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Human: Lets say you have an emergency fund. $10,000. And savings $10,000. You just lost your water heater. Which do you use to pay for it? I think of an emergency fund as "only if you are out of a job and have no income." In my mind if I have a job I use savings. So does it matter? Is there a difference?

Doesn't matter - money is fungible. Either way you'll end up with 20K minus whatever the new water heater costs. It's like calling money in your left pocket an emergency fund, and money in your right pocket savings. Either way, if you spend it, you end up with the same overall amount.

You may find these links helpful: - [Emergency Funds](/r/personalfinance/wiki/emergencyfunds) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: Without going into excruciating detail and writing a novel, please know that I have done an incredible amount of introspective thought and have tried working through this for nearly 5 years now and this seems to be the only option I have. I've gone to my supervisors and am met with apathy. I simply can't do this for the rest of my life and come out the other end happy. I am pigeonholed in my current career (zookeeper) and my co-workers and management have killed all passion I had for this line of work. Basically, I hate coming into work now, some nights I can't even sleep dreading the next day. I need to change career paths but not sure of where to start. I'm 31 and feel I need to take this step now rather than later while I'm still youngish. I'm married with no kids and have a BS in animal science with a minor in business. I can't take a step backwards financially and am enrolled in the student debt forgiveness program (current job is a nonprofit) so really can't switch careers for less than $75k a year or more. I'm not opposed to taking classes but can't take on more student debt, but also can't afford to pay for a completely new degree out of pocket. My current gross income is \~48k and I have a pretty nice benefit package which makes finding a new job difficult... I know this is super general but I appreciate any help I can get and will answer any questions I can. I'm pretty open to new career paths, just need something with options for quick vertical growth. Also not opposed to careers that allow for telecommuting options. I do know I do not want anything in IT or software. Thanks for any guidance! Edit: the next closest zoo is ~3 hours away Edit 2: I know it’s asking a lot to switch without taking a financial hit. Basically, yes job sucks but not worth changing unless I make more. I think I may be asking for career options outside of the animal world that have high earning potentials.

You can switch careers pretty quickly if you don't mind making $20k/year (Starbucks). But demanding $75k, entry level? Not gonna happen, even with a few years of school. Not even MDs make that initially. >I can't take a step backwards financially Why not? You don't have kids, so can live cheaply, and you have a roommate to split costs with.

Some times you will need to take a paycut to move careers. Have you explored other zookeeping jobs within your area? In my area, we have more than one zoo. Have you looked into wildlife management. How about pharma?

Human: Me and my fiance are getting married in December and plan on taking out a personal loan for the wedding. The wedding will be about $8,000 but we also have some other bills I was thinking of paying off with the loan and turning different monthly payments into one payment a month with the loan. Credit card 1- $2500 with no interest until 2020. So far I am on track to pay that off before then. Credit Card 2- $850 again with no interest currently until about 10 months. These are both cards that we signed up for financing on things like furniture and her wedding ring, so that would be where the no interest until X year comes up. Was just wondering if it is a good idea to just pay them off by asking for a little more with the personal loan and eliminating multiple monthly payments and just turning them into one. ​

In your case, no. Both credit cards are 0% so adding them to a loan will cost you additional interest.

You may find these links helpful: - [Credit-related wiki pages](/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_credit) - [Credit Cards](/r/personalfinance/wiki/creditcards) - [FICO / Credit Scores](/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Improving Credit Scores and Building Credit](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: Some info to get some baseline: I'm in the navy so I have a pretty stable job My Fiance is going to college, and recently lost her job due to them not being flexible, and live on the west coast While I'm on the East Coast(She's finishing school) Her Half sister father passed away when she was a very very young, due to a drunk Semi driver, so she was entitled to assets when she turned 18. Her family has always struggled, but I love them all to death. ​ When she got her money(IMO, way too much money for a young adult to come into, when she has not had any experience dealing with lump sums), she decided to do good with it, but being an 18 year old, coming into $55k us something I don't think anyone can do responsibly. She bought a car, but had no credit, so My fiance decided to sign for it so she could get a low interest rate(I really wished she talked to me about it, but I was at sea at the time). ​ What the expectation was, was that she would set money aside to make payments, and everything would work out! It did, for a couple months, but then she started getting a bit more open with her spending, trying to make everyone happy by buying stuff. Before she new it, she was spending at a rate that led her to running out. That's when shit started to go south. She doesn't want to get a job, she cant make car payments, and she knows its not on her name, which is so damn frustrating. It coming down to me having to make these car payments every month, so my fiance's credit doesn't get destroyed. ​ My fiance is devastated, she's so independent and asking for me for help financially is killing her. I love my fiance's family, and I don't want to destroy my relationship with them, But it is so unfair to her and me both to have to take this responsibility. My immediate thought was to either have my fiance take the car, but she lives with her sister while going to college, and shes afraid she'll get kicked out. It is also how she gets to school, and both of them share the same classes. My second though was to see what she can do about getting her sister to sign to own the car, and take the financial burden off my fiance. She won't sign. ​ I really don't know what to do. I do have a stable job, but I'm flying my fiance out here, and I had to put about $2k on my credit card for repairs to my car, and I cant afford to take care of my car payment, credit cards, savings, and her car payment. I'm living check to check, which is something I haven't had to do in 3 years. I really need help figuring out what to do. Thank you all in advance. Assistant: Whose name is the car in? Have you tried selling the car? Human: It's in my Fiance's name, but its how she gets to school. Her sister and her share classes, so they go to school together, but her sister is the only person who drives the car, and she doesnt make her car payments at all.

Take the car from sister. Keep car, give sister a ride to school. For everything else sister can take bus. Don’t pay for car, you have no car. Simple. Actions have consequences, it’s time someone teaches this to the sister. If she just thinks she can get away with it, this is just the start of a very downward path in life for her as a person, and for your fiancé that will be expected (and probably will) fix all her messes. The responsible thing to do is teach her a lesson, and make it VERY clear that no one will take care of her mistakes in the future.

It’s your fiancé’s car. She should be the only one driving it. She can continue driving her sister to school, but this really is a ridiculous situation. The half sister should not be driving that car. Have your fiancé take the car. Then at least you can justify the payments in your head as investing in her education. Once she finds a job she can take over payments for her car.

Human: I started job A a week ago, and yesterday was offered job B. I think job B is a better fit, has better benefits, and pays $10k more. Job A is a good job too, and they are looking to me for a huge portion of their future (it’s a management role with a lot of input on company vision) Job B wouldn’t start for two weeks. I’m pretty sure I’m taking it, but feel terrible for doing this to job A. I want to tell them as soon as possible, keep the relationship, and still look out for myself What is the best way to proceed? Assistant: Grass isn’t always greener on the other side. No chance you’d want to stay at A if they upped some perks and pay..? Human: It's not all about leaving for a better gig, I really like the people and vision at company A. I think the gap is too far, but would be open It's a $10k difference, going from no 401k to one with a 5% match, 1 week paid vacation to 5 weeks, and okay medical plan to a pretty good one. Company B will also pay for a gym membership and allot $1500 per year towards education

Lol 1 week paid vacation. They don’t give af about you. Look out for yourself

Nuff said. No retirement and a joke a vacay...? #byefelicia

Human: Hi! Basically what the title says-- I used to live in an apartment complex, paid my rent online and elected to have it reported to credit bureaus. I moved out of the apartment in June to move back in with my parents to save money and pay down debt. This month, the online website I used reported me no longer using the website as a "closed account" and my credit score has dropped 30 points even though I've been paying down credit card debt. Can I dispute this or fight this or something? It doesn't seem fair-- I didn't have a credit account I closed, I just stopped using their service. Assistant: Not a professional by any means but any closed line of credit will drop your score, especially if you have other debt you're paying down. Same thing happened to mine when I closed a high interest card that was charging me a monthly fee. It jumped back up a month or two later so just keep an eye on your score. Human: Sure, but I didn't have a line of credit through this site. It was just an online portal to pay rent. Assistant: Yes but since you said they gave you the option to report to credit bureau I'm thinking it worked like one of those rent to own places. You essentially closed the source of the reporting which acted like a closed line of credit. Again, not a professional, just offering a possible explanation. Can you call the complex and ask them how the reporting worked?? Human: Hmm, not sure. It wasn't the company's website, they outsourced it. Maybe I'll get in contact with the website they used. Thanks!

Sounds like everything worked as intended. You got X months worth of positive payments, you no longer live there, so the account is closed. It'll be a temporary hit, I wouldn't even worry about it.

You're welcome and good luck!!

Human: I was intending to start budgeting, doing the "envelope method". I went to the dollar store and found this coupon holder-looks like a big wallet with different tabs so I got that instead of buying envelopes. It has been a couple weeks now and I haven't put any money yet. My problem is, I'm self employed, I sell at markets and my income varies each week. I had a good week last week, made about $1500 and paid some stuff then kept some money so i can buy new inventory(i sell perishables). As we speak, I don't have any money saved but will probably make $1000 profit over the weekend, but have apartment rent to pay this week and car registration. Then I will be broke again and I will have to wait til midweek go work again and expect to make $500 on one day I go to another market. Then rent at that market will be due. Basically I work, make some money then pay whatever bills are due and put some money aside for new inventory and that's a cycle I go through every week. My expenses are as follow: Rent $600, smud ~$50, personal loan payment $140, phone $60, Insurance $35, cigarettes (yea i know..) $300, coffee/food ~$400, gas for personal use around $100 Work expenses: $1000 for the two markets I sell at, gas $250, misc $100 So personal expenses are around $400 a week and another $350 for work related. That's $750 I need to put aside one week to start budgeting, but i always have something to pay every week (because I haven't been budgeting so the money isn't in the "envelope". How do i break the cycle? Should I start really small and let's say put 1/3 of my weekly aside til I have enough to cover everything for a week when I have enough, or wait til I have a good week then put that $700 aside and start budgeting then?

Try YNAB. Really, get into it, tracking everything down to the penny. It's a learning curve, but you got auto-sync to banks and nitpick your budget, move things around, track progress, etc. Its a fantastic game if you buckle in and really get into it. I run 4 different ways to make money through it. My income is absolutely unpredictable and everything is week-to-week basis. YNAB helped me put aside money for future budgets and plan for expenses. Its a digital envelope system and you wont have to waste time with paper money and carrying around that cash. It's literally designed to help you pay things as money comes in and see how much time you have left before the next bills come in. It's really fun to keep trying to pay ahead and see how far you can get on regular expenses and making categories to cover random expenses. My favorite is rolling over the leftover money into the next month's category and watch it grow. The graphs really help see trends and compare to last year/month/week's performances. Best of all, filing taxes doesnt suck anymore. Its an entire side quest to track and log in every write-offs and investing into tax advantaged accounts.

