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Zeta Taskforce posted:Just a few more thoughts. First, my condolences on your father passing and the struggle that all of you must have gone through in his fight against cancer. He could not have been that old. Next, you don’t have to do it now while everyone is hurting, but you and your mom need to have a conversation about how much money is involved, and who is getting what, and where important documents are kept. Last, advisors are great, but sometimes especially tax planners stuck in this frame of mind that no matter what happens taxes must always be minimized at all costs. There is nothing wrong with legally minimizing your tax bill, but there is equally nothing wrong with paying taxes either if that’s what it takes if you need the money. Your advisor needs to explain in ways you understand why he is doing what he is and that explanation needs to be more than “avoiding tax hit”. Thanks. I'll probably have this conversation with her today. Thankfully I got a job callback that I'm feeling good about so it's all not bad news and if it comes through I won't need the money immediately (still applying for jobs however incase this fall through).
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# ? Jun 8, 2012 18:26 |
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# ? May 10, 2024 17:22 |
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Dragyn posted:I notice the thread title changed. Apparently someone disagrees with you. I think the thread title is still good advice, I just thought it was worth mentioning that it can be beneficial if you trust someone to the level of "they came out of my vagina."
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# ? Jun 8, 2012 18:31 |
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SlightlyMadman posted:I think the thread title is still good advice, I just thought it was worth mentioning that it can be beneficial if you trust someone to the level of "they came out of my vagina." I certainly don't disagree either. I don't think I know a single person that could have paid for college without having a parent cosign on loans, myself included.
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# ? Jun 8, 2012 18:39 |
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I think this was more to the point-Eggplant Wizard posted:Don't do it unless you can and would be willing to pay the full balance of the loan plus interest. My mom could've and would've made my student loan payments if something had happened to me. Luckily she didn't need to. My dad on the other hand ended up eating the entirety of a loan he cosigned for my brother to get some roofing & siding equipment, bitched about that till the day he died. In that case it was irresponsibility on my brother's part, but poo poo luck could've accomplished the same.
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# ? Jun 8, 2012 18:55 |
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SlightlyMadman posted:I think the thread title is still good advice, I just thought it was worth mentioning that it can be beneficial if you trust someone to the level of "they came out of my vagina." Fair enough, but even then, there is a difference between $5000 for first starter car and my kid wants a $40,000 Mercedes and I’m going to pay it, but my kid said he would pay me back $800/mo. And I have seen that exact scenario. That is not an exaggeration. And never do it for your friend, your cousin with the sob story, your sister who you know is a hard worker. ^^^Or so they can get siding.
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# ? Jun 8, 2012 18:58 |
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Rockzilla posted:How does recently purchasing a home affect your eligibility for new credit? My credit score dropped about ~50 points when I bought my home. Makes sense when you're adding $200k to your debt usage. Also, don't open up an Home Depot credit card just to save 10%. Go to your post office and grab a "Mover's Connection" packet. Inside there's a 10% coupon for Lowes. Home Depot will match any Lowes coupons. I used the same coupon to buy the appliances in my new home too. You can even just buy the coupon on eBay for about $3. I have a stack of them for all the projects I've been doing around the house. (edit: This may not work at all in Canada, but this works for anyone else) FCKGW fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Jun 8, 2012 |
# ? Jun 8, 2012 19:07 |
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Remy Marathe posted:I think this was more to the point- That adds an excellent point that, much with any arrangement dealing with finances or property, you have to ask yourself "if poo poo goes all wrong, will it ruin my relationship with this person?" If the answer is yes, then it's probably not worth it, regardless of whether or not you can afford it.
