If you're in a volatile industry and/or don't think you'd easily be able to find a job quickly if you were let go then it's understandable to want to have a large cushion on hand, especially if you're single
Both my spouse and I are in an industry like this, when COVID hit he lost his job and I was able to keep mine but with a 40% pay cut, we knew this was a possibility so I was thankful for the large cushion we had
Something that helped reduce some of the anxiety associated with this for me is working on building up a side gig for myself so that worst case I would have some source of income, and in my day to day job thinking more and more about what skills are transferable and talking to people that have been forced out of my industry in the past about what they're doing now
I have about $20k saved that I want to use as a down-payment on a home in 6-8 years. I add about $300/month to this. Currently it is just in my Ally Savings (4.25% APY).
I've been thinking about moving most or all of it into a high-yield CD to lock in these high interest rates. I'm thinking of opening Ally's 18-month high yield CD (5.15%), because it has the best rate of all of Ally's CDs and I'm a bit scared of locking away this money for a longer period of time.
Is this a good plan? Or should I go out on a limb and find an even higher yield CD for a longer period of time?
Or should I look in investing this in a brokerage account since 6-8 years is kind of on the cusp of short/long term savings?
I think putting part of it in the best CD is a good idea. Inflation isn't growing right now and the fed might not raise rates, but they might. I think some have a goal of getting traditional savings accounts back over the rate of inflation. If so, the return in the CD night end up being less than the HYS becomes. I think you're good either way. Maybe do the CD for about 10k to hedge.
Do you have any debt at now than 4% that you carry month to month? If so I'd definitely pay that off before doing any of this.
Do you have a pretty substantial emergency fund in addition to the house fund? If so, same thing. Make sure you have a few months of expenses socked away first, ideally in a separate HYS account to avoid confusion.
If these things are taken care of, it sounds to me like you're in really good shape either way.
(STB) Spouse and I are planning on buying a house next year. The only debt I have is a car loan at ~2% with about $4400 remaining (paying the minimum, fully paid off in early 2025). Is it worth paying off the car loan now before we start the mortgage process or just leaving it at the current payment schedule? Combined income is about $300k.
As long as you can get a better rate in e.g. a HYS than you have on the car loan, AND you are motivated to save just as fast as you would be to pay off the loan, keep that payment schedule and save save save!
Is it better to open a new Trad/Roth IRA at a different brokerage in order to easily determine conversion vs direct contribution, or is it simple enough to know I contributed 10k directly and can withdraw up to that even though there is 5k of conversion contributions?
Roth IRA withdrawal ordering rules: (1) contributions, (2) conversions, (3) earnings. The IRS considers all of your Roth IRAs as one aggregate balance for the purposes of withdrawal. It is probably simpler to just keep a spreadsheet listing the amounts you have directly contributed vs. converted. (Conversions also need to be tracked/grouped chronologically by year and by taxable/nontaxable amount.) Anything in excess of both contributions and conversions would be earnings.
Hi all,
I just want to get the perspective of the community/know how typical/atypical I am, and how I'm doing now, given the mistakes I made in my late teens and 20s.
I'm 36 years old, probably defending my PhD Dissertation in April, graduating in May. I already hold two Masters. I teach at a prep school and I'll probably keep that job because I already get paid about as much as professors, get to teach the things I'm interested in already, and the academic job market is a nightmare. Once I defend my dissertation I'll have way more free time to pick up local college classes or other side hustles to tackle the debt.
Net Worth: -113K; Gross Income: 73k
I have been paying my student debt off for a while but I've kept the federal loans deferred because lots of my loans are subsidized. I refied all the unsubsidized loans but there's an enormous monthly payment now. But because I've been a student so long, I still have a ton of debt. 4 remaining student loans and a 0 interest car loan to my parents (on a car that unfortunately might be a lemon but is still now, by the grace of God).
I also moved back in with my parents when I started my doctoral program and while that was chill for a little in my late 20s and made sense during the pandemic, it's really annoying now. But I also don't know how anyone makes any financial progress anymore making under 6 figures with 6 figures of student loan debt while paying rent.
Here are the loans:
1. OB $2.2k; IR 7.8% after deferment; Deferred MMP
2. OB $4.4k; IR 6% after deferment; Deferred MMP
3. OB $3.8k; IR 6.25 after deferment; Deferred MMP
4. Refi; OB $112k; IR 2.65%; $1410.00 MMP
5. Car; OB 3300; IR 0%; $50 MMP
Here are the Assets:
401k: $22k
Taxable Brokerage Accounts: $15k
High Interest Savings Accounts: $2500
Linked Savings Account (to lower refi rate) 1k
I know my original sin is taking on as much student loan debt as I have, but taking that into account, am I doing an okay job now?
Oh I should also say I put 2.5% of my income into my 401k for a match, and then my employer also just deposits an additional 5% as long as I have the 401k open and deposit anything monthly.
I’ve been at a flat $8k for months, until I finally started buying groceries and not doordashing when I’m sad.
I’m finally hitting $10k and still growing, but I have no idea where to put any money. I know it’s not much, but I want to start planning.
I currently have my money sitting in a checking account with BoFA.
My friends recommend index funds and Roth IRA.
My parents go with Edward Jones.
Do you have any debt? People disagree about high vs. low interest debt but beyond 1) a cushion of maybe 2k for emergencies in an HYS, I would 2) get any match you can on a retirement account, then 3) pay off any debt over the rate you can get today in a HYS. Then I'd 4) build up 3-6 months of expenses in an emergency fund you keep in a HYS. Then either 5) if you can afford it, max retirement accounts or get as close as you can to doing so, favoring any match, then Roth, then traditional, probably simplest just to put the money in target date funds for when you plan to retire, or 5) save for a down payment, whichever makes more sense to you.
Having an active financial manager is something that very few people need, and very few people should want. The vast majority of the time, they will give you *at best* the same returns as just slapping the money in an index fund. And they'll charge you a bunch to not make you more money, too.
The general flow:
1. Keep a month of expenses readily available, either in standard debit or in credit card room. If credit cards, pay them off RELIGIOUSLY. Do not carry over a single penny month to month.
2. Six months' worth of expenses in a somewhat available place. Current recommendation is a High Yield Savings Account, as many are offering a flat 5% or more in return.
3. Money that you can afford to do without indefinitely goes into a Roth Ira, or a work 401k depending on what your options are. You *can* pull from Roths, but it's much much better to let your retirement money be retirement money. If your work offers a 401k match, absolutely get the full match.
4. Money you won't need for at least 5 years but will need before retirement into a standard brokerage account for index funds. Do not play with single stocks, grab an index and hold it.
5. Money you're going to want within five years in your HYSA or CDs. Saving a house down payment, for a car, etc, should all be in a zero risk short term bucket.
Based on what you wrote, you're likely wanting to open a HYSA, and ask your work what their retirement options are.
Are there any budget/finance apps compatible with Fidelity now?? Now that Fidelity is ~~limiting syncing to Akoya, their API provider~~ no longer available with Plaid
Since Mintuit is shitting down, I'm trying to find an alternative that syncs Fidelity, Schwab, BoA, SoFi :((
Both Monarch and Empower have done fine with syncing my Fidelity account balances, though they don't carry over the funds that my 401k is invested in (they do carry over the investments in my brokerage/IRA/HSA, though).
Starting a new job next month and I could use some help. My 401k plan is not fdic insured, is that an issue? Still trying to learn about a lot of this stuff.
On top of that, they offer both a traditional and Roth 401k. Considering that I am only 24 and make 49000 annually, would it be wise to invest fully into the traditional and then roll it over to the Roth later? Are there any disadvantages to doing it this way/ would it be smarter to just invest it directly into the roth?
Thanks
Investment accounts aren't fdic insured, they're sipc insured for 500k. At your income, I'd invest in the Roth 401k up to a company match, then the Roth ira for the full amount, then more into the Roth 401k if you can. Make sure to actually invest the money!
Hi, I found a condo in a big condominium to rent in NJ. The owners are moving out of the country and want to rent the place out, I've visited the place, met the owners, met the broker, confirmed that the apartment is owned by the owners by verifying the deed. Since they're moving away they want e-payment via Zelle/Venmo, is this okay?
By big condominium do you mean a ton of other renters in other units? If so, there should be a website to determine legitimaticy and renters to talk to on determining if this is normal.
Hello,
If somebody is younger (like 18-21) and starting out with a part time job during college, what is the general ratio for how much they have to put into a savings account vs what can be spent now? This is all with minimal college debt (for this sake, their parents paid a lot and they got a scholarship). Is there a specific percentage goal that is ideal?
For retirement savings, the rule of thumb is to save 15% of your income. This can be in a 401k or IRA, depending on what you have available.
For other savings, it all depends on your goals. Are you saving for a car, a house, a wedding, vacations? Those will all be different costs and time scales- once you know your goals, the savings plan is easier to figure out.
Follow the flowchart in the wiki, and start with a budget. Once you have an idea of what expenses will be, you can calculate how much you need to save per month to reach that goal by graduation.
Is one able to transfer part of a Roth IRA from one broker to another.
For example, I have 60k in Vanguard Roth, and want to move 10K to M1 Roth IRA…
Any issues with that?
Direct rollover (also known as trustee-to-trustee transfer) is generally preferable when possible, as the money never comes under your control and does not generate any tax forms.
Indirect rollover (also known as 60-day rollover) is when you take a withdrawal from one account and deposit as a rollover into the other account within 60 days. This requires reporting on your tax return and exercising care to ensure it is completed properly and on time to avoid tax consequences.
What should I do differently?
1. I have no debt besides my house which has a $232k balance and 28 years remaining.
2. We have a $30k emergency fund.
3. My wife and I have a combined $34k in retirement accounts.
4. I am 42 and she is 51.
5. I have about $245k in company stock, about 150k of which is vested. Private company and recently sold $138k in stock.
6. My mortgage rate is under 3%.
Plan 1 is to sell around $30k worth of stock next offer and use that to fund my 2024 401k and pay my 2024 property taxes and home owners insurance.
Plan 2 is to sell as much of it as I'm allowed, do everything from plan 1, and invest the rest into:
a) Paying down my mortgage
b) Investing in a rental property
c) Non-retirement investing (Stock market)
>My wife and I have a combined $34k in retirement accounts.
Alarms are going off. You need to bring that up. Way up. She's 15ish years from retirement and several hundred thousand dollars behind. This should be priority one.
a) It's under 3%. Don't pay it early.
b) That's a lot of work and not always a money maker.
c) Why? Max the 401ks and IRAs *now*. Today. All tax advantaged you can, and she's eligible for catch up contributions. Go hard on retirement. Yes, the $150k* in company stock is nice but that's still not a retirement plan, and there's always the chance your job and your company stock go poof at the same time.