You may find these links helpful: - [Budgeting](/r/personalfinance/wiki/budgeting) - [Tools and spreadsheets](/r/personalfinance/wiki/tools) - /r/mintuit: all about Mint - /r/ynab: all about YNAB *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: I froze my credit after the Equifax breach, but have had to lift it a few times since then. When freezes became free I wanted to confirm that my credit was frozen with each bureau. When I got to the Experian site, I went through the process of adding a new freeze, and when it asked for a PIN I put in the existing PIN I had. The confirmation page said something along the lines of "You already have a freeze, and the PIN is 123456". I was slightly worried and so repeated the process in a new incognito browser window and when it asked if I wanted to enter a PIN or have them generate one I let them generate it. I got the same confirmation/error page with my current PIN displayed. To be clear, the second time I did this, all I provided was name, address, SSN, and DOB. I did not provide the PIN. I did have to answer some of those security questions you tend to have to answer when confirming your identity online (eg, "What bank is your home mortgage with?"), but the entire point of the credit freeze is to prevent people who may have that type of information from opening new credit. I wanted to warn people, that while the credit freeze is a still a good idea, it's not iron clad. It would also be nice if there was some pressure on Experian to change this. I googled to see if this was already documented, and was shocked to see this article from over a year ago outlining the exact same process working the same way. [https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/09/experian-site-can-give-anyone-your-credit-freeze-pin/](https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/09/experian-site-can-give-anyone-your-credit-freeze-pin/)

Which of the 3 bureaus is the least shit? Also does anyone have any thoughts on Innovis?

Nice to know, I accidentally threw my PIN number away after I froze my credit. Been disappointed with the thought of having to deal with retrieving it

Human: My spouse and I make a combined income of 200k a year. We have quite a few kids and live in a 3000 sq ft 400k home. It is big, but outdated and not fancy. We didn’t make over 100k until about 5 years ago and before that we were actually very poor. God has been good to us the last few years. Over the last 5 years have been working hard to pay off debt, save for college for our children, pay for kid activities and enjoy some fun vacations. We have 1 car paid off and 1 almost paid off. We almost have a 6 month emergency fund saved up. Here is my issue. We have not been very generous with our money. We do buy teacher gifts and Christmas gifts, but we don’t donate to charity or anything like that. We don’t feel like a can afford to do so with the amount of kids we have and with our expenses. We plan to be more charitable once our 2nd car is paid off and we have our 6 month emergency fund saved up. Anyways, our friends make probably 1/2 as much as we do. They are in massive debt but they are constantly giving. They are always so charitable. They make me feel guilty, but at the same time, they are not financially secure at all and they spend money like crazy. Here are my questions? Are we Scrooges with or money? Are they stupid with their money? Do we both lack balance? How do you decide how much and how to be charitable with your money? Please remember that we were pretty broke up until 5 years ago. We are in our mid 30s and trying to catch up now. Thanks. Assistant: It does sound like you are a Scrooge with your money. But that's a good thing. You shouldn't feel bad for being smart with your money. Human: So being a Scrooge is being smart?

the average household savings is so poor that they set the bar for being a scrooge pretty low. compare yourself to friends that are of equal financial standing, and you may find yourself to be actually quite normal with your spending. i feel like a real scrooge in the house would make others feel poor, like having your kids grow up with less stuff or opportunities (xbox/music lessons) than the most kids in their class

Scrooge is who he is because he valued money over people- all people, his employees, his family, his friends, everyone. You can opt to not donate to charity and still value people, and still be a good person, and help those less fortunate. You can also donate to charity and be awful and not value people and not help anyone. It’s a bad metric.

Human: When I was 17 I had someone take advantage of me who I thought was my friend and took $1800 out of my account because he was able to guess my pin. Of course I was upset but no one told me that this is something I can dispute with my bank. Now that it’s been so long is there anything I can do to get some of that money back or is it gone for good?

Nope too late now just think of it as an expensive lesson learned

Bank will reject your dispute as well beyond the time federal law requires them to do anything Suing your friend is unlikely to work as after 3 years it is unlikely you can produce evidence that he stole from you

Human: Right now i have credit cards one at two at 2 grand, one at 3 grand, one at 1 grand and one at 8 grand. I make my payments every month but my interest rates are 18-28% and for a few months i couldn't make my payments because i had lost my job. My credit score has gone down to a 520 so i can't get a lower interest card. I say i spend about $500 a month between food gas and everything, i am a server so I can make a couple grand a month but I'm also a full time university student. I debated getting student loans and paying off the cards but I'm worried i will just use them again. I came across this company "Consolidated Credit"... they are saying they will cancel my accounts and lower my interest rates and i will pay them monthly instead of all these payments throughout the month, and i know there is a fee i pay them for but thats okay because i need the help managing. I just am wondering if there is a better option out there, with the interest it says it'll take me 20 years. Its starting to affect my school work because all i can do is think about this major amount of debt I'm in. Has anyone used this company or another? Or have any better advice? Thanks!!

yeahh.... reads like a scam. look up credit counseling in your area, choose the one that's a non-profit and has all the registrations and certifications of a fiduciary.

This is 100% a scam. They won’t pay anything to your creditors and keep all the money for themself. All they will do is tell your creditors to stop calling gun you.

Human: Wife (25) and I (25) combine for approximately 7k after taxes per month. Our monthly expenses range from $5800 to $6200, leaving us with roughly 1k on average per month. Wife is a teacher (good job security) and I work at a nonprofit (also have good job security). We have a good emergency fund saved up as well (close to 10k). We just bought a house and are currently throwing about $700/month in a normal BofA savings account and an extra $300/month into the principle of our mortgage. Currently, the only money being sent to a retirement account is my wife's TRA account. Should I be sending a lot of this to a 403b? Somewhere else? Put more into the savings account before? We are looking to have a kid soon which would obviously up our monthly expenses. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Your monthly expenses seem kind of high for how much you make. Have you done a budget to see where your money goes and to look for potential areas to decrease your spending? At your age, you definitely should be saving as much as possible. That being said, I would start by increasing your emergency fund, so it can cover at least 3 months of expenses. People generally recommend 6 months, but 3 is a good goal. After that, you should look into your employer-sponsored retirement plans and also IRAs. I believe the general recommendation is to save at least 15% of your income in retirement plans.

Take a look at the flow chart in the sidebar. In short, you may want a touch more emergency savings, and after that should be contributing to your retirement accounts. Stop the extra principal payments on the house

Human: Talking with my friends about someone who bought a house when her bf goes " omg sarahs score is like 400 and she has never even had a credit card. Her last name is super common and my first thought was identity theft. Trying to pull her credit report was a fail because she couldnt identify enough things "which bank do you have a credit card through" type questions. We looked at her chase score and it says 4. Does that mean she doesnt have credit or is this a sign her info was possibly stolen? We told her to call a creditor next week but for now, any ideas?

It sounds like she just has no credit and has never attempted to establish it.

You may find these links helpful: - [Credit-related wiki pages](/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_credit) - [Credit Reports](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_reports) - [FICO / Credit Scores](/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Improving Credit Scores and Building Credit](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: That is it, I wanted to see if it was even plausible as someone that is living paycheck to paycheck and wants a little extra cash and a ride to my daily 9-5. I know leasing can be tricky and at times not very smart. I think I can work enough hours with Uber or lyft to cover the lease payment and gas for any given month. Am I being a bit too ambitious here or do I have a sound ground to stand on? Thanks in advance personalfinance.

You want to rack up miles on a leased vehicle? A vehicle that you have to pay per mile if you go over?

Put together a debt to income ratio with the assumption that you've taken on a lease and are working for uber as well as your regular 9-5 job. It's often not good to work *just* so you can afford something along the lines of basic needs, because then being able to keep the car or afford gas, rides on you maintaining that job and signing up for something you may end up viewing as a mistake. (I worked 2 jobs for a long time thinking it would make me rich, i realized what i actually needed was a job that didn't mind handing out overtime.) In the mean time, try to make yourself a budget and see what unnecessary things you might be paying for. And while up front it may not seem like a good idea, you might not even want to do it at all to begin with. But it only took me one week of saving to realize i didn't *need* starbucks every day and that a simple cup of instant coffee wasn't only cheaper, but could also taste decent as well. Not at home a lot to watch a lot of TV? Maybe cancel your cable bill, netflix is only 7$ a month. **Much cheaper than your average cable bill.** and it can easily entertain you for the few hours that you are home. Best case scenario? Save up a few thousand (if you can) and buy a cheap car outright that you won't be paying a ton to keep. This will allow you to pick up a second flexible job if needed, and it also gives you a commitment free means of transportation. If you can cut back on your income loss, you could really start saving up a lot and get yourself going on a really nice future. ​

Human: I'm 18. I make 20k a year. I have absolutely no credit history, and I want to start building it early. I have checking and savings accounts through Regions bank. I've applied for 2 credit cards so far, that were "recommended" for people like me, but i was denied both times with no explanation. I dont want to keep making hard credit pulls on myself, so what can I do?

https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/secured/

You may find these links helpful: - [Credit-related wiki pages](/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_credit) - [Credit Cards](/r/personalfinance/wiki/creditcards) - [FICO / Credit Scores](/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Improving Credit Scores and Building Credit](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: I have $10,000 saved up for a car, I'm 18, taking some time off school and I have a full time job where I earn around $3k monthly. I have decided on getting a 2010-2012 Honda Civic and I've found a few within my price range. Thing is that I don't have credit. I just got a new phone on contract yesterday and that's the only thing on my credit report. Should I just take a car loan and pay it off slowly? Or just buy the car out right? A few more info about me: I live with my parents, so no rent/utilities for now. PpppOnly bills I pay are my phone bill, Netflix, Spotify, car insurance and gas. I have $25,000 saved up in total and my plan is to graduate univerity debt free but I also want to build good credit. What would you guys recommend?

Buy a 5k civic outright

It would be 1000% better to buy the car out right rather than take out a car loan. If you ever do decided to get a credit card, I would recommend Capital One's secured credit card. I have several friends/family members who were approved without existing credit. You pay I believe a $49 deposit and get a $200 beginning credit limit which isn't bad when you're just starting out. I was able to save up and buy my own used car before graduating high school and a couple years into college, and lots of interstate travelling, and it's still running strong. It's been really nice not having to worry about a car loan. That will be even more true once you decide to go back to school.

Human: I just recently learned that I have a trust fund worth roughly 180k in stocks, bonds and cash. I am 24 years old and have spent the last couple years worrying about finding a career I enjoy that makes enough money to support myself. I have no debt and a very low expense lifestyle. I have worked a couple of jobs related to my college degree the past few years but haven’t found much fulfillment. I have been considering moving to a field that I enjoy more but pays much less, but have been deterred by the low pay. Now I’m not sure I need to worry about that, but I’m not sure I have a concept of just how much or how little money 180k is in the grand scheme of things. I have about 5k saved in an emergency fund from the last couple years as well. What should I do to make the most of this money over the course of my lifetime, and what are the chances of me being able to retire early? Do I still need to worry about finding a high paying career, or should I follow my passion since I’ve been afforded this opportunity?

if you depend on the $180k and you end up blowing through $30k per year, it will all be gone in 6 years. if you invest all of it as soon as you get it, leave it alone, and get a 5% annual return, it will turn into $1M around the time you turn 60. that still means that you are going to have to figure out how to find a career that you enjoy and gives you a paycheck to support yourself. at least the stress of saving part of your paycheck for retirement is zero...or significantly lower. $1M at age 60 has a pretty good chance of supporting 1 person until they die. note: average returns from index funds or investments will vary. you could get returns as high as 11%, but if you depend on those kinds of gains, there's a good chance you will be disappointed.

