Personal Finance Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of September 13, 2021 |
- Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of September 13, 2021
- Boss just quit. I'm unhappy too, but I'm pregnant.
- uhaul charged me $1,200 for a trip I didn't take
- Chase Zelle Scam
- Large mortgage at 22; good idea?
- Offered the option to work remote - what should I consider in this decision?
- Parents are selling our family farm
- How do you budget for vacation, or large one-off things like that?
- Should I quit job and rest for a few years?
- Why are banks giving out cheap loans if inflation is expected to deteriorate the dollar so much?
- My home purchase price went down but my mortgage rate went up??
- Are Debt relief companies like PDS (Purity Debt Services) safe to use?
- Can't plan because of all the proposed tax changes
- Is this home plan feasible?
- Which student loan do I pay off first?
- What am I even doing with this money
- 50 years old with nothing, please help me get started on the path to retirement
- Contemplating leaving my job
- How can I increase my credit score of ~660?
- College savings account
- I'm 70 days behind my mortgage payment and I have no idea what to do
- Idk how to get out of my 50k debt
- Moved to a new state and got fired after 4 days of working. What should i do?
| Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of September 13, 2021 Posted: 13 Sep 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]  |
| Boss just quit. I'm unhappy too, but I'm pregnant. Posted: 13 Sep 2021 01:11 PM PDT My amazing boss just put in her notice today. Personal reasons, but it was a logical decision for her. I've been similarly unhappy and frustrated with the company myself for several months, not just because of Covid and the industry we're in. Covid just made it way worse. Everyone has been jumping ship it seems. I am 1 month away from being halfway through my first pregnancy, and my plan was to stick around through at least after my maternity leave and then start seriously looking around. But now that she's leaving, I am fearing maybe it's time I jump ship now too and at least start looking. How unwise would it be to leave now and possibly pay more out of pocket bc of lack of benefits/PTO versus tough it out until May-ish 2022 and find something better? If it helps any, I can easily find a higher-paying job anywhere in my city, so the hunt for a new role would hardly be difficult. It's just that transition and loss of benefits would be extremely difficult on me/us during an already exhausting time (physically at home and mentally at work). Also, my new boss for now will be fine, and if my tasks stay relatively the same I can probably tough it out without much difficulty. It would just be frustrating the whole time. Update: thank you all for the amazing and insightful comments! I think I'll stick it out and reconsider choices right before/after the baby comes. Loss of benefits/insurance could be really tough on us, not to mention the job transition in Covid and having to take maternity leave. I think I already knew this was the answer but wanted to make sure I wasn't being a crazy pregnant lady lol [link] [comments]  |
| uhaul charged me $1,200 for a trip I didn't take Posted: 13 Sep 2021 07:33 AM PDT Location: GA I rented a uhaul @ 12PM on 09/05 for ~$140 to pick up some couches from my in-laws. Approximately two hours later, we finished unloading the couches so I filled the tank and my wife followed me to the drop off location (Chevron gas station near our house). Walked into the Chevron, turned in the keys, and the employee began "logging" the return. He asked the typical questions about fuel, damage, etc. After about 10 minutes he said something to the effect of, "It's going to take me about another 5-10 minutes, but you're good to go sir." My wife was waiting in the car, so I said thanks and left. Fast forward to today, we receive a uhaul receipt for $1,200. The receipt shows the truck drove 550 miles and was dropped off in Tampa, FL on 09/07 - which is around 8-10 hours from us. I've opened an "action file" with uhaul, but am not sure how productive that effort is going to be. I can't say whether the Chevron employee did something wrong unintentionally or if there's something fraudulent going on. Has this happened to anyone before? Just need some advice on what may be good things to do to assist with a resolution. PS - don't trust "oh, you'll receive a receipt by email." [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 13 Sep 2021 12:48 PM PDT Got a call today from a "chase rep" claiming that there is a suspicious 2k pending Zelle charge that is scheduled to be taken out of my account tomorrow. The thing that threw me off is the number is from the Chase customer service number and even calling back brings me back to chase. I checked my bank app and saw no pending charges or anything and he said it was from a 3rd party app. I asked who is the payment going to, he gave me the