Personal Finance Electric usage increased 600% in one month, more than quadrupling our bill. What are our next steps? |
- Electric usage increased 600% in one month, more than quadrupling our bill. What are our next steps?
- Property inheritance question
- How to handle inheritance with my bank?
- How do I write an employment terms letter?
- High college debt and got a late start to retirement. How much trouble am I in?
- I’ve dug myself into a financial hole and I’m not sure where to begin to fix it
- Just realized my 401k Investment Style is set to 'Aggressive', should I change it?
- IRS never answers yet demands payment! Anything I can do? (I don’t owe them the money)
- I made a tool for comparing cost to own of vehicles
- Is there a way to buy S&P500 index fund monthly with dividends reinvested?
- Should I refinance my cc debt? (Again)
- Gift from Aunt to Kids, what to do?
- Is my logic wrong about Roth IRA's?
- Where to save money for home repairs
- Reduce 401k contributions to build up a healthier down payment?
- Questions about living trust.
- Identity proofing consistently fails- and credit bureaus like Equifax say I don't exist. How do I find out what the issue is?
- 23, $3000 savings, $25k debt
- Vanilla gift card funds stolen from unopened package.
| Electric usage increased 600% in one month, more than quadrupling our bill. What are our next steps? Posted: 19 Dec 2021 10:47 AM PST Hi everybody. We live in a 550 sq ft apartment, and our electric usage has increased from 189 kWh to 1187 kWh in a month. Our bill has increased from $36/mo to $198/mo. Our habits are mostly the same except we swapped out a window unit AC for a fan. I plan on calling the power company tomorrow. I think I'll ask them to send out a technician to check the meter. This is my first time dealing with a utilities issue so I'm not really sure what to expect. Our bill is due Jan. 4th and I'd like to get this straightened out before then in case there's an error that wasn't our fault. Does anyone have any advice? Side note: if there's a better sub to post this in, please let me know! I just figured this one is good for stuff like this. Thanks in advance! EDIT: We have hydraulic baseboard heating, not electric, that's included with rent as per the lease. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 19 Dec 2021 04:41 AM PST So my wife and I just inherited a 400-500 thousand dollar property from her Grandfather. We were not expecting this and neither was her family. In a perfect world we would sell our current house, add the profit to our retirement fund/college funds for our kids and move into her grandpa's house. My wife's parents were anticipating to live in this property after he passed and asked us to give it to them. I know this is unreasonable and I'm not planning on doing this but I don't want to completely ruin our fairly good relationship with them. We don't need this money right now, but we don't want to just completely give it up. I had an idea to lease the property to them for 1$ a year until their death, and write up a contract stating they are responsible for taxes, utilities, insurance, and upkeep. My wife and I are both ok with this compromise; her parents would have a place to live and we wouldn't have to split her inheritance with her siblings upon her parents death. I'd like to get advice as to whether this is possible, whether or not we're missing anything, or there's another idea out there that would get us a similar result. [link] [comments] |
| How to handle inheritance with my bank? Posted: 19 Dec 2021 05:31 AM PST Throwaway account, obviously. I've gotten very lucky and am receiving an inheritance of approximately $750,000 (I know the exact amount but not going to list it for privacy reasons) from a grandparent. My bank is a small regional chain and I just have a normal personal checking account with them, and is my only banking account. I'm sure the size of this deposit is extremely rare for this bank, so I'm wondering if it's possible I'm going to run into any issues getting it deposited, and if there's any additional paperwork that I'm going to need to show them? The inheritance is coming in the form of a paper check from my grandparent's estate, which is being handled by a law firm. Additionally, does FDIC insurance apply to individual accounts separately, or all accounts collectively? As in, should I open a few savings accounts with them before depositing the check just to make sure the money is protected, if that's how it works? I do plan on moving most of this money over to investment accounts ASAP, so I might not even have to worry about this. Just looking for general advice on how to handle this. Nobody who isn't another beneficiary knows about this, and I'm keeping it that way of course. Thank you for any advice! [link] [comments] |
