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Unormal posted:There's a bunch of good beginner books in this OP: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2892928 To add to this I liked Millionaire Teacher I read it a few years ago before the Four Pillars. http://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-T...ionaire+teacher It's basically the four pillars for dummies, a great starting point if you know nothing. It's a little repetitive and some of the anecdotes are silly but overall very good advice. Just ignore the parts where he talks about picking stocks. Seriously he spends the whole book explaining why you should not pick individual stocks then at the end says "If you have to, do it this way..." when he should just keep saying "Don't pick individual stocks" That aside it is a good starting point, I should suggest that it be added to the first post of the long term thread.
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Oct 16, 2012 04:52
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| # ? May 23, 2024 13:23 |
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The Neatest Little Guide To Stock Market Investing is really good if you want an introduction to technical stock analysis. Not general investing, but stock market specific.
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Oct 16, 2012 14:46
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I just paid off my car.  I want to keep the same full insurance coverage I have.Is there any sort of insurance break for owning the vehicle outright? As in, can I call up my insurance provider and get a discount on my rates without changing coverage?
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Oct 17, 2012 23:16
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No, why would there be? You could, however, lower the coverage below what your financier required for the loan to lower your premium. But sounds like you don't want to do that.
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Oct 17, 2012 23:35
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Might as well check it out. I recall my insurer lowering my rates after I paid it off. Not to mention that if you bought something like gap coverage, you wouldn't need it now.
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Oct 18, 2012 02:39
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canyoneer posted:I just paid off my car. Be very careful about lowering your bodily injury amounts or uninsured motorist coverage just to save a few dollars on the premiums, agents will often suggest things like this but I really wouldn't recommend it after working for a personal injury lawyer and seeing people get screwed by absurdly low policy limits. Raising deductibles is fine, but be careful about lowering policy limits.
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Oct 18, 2012 11:02
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J Miracle posted:Be very careful about lowering your bodily injury amounts or uninsured motorist coverage just to save a few dollars on the premiums, agents will often suggest things like this but I really wouldn't recommend it after working for a personal injury lawyer and seeing people get screwed by absurdly low policy limits. Raising deductibles is fine, but be careful about lowering policy limits. Yeah that is pretty important, I was involved in an accident on a highway and they were about to hold me responsible for every car that rear ended eachother 5-20 minutes after the accident (when they didn't slow down for the traffic jam ahead), though they decided I wasn't liable after sending me a warning letter that I may be. Something like $600k if they did and I had maybe $250k in coverage. Eventually they decided I was responsible for the 1 car debris from my wreck had hit which was still like 70k. My car had wrecked into the barrier due to a malfunction with the rear left break (which caused me to spin out just for breaking) Quick question, should I always say "Yes" to the question if they may contact my current employer when applying for a job? I do not want them to know if I am looking for a new job. Though I work for a large corporation and I doubt they would say much more than "Yes, he works here" since it isn't like they would reach anyone who knows anything about me Alpha Mayo fucked around with this message at 14:48 on Oct 18, 2012 |
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Oct 18, 2012 14:18
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Meta Ridley posted:Quick question, should I always say "Yes" to the question if they may contact my current employer when applying for a job? I do not want them to know if I am looking for a new job. Though I work for a large corporation and I doubt they would say much more than "Yes, he works here" since it isn't like they would reach anyone who knows anything about me I would not. I think 99% of hiring agents know it isn't ideal to contact the current employer.
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Oct 18, 2012 22:55
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Not sure if this is the place, but I have a saving / taxes question, in Canada. I recently got my first grown up job, so this is my first time trying to budget long term. I work outside the province, pay taxes in Quebec and I haven't had my withholding adjusted to account for provincial taxes, since I figure I can stash that money on my own, earn interest (  ) and then just cut the provincial a check come tax time. So I poked around some income tax calculators, and I figure that without taking into account deductions and credits (Except RRSP), I would own  about 3000 bucks if I max out my RRSP (About $5200, according to line (A) of my 2011 tax return. Edit: Apparently this is because of my pension fund contributions.)Is there any drawback to using my TFSA to stash the tax money until tax time? I don't expect to max them out with savings, although I do want to save more than just the RSRPs, which right now would equal 8% of my gross this year. What's a good percentage of gross income to aim for as far as savings are concerned? Also what's the BFC wisdom on how much of your net income you should spend on car payments? I'm wondering if I didn't get in over my head with this loan (It's my first debt, not a good feeling.) Right now it amounts for 13% of my monthly take home (After provincial taxes). FrozenVent fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Oct 19, 2012 |
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Oct 19, 2012 01:21
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FrozenVent posted:Not sure if this is the place, but I have a saving / taxes question, in Canada. I recently got my first grown up job, so this is my first time trying to budget long term. I want to say to not do this the first year, simply because your math smells problematic to me. I don't know how much you're making, but $3k of provincial tax seems way too low to me even if you're maxing out your RRSP. Do you mind telling us what you're going to gross for the year and/or your deductions? Fraternite fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Oct 19, 2012 |
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Oct 19, 2012 04:04
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Fraternite posted:I want to say to not do this the first year, simply because your math smells problematic to me. I don't know how much you're making, but $3k of provincial tax seems way too low to me even if you're maxing out your RRSP.