Invest in real estate use 180k for down payments on rental properties use that opm

Human: Hey everyone, it's the weekend so the customer service is closed, but I'm wondering what recourse I have for this situation. Is it as simple as calling them up and telling them the issue? Or will I have to do the run-around with the credit collection agencies myself? I'm trying to file a dispute on my credit report right now but all the dispute options have more to do with identity theft and not being responsible for the debt, rather than "I'm literally holding the paid bills in my hand, you fools!" Any advice is appreciated. I've been working hard to build my credit up and things like this are kind of annoying.

Your *only* recourse is to talk to the hospital's billing department. The hospital is under no legal obligation to accept a payment plan, and at any time may decide they want the full amount owed. You should definitely make sure the money you've been sending them has been applied to your account. You have until November until this can begin affecting your credit score.

You may find these links helpful: - [Dealing with collections](/r/personalfinance/wiki/collections) - [Credit Repair](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building#wiki_i_have_bad_credit.2C_and_i_am_looking_to_repair_it.) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: I have a credit card with a decent balance and a fairly high interest rate. I want to transfer the balance to a new card to get some interest relief for hopefully 12-18 months. My question is this.....Would I be better off to look for a card that gives me a longer interest free term and lower rate, or a card that might have a slightly higher rate but has better rewards. The main goal is to cut down the debt, but I would love to earn some travel rewards while I do it. Thoughts? Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Balance transfers don't earn rewards, so transfer it to a 0 interest card. Pay it off within the time frame, and open a card with good rewards after.

OP here, I should probably clarify.....I carry a 750 credit rating, so I likely won't have issues getting approved. Guess I was hoping to get my cake and eat it to. I really appreciate your insights. Thank you to all who responded.

Human: So several years ago my family suggested I chip in to buy a 3 bed house together - the family house we had been renting for years. There are 3 of us siblings paying equal mortgage payments per month (with equal deposits). There are 5 people living at the property and one of them is a mortgage payer (2 other people living in the home are working full time and paying nothing) . Myself and the other sibling don't live there but still pay mortgage. She lives abroad (renting as well) and is comfortably well off. I am the only married sibling and have a family so I can't live at the property (too cramped) and instead have to rent in a cheaper area. At the end of the month i am either negative or have tens of pounds in my account and have no savings. My wife is a stay at home mum but plans on working once all the kids are in school (4 to 5 years). I want to figure out a way to stop wasting money on rent. I'm in the UK if that matters.

Tell the people living in the house to start paying rent or stop coughing up your part of the mortgage payment

This is going to depend on the arrangement you all made in when you bought the house, and if you didn't build in an exit strategy then it will depend on how UK law deals with these issues. In the US, usually the way it works is that one partner will offer to let the other two buy him out. (e.g., 3 partners each put up 10K to buy a house worth 150 K. House is now worth 180 K but paid down to a balance of 110K. The two partners refinance the house with a mortgage of 170K and pull out 60K to give the departing partner). This gets tricky when the house isn't worth enough to refinance or the remaining partners can't afford the mortgage. In that case, usually the partner who wishes to leave can force a sale, although that can get expensive.

Human: I'm trying to get a loan for the first time and I don't know where I should start Assistant: You probably shouldn’t. What’s the loan for? Human: I know this sounds really stupid, but I've been depressed for a while and my friends are going out tonight and I really want to go.

You getting a loan to go out? From a financial institution or borrowing from a buddy? This sounds like a real bad idea.

That’s a bad idea.

Human: Hello everyone! I'm in the process of changing jobs, and with that trying to downsize. Have been trying to find a cheaper apartment, trade my car in, etc. Found out today that last week I had an account go to collections from a gym membership that I had cancelled after moving away from the area. I was never contacted and told there was any outstanding charges. My score dropped from 680 to 586, with this collection and one hard inquiry from searching for an apartment. I called and paid it off, but was wondering if and when my credit would begin to improve? My rates for car loans have gone up substantially after this change, and is making it difficult to find something in my budget. Any advice? Thanks!! Assistant: A lot of people cancel gym memberships without: 1) Getting proof they cancelled 2) Understanding the effective date that the membership will actually terminate after notice is given ​ The result is what you are facing. So do you have evidence you cancelled and did you check your contract to see when cancellation would be effective, a lot of gym membership contract are set up so that if you cancel you will still owe at least one more month's payment. Human: From my understanding, I did. Sent in the cancellation request with the necessary cancellation fee (cashiers check) which was cashed. I'm at the point now where just wondering how long this will affect my credit? It was in collections for about a week until I found out today and paid it. The massive drop is killing me.

Paying it twice was an incredibly stupid move

You doomed your credit score for next 7 years by paying them the false charge. If it was truly false it would've been removed from your report when you challenged it or if it was valid you could've negotiated a pay to remove. Paying false debts makes them valid.

Human: Alright so first thing's first. Net Income: $3200 a month. ($1600 bi-weekly $26.50/hr at current job) Extra Income: $1400 (GI bill BAH) Amount in bank: $11,500 Monthly expenses: * Rent: $650 (I share a home with two people. Rate includes utils/internet/etc.) * Car Insurance: $100 (It's paid every six months but I count the amount I pay per month over that period) * Gasoline: $100 * Groceries: $300 (This includes non-edible consumables TP,Toothpaste etc) * Meds: $8 (VA healthcare) * Car Payment: $150 ($4000 owed) * Cell Phone: $80 (Sprint) * FUN: $100 (Rarely actually spend this as I am trying to be cheap as possible. Really only use it to buy food or things for GF) * Parking fees: $20 (I pay $5 every Thursday to park at my college) * Netflix: $9 Total out: -$1517 Total in: $1683 (Without) Total in: $3083 (With GI bill) No my job does not offer 401K or matching. No I don't have any form of a retirement account. Back round I am 25 trying to validate being able to afford my own apartment. But going from my current living situation to an apartment would minimum increase my rent two fold. I don't feel comfortable only saving $1000 a month. I'm not sure where budget wise I can improve any advice is welcome. I don't eat out I cook all my own food generally my groceries are $60 per week.

You are not failing at life! You are saving up, have a steady job and awareness of your budget. A lot of this decision will have to be based on what you are comfortable with, but saving $1k per month is not bad for a 25-year-old.

You may find these links helpful: - [Budgeting](/r/personalfinance/wiki/budgeting) - [Tools and spreadsheets](/r/personalfinance/wiki/tools) - /r/mintuit: all about Mint - /r/ynab: all about YNAB *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: Hey all, My SO fell victim to the good ol' FBI/IRS give us Gift Cards or we'll arrest you scam. She was targeted for the scam and ended up sending a lot of gift cards to the scammers (luckily, she was unable to wire our savings). I was at home when I received fraud alerts like crazy from the credit card companies. I filed disputes against all the transactions and cancelled all the cards as she continued to buy the gift cards and send them to the scammers. I also declined the charges and responded to the fraud alerts on credit cards that were in her name-- not just the ones in mine or where she was an authorized user (I have the information needed to do this). I guess she was just caught up in the frenzy of it all--they gave her the whole spiel about a closed investigation, to check the caller ID and confirm it was from the local FBI office (which it did appear to be on caller ID and I assume this is what convinced her it was legit), and then just ran on emotions to absolve herself/me of the "charges" and "warrants for arrest" without stopping to thinking. Anyway, we have a lot of credit cards...so while I was playing this cat and mouse game, she managed to buy over $10k worth of these gift cards and send them to the scammer before I had shut everything down. We've informed the company issuing the gift cards that she fell victim to the scam and provided all of the gift card numbers to them. We've filed the police report already, she's frozen her credit with the 3 credit bureaus, she'll be contacting the SSA, IRS, state tax controller, MVA, and FTC after the weekend (disclosed her SSN, maybe DOB, and driver's license). We've filed a ic3.gov complaint as well. With every credit card company I called to dispute the charges and cancel the credit cards, they all said that I would not be liable for any fraudulent transactions. My lingering question is, despite what the credit card companies said, is there a chance we'd be on the hook for the amounts she purchased? $10k isn't something we can deal with..that would drain our savings 3 times over... Thanks

Unfortunately the credit card transactions were not fraudulent. Your SO authorized the transactions. That they were used to purchase gift cards that were then given to scammers doesn't make the credit card purchases fraudulent.

While it’s true that you won’t be liable for any fraudulent charges, any charges made by your so (like, say, $10k in gift cards) is not considered fraudulent. Yes, she was prompted by a scammer, but the card wasn’t stolen. She made those purchases of her own free will. You need to have a serious talk with her. If you have joint accounts, there should be an agreed upon spending level where you must consult the other before making a purchase. $10k in gift cards certainly falls under that. You also need to discuss how you two are going to dig yourselves out of this debt hole. Are one or both of you going to get a second job (hint: she needs to get a second job)? Can you sell stuff? You will need to figure out where in your budget you can cut spending, like dining out and frivolous purchases. The side bar has a good guide to getting rid of debt. Take a look at that.

Human: So, the thought of working until my mid to late 60's is terrifying. I am trying to create a plan for retiring by age 50, but I have no idea where to start. I live in the US, but I want to plan as if Social Security funds won't exist. **My current income and expenses are listed below...** Annual gross income = Approximately $90k Current emergency fund balance = $15k Current 401k balance = $17k 401k contributions = 20% of gross income, plus my employer gives another 3% Current Traditional IRA balance (rolled over from previous employer) = $5k Current Roth IRA balance = $0 (planning on putting in $5500 before end of year) Debt = Approximately $2k (interest free), will be paid off September 2019 Net Income AFTER 401k contributions, Roth IRA contributions, taxes, health/dental/vision insurance premiums **= $40,904 annual= $3,409 monthly** **MONTHLY EXPENSES...** Rent (includes insurance) = $1000 Utility Bill (including electric & water) = $155 Gas Utility Bill = $20 Cable / Internet = $25 Cell Phone = $85 Tollway Charges = $15 Debt Payments (this will end September 2019) = $165 Dog Expenses (food, vet, meds, etc.) = $25 Car Insurance = $150 Gasoline for Car = $100 Medications and Doctor Visits = $100 Food, Entertainment, Clothing, Household Necessities,Toiletries: = $910 (basically I give myself $210 weekly to cover non-fixed or highly variable costs) Vacation, Gifts, & other larger variable expenses (car repairs, etc.) = $450 **TOTAL = $3,190** **Monthly Net Income - Monthly Expenses = $219 monthly = $2,628 annual surplus** My rent is already prepaid through April of 2019, so I'm not actually paying anything for rent right now - but I'm still factoring it in. I'm planning on using the "extra" funds building up to invest the full $5500 limit in a Roth IRA before the tax year is over since I haven't put anything into it yet. I'm not going to have children, and I don't plan on ever buying a house. My car is a 2008 Subaru Impreza sedan, but only has 50,000 miles on it - so I assume it will last quite a while longer. I will drive it until it quits, and then probably buy another used car for around $15k in cash. With my 401k and my Roth IRA already being maxed out, the only other option for what to do with my $2,628 annual surplus would be private investments... right? I've been using a ton of retirement calculators, inflation calculators, and compound interest calculators to try to figure out what I'll need versus what I'll have by the time I'm 50 years old. The complicated part is - how do I make sure I have enough in private investments by the time I'm 50 to last me until I can withdraw from my 401k and IRA penalty-free at age 59? Should I actually be putting LESS in my 401k/IRA now, and more in private investments... then increase my 401k/IRA contributions as I get older?? It's all so confusing. I don't even know where to begin with the private investments either, as I've never done it before. Assistant: You make $90k a year. It shouldn't take you a year to pay off a $2k debt. Take $2k from your emergency fund and be done with it. You can use that $165/month to throw back into your emergency fund until your content with the balance. Human: Thanks for the feedback. Can you clarify why I would do this when the debt is interest free?