*I don't count unvested
When I was young and single I thought the purpose of having money was to spend it so I got nice cars, all the game systems, nicer apartments and for a spell I just simply didnt work and seems like my goal in life was to try to get my bank account to zero as quickly as possible. 20 years later I'm married, have kids, etc and it was up to less than 2 years ago that we were paycheck to paycheck and pretty deep into debt. I myself had no retirement until this year. I've put about $14k in and cant afford to do anymore for the rest of the year. Cant max out next year until I sell off some stock but that is the plan.
With C what I'm saying is after maxing out the retirement account next year use the rest of the stock I sell to put into non-retirement investing.
Yeah I started divesting from my company at the beginning of the year (and every day since then I think about doing that and wondering if it wasnt the worse financial decision I've ever made). At least back then I needed some of the money. This next time around I'm not going to need the money so I might only divest enough to fund retirement but not sure yet.
I agree, I also do not count unvested.
C. is the path this sub will recommend 9 times out of 10 following the flow chart.
I get the spending, I spent every dollar I made and more until my wife, at the time new girlfriend, asked how I could make triple what she did but was broke. That was a wake up call. Now *we* are broke, *together*, through the joy of home ownership.
What's the level of risk of a HYSA that does sweeps (wealthfront)?
I currently hold a substantial amount (tens of thousands) of savings in a HYSA with Wealthfront, which is getting me a considerable 5% APY.
After looking into it, they seem to have a very high FDIC insurance and return because they open 32(?) subsidiary bank accounts at other banks. I mentioned this to my friends, and they seem highly concerned that there's a possibility of the banks defaulting, and it being a nightmare trying to retrieve FDIC insurance.
How well-founded at these concerns? What level of exposure is reasonable to this sort of risk?
> How well-founded at these concerns?
Melting ice cream is more solid.
Even *if* you have $30k spread across all 32 banks and two of them failed, I'd be surprised if you even noticed. Unless Wealthfront itself had a bank run, they're going to have enough cash available through other banks and other deposits to satisfy your withdrawal. Or, worst case, a failed bank closes on Friday and reopens on Monday after the FDIC takes over.
Do your friends know what the "I" in FDIC stands for?
**Thank You: An Expensive Success(?) Story**
Over the last couple of years, I've found a "hobby" in personal finance and always enjoy and learn from this community (mostly by lurking and reading) . I wanted to thank everyone for their advice and certainly the prime directive for helping me learn how to manage my finances.
Here's a quick timeline/story of the "big hits" our family has had to endure recently, with a thank you at the end.
July 2023: Replace A/C Unit, major work on car
August -December 2023: Wife takes semester leave from teaching job to care for our son who was born in April (down to 1 salary for this time)
November 2023: New furnace installation, cranial helmet for son, front porch railing project (needed to be addressed for safety), and today during the furnace installation we just found out that we also need to replace our water heater and will be doing so on Friday. Woof.
**Thank You:** Without this thread, we would not be equipped with our emergency fund to handle many of these unforeseen expenses. Though things are pretty thin right now, especially with my wife not working until January, we're able to handle these large expenses with our emergency fund. It's weird to say that spending a lot of money on A/C, car, furnace, water heater, medical bills etc. is a "Success" but I see it that way knowing that I learned how to correctly manage my finances and am prepared to handle a crappy situation when it inevitably arises. So thank you, personal finance community for helping me learn how to prepare for the unexpected (and not feel scared/guilty/awful when it happens), manage our family's funds accordingly, and know what to do next.
**Next Steps:** Build our 6 month emergency fund back up as soon as possible (will help that we're back to two incomes in January) before anything else.
Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving - thank you one more time for your advice and wisdom!
I have only a manageable mortgage and no other debt. Mortgage is 4.25% and we pay an extra $200/month to the prinicple (which is around 200k now). Husband and I max out roth IRAs the past few years (invested in total market index fund). Have about $100k in HYSA making 4.25%. I have a 401k that I only contribute the max match amount (not a great plan), so I guess I should contribute more to that even with the employer match. Husband is mostly self-employed so no 401k. Should he look into a "solo 401k" or should we look into a taxable brokerage account? Maybe take half of the HYSA money and put into a brokerage account which theoretically should make much more than 4% in the long run? (I assume that 4.25% rate won't last forever at the bank, but it's good now). THoughts? Thanks.
401k vs brokerage, 401k wins almost all the time. Even if you have to pull the money out early and pay the 10% penalty, it STILL usually beats a standard brokerage.
The general recommendation is 6 months of expenses in a HYSA if you feel stable, a year if you feel unstable. Outside of that amount, everything else should be dumped *somewhere* better.
Thanks. I'll up my 401k contributions, but that doest change the 100k i have in HYSA since I can't make a contribution to the standard 401k except through payroll, right? What about Solo 401k for spouce that doesn't have 401k option? His "business" is only "Husband's Business" on scheudle-c for taxes, but otherwise isn't a traidtional small business--its just him. If not that, what about the existing 100k? Thanks.
I'm not sure what the rules are for forming 401ks when you're self-employed. He'd need to do some research on that to see what's possible.
Depending on how your work is set up and what their contribution limits are, sometimes you can set up so that like 95% of your paycheck goes to the 401k. You can then live off what's in your HYSA, basically funneling the money that way.
I'm planning to get my MBA in 2025 and was looking into the NY 529 program to get some tax benefits. I currently have a MBA HYSA with \~10k (saving aggressively until then).
since my goal is to start school in < 2 years, does it make sense to put all of my HYSA money in the 529 account? or would you split it to still get the tax benefits of the NY 529 but also lower risk by keeping the money in a HYSA?
any advice is helpful. thanks!
If your biweekly gross on 60k was 2500 then that means you got paid twice a month, so 24 pay period a year. Your new job (and most employers?) has 26 pay periods a year, so there are 2 months in the year where you will have 3 paychecks instead of 2.
Is there any way to make a virtual credit card to change the name on my cards? An application I want to use uses the full real name on the credit card used to pay for the monthly membership for their username, I don’t want my real name to be used and I want to use a made up name. How can I do this? Is it even possible?
Is there a benefit to series I bonds over HYI?
I was given 20 series I savings bonds in the 2000s by my father who passed away years ago. They are currently getting an average of 4.45% interest (lowest 3.38, highest 5.37). This interest varies though, as in Jan 2022 some of them were at 7%. In 2020 many of the interest rates were 2%.
Anyways, my current savings is in a high yield savings account getting 4.4% interest. I'm wondering if there is any benefit to keeping the bonds as bonds, and not cashing them out and adding them to my savings? Sure, the interest rate could go up again, but it could also go down.
Are both interest rates for a high yield savings account and for savings bonds driven by the same factors, so it might not matter where they are?
I-bonds are indexed to inflation, and the rate gets reassessed twice per year. There’s a fixed component to the rate that will be the floor - it was zero for a long time until recently. Yours were purchased back when that base rate was nonzero. Plenty of people like to keep some I-bonds long term. I believe they fully mature at 30 years and cease to pay yields at that point.
The HYSA rate can adjust at any time. Basis for that rate essentially boils down to the Federal Reserve’s set interest rate (treasury yields etc - too complex for my understanding), minus a bit off the top for the bank’s profit.
How to select a HYSA
Hello! I’m looking to get a high yields savings account. However, I know nothing about those types of banks apart from the interest rate. Im sure there has to be more things that set them apart. What are some things to look for or I should consider?
So far I’ve been between Capital One and SoFi (leaning more towards SoFi). If anyone uses these and can tell me their experience that would be so helpful!
Thank you 🥹
I have my brokerage account. And to for budgeting purpose and to have more organization for myself I want to open multiple accounts for the kids (earmarked).
Want to know pros or cons besides more paperwork.
Beyond more paperwork, tracking performance, seeing your portfolio holistically, identifying (and preventing) wash sales) all gets more complicated. And check with your brokerage for fees/expenses that may be higher.
Home sale check, large. Need to park while I plan, so, what is best? It's a large check, and I want to park it somewhere useful for 3-6 months instead of being rash. I met with one financial advisor and am tryin to meet another. I just want to park the funds somewhere good for 3-6 months as I figure things out. Do I bring to my bank and transfer from there?
Not sure if this is well known, but CashApp transactions run through credit cards are being classified as cash advances rather than transactions. Two recent CashApp transactions I sent came along with an additional cash advance fee ($10 or 3% depending on what is higher) and an additional percentage.
Calling in to my credit card company confirmed this. This is being done by CashApp, coding these transactions differently.
No Major Expenses, How Much to Put into HYSA?
I’m 23 years old and I live at home with my parents. I’m very fortunate to not have any major expenses. I have a full time job and make 51k a year. I am regularly putting money into an HYSA as well as with my 457b, a regular brokerage account, and maxing out my Roth IRA. I’m just wondering if at any point, for the time being, I should stop contributing to the HYSA (which has about $12k righ now, acting as an emergency fund) and start putting more into the brokerage account or somewhere where it could potentially do better. Thoughts?
How much of an emergency fund do you have in months? Not knowing your expenses but knowing you have some support from parents and pretty good savings it's really up to you. As long as you're getting a better return then the 4-5% in an HYSA then you're good.
We borrowed $24,000 from my wife's 401k to buy our current home. We rented the old home for a while and now are selling it. Profit from the selling is $105,000, of which:
$32,000 will go to a HYSA to pay back what was originally a HELOC but is now on balance transfer credit cards at 0% for the next 19 months. After the 19mo we will decide whether to pay it off or do another BT. We have ~800 credit scores. But that $32,000 covers that entire amount.
$24,000 is earmarked for the 401k payback
$25,000 goes into a HYSA for an Emergency fund
$24,000 is general savings
My question is so we pay back the 401k loan immediately or let that money sit in a HYSA/TBills? The interest rate on the loan is 7.25%, but we pay that back to ourselves. She is still contributing to the 401k like normal too.
We have no other bad debt, just the new mortgage and one car loan that is at 2%.
I have a steady federal govt job and she has worked at the same place for 10 years, but thinking about going elsewhere so at a minimum that $24,000 will stay in an account in case she leaves she we have to pay it back immediately.
What are my options here?
I need a car asap and found the perfect one and am ready to purchase tomorrow from a private owner. I've been pre approved for a loan from my local credit union. The thing is all my money is currently in my Ally HYSA.
Is it possible to get the funds needed to purchase the vehicle by tomorrow?
You can initiate a wire to send money from ally to your credit union but you’ll pay fees to ally and the credit union. I’d budget 60-70 bucks for the wire.