| How do I write an employment terms letter? Posted: 19 Dec 2021 07:08 AM PST I interviewed for a pretty decent job yesterday, basically got the position but the location manager asked me to put together a letter he can forward to the hiring manager outlining what I would like to get to come on board with this company. It is clear they need someone with my experience, the manager let on the hiring person was hounding him to get me in for an interview. I would like to get 10 days PTO a year, a guaranteed pay for the first two or three months (job is commission paid) and if possible a hiring bonus. I have never had to do this before. Previously, my salary was usually locked in at a certain rate, the company would have clearly defined vacation time based on tenure, etc. For reference, I have been in management for the past 15 years but tired of the stress and long hours and decided to take a front office role in sales. My attempts so far sound like ransom demands, and I don't want to screw up this opportunity by a poorly written letter that comes off as arrogant or ego driven. My google searches are not helping, probably because I am not using an accurate search term. A point in the right direction would be helpful. Thank you! [link] [comments] |
| High college debt and got a late start to retirement. How much trouble am I in? Posted: 19 Dec 2021 12:05 PM PST Mid 30s with 50k salary and 95k in college debt. Money is very, very tight. I refinanced to lower my minimum payments and still only have about $300 to my name every two weeks after bills are paid. Major expenses are student loan payments ($650, 150 of which is interest), rent ($450), used car payments ($150, four years left), health insurance ($125) and auto insurance ($100), as well as mandatory salary deductions for the federal pension. Roommate is graciously paying almost 2/3 of rent to help me out but eventually I'm going to have to find a way to live on my own. I'm not financially independent and it's terrifying. Regarding retirement, I'm doing the 5% matching ($12k in the account so far) and as mentioned will have a federal pension. That's all I've got going right now. Really wanna do Roth IRA but I have zero savings so I know that's a priority too. Refinancing to lower payments was supposed to be temporary because the interest is higher, but it has provided some relief. That said, minimum payments on this loan long term will obviously screw me. If I don't refinance to more aggressive terms later I think I calculated that the interest will have doubled the initial cost of the loan. Jesus. I'm worried that I'm in big trouble if I don't make more money soon. Every day, every hour, this is what I think about and it's depressing. Not enough is going to retirement, pay down of the loan is way too slow, I can't afford to live on my own, and no savings means no home which feels like a distant dream at this point. How screwed am I? Other than making more money ASAP, what would be your priority at this point? I keep trying to tell myself it's going to be okay but I can't get rid of the voice in the back of my head saying my finances will haunt me for the rest of my life. Edit: Single, no kids. No credit card debt [link] [comments] |
| I’ve dug myself into a financial hole and I’m not sure where to begin to fix it Posted: 19 Dec 2021 02:59 PM PST I (28M) have accumulated roughly $13k in credit card and personal loan debt as a result of trying to live outside of my means. It began with a $10k personal loan I received towards the end of 2019, which costs me $249 monthly. This was manageable with my income, and all payments have been made on time to date. However, after tacking on two credit cards and another $1000 personal loan from a different lender, my payments towards these and other various bills have left me with about $150 a month in spending money. This is less than ideal for the cost of living in my city, and I have no means of saving money at this time. Some of the factors that are further complicating this issue include the following:
As stated in the title, I'm not sure where to start in order to get back on track. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. [link] [comments] |
| Just realized my 401k Investment Style is set to 'Aggressive', should I change it? Posted: 19 Dec 2021 02:43 PM PST
[link] [comments] |
| IRS never answers yet demands payment! Anything I can do? (I don’t owe them the money) Posted: 19 Dec 2021 02:22 PM PST Could really use some advice on how to deal with the IRS right now during covid. They sent me a letter requiring a payment by 12/28 but I don't agree with the charges and have the documents to back it up. I call the numbers they provide on the notice but it's all recordings and says they are too busy and to call again but I've been calling for weeks now and they never take calls. Has anyone else been experiencing this? Not sure where else to look for help on with options. I contacted my local Taxpayers Advocate service but they said there is a 3 months wait time for new cases. I got the notice on 12/7 with due date of 12/28 Context: In the US. I have a unique name with two last names. I have always used just one of the last names for simplicity. A few years ago in 2018 I got letters from my bank and brokerage accounts saying that my name didn't match my TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number). I had been using just the single last name for years but since they had issues I changed my name with them to my official full name with both last names. Later I sold a large stock grant to cover home repairs and got a notice from my brokerage that they had withheld 30% of the stock sale for taxes because of the TIN mismatch. My understanding was that the withheld amount (5-10K) would be subtracted from the taxes I owed the IRS for that year so I paid that amount less on my filing the next year. Fast Forward 3 years later and now I'm getting notices from the IRS claiming that my 2018 taxes are short the exact amount that was supposedly withheld from my stock sale. So it seems the mandatory withheld money was not credited to my taxes correctly and needs to be fixed. This is why I feel I don't owe the outstanding IRS balance and want to contest it. [link] [comments] |
