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Bisty Q. posted:As an aside, the Schwab Checking Account that I pimp out pretty heavy on here now offers an EMV-enabled debit card, with 0 FTF and still overseas ATM reimbursements. If you want an EMV card, just chat with them and they'll order you a new one. On a similar note, is the Fidelity debit card/cash management account any good? I'm living overseas at the moment and the local ATMs don't charge withdrawal fees, but Wells Fargo hits me with $2.50 for every withdrawal. It's not a huge hit, but it would be nice if I could avoid the fees. I'd prefer to use Fidelity, if only because I have my 401(k) with them and I don't want to create an account with yet another broker. Edit: I'm in the D.R. Congo, but I'm withdrawing from ATMs that give out US dollars, so exchange rates aren't an issue. Second edit: Just found this list from NerdWallet. CapOne 360 checking doesn't charge any fees and I already have my savings account with them, so I'll give them a shot. Wells Fargo's is listed as $5; in my experience, I've been charged $5 for withdrawing from a foreign ATM in a foreign currency (i.e. Shillings in Uganda), but $2.50 for withdrawing US Dollars from a foreign ATM. http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/debit-card-foreign-transaction-international-atm-fees/ curried lamb of God fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Aug 12, 2014 |
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Aug 12, 2014 12:03
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Irritated Goat posted:I just need some explanation. Treat me like I'm 5 cause sometimes, I feel like I am. What are your credit card debts at?
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Aug 12, 2014 19:48
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My brother's credit report only has his student loans on it (which started in 2009, everything is in good standing), ~28k in total; what kind of credit cards would he likely be approved for? He isn't looking for rewards or 0%APR offers necessarily, just something he can start putting gas on to build his report a bit.
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Aug 15, 2014 22:59
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GobiasIndustries posted:My brother's credit report only has his student loans on it (which started in 2009, everything is in good standing), ~28k in total; what kind of credit cards would he likely be approved for? He isn't looking for rewards or 0%APR offers necessarily, just something he can start putting gas on to build his report a bit. Who does he bank with? Does he have a work history and direct deposit? If so just walk into the bank and say give me a card. If he is with chase a freedom card is almost guaranteed. It really should be that easy if he has been making loan payments for 5 years.
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Aug 15, 2014 23:03
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Bank of America. I should clarify, his loan accounts were opened in 2009; he just started payments ~6 months ago.
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Aug 15, 2014 23:10
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The only way to find out is to apply. He shouldn't have any major problems.
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Aug 15, 2014 23:13
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Go to a bank in person, 3-2-1 Visa or whatever they have now should be no big deal. If he applied online or whatever he might get denied, in person should be all set.
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Aug 16, 2014 00:11
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Canadian here, just curious if America has a tax free sheltered account for investments/savings? In Canada we have a TFSA which allows us to deposit 5k/year which we can use towards equities. We are not taxed on gains or losses. As a person heading south in the near future, I was just wondering what my if you guys have something similar.