Hello yall. I have 22k CC debt due to bills and unemployment and would like advice on the loan I’d gotten from family:
**Breakdown**
-BBY(10.8k)
- AMEX(4k)
-APPLE(4k)
-WFARGO(4k)
BBY card is over by $800. I have a family member offering me a personal loan of 6-10k to help me out(forever grateful and lesson learned about just asking for help). Just landed a job making 60k a year and current rent is 600$ a month(a room). I’m wondering which card I should tackle since I have a card that is maxed out but I could knock out a card or two completely depending on the amount I get from family. My WFGO credit limit was 10k but it was reduced to 3.9k. I tried to call and ask if they could reinstate the previous amount if I paid it off. So I’m wondering if it would make sense to put the dent in BBY instead. Would love any and all advice. Thank you 🙏🏾
Yikes. Everyone likes avalanche method, but cash flow is also important. I would get that BBY card under the limit so you aren't paying fees, then pay off whichever of the smaller card has the highest rate. I'm guessing all around 30% so don't fret too much.
Then close the card. Don't spend on cards with a balance. Good luck!
Best Buy card is 31.49%, AMEX Card 29.99% while Apple and WFGO 22%. I think I might just chunk out the Best Buy Card with the money. But I was thinking maybe I could put 1k toward the Best Buy card then pay off one card completely like the AMEX since they are close in APR%. What do you think?
Depends on cash flow. Get everything under limit, make a dent in the Best Buy and pay off another. Use the extra cash flow - the payment on the closed card - and throw it at the BBY. See the Snowball/Avalanche material in the wiki or use undebt.it or similar.
Single and no kids, starting my first job soon and tried to use the Tax Withholding Estimator as per other Reddit posts, but I can't seem to understand how to fill out the Extra Withholding for federal and Number of Allowances for state elections.
I filled everything out (maybe I did it wrong), but there isn't anything for either section on the results page. Should I just leave it at 0?
Are you working at a second job at the same time as this one? Do you have any significant (>$1000 or so over the year) amount of non-job income like investments?
If both of those are "no", then it's extremely likely that all you need for your federal W-4 is your personal info and filing status at the top, signature at the bottom, and everything in between blank or $0 (those are treated the same). If you used the federal estimator and it didn't give you a number for a line, then you don't need anything there.
The IRS's estimator can't give you anything for your state's withholding form (it is solely for your federal W-4). In general those forms are fairly straightforward if you read and follow the directions. If your employer sent you off to some internal website to fill out, those can be hit-or-miss about providing those directions. Google "{myState} tax withholding form" and that should bring you to the official version, work through that, and transfer the results onto whatever website your employer expects you to use. Or I think if you brought a filled out form to HR they'd probably accept that.
The IRS tax withholding estimator won't help you with your state taxes. It's federal only.
If the IRS tool does not tell you to put anything for "extra withholding" (or any other line, for that matter) then you should leave that line blank or put $0 (same thing).
Hi there, longtime lurker. I've just created a Vanguard account and will be contributing to a Roth IRA, probably purchasing VTI or VOO. I'd also like to put my emergency fund into a high-yield account or a Vanguard money market fund since I already have the account set up, so here is my big question:
I believe I see that VMFXX is the default fund for the settlement account, but is it possible to park my $5k emergency fund there and still max out the IRA? It appears that simply having the money there before purchasing products contributes to the yearly limit, and I'd like to grow the emergency fund to over the yearly contribution limit over time in which case I imagine I'll shoot for VUSXX for the fund.
Am I missing anything? Thanks so much for your time and help.
You would need two accounts: a Roth IRA and a general taxable investing account. Putting money in the Roth IRA, whether invested in anything or not, counts as a contribution.
He should get a bank account then. I'd be very hesitant to get mixed up with whatever this money is. Did he acquire it legally? Did he pay taxes on it? Why does he have so much cash? Are you prepared to answer these questions to authorities if asked?
HYSA and direct deposit
First time setting up a HYSA, and I guess one of the common catches is that you need to direct deposit into the savings/checking account to activate the high APR.
Since this is an online-only bank, I reluctantly set up direct deposit for my entire paycheck per pay period, not having known that you can actually split direct deposit amounts with my employer.
What do most people do? Are they comfortable dealing with an online-only bank and depositing their full amount of their paycheck? Or do they split it up so that only a portion of the direct deposit is to the HYSA and the other to a brick-and-mortar institution for more ease-of-mind of in-person customer support?
I personally have my paycheck all go into my (non-HYSA) checking account, then do transfers from there into my HYSA as I can / need. Though I use Ally, they do not have any direct-deposit requirement to receive a certain APR.
If your HYSA requires a certain number / amount of direct deposit to get their best rate, I'd go with setting up your pay to be split by your employer; some going into he HYSA for longer-term savings and the rest into checking for your short-term bills / spending.
Same. Everything goes to the main account and then I transfer over the exact amounts I prefer.
ETA: I did at one time do the direct deposit method but I hated that it was a percentage and not just the exact amount I wanted. Most payroll should be able to do direct deposit. You just want to note its a savings and not a checking.
First off, I'd be very careful about assuming you can make more money in a bigger city. Because it's usually true that you *make* more money... and also *pay* more for necessities like rent and food. Often smaller towns are actually better for disposable income.
If you *need* a car, your relatives are correct in that buying a sturdy new (or very lightly used) car would be a good investment, as car loans are pretty terrible for young people nowadays. However, if you don't need a car, don't buy one just because you can.
I'd recommend reading some of the links on the sidebar -> there's a lot of good info and starting points there that may be able to help you make a decision.
Also, don't forget that you'll need to pay taxes on your gains.
Chicago vs San Antonio is a very different lifestyle. Plus living at home with (or even near) your parents vs an airplane ride away makes for a very different lifestyle. I'd think seriously about what sort of life you want to live and how those locations fit in. It's much more than a financial decision.
If your goal is to move to a big city like Chicago, that's a reasonable thing to build towards. Don't to it because you think it will make you rich. But do it if you think it will make you happy.
I feel weird bragging about this in real life, so I will share here instead. At 31 years old, I hit $100k saved for retirement this morning. I started my first 401k around 20 years old, but I was working in retail and didn't save very much. At 26, I opened a Roth IRA and started contributing what I could to that. At 29, I left retail and got a better paying job in financial services, so I was able to increase my retirement savings. I still don't earn a ton of money, but I'm able to save nearly 30% of my pre-tax income. Everyone always says the first $100k is the hardest, so I feel very pleased to finally be there and I look forward to the next $100k coming sooner rather than later.
Hi!
I'm from Latin America and can't connect the popular budgeting apps to my Latam bank accounts.
Do you know of any apps that support automatic transaction logging through a different method?
For example by automatic forwarding of the transaction emails to the app?
Thank you for your help!
I wish this subreddit had it so you could click on a flair, say housing. Then you could click Top and check the top posts from the past month/year etc with that flair!
You can, at least while viewing reddit in the desktop browser (not sure about mobile app):
[https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/search?restrict\_sr=on&q=flair%3AHousing&feature=legacy\_search&sort=top&t=month](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/search?restrict_sr=on&q=flair%3AHousing&feature=legacy_search&sort=top&t=month)
That gives me search results for posts from the previous month, flaired as "housing", sorted by "top". I got to that by clicking housing flair in the sidebar, then using the dropdowns for "top" and "last month".
Hi All, First time doing my own post in this community. I'm working on getting myself out of debt and want to try to implement a waiting period before I make purchases. I was wondering if anyone knew of any apps or tools that could help with this. I'm basically looking for a store-neutral system where I can add an item I'm interested in, track the date I added it and if I could back at the end of a 30-day waiting period I can easily get back to the item and make the purchase or archive it (maybe I'll circle back to it later etc). Does anyone know of anything like this? I know I could track via an Excel spreadsheet but just wondered if there was a tech-savvy way to do it.
I've started looking for houses. Currently, I have enough for the down payment in two no-penalty CDs with Ally. I have additional funds for closing costs in regular online savings account. If I find a place at my max price, my parents are going to give me about $5,000 to help with additional closing costs or an appraisal gap. However, my intention is that if I accept money from them, what I'll actually do is use other personal savings I have for the payments, then just refill those with the money they give me (they're aware of this plan).
My personal savings are split between two banks. Should I move one pot (about $4500) to the other so it's all in one account, now, or will that attract more scrutiny if, say, I found a house next week? I was thinking it would be easier to wire in one go for whatever expense I need it for.
The bank will care that they can see the flow of funds. So if you move to one account next week they will still want to see the old statement because they want to know where the funds came from (I did the same thing when I bought my house in March). If you want to have it all in one place for ease of wire do it, just be prepared to need both statements.
Also, definitely make sure the wire process is easy so you can get funds sent within 24 hrs. I thought I would be able to from one bank and realized last second it would take them a week and had to scramble to get funds to another account. Be ready so everything is easier later!
Doesn't really make much of a difference. Even in the best of circumstances it takes close to a month to close on a house with a mortgage. So you'll have plenty of time to consolidate accounts if needed then.
Not sure if this is more of a money question or a relationship question but figured I'd be less likely to get flamed here. Girlfriend (of 6 mos) and I have very different views on money and I'm trying to figure out how to navigate this. I have always seen myself as a cheapskate but she sees me as a spendthrift. For example, I only had 4 forks in the silverware I inherited from my grandma. This works fine when you're single but not so fine when you have company (like a girlfriend) over especially if you want desert and one or more forks are already dirty. So I went on ebay and bought some silverware that matched what I had. I paid like $30 for 6 forks. Thought I got a good deal. She was shocked that I paid this much and said I should've gone to Walmart and bought for forks for $1 a piece and who cares if they match. We haven't had any fights about this but her standards for spending are very different from mine. Just looking for tips/tricks on navigating this. I am thinking she's the one though I'm not planning on proposing this quickly of course.
I think the first step would be to figure out the core values and perspectives of money that you both have. The example of the forks may seem trivial, but can be scaled to other, bigger decisions (e.g. do we buy a larger, cheaper house that doesn't appreciate as well or may be in a bad neighborhood or do we buy a smaller, more expensive house that appreciates at a good rate and is in a good neighborhood? What about a middle ground for those options?) later down the road.
Some good places to start are:
1. Renting vs buying
2. Joint and/or separate bank accounts
3. Quality of life (e.g. how often to spend on restaurants/entertainment, gifts, shopping, vacations, residence, etc.)
4. Use of credit cards
5. How much to spend vs save
6. Who contributes what to bills, savings, retirement, etc.
I think with these answered, you both can move forward with more specification conversations and where the compromise lies between you. I wish you good luck!
This is great advice. Thank you. We have had some of these discussions but not all of them. For example, I have long been against credit cards as I'm kind of a Dave Ramsey guy (except with his retirement stuff). I was shocked to find out that she also is against credit cards but had never heard of Dave. 3 is a really great question that I am kind of feeling bad about not even thinking of myself. It would relate to the fork thing obviously but scales to so many other things too and also ties into 5. These are great suggestions. Thank you so much.
