I'm moving to New York City in a couple weeks. I'm going to be making $193,000 in salary + signing bonus this year. I just graduated college in May and still have my Discover student card with a $2,800 credit limit. Should I get a new card? If so, which one do you think I should get?

Hypothetical

Maxing out retirement so this is all extra.

200 k salary and an extra 40 k on top directly to retirement. ( job has a way to put more into retirement —- a 401A plan)

Or 240k salary and I just invest on my own. ( Personal brokerage ) ( still maxing out 401k/ )

( job offering my choice to either increase salary 40k or they will put 40k in my 401A )

I was covered by an HSA and medicaid for the first couple months of the year and made contributions to the HSA which I found out was not allowed. I did lose my medicaid eligibility in February so I wasn't sure if I needed to pull these contributions from Jan/Feb or if I'm still ok considering I was covered for a period of the year with just the HSA eligible plan. Little lost on if I'll need to pull it or if it'll be fine due to the time. Hoping someone has some insight.

I may be the walking definition of cash poor/asset rich.

I quit my job in tech sales at 31. I am now 44 and have not worked/collected a paycheck since 2011, or 13 years. Sometimes I joke my job is to not have a job.

In 2013 I purchased a home with cash with my sales commission savings. Could not get a loan obv without a w2, and while I understand the benefits of leverage, because it was a cash deal, this property provides me with $3k/month in passive income now which also works out to roughly a 12-16% guaranteed rate of return on the initial investment not even counting appreciation, depending how you want to calculate the numbers (including/excluding property tax, insurance, remodeling costs etc)

Have no desire to sell the property which is my primary/only source of income.

Anyways, in 15 years I can access my 401k/Roth which hovers around $1M. I have a retail account roughly of $100k that I sell off whenever I have cost over runs on my cc bill (which has been a lot lately) but effectively everything thing I sell off is not only present value but also the opportunity cost to compound.

So it's a balancing act.

No kids except myself.

Anyways, TLDR, on paper, house with no mortgage. Between that and retirement accounts, $2M in assets.

$3k a month in income.

Any ways to access more cash with no employment and no desire for employment?

Thanks for any advice and consideration.

This might be a dumb question

Some background I realized when opening my citi double cash that I didn’t have a 18 month 0% APR offer but a 18 month balance transfer offer of 0% interest so I got charged interest which was my mistake.

I recently paid off my statement balance for Nov and I did have some current balance still left on the card and the new statement shows I got charged interest again is this just a citi thing of how they charge interest on their cards? They charge interest on the daily balance not statement?

I know my other cc as long as I pay off the statement balance in full before/on the due date I don’t get charged interest or am I going crazy in thinking that?

Im 24 and currently paying 250$ a month for 3 years on this car

Insurance is prolly gonna jump from 155$ to maybe 300$ a month after I hit a guard rail

I was about to commute to a community college and live at home for a bit while working let’s say 20 hours a week

Starting next year I get 6500$ every March for 6 years and I make about 200+ a month for national guard stuff

Obviously the military will pay my tuition and give me about 600$ a month for books n junk

Can I make this work? They are repairing my 2020 Toyota Camry and I’m trying to make that last until it dies (last car I had hit 300k miles)

Scenario: You have paid most of your bills but you don’t have enough to pay your utility bill by the due date and your next salary comes in 5-7 days.

Would deferring the bill for a minimal 7% fee work well for you so your credit doesn’t get hit? Why or why not?

You will get the option to pay the bill in manageable amounts with the bill amount divided across next 3-6 months.

Thanks 🙏😊🙏😊

My wife and I both have great paying jobs and we live very comfortably. We recently had a kid and have been thinking about her staying at home until the baby/toddler stage is over. For context my wife works from home 3-4 days out of the week typically.

We would be taking a significant cut and lifestyle change potentially. We do not have any consumer debt but would have to live off of just my salary ($120k + some good benefits like stocks and company vehicle) I also have potential to bonus up to 40% but isn’t guaranteed.. With my wife’s salary we’re siting around $240k in salary income alone. I know it sounds crazy but the cost of living is very high, so that’s what is causing concern.

