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I don't think you should, mainly because if you can't handle work why can you handle going back to school?
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Aug 27, 2012 01:18
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the community college I'd be going to has a really good setup for people with disabilities like mine, and has an on campus counselor I could talk to. I'd also be able to put some of my loan aside to help pay for medication. A huge pro towards school is that I'd be able to finally start getting help for sure.
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Aug 27, 2012 01:28
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An update and an additional question. I've been looking at vanguard's offerings,and VFIFX looks like the kind of thing I should be trying to put money into, but vanguard only seems to allow institutional investors outside of the US, at least that's the impression I get from vanguard.ch. I tried looking for similar funds available through my UBS investment account but came up with nothing too exciting. There's an index fund that tracks the swiss equivalent of the S&P, but it has an expense ratio of 0.8% and isn't automatically balancing like the target retirement funds vanguard offers. Does anyone know if there's anything like the the vanguard funds accessible from inside switzerland? There's an expat forum here that mentioned looking into ETFs as another option but I'm not so comfortable about these without more reading.
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Aug 27, 2012 11:09
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Dabbo posted:Would it be a good idea to take on more debt and go back to school? Or should I keep job hunting until I can find work to pay off debts and pay for treatment? Main reason I'm asking this instead of just doing the second is that it honestly seems like I won't be getting employed for a long time, especially when job interviews are too overwhelming for me sometimes. :\ What do you want to go to school for?
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Aug 27, 2012 16:44
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I don't understand why you think going thousands of dollars into debt for school is going to improve your position. If you can't handle the pressure of a job interview, how do you think you'll fare when you are absolutely buried in assignments, papers and exams? Instead of going into major debt to go to school, have you considered taking on a lesser debt to get some counselling? School = mega debt and you only get four months a year to make any money that can realistically pay back the debt. Counselling = smaller debt and if you think it can straighten you up to get a job, you can pay back that debt faster than a student loan and then save a bit and go back to school with a better mental state.
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Aug 27, 2012 17:02
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Dabbo posted:the community college I'd be going to has a really good setup for people with disabilities like mine, and has an on campus counselor I could talk to. I'd also be able to put some of my loan aside to help pay for medication. A huge pro towards school is that I'd be able to finally start getting help for sure. I have to agree with Harry on this. You can do what you want and we will still be friends, but as a loan officer I get really nervous when people apply for loans and in talking with them, the loan is going to solve every single problem that they have. I hear these stories all the time, how even though an applicant coming to me is behind on everything, the loan will help them reset, and that will allow them to do something else, and that is the only thing standing between them and something else. I know you have challenges, but I would encourage you to see what skills you have and see if you can turn any of them into side projects that make money while you look for a job, and you do what you need to do to overcome your mental health issues. I don’t know the issues between you and mom, but assuming she is not abusive, I would swallow whatever pride you have and try to reconcile with her, especially if this helps you access health care. You don’t need to clean up every bad debt before you start school, but I would like to see you have a better plan than going to school so you can pay for groceries from borrowed money, and hope they can counsel you faster than the added stress of starting school while not being as prepared as you could will sink you.
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Aug 27, 2012 17:24
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My mom just sprung a thing on me whereby she wants to turn her bank account into a joint account with my name on it "just in case anything happens [to her]". I haven't had a chance to discuss this in depth with her yet, but she's trying to do this from halfway across the country and the problem is, she's money-dumb and prone to trust whatever bankers or financial advisers tell her. Can anyone see a way this could affect me adversely (besides simple banking fuckups she's unlikely to make, like overdrafts)? Will this count as a sudden, taxable influx of cash on my part come tax-time? Her intentions are undoubtedly good, but she's gotten a little evasive in her old age and I'm not clear on what she's doing this for- I suspect she might be trying to prevent a de-facto 50/50 split of her inheritance if something happens to her, as she has no formal will yet and my brother is in a position where he couldn't be trusted with a large influx of money. Anyway it's like reverse-cosigning and it makes me nervous, and I don't even know which questions to ask.
