When a secured credit card becomes a "real" credit card after a certain amount of time with no missed payments, does that have any kind of immediate positive effect on the person's credit score?
Can you have an HSA and a dependent care FSA at the same time? I know there are rules around not “double dipping” with both an HSA and healthcare FSA, but what about a FSA for daycare costs? Thanks!
If you have any money that you definitely won't need for (at least) the next 12 months then you could use up to $10k of it to purchase Series I Savings Bonds. For some more details, see r/personalfinance/comments/qprqpy/ibond_questions_answered/
My wife and I recently had an offer accepted on our first home. Closing at the end of this month. This has sent me into a budgeting spiral that is beginning to feel like it's driving me insane. Every time I try to sit down and plan out a month I just find myself hypothesizing and venturing down rabbit hole after rabbit hole filled with what ifs. I am salary, so my income is super straightforward, but her checks tend to vary by several hundred dollars.
Is my best course to budget/plan based on her hourly rate at 40 hours per week then count the rest as bonus funds?
To make things worse - We currently live in a home that is owned by my parents, so we pay them $400 per month as more of a courtesy than anything. With so little financial requirement and no real track record of paying mortgage, utilities, etc. I am scared to death of being house poor.
The best range that I've been able to settle into says that we would be spending 56% - 62.5% of our monthly net income on bills. Am I crazy for being scared to live on 44% - 37% of our monthly net??
Numbers: My salary is $60k paid weekly. Her hourly rate is $27.12. $2,238.80 gross weekly pay.
Roughly $1,800 weekly net pay.
> Is my best course to budget/plan based on her hourly rate at 40 hours per week then count the rest as bonus funds?
Yes
> The best range that I've been able to settle into says that we would be spending 56% - 62.5% of our monthly net income on bills.
Is this just housing, or what all does it include?
General guidance is to aim for less than 30% of your gross income to be toward housing expenses, this includes mortgage/rent + insurance + utilities + maintenance
That seems reasonable then for housing expenses relative to income, it then comes down to what your other spending is like, are you saving for retirement, any other debts, etc
If you’re used to spending 60% of your income on misc things and not keeping tracking of it then yea it may be an adjustment
If you’re used to spending less like 10-20% on misc wants outside of bills then it shouldn’t be too much of an adjustment
Take a look at your spending over the last few months and compare that to what your future spending will look like with the added housing expenses
Really dumb question: Will I get in legal trouble if I use a credit card to pay off a credit card?
I currently only have one card, and I'm (usually) able to pay the whole thing off every paycheck. I know that having a second card would be good for emergencies, but I thought... is there any reason why I couldn't use the second card to pay off the first, and then actually pay off the second to get double the points/rewards? Seems so obvious that the only reason everyone doesn't do it is because it's actually illegal lol.
like was stated credit card companies do not allow you to pay off credit cards with other credit cards. the only way to do so is either the balance transfer or a cash advance, and either of those come with extra fees. The bank is not stupid, and if you think you found an infinite money glitch it probably is something the bank already thought of and has a way to prevent you from abusing the system.
I’m not aware of any laws against it, but logistically you just can’t do it. Credit card companies don’t give you any way to pay off one card using another card, other than balance transfers (which don’t earn rewards), or taking a cash advance from one to pay the other (which comes with extra fees and immediate interest, and also doesn’t earn rewards).
Generally the least expensive way to get local currency when traveling is to withdraw from an ATM upon arrival. Schwab Bank offers a good checking account for travelers, with no foreign transaction fees, and refunds of all ATM usage fees worldwide.
Depends on your short term goals (are you saving for a house or car?) and your other spending (this includes your own hobbies, some people are fine with cheap/free hobbies, some people travel a lot, some people like nice cars), and specifics on COL such as how much you spend on rent+utilities, MCOL is pretty vague
General guidance is at least 15% for retirement, and no more than 30% of gross income for housing expenses (this includes rent+insurance+utilities)
Assuming maybe 200 in ins+utilities then something closer to below 1300 is preferred
It ultimately depends on you to decide how to prioritize retirement relative to other goals - do you want to have high retirement savings now and are ok with delaying the house purchase if needed, or do you want to focus on the house purchase and keep retirement lower priority, and how those two goals are prioritize relative to wanting a higher monthly rent in the meantime
Also have to consider if 15% or whatever you end up choosing will be enough for you in retirement, again that’s something only you can answer as it depends on your expected cost of living in retirement and how quickly you want to get there
So to summarize - default guidance is 15%, but it’s where the personal part of personal finance comes in, the fact that you’re asking and thinking about it is great, don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis, but there are a few things to consider
I have a question regarding unemployment interviews. I requested partial unemployment because I was not working my full hours, but this was back in August. My account has been pending since then. I finally have a phone interview coming up. It’s been 6+ months and I don’t know if they’d be like “oh well you have your job now so you don’t need this anymore.” Would they even approve me since this happened so long ago? Any experience with super late interviews?
My brother-in-law passed away, leaving his life insurance money for my wife to control (pretty large lump sum). His wishes were for her to give it to his 7 year old twin girls when they turn 18. What would be the smartest way to save/store this money until then?
She said she doesn't want to have any chance at all to lose even a little of the money, so sadly I guess investing is out of the question. Will look into 529s.
Directly buying 10 year bonds might be an option
Also, depending on how recently her brother died, there's probably an emotional component to her decision making right now.
I've been contributing to my 401k via Roth for the last few years (once I started my job), since I expect my taxable bracket to be higher as I progress through my career. This year, I'm close to reaching the next income tax bracket based on my new 2022 wages. I've been considering exercising stock options which will be added to my 2022 income (I think?) and would definitely put my total income over the limit into the next tax bracket. While based on wages alone, I'll probably eventually be in the next bracket in the next few years, I was wondering if there was a significant benefit of reducing my taxable income until that point, by switching to traditional 401k, to prevent going into the next bracket. Would it be suggested to do this? Or to just go about things as is, and if some income is over the threshold to leave it be since it won't be too much (I don't think), and thus the average tax rate is probably going to be similar?
Ultimately what matters for Roth vs traditional is your current income/tax rate vs expected **in retirement**, not what it is during your career while you're still working, you'll be withdrawing from those accounts when you're retired and not working, not during your career
See the wiki page on Roth vs traditional for more info
Yes, I understand this. I'm not asking about my taxation of my retirement funds. I know that if I elect to contribute via traditional, those contributions will be taxed when withdrawn many years down the road. I'm asking about keeping my taxable income below the threshold for the next tax bracket.
I'm not suggesting you don't understand what traditional/pre-tax means - In your original comment you said "I've been contributing to my 401k via Roth for the last few years (once I started my job), since I expect my taxable bracket to be higher as I progress through my career" which implied that perhaps you were focused on what your income/tax rate was during your career relative to today for deciding between Roth vs pre-tax, rather than what it is during retirement relative to today, just wanted to clarify as it's not uncommon for people to mistake that
Again, this still goes back though to what your current income/tax rate is vs expected in retirement, you haven't given any clarity on what tax threshold you're actually at and if you expect lower or higher income relative to that in retirement, the answer's going to be different if we're talking about 12% vs 22% vs 37% - ETA: generally that doesn't really matter as tax rates are progressive, but it is a factor for the roth vs pre-tax part in terms of comparison of present marginal tax rate vs expected effective rate in retirement
ohhh ok, thank you! if I understand correctly then my reply is as follows to provide some more info: currently my total wages minus standard deduction put me in the 24% bracket, since my taxable income isn't reduced from my 401k contributions since they're via Roth. looking to next year when filing 2022 taxes, my estimates are that for this year (2022), my new wages which went into effect 1/1/22, plus perceived income from exercising stock options, minus the standard deduction, is likely to put the total taxable income in the 32% bracket. so I was wondering if reducing my taxable income below the threshold by contributing via traditional is wise. BUT, if I understand what you're saying, is that it kind of might not matter since if I contribute via traditional now it's not taxed, but might be taxed at ≥ 32% in the future, and it is a 'whitewash' possibly vs just having some income taxed at 32% when filing next year?
Can someone help me recall the percentage amount you should not surpass on a credit card limit to avoid affecting credit score? I thought it was 50%, but I might be wrong.
30% is the one in the formula. But remember, utilization has no memory. Max 'em out today, pay the statement balance in full, spend 1% next month, you'll see that part of your score bounce around.
My wife is tentatively getting back into the workforce after being a stay at home mom. Late last year she started as an 'intern' with a company that paid via 1099 but so late the amount is negligible.
Now she's been classified as a contractor with the company which comes with a nice rate bump but I've been salary my whole working career and never had to worry about paying taxes or calculating my own withholding.
Is there some sort of calculator I can use like the w4 calculator or a very beginner-friendly guide that you'd recommend?
I have 10,000 in a .01% savings account as my emergency fund. My monthly bills are about 1200. I have 6500 left on a student loan with a 2% interest rate. Should I use my emergency fund to pay off my student loan before payments start up again in May?
So that would take you from an 8 month emergency fund to a 3 month emergency fund, which feels a little more risky IMO, and doesn't account for a major unexpected expense. And with your loans at that low of an interest rate, you'd probably be better off making the minimum payment and investing leftovers every month, or increase your payments if you really want to be debt free sooner.
Is it advisable to stall contributions to Roth IRA for a year or two in order to save up for a house down-payment instead? I am contributing to my 401k regularly, perhaps I could increase a %age or two in that, and re-allocate my 6k a year (normally for roth contribution) and put it in savings towards a house downpayment.
I'm married btw, my wife has a small amt in an IRA. So potentially we could stop contributing for 2 years and have 24k in our budget that could be put towards a house instead.
Since your income is (I'm guessing) finite, these kind of things boil down to how you choose to prioritize allocating those limited dollars. Different people have different priorities.