Would this be worth it? Does anyone have experience with this? If so what would you recommend?

Looking for some guidance here. I’m a 17 yo, and recently asked my parents to add me as an authorized user onto their shared credit card. (It’s a Chase card, if that makes any difference). I did this because I had read a few articles about how adding your child to your credit card helps them grow their credit score. Both of my parents have near-perfect credit, so this seemed like it’d work for me. However, my dad told me that when he added me he hadn’t had to put in my SSN or any real identification besides my name and DOB. Is my parents’ credit card benefiting my credit score?

I am new to business world, and I wanted to confirm my thoughts on write offs. Is the below true?

If I have 20,000 profit on the year, and I make a $10,000 purchase for a new machine.

My new taxable income would be $10,000.

But if I did not make the write off, I would have to pay $3,000 in maxed since I am in the 30% tax bracket.

So I’m the end spending the 10k , saved me 3k in taxes, but In reality, all I did was spend 7k on my business rather than giving 3k away.

My husband and I (both second marriages, both 61, finances separate) are contemplating early retirement abroad. We each have 3 separate sources of income (Social Security, pensions, modest 401K's). Plus we'd be selling our house so there's some equity there)

I would like to talk to someone who understands a little more about the implications of drawing from one versus the other(s) and how to live comfortably while having a nest-egg in case (when, let's be realistic) go south.

We've heard a "financial advisor" is more of a sales role than an advisor role. Who to get solid advice from? An accountant? We don't want to DIY this... (well, he wants to), because there's too much at stake if we make the wrong choices.

Thank you for your advice!

Hey, I switched to BT broadband last month, and my Experian score has gone down by 71! Is this normal? Will it come back up again?

Nothing else has changed, so this seems a bit extreme.

TBF score is 850+ so not the end of the world, but I'd like to understand it to avoid any more serious problems in the future.

Thanks for your thoughts

investment / cash flow plan - tear it up…

My ultimate 3 year goals:

• buy my first 2 bed flat in England (where I live) and rent out 1 room.
• start a small coffee bean roasting business
• get a 2nd hand Porsche cayman

Currently: £45k salary (soon to increase) £100k stock portfolio £260 monthly car payment

Breakdown:

• Sell all old belongings: clothes / shoes, iMac, old books, old phones
• Put this money aside for coffee roaster
• Sell car
• Get a cheap car - MX5 4/5k
• Invest at least £500 per month VUSA/EQQQ
• Buy a coffee roaster with old stuff and other saved funds
• accumulate £5k emergency fund (house/car) OR identify a company where I can quickly withdraw debt using portfolio as a security.
• Buy first 2 bed property and rent out 1 room with mortgage.
• Earn £750 in cash flow sources per month
• Get Porsche on HP/portfolio backed debt with cash flow ~£500

I would love any type of advice/recommendation or just telling me how unrealistic this may be. Thanks

First time home buyer here, 29 / single, currently under contract for a very unexpected dream home/property. Listed at $195k, my offer was $207k with 6% in seller’s concessions so they’d cover my closing costs. location is western NC so this price is truly insane hence me acting fast and not doing a full financial analysis. to note: I pay roughly $1300-1400 now in rent with everything (utilities/WiFi etc) in that price. any advice so appreciated!

Just looking for some advice. Wife and I bought an historical house two years ago. It was our first home and we were getting ready to have our first child. We thought it would be best to buy a home instead of renting so we could bring our daughter "home". Now, it's turned into a money pit. We want to sell our home and move to a cheaper area. Buy a newer or updated home in a more rural area for cheaper than what we paid for our home. The biggest issue is we have dumped so much money into our home we would lose our ass if we didn't sell it for way more than what someone would be willing to pay. We have enough in our 401k to where I could just take the 10% penalty, etc. for a down payment on a new home. We paid 210k for our home, we owe 195k and we probably have put in around 40k into it so far. Our home still needs probably about another 40-50k.