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# ? Jun 8, 2012 19:28 |
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I left some money in a schwab 401k from my old employer when my site/line of business was M&A'ed by the new company in april 2010. I got a letter from schwab this march saying my old employer will no longer be doing business with schwab and I need to take some sort of action. I asked them for rollover check so I could put it in my new fidelity 401k. Check never showed, they said they mailed it day after I called, they said they'd cancel and issue a new check. New check never showed either. I called today, they said that new check was mailed on 6/1. There's the smallest chance the 1st one could have been thrown out with junk mail. I failed to inform my wife something was coming. There's about 0 chance the newest would have been thrown out. Are they BSing me? Every time I call they're like "well why don't you put it in one of our blah blah funds instead..." It's not a huge amount, it'd buy you a new car but it'd be small with 4 cylinders with maybe a leather upgrade. Is that amount that important to them to do trickery type poo poo saying they mailed something they didn't? Have never missed mail here. They told me to give it a few days and call back. I've never heard of a letter taking that long. Again, have never missed any mail here. What are some things I should be doing? Do I need to be filing any kind of report with USPS? Police? Can they transfer directly to fidelity somehow? Should I ask for money as EFT into my checking account instead of a check? Would this bring tax complications? Vin BioEthanol fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Jun 9, 2012 |
# ? Jun 9, 2012 02:22 |
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FCKGW posted:You can even just buy the coupon on eBay for about $3. I have a stack of them for all the projects I've been doing around the house. Holy poo poo, I never knew that was a thing you could do with coupons.
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# ? Jun 9, 2012 06:09 |
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FISHMANPET posted:Holy poo poo, I never knew that was a thing you could do with coupons. If you can't find it on https://www.retailmenot.com then turn to eBay. I buy coupons every other week or so. The Office Depot $25 off $75 is a handy one to have around.
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# ? Jun 9, 2012 06:24 |
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Does anyone have experience with investing using lendingclub.com? I saw some reviews on it and other testimonials, seems like it would be good place to invest in outside of Roth IRA / 401k at my age (mid 20's)
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# ? Jun 9, 2012 16:44 |
I've looked into it, it doesn't appear to be a complete money pit as long as you set your loan standards correctly. Make sure your state allows you to even use it first before you spend too much time looking into it. If you live in Texas for example, you can only buy/trade loans on some secondary market they have or something stupid like that.
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# ? Jun 9, 2012 17:04 |
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Sepist posted:Does anyone have experience with investing using lendingclub.com? I saw some reviews on it and other testimonials, seems like it would be good place to invest in outside of Roth IRA / 401k at my age (mid 20's) I sort of dabbled in Prosper.com and I can tell you first hand that it isn't worth it. The idea is that to cut out the middle man and borrowers can get better rates, lenders can get better rates of return, and cool things could get funded since you were not depending on some stuffy banker to approve it. As a bonus the idea was that individual borrowers know they are borrowing from individual lenders so they wouldn't screw them over. What I found was that none of this actually happened. Delinquencies were high. Sky high. Everything defaulted at way higher rates than I was used to as a loan officer. Collections were non existent, borrowers went bankrupt right and left, and the rates I was seeing given out were not particularly attractive to borrowers. The goon group did pretty well for the most part, but overall, I barely got my money back, and it took 3 years for that to happen. I think you can trade loans there is a secondary market now for both Prosper and Lending Club, so at least things are more liquid, but I consider P2P lending to be a complete disaster and I strongly discourage everyone from participating. If you do anyway, please start small, like a few hundred dollars and see how things play out for at least a year. Lots of people got really excited when this started and got burned really bad.
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# ? Jun 9, 2012 19:14 |
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I don't know if this is the best place to ask this, but I just moved to San Francisco from Canada and I was looking for a rundown/comparison of banks, credit unions in the area, and any pratfalls i should be aware of. I have a 401k with Vanguard so mainly I'm looking for a simple checking & savings account.
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# ? Jun 9, 2012 20:30 |
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Dunno what your metrics are for a good bank, but I think Golden1 credit union is up your way and they've always done right by me. No real minimums on checking/savings (I think they need a $1 initial deposit), easy internal transfers, the usual online bill payment stuff, debit card, and if you plan to sit on more than $2500 for any length of time it's trivial to set up a money market account that works just like their savings but with a slightly higher yield. The latter still doesn't approach the rates with a high-yield online bank, but it's an alternative if you aren't comfortable with those or want the option of walking into a local branch and clearing out your savings on short notice.