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Aug 27, 2012 21:49
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I checked creditkarma for the first time in a while and saw that a new Citibank credit card was opened in April of this year, which is great except that I don't have a credit card from Citibank. Firstly I called Citibank and talked to one of their reps, who took my SSN and could not find any credit cards in my name. I also checked annualcreditreport.com to get my actual credit report and saw that this account appears on all 3 credit agency reports. I have the account number missing the last 4 digits (that's all that was provided on the reports) so I don't know that I can call Citibank again to ask about it since those 4 missing digits probably make it impossible to narrow down to me. The account is showing as paid each month and the type of account is "FLEXIBLE SPENDING CREDIT CARD". edit - It had a balance of $12xx the first month, but since then it has been 0. I never paid this since I didn't know it existed. Any idea what this could be? How do I get the full account number so I can talk to someone at Citibank and figure out whats going on?
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Aug 27, 2012 23:43
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GanjamonII posted:I checked creditkarma for the first time in a while and saw that a new Citibank credit card was opened in April of this year, which is great except that I don't have a credit card from Citibank. You should be taking it up with the credit bureaus, not Citi at this point. If Citi says you don't have an account and you challenge it with the bureaus they'll pull it off your record.
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Aug 27, 2012 23:46
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Go in to a bank if possible, it will make things go much faster. I've had bank telephone operators tell me all kinds of stupid poo poo.
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Aug 27, 2012 23:47
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Remy Marathe posted:My mom just sprung a thing on me whereby she wants to turn her bank account into a joint account with my name on it "just in case anything happens [to her]". Maybe she could give you power of attorney instead?
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Aug 28, 2012 00:06
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Remy Marathe posted:My mom just sprung a thing on me whereby she wants to turn her bank account into a joint account with my name on it "just in case anything happens [to her]". You should be nervous, and yes you would be 100% liable should there be charges or if the account is overdrawn. This serves zero purpose, there are other ways to accomplish the same thing without being a financial partner with your mom, and ways that don't have the potential to drive a wedge in your relationship with her. I don't see much in the way of tax implications though, other than the interest would be taxable income for you.
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Aug 28, 2012 01:03
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Remy Marathe posted:My mom just sprung a thing on me whereby she wants to turn her bank account into a joint account with my name on it "just in case anything happens [to her]". If she's trying to avoid probate without a will, she needs to name you as the account BENEFICIARY. This means that you have no access to the account while she's alive, but upon her death, the cash value of the account transfers to you without being included in her estate (Similar to being a beneficiary on life insurance). What it sounds like she's doing right now is making you an account co-owner, which would expose you to liability.
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Aug 28, 2012 04:00
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NJ Deac posted:A very common misconception of many people that are new to investing is that the goal is to pick winning stocks/investment vehicles and to "buy low/sell high". This is essentially gambling, since it relies on your ability to accurately predict the future better than the rest of the market, including individuals who have both better information and more time on their hands than you do (and statisically, they do no better than random guessing anyway, and charge you for the privilege!).  This, especially the first paragraph, is solid gold. Everyone read this and understand it. Hell, it should go in the OP both here and in the Long term investing thread. Other then all the good advice about paying off consumer debt and it living within your means, it is the most important thing you will ever get out of this forum.
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Aug 28, 2012 06:14
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Thanks guys, I'll ask about the beneficiary option and find out her motives, see if we can't come to an arrangement that makes more sense than a joint account given that I need no access to the account while she's alive. Though maybe she's thinking access during a medical emergency wherein she's alive or something. Eggplant Wizard, I suspect she's not ready to give me power of attorney, as there are more assets than just this joint account she's considering and this arrangement leaves her some say in the degree to which I have access to the finances. On the other hand I could be trusted with it and she knows it, so maybe she'd be open to it. Anyway I need to discuss her intentions more thoroughly before signing anything.