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Oct 19, 2012 04:24
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What kind of APR should I be shooting for in a credit card? I currently bank with BofA and it looks like their rate bottoms out at around 10.99-18.99 variable with a 3% balance transfer fee. Is that a good deal? I have no idea. I'm currently a student, can I get anything from that?
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Oct 19, 2012 05:34
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for sale posted:What kind of APR should I be shooting for in a credit card? I currently bank with BofA and it looks like their rate bottoms out at around 10.99-18.99 variable with a 3% balance transfer fee. Is that a good deal? I have no idea. I'm currently a student, can I get anything from that? The only time interest rates matter is if you'll be carrying a balance month to month and paying interest. If that's your plan, you probably should not get a credit card.
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Oct 19, 2012 07:01
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FrozenVent posted:
One drawback of using your TFSA to stash the money is how you plan to use it. If you invest inside the TFSA and then have to withdraw it and it has lost value then you will lose that contribution room. You also can't recontribute to your TFSA anything you take out until the following year. For the car. That doesn't sound too bad, my car payments are about 15% of my take home per month, but I also have about 30% or more on top of that as just disposable income. Are you stretched thin and don't have a lot left over or can you afford to pay extra on your car if you needed or wanted too?
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Oct 19, 2012 17:07
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for sale posted:What kind of APR should I be shooting for in a credit card? I currently bank with BofA and it looks like their rate bottoms out at around 10.99-18.99 variable with a 3% balance transfer fee. Is that a good deal? I have no idea. I'm currently a student, can I get anything from that? Like was already mentioned, APR on a credit card only matters if you will carry a balance. And if you plan to ever carry a balance on your credit card, the smart financial decision is to not get a credit card. That said, personally I do keep a credit card from my credit union open that has an APR of 6.9% as a sort of "emergency" credit card. It has no fees, no rewards, and a 15k limit. I never actually use the card, but it's nice knowing that if I did have some sort of huge emergency expense that I wouldn't have worry about immediate access to large sums of cash or have to risk putting it on my rewards card (that I do all my regular spending on and pay off every month) that has a shittastic APR of like 13%. Guinness fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Oct 19, 2012 |
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Oct 19, 2012 17:58
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Anyone have experience in opening up their own HSA? I'm pretty sure my plan qualifies as a HDHP, and I'll be incurring some dental work in the future I'd like to pay with tax free dollars and just contribute the max every year.
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Oct 19, 2012 22:43
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Harry posted:Anyone have experience in opening up their own HSA? I'm pretty sure my plan qualifies as a HDHP, and I'll be incurring some dental work in the future I'd like to pay with tax free dollars and just contribute the max every year. I have done this myself, and your health insurance company should have a recommended HSA provider, so I would check that first. In my case, BC/BS recommended BNY Mellon: https://hsamember.com/ Be sure to read the IRS guidelines about what HSA funds can/cannot be used for; for example, contact lenses (and saline solution) can be purchased with HSA funds. See IRS Publication 502.
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Oct 19, 2012 23:09
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Harry posted:Anyone have experience in opening up their own HSA? I'm pretty sure my plan qualifies as a HDHP, and I'll be incurring some dental work in the future I'd like to pay with tax free dollars and just contribute the max every year. It's only pre-tax money if your employer sponsors your HSA and deducts contributions from your paycheck. Post-tax contributions are tax-deductible up to the contribution limit, though. However, I never use my HSA to pay for medical expenses because if you just pay out of pocket you can use your HSA as another form of tax-advantaged retirement savings. I do keep all my medical receipts, however, in case I did want to claim any reimbursements. They don't have to happen in the same tax year. You can read more about it here: http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2010/02/22/using-your-hsa-as-a-retirement-investment-vehicle/ and http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2008/08/using-your-heal.html
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Oct 19, 2012 23:30
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Guinness posted:It's only pre-tax money if your employer sponsors your HSA and deducts contributions from your paycheck. Post-tax contributions are tax-deductible up to the contribution limit, though. From that article: quote:First, we are saving all of our receipts for every qualified medical expense we incur and putting them in a file. There are lots of them, believe me: aspirin, bandages, ointments, eyeglasses, dental bills, etc., along with all of the typical physician bills and prescriptions. We are going to save these until we retire and need some tax free income. I checked IRS regs and publications and there is no rule against withdrawing HSA funds accumulated (and grown) over many years and applying them to unreimbursed qualified medical expenses that you incurred in past years, as long as they were incurred after you set up the HSA. So, if I want $5000 in tax free income in 2015, I can pull out $5000 from my HSA and match those funds up with $5000 in receipts from my file. Because we already paid those old bills, I can use the $5000 withdrawal in 2015 for anything I want, tax free. Saving every medical receipt for 30+ years seems like a lot of work just to avoid paying taxes.