name "Rebecca Shaw" whom I never heard before. I said no I never authorized this payment. I figured this was a scam already but the customer service number threw me off. He then told me that the money is going to send no matter what and it can be returned with in 14 days, but instead I could call "Rebecca Shaw" and ask her to stop the payment. I then hung up because it sounded too stupid to me. I called chases number through the mobile app and it brought up the same number I got called from but the lady said they see nothing of a charge or any associates calling me recently. I assume it's a scam, i wasn't asked for any personal info, they already had my name and who I banked with. be careful out there, a little longer and I could've been scammed just watch out for red flags. I'll see if there's any money missing out of my bank tomorrow [link] [comments]  |
| Large mortgage at 22; good idea? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 05:29 AM PDT 22 year old, recently graduated from college without debts, working 18/hr job with plans to enter medical school. My family wants to take a 900k mortgage out in my name to buy a residential home. They'll be giving me 200k and covering the mortgage payments each month. However, I am worried about my ability to pay these payments in the future without their income when they stop working. Also, would this mortgage affect my ability to get student loans for medical school? With medical school expenses, I feel there would be no way to cover the mortgage too and it won't be until 8-9 years from now when I'll be making a true physician's salary. How good/bad of an idea is this? Edit: Ok, since this is obviously terrible, how about a smaller mortgage around 300k? Family would still be giving me 200k and 100k doesn't seem so bad if they are the ones covering the mortgage on my behalf. Edit 2: Thank you everyone for all the nearly unanimous insight. I posted this out of concern for my own naivety regarding this matter. I'll be sure to follow everyone's advice and not go through with this. [link] [comments]  |
| Offered the option to work remote - what should I consider in this decision? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:16 AM PDT Basically the title. My boss has given me (and, by extension, my team) the option to go fully remote. We're currently on a hybrid schedule, so this would be a change. I'll say from the get-go this is tempting, but it's unusual in my field to be fully remote. Hell, hybrid was unusual until our "post"-COVID return, but here we are. Anyway, since I have a lot of flexibility in this decision, I'm curious what I should consider when weighing the options? Anything I should ask for besides the obvious (desk/supply allowance, internet stipend)? If anyone has gone fully remote in a field where most of your colleagues are not remote, I'd be interested to hear about your experience. Again, my quick, "gut" reaction is to jump at this, but I'm trying to think about this from all angles before going all in. Thanks in advance. [link] [comments]  |
| Parents are selling our family farm Posted: 13 Sep 2021 09:55 AM PDT Backstory, my grandfather purchased and setup an 80 acre family farm in the early 1900s. When he passed about 20 years ago, it was in a living trust and my parents bought out my aunt and uncle. Their investment at that time was about 150k. There is no lein against it at all. My parents have been renting the farm land out to a neighborhood farmer but realistically, that isn't very profitable after taxes. No one lives at the acreage anymore and the buildings are very run down. None of my siblings are interested in the farm at this point and I am not either. They have an offer that would be about 1 million all said and done to sell it to someone that wants to fix it up some and use the farm land to help cover the costs of raising sheep, currently no livestock is being raised there. I'm not looking to change their mind about selling, but my dad seems to think the taxes on his capital gains are going to be outrageous, where can I direct him for getting a clear picture of what he'll pay and what options he has for limiting the tax implications? Everything should be of the legal and moral high ground of course, nothing shady. Oh, this farm is in Iowa, US. [link] [comments]  |