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Aug 28, 2012 06:26
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NJ Deac posted:terrible idea from mom I've heard it could mess up your taxes. It could be considered a gift by the IRS, and if she has more than $13k in there (non-taxable gift limit) you are in for a world of tax hurt. Might want to ask the tax thread. Also, if your name is on the account, it's legally considered your money. If you come into some serious financial disaster like bankruptcy, you just wiped out your mom's life savings. Limited power of attorney is your friend. Have her see someone competent about a will if she's so concerned about your brother. zharmad posted:
Of all the finance professors I ever had, about 10% of them owned individual stocks (and even then, usually just a handful for fun.) Why? Because markets are pretty efficient. Even though they're PhD's with a great deal of wisdom/experience, there are millions others out there as bright as them that have much more time and resources to play the game.
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Aug 28, 2012 06:32
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Remy Marathe posted:Thanks guys, I'll ask about the beneficiary option and find out her motives, see if we can't come to an arrangement that makes more sense than a joint account given that I need no access to the account while she's alive. Though maybe she's thinking access during a medical emergency wherein she's alive or something. Yeah it would be pretty extreme. Maybe talk with her about setting up a living will in case of medical incapacity on her part, and do that beneficiary thing someone else mentioned. Whatever else, definitely don't agree to be joint on the account. You said she's money-dumb and at the same time said it's unlikely she'd make mistakes like overdrafts, and financial fuckups are a very common thing that happens to elderly people who are beginning to lose some of their sharpness.
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Aug 28, 2012 14:10
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canyoneer posted:I've heard it could mess up your taxes. It could be considered a gift by the IRS, and if she has more than $13k in there (non-taxable gift limit) you are in for a world of tax hurt. Might want to ask the tax thread. The gift tax is one of the most misunderstood parts of the tax code, and 99.9999% of us will never have to worry about it. It is true that gifts under $13,000 don't have to be reported and gifts above $13,000 do need to get reported. Anything above the $13,000 exclusion is reported, but not necessarioy taxed. It instead is applied against a lift time tax free exclusion of $5,120,000. The gift tax is there to prevent an end run around the estate tax by someone who is trying to pass along millions to their heirs while still alive. I normally respect Dave Ramsey, but he is the worst in perpetuating this misunderstanding about the tax code. In spite of what he says, the IRS will not destroy you if you want to give someone a car or pay for their college.
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Aug 28, 2012 15:02
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Remy Marathe posted:Eggplant Wizard, I suspect she's not ready to give me power of attorney, as there are more assets than just this joint account she's considering and this arrangement leaves her some say in the degree to which I have access to the finances. You don't have to get power of attorney over EVERYTHING, you can sign a thing that says you have POA over just this one account (which serves the same purpose, because you can decide where it goes). I don't know what happens to this regarding it entering her estate after her passing, though.
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Aug 28, 2012 20:23
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I have some questions about credit and credit scores... So, as I've said in the past in this thread, I opened my first credit card in January through my bank. They originally gave me a $500 credit limit, and have since raised it to $750. Super low, I know. Otherwise, the only other items on my credit history are a few small items that went into collections (50 dollars from 2007, and 200 dollars from 2011, which I paid, and I don't know why it's still on my credit history...) I use creditkarma to track my credit score quite closely. I use my credit card each month and pay it off in full. As of today, creditkarma reports my credit at 723. This made me want to apply to a rewards card, so I went for the Amex Blue Sky and was shut down. I decided to actually pull a credit report (which I hadn't done in many years), and some of my scores are looking a bit low -- experian is 693 and equifax is 684. First, I don't know why my creditkarma score is so much higher than my actual pulled credit scores. I realize the creditkarma score is an estimation, but it seems pretty dramatically off. Second, I notice that one of the main gripes on my credit report is that I have too little available credit. But, at the same time, the card I originally applied for gave me a really low limit, and the second card I applied to I was rejected for. Should I just apply for another (perhaps easier to be approved for) card and hope for a credit limit of a few thousand bucks? Any guidance is VERY MUCH appreciated! Keep doin' Gods work, boys.