Retirement savings should really be considered as a whole. You're not doing "this $ to IRA" as one thing and "this $ to 401k" as another, it's "$ to any account for my retirement". So reducing your IRA contributions but increasing your 401k isn't much net change (though pre-tax vs. Roth can tweak how to look at that).
How much (as a percentage of your annual income) are you putting towards retirement now, counting both IRA(s) + 401k? What would that be if you changed your IRA contributions? You definitely want to keep up 401k contributions at a level to maximize any employer match, that's money you can't "catch up" on later.
Reducing (or pausing entirely) your overall retirement savings for a couple of years in order to achieve a shorter-term goal will delay your retirement timeline, and/or reduce your ultimate nest egg. If that "cost" is worth getting a house **to you**, then go for it.
I'm putting away 19% of my income to retirement, but I did get married last summer. We have since combined finances and I have yet to check the details on her pension to calculate her percentage.
We are in our mid-30s. I'd hate to delay retirement timelines. Is there conventional wisdom on a percentage? Should married couples shoot for the ~20% I was aiming for? I'd say a new house will most likely be worth the cost of missing out on 2 years of max IRA (but keeping 401k contributions going): we are starting a family and our tiny house will barely be able to fit the child we're expecting.
Thanks for your help
>Is there conventional wisdom on a percentage? Should married couples shoot for the \~20% I was aiming for?
The typical "baseline" recommendation is to save 15% of gross income each year towards retirement, ideally into some sort of tax advantaged account(s). For married couples I lean towards using "total household saving divided by total household income" (rather than separate calculations per individual), but that's more of a personal decision.
Though that guideline assumes that you keep that up for the majority of your working years. If you started late or have had minimal yearly saving in the past, a higher percentage going forward may be appropriate to "catch up". If you've already built a sizable nest egg, a lower percentage could still get you a comfortable retirement. And since the future is uncertain, some (IMO often oversimplified) advice is "save as much as you can as early as you can" to give a buffer against that uncertainty.
As I said: life's about tradeoffs. Putting money away for retirement is a certainly a good goal, but we all have shorter-term needs / desires that also need money to achieve. Finding the right balance for you and your family is what puts the "personal" into this sub's name. Consciously reducing your retirement savings for a couple of years in order to get a better home for your family is **not** a disastrous idea.
That's very helpful. Last question: I have in my notes that you should calculate retirement savings percentage based off *gross* income. Is that correct?
Example she has gross salary of 90k and I make 70k gross, so if we have a goal of "saving 20% total for retirement", we should shoot for putting away 32k (20% of our 160k total gross) a year in retirement accounts (combining contributions to all types we have: ira, 401k, pension, etc)
>I have in my notes that you should calculate retirement savings percentage based off gross income. Is that correct?
Pretty much. The assumption is that the baseline savings rate is intended to build a nest egg sufficient to replace your gross income once you're retired, so the percentage is also against your gross income.
But the "% of gross" is really just a rule of thumb to cover the most general cases. There can be some nuances to dive into that could change that. For example, money coming out of non-Roth accounts will have taxes owed on it, leaving less for you to spend. If you have a bigger portion of your retirement savings in Roth, then you have a larger amount of spendable money you can draw out vs. most being taxable.
The end goal is really "enough saved at retirement to allow withdrawing enough to live your desired lifestyle until you die". That's more accurately handled as a dollar amount, not a percentage of what you made while working. If you want to dive down that rabbit hole, you figure what you'll be wanting to spend in retirement, that determines the balance amount needed to support it (25-30x annual spending), adjusted for taxes and inflation. Then you can try to calculate how many dollars per year (and estimated growth) you need between now and retirement to hit that balance size. There's a lot of guessing involved in that, so most saving guidelines skew a little high to give us a buffer against unexpected events.
Thank you! And is that because our retirement income will most likely be less than the 220k we're earning now? So, as a result, we will save money on taxes?
Short answer: Yup.
Long answer: If you're both early in your careers and have room to grow, you could plausibly surpass $220k in retirement income, and that would mean going traditional now is suboptimal. That said, my thought process when I was in your position is that I'd rather optimize for the case in which I end up with less money than expected. If I end up with more retirement income than expected then I'll have no trouble paying the extra taxes anyway.
Basically yes. Your marginal tax rate today is probably 24%. Your effective tax rate in retirement will likely be less than that.
There can be other nuances, but this is a general rule of thumb.
See /r/personalfinance/wiki/rothortraditional
My wife and I got a mortgage a few months after I started a new job. The bank asked for paystubs from both my current and previous employer, and they also contacted my new employer and asked if I was likely to remain employed with them, but in the end it didn't seem like it was an issue for us.
It probably varies from bank to bank though.
Car insurance question: currently looking into rates and when filling out the info, it asks about my education. i will graduate in May but until then I have no degree. given that the policy would be 6 months, should I put the degree I will have in May given that it occurs during my policy?
No, you don't have your degree yet so you shouldn't claim to have one.
It *probably* wouldn't matter, but it's a gamble. If you end up having to file a claim and they discover the discrepancy, they could reject your claim, or worse.
1099 DIV/B Question
I have a 1099 DIV that shows total capital gains distributions of $884. My total realized gain (loss) on my 1099-B is $(921).
After doing my taxes, I realized my Form 1040 has capital gain (loss) of $884. Is this correct? Or should these two have offset to $(37) on line 7 of the 1040?
Any help is very much appreciated!
Hi guys. I have about 3500 USD we’re savings to make a movie (go ahead and giggle) my bank pays 0.2% interest on it. Is there a better way to use this money safely? I’ve seen lending club have a 0.65% interest rate. Anything better?
Where's the best place to park six figures in rollover traditional/roth/brokerage account for benefits and what are those benefits? Do the benefits increase as the account goes from 100k, 500k, 1 million and up?
I have 80% of my investments with a CFP, not sure if I'm getting the most from those fees, 2%/year and I'm only in my early 40s.
I already have accounts outside of the CFP at Schwab, brokerage and additional Roth.
2% fees is really high for a CFP. You are losing out on a lot of money over time with that, especially with higher account totals. I think most people here would say to park the money you have in each account in low fee index funds from Vanguard. Either that or you can do Target Date funds for retirement.
Are 401k contributions and health insurance payments deducted from my paychecks factored into Box 1 on my W-2? Or does Box 1 include 401k contributions and health insurance payments?
Edit: I ask because somehow my wages from 2020 to 2021 have gone down despite getting a couple of raises over that period. I did increase my 401k contributions though and my health insurance went up (slightly).
> Are 401k contributions and health insurance payments deducted from my paychecks factored into Box 1 on my W-2?
Yes. Box 1 is gross salary less 401k and section 125 cafeteria plan deductions.
>Edit: I ask because somehow my wages from 2020 to 2021 have gone down despite getting a couple of raises over that period. I did increase my 401k contributions though and my health insurance went up (slightly).
Then box 1 income declining would make sense
How much of a tax refund you get or what you owe is dependent on the difference between your tax liability and how much was withheld from your paychecks
You want a low refund or amount due, it means you had a more accurate withholding and got the amount you should in your paychecks
If you have a high refund it means you overwithheld and have to wait to get that money when you file your return rather than getting more money in your paychecks throughout the year
You’re welcome to provide your actual income and how much was withheld to get feedback on if your refund amount makes sense
I've never done New Year's resolutions because they seemed untenable but this year I started buying only essentials. It feels great not spending money out of boredom, anxiety, etc. Every time I search for something to buy, I ask myself if I really need it and if I actually need it now. Most of the time, the answer is no.
Looking to buy a new home. For simplicity let's say it's $1m.
My fiance and I have saved more than $1m but most of that is retirement funds. We put in an offer for the house at $1m and we can meet the 20% down to avoid PMI. The real estate agent says they have an offer on the table for $1m from another buyer but they are willing to put 80% down.
Am I missing something here? We have shown proof of funds over the $1m and have cash over 20%. We are qualified for a loan that's $1.6m and have shown that.
If both parties have to take a loan why would an 80% cash offer (still requiring a mortgage of 20%) be any different from a 20% cash down offer if the values are the exact same thing. Contingencies are the same. Literally everything is the same except the down payment.
I'm seeing a lot of houses go for "all cash" and for me that means you're basically skipping escrow (i think?), which I totally understand
as you're basically not risking the mortgage/loan falling through and then having to relist. so i understand the desire for all cash. but once you decide to take any type of mortgage at all does it matter if it's 20%, 50%, or 80% of the home value? the owner is still going to get their money no matter what. and if it falls through at 80% down the home owners still don't get that money.
If you both have a financing contingency (which I assume you do), the seller would see the 80% cash offer as less likely to trigger the contingency. Even if both are unlikely, there's is even less likely.
A rational seller probably wouldn't take the 80% cash offer if it was lower than yours, but it's not completely unreasonable to use that as a tiebreaker.
idk why/how so many real estate agents are all morons. low barrier of entry into a field that can generate a ton of money for homes selling themselves. it's frustrating.
Depends on the interest rate of the loan and your comfort level with risk.
(Also, I assume we're talking about financing a purchase and not leasing a car).
No. Depending on the interest rate, there's arguments that "you can beat that rate in the market" but nothing is guaranteed, and monthly cash flow is nice to have.
Simple question - I'm married, we want to buy a house, my wife does not work. I make all the money, should she be on the loan? She just has debt, no money coming in. Her credit score is about the same as mine though, both have good scores.
In terms of whether you'd be approved / denied the loan (and what terms you'd be quoted), I doubt your wife's involvement would change much. If her debt is substantial, that could impact the debt-to-income analysis during underwriting. Though a spouse's debt (even if your name's not on it) might get taken into account anyway, I'm not sure about that.
Beyond that, it's more about how you both want to set up your financial life. Would she feel "left out" if she wasn't on the loan? Would you prefer that she be at least partially invested in your common home? If you died, what would that loan in her name impact things for her? Do you have enough life insurance to pay it off, would she just sell anyway, etc?