| How do you budget for vacation, or large one-off things like that? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:57 AM PDT I am almost a full year into budgeting. One thing I have found challenging is things like vacation. I set aside a certain amount per check for vacation and plan to do so for all 26 checks in a year. But if I take it halfway through the year, I only have half the money. I can use other money and just repay myself with that already-allocated-amount over the next several checks, but that gets confusing when doing it for more than one category. So how do does everyone deal with things like that? I did all my budgets over 26 checks because it seemed to be the way to do it, but now I'm thinking that might not be the best way. It got really confusing to me when I pre-paid for several people 2mos in advance and didn't get paid until the day we left. Any tips are appreciated. Edit: I didn't expect to get near this many replies. I'm reading all of them, just might not get to respond to each one. I really do appreciate each one! Some things I have decided to change about my budget after reading several comments: starting to use YNAB, merge my accounts all into one and just budget from there, add a couple categories to my budget and adjust my numbers accordingly, and budget from 24 checks instead of 26. This sounds like several changes but I'm confident it will make things much simpler on my end. Thanks so much everyone! [link] [comments]  |
| Should I quit job and rest for a few years? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 04:57 PM PDT I am in my 40's and I am really burnt out. I am a nurse. When I first started working, there was a high demand and I was making 100k. Now the new nurses are making 2/3 what I am making. If I quit now, I won't be making the same pay as I am now. (The pay varies a lot depending what and how many hours you are willing to work. I am just saying what people are making for my position). I have paid off my house and bought another house (also paid off) as rental. I am also lucky enough to have saved cash enough for 5 years. My worry is I am still young but I dread everyday going to work. I either feel very tired or agitated at work. Am I too impulsive? Should I stay? (With my seniority, I probably am one of the highest paid nurses in my hospital within my rank). I am worried either I will regret if I quit (lose my seniority and pay scale) or suffered from GI bleed from all those stress. Please help. [link] [comments]  |
| Why are banks giving out cheap loans if inflation is expected to deteriorate the dollar so much? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:00 PM PDT I'm really skeptical about getting involved in a loan. I understand inflation is supposed to basically make this a no-brainer, but why would banks give out these loans if they know they basically won't get anything back in the future? [link] [comments]  |
| My home purchase price went down but my mortgage rate went up?? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 12:27 PM PDT I'm purchasing a house (first time homebuyer) and the appraisal came back lower than the offer. The seller wasn't thrilled but got over it. Now that everything is settled and I'm nearing closing I got a new rate disclosure package, where the lender added 1/4 point to my closing costs "in order to keep the locked rate." I asked about this and was told that "the rate I locked in was at a certain purchase price and since the purchase price went down the rate went up, and in order to keep the quoted rate I'd need to pay part of a point." Alternatively I could take a higher rate and get a lender credit. I'd pay a higher monthly payment but wouldn't pay more than the credit until 10 years from now. The lender is trying to convince me that I'll probably move in less than 10 years so I should take the credit and suck it up about $25 extra a month. I just want the rate I locked in and my realtor is similarly confused. I'm using rocket mortgage, which I hope isn't the source of my issue, because before this I would have heartily recommended them to any and all who asked. Even those who didn't ask, but in souring on the experience now... Is it common for your rate to change with a small change in loan value? The loan amount went down ~4%. Thanks for your comments. [link] [comments]  |
| Are Debt relief companies like PDS (Purity Debt Services) safe to use? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 08:15 PM PDT I wonder what the 'catch' is. They close out the accounts , then negotiate a pay off amount, and make the payments from an escrow account that is funded by auto drafting from my bank account. Has anyone ever used such a service? [link] [comments]  |
| Can't plan because of all the proposed tax changes Posted: 13 Sep 2021 05:06 PM PDT I'm retired and currently living comfortably on my Social Security and savings, but I'm worried about my property taxes skyrocketing ( because I live in a region where the home prices have gone up 20% in the last year, and are expected to keep going up at least 10% per year for the foreseeable future, because the COVID lockdown has shown so many city fellers that they don't need to go to the office to do their jobs, so they will be selling their houses in Seattle for millions and then moving to my beautiful small town and competing for a small number of homes). Washington state has a senior property tax exemption that I qualify for now, but I won't qualify once I have to start taking RMDs in two years. The only way to avoid RMDs is to convert the half million in my IRA/401K into a Roth, but that will create a humongous tax bill since I only have