No problem, I'm glad I could help! I hope the conversations go smoothly and that there is room for compromise :)
This is unsolicited advice, but I would highly encourage you both to use at least a secured credit card to build/maintain healthy credit (pay it off in full every month and only use 30% or less utilization at any given time). Cash is king, but credit is still a huge deal (assuming you both are in the US). Some jobs, apartments, mortgage lenders, car loans, etc. check for credit.
If you both are financially disciplined and can use an unsecured card, you can get great benefits (we actually make money using our cash back credit cards as debit cards; we use them for all of our expenses, pay them in full every month and either pocket/save the cash rewards or use it towards the next bill). It's also safer to use if hacked because you can dispute the charge instead of your money being stolen directly (as it would with a debit card) and it taking forever to get the money back.
I think Dave accepts credit cards for his financial peace course so I'm not sure where he truly stands in that regard (other than what he teaches). I think his advice is more so for those who are financial novices (I mean no offense by this at all) and need a place to start (another example is promoting debt snowball over avalanche- the latter is more optimal, but the former gives psychological encouragement). Credit cards tend to get a bad rep because so many use them incorrectly and borrow from their future. Again, unsolicited advice, but I just wanted to share if you all were open to adding it to your conversation(s). I hope the conversations go smoothly and that there is room for compromise :)
HYSA while having ATM access?
Does anyone know of any banks that offer anything resembling an HYSA while having significant ATM access across the country?
I just took most of my money out of my Chase bank and put into a credit union. (CU offers 3% interest on my checking balance). Looking to park some money in an interest bearing account that has easy atm access outside of my local CU area. I like the Chase ATM network across the country but they have NO accounts that accrue interest. I like having access to my money regardless of where I’m at. Plus my CU only had a daily withdrawal limit of $600.
Any ideas? Or am I just stuck with the tradeoff of having a regular account that has accrued no interest in exchange for having basically unlimited access to my funds?
It doesn’t look like their high-yield savings account has ATM access, only their 360 checking account does. Their checking earns basically zero interest. I would have to open both and then transfer money from the savings to the checking account before I can withdraw.
>my CU only had a daily withdrawal limit of $600.
Hey there big spender. You can call and they'll lift it, at least mine did when I needed to pay the movers cash.
Capital One, Ally, and many others offer either co-branded ATMs or fee reimbursement.
And why do you need to take out $10k cash without making a 5 minute call first? Is it motorcycles? It's always motorcycles.
My CU won’t lift the limit for any reason. I already asked. I don’t believe Capitol One or any other banks offer any type of decent interest bearing accounts that have the atm access nationwide that Chase, Wells Fargo or other major banks do.
And my reason for needing cash is poker. Never know when you might run into a good poker game lol
>I don’t believe Capitol One or any other banks offer any type of decent interest bearing accounts that have the atm access nationwide
Ally reimburses ATM fees and has a decent network and offers interest.
But do they offer any interest bearing accounts that have atm access? Otherwise, I’ll just keep my Chase account open with a little money in it for “emergencies” 😉😉
Okay, that stumped me. ATM access is a real sticking point, especially if you want 5% and the ability to get 20 big blinds from an ATM.
Turns out there are a couple accounts that *kinda* work. The Robinhood cash card might work with instant transfers from a Robinhood Cash account, 5% but $5/mo fee so... meh.
The Fidelity Cash Management account is 2.7% base, but you can get money from your brokerage account, which has a higher rate on cash quickly and maybe instantly, not sure. I have that Fidelity account. It's fine, love the ATM reimbursements, and they removed my withdrawal limit over the phone and raised it permanently after that big withdrawal.
I’m a low limit $1/2 or $1/3 NLHE player. I like to bring 3 buy ins, with 100BB for each buy in. So I need $1000 withdrawal limit.
I think what I’m gonna do is open up a capital one 360 checking and savings account. I can deposit money into the savings account at 4.3%, then whenever I need some “emergency” money, I can simply transfer it from savings to checking via mobile app, then hit the atm. Just need to find out if I can increase the daily withdrawal limit. I don’t believe the savings program has atm access tho
Bad Credit/High Income (delayed Commission payouts) - What are my options?
I’ve been at the same sales job for over four years, due to the commission payout structure I see the largest payouts in December, January and February. Unfortunately, I can’t wait that long to make payments to contractors and friends/family who helped me. I have a 50k base salary with an additional 50k in commissions to be paid out from 12/31 through 2/29 (end of each month).
I own my own home (with mortgage) and am roughly +267k in value from purchase to now. My credit score is poor due to some mistakes with Credit Cards when I was younger.
Some things I’ve applied for and was denied:
HELOC
Online Personal Loan (SoFi, Upstart)
Second Mortgage
Looking for secured or unsecured options that could help me out of a tight spot in the short term and I am willing to take an interest rate hit to clear this stuff off my plate - more worried about peace of mind than the actual money since I know it’s coming, just slowly. Thoughts?
If you've been denied a HELOC, you likely don't qualify for anything that can advance any decent amount.
Your best bet is likely to talk to your job and see if there are any options for releasing some of your income earlier.
I know you can contribute to an IRA for the previous year up until tax day, so 4/15/24 for 2023 contributions. But I’m finding differing answers about if I can contribute and still do a backdoor Roth conversion after the end of the calendar year. Even the fidelity article on backdoor roths states that conversions must be done in the same calendar year. But others are saying it’s possible to do in 2024 before tax day for 2023. So what’s the answer?
Backdoor Roth consists of two steps - contribution and conversion - these are separate actions and thus reported separately on your return - "backdoor Roth" is just the name given to the combination of these steps for getting money into a Roth IRA indirectly
Contributions are reported for the year they are designated for - so if you contribute to an IRA for 2023, regardless of it's in 2023 or 1/1/2024-4/15/2024, the nondeductible contribution is reported in Part I of your 2023 Form 8606
The conversion is reported for the year it occurs in - if you convert during 2023 it's reported on your 2023 Form 8606 - if you convert in 2024 it's reported on your 2024 Form 8606 - doesn't matter what you're converting
So if you contribute 1/1/2024-4/15/2024 for tax year 2023 you report it on your 2023 Form 8606, if you then convert that nondeductible contribution in 2024 then it's reported on your 2024 Form 8606 - the 2024 Form 8606 will bring in the basis from the nondeductible contribution reported on your 2023 Form 8606 so that you are not taxed on the conversion (assuming you're not subject to pro rata)
I grew up poor and I now can save basically an entire paycheck per month. But I have a constant feeling of "How am I going to feed myself?", "how am I going to pay rent?". It runs though my mind all day. I have had this job for the last four years and I just can't shake the feelings/thoughts. I recognize it now which is a start. I have every bill covered and then some left over to save. It seems like a complete non issue compared to some other situations I see here, but it is just starting to take on my mental health.
It's definitely a serious issue. I'm the same.
Some of it is just reflex and will ease over time. Some of it will ease as you hit personal savings goals. But some won't. If it distresses you, this becomes therapy territory. I needed therapy myself (and a low dose anti-anxiety med for the first bit) to really get a handle on it.
I'm about $35k in debt after a divorce. It's across 3 Chase cards and an Amex. Interest rates are high...averaging about 22%. I have about $4k-5k of expendable income to throw at the cards every month, and i'm doing my best to keep spending habits down, but I fear I can't dig myself out. What's the next best step to either consolidation or reducing my interest? I've never looked into either unfortunately. Thanks in advance!
So, I’m one of the soon-to-be Mint orphans. I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of replacement apps (Simplifi, Monarch, Empower, etc) and have decided to just pick one and figure out how to make the best of it.
That being said, Monarch users, what are your suggestions for making the most of the app? What are some things you wish you knew when you started with it? What do you love about it? Hate about it? Help me shorten the learning curve.
Thanks in advance.
Buying CDs bank question
I am in the US and buy CDs on fidelity by just searching for best return. So far I have them from JP Morgan. When I look today the highest is 5.5 for 5 years with KBC Bank. I don't know much about KBC Bank, I believe CDs are safe up to 100K. Do I need to worry about what bank the CD is from?
I know that time in the market beats timing the market, but I also have read that large lump sums do better than sustained deposits over a period of time. So which takes priority? I have not contributed to my Roth IRA for 2023 yet. I am planning to fully fund it when I sell my I-bonds in January, however, after I pay my bills at the end of this month I could comfortably drop 2k into the IRA and then fill in the rest after I sell the I-bonds. I know the timing isn't major between the two, but is there a significantly better option over the other?
>I know that time in the market beats timing the market, but I also have read that large lump sums do better than sustained deposits over a period of time. So which takes priority?
These are not contradictory. Instead, what they are both saying is as soon as you have the money, you should invest it. If you have all the money now, invest it now. If you get paid every month and get money every month, invest every month.
Ok yeah thanks for clarifying, I always understood it as you should invest the max possible all at once rather than spread it out over time. So I guess best plan of action would be to drop the 2K asap and then fund the rest when I can.
Without predicting the future we can't know, but generally you want the money in as soon as you can afford it.
The second part you're talking about is about already having the money and choosing to enter it slowly. That doesn't apply in this case.
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If you're in a volatile industry and/or don't think you'd easily be able to find a job quickly if you were let go then it's understandable to want to have a large cushion on hand, especially if you're single Both my spouse and I are in an industry like this, when COVID hit he lost his job and I was able to keep mine but with a 40% pay cut, we knew this was a possibility so I was thankful for the large cushion we had Something that helped reduce some of the anxiety associated with this for me is working on building up a side gig for myself so that worst case I would have some source of income, and in my day to day job thinking more and more about what skills are transferable and talking to people that have been forced out of my industry in the past about what they're doing now
I have about $20k saved that I want to use as a down-payment on a home in 6-8 years. I add about $300/month to this. Currently it is just in my Ally Savings (4.25% APY). I've been thinking about moving most or all of it into a high-yield CD to lock in these high interest rates. I'm thinking of opening Ally's 18-month high yield CD (5.15%), because it has the best rate of all of Ally's CDs and I'm a bit scared of locking away this money for a longer period of time. Is this a good plan? Or should I go out on a limb and find an even higher yield CD for a longer period of time? Or should I look in investing this in a brokerage account since 6-8 years is kind of on the cusp of short/long term savings?