| I made a tool for comparing cost to own of vehicles Posted: 19 Dec 2021 01:14 PM PST Here is a link in case you want to copy the sheet and use it for yourself. I put the cost of TTL at 10% as an estimate as that is what I have seen where I am. If your state is higher or lower you can adjust it. I got tired of doing all of the calculations by hand every time a value changed in my guesswork so I made a spreadsheet to do it for me. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qolfh0tyPkOBNQQdS9HQMVMy7kvC_Vn5ncWhVwfIgYQ/copy [link] [comments] |
| Is there a way to buy S&P500 index fund monthly with dividends reinvested? Posted: 19 Dec 2021 07:00 AM PST As the title suggests, I'm looking for a way to automate index funds like VOO or VTI with a monthly purchase of a fixed dollar amount. You can do it for many stocks with their DRIP program which allows to buy fractional shares every month. But I wanted to follow the same approach in investing automatically in these index funds but couldn't find a way. Thanks in advance [link] [comments] |
| Should I refinance my cc debt? (Again) Posted: 19 Dec 2021 02:42 PM PST Hi all, I have around ~$14k in debt, with ~$5k of that on a personal loan and the rest CCs. Wondering if I should do another personal loan, pay off everything (including the previous one), and go from there. The APR on my loan is like 21% (yeah… I know). I've already started budgeting and I've been paying more than the mins of course. Credit Karma is telling me I have $13k borrowing power with 21% APR. If I did do a personal loan, I wouldn't really be too concerned with the APR because I would select one with no early repayment fees and just do a solid $1k a month for 13 months and knock it out. I've already confirmed this is within budget for me. Let me know your thoughts. [link] [comments] |
| Gift from Aunt to Kids, what to do? Posted: 19 Dec 2021 02:29 PM PST My aunt and uncle are approaching end of life, and I suspect they are working on their estate planning. They have generously given my wife, kids (age 11,13), and me a gift of $15k each. My wife and I have a variety of destinations for our part of this gift (IRAs, emergency fund, regifting to older kids from my wife's first marriage (age 27,30)), but I'm at a loss for what to do with the money earmarked for our joint kids. My wife and I aren't rich by any stretch of the imagination, but make a comfortable enough amount of money, live fairly conservative lifestyles, have a paid off house and zero debt. We've got around 60k in 529s for our kids, and my parents (fairly well off) (have set up 529s for our kids to the tune of something like $100k EACH!). This (in my opinion) excessively funded 529 situation is probably going to be a question for another day, but what should I do with this gift right now? I first thought I might set up IRA accounts for them, but then I discovered that since they don't have earned income, they wouldn't qualify for something like that. My next thought was to set up regular taxable brokerage custodial accounts for them, invest in an index fund or similar, and then they would get access to the money at 21. My third and weirdest idea was to put the money into a new trust that my wife and I would create - I've been considering something like this as part of my estate planning, but really have only just started even researching what to do as part of it. My kids are great, and hope nothing goes sideways with their lives, but I'm not sure getting a giant chunk of cash is good for any 21 year old, so maybe a trust would enable tighter future control. I'm definitely going to find a local Certified Financial Planner to get their thoughts, but figured I'd check with r/personalfinance first since I've seen plenty of good advice here on other topics. Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Is my logic wrong about Roth IRA's? Posted: 19 Dec 2021 08:29 AM PST I see a lot of advice to pump a Roth IRA and 401k, and it seems a lot of people my age (30's) choose to prioritize a Roth IRA over other retirement investments. But this doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I don't live a lavish lifestyle and my goal is to retire as early as possible. I figure my income right now is probably 2x what I'll need in retirement. So my thought process is - why pump a Roth IRA that I'll be taxed today at a higher tax bracket when I'm planning on my retirement income being significantly lower? It seems like I would be better paying a lower tax rate when I finally withdraw the money. I have a good safety net and other penalty-free investments (stocks) so I dont plan on ever having to do an early withdrawal. The only way I could see a Roth IRA benefitting me is if the lower/middle income tax brackets were to go through massive increases. Am I missing something or is my logic sound? [link] [comments] |