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Oct 20, 2012 05:41
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Not to mention the buying power of $5000 30 years from now. Enjoy your mocha latte.
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Oct 20, 2012 05:45
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You're forgetting that any decent HSA allows you to invest your money. That's the whole point is that it's growing tax-free. Using an HSA this way is essentially just another form of an IRA with slightly different rules. Edit: Also, once you're 65 you can withdrawal all your money without the tax penalty and without medical receipts, but you'll pay tax on it similar to an IRA (i.e., tax-deferred growth). Guinness fucked around with this message at 09:32 on Oct 20, 2012 |
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Oct 20, 2012 08:57
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Best part of an HSA is avoiding the retarded AGI floor. People using it as an exotic investment are going to ruin it for people who are using it for its intended purpose, like just about everything else. It's why we can't have nice things.
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Oct 20, 2012 16:07
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That sounds like a loophole that could be legislated away in an instant. Then you can recover your cash value of the investment by buying cases of cough syrup and contact solution and selling them on ebay 
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Oct 20, 2012 19:27
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HSAs don't cover things like OTC items anymore, unless explicitly prescribed. That was a loophole that was getting exploited, and I think they were right to close it. However, using an HSA as a tax-advantaged investment vehicle is hardly a loophole - that's the whole point of it! It's pretty much a given that your medical expenses are only going to increase over the course of your lifetime, so it makes sense to put that money away now and let it grow with tax advantages rather than use it when you're young and healthy and can afford to pay minor expenses out of pocket, especially considering that to even be eligible for an HSA you have to be on a HDHP that typically has a pretty low annual deductible and out-of-pocket maximum. Perhaps the using years-old receipts for reimbursement could get eliminated, but that isn't really something I'm worried about as I'm virtually guaranteed to have much higher medical expenses in the future compared to now. Anyway, perhaps this is not a topic for the newbie personal finance thread and belongs more in the long-term investing/savings/retirement thread. Sorry I even mentioned it. Guinness fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Oct 20, 2012 |
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Oct 20, 2012 20:00
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I'm not. That's an interesting idea that now I'll have to look into. Any little bit helps.
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Oct 20, 2012 21:37
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Guinness posted:It's only pre-tax money if your employer sponsors your HSA and deducts contributions from your paycheck. Post-tax contributions are tax-deductible up to the contribution limit, though. Either way, I will have to have the account open before I get the bill so I can deduct it at some point in time. I have Aetna with a 2,500 deductible which I believe qualifies me, but I want to make sure. I can't seem to find anything on Aetna's website which is annoying. You'd think they would have something that would say "you qualify for this".
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Oct 21, 2012 20:46
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Hi! So I had a question about medical financing (I'm in the US). I'm getting some plastic surgery this December which is ~$10k. It's covered by my health insurance, but since the provider is out of network I'll need to pay out-of-pocket and then get reimbursed. The only debt I currently have is 6k on an auto loan. I currently have around 8k liquid money in addition to savings/emergency fund etc (and I'll have more by December). I was thinking of paying off the auto loan, but then I wouldn't be able to pay for surgery. Would it be unwise to just pay off my auto loan now and get a 0% 'Promotional Financing' loan from CareCredit or something which I'd have paid back a month later when my insurance sends me an reimbursement check? I hear nightmares about medical financing, but then when I read them it's always people that are idiots and didn't read the contract and didn't pay off the entire loan before the promotional period ends.
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Oct 21, 2012 22:16
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I purchased a car Friday night that I'm having second thoughts about. I know there is no such thing as a 'cooling off period' (I'm in California) but the dealer is waiting on me to bring them the pink slip for my trade in and an award letter for my GI Bill as proof of income. Can I just neglect to bring those items in and hope the financing falls through to give the car back and get my down payment/trade in back? Will there be any penalties, either monetarily or to my credit score?
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Oct 21, 2012 22:49
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Check what you signed for it. Mine had something like 5 days they will take it back and charge a 10% restocking fee.
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Oct 21, 2012 23:27
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The only 'out' in my contract is the Seller's right to cancel if they can't get financing, which is why I'm considering not bringing in my pink slip or proof of income. I just want to know how likely it is that financing will fall through without those items, and how much damage it will do beyond the hard inquiry on my credit report. And for the record, I don't have an issue with the car, its what I ended up paying for it. I am not as good at negotiating contracts under pressure as people who make a living negotiating contracts.