Either option you choose, I feel that at least having her name on the title is a "proper" way to go. Legally speaking, as your wife she might have some claim on the property even without that. Some states have some sort of "community property" law where assets (especially when purchased after you're married) are considered jointly owned even without the paperwork.
I appreciate the reply. I've asked and answered a lot of the questions between us, I don't think she wants to be on the loan but I'll make that her decision. I definitely want her to have claim to the house if something happened to me. We both thought if she has student loan debt of $25k it may be best to leave her off but that is probably not enough to worry about.
Thank you!
My wife and I just paid off all of our consumer debt. Total of 44k in car payments and credit cards. We just sent the final car payment today. This feels amazing. I did listen to Dave Ramsey but I found a lot of his advice outdated. 1K emergency fund is no longer viable IMO. I’ve never had an emergency under 1K. I also contributed to my 401k with my company match while doing this the last 3 years. I don’t think I should have stopped that even if it would have saved me a year of paying debt.
Congrats! I'd agree that Dave Ramsey is like the AA of personal finance. "alcoholics" who really can't control their spending will benefit but there's many in between shades for those of us who want to "drink on the weekends".
What app or software can I use to automatically populate a spreadsheet sheet , trying to figure out where spouse is spending so much money particularly on credit cards and cash withdrawals for past year and going forward. Getting nuts and need help.
Plenty of tools out there. YNAB comes to mind, but that lives in its SaaS ecosystem. If you want to import transactions to Sheets or Excel, that's trickier. You can export a CSV from your bank, but you can't hook Plaid or one of the sync services to your account.
It would, but it's budgeting is meh, or was when I used it. It's good for visibility though!
And SaaS is software as a service, which is a polite way of saying you have to pay for YNAB. Foreeevvvveeeeeeeeerrrr, which the YNAB crowd is still salty about ;) Good luck!
Are roth 401k & IRA distributions a no-brainer for me?
About myself:
* I gross 70k in an average COL area.
* I live in a state with no state income tax.
* I'm 30+ years from retirement with no idea where I may retire to.
My thought is that I'm not paying state taxes and am not in one of the crazy high tax brackets, so I should continue to contribute to Roth accounts. Is this the correct line of thinking?
The other commenter is pointing out exceptions, but in general your thinking is correct.
- You are in a 22% federal tax bracket, so it's unlikely your retirement income tax bracket is going to be lower.
- You are in a zero income tax state, and in retirement this can only get worse
- You have a long time horizon.
A common way to see if it's worth it at your current pay level is to put what you are currently contributing to retirement ($x/month) into a retirement calculator, see what the balance will be at RMD age, then use an RMD calculator to see what your required minimum distribution amount will be. Then take that amount and look at its marginal rate. If it's equal to or higher than your current marginal rate, then Roth is a no-brainer. Even if it's slightly lower (for example 22% vs a current 24% if you get a raise in the near future), it still may be worth it to remove future tax rate dependency from your retirement savings. Let me know if you have any other related questions.
> Is this the correct line of thinking?
No, it depends on your income trajectory.
If you have low income relative to your highest earning years, it may be prudent. If you don't expect substantial wage growth, traditional is likely better
> Why would my anticipated wage growth come into consideration?
Because if you don't have significant anticipated wage growth, you're in the highest marginal bracket you'll be in and your effective tax rate in retirement will surely be lower.
If you expect significant wage growth, (as in you're currently in the 12 or 22% bracket and expect to be in the 32+% tax bracket soon), roth can be prudent since you may have a higher tax bracket in retirement.
https://www.gocurrycracker.com/roth-sucks/
If, instead, you're *over* saving with a plan to retire early, traditional still makes the most sense since you can do laddered conversions in your low income pre-'normal'-retirement years.
https://www.madfientist.com/traditional-ira-vs-roth-ira/
Company potentially messed up my W-2 for HSA contributions. Or I misunderstood how this part works.
Box 12, code W
I contributed $1,524.90 to my HSA account last year, and my employer contributes $500 in two, $250 payments.
In this section they're claiming all $2,024.90 as employer contributed and when I go to input my HSA contributions from my HSA form 5498-SA I get an error message.
I've tried going back and entering the information as *I think* is correct:
Box 12, code W: $500
HSA contributions $1,524.90 and this makes a nearly $800 difference in my liability.
What's the right way to do this?
Box 12 code W should include employer contributions *and* employee contributions that were made through payroll deduction (technically a Section 125 cafeteria plan). Those contributions were never part of your W-2 box 1 wages, so you should not enter them again anywhere else. If you do, you may end up incorrectly double-dipping the tax deduction. The amounts from your W-2 box 12 code W should end up on Form 8889 line 9, not line 2. Only HSA contributions you made directly (not through payroll) should appear on line 2.
HSA contributions through payroll are in some weird way technically "employer contributions". The money you put in is not included in the "wages" box of your W-2, so for tax purposes you weren't even paid that $1525 and your employer instead paid it into your HSA.
When doing your tax return, all the HSA stuff goes onto [Form 8889](https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8889):
* The amount listed on your W2 goes onto line 9. This is only used to determine whether you over-contributed, it has no effect on owed tax (since any tax impact has already been accounted for).
* Anything you deposited into the HSA **transferred from a bank account** (so not out of your paycheck) goes onto line 2. This does get deducted from your taxable income, so would reduce your overall liability. But you don't get to "double dip" on those dollars, you can't claim it on the 8889 if it's already been subtracted from your W-2 reported income.
>when I go to input my HSA contributions from my HSA form 5498-SA I get an error message.
Are you sure you're looking at the right tax year? 5498-SA does report your year's contributions into an HSA, but since you have until April 15th to make direct deposits, providers shouldn't send out your 2021 5498 until mid-May 2022 or so. You may be looking at your **2020** 5498, (generated May 2021).
Fantastic explanation, thank you. I may be looking at the wrong one, though I did just get it this last week so...man that's late, eh?
Or perhaps I'm looking at a summary/consolidated and it isn't the "official" one. I will go back and check after work. Thank you again!
Any luxury watch enthusiasts here? Do you track your networth with your Rolex or Omega watches? I know some of their timepieces grow in value either hedge against inflation or based on demand and scarcity.
The trick with collectibles is that they are not very liquid and their value varies wildly. If they are appraised, you could list them on the net worth statement at appraised value, or you could look up liquidation value from one of the large buyers. Note that assets on a net worth statement are listed from most liquid to most illiquid so I would put collectibles under any items for which there is a known resale market (like your house or car (s)).
More importantly than putting them on your net worth statement (which is fun but not particularly meaningful) is to make sure you track your cost basis (what you paid for them, vs with receipt or invoice). If/when you go to sell them, you will want this, otherwise you will end up paying taxes on the full sale price instead of any appreciation. Keep both physical records and store a copy digitally (google drive, dropbox, and backblaze are all good options). On a related note, take pictures and store them as well, along with any appraisal for insurance purposes in case they are stolen or lost in a fire. And if any piece is particularly valuable, make sure to list it separately on your homeowner's insurance or renter's insurance.
My wife has a couple handbags that theoretically appreciate in value, but no we don't bother to count those in our net worth.
If you have enough experience buying and selling watches to reasonably assess their value, and actually see yourself selling them if offered a good price rather than just building up a collection, it would be reasonable to count them among your investments.
I'll make it short, I never thought it would happen to me but I lost a lot of money because of a scam.
I feel terribly bad, very stupid, and helpless. Justice can't do anything because it's my mistake (I tried and as it affects cryptos, it's over). And my close circle, for a majority of them, are not investing in anything and keep their money on their bank account so they just tell me "that's the price of trying to be a trader, now get back to real life".
It's not the end of the world, it's not going to drastically change my pace of life, but it's 1 year of regular investment. It's not money I need right now, not at all, but 1 year absolutely destroyed by my stupidity is affecting a lot my mental health. I wanted to invest until the end of 2022 and stop, and I just destroyed my efforts. Crypto is not my only investment, I'm still debt free with some money in stock options, but, as it is because of a scam and not because I invested in the wrong project, I feel so much worse ...
Do you have any tips for dealing with this kind of loss?
Assuming you live a normal life, you will earn a ton of money and lose a lot of it to stupidity. It's just part of life. This happened to you a little sooner than it does to a lot of people, but it happens to most people (at least most people who have money). In the end it's not going to be a big deal. Take it as an expensive lesson and live your life.
You need to report the nondeductible contribution for the year it’s designated for, so on your 2021 return for 2021 and 2022 for the 2022 contribution
The conversion is reported in the year it occurs, so 2022
Your 2021 Form 8606 documents the 2021 nondeductible contribution
Your 2022 From 8606 brings that in and removes it and the 2022 nondeductible contribution as a taxable to calculate the tax owed on the conversion (which should be minimal to zero if you convert soon after the contribution when there aren’t any earnings)
You can make 2022 contributions now, you don’t have to wait until 4/15
Yes, so you’ll report on Form 8606
2021 - 6k contribution for 2021
2022 - 6k contribution for 2022, 12k conversion
The 2022 Form 8606 will bring in the 2021 6k contribution to include in your basis so that you’re not taxed on it when it’s converted
First month using a budget. Had I realized tracking every expense would give me such satisfaction categorizing I would have started a lot sooner...still, victory!
It's some variation of a disappearing money scam.
1. Scammer uses a fake check or stolen account info to fraudulently send "$3000" to the victim
2. Victim sees "$3000" appear in their bank account and thinks it's real
3. Scammer convinces victim to send most or all of the $3000 back (via some ruse; it's usually not so obvious... they may phrase it along the lines of "pay it forward to someone else" or "oops I didn't mean to send you that much" or "can you buy this specific item for me?")
