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Capt. Awesome posted:So, I've been dropping money into my company's ESPP for the last 3 years without really thinking much about it. Recently, I realized that I probably shouldn't leave my money just hanging out in one stock, and should probably switch to a method of selling shortly after the purchases, since there are no holding limits, and based upon the previous purchases, I'd net out about a 20-25% gain each quarter. It's worked out in my favor that I've held on for so long, since the first few purchases were around $20 or so, and the stock has been holding steady in the mid 40s for the last few months. Right now, my overall gains are around 40%.
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Dec 10, 2015 14:42
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SiGmA_X posted:If you liquidate it all this year, will it push you into a higher marginal tax bracket? If so, don't do that. If not, it doesn't make a difference at all. Solid point, it doesn't. I wish I would have thought of this 3 days ago, stock has dropped 3 bucks over the last 2 days! 
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Dec 10, 2015 17:47
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# shares (just the 60%)* (Sell price - buy price) * difference in rates (45-20)*(.28-.15) So you're looking at a difference of maybe $3.25 per share in taxes. Note that the difference between sell and buy price for the later purchased shares is probably actually less than the numbers I used. So the actual difference will probably be less, based on the actual purchase prices. $3.25 is about 7% of the current value of the stock. So if you think it may drop by that much or more before the later sale date, I would sell now. Edited to correct my lovely arithmetic. Tyro fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Dec 10, 2015 |
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Dec 10, 2015 18:16
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Basic question about my Credit Card. I always pay my balance off every month but noticed that for the payment due date the minimum balance due is $0. Usually it's $25 but this time it's $0. Why is that and can I put off paying off my balance until the next cycle?
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Dec 10, 2015 19:22
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Busy Bee posted:Basic question about my Credit Card. I always pay my balance off every month but noticed that for the payment due date the minimum balance due is $0. Usually it's $25 but this time it's $0. Why is that and can I put off paying off my balance until the next cycle? Typically this means you've already made a payment this cycle (maybe redeemed rewards as a statement credit?). If that's the case you don't need to make another payment until the next one. However if the payment you made was less than the entire statement balance you will have not have paid it off in full and will have to pay interest on the difference. If you're not sure call the number on the back of your credit card and ask.
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Dec 10, 2015 19:34
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Busy Bee posted:Basic question about my Credit Card. I always pay my balance off every month but noticed that for the payment due date the minimum balance due is $0. Usually it's $25 but this time it's $0. Why is that and can I put off paying off my balance until the next cycle? Are you paying the whole balance, or just the statement balance? If you're paying the whole balance, my guess is that you already paid off the charges for this billing period, and anything newer than the cutoff date will show in your balance but won't be due until the next statement. Which by the way, there is no need to pay the entire balance. Just pay the statement balance. If you always pay the statement balance you'll never pay a cent of interest, and it also makes it easier to understand situations like this since you're only paying for charges in the previous billing cycle.
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Dec 10, 2015 19:48
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Before my father died my mother pulled out her old law books and started investigating wills and trusts a lot. I believe our old family home was moved into some sort of trust at some point as one site listed it had recently sold for 0 dollars. Fast forward some years and my mother lives in a retirement community and that house has been sold, and I have no idea what her assets are like or what's in a trust or not. She's rather private about the finances, but it makes it a bit awkward for me to plan since I don't know if she has barely enough money to live to old age off of or if there's so much money some is still in whatever trust was set up. Short of prying the information out of my mother, if I were hypothetically the beneficiary of a trust, is there some easy way to figure out it actually exists?
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Dec 10, 2015 20:05
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No. Talk to your family.
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Dec 10, 2015 20:16
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Just ask her. Not always easy topics to bring up. However she's probably budgeted out everything carefully. After moving into a retirement community people, then hospital care and end of life there's often little or nothing left. If you are concerned that you may need to provide financial support to make sure she receives care to meet your expectations then you should definitely talk to her about it.
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Dec 10, 2015 20:16
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I have a Discover card with a $7,500 limit and they're constantly pestering me to increase the limit. I've never had more than $1,000 on the drat thing and these days only use it to buy gas and make online purchases. (I make $50k/yr.) Is there a reason not to increase it (in case of a really, really big emergency in addition to my emergency fund I guess?) if I rarely keep a balance on it?
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Dec 10, 2015 22:14
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If you have multiple cards or want them, then it could matter as banks look at bot your total limit with them and your total limit. im guessing based on mine, but you could easily get 20k at a single bank and probably 50k+ total. The other factor is utilization and various numbers get thrown out from 10% to 30%, but in general its better if your statement balance is a low percentage of the cards limit. Utilization does not have a history component so you can manipulate it if you know you're going to apply for credit.