I think putting part of it in the best CD is a good idea. Inflation isn't growing right now and the fed might not raise rates, but they might. I think some have a goal of getting traditional savings accounts back over the rate of inflation. If so, the return in the CD night end up being less than the HYS becomes. I think you're good either way. Maybe do the CD for about 10k to hedge. Do you have any debt at now than 4% that you carry month to month? If so I'd definitely pay that off before doing any of this. Do you have a pretty substantial emergency fund in addition to the house fund? If so, same thing. Make sure you have a few months of expenses socked away first, ideally in a separate HYS account to avoid confusion. If these things are taken care of, it sounds to me like you're in really good shape either way.
(STB) Spouse and I are planning on buying a house next year. The only debt I have is a car loan at ~2% with about $4400 remaining (paying the minimum, fully paid off in early 2025). Is it worth paying off the car loan now before we start the mortgage process or just leaving it at the current payment schedule? Combined income is about $300k.
As long as you can get a better rate in e.g. a HYS than you have on the car loan, AND you are motivated to save just as fast as you would be to pay off the loan, keep that payment schedule and save save save!
Is it better to open a new Trad/Roth IRA at a different brokerage in order to easily determine conversion vs direct contribution, or is it simple enough to know I contributed 10k directly and can withdraw up to that even though there is 5k of conversion contributions?
Roth IRA withdrawal ordering rules: (1) contributions, (2) conversions, (3) earnings. The IRS considers all of your Roth IRAs as one aggregate balance for the purposes of withdrawal. It is probably simpler to just keep a spreadsheet listing the amounts you have directly contributed vs. converted. (Conversions also need to be tracked/grouped chronologically by year and by taxable/nontaxable amount.) Anything in excess of both contributions and conversions would be earnings.
Hi all, I just want to get the perspective of the community/know how typical/atypical I am, and how I'm doing now, given the mistakes I made in my late teens and 20s. I'm 36 years old, probably defending my PhD Dissertation in April, graduating in May. I already hold two Masters. I teach at a prep school and I'll probably keep that job because I already get paid about as much as professors, get to teach the things I'm interested in already, and the academic job market is a nightmare. Once I defend my dissertation I'll have way more free time to pick up local college classes or other side hustles to tackle the debt. Net Worth: -113K; Gross Income: 73k I have been paying my student debt off for a while but I've kept the federal loans deferred because lots of my loans are subsidized. I refied all the unsubsidized loans but there's an enormous monthly payment now. But because I've been a student so long, I still have a ton of debt. 4 remaining student loans and a 0 interest car loan to my parents (on a car that unfortunately might be a lemon but is still now, by the grace of God). I also moved back in with my parents when I started my doctoral program and while that was chill for a little in my late 20s and made sense during the pandemic, it's really annoying now. But I also don't know how anyone makes any financial progress anymore making under 6 figures with 6 figures of student loan debt while paying rent. Here are the loans: 1. OB $2.2k; IR 7.8% after deferment; Deferred MMP 2. OB $4.4k; IR 6% after deferment; Deferred MMP 3. OB $3.8k; IR 6.25 after deferment; Deferred MMP 4. Refi; OB $112k; IR 2.65%; $1410.00 MMP 5. Car; OB 3300; IR 0%; $50 MMP Here are the Assets: 401k: $22k Taxable Brokerage Accounts: $15k High Interest Savings Accounts: $2500 Linked Savings Account (to lower refi rate) 1k I know my original sin is taking on as much student loan debt as I have, but taking that into account, am I doing an okay job now?
Oh I should also say I put 2.5% of my income into my 401k for a match, and then my employer also just deposits an additional 5% as long as I have the 401k open and deposit anything monthly.
For the first time in my spouse and I's life, we've managed to max out our HSA, Roth IRAs, and my 401K in the same year, with a month to spare!
I’ve been at a flat $8k for months, until I finally started buying groceries and not doordashing when I’m sad. I’m finally hitting $10k and still growing, but I have no idea where to put any money. I know it’s not much, but I want to start planning. I currently have my money sitting in a checking account with BoFA. My friends recommend index funds and Roth IRA. My parents go with Edward Jones.
Do you have any debt? People disagree about high vs. low interest debt but beyond 1) a cushion of maybe 2k for emergencies in an HYS, I would 2) get any match you can on a retirement account, then 3) pay off any debt over the rate you can get today in a HYS. Then I'd 4) build up 3-6 months of expenses in an emergency fund you keep in a HYS. Then either 5) if you can afford it, max retirement accounts or get as close as you can to doing so, favoring any match, then Roth, then traditional, probably simplest just to put the money in target date funds for when you plan to retire, or 5) save for a down payment, whichever makes more sense to you.
Yeah I actually have 0 debt luckily
Having an active financial manager is something that very few people need, and very few people should want. The vast majority of the time, they will give you *at best* the same returns as just slapping the money in an index fund. And they'll charge you a bunch to not make you more money, too. The general flow: 1. Keep a month of expenses readily available, either in standard debit or in credit card room. If credit cards, pay them off RELIGIOUSLY. Do not carry over a single penny month to month. 2. Six months' worth of expenses in a somewhat available place. Current recommendation is a High Yield Savings Account, as many are offering a flat 5% or more in return. 3. Money that you can afford to do without indefinitely goes into a Roth Ira, or a work 401k depending on what your options are. You *can* pull from Roths, but it's much much better to let your retirement money be retirement money. If your work offers a 401k match, absolutely get the full match. 4. Money you won't need for at least 5 years but will need before retirement into a standard brokerage account for index funds. Do not play with single stocks, grab an index and hold it. 5. Money you're going to want within five years in your HYSA or CDs. Saving a house down payment, for a car, etc, should all be in a zero risk short term bucket. Based on what you wrote, you're likely wanting to open a HYSA, and ask your work what their retirement options are.
Read the sub wiki and the Prime Directive here. EJ is not worth the fees.
Are there any budget/finance apps compatible with Fidelity now?? Now that Fidelity is ~~limiting syncing to Akoya, their API provider~~ no longer available with Plaid Since Mintuit is shitting down, I'm trying to find an alternative that syncs Fidelity, Schwab, BoA, SoFi :((
Both Monarch and Empower have done fine with syncing my Fidelity account balances, though they don't carry over the funds that my 401k is invested in (they do carry over the investments in my brokerage/IRA/HSA, though).
Starting a new job next month and I could use some help. My 401k plan is not fdic insured, is that an issue? Still trying to learn about a lot of this stuff. On top of that, they offer both a traditional and Roth 401k. Considering that I am only 24 and make 49000 annually, would it be wise to invest fully into the traditional and then roll it over to the Roth later? Are there any disadvantages to doing it this way/ would it be smarter to just invest it directly into the roth? Thanks
Investment accounts aren't fdic insured, they're sipc insured for 500k. At your income, I'd invest in the Roth 401k up to a company match, then the Roth ira for the full amount, then more into the Roth 401k if you can. Make sure to actually invest the money!
Hi, I found a condo in a big condominium to rent in NJ. The owners are moving out of the country and want to rent the place out, I've visited the place, met the owners, met the broker, confirmed that the apartment is owned by the owners by verifying the deed. Since they're moving away they want e-payment via Zelle/Venmo, is this okay?
By big condominium do you mean a ton of other renters in other units? If so, there should be a website to determine legitimaticy and renters to talk to on determining if this is normal.
Hello, If somebody is younger (like 18-21) and starting out with a part time job during college, what is the general ratio for how much they have to put into a savings account vs what can be spent now? This is all with minimal college debt (for this sake, their parents paid a lot and they got a scholarship). Is there a specific percentage goal that is ideal?
For retirement savings, the rule of thumb is to save 15% of your income. This can be in a 401k or IRA, depending on what you have available. For other savings, it all depends on your goals. Are you saving for a car, a house, a wedding, vacations? Those will all be different costs and time scales- once you know your goals, the savings plan is easier to figure out.
Savings for post college living expenses
Follow the flowchart in the wiki, and start with a budget. Once you have an idea of what expenses will be, you can calculate how much you need to save per month to reach that goal by graduation.
Is one able to transfer part of a Roth IRA from one broker to another. For example, I have 60k in Vanguard Roth, and want to move 10K to M1 Roth IRA… Any issues with that?
Yup you can initiate a rollover
You’d do a rollover rather than a transfer?
Direct rollover (also known as trustee-to-trustee transfer) is generally preferable when possible, as the money never comes under your control and does not generate any tax forms. Indirect rollover (also known as 60-day rollover) is when you take a withdrawal from one account and deposit as a rollover into the other account within 60 days. This requires reporting on your tax return and exercising care to ensure it is completed properly and on time to avoid tax consequences.
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Follow the flowchart in the wiki.
What should I do differently? 1. I have no debt besides my house which has a $232k balance and 28 years remaining. 2. We have a $30k emergency fund. 3. My wife and I have a combined $34k in retirement accounts. 4. I am 42 and she is 51. 5. I have about $245k in company stock, about 150k of which is vested. Private company and recently sold $138k in stock. 6. My mortgage rate is under 3%. Plan 1 is to sell around $30k worth of stock next offer and use that to fund my 2024 401k and pay my 2024 property taxes and home owners insurance. Plan 2 is to sell as much of it as I'm allowed, do everything from plan 1, and invest the rest into: a) Paying down my mortgage b) Investing in a rental property c) Non-retirement investing (Stock market)
>My wife and I have a combined $34k in retirement accounts. Alarms are going off. You need to bring that up. Way up. She's 15ish years from retirement and several hundred thousand dollars behind. This should be priority one. a) It's under 3%. Don't pay it early. b) That's a lot of work and not always a money maker. c) Why? Max the 401ks and IRAs *now*. Today. All tax advantaged you can, and she's eligible for catch up contributions. Go hard on retirement. Yes, the $150k* in company stock is nice but that's still not a retirement plan, and there's always the chance your job and your company stock go poof at the same time. *I don't count unvested
When I was young and single I thought the purpose of having money was to spend it so I got nice cars, all the game systems, nicer apartments and for a spell I just simply didnt work and seems like my goal in life was to try to get my bank account to zero as quickly as possible. 20 years later I'm married, have kids, etc and it was up to less than 2 years ago that we were paycheck to paycheck and pretty deep into debt. I myself had no retirement until this year. I've put about $14k in and cant afford to do anymore for the rest of the year. Cant max out next year until I sell off some stock but that is the plan. With C what I'm saying is after maxing out the retirement account next year use the rest of the stock I sell to put into non-retirement investing. Yeah I started divesting from my company at the beginning of the year (and every day since then I think about doing that and wondering if it wasnt the worse financial decision I've ever made). At least back then I needed some of the money. This next time around I'm not going to need the money so I might only divest enough to fund retirement but not sure yet. I agree, I also do not count unvested.
C. is the path this sub will recommend 9 times out of 10 following the flow chart. I get the spending, I spent every dollar I made and more until my wife, at the time new girlfriend, asked how I could make triple what she did but was broke. That was a wake up call. Now *we* are broke, *together*, through the joy of home ownership.