I am looking into purchasing a house at 23 years old. Currently, I make about $50k a year or $3,000 a month after taxes. I can have $20,000 as a down payment, minus what I would get as a first time home buyer. Would this be possible to do or what would I need to accomplish this?

Edit: I currently reside in Illinois, near Chicago.

Hi everyone!

I’ve been served today at my door with a debt I had with Synchrony w/paypal it was their credit line product. The Debt buyer is UGH I LLC and they are seeking a judgement of $3900 that’s with interest and everything. I have 20-30 days to go to the clerk of my local court in the Bronx. My last payment was on August 22nd 2022. I have no idea what to do received this today I feel quite embarrassed. My only source of income as I’m disabled is from SSI and public assistance like food stamps and section 8. My entire household income is just from SSI my son also receives it due to his disability as well as he’s been diagnosed with autism. I would appreciate any advice or help. I’m a very dumb dumb person made horrible financial choices 🙁🙁.

Thank you for reading I wish you all good luck as well with your credit journey.

Hi all,

Long time reader, first time poster. I'll give the stats below and see if there are any suggestions from the forum. Bottom line is I am in pretty deep with debt, but the good news is I just got a new job with about a 40% pay raise. I just want to hopefully optimize getting out of debt, reduce interest, etc.

Income:

• $150k/yr pre tax
• $7100 per month post tax, 401k, brokerage investment etc.
• I put about $350 per month into my current 401k and $600 into my brokerage

Debt / Open Credit:

• $20,000 balance / $21,000 limit Personal Capital One Venture - Interest is ~$300/month at 17.75%
• $18,000 balance / $19,000 limit Personal BofA - Zero interest until 4/2024, then 15.7% after
• $0 balance / $25,000 limit Personal Capital One VentureOne
• $0 balance / $21,000 limit Personal Chase
• $0 balance Amex - shared with partner for shared daily expenses

Expenses:

• $2,250 / month rent
• $2,500 - $3,000 / month each shared expenses with partner
• $1,000 / month non-shared personal expenses

Assets:

• $83,000 - $88,000 in my 401k from last job (left about 2 months ago, so will likely convert it to an IRA soon)
• $2k current 401k
• $1.5k post-tax brokerage
• Car worth ~$6,000, paid off - GF has a car too

Other:

• Credit rating is right around 700
• Biggest thing bringing it down right now is I'm hovering right around 30% credit usage, and I think a tick over that which has brought it below 700 (698)
• Capital One offered 12 months at 0% APR on my ventureOne account for balance transfers

My debt ultimately started with the memestonk debacle back in 2021, margin call, etc etc. My investing now is simply buying shares of market ETFs and I learned my lesson there.

I used to make about around $80k in 2020 / 2021, then $100-$105k a year for the last few years before I got my new job in September for a pay bump up to $150k. Unfortunately, I joined a startup and to be honest the future of the company is rather up in the air. Which comes up in my options below. The new company is ending their 401k match at EOY.

I keep track of all of my expenses from my shared and personal credit card on an excel document, so I have a good sense of where the money is going by category each month. We don't eat out more than a couple times a month, and I think we're done with travel until about April or so. I try to be frugal wherever possible but I also don't want to have this ruin my life and turn to living like I used to during college etc.

So, I think my options are:

1. Withdraw enough from my 401k/IRA to cover my credit card debt - which I think is the lowest stress option for me now and gives me a fresh start to contribute a lot to my IRA/401k down the line. Yes, I will take a big hit on my retirement savings but I am now earning a lot more and would be able to contribute more monthly with my debt being gone.

2. Roll my old 401k into my current 401k, and take a loan out on it to pay off my CC debt at a 9% interest rate - the problem here is if the company goes under, or gets acquired, or if I get fired, that amount is due within 90 days, or I have to then pay the tax penalties as if I just withdrew it.

3. Debt consolidation loan - I've been getting far too many emails and calls harassing me after trying to look for a loan here. General specs would be $1,800 a month for 2 years (14.7%), $1,300 a month for 3 years (15.3%, $1,000 for 4 years (16.2%). The other APRs don't seem to make sense given where my current balance APR is at. I'm leaning away from doing the 2 year because that is a huge monthly payment. The 3 or 4 year payments seem more palatable given my expenses but still very unsure about this option.