If the debt is interest free there is no need to prioritize it over investing. My guess is that the poster assumed that the debt wasn’t interest free, as most of them tend to be

1. The borrower is slave to the lender. 2. Debt carries risks. 3. Debt hinders your ability to create wealth.

Human: Hello - My parents mentioned to me today that they were having an insurance agent visit us tomorrow. I cringed a little mainly because it is their dentist's receptionist... The guy apparently helped them out before by waiting to charge their bill in December one year. They trust him with insurance but I personally don't want them handing this guy free money. Mainly because my Dad mentioned one time he went around his desk to see some paperwork and caught porn tabs on his browser... Not that it really matters in this situation but I really doubt my family's instinct on this one. Overall, their house is worth about 230k right now and they have a heloc loan with about $120k the last time we ever discussed finances. My Dad is 68 and getting his S.S. and my Mom works as a security guard for $15 with OT hours put in often too, she brings in about $32k after taxes and will probably collect S.S. soon. I'm fully self employed and while the income varies, I have very low expenses and am only leveraged 1:2 with money in checking and savings on hand and my roth ira maxed every year possible. I'd expect to be roughly in the ball park of conservatively netting $40k after all taxes and it'll very likely increase if I commit full time to it, however I am in the search of beginning my career while keeping the business to the side and down sizing it appropriately to get the most out of it. Additionally, my ratio for leverage varies greatly as I make my income in time to pay off statement balances on a business card. The expenses scale with the income and the turnover is relatively quick so I have never been in a position where I've been stressed to not make any payments on time in full. When my parents brought up getting life insurance I mentioned how we'd be fine if they were to both tragically pass tomorrow. They mentioned things like the costs of that happening but we've discussed before that they wanted to be cremated and I know that I would be able to afford that either with cash on hand or on a personal credit line that I'd be able to cover. Additionally, their monthly payment on the heloc is something around $1100 from my memory. I would either be able to cover that until I cleaned the place up and rented it out or sell it (assuming the bank wants their money from my parent's assets). I know there's term life insurance but our whole family's expenses are rather conservative to begin with. I really want to show my parents the math on this before they talk with the agent tomorrow or at least be present with them to prevent them from signing up for anything mathematically insane. It'd be pulling teeth to convince them to drop life insurance altogether, but is there anything I should look out for or consider given our financial situation? ​ Edit: I forgot to mention I am their only child and they have their will leaving everything to me. I do believe there was actually a clause in there of something that insisted I cremate them to keep their ashes. They specifically did not want to be buried.

Sounds like you're right - they don't need life insurance. Should they both "pass tomorrow," the balance on their HELOC would net against any proceeds you'd get from the sale of their house. If they have cash on hand to cover the costs of any final services / cremation then that's taken care of. They don't need to worry about the HELOC. If they're insistent on getting any life insurance, it should be term as you pointed out. The downside of this is that it's going to be extremely expensive due to their ages. I'd bet the premiums would make it more or less worthless.

It’s probably going to be super expensive. Have them set aside cash for their final wishes, and make sure they have proper wills / trusts set up.

Human: For clarification, before I became disabled I made plenty of money and was paying x3 the minimums. Just didn't pay them off completely because I assumed I'd be fine. I'll be out of work for at least the next year. Not sure what to do. Any advice ?

First step is to contact each of the creditors, notify them of the situation, be prepared to show them documentation. Many companies have programs to assist, and reduce payments. It wont wipe any debt out, but may reduce interest, and make it so your credit stays in tact. ​

You may find these links helpful: - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](/r/personalfinance/wiki/debt#wiki_what.27s_the_best_way_to_pay_down_my_debt.3F) - [Dealing with collections](/r/personalfinance/wiki/collections) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: Looking for advice...some insight? Maybe some wisdom or guidance from someone who's been in this situation..? Please no rude or mean comments. I'm already feeling very down about my/our financial situation. Recently received notice of this year's new monthly fed student loan payment…$1,100 due for the next 12 months (IBR plan for a family of 4). I’m down, depressed and anxious about how this is going to work within our family “budget” and financial goals. We won’t have enough left over to save for retirement or a down payment for a house. My husband and I are in our mid 30's with an infant and a toddler (daycare costs!). Home ownership no longer seems possible. Retirement goals are shattered. And forget about saving for our children's education funds. Travel or vacation? Not possible. I feel like a complete idiot. I hate myself for making such an idiotic and life-changing decision of attending grad school. Instead of getting ahead in life, I've set my family and our life goals back - in a major way! Here is a look at what our financial situation will be once my student loan kicks in next month: $6,600/month (combined monthly net income) Our monthly bills: \- $1,700 (daycare for 2) \- $1,450 (rent for 2 bedroom in LA area, considered “cheap” in not so nice area) \- $800 (groceries) \- $300 (health & life insurance) \- $80 (auto insurance for two very, very old but paid off cars) \- $500 (utilities: elect, gas, water, trash, internet, cell) \- $155 (husband’s fed student loan) \- $140 (diapers, wipes, formula) \- $1,080 (my upcoming fed student loan) $6,600 – 6,205 = $395 left over for the month (but didn't include gas for work/home commute and other misc expenses) that may come up. And please, PLEASE no rude or mean comments. I'm already feeling very down, depressed and anxious about the negative financial situation I put myself in. Not only does it affect me and my husband, but our two little ones as well. ​ Edit: \*We live in southern California and moving out of the area or state is not an option due to husband's job. \*We are renting a 2bd (not a nice area either). \*Neither of us has family in the area who could watch our children in lieu of daycare. \*The only pro that I could come up with: I work for a non-profit...so there is PSLF (I need to do more research on this) ​

Until the toddler and infant start primary school, one/both of you might need to do a side hustle on the weekends or at night until your day care costs go away. It won't be forever , but the next 2-4 years are going to be a grind, and that's just the situation you guys have created. I assume you took out $100k+ in student loans, and went ahead and had kids before cleaning it up. I'm not judging you, but you have to work more and get more income for this to work.

Did your student loans afford you a license to practice a profession? I could definitely be wrong, but I have done some research and other than the credit impact of not paying - Depending on the type of student loans I don't think they can garnish your wages. If your education is tied to a license (MD, CPA, JD) they can revoke your license for non payment of student loans. I would consider taking the hit to your credit and just explaining to future creditors that it simply isn't possible to pay them. Consult with a credit expert to determine the impact of non payment and weigh that vs the money you lose everything month to the payments. Maybe? Just know that thousands are in the exact situation you are and you're very fortunate to have jobs at all. Best of luck.

Human: Exactly as my title says, my boss exclaimed the other day that he’s “sick of paying overtime” and is not paying anyone over 8hours, even if they’ve worked for more than that. I’d be fine if it were only a few minutes but because I’m required to stay late at least once a week, I’m losing hours of pay. For example in the last pay period there was an emergency with a supplier of ours and I had to stay an hour and a half late to remedy the situation. During that time my boss was there and didn’t mention anything about how he wasn’t going to pay me for that time at all. This is the tipping point for me so I’m going to be looking for a new job but until that happens is there anything I can do to somehow fix this? Without being fired? And I’m not sure if this makes any difference but I’m in CA. Edit: deleted an extra ‘not’ Edit 2: I'm not sure if this changes anything but I'm the person who calculates and adds up all of the hours to then send off to my boss to approve. Could this look bad if I were to report them?

Report him to the local Labor board. They’ll likely investigate and fine him a bunch of money, and make him pay back the money with penalties and interest.

Make sure you’re right before following the advice of all these strangers.

Human: I'm wondering what are things a high school student can do to get a better grasp of a stable financial position for the future. Is there anything I should study up on? I know saving and budgeting is basically one of the main answers to this type of question. How does investing work and would it be viable to try and invest early? What is something you wish you would have done early on? I currently don't have a source of income but will when the summer comes around since my parents don't me to work during the school year. When I did work during the summer, I had a pay of $10/hr since it was my first job. I recently read about freelancing as a source of income from another thread. Is freelancing something I can consider to make money on the side during the year? I have a checking and savings account. The checking account is mine to use for whatever I want. I do put money into the savings account as well when I had a job but I prefer to leave it alone until I do need it. Checking balance: $313 Savings balance: $2200 Thanks for any advice you guys leave, I'll be keeping an eye and reading more on this sub as it see a lot of value here. Also if you guys have any questions for me to get a better grasp, feel free to ask.