| Where to save money for home repairs Posted: 19 Dec 2021 06:07 AM PST So I'm looking to buy a house in the next month, and was crunching the old numbies to see what my finances will be looking like with the rates I've been getting from lenders. At the same time, the house I'm renting right now is having some issues that the landlord is shelling out ~$4000 to fix. So a thought occurred to me: where is it appropriate to save money for that kind of emergency? Would emergency home repair be an example of a situation in which to pull from my emergency fund (which I currently have as 6 months of living expenses)? Or do I need a separate saving strategy for that kind of expense? And if so, how aggressive should I really be with that money (i.e. can I have that in a taxable brokerage account invested in ETFs or should that be sitting in a HYSA)? Just trying to make sure I have my strategy squared away before buying a house. Thanks for any thoughts! p.s. there's a chance the home I buy is a townhome if that makes a difference. But there's also a chance I go for a detached home. I feel like that may change things but I can't exactly see how (I'd assume townhomes have slightly fewer repair issues but I may be mistaken) [link] [comments] |
| Reduce 401k contributions to build up a healthier down payment? Posted: 19 Dec 2021 11:42 AM PST Hi, brand new here. I'd like to buy a house within the next year, but have a rather small down payment set aside that I contribute about $200/month to. I have some debt and an average credit score. Is it worth it to reduce my contributions to my 401k in order to save up more money for a down payment for a house? The flip side is to reduce my 401k contributions to more quickly pay off my debts and boost my credit score faster. I currently contribute ~$1,000/month to my 401k and my retirement fund is very behind for my age group (mid 30s). Any thoughts, advice, input is appreciated. Thank you. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 19 Dec 2021 02:28 PM PST I hope this is the right place to ask this. I'm in my early 40s and healthy, have 3 children aged 14, 5 and 4. I want to set up a living trust for them with some cash I have saved up. A couple of years ago I opened 3 vanguard accounts for them and bought some ETFs. I put in a certain amount in each using investment calculators to end up with about 100k in each account by the time each child is 18 (which made my initial investments all different amounts). My wish is they each use it for education if needed, but if not I want the money to remain invested until they need it to buy a house. If they don't end up buying a house, they are given cash in 2-3 increments over 10 years. However, cash can also be released in case of medical or another emergency. Additionally I have my own Roth, IRA and brokerage accounts which would be allocated to my SO to help raising the kids. I met with a lawyer to set up the trusts but she seems to prefer to have 1 account and split that up between my kids equally in the event of my death. How do I set up this trust?? Are there other things I need to take into account? What's the best way to accomplish what I want for them? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 19 Dec 2021 02:16 PM PST When I was 18 my social security card was stolen. I was super sick back then- I missed half my senior year of highschool- and I've been having issues that suggest I may have frozen my credit and forgotten about it because I was sick. I've had a new card issued without issues, so I know the government knows I exist. Identity proofing consistently fails- whether its me applying for health insurance or trying to check my credit rating they can't confirm I exist. I'm going to need a car soon and for that I'm likely going to (unfortunately) need to open up a line of credit. I can't do that if the credit bureaus say I don't exist, so I'm trying to get this sorted. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 19 Dec 2021 10:28 AM PST Hi everyone, I'm a 23 F and this is my current financial situation: Salary: $67,000 Savings: $3000 401K: $14,000 Total Debt (student loans & car): $25,000 I also have no credit card debt and a near perfect credit score. Am I in decent financial shape for my age? I definitely struggle with a spending habit (especially dining out) that I need to fix, and I know I need to get my savings up. I just worry that I am way far behind for my age. Would love any thoughts / perspectives. [link] [comments] |
| Vanilla gift card funds stolen from unopened package. Posted: 19 Dec 2021 11:20 AM PST My sister gave me a vanilla gift card still in the package on the 15th (she activated it before she gave it to me.) I officially opened the package on the 17th to use it but it was declined. So I checked the transaction and balance on the card and the money was spent and some how it was all spent on the 16th on Taco Bell and Amazon. They were able to spend the full amount no cents were left. How is the even possible? You can't see the number on the card in the package so I'm just straight up confused. Any help on just understanding how it could of happened would be greatly appreciated!! [link] [comments] |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Personal Finance. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment