I am 29 y/o. My mortgage balance is 265k @5% fixed 3 yrs left.

I have a roommate to help pay for mortgage and utilities.

I really want to pay off my mortgage asap; like 5-7 years or 7-10 years. Because I feel like once have my mortgage paid off; with having a room mate my monthly burn rate will be like $1200/month. So I would essentially be semi retired at 35-38 years old.

But....

This would be with investing every last dollar in extra payments in the mortgage aggressivly. ( Maybe even getting a second job to help pay off even faster). So I WOULD not be investing in retirement

My company does not offer RRSP matching unfortunately so if I did invest in retirement or would be sp500 index fund low cost.

My question; is it wise to invest all my extra funds into paying off mortgage so that I won't HAVE TO work but I can if I want to because my burn rate will only be 1200$month

So my employer matches 3% which is what I am currently contributing too. I get paid about 5400 a month. I’m confused when trying to do the math on calculators but if I were to put 15% of my income away in the traditional 401K, what rough numbers would I see when I’m around 35? I am 24.

Would I benefit at all for doing tradi 10% and roth 5%? They offer both accounts. Thanks!!

I have them set up with a password manager, and they don’t really buy stuff from sketchy places. What could be the cause of this and what should they do to finally resolve the issue? For reference, they haven’t had any other issues with accounts being opened in their name or anything else like that.

E-4 in the DMV area getting $2k a month in BAH. Currently make $4450 after tax and TSP. No debt. Currently pay 1800 in rent and around $500 for food, $190 car insurance, and $100 in car gas.

I have about 45k in checking + savings, another 15k in a HYSA, and 20k in my TSP.

The homes I'm looking at are around $300-400k. Could it be a good idea for me to buy? What are some pros and cons? Is this realistic?

Too make a long story short, I'm a project based construction worker and I work 6 to 8 months out of the year. The remaining months I'm unemployed. During our Projects we are earning 5-6.5k a week gross.

While the checks are nice, I'm routinely getting withheld agaisnt as if I make 300k a year despite in reality only earning 150-180k. I want all the excess tax money now so I can have it in HYSA/Brokerage/pay down debt, rather than wait till end of year for a fat return.

Further Info, I claim married filling Jointly. Lastly example check stub. $4788 Taxable Gross, $746.75 Fed, $296.86 SS, $69.43 Medicare. No state tax. Net pay $3,674.96.

Say I transfer money to my CC account, more than I owe, and now have a negative balance of -$100. I then spend $100 using my card. Will I still earn rewards points or cash back on those purchases?

Seems like a loophole for free money, but you never know. This is an Amazon Chase card btw.

This idea came up when I was trying to figure out if it’s possible to buy a car private party using my credit card, for the points. Then immediately pay off the card. If there’s any legit way to do that, I’m all ears.

I am 23 and have a 6 figure salary working in the tech industry. I am not that financially literate so apologies if this is common sense knowledge.

I have a ROTH 401K which I'm regularly putting my money into and a CD.

I got approached by Guardian for personal finance advice and they are trying to sell me a whole life insurance policy where I pay $12k a year. I "break-even" in 13 years.

They also told me to put most of my money (60%) inside a Vanguard account and have roughly 10k for cash.

Sorry if I'm not sharing too much information but is this life insurance policy even worth it?

Posting on behalf of the wife. We have our thoughts but want to ask for an opinion from Reddit too lol

For context: we are currently on a quest to get to 0 debt (minus our mortgage). We are following the snowball method (works best for us) and are currently looking for more places to squeeze some more money into paying down debts. Without going into all THOSE details, we've identified her car as a potential area. She works PRN so commuting is a decent part of her week/out gas costs (I WFH). She is driving at least 250 miles a week just for work.

The discussion: She is currently driving a 2019 Subaru Outback with 60k miles. 6.75% 84 month loan, 2 years in, $392/month payment. Getting 28ish MPG on her work commutes. She is looking to potentially get into a older, used Prius of some kind. Around our area, we are seeing things around 80-100k miles that would likely work out to around $320/month but 7.5% interest for 60 months through our credit union.

Is that a resonable tradeoff (a little older of a vehicle and some more miles) to save on the monthly payment for around the same term that she has left + around $60 a month in gas for her commute?

Appreciate thoughts and insight/suggestions!

Hi all --

I recently learned that things like insurance and property tax are often paid in escrow payments throughout the year.

I also learned it's possible to opt out and pay your insurance and property taxes separately.

What are some of the pros and cons of this?

Also, if I try to refinance the home, can I opt-in or opt-out of the escrow style payments?

Thanks all!

I have money in my Fidelity account, but how do I actually invest it? Can not seem to figure it out.

Hi everyone, I'm really struggling to understand the advantage of mega backdoor Roth IRA conversion strategies versus just keeping the money in a regular brokerage account and investing. I'm new at all of this, so I might just be missing important points, but I've read a lot of articles and previous posts and still really don't get it. I think I just need actual examples. Could someone please explain?

I think I understand why choose megabackdoor IRA vs. after-tax 401(k) (someone please check on if I'm understanding it right though), but what I really don't understand is why someone would ever do an after-tax 401(k) vs. regular investing.

For example, if I had $100,000 in after-tax money, and I put that in a 401(k) (let's just pretend that's allowed in a single year for simplicity of this example), then converted that to a Roth IRA (assuming eligibility), then that conversion is tax-free because I already paid taxes. Assume that 10 years later, that $100,000 is now $200,000 and I want to withdrawal the entire amount. Because it's a Roth IRA, that $200,000 withdrawal is completely tax free.

If I kept that after-tax $100,000 in the 401(k), then 10 years later it becomes $200,000 and I wanted to withdrawal the entire amount, then because it's a 401(k) I'd have to pay taxes on the earnings, which in this case is $100,000, so assuming a 25% tax rate my withdrawals after tax would be $175,000. Is this right?

But if I simply kept that after-tax $100,000 in a regular investing account and let it grow for 10 years to $200,000 and wanted to withdrawal the entire amount, isn't it the same as with the after-tax 401(k)? Wouldn't I just have to pay taxes on the capital gains, which is the same as earnings? In this case also 25% on $100,000 like with the 401(k) example?

My husband had a lung biopsy last week. During the procedure the doctor punctured his lung. That turned an outpatient procedure into a one night hospitalization. The next morning one of the tests came back possibly positive for tuburculosis. Cue lock down of his room, masks and they moved him to a low pressure room for 2 hours - until the infectious disease doc was like "this is stupid, he has no risk factors, take the masks off" Tests have further shown he does not have Tb.

My question is billing. I chafe at having to pay for moving rooms etc for a misdiagnosis.

Advice?

I went to see a specialist who was in my network and the insurance covered the appointment, however they sent out my bloodwork to a lab that’s not covered by my plan and today I got an explanation of benefits letter from my insurance saying they’re not paying for it and in the break down the field “Member Responsible” says close to $8,000. This is not a bill from the lab or the doctor but simply the explanation of benefits from my insurance for the amounts they were asked for and what they paid, but can the lab or the provider send me a bill for this? I’m in New York. Thanks.

Is pet insurance worth it if you have anything noted in pets chart. Dog had an x ray and it states

“Periosteal reaction noted over ipsilateral ischial wing. Consistent with trauma and history of collision with tree, but cannot rule out infection being present. Mild intrascapular swelling noted in right stifle may simply be artifact due to mild obliquity. Possibility of acute soft tissue injury, but no evidence of degenerative changes to CCL or chronic changes in joint on clinical exam or radiographs."

I know CCL injuries are bilateral but since this is stating no degenerative issues, am I in the clear? I’ve heard of horror stories of people not being able to get a surgery covered because their dog vomited once as a puppy

Finally came crashing down on me just how horrific Equitable has been for my 403b investments over the past 9 years. I’ve experienced the age old story of being a green young teacher and sold this smoke and mirrors Equitable hot mess that’s eating up all of my gains with their exorbitant fees.

I’m 35 with 27 years until retirement so luckily I do have time to sort this out. I also have a pension at 70%, Roth IRA in a target date fund, HYSA.

I’ve done quite a bit of research and landed on doing a contract exchange to Aspire (thankfully a vendor with my employer). Just looking to hear people’s advice and experiences with this process. Am I making the right decision?

Some lingering questions: -How difficult is it to tackle this contract transfer myself? -Once transferred over to Aspire, what should I be investing in? I’m thinking Vanguard VOO. -Should I use a financial professional to do the dirty work for me? If so, what type of fees do they usually charge to handle this process? -Are there any better options than Aspire for a 403b?

Edited to add background

So I'm making about $17,500 (after tax, housing, and food) from my internship this summer and I'm not really sure how to allocate it. I'm thinking of opening a Roth IRA account and maxing it out this year, but beyond that I have no clue what to do.

Other info:

• My college tuition and housing is mostly paid for by my parents + financial aid. I have $12,341 in federal student loan debt and will probably end school with ~30k in debt (all simple interest, repayment starting late 2026). I will be doing a 1 year fully funded Masters the following year, then going to industry (expected total comp: ~150-200k)
• I have couple hundred bucks in my checking account
• I have 1 credit card (Chase Freedom Rise) and plan on applying for another (Chase Freedom Unlimited?) sometime next year

I'm open to any ideas and suggestions as well as tangentially related tips.

As of 2024, I’m 23 and I now make 60k a year. I live with my mom and give her about 400 a month to help with rent (she doesn’t require it but I make more than her so I help). My checks are about 1,600 twice a month. I also have 2 credit cards which I use about 200-300 each for each month and pay off in full. I also put 400 from each check in my savings. I have about 3,000 saved up right now. I drive a 2007 Honda Civic which has over 130k miles on it right now. I do want to move out of my mom’s house at the end of the year or start of next year but I also want to upgrade my car. Given the parameters of what I describe, what’s the best advice you could give me?

So I made a few bad decisions as a kid and now have about 17.5k in debt. My credit cards are insanely high interest so paying them off has been difficult. I believe a personal loan is probably the best option but have never done this before so figured I would ask here first.

Should I take out a personal loan or use home equity?

I currently own a home that’s has increased in value by a substantial amount and was very lucky to have bought it with a low interest rate. It’s got about 90k right now between paying off my loan and increasing in overall value. After looking through personal loans and equity loans it looks like the equity ones are cheaper, easier to get and have lower interest rates (10% vs 15%). The house also needs gutters and a few small updates that won’t cost much (replacing sink, paint, etc).

Would it be smarter to go with 25 in equity, pay for my credit card debt and get gutters plus some small fixes here and there or just take out a personal loan for the same things?

There are a few other things coming up so having a small payment monthly but a few thousand in savings (which we have almost none atm) would help quite a bit. Just trying to make the best decision to get rid of this $900 monthly payment and drop it to a $300-400 one.

First time doing any of this so please let me know if you need more info.

https://imgur.com/a/gVNmLjx EDIT 2: https://imgur.com/a/5bJyYOH

TLDR;

Car was totaled.

Payoff was only 2k, the rest should go to me, they received a check for $9700.

TD bank added a fee of $7k.

Been a month. Despite what my picture shows the got the money in early-April and keep making “adjustments” to my account, by removing the payment and adding it back.

They also charged me 2 more payments after the date of loss, which are also listed as a “fee.”

The last adjustment now shows a fee. Phone calls aren’t helpful, no one knows and keeps forwarding until I get hung up on or I ragequit.

Anything I can do?

EDIT: just logged into my auto finance page and TD bank says I have no accounts “Please note that accounts are only displayed for 60 days after account closing..”

This is insane…

First off, I know the dangers of a 401K loan. It's truly a last resort, and not one I'm considering seriously at the moment.

I'm recently divorced, and I have 5 years to refinance or sell the marital home. I've already bought out his half of the equity and the true intent is for me to retain the house. Honestly, the 5 years is pretty darn generous, and I'm beyond thankful to have left the marriage with my 401Ks intact.

A 401K loan to help pay off the house is something that's a possibility, and I'm just trying to do preliminary research right now. I currently have 2 stable jobs, each with a 401K. I'm tracking that a max of $50,000 can be borrowed from a 401K at any time, up to 50% of the balance of the account. But if I have 2 401Ks from 2 active jobs, can I borrow up to $50k from each?

Background : I’m 28 just landed a job in the northeast US paying roughly 85k. I have no debt. My car is paid off. I live with my folks. My partner and I have 10k in savings. (She makes 55k yearly)

I was a nail tech for a shady salon for 2022 & 1 month in 2023. They label us as 1099 contractors. I received my 1099-NEC and filed my taxes and paid my dues for 2022 & 2023. I’m trying to eventually buy a house so I’m just very cautious.

My former boss just called me and said he needed a copy of my Social Security Card and my Drivers License. He said he needed to correct some tax forms. I politely asked him what exactly is it for since I don’t feel comfortable just sending copies of my personal information like that & I thought I had already provided you all the necessary information.

This was his response:

Hi ***** It's simply that when the IRS checks your tax records, your information may match someone else's, so they need to send evidence to prove your information is correct. They informed me that there are 3 people who need to verify: you, **** and ****. This just keeps your profile safe. You can rest assured that I will not do anything to affect you. If you don't believe me, you can go to the salon. I will ask ***** to explain it to you

Then he sends an image of a letter but it was kind of weird because all it just showed was my name and address and everything else was blocked out.

I’m curious if this is proper practice? Excuse my ignorance.

Hi thanks for reading my post. So im an idiot and I know that but today my car broke down on me and i needed to get it towed back home which was like 5 miles away. Anyways i was scared and panicked because it broke down in the middle of an intersection and was quickly searching online for a tow company to help me in my situation.

I paid these guys 240 bucks for a tow but i later realized that all i had to do was go to my insurance app and only pay 170 there for the tow. I call the guys back and tell them i want to cancel the tow but they said that there is a cancellation fee of about %50 and I did not hear them say that mainly because of how loud the intersection is.

It was a terrible experience for me but car is home now thanks to my insurance. Now i know not to panic in these situations. The tow guy was not even going to go after me in about 60-90 minutes, insurance came in 30 minutes. I canceled within 5 minutes of paying anyways. I was thinking of disputing this charge on my bank and telling the bank about my situation and how I didn't receive the tow service from them. or perhaps just tank their "cancelation policy" and pay the 90 bucks for being an idiot.

I’m about to graduate tech school, and I’m going to need a car before I arrive at my next duty station. My credit is a bit compromised due to helping my parents out with a renovation ( my parents pay credit those credit bills),but I have perfect payment history. How will I go about financing a vehicle whilst 8000 dollars in debt on paper?

As the title says first time financing a vehicle.

We purchased a new 2024 GMC Terrain. I will give some details of the sales contract before asking my question.

APR: 9.75% Finance Charge: $9,356.30 Amount Financed: $24,060.58 Total of Payments: $33,416.88 Monthly Payment: $397.82

My question is can we technically pay more each month until we pay off the "amount financed" section? Or is the apr already locked in?

Starting my first ever full time job soon and trying to plan out how to allocate my savings. Luckily, I'll be able to invest a good chunk of my earnings, probably around 40%. I'm planning on allocating those savings across my 401k, roth ira, cash, and personal investments (short term buys).

Is there a general rule of thumb on percentages allocated between those accounts or a specific order for which account should be prioritized? Is there a certain split you would recommend? I'm planning on maxing out my roth ira each year and my company offers a 7% match (partial). Is there anything flawed with what I'm planning on doing? Let me know your recommendations, thanks!

I've been looking for a way to streamline the finances my partner and I have. We have our main home, plus a rental, plus a vacation home ... vehicles, utilities at 2 of the 3 homes, insurance for all of them, etc. It's a lot of money going in a lot of different directions all the time. So of course my first thought was "have everything charge a credit card and then just pay that once a month" but as you all might know, most mortgage companies won't take credit cards. Makes sense, they don't want to eat the fees. So our 3 biggest expenses overall (3 mortgages) can't be processed this way.

Or so I thought...

Reading this NerdWallet article, it seems like there are some companies that will play "middleman" and charge your card and then cut an ACH check to your mortgage. Cool! Plastiq is the one mentioned in the article, but there might be others - I need to look around a bit more.

The fees? 2.9% -- ok, not cool. On a $3,000 a month mortgage payment that would be $87 extra every month, over $1,000 for the year. Not worth it.

But then I remembered that Fidelity Visa gives 2% cashback on everything. Ok, so now the fee is only netting out to 0.9% ... again on a $3,000 a month mortgage payment now it's $27 a month / $324 a year. And that 2% cashback, if I'm not mistaken - you can basically have that auto-invest into a fund account which could then just pick up ETF shares in the S&P 500 monthly.

So in the short-run, I'll be down a bit on money ... but way way up on convenience. And in the longer run, with the cashback funds going into an account that automatically picks up investments it'd be growing over time.

(yes, yes, I could just do the bookkeeping for all of this and make more overall, but I am prioritizing convenience over penny-pinching)

Are there things that I'm missing here? Or would this be a super-easy way for us to set up all of our life expenses to go against a credit card one way (direct) or another (ACH transfer) and then just ... write one check per month?

My wife and I just got married a few months ago. We have about 40k combined debt between the two of us. Mostly credit cards and student loans. Recently we got a generous gift of 15k from a family member. We are trying to figure out the best way to make the most of this money. Whether it be paying off the largest credit cards first then snowballing smaller cards. Or making larger payments instead of just the minimum. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you

WIll be having a baby soon and plan on adding my boy to my husband's insurance but not to mine. Will the baby's expenses be charged to him or to mine?

I recently moved my IRA from LPL Financial to Schwab. Didn't see much of a point in paying an advisor to look after a retirement fund that I could do myself with minimum effort. When I made the switch, everything I had was invested in some type of American Fund, all of them Class F2. If I understand correctly, and I'm not sure I do, an F2 Class fund is specifically for financial advisors to invest your money in. There is no way for me to invest in them further through Schwab, as they don't allow that option as far as I know. My question is, if those funds are meant only for financial advisors to use, do I need to take my money out of them and invest in something else now that I no longer have an advisor? Is there any kind of penalty or fee that I would have to pay if I leave the money in them? They seem to be doing pretty well.