Stay out of debt. Stay out of debt. Stay out of debt. [Here is a good vid by mike and lauren](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MHbQMe0EZM) [Also this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxlOzNa_lzk) My Personal feeling is that anyone in their teens should yeah start paying attention to investing but your number one way of getting ahead is to [**Get through college debt free**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiojMLm6KK0) Here is why. The key to building wealth, becoming free, and living an amazing life is to be without debt. People will tell you debt is a necessity, and that you can even mathematically live better by borrowing and investing. Don't listen to them. Debt is an emergency that destroys your finances and crushes your spirit in terms of making money. The issue is that everyone these days tells you you can go to school on a student loan. And that is garbage advice. I think the only reason people give it is because they go through it. Ask anyone between 22 - 35 if they enjoy their student loans. No one will say yes. So here is what you do. *1.* Learn to work: Working is a more important skill than being educated. Because having persistance and doing a good job will allow you to succeed at any job. Also understand that if you look around you can find good work anywhere. There is indeed, monster, hotjobs, craigslist, and personal connections. ESPECIALLY in this economy. If you can avoid minimum wage jobs. *2.* Get a quality college education as cheaply as possible:The school you go to isn't as important as what you learn. Some big name schools can help this. And some can aid with networking. but going deeply into debt for this isn't worth it. You can start by getting as many scholarships as possible. Like for everything you can. Apply to 100s. Or 1000s. When you are in school, work, and if it comes to it consider CC and transfering. I strongly recommend against going out of state for a school unless you have a really good reason. Finally. Understand that, while school is not a jobs program, it is there to give you skills to apply to life and career. It is not a place to study things you have a passing interest in. Think carefully about your studies. Every class can be useful (I am a programmer but got a ton of value from my english and economics classes), but not every class is worth it. You are paying for them, sometimes thousands of dollars. Bear this in mind. Why do I stress staying out of debt but getting educated and being hardworking. Because your income is how you become wealthy. The stock market is nice but your probability of beating it consistantly is very low. Even the best hedge funds manage only 20% year on year *consistantly*. IT is my personal philosophy to just invest passively and focus on work. With that said. If you would like to study and learn, that isn't bad. But do so for other reasons than getting rich. I recommend starting with learning about broad market indexes. Then you can move onto macro economics. And then individual stocks. I highly recommend reading the economist, as it gives you a breakdown of current events. I also highly recommend trading on simulators to get a feel. BUT, I also highly recommend never trading more than a small portion of your portfolio, like 5%. And understand that this is something you can loos.e. If anything the number one thing to learn about is compound interest and the number 2 diversification. Investopedia is an amazing resource for this.

First of all, good start on your savings. Just make sure you don’t dip your hand into it unless it’s an emergency, however tempting it may be Freelancing is definitely possible but you need to know what you want to do and how to put yourself out there. A website and professional custom email (yourname@yourbusiness.com) can cost as little as $100 per year or even less. If contacting prospective clients by email, your address is obviously one of the first things they’ll see so it’s preferable not to have yourname500@yahoo.com, but of course not 100% necessary. As for investing, most common methods I’m aware of typically require you to be over 18 and able to prove it. If you’re not, there may be some banks that allow minors to contribute to short-term savings accounts, such as 2.4% per annum interest over a 90 day term. This would give you $13.20 in 3 months with the caveat you usually can’t withdraw the $2200.

Human: I'm a husband in his mid 30's with a wife and two children under the age of 2 in the state of NY. I have been working at my current place of employment for over 6 years and we have owned our current home ( which is our first ) for over 4 years. Recently my employer has announced a reduction in Workforce and has offered to pay me 66.5k to walk away with six months in healthcare. My wife and I were thinking about selling the house and move further South for a better quality of life and to be closer to family in the Delaware area. The house is in pretty good shape and if we sold it right now according to Zillow we would be up about 50k. I just recently completed my BA degree and Debt wise we are sitting at 175k (150k for the house that's now worth over 215k and 25k for student loans and credit card debt ) my questions are what can we do to maximize this opportunity and does this seem like a good idea? update: Thank you all for your feedback. My wife and I are speaking with an agent this week to get more information about the sale value of the home and what options we have. As indicated by a number of you zillow may be off in its evaluation. I will keep you guys updated

I'd sell the house and move. I'd also rent for a year in the new place, don't buy a house too fast, especially with kids. You need to make sure a house location would work with your new jobs and that schools and such are good, and you don't end up in that one neighborhood with an access street that floods with a quarter inch of rain. Waiting to buy until you have a new job and are sure you'll stay in it is a good idea.

Either way is a gamble it seems. The big thing to me is that you want to be near relatives and that can make you all happy and be a big factor. Good luck!

Human: I lost my job in February and I had almost nothing saved. I immediately panicked, and applied for a bunch of credit cards. Since February, we've (my family) been living completely off of credit cards. I started a job last week, I finally get a paycheck on Oct. 11th and I will no longer need to use a credit card. I accumulated a lot of debt and I have no idea if I'm at all able to salvage my finances. I never learned anything about finance, but I think I messed up big time. ​ These cards all have rates between %20-25, but the first 18 months is %0. 18 months from when I opened them would be July 2019. After paying what I need to each month, I will be left with an extra $200. ​ This is what I owe: The blue card - $7,000 The green card - $5,100 The grey card - $4,500 The black card - $1.200 The silver card - $300 I feel like I won't ever be able to pay this off, especially at %25. Do I have any options?

Follow the Dave Ramsey Plan. Set a $1000 emergency fund aside. Start with the debt snowball of the lowest balance first and hammer it out. I recommend getting another job delivering pizza or something. Put as much as you can towards it. Sell stuff that you can to help and minimize your bills.

You may find these links helpful: - [What's the best way to pay down my debt?](/r/personalfinance/wiki/debt#wiki_what.27s_the_best_way_to_pay_down_my_debt.3F) - [Dealing with collections](/r/personalfinance/wiki/collections) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: I’ve been investing for about a year and have a taxable brokerage account, Roth IRA, and 401k. The Vanguard 401k is set to the default target 20XX fund while my other two are self managed and are all in total stock market and sp500 mutual funds (Schwab). I see many people mentioning buying ETF’s instead of mutual funds so I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong. I understand ETF’s carry commission fees when buying and selling while mutual funds do not, and mutual funds tend to have higher expense ratios. The fact that I make lots of small purchases by investing a portion of my biweekly paycheck makes it seem like I would get hit with a lot of commission fees buying ETF’s, which makes mutual funds look more attractive. Another thing that I recently read was that I may have to pay capital gains taxes on my mutual funds even if I don’t cash them out, since the equities that back them are being bought and sold, while I wouldn’t have to this with an ETF. I have a few thousand invested in mutual funds. Should I switch over to investing in ETF’s instead? I don’t want to get billed with huge capital gains taxes in the future when my investments are worth much more.

ETFs have lower minimums and can be bought and sold during market hours like stock. You have the ability to buy options on ETFs as well. Cost wise, it is almost identical. The expense ratio on the total market vanguard etf is identical to the vanguard total market index mutual fund admiral shares. Your overall future capital gain consequences will virtually be identical too. For example, you paid 1k and later sold for 2k, you will have realized a capital gain of 1k. Both the index mutual fund and etf are fairly tax efficient, so minimal capital gains as you hold. Your article references actively managed mutual funds. The trades that generate capital gains throughout the year are passed onto the shareholders. These capital gain implications only exist outside of a qualified account. Not sure where you custody your assets, but you should call and speak to a licensed professional for additional guidance as it pertains to your situation.

In short, people buy ETFs for the same reason people bought Beanie Babies, Pokemon Cards, Tomagachis, and Toyota Prius's: they are trendy. Some of them are good, some aren't really special at all, but they are newer than more traditional financial products and they are now mainstream enough and affordable enough for them to trend. They are slightly exotic, which makes them exciting, while still being simple enough for a lot of people to act least feel comfortable buying them if they don't completely understand them.

Human: Keep reading that it's better to be invested sooner rather than later so is it better to fullfill your 401k annual commitment as fast as possible? So if you are able to safely (over 6mo mark) live off your savings, should you contribute 100% of your salary/bonus/whatever to your 401k and hit the annual max as fast as possible each year?

That would be more time in the market, which is better. However, if you have an employee match, be sure that they true up at the end of the year, or else you will have lost out on their contributions by not contributing yourself in the later parts of the years.

Yes, it gives your money more time to compound.

Human: I'm not alone. Other former employees had the same thing happen. I was there 3 years, had a 401k, takes 5 years to get vested. When I left, I took my money with me. During employment, my vested, and unvested deposits were in 2 separate accounts. I could see both on the website, and got statements for both, but I only had control over mine. I left 5 years ago, and since then, I still get quarterly statements on "their" money, I figured they just leave old unvested money in those accounts to remain invested and grow. However yesterday I got a 1099r and a deposit stub showing that it had been rolled over to a Charles Schwabb IRA on my behalf. So shouldn't I be able to contact CSB and roll it over to my main IRAs? Assistant: Are you sure no part of it vested? It is common enough that you would have two separate accounts for your and your employer's contributions. But generally a vesting schedule doesn't happen on that kind of a cliff. If it was a 5 year total vesting schedule, I would expect that you would have had 3/5 of their contributions vest to you by the time you left, since you had been there 3 years. Human: Hospitals are always a bit strange...so you may be correct. I know my current employer offers vestment at 20% per year, fully at 5. At the job I was always told "vested after 5" but did not mention any sort of graduated scale. I was also much younger and paid a lot less attention then.

I believe 5 year vesting schedules require partial vesting. Only with a three year vestin schedule can it be a cliff where it’s all or nothing.

Mergers can change vesting schedules.

Human: What do you guys do? Looking to make a little extra income as a side job after my full day gig is over and also on weekends. Maybe surveys, maybe making videos, maybe something else? Please help me out guys!

At the suggestion of someone on this subreddit my girlfriend started using Rev. It's not exactly the best hourly rate but if you're going to be doing nothing anyway then it's worth looking at. They pay directly into a PayPal account every Monday I think it is. So no terms either.

I really enjoy doing online tutoring. There's a few platforms out there and some are better than others. You can tutor basically any subject.

Human: I am in early 40's and currently invest my IRA and 401K in Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral only. Is this a good idea in terms of maximizing growth & minimizing risk? What would you do to make it better?

>maximizing growth & minimizing risk You can't do both of these things at the same time; I think you meant you want to have a balance of growth with acceptable risk. We can't predict the future, but you could look at the annualized returns of various funds and also their standard deviation as a marker for their volatility. The target date retirement funds include mid-cap and small-cap sized companies, in proportion to their market value overall (so the large-cap companies still make up a lion's share of the stock), and they also include international and bond indexes. If you want to hold just one fund, you could increase the growth potential a little by using a total market fund instead of a 500 index fund. If you want to diversify into more than just US stocks, such as to include international and bond components, then a target date fund might do the trick. Comments that suggest focusing on a specific sector that the commenter feels will be "hot" in the upcoming future are pointing you in the direction of more risk (increased volatility), and away from diversification (which moderates volatility). You might want to do some reading on the theory of *asset allocation* -- there are books on the topic.