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# ? Jun 9, 2012 22:36 |
I'm in the market for a new checking/savings account since Capital One has charged me a fee on my savings account. I've been looking into online ones (Penfed and Fidelity are the main ones) and my biggest question is how do people handle depositing cash into them? I got to the casino occasionally and withdraw anywhere between $500-$1000 and I really don't want to be carrying that kind of money around after. I could give it to a friend and have him write me a check, but I'd rather not deal with that headache and the stupid problems that can occur from it.
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 20:28 |
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Harry posted:I'm in the market for a new checking/savings account since Capital One has charged me a fee on my savings account. I've been looking into online ones (Penfed and Fidelity are the main ones) and my biggest question is how do people handle depositing cash into them? I got to the casino occasionally and withdraw anywhere between $500-$1000 and I really don't want to be carrying that kind of money around after. I could give it to a friend and have him write me a check, but I'd rather not deal with that headache and the stupid problems that can occur from it. Open an account at a local credit union. When you need to deposit cash, deposit it there, then write yourself a check from that account.
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# ? Jun 10, 2012 20:39 |
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So I'm in a bit of a rut right now. I want to move out of the city I live in because there's little opportunity for the field I want to be in, but my pay from Wal-Mart is a modest $450 or so for two weeks. In a week or two my days become free so I'm hoping to get more shifts. I want to go to university or college, which is probably a good $4000 - $5000 on its own, not including books or housing (which should be free because my family will be moving with me). I don't see this happening for a year or so which I'm alright with now. Problem is though we've fallen on hard times so living at home I'm chipping in more and more for the bills and groceries et cetera. My mother doesn't believe in her son paying rent while he lives at home (in fact the entire concept of that is far out to most of my extended family, who all live overseas) so this is the first time I'll be consistently putting money towards the day to day stuff in our household, like rent or internet bills. I have absolutely no problem doing that for the entire next year and even beyond, it's just I've never had to take these things into consideration so it's left me kind of dumbfounded as to how I should control my finances. I have no debt but I fear if I don't get my finances worked out soon we'll be months behind in bills and rent costs so we'll be hosed. I don't really know how to budget properly but if I have some help I can stick to it no problem. I was thinking of putting half of my money away for school/moving and the rest for the family. Is this a smart idea? TO SUM UP: - I make about $900 a month now but that should hopefully double if I take on double the amount of shifts. - Rent is $1050 but I won't be going at it alone, hopefully will have another income coming in VERY soon (parent's work closed down and my city has a bad job market for someone with their education) - I'd like to split half on savings (currently have $100 saved) and half on necessities and personal spending, but this is flexed as necessary. - need to know if I'm doing this budgeting right or if I need to save more or put more into bills The Golden Gael fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Jun 12, 2012 |
# ? Jun 12, 2012 00:29 |
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Have you tried switching jobs? You don't need to have a college education to step up from Wal-Mart. What's the field you're interested in? Be wary of sinking money into something that might not have the best future prospects.
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# ? Jun 12, 2012 01:00 |
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I'm really into media and film and the like and I plan on moving to Toronto to take it. As well, I just started the job at Wal-Mart and that was after months of searching. It's really hard to find good employment here.
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# ? Jun 12, 2012 04:53 |
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korusan posted:I'm really into media and film and the like and I plan on moving to Toronto to take it. Can your parents go on unemployment or some other kind of social assistance? Do they have unemployment insurance in Canada? Your income is insufficient to take care of your family. Full stop, I think. eta: I think probably before you can afford to quit your current job and move, you're going to need to stabilize the situation a bit. Can you look for cheaper housing in your area? Getting your rent down would help since clearly the current situation is untenable, even if it means getting a 1 bedroom and you using the living room as your bedroom. Can you get assistance for housing costs? Eggplant Wizard fucked around with this message at 14:38 on Jun 12, 2012 |
# ? Jun 12, 2012 14:34 |
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We got the Employment Insurance dealio worked out today. Should be seeing that tomorrow, which is a sigh of relief. Moving wouldn't be an option unless absolutely necessary at the moment though because anywhere half decent requires a first and last months rent that would 1.5 times how much out current rent is (except as one chunk). I think things are stabilizing now but it could always be subject to change.
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# ? Jun 12, 2012 15:55 |
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Is there a general guide or formula for what sort of credit limit you can/should have? I'm wondering if and how much I should request an increase of. My limit right now is 2.5k and I put 400-600 on it a month, and always pay it down to 0. I've heard tell that a credit utilization of over 10% can lower your credit scores, and mine is consistently near 25%.