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Aug 19, 2014 00:19
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Short answer is it's taxed on the way into the account, or taxed on the way out of the account. There's way more nuance to it, but here's the simple version. With a Roth IRA (Individual Retirement Account), you contribute money that you have already paid income taxes on. You can withdraw at retirement without being taxed. With a traditional IRA, the money you contribute is a tax deduction (reduces your taxable income), but then is taxed when it's paid out at retirement. http://money.cnn.com/retirement/guide/IRA_Basics.moneymag/index2.htm
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Aug 19, 2014 00:28
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Roth IRA's have a shitload of ancillary benefits to them that make them an easy default choice. Probably the most important, in my mind, is that you can freely withdraw the principle whenever you want for whatever reason without penalty. It's like some kind of magical savings account that can only hold $5500/yr but generates three times the yield! edit: a caveat I forgot to mention is that the money has to sit inside your account for 5 "taxation" years before it can be freely withdrawn without penalty. This is a large consideration, but thankfully it's the only consideration (for Roth IRAs). double edit: distributions on the earnings are penalty-free after you turn 59 1/2 or a bunch of other one-off rules that should be explained by an authority who knows more about this crap than I do. Five Years old + 59 1/2 = tax and penalty free moneys. Other distribution methods exist with more complication. DNK fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Aug 19, 2014 |
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Aug 19, 2014 15:18
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DNK posted:edit: a caveat I forgot to mention is that the money has to sit inside your account for 5 "taxation" years before it can be freely withdrawn without penalty. This is a large consideration, but thankfully it's the only consideration (for Roth IRAs). Publication 590 is quite confusing to me, but I believe that if your Roth IRA only consists of regular contributions + appreciation, you can withdraw the original amount of your contributions without penalty at any time. The 5 year rule/10% penalty applies when you have assets in your Roth from a rollover and/or you're withdrawing from the appreciation in the account. I'm going off of page 70 of Pub 590: "You do not include in your gross income... distributions that are a return of your regular contributions from your Roth IRAs." Per page 71, the 10% penalty only applies to "the taxable part of any distributions that are not qualified distributions." A return of contribution may not be a qualified distribution, but since it's not taxable there is no penalty. I hope I've interpreted it correctly, because I've always thought of my Roth IRA as my "In deep poo poo" emergency fund. If for some reason I needed more than what I have in my cash emergency fund, I'd look to my Roth IRA contributions next, with my 401k as an absolute last resort.
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Aug 19, 2014 16:52
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How would the rollover get treated? Are the earnings and contributions say to a 401k tracked separately once rolled into an IRA, or is it just considered one big contribution?
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Aug 19, 2014 22:27
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Bob Mundon posted:How would the rollover get treated? Are the earnings and contributions say to a 401k tracked separately once rolled into an IRA, or is it just considered one big contribution? I haven't read this section as closely, but it appears that rollovers must be tracked independently. If you take rollover money out of your Roth less than 5 years after after contributing it, you have to pay a 10% penalty on the withdrawal, unless you meet certain criteria (age 59.5, disabled, etc.). If you have multiple rollovers, each rollover is subject to its own 5 year period. This is all assuming the rollover is all pre-tax. If you're rolling over a Roth 401k, then I don't think it would be subject to the penalty/waiting period. If your Roth contains regular contributions, rollovers, and appreciation, withdrawals come out in that order. (I.e, you'd have to take out all regular contributions before getting to the rollover portion.) Edit: I see now that you were asking a different question. It looks like it's treated as one big lump. You paid the taxes when you rolled it over, so it doesn't matter anymore what was contribution to the 401k vs appreciation in the 401k. Crabby Abby fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Aug 19, 2014 |
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Aug 19, 2014 23:20
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There's $1,000 reliably sitting in my savings account for the first time in a while and it's got me considering options for how best to handle it. I'm 26, living in NYC, making $22,360/year after taxes as an assistant manager at a full-time retail job. I have no credit card debt, no automobile, no valuable physical assets and no health insurance. These are my current loans: Student loan 1 - $815.62 @ 6.8% Student loan 2 - $3,334.63 @ 5.55% Student loan 3 - $4,190.24 @ 5.35% Student loan 4 - $4,055.20 @ 5.25% Rent/utilities are about 60% of my adjusted gross income, student loans are another 15%. Saving is difficult but I'm putting away $175/month (10% of every paycheck). Would it be best to pay off Loan #1? Or would the money better serve as an emergency fund for several months until I can enroll in health insurance through my employer? Is opening something like an IRA at this stage unreasonable?
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Aug 20, 2014 02:53
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eggyolk posted:There's $1,000 reliably sitting in my savings account for the first time in a while and it's got me considering options for how best to handle it. I'm 26, living in NYC, making $22,360/year after taxes as an assistant manager at a full-time retail job. I have no credit card debt, no automobile, no valuable physical assets and no health insurance. First thing, good on you for saving 10% of your net. That's a good thing to do at any income level, especially at yours. If you're paying off any loan, loan #1 is the right one on any metric (lowest balance and highest interest). However, you're not pulling down much in a high cost of living city. You got to bring up that savings, especially since you are uninsured. As far as an IRA goes, I wouldn't consider it until you've got the loan at 6.8% paid off. After that, we can argue about whether it's better to pay off your 5.5% loan or save for retirement. And that conversation will be dictated by your career path and earning opportunities.