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Oct 21, 2012 23:52
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Not a Step posted:I purchased a car Friday night that I'm having second thoughts about. I know there is no such thing as a 'cooling off period' (I'm in California) but the dealer is waiting on me to bring them the pink slip for my trade in and an award letter for my GI Bill as proof of income. Can I just neglect to bring those items in and hope the financing falls through to give the car back and get my down payment/trade in back? Will there be any penalties, either monetarily or to my credit score? You can purchase a "Cancellation Contract Option Agreement" contract in CA, but I'm guessing you didn't do that. http://dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures/fast_facts/ffvr35.htm Also note that intentionally sabotaging your financing could be considered fraud.
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Oct 22, 2012 01:33
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From the brochure you linked:quote:For Used Car Buyers Only Its not a used car. And on the moral side of the equation for fraud, I did offer to go get the documentation immediately for them, but that would have required me leaving the dealership and having time to think, so they waved me off and said bring it in later. For the legal side of the equation, yeah, this is what I'm concerned about.
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Oct 22, 2012 01:47
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Not a Step posted:From the brochure you linked: I could have sworn I read is elsewhere that it applied to new cars as well, I know CA had a 3-day cooling period option available but no-one ever took advantage of it because it was dumb and expensive. I'm not saying one way or another on the financing portion as far as moral grounds, but just be aware that if the dealer wanted to go insane on your for one reason or another this could look bad. BFC superstar zaurg pulled something similar with a home purchase and lost some money on the deal because of it, way different situation though.
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Oct 22, 2012 04:44
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AbsoluteLlama posted:Hi! So I had a question about medical financing (I'm in the US). Have you talked to the actual practice or hospital and asked what they recommend? You'd be surprised how flexible they are with payment terms if you explain what's up. Also, how much would you actually avoid paying in interest by paying off your car loan balance in October versus, say, January 2013? I'd bet it's less than $100. Option 1: Pay off car loan, take out 0% loan to pay for surgery. Pros: Save ~$80 in interest on car loan. Cons: Take on risk that if the insurance company doesn't pay you back in a timely manner, you'll have to pay back your 0% loan with some interest (which could easily exceed the ~$80.) Option 2: Pay cash for surgery, continue making car payments. Pay off car once insurance reimburses you. Pros: No squeeze if insurance is slow to repay. No additional loan or credit inquiries. Cons: Don't save the ~$80 in interest by paying off the loan 3 months earlier. I'd take option 2 all day. Missing the $80 opportunity to minimize the risk of being screwed by insurance or CareCredit is totally worth it to me. My experience with insurance companies is that it takes at least 3 weeks to turn anything around with them. That's a tight timeline.
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Oct 22, 2012 18:21
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Quick question: Best way to come up with $7,000 cash with average credit. I live pretty paycheck to paycheck with about 3 grand in savings, have decent credit and little debt. I need $7,000 cash and I'm OK with a loan, line of credit etc. as I will be receiving an inheiratance within the next 6 months to pay this off but can also pay up to $500 per month towards the loan in the mean time. Should I go to a credit union? Loan? Line of credit? Any advice would be great. Bank of America pretty much told me to upgrade my Credit Card and cash advance which I assume is one of the worst ideas.
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Oct 22, 2012 19:03
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Well, how badly do you need this money?
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Oct 22, 2012 19:33
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I would really like it this week. It's not life or death but it's a limited opportunity.
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Oct 22, 2012 19:47
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shop posted:I would really like it this week. It's not life or death but it's a limited opportunity. Any "opportunity" that would make you take a cash advance to invest isn't an opportunity. I would say that you can't afford it, and that the best course of action here is to pass. If you get the money in 6 months, do it then. And why are you being so cagey about the opportunity? What exactly is it? The sirens in my mind are going off pretty loudly...
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Oct 22, 2012 19:52
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Well it's not that exciting. I have a girlfriend's family contact that made me an engagement ring for 7 grand that is hand crafted and exactly what she wants. It's also appraised at 20 grand. The only time I will see this guy in the next year will be next week and he wants cash only. In order to not be a dirtbag and make him wait that long I want to pay this guy. It's not something I would normally do unless I knew I had a significant inheiratence coming my way once the paperwork is filed. Hope that helps explain the situation.
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Oct 22, 2012 20:02
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Not being negative but that seems odd. If its a family friend why wouldn't they let you pay it in installments, since its an engagement ring? And if not, why are they selling you a $20K ring for only $7K? They're taking a $13K loss on it? They already made the ring with $0 down? They made a $20K ring with no contract or other guarantee of payment? PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Oct 22, 2012 |
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Oct 22, 2012 20:16
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