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# ? Jun 12, 2012 21:08 |
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Xenoborg posted:Is there a general guide or formula for what sort of credit limit you can/should have? I'm wondering if and how much I should request an increase of. There is no exact rule. If you were to pin me down and force me to answer, I would guess 2 to 3 times your monthly pretax income is probably where most people who have clean credit histories lasting a few years eventually wind up. Things that would cause an issuer to give you a larger line would be having lower overall debt, lower payments, fewer accounts, longer established credit, and having excellent as opposed to just good credit. There won’t be that much impact on your score if you are at 25% utilization vs. 10%.
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# ? Jun 12, 2012 21:39 |
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Hopefully this is the right thread for this. I have never invested money before I have always went the safe route and had 2 money market accounts that have roughly 100k in each and I put roughly around 7k each into both those accounts each year. I want to be able to have instant access to my money so I don't want it tied up for long periods of time. Is there some other type of account I should be putting my money into considering the money market rates are so low or should I just keep it where it is. I don't consider this my retirement fund even though one day I may use it when I retire.
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# ? Jun 12, 2012 21:57 |
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jase1 posted:Hopefully this is the right thread for this. Jeeeez that's a lot of savings.are you single? The long term investing thread might be worth a read for some general investing tips and resources. Do you have a retirement account separately?
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 00:25 |
jase1 posted:Hopefully this is the right thread for this. Why do you feel you need to have $200,000 accessible at any given point?
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 00:30 |
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jase1 posted:Hopefully this is the right thread for this. If you want instant (24h) access, you're going to be in negative real yield territory right now, no way around it. The only thing I'd say is that while you have low volatility in low yield, very safe, instruments, there's 'hidden' risk in losing purchasing power to inflation if you keep everything in a pure savings instrument. It all depends on your time horizon and risk tolerance; and if you need or want to have it instantly with no volatility, then there's basically nothing else you can do but chase around 0.01% amounts of interest in this environment. If you can wait a little longer than 24 hours to get access to a portion of the principal, but want to buy a little inflation protection with total principal safety, you might consider buying some i bonds for a portion of the principal. If you want slightly higher (and I mean slightly) returns, with somewhat increased volatility and risk, you could consider a short term municipal bond fund.
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 00:33 |
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Jeeeez that's a lot of savings.are you single? The long term investing thread might be worth a read for some general investing tips and resources. Do you have a retirement account separately? No I am not single but I am not married and no kids. I do not have a retirement account this would be basically it. Harry posted:Why do you feel you need to have $200,000 accessible at any given point? I do plan on either purchasing the company I work for now or starting my own sometime soon, I would like to keep these funds available in case I need cash for that. I have several other savings accounts with money in them but those are gambling purposes only. This is just the money I have saved since I was about 20 years old. Since I do gamble a lot and I run my own small side business I want this money available to me instantly in case of any emergencies. I sometimes use this money to help with my side business and then the profit I make off of that goes back into the account with the original amount. If I have more money than I need for the month from work or gambling or living expenses I transfer it into this account. Plus to be honest I don't trust anything with risk I want the lowest risk with the highest return and being able to access my money at any point. It's more of a personal preference. Thanks for the tips I will be looking into this more along with the thread Eggplant Wizard recommended.
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 01:43 |
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jase1 posted:No I am not single but I am not married and no kids. I do not have a retirement account this would be basically it. Okay, well, I would suggest the following:
And then there's this... jase1 posted:I do gamble a lot Pardon? Well, ignoring the first bit for a moment: lowest risk is savings account or CD. Highest return is the risky end of the stock market. Right now, there is essentially no return on savings accounts and hardly more on CD's. The interest rates are lower than inflation rates. The stock/bond markets are as they always are-- risky in the short term, but in the long term probably they'll grow more than inflation. SO for long term investment (retirement), stocks/bonds is a good choice. Bonds are traditionally the more conservative, risk-averse option but I have heard talk of bubbles there so don't go throwing all your poo poo into bonds. Balance. For the short term investment, you aren't going to do better than a CD ladder or a savings account, and either way it'll be less than inflation. That's the cost of liquidity these days. You NEED a retirement account that you don't touch and let sit and grow until you need it. You can't just assume you'll have enough money when you get there, especially if you go self-employed and stop paying into social security. If your income is within the limits, a Roth IRA would be a good choice for you. The money that you put in is taxed already, so that when you take it out when you're old, you don't have to pay taxes on the accrued value. This can be huge. ALSO, and this is where I think it might be appealing to you, you can take out any of the principal before retirement if you need it. So if you put in $5000, and it gains $500 in value over the year, you can still take out that first $5000 if you absolutely have to and your emergency fund is insufficient. As a rule though you really shouldn't touch your retirement account.