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Aug 20, 2014 03:11
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eggyolk posted:There's $1,000 reliably sitting in my savings account for the first time in a while and it's got me considering options for how best to handle it. I'm 26, living in NYC, making $22,360/year after taxes as an assistant manager at a full-time retail job. I have no credit card debt, no automobile, no valuable physical assets and no health insurance. First of all, great job putting away 10% every pay check. Second - keep it as an emergency fund. By the way, the emergency fund doesn't go away when you get health insurance. If I were you, I would pay the minimums on my loans until I had a 3 months of living expenses in the emergency fund. Then I would aggressively pay the loans off, and only then start a Roth IRA at Vanguard.
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Aug 20, 2014 03:18
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Crabby Abby posted:Edit: I see now that you were asking a different question. It looks like it's treated as one big lump. You paid the taxes when you rolled it over, so it doesn't matter anymore what was contribution to the 401k vs appreciation in the 401k. So am I correct into thinking I can open up an IRA today, then when I have enough in my 401k to retire regardless of age, I can roll over the Roth portion into an IRA, and then draw as I please as long as it's been open 5 years? Seems entirely too easy to get around the 59 1/2 rule that way.
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Aug 20, 2014 05:59
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Bob Mundon posted:So am I correct into thinking I can open up an IRA today, then when I have enough in my 401k to retire regardless of age, I can roll over the Roth portion into an IRA, and then draw as I please as long as it's been open 5 years? Seems entirely too easy to get around the 59 1/2 rule that way. If you have a Roth portion of your 401k yes, however most employers do not offer that and even less employees take advantage of it. I would check with your plan provider to see if that is even an option for your plan.
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Aug 20, 2014 14:19
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Bob Mundon posted:So am I correct into thinking I can open up an IRA today, then when I have enough in my 401k to retire regardless of age, I can roll over the Roth portion into an IRA, and then draw as I please as long as it's been open 5 years? Seems entirely too easy to get around the 59 1/2 rule that way. Yeah, I think a Roth 401k rollover is different because you haven't paid a tax on the earnings, unlike in a trad 401k rollover. It looks like when you do the rollover you'll get a 1099R showing the value of your Roth contributions, and you'd have to treat that number as your regular contribution to the Roth IRA. The remainder would be taxable if distributed. However, I could be off on this because Roth 401ks are even more confusing to me than IRAs. They're just not as straightforward.
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Aug 20, 2014 14:30
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something clever posted:If you have a Roth portion of your 401k yes, however most employers do not offer that and even less employees take advantage of it. I would check with your plan provider to see if that is even an option for your plan. It is, currently contributing. That, a 6% match, and Vanguard funds with institutinal expense ratios make it very lucky to have. The match is regular non-roth though. Income getting well into 25% rate these days, so thinking of changing to non-Roth, but that kind of changes things.
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Aug 20, 2014 15:25
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Bob Mundon posted:The match is regular non-roth though. It always is, since it's coming from the employer and not you(so there's no opportunity for you to have already been taxed on it). Allowing a roth match would be nightmare at tax time for everyone.
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Aug 20, 2014 15:27
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Just got my latest FICO score and it jumped 52 points!!! I am at 679 now, one away from what should be 'good credit'. This is because I believe a charge off of my Capital One card from 7 years ago just fell off. The only other things I've done is open a Kohl's card early this year, and a credit card just a few months ago (that is where I get the free FICO score). Can I start applying for rewards cards now? Plus, the 2 key factors they said keeping my score down was a serious deliquency from a student loan--that was late I think 90 days and then closed when I settled my loans. It also says I have to few credit options, I only have the two cards mentioned above. Should I apply for a new card so soon? I don't want to jeopardize that 680 which should be coming automatically now. Thanks for any advice, you guys are great, even though you told me not to spend the $19 on the credit card, I'll be able to get out of the annual fee for sure next year!