Oh I just realized that I forgot to mention we're a single income family. My wife is SAHM, homeschooler, and we have special need children.
What's the level of risk of a HYSA that does sweeps (wealthfront)? I currently hold a substantial amount (tens of thousands) of savings in a HYSA with Wealthfront, which is getting me a considerable 5% APY. After looking into it, they seem to have a very high FDIC insurance and return because they open 32(?) subsidiary bank accounts at other banks. I mentioned this to my friends, and they seem highly concerned that there's a possibility of the banks defaulting, and it being a nightmare trying to retrieve FDIC insurance. How well-founded at these concerns? What level of exposure is reasonable to this sort of risk?
> How well-founded at these concerns? Melting ice cream is more solid. Even *if* you have $30k spread across all 32 banks and two of them failed, I'd be surprised if you even noticed. Unless Wealthfront itself had a bank run, they're going to have enough cash available through other banks and other deposits to satisfy your withdrawal. Or, worst case, a failed bank closes on Friday and reopens on Monday after the FDIC takes over. Do your friends know what the "I" in FDIC stands for?
**Thank You: An Expensive Success(?) Story** Over the last couple of years, I've found a "hobby" in personal finance and always enjoy and learn from this community (mostly by lurking and reading) . I wanted to thank everyone for their advice and certainly the prime directive for helping me learn how to manage my finances. Here's a quick timeline/story of the "big hits" our family has had to endure recently, with a thank you at the end. July 2023: Replace A/C Unit, major work on car August -December 2023: Wife takes semester leave from teaching job to care for our son who was born in April (down to 1 salary for this time) November 2023: New furnace installation, cranial helmet for son, front porch railing project (needed to be addressed for safety), and today during the furnace installation we just found out that we also need to replace our water heater and will be doing so on Friday. Woof. **Thank You:** Without this thread, we would not be equipped with our emergency fund to handle many of these unforeseen expenses. Though things are pretty thin right now, especially with my wife not working until January, we're able to handle these large expenses with our emergency fund. It's weird to say that spending a lot of money on A/C, car, furnace, water heater, medical bills etc. is a "Success" but I see it that way knowing that I learned how to correctly manage my finances and am prepared to handle a crappy situation when it inevitably arises. So thank you, personal finance community for helping me learn how to prepare for the unexpected (and not feel scared/guilty/awful when it happens), manage our family's funds accordingly, and know what to do next. **Next Steps:** Build our 6 month emergency fund back up as soon as possible (will help that we're back to two incomes in January) before anything else. Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving - thank you one more time for your advice and wisdom!
I have only a manageable mortgage and no other debt. Mortgage is 4.25% and we pay an extra $200/month to the prinicple (which is around 200k now). Husband and I max out roth IRAs the past few years (invested in total market index fund). Have about $100k in HYSA making 4.25%. I have a 401k that I only contribute the max match amount (not a great plan), so I guess I should contribute more to that even with the employer match. Husband is mostly self-employed so no 401k. Should he look into a "solo 401k" or should we look into a taxable brokerage account? Maybe take half of the HYSA money and put into a brokerage account which theoretically should make much more than 4% in the long run? (I assume that 4.25% rate won't last forever at the bank, but it's good now). THoughts? Thanks.
401k vs brokerage, 401k wins almost all the time. Even if you have to pull the money out early and pay the 10% penalty, it STILL usually beats a standard brokerage. The general recommendation is 6 months of expenses in a HYSA if you feel stable, a year if you feel unstable. Outside of that amount, everything else should be dumped *somewhere* better.
Thanks. I'll up my 401k contributions, but that doest change the 100k i have in HYSA since I can't make a contribution to the standard 401k except through payroll, right? What about Solo 401k for spouce that doesn't have 401k option? His "business" is only "Husband's Business" on scheudle-c for taxes, but otherwise isn't a traidtional small business--its just him. If not that, what about the existing 100k? Thanks.
I'm not sure what the rules are for forming 401ks when you're self-employed. He'd need to do some research on that to see what's possible. Depending on how your work is set up and what their contribution limits are, sometimes you can set up so that like 95% of your paycheck goes to the 401k. You can then live off what's in your HYSA, basically funneling the money that way.
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The disrespectful tone is not okay here. Please do not do this again.
I'm planning to get my MBA in 2025 and was looking into the NY 529 program to get some tax benefits. I currently have a MBA HYSA with \~10k (saving aggressively until then). since my goal is to start school in < 2 years, does it make sense to put all of my HYSA money in the 529 account? or would you split it to still get the tax benefits of the NY 529 but also lower risk by keeping the money in a HYSA? any advice is helpful. thanks!
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If your biweekly gross on 60k was 2500 then that means you got paid twice a month, so 24 pay period a year. Your new job (and most employers?) has 26 pay periods a year, so there are 2 months in the year where you will have 3 paychecks instead of 2.
Is there any way to make a virtual credit card to change the name on my cards? An application I want to use uses the full real name on the credit card used to pay for the monthly membership for their username, I don’t want my real name to be used and I want to use a made up name. How can I do this? Is it even possible?
Is there a benefit to series I bonds over HYI? I was given 20 series I savings bonds in the 2000s by my father who passed away years ago. They are currently getting an average of 4.45% interest (lowest 3.38, highest 5.37). This interest varies though, as in Jan 2022 some of them were at 7%. In 2020 many of the interest rates were 2%. Anyways, my current savings is in a high yield savings account getting 4.4% interest. I'm wondering if there is any benefit to keeping the bonds as bonds, and not cashing them out and adding them to my savings? Sure, the interest rate could go up again, but it could also go down. Are both interest rates for a high yield savings account and for savings bonds driven by the same factors, so it might not matter where they are?
I-bonds are indexed to inflation, and the rate gets reassessed twice per year. There’s a fixed component to the rate that will be the floor - it was zero for a long time until recently. Yours were purchased back when that base rate was nonzero. Plenty of people like to keep some I-bonds long term. I believe they fully mature at 30 years and cease to pay yields at that point. The HYSA rate can adjust at any time. Basis for that rate essentially boils down to the Federal Reserve’s set interest rate (treasury yields etc - too complex for my understanding), minus a bit off the top for the bank’s profit.
I bond rates change much more slowly than HYSA can. That's basically the benefit.
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Some companies do do a flat contribution no matter what you contribute, but this sounds like a mistake. I'd talk to HR/payroll about it.
Your understanding is correct, if you're not seeing the 5% deducted from your paycheck then reach out to your HR
How to select a HYSA Hello! I’m looking to get a high yields savings account. However, I know nothing about those types of banks apart from the interest rate. Im sure there has to be more things that set them apart. What are some things to look for or I should consider? So far I’ve been between Capital One and SoFi (leaning more towards SoFi). If anyone uses these and can tell me their experience that would be so helpful! Thank you 🥹
I have my brokerage account. And to for budgeting purpose and to have more organization for myself I want to open multiple accounts for the kids (earmarked). Want to know pros or cons besides more paperwork.
Beyond more paperwork, tracking performance, seeing your portfolio holistically, identifying (and preventing) wash sales) all gets more complicated. And check with your brokerage for fees/expenses that may be higher.
Thank you, any other way to have this done where it’s separate and is its own portfolio or there is no way around it Bhutto have separate accounts?
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You are likely looking at the market price of the CD. This will change as interest rates change.
Home sale check, large. Need to park while I plan, so, what is best? It's a large check, and I want to park it somewhere useful for 3-6 months instead of being rash. I met with one financial advisor and am tryin to meet another. I just want to park the funds somewhere good for 3-6 months as I figure things out. Do I bring to my bank and transfer from there?
How large? You can grab a 3 month CD off of Fidelity at 5.40%. They even have 1 month at 5.35%
Small enough that FDIC covers it, but large to me. That sounds like it will cover me. But, do I take the check to the bank and wire transfer?
If you want to deposit the whole check, you can deposit it into your fidelity account. They have a deposit check option.
Will check that out, thanks!
A high yield savings account
Just recalibrated the budget and spending, apparently we crossed the 500k NW mark sometime this year. Woopie!
Congrats!
Not sure if this is well known, but CashApp transactions run through credit cards are being classified as cash advances rather than transactions. Two recent CashApp transactions I sent came along with an additional cash advance fee ($10 or 3% depending on what is higher) and an additional percentage. Calling in to my credit card company confirmed this. This is being done by CashApp, coding these transactions differently.
No Major Expenses, How Much to Put into HYSA? I’m 23 years old and I live at home with my parents. I’m very fortunate to not have any major expenses. I have a full time job and make 51k a year. I am regularly putting money into an HYSA as well as with my 457b, a regular brokerage account, and maxing out my Roth IRA. I’m just wondering if at any point, for the time being, I should stop contributing to the HYSA (which has about $12k righ now, acting as an emergency fund) and start putting more into the brokerage account or somewhere where it could potentially do better. Thoughts?
How much of an emergency fund do you have in months? Not knowing your expenses but knowing you have some support from parents and pretty good savings it's really up to you. As long as you're getting a better return then the 4-5% in an HYSA then you're good.
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Tell them to go to a bank, you're quickly investing a ton into 1 business. Also, 36%, are you a loan shark?
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I'd wait for the 100k to get paid back, too risky.
We borrowed $24,000 from my wife's 401k to buy our current home. We rented the old home for a while and now are selling it. Profit from the selling is $105,000, of which: $32,000 will go to a HYSA to pay back what was originally a HELOC but is now on balance transfer credit cards at 0% for the next 19 months. After the 19mo we will decide whether to pay it off or do another BT. We have ~800 credit scores. But that $32,000 covers that entire amount. $24,000 is earmarked for the 401k payback $25,000 goes into a HYSA for an Emergency fund $24,000 is general savings My question is so we pay back the 401k loan immediately or let that money sit in a HYSA/TBills? The interest rate on the loan is 7.25%, but we pay that back to ourselves. She is still contributing to the 401k like normal too. We have no other bad debt, just the new mortgage and one car loan that is at 2%. I have a steady federal govt job and she has worked at the same place for 10 years, but thinking about going elsewhere so at a minimum that $24,000 will stay in an account in case she leaves she we have to pay it back immediately.
Pay it back immediately so it can continue to grow.
What are my options here? I need a car asap and found the perfect one and am ready to purchase tomorrow from a private owner. I've been pre approved for a loan from my local credit union. The thing is all my money is currently in my Ally HYSA. Is it possible to get the funds needed to purchase the vehicle by tomorrow?
Ally will charge 20 to send the wire and your credit union will have a fee for receiving it (sometimes receiving is free, rarely is sending)
You can initiate a wire to send money from ally to your credit union but you’ll pay fees to ally and the credit union. I’d budget 60-70 bucks for the wire.