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 02:16 |
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Eggplant Wizard posted:If your income is within the limits, a Roth IRA would be a good choice for you. The money that you put in is taxed already, so that when you take it out when you're old, you don't have to pay taxes on the accrued value. This can be huge. ALSO, and this is where I think it might be appealing to you, you can take out any of the principal before retirement if you need it. So if you put in $5000, and it gains $500 in value over the year, you can still take out that first $5000 if you absolutely have to and your emergency fund is insufficient. As a rule though you really shouldn't touch your retirement account. Also since you apparently run your own business, if you have no employees, individual 401(k)s can be pretty amazing. https://personal.vanguard.com/us/whatweoffer/smallbusiness/individual401k?Link=facet
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 03:00 |
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Not sure this is the correct thread to ask this question or I should be asking in the engagement megathread. Anyone here have experience in setting up a prenup? My fiancee and I each have six figures in assets and neither have any debt(school or mortgage). We are both very realistic people and understand that people can change and that divorce can end in very messy terms. She is very agreeable to having a prenup. After we get married, we will be keeping the assets separate while funding a joint bank account for household expenses. The current informal agreement is to for each of us to keep our own premarital assets and any gains from the those assets separate should we divorce. The exception would be if adultery is the cause of the divorce in which cause the offending side must pay alimony for a certain amount of years. I will be retaining an attorney to draft the prenup and she will get her own attorney to review the document. Does that sound reasonable and enforceable?
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 04:29 |
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The gambling thing. I think you can stand to put a few tens of thousands of dollars into longer-term investment without significantly impacting your bankroll. You may have to cut back on some of the sports betting (or, at least, the stakes) but you seem like someone who can handle that. As a gambler, it's true that you need the money in a readily-accessible location, but the point is that your bankroll should be much, much greater than your swing and so not having completely liquid assets is not a problem. Putting them in funds (hey, it's just like gambling!) isn't the same as locking your assets up like buying a house. It's harder to get to, but you shouldn't have to anyway. (And if you do, you can still get to it in relatively short order.)
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 04:59 |
lostleaf posted:Not sure this is the correct thread to ask this question or I should be asking in the engagement megathread. I think the adultery thing will come back and bite you in the rear end somehow. Go for it I guess, but I've heard that prenups aren't too enforceable as well.
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 05:31 |
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lostleaf posted:Not sure this is the correct thread to ask this question or I should be asking in the engagement megathread. Take free advice from the internet for what it’s worth, but usually couples who do prenups are coming into the relationship with vastly different resources. To me it would seem fair that the party coming in with few assets should be fairly treated after divorce, but shouldn’t be entitled to half the money if they had no part in earning it. I think it is wise to protect the family fortune from someone going nuts on you. It sounds like you are coming in more as equals, so I’m not sure what you are each trying to protect. I think either you completely trust her and you work toward combining everything, or you don’t trust her enough to do that you don’t get married until you do. Otherwise you are both a couple of rich people who each have one eye focused on each respective pile of money.
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 14:25 |
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I disagree with Zeta, if only that if you're both desirous of keeping your prior money separate then there's nothing wrong with creating a legal agreement to do so. I don't think it shows lack of trust, but I am a risk-averse person who would feel the same desire for future "insurance" against negative events. I do think the adultery clause is kind of weird in that light though. If you're just about protecting your prior assets from divorce complications, why have a "restitution for hurt feelings" provision in there at all. Like someone else said it might not even be particularly enforceable. Just a thought.