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Aug 30, 2012 02:29
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mfaley posted:I have some questions about credit and credit scores... It sounds like you are on the right track and getting your act together, so good job on that. Credit Karma is an estimation. I think it uses Transunion, which you did not pull yourself, so it's hard to know if the reason it was higher there is because the model Credit Karma uses is off, or if your Transunion is higher than Experian and Equifax. Either way, it is completely normal for scores to vary by 30 or 40 points between reports. Your credit is still healing, but it's not like you need to be in a race to build more either. Reward cards do have stricter criteria too, so don't take it personally. If you have a banking relationship with a credit union or community bank, they would probably give you a card of a few thousand bucks based on your relationship with them and your payment history on the $750 card.
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Aug 30, 2012 02:38
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Zeta Taskforce posted:It sounds like you are on the right track and getting your act together, so good job on that. Credit Karma is an estimation. I think it uses Transunion, which you did not pull yourself, so it's hard to know if the reason it was higher there is because the model Credit Karma uses is off, or if your Transunion is higher than Experian and Equifax. Either way, it is completely normal for scores to vary by 30 or 40 points between reports. Thank you very much for responding, that is very helpful information. It sounds like your advice is just to continue doing what I'm doing, is that correct? Is it worth calling around to the old folks who put those small things into collections and try to get those wiped off the record? I forgot to mention a 20k car that I took a loan out on and paid off between 2008-2010 and student loans, that contribute positively to my history. When I look at the report I pulled, it basically says 2 small negative items, 11 positive items (basically constant reporting that I'm on time with everything). I guess I anticipated my score to be a bit higher, since I'm doing everything right. Again, thanks so much.
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Aug 30, 2012 02:47
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Small available credit will do that. Your score isn't horrible by any means. I'd guess those collection issues will stay on till they're 7 years old. Don't spend so much energy (and money) on worrying about your score. Live your life and make good financial choices and it'll come to you. The thing with credit scores is that there's no such thing as the credit score. There are lots of different ones, and different industries use different ones to rate applicants. The score most people mean when they say credit score, however, is the FICO score, and you're only going to get that one from myfico.com. You can get it if you sign up for a 10 day trial membership- just be sure to immediately cancel the membership. It's very easy to do. All that said, really, just reread the last two sentences of the first paragraph some more times.
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Aug 30, 2012 03:02
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Small available credit will do that. Your score isn't horrible by any means. I'd guess those collection issues will stay on till they're 7 years old. Don't spend so much energy (and money) on worrying about your score. Live your life and make good financial choices and it'll come to you. This is great advice! Thank you so much!
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Aug 30, 2012 03:38
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mfaley posted:Thank you very much for responding, that is very helpful information. If the collection accounts are accurate I doubt they will take them off. If they are that old and they are paid, they are not that damaging. Your credit is heavily weighted toward events that happened in the last 2 years. But when you say that you are doing everything right, make sure that includes not financing cars that are a significant percentage of your net worth.
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Aug 30, 2012 05:54
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Just for fun, I looked myself up on credit karma, pretty much exactly what I expect it to say with the exception of the number of accounts category. According to their chart 80% of people have 6+ credit cards, with a third having over 20? I only have one credit card, why would I need more? I suppose I could see getting on that give a good bonus on restaurants and using it for restaurants, one for gas, ect, but that seems like way more hassle than its worth. Note: I understand that number of accounts probably has an extremely low effect, if any at all, on most credit checks, I just though the statistic was bizarre.
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Aug 30, 2012 16:01
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Xenoborg posted:Just for fun, I looked myself up on credit karma, pretty much exactly what I expect it to say with the exception of the number of accounts category. According to their chart 80% of people have 6+ credit cards, with a third having over 20? I only have one credit card, why would I need more? I suppose I could see getting on that give a good bonus on restaurants and using it for restaurants, one for gas, ect, but that seems like way more hassle than its worth.
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Aug 30, 2012 16:38
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Nocheez posted:Those are accounts, not cards. Are they? I have one checking account, one savings account, and one credit card account and it says I have only one account. Even if it is counting checking and savings accounts too that seems absurdly high.