two years to do it. Although it seems counterintuitive, my spreadsheet shows me that I will actually end up with more money if I take the huge tax hit now, than if I pay a small amount for the next 30 years, even ignoring the property tax exemption. If you don't ignore the property tax, the difference is really large, like hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time I'm 90. But here's the thing: I keep reading about all the proposed tax changes. They may raise the age for RMDs, or require smaller withdrawals, or even abolish them. Social security insolvency has been moved up a year. There may be a wealth tax imposed on assets as well as income. And so on. So it seems like it would be stupid to do nothing, but it also seems like it would be stupid to deliberately incur an income tax bill of $150K or more and not have it do any good. So how do you plan intelligently, when you have no idea what the tax policy will be ten years from now? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 13 Sep 2021 07:40 PM PDT Disabled with a fiancé and baby, his salary $50,000 a year and I may try my best to pick up a night shift if disability denies me. If we buy a $100,000 home with 3.5% down, FHA and a few other sites estimate we'd be paying about $581 total monthly mortgage including taxes and insurance. I'm not sure how accurate that is. We have $23,000 in savings He has $2,600 in credit card debt that I will be paying off with some of the savings. He also has $15,000 in student loans and I have about $3,500 student loan debt. We don't plan to pay this back entirely before buying a home because we guess it will take years and we are living with his family paying tons for groceries monthly for about 7-8 people who share with us. We want to know if it's possible for us to still get a mortgage/FHA loan with this amount of student debt to income ratio as long as I wipe out his CC debt. Also, our other monthly expenses are about $1,210 monthly and I'm assuming utilities will be around $356. So in total we would be spending $2,147. That would leave us with $1,186 after taxes to save or even take chunks out of student debt. Or, if for whatever reason groceries cost $100 more on a certain month, is $1,000 a good amount left? This is all assuming that I may still be an umemployed SAHM by then, but it may be more if I get disability or extreme accommodations in a low-paying night shift job. [link] [comments]  |
| Which student loan do I pay off first? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 07:23 PM PDT Over the past 2 years, I've created a spreadsheet to crush all my debt to dust. 💨 Though I noticed something, yesterday, with my (2) largest loans. This is messing with my mind so much, it's making me want to readjust my payoffs a bit.
I was originally going to do The Snowball Method. But now I'm thinking that I need to nip these unpaid interest rates in the bud, FIRST, and THEN go back to snowballing the $4500 loan. And I'll continue to pay over the "asked amount" (they don't ask for payment until January 2022) to make sure that interest rate doesn't creep back out of control again. Am I thinking about this right? [link] [comments]  |
| What am I even doing with this money Posted: 13 Sep 2021 05:50 PM PDT So, my husband and I recently relocated our family (us and our son) to very north New England for work. We both got better jobs and sold our house in the Midwest. We netted about $87,000 profit on our house sale. We also got significant increases in overall pay, from about $150,000 per year to $200,000 per year (combined). We are buying a home here but are using a VA loan, so we have 0% down with no PMI (please don't focus on the merits of putting money down and reducing total loan amount to lower interest over the life of loan - we are more interested in preserving liquidity). Right now our checking account earns 3% on up to 15,000, so we will keep enough there to maintain that balance. I want to figure out where I should put the remaining ~$72,000. We have a small emergency fund in a separate bank ($16,000 + $600 per month contribution) which earns only .4% interest but is our emergency fund, so I'm OK with that. I want to keep the funds somewhere that earns more than 2% but has very low risk, and is accessible for home improvements, etc. as they will arise. We are all squared away on retirement contributions, HSA, college fund for kid, etc. Edit: Also since we sold our house we have no debt. Thanks in advance and sorry for probably being the 70 billionth person to ask this exact question. [link] [comments]  |