You may find these links helpful: - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) - [Investing](/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: Could use some advice on quitting and when you know the right time to walk away. I've had quite a few jobs the last few years, though all are in the same field (finance) and all are very high-paying ($200K+). All my jobs since grad school have been very high-stress, high-hour jobs, where you are on call pretty much 24/7. I've held many different jobs due to the fact that once I find a place too stressful or the people too toxic, I like to find a new job, take a few months off to unwind, and then start up again in a new high-paying/high-pressure job. I believe that doing this has extended my career by 2-3 years and has increased my net worth significantly (due to signing bonuses and negotiated pay). Truth of the matter is I am not meant for this type of work. In college I thought money would make me happy and I wanted a certain level of "prestige" to my career, but honestly, I'd trade it all back to start over and actually figure out what I enjoy. My current financial situation is "ok". I dug myself out of $250,000 of student loans grinding away the last few years and could pay off the rest of my loans tomorrow if I wanted. I'd have about $60,000 left over in savings and $100,000 in retirement between my wife and I (she works but doesn't earn that much). I prefer to keep some loans and about 2 years of living expenses just in case I rage-quit, which I know is not good financially, but for my peace of mind it really is needed. My issue is that the last few months have been brutal. I have had no free weekends and have worked till 2-3 am every night almost. With a few matters wrapping up, I've been given other matters that are just as stressful and those are starting to ramp up as well. I thought i'd have this weekend to relax and maybe get a fresh start, but I ended up having to work. I didn't work all weekend, but enough to affect my plans. I haven't exercised in months, I'm constantly sleep deprived, I see my friends becoming established in careers and having more and more free time to enjoy nights and weekends, and I have had to continually cancel plans because of work. Just not sure if I can keep doing this. You definitely get used to the work-sleep / work-sleep atmosphere but it doesn't seem like a way to live. I'm so ashamed the way I treat my body and my mind. I'd like to think I can succeed doing anything and that it isn't fair to me to continue doing this type of work. Anyone ever quit a high-paying job while not in a set financial situation because if was just too stressful and time consuming? Most of this post was just to bitch, but I'm legitimately thinking of giving notice in the next few months and then exploring other options. Thanks in advance! EDIT: Wow, didn't expect so much feedback here. It is actually really awesome to hear all the different perspectives and some great stories on people saying screw it and finding something better. I told my wife I posted this and she was (i) shocked that I post on reddit and (ii) thrilled to read through these with me as we try to plan out the next 3-6 months financially. And to the executive that would never hire me ... don't worry, I'd never work for you :-)

Mate, it sounds like you've already made up your mind and are looking for a way to justify it. If you're not happy, walk away. But take that time to re-assess what you want to do and do that!

Never quit stop working long hours stop answering emails after 5pm do all your work in 8 hours a day if it’s not enough make them pay you more if you work 80 hrs a week and make 100k but I work 30 and make 50 who’s doing better

Human: Say you had a checking account with minimal cash in it earning practically no interest, is there any reason to open a savings account to move some of the cash (to hold your emergency fund in) if its earning the *same* interest rate as the checking account?

Only if you want the money in a second “location” So you don’t spend it

I think banks benefit from customers having savings accounts because of lower capital requirements. Savings accounts suck. A money market fund is way better due to higher interest rate, I use Vanguard and I think the interest rate is between 2 and 3 percent.

Human: I'm getting absolutely no help from the banking institution that I thought I could trust and I feel as though I'm running out of options so I'm here, hoping I can get some guidance from someone. What happened? 2 transfers totaling a little over $2000 was transferred from savings account through the Zelle transfer service, something I've never used or heard of, to 2 email accounts with names attached to each one. Likely fake names but still, there were names. I caught it while it was still processing but it didn't matter, the bank couldn't cancel or stop them. So I file a claim through Bank Of America thinking everything was going to be okay. I'm protected, so it'll be okay. Wrong. It's been about 3 weeks and this entire process has been nothing short of a nightmare all because of BOA. 11 days after filing my claim, BOA denied my claim saying that the login into my account before the money transferred was consistent with other logins. They were basically saying I did it. After getting royally irate on the phone with them, I tell them that I'm going to get my money back and they need to tell me what to do to make this happen. They tell me to go and get my phone scanned for viruses by my cell phone carrier. So I have to somehow prove that someone stole my money. Not once did they mention a police report so i asked if it would help. They said that it would. No idea why they wouldn't mention this first before this useless phone scan. So I filed a police report with my local police and requested the case be investigated. Finally someone actually helping me. After a few days I finally got ATT to scan my phone but the device they use can't print or email so I can't fax anything to BOA. I was able to take pictures of the different screens showing the results hoping this would be sufficient. I call BOA and after being transferred several times I finally get someone to tell me other options because ATT can't give me anything written or digitally showing the results. They tell me to go to a third party store that works on and fixes cell phones. After calling 10 different places in my area, I found 1 that said they could scan the phone and hand write the details on their company letterhead with their info. BOA said that would suffice. I mean what else am I supposed to do? I asked why I couldn't use one of the trust third party apps, download the report and send that in. That would give them everything they needed to know. So I've jumped through their hoops, recorded all my phone calls once I noticed they were playing games with me, filed a police report and gathered all the info I could from Google showing that I didn't access the BOA app on my phone the days the money was transferred and I've faxed this info over to them to try and get the claim looked at again. I'm not hopeful. I've filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after it was suggested in a few forums online and I'm in the process of filing a complaint with helpmybank.gov. I'm pretty sure that my email account was hacked and my banking info was then gathered through it somehow because there was a label created in my email to read and delete all Bank Of America emails thus the reason I never caught this when it was happening. So now I've been racking my brain trying to secure anything I have that has a password to ensure this doesn't happen again because they bank isn't protecting me. I'm fairly computer savvy so I keep my home PC virus free and I never open shady emails. But I guess when you have companies being breached and tens of millions of people's info is now out there, it makes it a little harder to protect yourself. If they deny my claim again, what can I do? I didn't do this. My money was stolen from me yet the bank is treating me like I did it and they haven't helped me one bit. Calling them is a nightmare. I asked about a specific part of their privacy policy the other day and I was transferred 5 times over an hour and a half and STILL couldn't get it explained. I've never used the Zelle service and I've never transferred large amounts like this yet the bank didn't catch it. It blows my mind and I thought I was protected. My mind has been so scattered since this happened that it's hard to focus on my day to day life because I'm constantly thinking about this and other fraud incidents potentially happening. What can I do? I need help. Can I take this small claims court? Should I hire a lawyer? Thank you for taking the time to read this.

When I was in college BoA let someone else make a payment to their own credit card with my account. My account had around $400 in it TOTAL (I was in college) and their payment was for $1000. Why they even allowed that to process is beyond me. Then they wanted to fight with me over it. They finally reimbursed me my money but holy hell it was an uphill battle. F them. I had a hell of a time closing my account too. Next on my list is ridding my life of wells fargo, that should be over soon :).

Scary story! Anyone have a bank they recommend that would honor fraudulent claims? Maybe a credit union?

Human: Background: We bought a used 2011 F-150 SuperCrew Cab Lariat pickup truck in June. This was because my husband and I were planning on buying an RV to live in part-time in Florida and we needed something to haul it. We paid $18,300 for it. We currently have a loan for $14,600 at 4.34%, which is $295 per month. Current situation: We decided to just move to Florida completely (currently live in PA). My job agreed to let me be 100% remote and work from home, so we have a guaranteed $55k per year (plus any overtime I work) until my husband finds a job. He works in IT and makes around $65k currently. We will be able to live without dipping into our savings on my salary, even with the truck payment. However, we also have a fully paid off 2013 Honda Civic and realistically don't need a second vehicle at all. We will be using the truck to move in December because it will save us a ton of money to be able to haul a cargo trailer rather than paying for a U-Haul for that far of a distance, but after that, should we sell it? It is in great condition and the current "average" KBB private party value in my area is $18,712 - more than we paid for it. We love it and its a great truck, but we'd be crazy not to sell it since we don't need it, right? ​ TL;DR: Bought truck for a purpose that no longer exists, KBB private party value is above what we paid for it - should we sell? ​ Edited to add: Not sure if this is relevant or not, but I thought people might be getting the idea that we are older due to our random desire to be snowbirds in FL. I am 25 and my husband is 29, if that helps with context at all.

I'm in southeast Florida, and the truck market is insane with so many people with lawn/pool/pest/home improvement businesses it's very a very hot commodity.

Two options. 1. Get an insurance that is like metro mile. 2. Sell the truck when you’re done using it. One car is fine and there’s plenty of other options to get around such as uber or lyft

Human: My wife and I are looking to purchase a starter condo in the next 18 months and we will both be 30 years old. Within the last few months we both received promotions and have taken steps to tackle our finances and manage out debt. We have been able to pay down some debt and start an emergency fund. We finally sat down, created a budget and set a goal. Now I just want to make sure this is actually an obtainable/smart plan. Below is a breakdown of our monthly income/expenses as well as savings and other notes/details. Looking for advice on if we can afford/what we can afford or what we may have to adjust to make this goal a reality. I know there are a few things we could cut back on so I anticipate some great feedback and angles we may have not considered. Thanks in advance! ​ *Monthly income* \-Me: $3,650 \-Wife: $1,550 **Total: $5,200** ​ *Monthly expenses* \-Rent: $1,000 \-Electric: $50 \-Internet: $75 \-Cell phone: $80 \-Food: $400 \-Car payment: $300 \-Gas: $70 \-Personal loan: $400 \-Medical: $250 \-Auto insurance: $150 \-Dog food: $30 \-Entertainment: $250 \-Roth IRA: $250 \-Netflix: $15 \-Spotify: $15 \-Gym: $30 \-Laundry: $15 \-Pet rent: $25 \-Parking: $30 \-Rent insurance: $15 \-MJ: $100 \-Uber: $100 **Total: $3,650** ​ *Savings* Monthly: $1,550 Emergency fund: $5,000 Roth IRA: $25,000 401k: $20,000 **Total: $50,000** ​ *Other Notes* \-The medical bill will be paid in full in November. We will then increase our Roth IRA contribution by $250 \-We both contribute to a 401k \-We are making a conscious effort to cut down on food, entertainment, uber and mj to trim excess spend \-Total car cost will go down $150/month once we pay off $2,500 left on loan (unusable lemon) \-We are looking to buy a condo in the $250k range. \-On track to have \~30k saved for a down payment/closing costs \-Our current DTI is 18/32

Pay off the personal loan and you need a larger emergency fund before you buy. You need months of cushion and you barely have 30 days. Pay off the loans to zero, save up 25k.

You definitely cannot afford $250k. Not only is that amount at the very upper edge of what you should be considering, you also need to recognize that there are "hidden" expenses that come with owning property. Condo fees could run you a couple of hundred a month. Since you'll be taking out a mortgage, you'll want to have life insurance policies, which will probably run you anywhere from $50-100/mo. And of course you'll need to be prepared to shell out money as needed to repairs and maintenance. My husband and I bought a house last year for $210k. Our net monthly income was the same as yours and we had less debt ($175/mo for a car and $100/mo for student loans). We had saved up for 20% down and closing costs, which worked out to a smidge under $50k. I also retained $10k in savings for emergencies. Even though we had the "trifecta" that this sub exhorts (20% down, low debt, house 2.6x gross income), I feel like we pushed it to the edge of affordability. I can't imaging going for a $250k property with only 5-10% down...