4. Sell my car to put a big dent in the capital one balance, then try to control spending and pay down the Capital One balance first, but in April I'll start getting interest charged on the BofA balance, and will need to strategize after that. Capital One has offered a year of 0% on balance transfers, and I'm seeing how long that will last before transferring my BofA balance there.

5. I suppose I could also zero out my 401k contributions, zero out brokerage contributions and pay it down that way, but I’m eating interest payments.

Are there other options I should be considering?

Should I just take the risk to take the 401k loan out, and do a big enough loan to keep enough to cover the taxes in my brokerage etc if something bad does happen with my job and I have to pay the penalties? I could take a ~$45k loan from my 401k, pay off my two balances and then stash the rest in my post-tax brokerage account in something stable, just in case I have to pay off the taxes and penalty if I get fired / the company goes under.

Part of me feels confident in making enough money in the future where I want to just take the taxes and penalties from taking out enough from my 401k, just to wipe everything out and have my mind at ease. No credit hit either.

I appreciate any input and help!

29 y/o, $100k salary, $100k 401k balance. 10% employer match.

Looking to take a 401k loan for $20,000 to “refinance” one of my existing loans.

The numbers show this reducing my current monthly payment by ~$100 AND shaving off 2yrs of the loan.

The loan in question has a 10% interest rate currently with a payoff date of 11/2030.

The 401k loan has an interest rate of 8%, paid back to myself, and would be paid off 11/2028.

With my age, salary, generous employee match, and the interest paid back to myself, why shouldn’t I take the loan?

Seems like a no brainer as I have plenty of time to rebound my account before retirement? I may be biased, but I also feel like compared to my peers I have 3x+ the amount saved for retirement at our ages.

Open to criticism. Pros and cons. I want to hear it all. Because this seems really hard to pass up each day I think about it.

Thank you

I’ve got quite a bit of cash in the bank and I receive around 4.5% interest.

I’m looking to make 5-10% per year consistently.

Would it be a good idea to transfer this into stocks?

Note: before you tell me to put it all in an index fund, I am not allowed to invest in companies that aren’t shariah compliant due to religious reasons, and this pretty much removes all good index funds from the table.

My wife was laid off and we don't know what to do about her 401k?

BACKGROUND:

We're in our mid/late 50's and we were hoping she'd be able to retire in 2-3 years (I'll keep working for another 10 years or so). Obviously with her income going from pretty decent to zero puts a wrinkle in the plans as we just don't have enough saved and living solely off my income will be tight but possibly doable (I'm self employed, so I don't have a 401k or pension).

Besides the modest size 401k, we both have an IRA that we opened 3 years ago (1 is pre-tax, one is post-tax = because we had no clue what we were doing). The IRAs have preformed amazingly well, but even so, the total dollar amount isn't huge (the contribution's were capped, and there has only been 3 years of contributions, though at our ages I think we put in a little more than someone younger could have).

We have a pretty low COL and aren't material/money driven (which is good in that we don't need a ton of money to live on, but bad in that we don't have a ton saved up either). With our "retirement funds" (401k + IRAs + Savings) I estimate that we currently have about half of what we need to get by on in retirement.

Our plan had been for both of us to continue working and to continue to max 401k and IRA contributions for 2-3 more years (at which point we'd hoped to have our house paid off and our kids be financially self sufficient). Then she'd retire and we'd live off my income for another 7-8 years until we both hit 65, with the hope/thinking that that money saved would grow some over those years without us having to put more into it (thus giving us a much more comfortable retirement, especially if it came close to doubling over those years). But now with her income zero, it changes things.

I'll also note that at her age she doesn't want (nor does she think she can get) a corporate job like she had, and ideally would like a fairly "low stakes" position (part time would be ideal to try out partial retirement, but we may need her to work full time just to gain access to healthcare) and thus likely she will be making about half of what she used to. Month to month that should be OK (assuming Obamacare isn't too expensive if she doesn't get a full time job) but it will limit (to zero?) how much we can support the kids and likely we won't be able to add any to our retirement funds.