| 50 years old with nothing, please help me get started on the path to retirement Posted: 13 Sep 2021 12:56 AM PDT Hello everyone. Just some info about myself. I am 51 years old. Single with no kids. I live in Vancouver, BC. I only finished high-school and have a permanent criminal record. I only make CAD 18 dollars per hour as a cleaner. I make around 1150-1200 every two weeks (minus tax, benefits, ccp, etc). I still have 3k debt on my credit card but that's about it and I'm paying it off slowly. I have no property of my own. I don't own a vehicle. (I'd like to have one though but will pay off cc first) I actually don't own anything worth value. I rent. I take transit atm. I feel like my life is just living paycheck to paycheck. Age is creeping in and I do not know where to begin when it comes to where to invest money in. Should I do RRSP at this point? Or something? I am just a simple person and my goal is to at least have something when I retire at 65. Is having just a pension enough to live on? Any advice would be highly appreciated. Thank you all. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:58 PM PDT I have worked in my sales field in the same industry and have acheived great results. I was making around 80k a year and honestly satisfied. Issue is they continuously keep cutting commissions. We have no inventory to sell clients due to a chip shortage and have raised goals higher than our highest of last year. This company has now held a paycheck of mine for 3 weeks due to a processing error they claim and im just done. Just feeling confused and would like some advice i guess. [link] [comments]  |
| How can I increase my credit score of ~660? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 08:17 PM PDT I have no open loans, besides student loans. I owe no one money. No open credit cards. I haven't missed a single payment in over 5 years. What could I possibly do at this point? Also, I have a middle-class income. I own my car, rent is reasonable to my income (I don't live in an expensive neighborhood). I have 150% of my yearly income in a Saving account. I have an equivalent amount in a Fidelity account. Also, I take $500 from every paycheck and place it into my savings account, 6% to the fidelity account. Why is my credit score so low? What do I need to do? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 13 Sep 2021 08:11 PM PDT So my son is 2 and a half years old and I've been putting off opening a college savings account for him. As of right now I've just been putting $250 a month into my own savings account keeping a mental note of how much is his based on how many months old he is. Is a 529 plan the way to go? Can we still make use of the tax benefits of this plan if he chooses to go to a trade school? Can it be used on any type of education or should it just be college? How much should I be contributing to it monthly. My wife and I have different ideas of what we'd like to cover for him. She thinks it won't teach him to be responsible if we cover all of his costs for him while I'd like him to have the money to do whatever he wants without worrying about his finances. [link] [comments]  |
| I'm 70 days behind my mortgage payment and I have no idea what to do Posted: 13 Sep 2021 10:24 AM PDT I bought a house in November and I've recently fallen pretty behind on my mortgage payments, 70 days. The worst part is that I have absolutely no good reason, I'm just unbelievably impulsive in regular spending and ruin my own finances. I'm prepared to set a strict budget for myself, and I know I can afford the payment if I budget properly, but I'm already in this hole and I don't know how to get out. I'm at the point where I can no longer make online payments, they are forcing me to pay by phone, which I usually never do. I'm afraid that when I call to make a payment so late, I'll get into an even bigger mess than I already am. How do I get myself out of this? [link] [comments]  |
| Idk how to get out of my 50k debt Posted: 13 Sep 2021 06:12 PM PDT Because of the pandemic I'm in debt by about 50k. I can't get out. Mostly CC debt but with payments and interest plus just daily bills, I'm having a really hard time with it. I have a decent job but between taking care of my mother, my grandmother, my girlfriend and our kid I'm barely scraping by if you can call it that. And yes my girlfriend does work as well but I can't ask her to help with this. It's not her problem it's mine. I want to be able to do what's right for her and provide for her and the little one, while still taking care of my mother and grandmother. But it's to much for me. It stresses me out and I don't get very good sleep at night. I'm a failure and I have to live with that, but I also want to get out of this. I just don't know how [link] [comments]  |
| Moved to a new state and got fired after 4 days of working. What should i do? Posted: 13 Sep 2021 07:33 PM PDT Title says it all. Basically i applied but wasnt in town yet, the day after i got in town i started working. Then after 4 days i get a call saying that they decided things weren't busy enough to have another person so now here i am having 1.6k in bills. I dont get my student loan refunds for like 2 months so i cant even use that to help, cant take out a loan because i dont have enough credit history. What should i do? [link] [comments]  |
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