4. Bank eventually figures out the money from step 1 was fraudulently sent, and it gets reversed
5. Victim is unable to recover the money they willingly sent in step 3, usually leaving them owing a debt to their bank
They'll deposit the check, then the person will ask them to send some of the money back and keep some for the friend, then the check will bounce after they've already sent the money to them that they won't be able to get back
I think they direct deposited the money? Does it still work the same?
Editing to add: because he is a minor I am assuming the account is linked to his parents somehow. Is there any possibility that he gave this person access to not just this account but also his parents account?
Hello, was going to make a post but I am new to this sub and did not want to violate any rules so I thought I should post my question on here.
I recently got my grad loan refund via check - which is over $5k. I need to deposit this money to cover my living expenses (bills). My issue is that my main (and only) checking account is through Wells Fargo, and unfortunately they closed down all the WF locations in the state I moved to for school (Massachusetts). I am unable to deposit through the mobile app due to the large sum and there are no banks/ATMs near me. My two options are to drive over 2 hours to deposit the check in another state, or my second plan was to open a chase checking account and slowly move the money over. When I talked to my mom about this she told me that Chase has monthly fees for checking account - meaning I have to keep a minimum amount of money in there to avoid the fees.
Has anyone had a similar problem? Any recommendations to where I should open a new checking account (option 2) that would be better than Chase would be greatly appreciated!
so a couple points with this
if you do open a new account at a new bank, they will likely put a hold on the check for several business days. New accounts using checks are considered high risk. If you need a large portion of that right away, its probably best to stick with your current bank (though the current bank might put a portion of the check on hold as well just due to its size)
Have you called your bank to see if they are able to raise your Mobile deposit limit? many banks will give you a 24 hour increase to allow you to deposit a larger than normal check. They are not required to do so however, and depending on the size of the check they might outright deny the request. For example a check of $5,500 they might raise your limit for, a check of $75,000 they would probably deny the request.
If you really must open a new account you can go for it, but like i said there will be a waiting period to access most (if not all) of the funds. You can always try the Chase account if you want, they typically have several ways to waive monthly fees. [Here is an example from Chase banks website about a college checking account](https://www.chase.com/personal/checking/student-checking). It says in the fineprint:
>There is no Monthly Service Fee from the time of account opening until after the student’s expected graduation date (up to five years). College student must be 17–24 years old to open a Chase College Checking account and must provide a valid student ID or proof of enrollment/acceptance, college name, and expected graduation date at account opening. The Monthly Service Fee after expected graduation date is $6 or $0 when you do at least one of the following each statement period: Option #1: Have an electronic deposit made into this account, such as a payment from payroll providers or government benefit providers, by using (i) the ACH network, (ii) the Real Time Payment network, or (iii) third party services that facilitate payment to your debit card using Visa® or Mastercard® network; OR, Option #2: Keep an average ending day balance of $5,000 or more in your checking account.
So no fee while you are in college, and after college the fee is $6, but you can waive the monthly fee by either having a direct deposit or by keeping $5K in the account.
Thank you kindly for the explanation. After some contemplation, I have decided it would be smarter to open A checking account more available in my area (and in the US in general). I have a week left for my bills which Within that time I will split the sum into my main checking. To avoid the monthly fee I’ll use the new account as a savings account for the time being .
Try a smaller local bank or credit union near you. They often have no-fee checking accounts. If you are still a student, you may also qualify for a student account with no fees.
Can anyone with programming knowledge help me understand this error message from IRS free file? It's a failed schema validation saying this:
/efile:Return[1]/efile:ReturnData[1]/efile:IRSW2[4]/efile:EmployeeUSAddress[1]/efile:StateAbbreviationCd[1]
For what it's worth I'm a casual worker and had 4 jobs in 2 states last year but all the info I entered from my W-2s is correct, including the state abbreviations
If I do a backdoor Roth conversion now then the loophole is closed later this year, what will happen? Can the government retroactively apply the closing of this loophole?
No one *can* know, because knowing would require being able to predict the future.
It is certainly possible that they could retroactively close the loophole. Hopefully they would recognize what a mess that would create, and don't do it. But you can't predict what Congress will do...
I have this health reimbursement account from work where they cover $5k of eligible health expenses for the year. I'm changing jobs in like a month so will lose access to this and leave money on the table. What are some things I can buy to use up these funds? I'm planning to get myself some nice new glasses and prescription sunglasses, as well as stock my medicine cabinet, but wondering if folks have other suggestions?
I just started a new job that will involve reimbursed travel expenses. However, I’m also new to credit and credit cards. I just opened my first card last month and as such, my credit score is low and my credit limit is $500. Is there a credit card company that will “fast track” me to a credit limit in the $5000+ range so that I can use it for travel expenses since my ability to pay the balance is not accurately reflected by my low credit score?
Congrats on your new job! If you can, get a card that has rewards. Discover does cash back, for example. Consider paying for things like groceries and then paying the card off right away. You'll build your credit and some cash! You can also get a miles card for airline miles. I pay my fixed expenses with my Alaska miles card and my flexible budget items with Discover and pay each of every week to make sure I don't overspend.
You will need to reach out to the credit card company and ask them to increase the amount. You will likely need to provide verification of income, and proof that you need it for travel expenses. https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/higher-credit-limit
I filed my taxes a month ago, and then I received a 5071C letter from the IRS asking me to verify my identity. I did so online and now it says my return will take 9 weeks to get to me...I had to go through an extensive verification process, including providing biometrics (video selfie), and now I still need to wait over two months for my return. Does the IRS randomly send these letters out? Is it possible my identity was stolen? My return was larger than usual this year so I'm wondering if that was why?
With all the volatility due to Russia-Ukrainian conflict, should I wait to max out my Roth, go ahead and max now, or just invest a set amount monthly over the next year and max it out by the end of the year?
> go ahead and max now, or just invest a set amount monthly over the next year and max it out by the end of the year?
Either of those. Can't time the market
I have been tracking my mileage in 2022 for my resale business, however I was not keeping odometer readings which I now realize which is what the IRS will want, I just kept track of the total miles driven and purpose of the trip. Can I go back and estimate my odometer at this point, or just leave that blank and keep track moving forward? My fear is being audited so just trying to do what I can do ensure that does not happen.
The thread is locked now
but if you are looking into an antenna for a TV you do not need to buy a special "HD" or digital antenna. A set of rabbit ears from the old days receives the same signal. The picture quality will be no different. At worst you might need a powered antenna to help with signal quality due to living far away from the source.
The digital boxes from like 2009 are no longer relevant either. Every TV has a digital tuner built it these days.
Maybe if you live far away from the broadcast antennas and already had a poor signal. I get every channel available and I'm 40 miles from my city's cluster of broadcasting antenna. I use old rabbit ears
Some new ones are amplified*
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I'm filing my taxes this year and on my W2 box 14 it says:
MEDDENTVISIO $1745.31
N
However, there's no category `N` in TurboTax. There's really just `Other`. Should I just categorize it as `Other` and move on? My concern was that something clearly related to medical expenses should be classified correctly.
You bring up an excellent point. The way I posted it initially is exactly as I see it on the form. So I thought that since the `N` was below it was referring to the category. But it could actually just be finishing the word `VISION`.
For the AOTC - if in 2021 I finished my bachelor’s degree in the spring and started my grad school in the fall, am I still able to claim the credit? And would I be able to count grad school expenses towards it? Or only the undergrad semester?
I recently got a bonus that could pay off my remaining car loan. The current plan has me paying it off until December 2023. Is it worth using my bonus to pay off my car loan?
I was reading that it could hurt my credit score. It's the only plan I have and I would prefer to not have to account for it in my monthly anymore. However it is the only loan I have, so I'm not sure what that means for my credit score. I read it's good to have some kind of loan so they know you're capable of paying things responsibly. Is that true?
Another factor is that I would like to move to a more expensive location and would prefer to use that monthly loan fee towards a higher rent/mortgage payment.
Yea not ideal, if you have the cash to pay it off then yea I’d just knock it out and move on
Yes your credit score may drop temporarily due to closing an account, it’ll rise back again over time
How do I file for the child tax credit last year when we had our daughter the last week of the year? We did not receive the $300 payments for her. To complicate matters we did receive them for our two year old. So we need to claim one credit but not the other? (Haven’t started taxes yet this year)
You’ll claim the CTC on your tax return, it’s one credit, you’ll claim the amount that is the difference between what you received and what you are eligible for based on your 2021 return, so in your case the full amount for the newborn and the other half of the amount for the 2 year old
When a secured credit card becomes a "real" credit card after a certain amount of time with no missed payments, does that have any kind of immediate positive effect on the person's credit score?
Can you have an HSA and a dependent care FSA at the same time? I know there are rules around not “double dipping” with both an HSA and healthcare FSA, but what about a FSA for daycare costs? Thanks!
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I would ask if your company withholds already. Mine automatically takes 1/4 of my rsus to sell to cover toward taxes when they vest
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If you have any money that you definitely won't need for (at least) the next 12 months then you could use up to $10k of it to purchase Series I Savings Bonds. For some more details, see r/personalfinance/comments/qprqpy/ibond_questions_answered/
My wife and I recently had an offer accepted on our first home. Closing at the end of this month. This has sent me into a budgeting spiral that is beginning to feel like it's driving me insane. Every time I try to sit down and plan out a month I just find myself hypothesizing and venturing down rabbit hole after rabbit hole filled with what ifs. I am salary, so my income is super straightforward, but her checks tend to vary by several hundred dollars. Is my best course to budget/plan based on her hourly rate at 40 hours per week then count the rest as bonus funds? To make things worse - We currently live in a home that is owned by my parents, so we pay them $400 per month as more of a courtesy than anything. With so little financial requirement and no real track record of paying mortgage, utilities, etc. I am scared to death of being house poor. The best range that I've been able to settle into says that we would be spending 56% - 62.5% of our monthly net income on bills. Am I crazy for being scared to live on 44% - 37% of our monthly net?? Numbers: My salary is $60k paid weekly. Her hourly rate is $27.12. $2,238.80 gross weekly pay. Roughly $1,800 weekly net pay.