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Aug 30, 2012 17:13
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Xenoborg posted:Are they? I have one checking account, one savings account, and one credit card account and it says I have only one account. Not if you are opening and closing a lot of cards...I used to signup for the store cards to get the discount, and then I end up closing them around a year later when I remember. I've had Best Buy, NTB, Beldons, Macys, Nordstrom's etc. I still have a target card because it ends up being 5% off everytime which is really unheard of for a store card. Then what if you have a mortgage, car loan, student loans (through how many servicers), overdraft protection, etc..... it can add up.
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Aug 30, 2012 17:21
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Xenoborg posted:Are they? I have one checking account, one savings account, and one credit card account and it says I have only one account. Don’t worry about the number of trade lines you have or what is average. For instance, when people take out student loans, it is typical that they have a separate loan or sometimes several loans for each year of school. If they consolidate them after they graduate, that adds yet another trade line. The others don’t go away. It is not unusual for someone who has $30,000 in student loan debt to have it spread over 12 loans. Same thing with car loans. You get a loan through the dealer and you realize your credit union can get you a better rate, that is 2 trade lines. I discourage people from having 6 credit cards and being strategic about which one to use for gas, which one for groceries, which one gives you more points at restaurants. If everything goes perfect, if you add up all the reward points, it will be such a small part of your financial picture. But the more accounts you have, the easier it is to forget to pay one and even if you do manage to be perfect, study after study shows that people who have that many cards spend more.
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Aug 30, 2012 17:35
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Zeta Taskforce posted:But when you say that you are doing everything right, make sure that includes not financing cars that are a significant percentage of your net worth. Thanks again for this advice. As far as this last comment, can you elaborate? I was making about $65k at the time and the car I got was a $20k car. Is that not okay? The details on this are: at the time, I had next to zero credit history, and took out a loan with a significant interest rate. However, I had no problem paying down the loan and paying it off with zero late payments.
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Aug 31, 2012 03:07
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So I decided to start filtering my predictable monthly spending through a credit card with a reward system (and yep I read the relevant thread), applied for an Amex Blue Cash Everyday, was declined. Not too surprising. But then I applied for their shoddier Zync card to get my foot in the door, begin a history with Amex. Declined for that as well. Now after 1-2 hard pulls I'm left wondering if I should wait to apply for a rewards card through my credit union? I know it's voodoo but is there a threshold under which I'm safe? When you go in and apply for these things in person are they able to use human judgement to disregard recent kicks in the credit score balls (such as hearing why there are two hard pulls)? I'm also tempted to request a limit increase on my existing chase card to help me on future applications, but am worried this all looks like a sudden credit grab when really I just want to add one good card to capitalize on my spending a bit. For those who advised me about the mom/joint checking account thing- She's still looking into the alternatives you told me about. I'd been worried about hurting her feelings but the conversation went way better than I expected, having expressed it to her in terms of being an unnecessary increase in risk for both of us instead of "I don't trust your financial decisions anymore ma".
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Aug 31, 2012 19:21
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Chillllllaaaaaaaax fellow. A rewards card isn't like a retirement account- it's not a must-have part of every financially savvy adult's portfolio. A rewards card, UNLESS you fly all the time and can use/rack up airline miles, is more of a bonus than anything else. For example, I just spent $500 on dental work ( ). I will get $5 of Amazon credit for that. That's pretty nice, but it's not going to make or break my monthly budget. If you really really want to keep building credit lines, look for another low limit entry-level card like you have. Really though just keep your usage ratio low and keep on doing what you're doing.e: Friends, does said surprise dental work count as emergency fund money or "if you take that out of your emergency fund you have to pay it back" money?  I am not getting paid again for another two weeks and I don't like to leave large charges on my card so I want to pay it off now but I'd be left with about $200 in my checking account. I don't actually have to pay the card balance again till October 4 so I'm just being a sperg. Also that checking account is for my personal stuff; food & rent & gas etc. come out of a joint one that is quite healthy.