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Aug 20, 2014 16:37
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surrender posted:On a similar note, is the Fidelity debit card/cash management account any good? I'm living overseas at the moment and the local ATMs don't charge withdrawal fees, but Wells Fargo hits me with $2.50 for every withdrawal. It's not a huge hit, but it would be nice if I could avoid the fees. I'd prefer to use Fidelity, if only because I have my 401(k) with them and I don't want to create an account with yet another broker. I use Fidelity and I highly recommend it. Their cash management account will refund all your ATM fees (star network I think technically), and as far as I know they have never not refunded one in the 5 years I've used them. They have a check deposit phone app, and I also use their 2% cash back American Express card which gives me 2% on everything, automatically deposited into the cash management account monthly - no caveats, no stupid point to gift card conversion, no strings at all.
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Aug 20, 2014 17:36
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Nail Rat posted:It always is, since it's coming from the employer and not you(so there's no opportunity for you to have already been taxed on it). Allowing a roth match would be nightmare at tax time for everyone. I specifically asked my HR department about this, and they said (after THEY researched it) that the matching funds will go into Roth 401k if my contributions are to Roth 401k. They could have been lying/misinformed, but I'd like to provide an alternative response. (I am not currently receiving matched funds due to lack of seniority at the company, so I cannot empirically determine validity.)
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Aug 20, 2014 18:12
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DNK posted:I specifically asked my HR department about this, and they said (after THEY researched it) that the matching funds will go into Roth 401k if my contributions are to Roth 401k. From IRS quote:Can my employer match my designated Roth contributions? Must my employer allocate the matching contributions to a designated Roth account?
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Aug 20, 2014 18:18
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Cool. Now I can get all smarty-pants on them. Since you seem up to 401k code: are there different annual 401k contribution rules regarding Roth vs Normal? Do Roth 401k contributions affect Roth IRA contributions?
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Aug 20, 2014 18:26
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eggyolk posted:There's $1,000 reliably sitting in my savings account for the first time in a while and it's got me considering options for how best to handle it. I'm 26, living in NYC, making $22,360/year after taxes as an assistant manager at a full-time retail job. I have no credit card debt, no automobile, no valuable physical assets and no health insurance. This is from a page back now,but I think its worth repeating: A. Handling expenses and also saving money in NYC on your salary is extremely impressive. B. I would just say that with that amount if hard work on the cutting expense end,you owe it to yourself to find a better paying retail job. I live in Philly and I couldn't imagine doing assistant manager anywhere for anything less than a minimum $30K a year (and arguably more than that). Sometimes the solution is to boost income vs continue to cut costs. And if the place won't pay you more, find someone who will.
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Aug 20, 2014 18:48
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DNK posted:Cool. Now I can get all smarty-pants on them. I don't know if I'm up to 401k code at least the fancier parts of it, but there's one $17,500 limit; the total you contribute to traditional and Roth can't exceed that. Same with Roth and traditional IRA and that $5,500 limit.
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Aug 20, 2014 19:08
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Nail Rat posted:I don't know if I'm up to 401k code at least the fancier parts of it, but there's one $17,500 limit; the total you contribute to traditional and Roth can't exceed that. Same with Roth and traditional IRA and that $5,500 limit. Never trust your HR dept. Lol.
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Aug 20, 2014 20:38
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Hey. Some background: I am Australian, 27 years old. My wife is 30, now a stay-at-home mother with our two-month old. I am the sole worker and will be for the foreseeable future. I earn $80,000 a year, about $1050 a week after tax, with extra from freelancing. (About $5-10k a year). We are completely debt free. I have a six-month emergency fund. Our budget is as tight as we can get it, so we’re roughly saving around 20-25%. We rent. My question is, I’m at a point now where we are budgeting really well, all our emergencies and expenses are covered and then same. I have lots of money to play with. What do I do with it? We’re never going to buy a house, (a deposit in Australia is upwards of $60k and that will take forever). I want to do something with it in the mean time. But what? I’ve been considering going into shares and doing some small trades. But is there something better I can be doing? I’ve looked mutual funds but the returns aren’t particularly great. Then again, they’re safer. I’m not sure if I can receive Australia-specific advice here, but what should I be doing? I should add 9.5% of my salary is put into a retirement account by my employer. We have about $40,000 between us combined in superannuation.