QUESTIONS:

1. Do we leave the 401k where it's at (and I assume pay the company some sort of management fee)?
2. Do we move it to one of our IRAs? And if so, do we have a choice of which one? (I think hers is the post-tax one but I'd have to double check)
3. If we have a choice, is Fidelity or Charles Schwab a better choice? (my IRA is at Fidelity, hers is at Schwab)
4. For years we've maintained keeping 6 months of living money in a savings account (with crap yield, but it's our safety net/emergency fund). With the upcoming year and all the unknowns, we're unsure if digging into that to make IRA contributions is something we're comfortable with, so likely won't contribute anything. Is that dumb? Our kids are both fairly recent college grads with low paying jobs and we still help them financially a decent amount. 1 lives in a MCOL area and is pretty close to being able to live off her own income, but the other is on the East coast in a HCOL area and she doesn't make much more than minimum wage (plus she's applying to grad schools, so her expenses may go way up while her income goes down some).
5. Sort of related: At what age do parents stop helping their children financially? Neither of our parents helped us at all past 18, but we're trying to help our kids avoid the struggles we went through. Our plan has always been to help as much as we can (which was a decent amount) up until they're 26 (and forced off our health insurance, which seemed like a good age to plant the flag at). We don't want them stressing about our finances, nor do we want them to get into a pinch and us not be able to help them. So how do (decent) parents handle the financial "separation"?

We've got about 647 more questions, but at the moment those are the ones we feel the most worried about.

Thanks and I appreciate any/all advice!

GL2U all N all U do!

Hi, everyone! My partner (not a husband) wants to gift me some shares from his us brokerage account. We have two kids, and taxes in my country would be significantly lower. It seems impossible though for him to gift shares to me. Maybe someone tried it, please let me know if it worked.

Hi, I just turned 18 a few months ago and I finally was able to get a job, I’ve been training and should hopefully start working full time by next week. I don’t have many people to talk to about finances, and I would like to handle things as best as possible. I currently don’t have a car, but I am going to be putting all my savings from work towards a car, and I’ve found one for $5,600 ($6,300 after fees, taxes, etc), and I also want to start investing in savings accounts (ROTH’s, multifaceted investment accounts, daily investing, possible trading). I know I’m not providing a lot, but I just don’t even know what to share to get advice. I would like to get a car as soon as possible, I have nearly no money saved, and it would open up my life a lot more, so that’s why I’m prioritizing it, as well as the fact that I only have a few months before it gets cold and rainy, and I won’t be able to commute to work easily without a car (bike/public transportation commute around 1.2 hours, with a car it’s 20 minutes). I don’t know anything about loans, and I’m pretty scared to have absolutely any debt for fear of not having enough to pay it back before the interest causes me to pay even more, like I’ll never be able to pay it off. But would it be a smart financial decision to try and opt for a loan? Either now, or maybe after I save $3,000 or $5,000? I want to be able to afford the car and pay it off quickly, and my main issues are these two. 1) If I get a loan sooner, and get the car, the loan will be a lot bigger, needing $6,000 or so, it would make work commute much easier, and allow for more flexibility, but I would need to pay monthly for insurance, the loan, gas, and other car expenses, which may make it difficult to feel comfortable with my savings/income. Or, option 2) I can try and work as much as possible before the weather gets worse, which the work isn’t hard, but I chance a lot of risk having to ride a bike upwards of 20-30 miles daily, which is mentally and physically exhausting, and I would be doing it nearly everyday, but it lets me save money for a car. I could make maybe around half the car price, $3,200 estimate, in maybe a month to two months? Would that be a better idea to get a small loan with less interest and less to pay back? Sorry if this isn’t a good place to post, I’m not sure what else to post on. Thanks in advance for any advice on the situation!

I recently moved jobs. I had a 401(k) savings account with my previous employer. After 10 years with the company, my rate of return has been averaging around 10% YOY. Should I keep the account or rollover to a IRA?