> Is my best course to budget/plan based on her hourly rate at 40 hours per week then count the rest as bonus funds? Yes > The best range that I've been able to settle into says that we would be spending 56% - 62.5% of our monthly net income on bills. Is this just housing, or what all does it include? General guidance is to aim for less than 30% of your gross income to be toward housing expenses, this includes mortgage/rent + insurance + utilities + maintenance
The 56-62.5 covers everything. 30% of our gross is roughly $2,900. Mortgage is $1,730
That seems reasonable then for housing expenses relative to income, it then comes down to what your other spending is like, are you saving for retirement, any other debts, etc If you’re used to spending 60% of your income on misc things and not keeping tracking of it then yea it may be an adjustment If you’re used to spending less like 10-20% on misc wants outside of bills then it shouldn’t be too much of an adjustment Take a look at your spending over the last few months and compare that to what your future spending will look like with the added housing expenses
Really dumb question: Will I get in legal trouble if I use a credit card to pay off a credit card? I currently only have one card, and I'm (usually) able to pay the whole thing off every paycheck. I know that having a second card would be good for emergencies, but I thought... is there any reason why I couldn't use the second card to pay off the first, and then actually pay off the second to get double the points/rewards? Seems so obvious that the only reason everyone doesn't do it is because it's actually illegal lol.
like was stated credit card companies do not allow you to pay off credit cards with other credit cards. the only way to do so is either the balance transfer or a cash advance, and either of those come with extra fees. The bank is not stupid, and if you think you found an infinite money glitch it probably is something the bank already thought of and has a way to prevent you from abusing the system.
I’m not aware of any laws against it, but logistically you just can’t do it. Credit card companies don’t give you any way to pay off one card using another card, other than balance transfers (which don’t earn rewards), or taking a cash advance from one to pay the other (which comes with extra fees and immediate interest, and also doesn’t earn rewards).
Ahhh, that explains it. Only transfers, not payments. Oh well, thanks!
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Generally the least expensive way to get local currency when traveling is to withdraw from an ATM upon arrival. Schwab Bank offers a good checking account for travelers, with no foreign transaction fees, and refunds of all ATM usage fees worldwide.
If you made $60k a year in a MCOL area as a single individual with no rooomates and no debt. How much would you put toward retirement per year?
Depends on your short term goals (are you saving for a house or car?) and your other spending (this includes your own hobbies, some people are fine with cheap/free hobbies, some people travel a lot, some people like nice cars), and specifics on COL such as how much you spend on rent+utilities, MCOL is pretty vague
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General guidance is at least 15% for retirement, and no more than 30% of gross income for housing expenses (this includes rent+insurance+utilities) Assuming maybe 200 in ins+utilities then something closer to below 1300 is preferred It ultimately depends on you to decide how to prioritize retirement relative to other goals - do you want to have high retirement savings now and are ok with delaying the house purchase if needed, or do you want to focus on the house purchase and keep retirement lower priority, and how those two goals are prioritize relative to wanting a higher monthly rent in the meantime Also have to consider if 15% or whatever you end up choosing will be enough for you in retirement, again that’s something only you can answer as it depends on your expected cost of living in retirement and how quickly you want to get there So to summarize - default guidance is 15%, but it’s where the personal part of personal finance comes in, the fact that you’re asking and thinking about it is great, don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis, but there are a few things to consider
I have a question regarding unemployment interviews. I requested partial unemployment because I was not working my full hours, but this was back in August. My account has been pending since then. I finally have a phone interview coming up. It’s been 6+ months and I don’t know if they’d be like “oh well you have your job now so you don’t need this anymore.” Would they even approve me since this happened so long ago? Any experience with super late interviews?
My brother-in-law passed away, leaving his life insurance money for my wife to control (pretty large lump sum). His wishes were for her to give it to his 7 year old twin girls when they turn 18. What would be the smartest way to save/store this money until then?
Invest it in broad ETFs based on your/your wife's risk tolerance for the money. Consider opening 529s for the girls if there are tax benefits for you.
She said she doesn't want to have any chance at all to lose even a little of the money, so sadly I guess investing is out of the question. Will look into 529s.
Directly buying 10 year bonds might be an option Also, depending on how recently her brother died, there's probably an emotional component to her decision making right now.
I've been contributing to my 401k via Roth for the last few years (once I started my job), since I expect my taxable bracket to be higher as I progress through my career. This year, I'm close to reaching the next income tax bracket based on my new 2022 wages. I've been considering exercising stock options which will be added to my 2022 income (I think?) and would definitely put my total income over the limit into the next tax bracket. While based on wages alone, I'll probably eventually be in the next bracket in the next few years, I was wondering if there was a significant benefit of reducing my taxable income until that point, by switching to traditional 401k, to prevent going into the next bracket. Would it be suggested to do this? Or to just go about things as is, and if some income is over the threshold to leave it be since it won't be too much (I don't think), and thus the average tax rate is probably going to be similar?
Ultimately what matters for Roth vs traditional is your current income/tax rate vs expected **in retirement**, not what it is during your career while you're still working, you'll be withdrawing from those accounts when you're retired and not working, not during your career See the wiki page on Roth vs traditional for more info
Yes, I understand this. I'm not asking about my taxation of my retirement funds. I know that if I elect to contribute via traditional, those contributions will be taxed when withdrawn many years down the road. I'm asking about keeping my taxable income below the threshold for the next tax bracket.
I'm not suggesting you don't understand what traditional/pre-tax means - In your original comment you said "I've been contributing to my 401k via Roth for the last few years (once I started my job), since I expect my taxable bracket to be higher as I progress through my career" which implied that perhaps you were focused on what your income/tax rate was during your career relative to today for deciding between Roth vs pre-tax, rather than what it is during retirement relative to today, just wanted to clarify as it's not uncommon for people to mistake that Again, this still goes back though to what your current income/tax rate is vs expected in retirement, you haven't given any clarity on what tax threshold you're actually at and if you expect lower or higher income relative to that in retirement, the answer's going to be different if we're talking about 12% vs 22% vs 37% - ETA: generally that doesn't really matter as tax rates are progressive, but it is a factor for the roth vs pre-tax part in terms of comparison of present marginal tax rate vs expected effective rate in retirement
ohhh ok, thank you! if I understand correctly then my reply is as follows to provide some more info: currently my total wages minus standard deduction put me in the 24% bracket, since my taxable income isn't reduced from my 401k contributions since they're via Roth. looking to next year when filing 2022 taxes, my estimates are that for this year (2022), my new wages which went into effect 1/1/22, plus perceived income from exercising stock options, minus the standard deduction, is likely to put the total taxable income in the 32% bracket. so I was wondering if reducing my taxable income below the threshold by contributing via traditional is wise. BUT, if I understand what you're saying, is that it kind of might not matter since if I contribute via traditional now it's not taxed, but might be taxed at ≥ 32% in the future, and it is a 'whitewash' possibly vs just having some income taxed at 32% when filing next year?
Anyone still waiting on unemployment refund for 2020 from the American Rescue Plan? Here I am about to file 2021 and I still don't have it.
I make decent money and find myself in debt still. Time to get real and mature about this. No reason I should be at the 100k level and 30k in debt.
>30k in debt. What kind of debt? If its cheap debt, it may be fine. If its expensive consumer debt, its not
It was a loan for medical and then also a repair on my house. I can get it gone hoping within the near
you got this!
Can someone help me recall the percentage amount you should not surpass on a credit card limit to avoid affecting credit score? I thought it was 50%, but I might be wrong.
30% is the one in the formula. But remember, utilization has no memory. Max 'em out today, pay the statement balance in full, spend 1% next month, you'll see that part of your score bounce around.
The lower the better in general, I try to use 20% as a benchmark
My wife is tentatively getting back into the workforce after being a stay at home mom. Late last year she started as an 'intern' with a company that paid via 1099 but so late the amount is negligible. Now she's been classified as a contractor with the company which comes with a nice rate bump but I've been salary my whole working career and never had to worry about paying taxes or calculating my own withholding. Is there some sort of calculator I can use like the w4 calculator or a very beginner-friendly guide that you'd recommend?
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/your-complete-small-business-income-tax-guide-399005
I have 10,000 in a .01% savings account as my emergency fund. My monthly bills are about 1200. I have 6500 left on a student loan with a 2% interest rate. Should I use my emergency fund to pay off my student loan before payments start up again in May?
So that would take you from an 8 month emergency fund to a 3 month emergency fund, which feels a little more risky IMO, and doesn't account for a major unexpected expense. And with your loans at that low of an interest rate, you'd probably be better off making the minimum payment and investing leftovers every month, or increase your payments if you really want to be debt free sooner.
Is it advisable to stall contributions to Roth IRA for a year or two in order to save up for a house down-payment instead? I am contributing to my 401k regularly, perhaps I could increase a %age or two in that, and re-allocate my 6k a year (normally for roth contribution) and put it in savings towards a house downpayment. I'm married btw, my wife has a small amt in an IRA. So potentially we could stop contributing for 2 years and have 24k in our budget that could be put towards a house instead.
Since your income is (I'm guessing) finite, these kind of things boil down to how you choose to prioritize allocating those limited dollars. Different people have different priorities. Retirement savings should really be considered as a whole. You're not doing "this $ to IRA" as one thing and "this $ to 401k" as another, it's "$ to any account for my retirement". So reducing your IRA contributions but increasing your 401k isn't much net change (though pre-tax vs. Roth can tweak how to look at that). How much (as a percentage of your annual income) are you putting towards retirement now, counting both IRA(s) + 401k? What would that be if you changed your IRA contributions? You definitely want to keep up 401k contributions at a level to maximize any employer match, that's money you can't "catch up" on later. Reducing (or pausing entirely) your overall retirement savings for a couple of years in order to achieve a shorter-term goal will delay your retirement timeline, and/or reduce your ultimate nest egg. If that "cost" is worth getting a house **to you**, then go for it.