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Aug 21, 2014 02:49
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I'm under some money troubles right now and remembered my grandparents gave me some bonds around the time I was born. I'm 26 now and haven't touched them, would it be a terrible idea to think about cashing those in?
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Aug 21, 2014 15:27
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This is probably a stupid question, but how much should we save in our emergency fund? I know the rule of thumb is 3-9 months, but what if I have no idea what our expenses are/will be? We're moving back to the US soon from overseas, we'll be living with in-laws at first, we'll probably need to buy a car, but that depends on where we find work. We'll probably need to buy stuff for an apartment at some point soon too. Between the two of us we have ~$72k in student loans, and $25k in cash. Our checking account makes 1.5% interest, weighted average for the loans is about 5%, with a mix of 5.8% and 6.8% fixed and very low (1.7-2.0%) variable. My first thought is to use most of the cash to pay off the highest-interest fixed loans first, but I'm wondering if it's better to hold on to most of the cash until we have a better idea of our what our income and expenses will be. posh spaz fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Aug 21, 2014 |
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Aug 21, 2014 16:20
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Lblitzer posted:I'm under some money troubles right now and remembered my grandparents gave me some bonds around the time I was born. I'm 26 now and haven't touched them, would it be a terrible idea to think about cashing those in? Go here and punch in the serial #s http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/tools/tools_savingsbondcalc.htm#Inventory Then figure out if it's worth it to you then
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Aug 21, 2014 16:21
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Lblitzer posted:I'm under some money troubles right now and remembered my grandparents gave me some bonds around the time I was born. I'm 26 now and haven't touched them, would it be a terrible idea to think about cashing those in?
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Aug 21, 2014 17:10
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posh spaz posted:I'm wondering if it's better to hold on to most of the cash until we have a better idea of our what our income and expenses will be. My opinion, yes, for a year or two. It'll cost you a bit in interest (you can calculate how much) but it will give you a lot of flexibility.
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Aug 21, 2014 17:18
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I'd hang onto that cash too, you need liquidity especially if you don't know whether you'll buy a car or how much it'll cost you, what rent will cost, etc.
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Aug 21, 2014 17:37
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I just crunched the numbers and it'll cost $3352 in interest for one year. So the weighted average effective rate is actually closer to 4.65%. I'll keep making 1.5% on my checking account, so effectively I guess liquidity isn't that expensive, compared to running out of money and needing to get short-term funding (credit cards). It's kind of terrifying to think about paying $3k in interest, but I've read horror stories from people with massive credit card debt so I really shouldn't complain. I could pay off two of the 6.8% loans for $5,350, minus the $80 I'd make if I kept it parked in my account, that would save me about $280 per year on interest, which I guess isn't that much. posh spaz fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Aug 21, 2014 |
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Aug 21, 2014 17:48
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It is actually only costing you the difference of what you would pay off since you can't pay the whole thing off now. You are going to pay the rest of that interest no matter what. Granted that will compound over time etc. But from my phone trying to keep it simple.
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Aug 21, 2014 17:53
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spwrozek posted:It is actually only costing you the difference of what you would pay off since you can't pay the whole thing off now. You are going to pay the rest of that interest no matter what. Yeah, assuming you were going to use $20k to pay down the 7% loans, it'll cost you about $1100/year to keep it in the bank at 1.5% instead.
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Aug 21, 2014 18:57
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This may sound like a dumb question, but are you sure you're not getting .015% or .15% on your checking account? 1.5% is pretty high for a checking account right now. Most checking accounts that give more than 1% typically have hoops to jump through, like multiple debit purchases a month and monthly direct deposits. I would recommend keeping it liquid in an emergency fund regardless though, moving internationally and finding a job is definitely going to have some unexpected costs.
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Aug 21, 2014 20:30
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