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 15:23 |
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Thanks for the advice. I appreciate any input. I view a prenup the same way I view flood or earthquake insurance. I'll never have to use it but I'll sleep better at night with it. Especially as it is a one time expense to have one drafted and reviewed. I've actually asked friends and people at work and no one seems to have prenups. Surprisingly even those that have been divorced and then remarried. When I mention prenup they give me this look as if it's a four letter word. The divorce rate in the US being higher than 50%, a prenup seems significantly more useful than insurance. Even though we both have six figures in assets, we are not quite equal. I still have at least double what she has and not to sound smug but I expect those premarital assets to appreciate faster than hers. I'll drop the adultery clause. I just wanted to have some realistic expectations before seeing an attorney. Thanks guys.
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 16:12 |
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Okay, well, I would suggest the following: Ok maybe I should have revealed more details. I have several savings accounts already I have one that is only for sports booking that I usually put money into once a month from my paycheck and that money is the only money I can spend for the month on sports booking, I also have another savings account that is just for other gambling like pool, poker, prop bets and so on. I haven't added money to that account from my money market account in at least 10 years. Any money I make gambling goes into that account if I make a real big score I transfer some money into my money market accounts. I have a checking account that I pay all my bills out of and I also have 3rd savings account that is my emergency fund. Right now I have enough in there to pay my bills for 3 years and my goal is to get it to 5 years just in case I start my own buisness then I wont have to worry about living expenses for awhile in case my businesses fails or I lose my job or I go broke gambling. I looked into a Roth IRA last night and I didn't like that I could only contribute up 5k or 6k a year. If I make a lot of money whether it be gambling or work I want to be able to dump all that money into the money market account. So is there something else like an IRA which doesn't limit how much money I can put in there a year? Edit: I just saw you said I should ask this in the other thread so I am going to take my question about the Roth IRA to that thread. Eggplant Wizard posted:Pardon? I am already risking my money everyday by gambling and I don't want to put that money I made into another account that is a big risk. I want that money to sit there and make as much interest that I can without it being a huge risk. I know a lot of people whose 401k's were just destroyed and I don't' want any risk like that at all. Does any of this make sense? I have a guy who does my taxes every year and he is setting me up with a financial guy to talk with in a few weeks I just wanted some ideas so I don't look really stupid when I walk in there. Thanks again for all the info I really appreciate it. jase1 fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Jun 13, 2012 |
# ? Jun 13, 2012 17:10 |
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Any portion of your money that you want accessible for a long-term access plan (like the five years of living expenses you describe) would probably be best in a CD ladder. You won't be able to pull it all at once but if you space it out right you can cash them out right as you need them.
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 17:51 |
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# ? May 10, 2024 17:22 |
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lostleaf posted:Even though we both have six figures in assets, we are not quite equal. I still have at least double what she has and not to sound smug but I expect those premarital assets to appreciate faster than hers. It’s probably just me and I’m sure you have lots of wonderful qualities, but OMG. You want a prenup because you want to protect your future capital gains? SlightlyMadman posted:Any portion of your money that you want accessible for a long-term access plan (like the five years of living expenses you describe) would probably be best in a CD ladder. You won't be able to pull it all at once but if you space it out right you can cash them out right as you need them. Rates are so low on any term CD I don’t get the point of a ladder. It sort of made sense when money markets were 1.5% and long term CD’s 5%. To me a long term CD you get the worst of both worlds. You get low rates AND your money is tied up, and as an added bonus you get to lock those low rates in for a long time. I would keep an emergency fund and any short term money in a money market, suck it up that rates are low, and everything else invest. jase1, I think where you are getting stuck on is just because investing and gambling can either make or lose money, they are not the same thing. Gambling is a zero sum game where the house always wins. Investing is participating in the dynamism of the world economy, which over time has grown. I hate to gamble, I’m horribly unlucky so I just don’t, but we are all different and I’m cool with it if you enjoy it. I might be reading too much into it, but it seems like a control issue; you view gambling as perhaps safer because you have direct control over the teams you bet on, but investing you have zero control over the economy.
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# ? Jun 13, 2012 18:21 |