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Aug 31, 2012 20:36
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I'm really not chomping at the bit because of the $160 or so per year it'd get me- I just got a bug up my rear end to get a card that takes what I already do with my debit card and gives me a bit of money back for it. I'm chomping at the bit because I had a scheme and it was unexpectedly aborted. I really wasn't expecting to get declined; I don't make much ($33k) but I've got a credit history spanning 17 years without a single missed payment, $12k in student loans I paid off, and several revolving accounts over the years one of which I held for over a decade (and shouldn't have dropped off the map yet). I'm fine with building history, I just didn't think I'd need to at this point. Would it help to use my credit card in place of my debit card, or are they effectively the same thing from a credit history point of view? Right now my CC just gets used for sporadic things and online purchases, the debit gets my groceries and "budget" spending, so I could up my use of the card by another $500 or so per month. I just always assumed it made no difference how much it was getting used for so long as it was getting used. And for me, dental is not emergency money and would have to be paid back ASAP with surplus/fun money. Dental expenses are a predictable fact of life for someone with my enamel. Remy Marathe fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Aug 31, 2012 |
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Aug 31, 2012 21:02
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Champing  (no one but me cares though)Hmm that is pretty weird. I'm sorry if I seemed like I was talking down to you.  I guess I would say yeah, try and get your limit raised and try for some babby beginner cards. I just googled and found this neat place: CardHub. It looks like they specialize in finding you a card by credit type, and they even had some suggestions for "no or limited history" which apparently you are.  Since your loans are paid off, you see, you don't have any open lines of credit so your stats don't look as good <- I may be making that up but I think it's true.
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Aug 31, 2012 21:54
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Ugh, I guess I never dreamt that paying off (and thus closing) my loans would take those out of consideration, or that my credit would actually backslide so long as I did right by my accounts. It fits what I'm seeing though, right now I'm down to a few store cards and a Chase Blue Slate with only a $4300 limit. At one point I had a $12,000 limit from capital one, another $6,000 card, the student loans in repayment, and back then I had unwanted card offers coming out the rear end. My mailbox has been mostly empty for a few years, but I just blamed that on the general tightening of belts by creditors. Champing? I'll be damned.
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Aug 31, 2012 22:39
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Remy Marathe posted:Ugh, I guess I never dreamt that paying off (and thus closing) my loans would take those out of consideration, or that my credit would actually backslide so long as I did right by my accounts. It fits what I'm seeing though, right now I'm down to a few store cards and a Chase Blue Slate with only a $4300 limit. At one point I had a $12,000 limit from capital one, another $6,000 card, the student loans in repayment, and back then I had unwanted card offers coming out the rear end. My mailbox has been mostly empty for a few years, but I just blamed that on the general tightening of belts by creditors. A quick tip: depending on how long ago these rejections were, try actually calling Amex and speaking to a human. Point out all the things you did here - long credit history, no late payments, etc. Ask for "reconsideration" and they will put you through to a credit specialist who can actually do more than a computer formula. Give it a try and you might be pleasantly surprised.
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Sep 2, 2012 18:31
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kaishek posted:A quick tip: depending on how long ago these rejections were, try actually calling Amex and speaking to a human. Point out all the things you did here - long credit history, no late payments, etc. Ask for "reconsideration" and they will put you through to a credit specialist who can actually do more than a computer formula. Give it a try and you might be pleasantly surprised. Being Amex this will just result in another pull and decline. They generally only reconsider for erroneous info.
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Sep 2, 2012 18:56
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I allowed myself just one more pull, and got an Amazon Rewards card that I like well enough. But down the road if I apply for an Amex again I will do it via a human. Even if they don't allow for human judgement in terms of creditworthiness, my name has a special character in it and I've always got this little possibility that badly designed forms and systems can cause my name to falsely mismatch. Hopefully when I get the written rejection from Amex in the mail it tells me the source of the decision.
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Sep 2, 2012 20:11
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Marman1209 posted:Being Amex this will just result in another pull and decline. They generally only reconsider for erroneous info. Hmmm. Generally if you call within a certain time period of your decline, they use the original pull.
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Sep 2, 2012 20:23
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