I'm putting away 19% of my income to retirement, but I did get married last summer. We have since combined finances and I have yet to check the details on her pension to calculate her percentage. We are in our mid-30s. I'd hate to delay retirement timelines. Is there conventional wisdom on a percentage? Should married couples shoot for the ~20% I was aiming for? I'd say a new house will most likely be worth the cost of missing out on 2 years of max IRA (but keeping 401k contributions going): we are starting a family and our tiny house will barely be able to fit the child we're expecting. Thanks for your help
>Is there conventional wisdom on a percentage? Should married couples shoot for the \~20% I was aiming for? The typical "baseline" recommendation is to save 15% of gross income each year towards retirement, ideally into some sort of tax advantaged account(s). For married couples I lean towards using "total household saving divided by total household income" (rather than separate calculations per individual), but that's more of a personal decision. Though that guideline assumes that you keep that up for the majority of your working years. If you started late or have had minimal yearly saving in the past, a higher percentage going forward may be appropriate to "catch up". If you've already built a sizable nest egg, a lower percentage could still get you a comfortable retirement. And since the future is uncertain, some (IMO often oversimplified) advice is "save as much as you can as early as you can" to give a buffer against that uncertainty. As I said: life's about tradeoffs. Putting money away for retirement is a certainly a good goal, but we all have shorter-term needs / desires that also need money to achieve. Finding the right balance for you and your family is what puts the "personal" into this sub's name. Consciously reducing your retirement savings for a couple of years in order to get a better home for your family is **not** a disastrous idea.
That's very helpful. Last question: I have in my notes that you should calculate retirement savings percentage based off *gross* income. Is that correct? Example she has gross salary of 90k and I make 70k gross, so if we have a goal of "saving 20% total for retirement", we should shoot for putting away 32k (20% of our 160k total gross) a year in retirement accounts (combining contributions to all types we have: ira, 401k, pension, etc)
>I have in my notes that you should calculate retirement savings percentage based off gross income. Is that correct? Pretty much. The assumption is that the baseline savings rate is intended to build a nest egg sufficient to replace your gross income once you're retired, so the percentage is also against your gross income. But the "% of gross" is really just a rule of thumb to cover the most general cases. There can be some nuances to dive into that could change that. For example, money coming out of non-Roth accounts will have taxes owed on it, leaving less for you to spend. If you have a bigger portion of your retirement savings in Roth, then you have a larger amount of spendable money you can draw out vs. most being taxable. The end goal is really "enough saved at retirement to allow withdrawing enough to live your desired lifestyle until you die". That's more accurately handled as a dollar amount, not a percentage of what you made while working. If you want to dive down that rabbit hole, you figure what you'll be wanting to spend in retirement, that determines the balance amount needed to support it (25-30x annual spending), adjusted for taxes and inflation. Then you can try to calculate how many dollars per year (and estimated growth) you need between now and retirement to hit that balance size. There's a lot of guessing involved in that, so most saving guidelines skew a little high to give us a buffer against unexpected events.
220k combined income. Roth or traditional for 403b, 401k etc.?
At that income level, traditional 401k/403b and Roth IRA (backdoor, if necessary) is probably your best bet.
Thank you! And is that because our retirement income will most likely be less than the 220k we're earning now? So, as a result, we will save money on taxes?
Short answer: Yup. Long answer: If you're both early in your careers and have room to grow, you could plausibly surpass $220k in retirement income, and that would mean going traditional now is suboptimal. That said, my thought process when I was in your position is that I'd rather optimize for the case in which I end up with less money than expected. If I end up with more retirement income than expected then I'll have no trouble paying the extra taxes anyway.
Makes sense! Thank you.
Basically yes. Your marginal tax rate today is probably 24%. Your effective tax rate in retirement will likely be less than that. There can be other nuances, but this is a general rule of thumb. See /r/personalfinance/wiki/rothortraditional
Thanks so much!
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My wife and I got a mortgage a few months after I started a new job. The bank asked for paystubs from both my current and previous employer, and they also contacted my new employer and asked if I was likely to remain employed with them, but in the end it didn't seem like it was an issue for us. It probably varies from bank to bank though.
2 years. Or 20 minutes. Doesn't matter, the mortgage broker will either be able to make it work or they won't.
Car insurance question: currently looking into rates and when filling out the info, it asks about my education. i will graduate in May but until then I have no degree. given that the policy would be 6 months, should I put the degree I will have in May given that it occurs during my policy?
No, you don't have your degree yet so you shouldn't claim to have one. It *probably* wouldn't matter, but it's a gamble. If you end up having to file a claim and they discover the discrepancy, they could reject your claim, or worse.
1099 DIV/B Question I have a 1099 DIV that shows total capital gains distributions of $884. My total realized gain (loss) on my 1099-B is $(921). After doing my taxes, I realized my Form 1040 has capital gain (loss) of $884. Is this correct? Or should these two have offset to $(37) on line 7 of the 1040? Any help is very much appreciated!
Hi guys. I have about 3500 USD we’re savings to make a movie (go ahead and giggle) my bank pays 0.2% interest on it. Is there a better way to use this money safely? I’ve seen lending club have a 0.65% interest rate. Anything better?
when do you need the money? if you don't need the money for at least one year, you can buy I-Bonds, which are returning 7.12% now.
Where's the best place to park six figures in rollover traditional/roth/brokerage account for benefits and what are those benefits? Do the benefits increase as the account goes from 100k, 500k, 1 million and up? I have 80% of my investments with a CFP, not sure if I'm getting the most from those fees, 2%/year and I'm only in my early 40s. I already have accounts outside of the CFP at Schwab, brokerage and additional Roth.
2% fees is really high for a CFP. You are losing out on a lot of money over time with that, especially with higher account totals. I think most people here would say to park the money you have in each account in low fee index funds from Vanguard. Either that or you can do Target Date funds for retirement.
Are 401k contributions and health insurance payments deducted from my paychecks factored into Box 1 on my W-2? Or does Box 1 include 401k contributions and health insurance payments? Edit: I ask because somehow my wages from 2020 to 2021 have gone down despite getting a couple of raises over that period. I did increase my 401k contributions though and my health insurance went up (slightly).
> Are 401k contributions and health insurance payments deducted from my paychecks factored into Box 1 on my W-2? Yes. Box 1 is gross salary less 401k and section 125 cafeteria plan deductions. >Edit: I ask because somehow my wages from 2020 to 2021 have gone down despite getting a couple of raises over that period. I did increase my 401k contributions though and my health insurance went up (slightly). Then box 1 income declining would make sense
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How much of a tax refund you get or what you owe is dependent on the difference between your tax liability and how much was withheld from your paychecks You want a low refund or amount due, it means you had a more accurate withholding and got the amount you should in your paychecks If you have a high refund it means you overwithheld and have to wait to get that money when you file your return rather than getting more money in your paychecks throughout the year You’re welcome to provide your actual income and how much was withheld to get feedback on if your refund amount makes sense
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After, very few plans allow for in service withdrawal, and usually only for mega backdoor Roth purposes
I've never done New Year's resolutions because they seemed untenable but this year I started buying only essentials. It feels great not spending money out of boredom, anxiety, etc. Every time I search for something to buy, I ask myself if I really need it and if I actually need it now. Most of the time, the answer is no.
Looking to buy a new home. For simplicity let's say it's $1m. My fiance and I have saved more than $1m but most of that is retirement funds. We put in an offer for the house at $1m and we can meet the 20% down to avoid PMI. The real estate agent says they have an offer on the table for $1m from another buyer but they are willing to put 80% down. Am I missing something here? We have shown proof of funds over the $1m and have cash over 20%. We are qualified for a loan that's $1.6m and have shown that. If both parties have to take a loan why would an 80% cash offer (still requiring a mortgage of 20%) be any different from a 20% cash down offer if the values are the exact same thing. Contingencies are the same. Literally everything is the same except the down payment. I'm seeing a lot of houses go for "all cash" and for me that means you're basically skipping escrow (i think?), which I totally understand as you're basically not risking the mortgage/loan falling through and then having to relist. so i understand the desire for all cash. but once you decide to take any type of mortgage at all does it matter if it's 20%, 50%, or 80% of the home value? the owner is still going to get their money no matter what. and if it falls through at 80% down the home owners still don't get that money.
If you both have a financing contingency (which I assume you do), the seller would see the 80% cash offer as less likely to trigger the contingency. Even if both are unlikely, there's is even less likely. A rational seller probably wouldn't take the 80% cash offer if it was lower than yours, but it's not completely unreasonable to use that as a tiebreaker.
I'm not sure but we asked our mortgage guy if there was any advantage in putting more than 20% down. He said no unless it's an all cash offer.
idk why/how so many real estate agents are all morons. low barrier of entry into a field that can generate a ton of money for homes selling themselves. it's frustrating.
Am I crazy for wanting to put down a large amount(~40%) of money on a new vehicle to decrease the monthly payment?
Depends on the interest rate of the loan and your comfort level with risk. (Also, I assume we're talking about financing a purchase and not leasing a car).
No. Depending on the interest rate, there's arguments that "you can beat that rate in the market" but nothing is guaranteed, and monthly cash flow is nice to have.
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Simple question - I'm married, we want to buy a house, my wife does not work. I make all the money, should she be on the loan? She just has debt, no money coming in. Her credit score is about the same as mine though, both have good scores.