Human: My mom has been sick for the last 6 months with a bunch of mystery symptoms that have stumped her doctors. After being in the hospital the last couple weeks she finally got a diagnosis of lymphoma. My mom is 61 and she previously worked as an independent contractor so she didn't have insurance or a 401(k). My brother has had some mental health struggles over the past few years and my parents spent a lot to assist him in getting back on his feet, and then dad had a prolonged illness prior to hers and passed away a few years ago. All of their savings have been wiped out and then some. She still has a mortgage of about $65k on her house and has no other assets. She also has about $25k in credit card debt. I make about $85k a year but I'm a single parent with one child in college and one who will be going in a couple years. I live in a modest house that needs a lot of work and drive a 13 year old car that is always on the verge of breakdown. I have been giving my mom at least $1200 a month to keep her afloat while we try to get disability for her. It was denied the first time when she stopped being able to work, but we are reapplying for a fast track approval because her diagnosis. I don't anticipate her ever being able to go back to work. In the meantime have been running a financial deficit every month since she got sick. There have been a lot of incidental expenses that I've also picked up the slack on as well that are costing me $200 - $500 a month or so. All in, I've paid for nearly $10k of expenses and wiped out all of my liquid savings in the process. Right now I'm drowning financially trying to help her out and none of my other relatives are willing or able to contribute. I desperately need suggestions on what I can do to protect myself financially and if there are any resources I can get for my mom other than disability. Like maybe food stamps if she's eligible or anything else that could help? I would like to get another job to fill in some of the gaps, but it has to be unscheduled and probably has to be working remotely since my mom basically needs round the clock care right now. She has home health care during the day and then I have been staying with her in the evenings as much as I can so something like delivering pizza or driving Uber isn't very tenable right now. I feel stuck right now. Every month I get further behind on my bills and I'm starting to have to rely on credit cards to fill the gap. She will probably have to do treatment for at least 3-6 months and I don't know if I can support her financially like this the whole time unless something changes. For anyone who has been in this situation before, what's my next move? Suggestions on how to find remote side jobs or for benefits to apply for would be really helpful. Or anything else. **Edited to add: these suggestions have been amazingly helpful, my family and I can't thank you guys enough.** Assistant: I don't have much advice, but is it feasible for your Mom to come live with you? Sell her house and use whatever profit to payoff debt. Would that save you the $1200/month?? ​ edit: what about food stamps? Human: Seems like now is the time to sell the house. I'd there any equity that can be used to give you a bit of a cash cushion and/or pay off some of that credit card debt? Assistant: Looking into this. I replied to someone below that it might be a better idea to sell my house and move into hers. She has limited mobility right now and I live in one of those tiny bungalows with a ton of stairs and tight corners and I'm not sure she could get around mine. So I will be running the numbers on that. I just was thinking going through the replies that the best case might be to move in with her, sell my house, do just enough of the work her house needs to be sellable, sell hers, buy a moderately priced but more open concept house like a ranch that she can get around on a walker in. Sounds like a lot of work but even if she recovers I am thinking she will still have some lingering health problems and won't be able to live alone anymore.

If you do that, talk to a lawyer and to other members of the family. Right now you are paying a lot of money to keep your mother afloat, plus the rest of the stuff you are dealing with will be emotionally and physically draining too. Last thing you want to do is have inheritance laws screw you over bc your siblings feel entitled to a share of the home you will be living in. Might be smart to draw up a contract that your mom is selling the house to you or something similar.

This sounds like a great solution. I moved my mom in with us when she wasn't able to live alone (we couldn't have lived with her, which would likely work better for you). You can take your time fixing up her place, and having others around part of the time might need she doesn't need as much home health care. You'll have one utility bill, groceries for two households isn't bad with one extra person, etc. Can she just go ahead and take regular Social Security early? Does she have at least ten years of paying in? Does she get your dad's social security?

Human: My wife work's in retail at the moment. Over the course of the year, she's been accumulating paid time off till she got 3 weeks. She discussed with her manager and wanted to use those 3 weeks to go see her family abroad and was assured that she'd be paid during that time. ​ However, upon returning, she did not get a paycheck for any of those weeks off. The manager wasn't in today, so she asked the assistant manager about it. According to the assistant manager, the manager said my wife had never asked for paid time off and wanted it unpaid. ​ How on earth does that make any sense? Why would she want unpaid time off? ​ My wife still has her job there, but I think the 2 of us will work on her finding another job that isn't as shitty as this one. Right now, her paychecks do make things easier on us and we didn't expect this manager would go back on his word of marking the 3 week period as paid time off. ​ Is there anything that can be done in my wife's situation to be paid for that time? Would appreciate any advice, thanks.

Always make sure it’s in writing. When I was in my early 20’s I had a similar situation. Gf at the time ( now wife) took me away for 2 weeks. I came back and boss “I never Ok’d this time off”. I had nothing to go on but a conversation. And that’s pretty much useless. Ended just finding another job. God that guy was an asshole lol

What paperwork was filed in support of the paid vacation? If none it's his word against hers.

Human: Here's my current allocation (which was a pre-selected moderate blend between aggressive and conservative. It's been averaging about 10% over the last few years with this allocation. ​ [https://imgur.com/a/qqGhIyO](https://imgur.com/a/qqGhIyO) ​ I'm 35 years old. I do have concerns about a bear market soon. Any advice as to which funds I could select here and possibly on the timing to do it? Would I be better off not trying to mess around and just ride it out with my current allocations? Thank you for any advice. ​ ​

You’re 35.... you’ve lived through the stock market crash of 87, the dot com collapse, the real estate bubble and other smaller falls.... you have 20-30 years of working and investing to go. Unless you know the day it’s going to collapse you’re probably better off weathering the storm

You may find these links helpful: - [401(k) Fund Selection Guide](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k_funds) - [401(k) FAQs](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: So what's basically happened is that i lost my job and couldn't maintain my apartment in which i got evicted. My parents offered to house me for a short period of time if i allowed them control over my finances and i thought good on them and accepted it. Now, these are the same parents who charged me for stuff i broke as a KID when i got my first job. Supposedly i owed them near 3k dollars for the cost of raising me and damages i caused growing up. Now, they had me sign an agreement for the control of my finances and that i basically do as they say. They weren't very specific and i trusted them and signed the thing. Now as a result they charge me 600 in rent every month for a single small bedroom in which i can not even have anything other then clothes and a bed in according to their rules. I am only making minimum wage and i barely make 800 a month and my dad takes 600-700 out of that paycheck to pay "Rent" and my "Past debt". I trusted him and didn't argue because the goal was to have me back out on my own in three months so i wasn't too worried and i was just going to endure it. At this point i have been here for 7 months and i have no access to any of my money. I bank through USAA so there are no physical branches i can go to and withdraw my own money from. I feel completely taken advantage of and i even brought that up to him several times in which he argued and refereed me to the agreement stating that he can kick me out if i don't follow his agreement and sends me out of the house if he doesn't want to see me. I feel completely disrespected and taken advantage of, yet i see no way out myself without the result of being homeless. I have considered opening a second account and routing half my money from two or three checks to that account and using it to secure an apartment for myself and convincing him there was a mistake at work and they plan to fix it. Right now i went over it myself and i have made no progress in 7 months to getting out of this situation. Is there some sort of legal action i can take against this or something to at least get out? I don't think i have a way out of this without regretfully ruining my relationship with my parents. Edit\*\*\*Recently they have also added accounts from American Furniture warehouse to my credit and i show an extra 5k in debt in which they blew off and said that it would only help me. Is this even legal? I'm far from pleased with this yet arguing that fact could have me homeless. Assistant: Sorry you are going through this, Your parents sound petty, You seem less like a child of theirs and more like an easy paycheck. I don't think signing a paper they drafted offically gives them rights to your accts. I'm no lawyer though... Human: Depending on what he signed, it absolutely can. Assistant: It was a written up and printed out list of rules and stating that he is allowed control over my finances while i remain in the house. Nothing fancy or legally binding i would think. Human: You’re sure it wasn’t a power of attorney? Assistant: No attorney signed it or witnessed it. I'm not too familiar with this to be honest so i can't say for certain.

Power of attorney doesn’t require an attorney to sign it.

Did you sign anything from usaa? They 100% have power of attorney forms that if you sign gives another person access to all your stuff. I had to do it a couple of months ago due to some problems. If you didn't sign anything, check with usaa to make sure your signature wasn't forged. Usaa allows you to use any atm anywhere and then they reimburse the atm fees. Go open a new account with a different bank, I'm assuming the main usaa account is your dad's. After doing that, go to HR at work at so your money is going to the new account. If you have your usaa debit card you can use it at any bank or atm and usaa reimburses you the fee. Idk how that will work to get the last like $6 you'll be reimbursed though.

Human: As the title said, I never requested the card to be closed. I already called the creditor and asked that it be changed on my credit report. They agreed over the phone; however, today I received a letter stating that their "investigation" showed that there is no error on their part and will not change anything. At this point, is it even worth the effort to try to get this changed? My credit is in great shape already. I don't know whether a "closed by creditor" or "closed by consumer" makes any difference in the grand scheme of things. Edit: thank you all who responded. The consensus is that it's not worth my time.

It doesnt matter that much but personally i think closed by consumer is better - just leave as is

You may find these links helpful: - [Credit-related wiki pages](/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_credit) - [Credit Reports](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_reports) - [FICO / Credit Scores](/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Improving Credit Scores and Building Credit](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Human: Hi all, I am a junior in college at a large university. This past year and over the summer, I worked at one of the nicest hotels in town as a valet averaging about $14 an hour, and I worked about 25 hours a week. I got paid primarily in tips, so I pretty much walked away from a shift with about $50 each day. On lucky days, I would make as high as $175, and I thought I had a healthy amount in savings to not have to work a lot with classes. Ahead of the schoolyear, I landed probably my biggest break yet, an internship at the local newspaper that will give me a huge step forward in my career. I made the choice to quit the job at the hotel to be able to give my all to the internship, and also focus on passing classes. I also got a huge scholarship during my sophomore year, and didn't need to take out a student loan for my junior year. My federal aid and scholarship would pay for my tuition, while I would just need to cover living expenses. I live in a house that costs $350 per month for rent with a $150 utility + furniture charge. All together I pay my landlord $500 at the beginning of every month. I get paid at my internship $9 an hour for 20 hours a week. So $180 a week flat. So I went into the semester knowing I could in theory live on a budget of $720 a month, spend $500 on rent, $100 on groceries, and have $120 for gas other expenses. Simply put, that's not what's happened. I am spending quite a bit on gas, and I am taking out cash to spend at bars just as every college student does way too much. So when it comes time to pay for rent, I have to draw out of savings. I can't keep going at that rate the rest of the schoolyear, or else there won't be any more money left in the account. I have already considered asking the employer if I could work for them again, but that's unlikely considering they don't tend to hire people back after they quit. I also wouldn't be able to work many shifts that would get me tips, as I would be stuck with the ones where I'd just make my base wage of $5 an hour. I want to find a job that would help me with living expenses, makes tips so I can better pay for my life day to day, and also would work well with my schedule at my internship. Advice?