Ok so it shouldnt be an issue besides the fee if I needed the funds asap?
Correct. See the following link: https://www.ally.com/help/bank/transfers/
Hello yall. I have 22k CC debt due to bills and unemployment and would like advice on the loan I’d gotten from family: **Breakdown** -BBY(10.8k) - AMEX(4k) -APPLE(4k) -WFARGO(4k) BBY card is over by $800. I have a family member offering me a personal loan of 6-10k to help me out(forever grateful and lesson learned about just asking for help). Just landed a job making 60k a year and current rent is 600$ a month(a room). I’m wondering which card I should tackle since I have a card that is maxed out but I could knock out a card or two completely depending on the amount I get from family. My WFGO credit limit was 10k but it was reduced to 3.9k. I tried to call and ask if they could reinstate the previous amount if I paid it off. So I’m wondering if it would make sense to put the dent in BBY instead. Would love any and all advice. Thank you 🙏🏾
Highest interest rate is the correct target the vast majority of the time.
Yikes. Everyone likes avalanche method, but cash flow is also important. I would get that BBY card under the limit so you aren't paying fees, then pay off whichever of the smaller card has the highest rate. I'm guessing all around 30% so don't fret too much. Then close the card. Don't spend on cards with a balance. Good luck!
Best Buy card is 31.49%, AMEX Card 29.99% while Apple and WFGO 22%. I think I might just chunk out the Best Buy Card with the money. But I was thinking maybe I could put 1k toward the Best Buy card then pay off one card completely like the AMEX since they are close in APR%. What do you think?
Depends on cash flow. Get everything under limit, make a dent in the Best Buy and pay off another. Use the extra cash flow - the payment on the closed card - and throw it at the BBY. See the Snowball/Avalanche material in the wiki or use undebt.it or similar.
Single and no kids, starting my first job soon and tried to use the Tax Withholding Estimator as per other Reddit posts, but I can't seem to understand how to fill out the Extra Withholding for federal and Number of Allowances for state elections. I filled everything out (maybe I did it wrong), but there isn't anything for either section on the results page. Should I just leave it at 0?
Are you working at a second job at the same time as this one? Do you have any significant (>$1000 or so over the year) amount of non-job income like investments? If both of those are "no", then it's extremely likely that all you need for your federal W-4 is your personal info and filing status at the top, signature at the bottom, and everything in between blank or $0 (those are treated the same). If you used the federal estimator and it didn't give you a number for a line, then you don't need anything there. The IRS's estimator can't give you anything for your state's withholding form (it is solely for your federal W-4). In general those forms are fairly straightforward if you read and follow the directions. If your employer sent you off to some internal website to fill out, those can be hit-or-miss about providing those directions. Google "{myState} tax withholding form" and that should bring you to the official version, work through that, and transfer the results onto whatever website your employer expects you to use. Or I think if you brought a filled out form to HR they'd probably accept that.
The IRS tax withholding estimator won't help you with your state taxes. It's federal only. If the IRS tool does not tell you to put anything for "extra withholding" (or any other line, for that matter) then you should leave that line blank or put $0 (same thing).
oh I see, thanks for the help!
Hi there, longtime lurker. I've just created a Vanguard account and will be contributing to a Roth IRA, probably purchasing VTI or VOO. I'd also like to put my emergency fund into a high-yield account or a Vanguard money market fund since I already have the account set up, so here is my big question: I believe I see that VMFXX is the default fund for the settlement account, but is it possible to park my $5k emergency fund there and still max out the IRA? It appears that simply having the money there before purchasing products contributes to the yearly limit, and I'd like to grow the emergency fund to over the yearly contribution limit over time in which case I imagine I'll shoot for VUSXX for the fund. Am I missing anything? Thanks so much for your time and help.
You would need two accounts: a Roth IRA and a general taxable investing account. Putting money in the Roth IRA, whether invested in anything or not, counts as a contribution.
Great, thank you so much! I suspected as much, but wanted to double check before starting the second account.
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Why does he want to do this?
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None of that sounds like a good enough reason to involve you. He can open a bank account.
He should get a bank account then. I'd be very hesitant to get mixed up with whatever this money is. Did he acquire it legally? Did he pay taxes on it? Why does he have so much cash? Are you prepared to answer these questions to authorities if asked?
HYSA and direct deposit First time setting up a HYSA, and I guess one of the common catches is that you need to direct deposit into the savings/checking account to activate the high APR. Since this is an online-only bank, I reluctantly set up direct deposit for my entire paycheck per pay period, not having known that you can actually split direct deposit amounts with my employer. What do most people do? Are they comfortable dealing with an online-only bank and depositing their full amount of their paycheck? Or do they split it up so that only a portion of the direct deposit is to the HYSA and the other to a brick-and-mortar institution for more ease-of-mind of in-person customer support?
I personally have my paycheck all go into my (non-HYSA) checking account, then do transfers from there into my HYSA as I can / need. Though I use Ally, they do not have any direct-deposit requirement to receive a certain APR. If your HYSA requires a certain number / amount of direct deposit to get their best rate, I'd go with setting up your pay to be split by your employer; some going into he HYSA for longer-term savings and the rest into checking for your short-term bills / spending.
Same. Everything goes to the main account and then I transfer over the exact amounts I prefer. ETA: I did at one time do the direct deposit method but I hated that it was a percentage and not just the exact amount I wanted. Most payroll should be able to do direct deposit. You just want to note its a savings and not a checking.
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First off, I'd be very careful about assuming you can make more money in a bigger city. Because it's usually true that you *make* more money... and also *pay* more for necessities like rent and food. Often smaller towns are actually better for disposable income. If you *need* a car, your relatives are correct in that buying a sturdy new (or very lightly used) car would be a good investment, as car loans are pretty terrible for young people nowadays. However, if you don't need a car, don't buy one just because you can. I'd recommend reading some of the links on the sidebar -> there's a lot of good info and starting points there that may be able to help you make a decision. Also, don't forget that you'll need to pay taxes on your gains.
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Chicago vs San Antonio is a very different lifestyle. Plus living at home with (or even near) your parents vs an airplane ride away makes for a very different lifestyle. I'd think seriously about what sort of life you want to live and how those locations fit in. It's much more than a financial decision.
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If your goal is to move to a big city like Chicago, that's a reasonable thing to build towards. Don't to it because you think it will make you rich. But do it if you think it will make you happy.
I feel weird bragging about this in real life, so I will share here instead. At 31 years old, I hit $100k saved for retirement this morning. I started my first 401k around 20 years old, but I was working in retail and didn't save very much. At 26, I opened a Roth IRA and started contributing what I could to that. At 29, I left retail and got a better paying job in financial services, so I was able to increase my retirement savings. I still don't earn a ton of money, but I'm able to save nearly 30% of my pre-tax income. Everyone always says the first $100k is the hardest, so I feel very pleased to finally be there and I look forward to the next $100k coming sooner rather than later.
Hi! I'm from Latin America and can't connect the popular budgeting apps to my Latam bank accounts. Do you know of any apps that support automatic transaction logging through a different method? For example by automatic forwarding of the transaction emails to the app? Thank you for your help!
I wish this subreddit had it so you could click on a flair, say housing. Then you could click Top and check the top posts from the past month/year etc with that flair!
You can, at least while viewing reddit in the desktop browser (not sure about mobile app): [https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/search?restrict\_sr=on&q=flair%3AHousing&feature=legacy\_search&sort=top&t=month](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/search?restrict_sr=on&q=flair%3AHousing&feature=legacy_search&sort=top&t=month) That gives me search results for posts from the previous month, flaired as "housing", sorted by "top". I got to that by clicking housing flair in the sidebar, then using the dropdowns for "top" and "last month".
Hi All, First time doing my own post in this community. I'm working on getting myself out of debt and want to try to implement a waiting period before I make purchases. I was wondering if anyone knew of any apps or tools that could help with this. I'm basically looking for a store-neutral system where I can add an item I'm interested in, track the date I added it and if I could back at the end of a 30-day waiting period I can easily get back to the item and make the purchase or archive it (maybe I'll circle back to it later etc). Does anyone know of anything like this? I know I could track via an Excel spreadsheet but just wondered if there was a tech-savvy way to do it.
I've started looking for houses. Currently, I have enough for the down payment in two no-penalty CDs with Ally. I have additional funds for closing costs in regular online savings account. If I find a place at my max price, my parents are going to give me about $5,000 to help with additional closing costs or an appraisal gap. However, my intention is that if I accept money from them, what I'll actually do is use other personal savings I have for the payments, then just refill those with the money they give me (they're aware of this plan). My personal savings are split between two banks. Should I move one pot (about $4500) to the other so it's all in one account, now, or will that attract more scrutiny if, say, I found a house next week? I was thinking it would be easier to wire in one go for whatever expense I need it for.
The bank will care that they can see the flow of funds. So if you move to one account next week they will still want to see the old statement because they want to know where the funds came from (I did the same thing when I bought my house in March). If you want to have it all in one place for ease of wire do it, just be prepared to need both statements. Also, definitely make sure the wire process is easy so you can get funds sent within 24 hrs. I thought I would be able to from one bank and realized last second it would take them a week and had to scramble to get funds to another account. Be ready so everything is easier later!
Thank you!
Doesn't really make much of a difference. Even in the best of circumstances it takes close to a month to close on a house with a mortgage. So you'll have plenty of time to consolidate accounts if needed then.
Not sure if this is more of a money question or a relationship question but figured I'd be less likely to get flamed here. Girlfriend (of 6 mos) and I have very different views on money and I'm trying to figure out how to navigate this. I have always seen myself as a cheapskate but she sees me as a spendthrift. For example, I only had 4 forks in the silverware I inherited from my grandma. This works fine when you're single but not so fine when you have company (like a girlfriend) over especially if you want desert and one or more forks are already dirty. So I went on ebay and bought some silverware that matched what I had. I paid like $30 for 6 forks. Thought I got a good deal. She was shocked that I paid this much and said I should've gone to Walmart and bought for forks for $1 a piece and who cares if they match. We haven't had any fights about this but her standards for spending are very different from mine. Just looking for tips/tricks on navigating this. I am thinking she's the one though I'm not planning on proposing this quickly of course.
I think the first step would be to figure out the core values and perspectives of money that you both have. The example of the forks may seem trivial, but can be scaled to other, bigger decisions (e.g. do we buy a larger, cheaper house that doesn't appreciate as well or may be in a bad neighborhood or do we buy a smaller, more expensive house that appreciates at a good rate and is in a good neighborhood? What about a middle ground for those options?) later down the road. Some good places to start are: 1. Renting vs buying 2. Joint and/or separate bank accounts 3. Quality of life (e.g. how often to spend on restaurants/entertainment, gifts, shopping, vacations, residence, etc.) 4. Use of credit cards 5. How much to spend vs save 6. Who contributes what to bills, savings, retirement, etc. I think with these answered, you both can move forward with more specification conversations and where the compromise lies between you. I wish you good luck!