I turned 18 a few months ago and recently opened a prepaid card to add cash to save money. I am currently studying to become a radiology technician, a career that typically earns around $45,000 per year. What steps can I take now to set myself up for the future and retire by the age of 50?

I have a card thru one of the large banks. For one of the cards, they’re giving me either a 9 month at 0% apy or 15 months at 0.99% apy. Total amount is $9500

What would you recommend I do with this offer?

The balance transfer would incur a 3% BT fee so for 9 months, I’d have to net more than $285.

For the 15 months, the 0.99% apy would incur a total interest of $118. So my total return would have to be greater than ~$405.

I could keep it in my HYSA but I’m not sure the 4%+ will last for the duration (plus taxes would might just make me breakeven with the BT fee).

I have some student loans but I’ve been paying them aggressively so I’d like to hold on to this extra cash. I’d like to deploy this money to get some returns on it. What would you recommend?

I have just started a new job, and I am looking at health insurance. I do not have any medical issues or take any prescriptions. I am currently covered by my parent's health insurance and will be for at least the next few years.

It would cost me about $25-30 every bi-weekly paycheck to enroll in a HDHP with an HSA. This would cost me about $650-$780 a year. I would then hopefully try to max out out the HSA.

Since I am covered with my parent's health insurance, I won't actually be using the HDHP besides for the HSA. Is it still worth for me to enroll in the HDHP for the HSA? Is there anything that I am overlooking?

Hello everyone, I 20(M) recently got into a car accident and it completely woke me up. I like a lot of other junior military members got to their first duty station and bought a car. Nice lil 2020 Kia Forte with 68,000 miles. Recently got it banged up pretty bad that I’m scared my insurance might call it a total loss. I still have 14,000 dollars left on the loan and I doubt the total loss payment will cover all of it. I get paid 1,100 twice a month and most of my bills are on the first paycheck. But the last few months I’ve been scrapping by near pay day, even going into the negatives on my banking account. I have a car loan, insurance, WiFi, and phone plan. As well as a girlfriend that always wants to go out and eat as well as other plans. But I don’t wanna shift the blame on her at all, I’ve put my foot down and we both crack after admitting multiple times I can’t afford much. So all I’m looking for is tips, this car accident is the last time I wanna be lost financially. I would like some advice and some tips on arranging a budget plan. Thank you all so much

Loan terms as follows ~23K, 78 month term, 7.49%, $370 minimum payment. Hoping to pay off as aggressively as I can. Currently have the auto pay set to $530. Should I throw all my extra income and savings at this thing?

Is it reasonable to think interest rates will fall and I should pay the minimum until I can refinance for a shorter term with a better interest rate?

I’m contributing to my 401k to maximize a match, albeit only 8% for a 3% match. Currently have 5K in a 4% savings acct.

We’re also attempting to save up for a house in the next couple years. Both (M 30 and GF F24) currently making around 56k gross a year, splitting 2K with rent and utilities.

It is a 23 Corolla with <18K miles on it so I do plan on driving it for a decade plus or selling it and getting something more below my means if that’s what’s best.

Any idea how to look into where these weird charges on my credit card are coming from? I talked to Walmart and my bank, they are looking into it.

• I have a credit card and a Walmart account.
• Yesterday, I had two unusual transactions show up on my credit card from WALMART.COM.
  • They were each accompanied by an offsetting credit transaction, for a net amount of zero.
  • The amounts were 34.99 and 10.53.
  • They never hit my account; they were just pending.
  • The transaction descriptions all said WALMART.COM and gave the 1800-WALMART phone number, but they were a bit different from each other.
• Again today, I had one more transaction for 10.53 which was the same as the above.
• My credit card is a non-default payment method on my Walmart.com account. I have not made any Walmart.com transactions or Walmart Pay transactions in the past week, and Walmart phone customer service couldn't find any transactions either. I've never made a transaction for either of those amounts.
• I don't have Walmart+.
• My card has been stored at home in a drawer for the past 6 months. It's still there.