> Simply put, that's not what's happened. I am spending quite a bit on gas, and I am taking out cash to spend at bars **just as every college student does way too much** I will tell a secret - this isnt true

The best advice anyone can give you is to cut out unnecessary spending (i.e. taking cash out to spend at bars). No matter how you justify it, you can't afford it right now. Find things to do that don't cost money until/unless you get to a point or get a different job where you have more disposable income. Yes, it might cut down on the time you spend with your friends, or it might mean you start hanging out with different people, but that's hardly the end of the world. Wiping out your savings for a social life is just not worth it. Talk to your old manager about hiring you back. Explain that you left only because the internship would be a boost to your career, even though you loved the valet job, and you really want to come back and work the shifts you had before. The worst that can happen is they'll say no or they'll offer you something that won't work for you (bad shifts, etc). If they offer you bad shifts, you don't have to take it. Look into valet opportunities at other hotels or even waiting tables, both of which should net you some tips. There may even be some valet openings at whatever companies are contracted to do valet for fancy restaurants in your area. ​

Human: I've put a lot of money (to me) into bond ETFs, and have been putting more and more money into stock ETFs to raise my stock-to-bond ratio. But now it just seems like too much money to lose as the market keeps going up and we're due a recession. I keep hearing about how bond ETFs are new and if they crash no one knows what's going to happen. In the last few years, I've made more money than I ever have. I was also unemployed for long stretches of time before. I have a large amount of savings (enough for a year), and much more in an investment account. I can't help but feel my current job won't last a life time (what does anymore?) and I can't figure out the amount of risk I'd like to take. It's a lot of money to lose. Whereas in a savings account, I lose money due to inflation and there's an opportunity cost to hoarding money there--but I'd still have the cash there when I need it. Maybe I'm just a worrier. Have any of you felt this way before? How do you manage your risk?

You only lose if you sell

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Human: I have a hypothetical question, that obviously should not be done in real life due to interest, but would a credit card loop possible and would you be able to manage it enough to the point where you could continuously pay your credit card payments with other credit cards without your credit score taking a hit, for the rest of your life? Example: I apply for 20 credit cards over a period of time and get accepted with all of them. Each credit card has a $30,000 credit limit. I buy a TV for $6000 with one credit card (A), and get a bill next month. I pay the $30 bill with credit card (B) by taking cash out of an ATM and sending cash in. Next month a credit card bill comes from (A) and (B) I pay credit card (A) with credit card (B) and pay credit card (B) with (A)... I continue on until interest starts to cause card (A) starts going past 25% of the credit limit due to interest, and then start using credit card (C) to pay off (A) and use (B) to pay off (C)... continue on and on and on for the rest of my life carrying the $6000 purchase plus interest across several credit cards. Is this theoretically possible to accomplish while maintaining a good credit score and basically never pay for the item you purchased? If so could this be applied on a bigger scale? Let’s say you are rich and have a credit line of $1,000,000 on each card and buy a $750,000 house in cash. Are there any protections against people doing this?

You can't pay for a credit card with a credit card. If you take a cash advance off card B, you are charged an additional premium on your standard interest rate. If you tried to do all this the lending institutions would win and you would lose. You're not going to best them except by paying what you contractually agreed to pay when you took the card. Ps.the credit bureau has a score which begin to tank and lenders would stop granting you new ones of credit.

Given that you'd be paying cash advance fees you'd quickly run out your credit line. That's assuming you'd be able to advance the full limit of the card, which is uncommon. I think my advance limit is around 30% of the line on most of my cards, specifically because if you had a $100,000 line you could advance it all, board a plane to Bangkok, and never be seen again.

Human: My wife recently had a small medical issue and we made the mistake of taking her to an emergency room, instead of an immediate care. They didn't explain the difference until afterwards. They pretty much just gave her a quick look and prescribed some antibiotics and now they have sent us a bill for almost $2000. I have read that you can sometimes negotiate the price down and I was wondering if anyone had any helpful tips or info on how to mitigate or contest this bill. Thanks!

The cost of emergency room is not just the antibiotic that was given but the entire support structure that was setup to receive and treat patients. Insurances would pay in the past but are now starting to push us to pay when they think it was not an emergency. I say this so that you don't take an agressive stance with the facility when negotiating but do negotiate as it is a lot of money. Try to find comparative cost in nearby areas (they will not willingly disclose), and do not underbid them so much (offering 50 bucks when 500-1000 may be expected) that they stop talking to you. If you don't have the money it is much easier, you refuse to pay and they will try to settle but if we have money you can't use that strategy much (the stakes for you are much higher with collections etc), and it does not make sense to use the threat then. Then there are some claim negotiators who can do this in your behalf. They don't work for small fees but they may take this 2000 dollar case: if they save you 1000 and charge 100 as negotiation fee you may be happy to pay. Some may do it for free too but the one I checked once was fee based. Last but not the least, if you have money sitting in HSA, use that, but I guess you know that already. That at least saves the taxes. Wish there was an easy answer but it will be so subjective.

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Human: Basically a frugal, index fund investing lifestyle. For example, /r/financialindependence, /r/leanfire. I dislike the entire concept of slaving away at a corporate job for some consumer bullshit lifestyle. It is extremely wasteful. Things I already am achieving: increasing the amount of /r/nosurf, productive side income (profit of $1000 per month), fixing/repairing things that others sell for cheap/free, cooking, biking, walking, hand washing/hand drying my clothing, no smart phone (flip phone), 4-6 month food prep (frozen), no netflix/social media/movies/video games (helps the anti-consumer mentality). I am an out-of-the-box thinker. The "mainstream" solution might not be the best solution, just the more popular one. I seek out the best. I figure that an accounting income will allow me to retire pretty quickly (my number is $300k without the side-income, $225k with it). But the most important and perhaps understated aspect is retiring as a producer, not a consumer. Does an accounting career positively enable a producing mentality or does the stress increase your desire to consume, outsource problems, and generally spend money on issues?

Frankly this is an absurd post by OP and I am not sure he is serious. Lifetime health care costs alone run in the hundreds of thousands of dolllars for a person age 35. If you live as a homeless man, sure go for it. Otherwise plan to work for many many many more decades.

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Human: does anyone know what skills i should learn for my personal finances that will pay dividends down the road?

Cooking is another life skill that can save you money. Eating out is very expensive compared to buying food at the grocery store and cooking it yourself. https://priceonomics.com/how-much-money-do-you-save-by-cooking-at-home/

Learn to save 20% of your income for future use. (You never know what mught be around the corner)

Human: I have been using a budget app on my phone to track my expenses vis-a-vis my income. Something is going wrong. I set aside virtual money for my taxes (I’m self-employed), and I record all my other expenses including daily purchases. However, the money for my taxes was not reflected in my bank account. Now my taxes had to paid out of my line of credit, and I’m in debt when I shouldn’t be. I’ve never had this happen before. Any idea how this happened?

Check your bank statements and see where your money is.

Look at your **"actual"** banking app. Alternatively, even better just log into your bank's **actual** website and look at it. For future reference, your best bet is going to be the bank itself for this type of issue followed by perhaps the software developers, but really it just sounds like you didn't think to just log into your actual account.

Human: In November, I started working part-time for a small business owner after a 9ish month stretch of unemployment. My boss said that she would start paying my only coworker and I through a payroll system in January after the girl I was replacing left, and until then she would just write us personal checks. My boss just told me that now she can't put us on the payroll. Apparently my coworker was incentivized to retire early from her previous job, and if she is paid through the proper channels, her income will be too high to continue to receive this bonus. Is there a way to file my taxes to make this legit? I'm not exactly freelancing, but can I do my taxes like a freelancer would? It is graphic design basically, so can I pretend I'm freelancing? I rather like this job, and it gives me time to work on my 3D portfolio, but in the long run I can not afford a(n even larger) hole in my employment history. What should I do?

I've worked under the table for a few jobs. I would recommend this to your boss: 1- you file for an LLC 2- you invoice him for your time 3- he 1099's you and you complete a W-9 4- you file quarterly estimates

If you go the LLC/1099 route, you'll be paying both sides of the payroll taxes. Assuming your boss legitimately wanted to make you W2, perhaps you can negotiate an uplift in your comp to cover the taxes you're going to have to pay.

Human: I want to open a roth IRA and maybe a non qualified account. I am planning on maxing the roth for this year and last year. I spoke with a financial advisor at my bank and he created a portfolio for me. Since I am young, he suggested I go with A shares with a front end cost and lower annual expense. He said the front end cost for investments under $50,000 was 5.75% of the principal, plus an average of .75% annual expense ratio. The front end cost is lower if you invest more than 50k. I have no problem with the portfolio he showed me. In fact, I think it had good overall performance, and the average ten year return on it was ~8-9% My friend suggested I look at Vanguard because it doesn't have a front end cost, and the annual expense is lower. I asked the financial advisor about it and he said this difference was because of active vs passive fund management. My understanding is that he is supposed to keep an eye on my portfolio for me and scale back the risk over time, which is why there is a higher cost. He also said he can see better returns. Is what he's saying true? Is such a high front end cost normal? Is it worth this cost? It would be nice to have a professional keep an eye on things for me, since I don't know anything. But I would imagine the "activeness" he mentioned would just be looking at performance every 6 months to a year and he would readjust some allocations for me. According to him, Vanguard is passive, but wouldn't it be just as easy to monitor the portfolio's performance every once and a while and decide on allocations myself? I don't know who I should go with. At the very least I'd like to open a roth first and then get into non qualified stuff later. Can someone shed some light?

Unfortunately, it is normal, but it is certainly not worth it. [Costs are the best predictor of future fund performance](http://moneywatch.bnet.com/investing/blog/fund-watch/the-best-predictor-of-future-fund-performance/470/). I'd recommend you visit www.bogleheads.org for more information. You also might want to look into a [Target date Retirement fund](https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/vanguard/TargetRetirementList). They are low cost, broadly diversified, and also scale back the risk over time automatically.

The load/no load question is separate from the passive/active question. Some funds charge you a sales charge or "load" when you buy or sell shares of the fund. People who have studied the industry say you don't get any better performance to justify the sales charge. You can restrict your shopping universe to no-load funds and do just as well. A fund with a load will typically be actively managed because they want to claim that the load is justified, but there are also many actively-managed no-load funds. Whether there is a load or not, an actively-managed fund will generally have higher expenses than a passively-managed fund, because you have to pay for the management. A passively-managed fund typically tries to match the performance of some market index. Some actively-managed funds beat the index; many don't, and you can't necessarily tell which ones will do it. So paying more in expenses for active management may get you better performance, but it may not.

Human: I am considering put the max into a vanguard roth ira for both last year and this year. Any suggestions for which funds to choose and the mix? I'm leaning towards index funds and at first was just thinking about going with their S&P because it's all a bit overwhelming and I know very little. After looking at the current make-up for the 2045 and 2050 aim retirement funds I'm thinking about putting something into VTSMX or VGTSX. Is now even a good time to open an ira with index funds? Ahh...thanks.

I just invested in [VFIFX](http://www.google.com/finance?q=VFIFX) for my Roth IRA. This is a target date fund with a VERY low expense ratio (0.19%). This should get you a good mix and evolve over time with a completely hands off approach. This will keep you diversified and not overly exposed to stocks.

If stocks is where you want to be (since you are looking at SP)...I would look closely at their dividend funds... if your going to be in stocks longer term...dividend paying stocks is where to be...