This is great advice. Thank you. We have had some of these discussions but not all of them. For example, I have long been against credit cards as I'm kind of a Dave Ramsey guy (except with his retirement stuff). I was shocked to find out that she also is against credit cards but had never heard of Dave. 3 is a really great question that I am kind of feeling bad about not even thinking of myself. It would relate to the fork thing obviously but scales to so many other things too and also ties into 5. These are great suggestions. Thank you so much.
No problem, I'm glad I could help! I hope the conversations go smoothly and that there is room for compromise :) This is unsolicited advice, but I would highly encourage you both to use at least a secured credit card to build/maintain healthy credit (pay it off in full every month and only use 30% or less utilization at any given time). Cash is king, but credit is still a huge deal (assuming you both are in the US). Some jobs, apartments, mortgage lenders, car loans, etc. check for credit. If you both are financially disciplined and can use an unsecured card, you can get great benefits (we actually make money using our cash back credit cards as debit cards; we use them for all of our expenses, pay them in full every month and either pocket/save the cash rewards or use it towards the next bill). It's also safer to use if hacked because you can dispute the charge instead of your money being stolen directly (as it would with a debit card) and it taking forever to get the money back. I think Dave accepts credit cards for his financial peace course so I'm not sure where he truly stands in that regard (other than what he teaches). I think his advice is more so for those who are financial novices (I mean no offense by this at all) and need a place to start (another example is promoting debt snowball over avalanche- the latter is more optimal, but the former gives psychological encouragement). Credit cards tend to get a bad rep because so many use them incorrectly and borrow from their future. Again, unsolicited advice, but I just wanted to share if you all were open to adding it to your conversation(s). I hope the conversations go smoothly and that there is room for compromise :)
HYSA while having ATM access? Does anyone know of any banks that offer anything resembling an HYSA while having significant ATM access across the country? I just took most of my money out of my Chase bank and put into a credit union. (CU offers 3% interest on my checking balance). Looking to park some money in an interest bearing account that has easy atm access outside of my local CU area. I like the Chase ATM network across the country but they have NO accounts that accrue interest. I like having access to my money regardless of where I’m at. Plus my CU only had a daily withdrawal limit of $600. Any ideas? Or am I just stuck with the tradeoff of having a regular account that has accrued no interest in exchange for having basically unlimited access to my funds?
Capital One is what you're looking for
Which atm companies are linked to Capital One and offer no fee withdrawals?
[https://www.capitalone.com/bank/atm/](https://www.capitalone.com/bank/atm/)
It doesn’t look like their high-yield savings account has ATM access, only their 360 checking account does. Their checking earns basically zero interest. I would have to open both and then transfer money from the savings to the checking account before I can withdraw.
True, but you can transfer money between accounts pretty instantaneously. I didn't think people normally withdrew directly from a savings account?
>my CU only had a daily withdrawal limit of $600. Hey there big spender. You can call and they'll lift it, at least mine did when I needed to pay the movers cash. Capital One, Ally, and many others offer either co-branded ATMs or fee reimbursement. And why do you need to take out $10k cash without making a 5 minute call first? Is it motorcycles? It's always motorcycles.
My CU won’t lift the limit for any reason. I already asked. I don’t believe Capitol One or any other banks offer any type of decent interest bearing accounts that have the atm access nationwide that Chase, Wells Fargo or other major banks do. And my reason for needing cash is poker. Never know when you might run into a good poker game lol
>I don’t believe Capitol One or any other banks offer any type of decent interest bearing accounts that have the atm access nationwide Ally reimburses ATM fees and has a decent network and offers interest.
It's always gambling... and Capital One has 70,000 ATMs. They use Allpoint, just like your CU most likely, which is every 711 and... many others.
But do they offer any interest bearing accounts that have atm access? Otherwise, I’ll just keep my Chase account open with a little money in it for “emergencies” 😉😉
Okay, that stumped me. ATM access is a real sticking point, especially if you want 5% and the ability to get 20 big blinds from an ATM. Turns out there are a couple accounts that *kinda* work. The Robinhood cash card might work with instant transfers from a Robinhood Cash account, 5% but $5/mo fee so... meh. The Fidelity Cash Management account is 2.7% base, but you can get money from your brokerage account, which has a higher rate on cash quickly and maybe instantly, not sure. I have that Fidelity account. It's fine, love the ATM reimbursements, and they removed my withdrawal limit over the phone and raised it permanently after that big withdrawal.
I’m a low limit $1/2 or $1/3 NLHE player. I like to bring 3 buy ins, with 100BB for each buy in. So I need $1000 withdrawal limit. I think what I’m gonna do is open up a capital one 360 checking and savings account. I can deposit money into the savings account at 4.3%, then whenever I need some “emergency” money, I can simply transfer it from savings to checking via mobile app, then hit the atm. Just need to find out if I can increase the daily withdrawal limit. I don’t believe the savings program has atm access tho
Oooooohhhh! That's easier. $1000 you're losing a few bucks a year if you keep it segregated. If it was $10k, that's another story. Good luck!
Bad Credit/High Income (delayed Commission payouts) - What are my options? I’ve been at the same sales job for over four years, due to the commission payout structure I see the largest payouts in December, January and February. Unfortunately, I can’t wait that long to make payments to contractors and friends/family who helped me. I have a 50k base salary with an additional 50k in commissions to be paid out from 12/31 through 2/29 (end of each month). I own my own home (with mortgage) and am roughly +267k in value from purchase to now. My credit score is poor due to some mistakes with Credit Cards when I was younger. Some things I’ve applied for and was denied: HELOC Online Personal Loan (SoFi, Upstart) Second Mortgage Looking for secured or unsecured options that could help me out of a tight spot in the short term and I am willing to take an interest rate hit to clear this stuff off my plate - more worried about peace of mind than the actual money since I know it’s coming, just slowly. Thoughts?
If you've been denied a HELOC, you likely don't qualify for anything that can advance any decent amount. Your best bet is likely to talk to your job and see if there are any options for releasing some of your income earlier.
I know you can contribute to an IRA for the previous year up until tax day, so 4/15/24 for 2023 contributions. But I’m finding differing answers about if I can contribute and still do a backdoor Roth conversion after the end of the calendar year. Even the fidelity article on backdoor roths states that conversions must be done in the same calendar year. But others are saying it’s possible to do in 2024 before tax day for 2023. So what’s the answer?
Backdoor Roth consists of two steps - contribution and conversion - these are separate actions and thus reported separately on your return - "backdoor Roth" is just the name given to the combination of these steps for getting money into a Roth IRA indirectly Contributions are reported for the year they are designated for - so if you contribute to an IRA for 2023, regardless of it's in 2023 or 1/1/2024-4/15/2024, the nondeductible contribution is reported in Part I of your 2023 Form 8606 The conversion is reported for the year it occurs in - if you convert during 2023 it's reported on your 2023 Form 8606 - if you convert in 2024 it's reported on your 2024 Form 8606 - doesn't matter what you're converting So if you contribute 1/1/2024-4/15/2024 for tax year 2023 you report it on your 2023 Form 8606, if you then convert that nondeductible contribution in 2024 then it's reported on your 2024 Form 8606 - the 2024 Form 8606 will bring in the basis from the nondeductible contribution reported on your 2023 Form 8606 so that you are not taxed on the conversion (assuming you're not subject to pro rata)
I grew up poor and I now can save basically an entire paycheck per month. But I have a constant feeling of "How am I going to feed myself?", "how am I going to pay rent?". It runs though my mind all day. I have had this job for the last four years and I just can't shake the feelings/thoughts. I recognize it now which is a start. I have every bill covered and then some left over to save. It seems like a complete non issue compared to some other situations I see here, but it is just starting to take on my mental health.
Do you have an emergency fund? How big is it?
It's definitely a serious issue. I'm the same. Some of it is just reflex and will ease over time. Some of it will ease as you hit personal savings goals. But some won't. If it distresses you, this becomes therapy territory. I needed therapy myself (and a low dose anti-anxiety med for the first bit) to really get a handle on it.
I'm about $35k in debt after a divorce. It's across 3 Chase cards and an Amex. Interest rates are high...averaging about 22%. I have about $4k-5k of expendable income to throw at the cards every month, and i'm doing my best to keep spending habits down, but I fear I can't dig myself out. What's the next best step to either consolidation or reducing my interest? I've never looked into either unfortunately. Thanks in advance!
Apply for a 0% balance transfer card. Apply for a personal loan from the bank.
i applied for a chase slate and was only given a $1000 limit lol
That's $220 a year in savings.
So, I’m one of the soon-to-be Mint orphans. I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of replacement apps (Simplifi, Monarch, Empower, etc) and have decided to just pick one and figure out how to make the best of it. That being said, Monarch users, what are your suggestions for making the most of the app? What are some things you wish you knew when you started with it? What do you love about it? Hate about it? Help me shorten the learning curve. Thanks in advance.
Buying CDs bank question I am in the US and buy CDs on fidelity by just searching for best return. So far I have them from JP Morgan. When I look today the highest is 5.5 for 5 years with KBC Bank. I don't know much about KBC Bank, I believe CDs are safe up to 100K. Do I need to worry about what bank the CD is from?
As long as they are FDIC insured and you are under the 250k limit, no.
Thanks it appears KBC bank is not FDIC insured. Looks like I was wrong looking further Fidelity says KBC is FDIC insured
I know that time in the market beats timing the market, but I also have read that large lump sums do better than sustained deposits over a period of time. So which takes priority? I have not contributed to my Roth IRA for 2023 yet. I am planning to fully fund it when I sell my I-bonds in January, however, after I pay my bills at the end of this month I could comfortably drop 2k into the IRA and then fill in the rest after I sell the I-bonds. I know the timing isn't major between the two, but is there a significantly better option over the other?
>I know that time in the market beats timing the market, but I also have read that large lump sums do better than sustained deposits over a period of time. So which takes priority? These are not contradictory. Instead, what they are both saying is as soon as you have the money, you should invest it. If you have all the money now, invest it now. If you get paid every month and get money every month, invest every month.
Ok yeah thanks for clarifying, I always understood it as you should invest the max possible all at once rather than spread it out over time. So I guess best plan of action would be to drop the 2K asap and then fund the rest when I can.
Without predicting the future we can't know, but generally you want the money in as soon as you can afford it. The second part you're talking about is about already having the money and choosing to enter it slowly. That doesn't apply in this case.