alright to estimate per quarter? Or, if it's not going to land me in trouble, just save back what I estimate and pay all four during tax season? I understand there are fees with that, though. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| How do I purchase a reliable car? Posted: 07 Jun 2021 10:57 AM PDT To elaborate... after driving beater cars for the past 10 years I have saved about $4500 cash for a car and have been told by people that I have a great amount to get a more reliable car but when I am looking around for used cars online they are all over priced and then any dealerships seem to want to make unaffordable payment plans. I don't mind making a payment plan but I don't want it to consume more than 30% of my monthly income. How do people afford reliable vehicles without selling their souls? Is there a good method to finding better cars? For reference I'm in US south East. Any advice is gold. Thank you for reading. [link] [comments]  |
| Credit score dropped from 780 to 720 Posted: 07 Jun 2021 07:47 PM PDT I'm in the US. The only thing that happened was paying off my car. The account listed as closed and is red on credit karma. Is this normal? Anything I can do? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2021 05:35 PM PDT I'm copying and pasting my exact text conversation with the loan originator from the mortgage company I'm going with and hoping I'm understanding that the deal she is giving us is us paying $1000, the approximate price of the percentage on the loan she is describing for our interest rate to be reduced by .125%. See our conversation below: Me: Greetings, Liz. I hope you are doing well. XXX and I were just wondering if we can go ahead and lock in our interest rate today. Thanks in advance! Liz (Loan originator): Just locked it in at 3.375%. That is the rate I quoted originally but saving you $730. I originally quoted it with a cost to you. So that is great. Me: Thanks so much. We were curious if our rate would be any lower since the national average has gone down a bit since the time we were originally quoted in March. Also is there any option to buy points? Thanks again Liz: We can go to 3.25 and that would cost .375% of the loan amount Thanks in advance for any advice. 🙂 [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2021 06:22 PM PDT My wife is pregnant! So we've been looking at houses but not entirely sure where to set my expectations. I have crushing student loan debt +$150,000 & 630 credit score. I make $115,000 a year and my wife makes approx $60k with +720 credit score. I'm thinking after we sell our coop we'll have around 100k for a down payment but still not entirely sure how far thatd get us. My DTI is 23% even with such high debt. So how does this factor in qualifying for a mortgage? I spoke to a realtor who said I could just be a co-signer to help support qualifying with my income. Any insight would be cool EDIT: How significant of an impact would my student loan debt have on the borrowing amount, Taking in consideration my DTI? [link] [comments]  |
| Should I talk to boss about health issue or take short term disability Posted: 07 Jun 2021 04:37 PM PDT So I looked up other reddit posts about STD, and most of them were posted here and I am following suit. My predicament is I have recently started working a new job, <4 months, but throughout the entire time I have been dealing with a concussion. I've kept up a cheerful attitude, because I am naturally that way and I hate complaining (I don't mind when others complain). However that's only because I have been able to work remote, and am able to keep my symptoms at a manageable level. My job wants us to start coming in, and I worry because I have huge migraines when I'm not working in a dark room. I am a recent grad, and this is my first job, so I don't know what my options are in terms of the decisions I can make to deal with this issue. I just learned about short term disability (STD) and I think my job has a plan for us, but I have been able to work fine from home. I have been avoiding talking to my boss(there's no HR, it's a small company) about this because I'm worried I'd get fired from my first job, and I wouldn't be able to find another for a long time because of the negative stigma around short tenures at a job. Since I don't qualify for FMLA, and I don't know what other options are available, I am stuck between a rock and a hard place deciding whether to tell my boss about the concussion and hoping they let me stay and work remote or trying to get STD (I don't know how hard it is to get if you have a concussion/TBI) and possibly getting fired after I come back from it. Another big concern I have is what if I tell my boss and they decide to fire me before I can try out STD, is that a gamble I just have to take? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Jun 2021 08:01 AM PDT Edit: Before I could even read your responses, I got a letter in the mail from the new lender. I spoke to them and got it settled. Thanks all! Hi all! I've learned a lot from this sub by reading all of your posts, but now I have a specific problem. My husband and I bought a house and closed in mid-April. We got our mortgage through a bank which has a local branch in the town where we live. At the time of closing, we were told that the mortgage would likely be sold, but that our terms were not allowed to change. In the paperwork we signed with our attorney, it states that the mortgage is being transferred to a new servicer. However, the name, address and phone number listed for the "new servicer" is exactly the same as what is listed for the "current servicer." That servicer is the bank we used to apply for the mortgage. June 1 rolls around, which is the date our first mortgage payment is due. In hindsight, I should have looked into this before the due date. But on top of being a first time homebuyer, I am also a first time mom to a 2 month old. The days just flew by and all of a sudden it was June. Anyway, I called the local branch of the bank and asked how I can pay this loan. They told me that they had no record of my mortgage in their system. They said they would contact somebody at corporate and get them to call me. Nobody ever did. The next day, I contact the attorney to see if they have any information. The only info they have is the paper saying the loan is being transferred to the same servicer. So I called the number listed there. They also had no information about the mortgage, but said they would reach out to the loan officer I worked with and have him call me. He never did. We have received nothing in the mail about the loan from any bank. It does not show up on our credit reports on credit karma. I'm at a loss as to what I can do to figure out where this mortgage lives. I did confirm that the seller received their money for the house. So it has to be somewhere. But now I'm late on my first payment already. What else can I do? TIA! [link] [comments]  |
| first time setting 401k at work Posted: 07 Jun 2021 06:37 PM PDT first job that offers 401k, while configuring the settings it came out these 2 questions and I guessed and finished the application. now a month it would be $1080. half in roth half 401k it seems I setup a roth and 401k at the same time. at almost 40 I know am late but should I reduce the roth for the 401k or cancel Roth and move all to 401k? if I understand correctly 401k is pretax so it would be better now to put money in it and in 20 years roll over to roth ira? correct me lol [link] [comments]  |
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