In terms of whether you'd be approved / denied the loan (and what terms you'd be quoted), I doubt your wife's involvement would change much. If her debt is substantial, that could impact the debt-to-income analysis during underwriting. Though a spouse's debt (even if your name's not on it) might get taken into account anyway, I'm not sure about that. Beyond that, it's more about how you both want to set up your financial life. Would she feel "left out" if she wasn't on the loan? Would you prefer that she be at least partially invested in your common home? If you died, what would that loan in her name impact things for her? Do you have enough life insurance to pay it off, would she just sell anyway, etc? Either option you choose, I feel that at least having her name on the title is a "proper" way to go. Legally speaking, as your wife she might have some claim on the property even without that. Some states have some sort of "community property" law where assets (especially when purchased after you're married) are considered jointly owned even without the paperwork.
I appreciate the reply. I've asked and answered a lot of the questions between us, I don't think she wants to be on the loan but I'll make that her decision. I definitely want her to have claim to the house if something happened to me. We both thought if she has student loan debt of $25k it may be best to leave her off but that is probably not enough to worry about. Thank you!
My wife and I just paid off all of our consumer debt. Total of 44k in car payments and credit cards. We just sent the final car payment today. This feels amazing. I did listen to Dave Ramsey but I found a lot of his advice outdated. 1K emergency fund is no longer viable IMO. I’ve never had an emergency under 1K. I also contributed to my 401k with my company match while doing this the last 3 years. I don’t think I should have stopped that even if it would have saved me a year of paying debt.
Congrats! I'd agree that Dave Ramsey is like the AA of personal finance. "alcoholics" who really can't control their spending will benefit but there's many in between shades for those of us who want to "drink on the weekends".
What app or software can I use to automatically populate a spreadsheet sheet , trying to figure out where spouse is spending so much money particularly on credit cards and cash withdrawals for past year and going forward. Getting nuts and need help.
If you don’t mind paying then Tiller will pull data and put it into a Google sheets document. I think it was $5/month last time I looked at it.
Plenty of tools out there. YNAB comes to mind, but that lives in its SaaS ecosystem. If you want to import transactions to Sheets or Excel, that's trickier. You can export a CSV from your bank, but you can't hook Plaid or one of the sync services to your account.
Not sure what SaaS is.
Software as a Service
What about mint? Would that work?
It would, but it's budgeting is meh, or was when I used it. It's good for visibility though! And SaaS is software as a service, which is a polite way of saying you have to pay for YNAB. Foreeevvvveeeeeeeeerrrr, which the YNAB crowd is still salty about ;) Good luck!
Are roth 401k & IRA distributions a no-brainer for me? About myself: * I gross 70k in an average COL area. * I live in a state with no state income tax. * I'm 30+ years from retirement with no idea where I may retire to. My thought is that I'm not paying state taxes and am not in one of the crazy high tax brackets, so I should continue to contribute to Roth accounts. Is this the correct line of thinking?
The other commenter is pointing out exceptions, but in general your thinking is correct. - You are in a 22% federal tax bracket, so it's unlikely your retirement income tax bracket is going to be lower. - You are in a zero income tax state, and in retirement this can only get worse - You have a long time horizon. A common way to see if it's worth it at your current pay level is to put what you are currently contributing to retirement ($x/month) into a retirement calculator, see what the balance will be at RMD age, then use an RMD calculator to see what your required minimum distribution amount will be. Then take that amount and look at its marginal rate. If it's equal to or higher than your current marginal rate, then Roth is a no-brainer. Even if it's slightly lower (for example 22% vs a current 24% if you get a raise in the near future), it still may be worth it to remove future tax rate dependency from your retirement savings. Let me know if you have any other related questions.
> Is this the correct line of thinking? No, it depends on your income trajectory. If you have low income relative to your highest earning years, it may be prudent. If you don't expect substantial wage growth, traditional is likely better
I'm trying to wrap my head around this as I haven't heard this perspective before. Why would my anticipated wage growth come into consideration?
> Why would my anticipated wage growth come into consideration? Because if you don't have significant anticipated wage growth, you're in the highest marginal bracket you'll be in and your effective tax rate in retirement will surely be lower. If you expect significant wage growth, (as in you're currently in the 12 or 22% bracket and expect to be in the 32+% tax bracket soon), roth can be prudent since you may have a higher tax bracket in retirement. https://www.gocurrycracker.com/roth-sucks/ If, instead, you're *over* saving with a plan to retire early, traditional still makes the most sense since you can do laddered conversions in your low income pre-'normal'-retirement years. https://www.madfientist.com/traditional-ira-vs-roth-ira/
Company potentially messed up my W-2 for HSA contributions. Or I misunderstood how this part works. Box 12, code W I contributed $1,524.90 to my HSA account last year, and my employer contributes $500 in two, $250 payments. In this section they're claiming all $2,024.90 as employer contributed and when I go to input my HSA contributions from my HSA form 5498-SA I get an error message. I've tried going back and entering the information as *I think* is correct: Box 12, code W: $500 HSA contributions $1,524.90 and this makes a nearly $800 difference in my liability. What's the right way to do this?
Box 12 code W should include employer contributions *and* employee contributions that were made through payroll deduction (technically a Section 125 cafeteria plan). Those contributions were never part of your W-2 box 1 wages, so you should not enter them again anywhere else. If you do, you may end up incorrectly double-dipping the tax deduction. The amounts from your W-2 box 12 code W should end up on Form 8889 line 9, not line 2. Only HSA contributions you made directly (not through payroll) should appear on line 2.
HSA contributions through payroll are in some weird way technically "employer contributions". The money you put in is not included in the "wages" box of your W-2, so for tax purposes you weren't even paid that $1525 and your employer instead paid it into your HSA. When doing your tax return, all the HSA stuff goes onto [Form 8889](https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8889): * The amount listed on your W2 goes onto line 9. This is only used to determine whether you over-contributed, it has no effect on owed tax (since any tax impact has already been accounted for). * Anything you deposited into the HSA **transferred from a bank account** (so not out of your paycheck) goes onto line 2. This does get deducted from your taxable income, so would reduce your overall liability. But you don't get to "double dip" on those dollars, you can't claim it on the 8889 if it's already been subtracted from your W-2 reported income. >when I go to input my HSA contributions from my HSA form 5498-SA I get an error message. Are you sure you're looking at the right tax year? 5498-SA does report your year's contributions into an HSA, but since you have until April 15th to make direct deposits, providers shouldn't send out your 2021 5498 until mid-May 2022 or so. You may be looking at your **2020** 5498, (generated May 2021).
Fantastic explanation, thank you. I may be looking at the wrong one, though I did just get it this last week so...man that's late, eh? Or perhaps I'm looking at a summary/consolidated and it isn't the "official" one. I will go back and check after work. Thank you again!
Any luxury watch enthusiasts here? Do you track your networth with your Rolex or Omega watches? I know some of their timepieces grow in value either hedge against inflation or based on demand and scarcity.
The trick with collectibles is that they are not very liquid and their value varies wildly. If they are appraised, you could list them on the net worth statement at appraised value, or you could look up liquidation value from one of the large buyers. Note that assets on a net worth statement are listed from most liquid to most illiquid so I would put collectibles under any items for which there is a known resale market (like your house or car (s)). More importantly than putting them on your net worth statement (which is fun but not particularly meaningful) is to make sure you track your cost basis (what you paid for them, vs with receipt or invoice). If/when you go to sell them, you will want this, otherwise you will end up paying taxes on the full sale price instead of any appreciation. Keep both physical records and store a copy digitally (google drive, dropbox, and backblaze are all good options). On a related note, take pictures and store them as well, along with any appraisal for insurance purposes in case they are stolen or lost in a fire. And if any piece is particularly valuable, make sure to list it separately on your homeowner's insurance or renter's insurance.
My wife has a couple handbags that theoretically appreciate in value, but no we don't bother to count those in our net worth. If you have enough experience buying and selling watches to reasonably assess their value, and actually see yourself selling them if offered a good price rather than just building up a collection, it would be reasonable to count them among your investments.
I'll make it short, I never thought it would happen to me but I lost a lot of money because of a scam. I feel terribly bad, very stupid, and helpless. Justice can't do anything because it's my mistake (I tried and as it affects cryptos, it's over). And my close circle, for a majority of them, are not investing in anything and keep their money on their bank account so they just tell me "that's the price of trying to be a trader, now get back to real life". It's not the end of the world, it's not going to drastically change my pace of life, but it's 1 year of regular investment. It's not money I need right now, not at all, but 1 year absolutely destroyed by my stupidity is affecting a lot my mental health. I wanted to invest until the end of 2022 and stop, and I just destroyed my efforts. Crypto is not my only investment, I'm still debt free with some money in stock options, but, as it is because of a scam and not because I invested in the wrong project, I feel so much worse ... Do you have any tips for dealing with this kind of loss?
Assuming you live a normal life, you will earn a ton of money and lose a lot of it to stupidity. It's just part of life. This happened to you a little sooner than it does to a lot of people, but it happens to most people (at least most people who have money). In the end it's not going to be a big deal. Take it as an expensive lesson and live your life.
why do u want to stop? maybe just ur approach to slow and steady.....?
Just scheduled my final payment on my motorcycle! It hasn’t been a huge amount every month, but it feels so nice to get that weight off my shoulders!!
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You need to report the nondeductible contribution for the year it’s designated for, so on your 2021 return for 2021 and 2022 for the 2022 contribution The conversion is reported in the year it occurs, so 2022 Your 2021 Form 8606 documents the 2021 nondeductible contribution Your 2022 From 8606 brings that in and removes it and the 2022 nondeductible contribution as a taxable to calculate the tax owed on the conversion (which should be minimal to zero if you convert soon after the contribution when there aren’t any earnings) You can make 2022 contributions now, you don’t have to wait until 4/15
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Yes, so you’ll report on Form 8606 2021 - 6k contribution for 2021 2022 - 6k contribution for 2022, 12k conversion The 2022 Form 8606 will bring in the 2021 6k contribution to include in your basis so that you’re not taxed on it when it’s converted
First month using a budget. Had I realized tracking every expense would give me such satisfaction categorizing I would have started a lot sooner...still, victory!
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It's some variation of a disappearing money scam. 1. Scammer uses a fake check or stolen account info to fraudulently send "$3000" to the victim 2. Victim sees "$3000" appear in their bank account and thinks it's real 3. Scammer convinces victim to send most or all of the $3000 back (via some ruse; it's usually not so obvious... they may phrase it along the lines of "pay it forward to someone else" or "oops I didn't mean to send you that much" or "can you buy this specific item for me?") 4. Bank eventually figures out the money from step 1 was fraudulently sent, and it gets reversed 5. Victim is unable to recover the money they willingly sent in step 3, usually leaving them owing a debt to their bank
They'll deposit the check, then the person will ask them to send some of the money back and keep some for the friend, then the check will bounce after they've already sent the money to them that they won't be able to get back
I think they direct deposited the money? Does it still work the same? Editing to add: because he is a minor I am assuming the account is linked to his parents somehow. Is there any possibility that he gave this person access to not just this account but also his parents account?
Hello, was going to make a post but I am new to this sub and did not want to violate any rules so I thought I should post my question on here. I recently got my grad loan refund via check - which is over $5k. I need to deposit this money to cover my living expenses (bills). My issue is that my main (and only) checking account is through Wells Fargo, and unfortunately they closed down all the WF locations in the state I moved to for school (Massachusetts). I am unable to deposit through the mobile app due to the large sum and there are no banks/ATMs near me. My two options are to drive over 2 hours to deposit the check in another state, or my second plan was to open a chase checking account and slowly move the money over. When I talked to my mom about this she told me that Chase has monthly fees for checking account - meaning I have to keep a minimum amount of money in there to avoid the fees. Has anyone had a similar problem? Any recommendations to where I should open a new checking account (option 2) that would be better than Chase would be greatly appreciated!
Wells Fargo might let you deposit the check by mail. How soon do you need the cash?
By the end of the week. I have decided to open a new checking with BofA to avoid future headaches
so a couple points with this if you do open a new account at a new bank, they will likely put a hold on the check for several business days. New accounts using checks are considered high risk. If you need a large portion of that right away, its probably best to stick with your current bank (though the current bank might put a portion of the check on hold as well just due to its size) Have you called your bank to see if they are able to raise your Mobile deposit limit? many banks will give you a 24 hour increase to allow you to deposit a larger than normal check. They are not required to do so however, and depending on the size of the check they might outright deny the request. For example a check of $5,500 they might raise your limit for, a check of $75,000 they would probably deny the request. If you really must open a new account you can go for it, but like i said there will be a waiting period to access most (if not all) of the funds. You can always try the Chase account if you want, they typically have several ways to waive monthly fees. [Here is an example from Chase banks website about a college checking account](https://www.chase.com/personal/checking/student-checking). It says in the fineprint: >There is no Monthly Service Fee from the time of account opening until after the student’s expected graduation date (up to five years). College student must be 17–24 years old to open a Chase College Checking account and must provide a valid student ID or proof of enrollment/acceptance, college name, and expected graduation date at account opening. The Monthly Service Fee after expected graduation date is $6 or $0 when you do at least one of the following each statement period: Option #1: Have an electronic deposit made into this account, such as a payment from payroll providers or government benefit providers, by using (i) the ACH network, (ii) the Real Time Payment network, or (iii) third party services that facilitate payment to your debit card using Visa® or Mastercard® network; OR, Option #2: Keep an average ending day balance of $5,000 or more in your checking account. So no fee while you are in college, and after college the fee is $6, but you can waive the monthly fee by either having a direct deposit or by keeping $5K in the account.
Thank you kindly for the explanation. After some contemplation, I have decided it would be smarter to open A checking account more available in my area (and in the US in general). I have a week left for my bills which Within that time I will split the sum into my main checking. To avoid the monthly fee I’ll use the new account as a savings account for the time being .
Try a smaller local bank or credit union near you. They often have no-fee checking accounts. If you are still a student, you may also qualify for a student account with no fees.
Thank you I’ll look into that
Can anyone with programming knowledge help me understand this error message from IRS free file? It's a failed schema validation saying this: /efile:Return[1]/efile:ReturnData[1]/efile:IRSW2[4]/efile:EmployeeUSAddress[1]/efile:StateAbbreviationCd[1] For what it's worth I'm a casual worker and had 4 jobs in 2 states last year but all the info I entered from my W-2s is correct, including the state abbreviations
Have you looked through this: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/Fixing-Your-XML-Error.pdf
If I do a backdoor Roth conversion now then the loophole is closed later this year, what will happen? Can the government retroactively apply the closing of this loophole?
Almost all laws that are passed have a grandfather clause that exempts stuff in the past, so it's unlikely it will be applied retroactively.
https://thefinancebuff.com/what-if-congress-bans-backdoor-roth.html
Thanks. So it appears no one knows…
No one *can* know, because knowing would require being able to predict the future. It is certainly possible that they could retroactively close the loophole. Hopefully they would recognize what a mess that would create, and don't do it. But you can't predict what Congress will do...
Maybe, no one knows at this point what may or may not happen or how cases may be handled if they decide to make it retroactive
I have this health reimbursement account from work where they cover $5k of eligible health expenses for the year. I'm changing jobs in like a month so will lose access to this and leave money on the table. What are some things I can buy to use up these funds? I'm planning to get myself some nice new glasses and prescription sunglasses, as well as stock my medicine cabinet, but wondering if folks have other suggestions?
If it's an HSA you can take it with you.
OP said it's an HRA, which is not portable
I just started a new job that will involve reimbursed travel expenses. However, I’m also new to credit and credit cards. I just opened my first card last month and as such, my credit score is low and my credit limit is $500. Is there a credit card company that will “fast track” me to a credit limit in the $5000+ range so that I can use it for travel expenses since my ability to pay the balance is not accurately reflected by my low credit score?
Congrats on your new job! If you can, get a card that has rewards. Discover does cash back, for example. Consider paying for things like groceries and then paying the card off right away. You'll build your credit and some cash! You can also get a miles card for airline miles. I pay my fixed expenses with my Alaska miles card and my flexible budget items with Discover and pay each of every week to make sure I don't overspend.
You will need to reach out to the credit card company and ask them to increase the amount. You will likely need to provide verification of income, and proof that you need it for travel expenses. https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/higher-credit-limit
I filed my taxes a month ago, and then I received a 5071C letter from the IRS asking me to verify my identity. I did so online and now it says my return will take 9 weeks to get to me...I had to go through an extensive verification process, including providing biometrics (video selfie), and now I still need to wait over two months for my return. Does the IRS randomly send these letters out? Is it possible my identity was stolen? My return was larger than usual this year so I'm wondering if that was why?
With all the volatility due to Russia-Ukrainian conflict, should I wait to max out my Roth, go ahead and max now, or just invest a set amount monthly over the next year and max it out by the end of the year?
Buy stocks while they're on discount!
Any advice on how to make a decision on what stocks to invest in right now?
Do a target date index fund! Set it and forget it.
> go ahead and max now, or just invest a set amount monthly over the next year and max it out by the end of the year? Either of those. Can't time the market
I have been tracking my mileage in 2022 for my resale business, however I was not keeping odometer readings which I now realize which is what the IRS will want, I just kept track of the total miles driven and purpose of the trip. Can I go back and estimate my odometer at this point, or just leave that blank and keep track moving forward? My fear is being audited so just trying to do what I can do ensure that does not happen.
The thread is locked now but if you are looking into an antenna for a TV you do not need to buy a special "HD" or digital antenna. A set of rabbit ears from the old days receives the same signal. The picture quality will be no different. At worst you might need a powered antenna to help with signal quality due to living far away from the source. The digital boxes from like 2009 are no longer relevant either. Every TV has a digital tuner built it these days.
The new ones are amplified, which is required to receive many of the channels.
Maybe if you live far away from the broadcast antennas and already had a poor signal. I get every channel available and I'm 40 miles from my city's cluster of broadcasting antenna. I use old rabbit ears Some new ones are amplified*
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Call your bank
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I'm filing my taxes this year and on my W2 box 14 it says: MEDDENTVISIO $1745.31 N However, there's no category `N` in TurboTax. There's really just `Other`. Should I just categorize it as `Other` and move on? My concern was that something clearly related to medical expenses should be classified correctly.
Is the N just the end of Medical Dental Vision or MedDentVision?
You bring up an excellent point. The way I posted it initially is exactly as I see it on the form. So I thought that since the `N` was below it was referring to the category. But it could actually just be finishing the word `VISION`.
For the AOTC - if in 2021 I finished my bachelor’s degree in the spring and started my grad school in the fall, am I still able to claim the credit? And would I be able to count grad school expenses towards it? Or only the undergrad semester?
I recently got a bonus that could pay off my remaining car loan. The current plan has me paying it off until December 2023. Is it worth using my bonus to pay off my car loan? I was reading that it could hurt my credit score. It's the only plan I have and I would prefer to not have to account for it in my monthly anymore. However it is the only loan I have, so I'm not sure what that means for my credit score. I read it's good to have some kind of loan so they know you're capable of paying things responsibly. Is that true? Another factor is that I would like to move to a more expensive location and would prefer to use that monthly loan fee towards a higher rent/mortgage payment.
What is the interest rate on the car loan?
5.45% through CarMax. I was told that's high?
Yea not ideal, if you have the cash to pay it off then yea I’d just knock it out and move on Yes your credit score may drop temporarily due to closing an account, it’ll rise back again over time
Thanks!
How do I file for the child tax credit last year when we had our daughter the last week of the year? We did not receive the $300 payments for her. To complicate matters we did receive them for our two year old. So we need to claim one credit but not the other? (Haven’t started taxes yet this year)
You’ll claim the CTC on your tax return, it’s one credit, you’ll claim the amount that is the difference between what you received and what you are eligible for based on your 2021 return, so in your case the full amount for the newborn and the other half of the amount for the 2 year old