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Dec 10, 2015 23:23
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I've got about $8,500 worth of unsecured personal medical loan at 9% interest I'd like to see go away sooner than the planned June 2017 end date. I know loans on 401k and IRA accounts are usually verboten as hell--and with good reason--but spare cash is in a bit of a crunch (not a critical one, just one that makes me  a bit every paycheck) for the next few months. Besides which, I'm bored as hell at work so I'd like to explore it a little even if the right answer is what I think it is (that being "just keep doing what you're doing").When taking a loan from one's 401k, I'm paying the principal and interest back into my own account, if I understand it correctly. I'm aware that any money I take out is no longer invested and therefore not making money, but--for the purposes of this question--assuming the market doesn't change or even gets worse during the repayment term (ed: or perhaps even grows, but less than the 9% interest on my current loan), have I lost anything by the end of the term? (I realize that's crazy talk crystal balling, I'm just trying to clarify how the loan works in my head.) I'm also aware that if I were ever to quit/get fired, I'd be immediately liable for full repayment of that loan, else I eat income tax and excise tax/disbursement penalty/whatever it's called. Are there any other significant gotchas on such a loan that make it untenable, or is it just that and the fact that the money's no longer invested? Some background, I'm 31 (as of today; happy birthday  ), have about $110k in my 401k and IRA (mostly the 401k, the IRA's a rollover), have worked my job 7 years and am highly stable/happy there, and am currently paying 8% pre-tax into my 401k (with my employer contributing 4% at that contribution, so that's effectively as low as I can go without losing literally free money).
Ciaphas fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Dec 11, 2015 |
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Dec 11, 2015 00:53
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Ciaphas posted:I've got about $8,500 worth of unsecured personal medical loan at 9% interest I'd like to see go away sooner than the planned June 2017 end date. I know loans on 401k and IRA accounts are usually verboten as hell--and with good reason--but spare cash is in a bit of a crunch (not a critical one, just one that makes me The medical loan interest cost from this point on is about $618 for 18 month repayment. If you can do without the 401k loan then do without. If you genuinely are at a cash flow crunch where you will start borrowing high interest money. You have no way of knowing the direction the market will take but often people lose out on their 401k loan unless they have a really good reason for it. Perhaps consider this write up. It's not in-line with BFC advice but it seems to give a balanced view (but don't use that as an excuse to get the loan anyway). http://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/08/borrow-from-401k-loan.asp
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Dec 11, 2015 01:56
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401k loans get poo poo on pretty regularly because the funds so often turn into truck equity or vacation home equity. It might or might not be worth the hassle given the numbers you're talking about, but there is nothing inherently wrong with it. Just go in with eyes wide open about opportunity cost of investment and understand the risk of a 10% penalty (you don't always have to repay it upon ending employment, read the policy).
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Dec 11, 2015 03:11
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Thanks for the answers, and the link. Great to get some clarity on the subject. I didn't get a chance to call HR (or Fidelity for that matter) and ask them, is repayment generally handled automatically, i.e. by redirecting your normal 401k contribution, or by effectively garnishing your take-home paycheck, or just a separate bill? Or does it depend on employer/finance company? I'm probably going to give the whole thing a pass since things aren't exactly dire, I just want to know my options in advance if things start getting worse, like another nasty fall or something. (and if I did take the loan the market would probably be its usual cruel fickle bitch self and go up 15% in 18 months just to spite me)
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Dec 11, 2015 04:20
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edit: wrong
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Dec 11, 2015 09:25
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I didn't even know that Squares were an option for cashing out stolen credit cards. Guess I was wrong. Text about my credit card being run at 3 AM last night for exactly $100.  No idea where my credit card got skimmed, but eh. Keep your eyes open, I guess.
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Dec 11, 2015 22:24
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Yeah, someone tried to use my card via square but for $4.22... Chase was all over it though.
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Dec 12, 2015 00:13
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Yeah a lot of carders hold on to stolen CCs until this time of year because they know any fraudulent purchases will get lost in all the holiday shopping.
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Dec 12, 2015 18:32
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Credit card question: I got a Wells Fargo Rewards card a few years ago when my income/spending ratio was pretty desirable and I didn't have any debt. In the last 3 years I bought a car, took out a student loan and switched jobs to one that paid much less with better options in the future. Problem is that I let my card payment slip one especially hard month and the bank closed my card. Dumb move, I know. After another year or so on a very hard budget, I finally got a great job that pays well and is letting me get back where I want to be. I've since paid off the entire balance of the closed card and got my credit score somewhere in the high-600 low-700 range. I want to apply for another card now that I can easily manage it financially. Before I even waste my time at the bank, I was wondering what kind of flags having a closed card in the past will bring up if I paid it off in full and built my score back up. I wouldn't be surprised if it's still a big problem for getting a new card. Any advice?
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Dec 15, 2015 20:21
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Rolo posted:Credit card question:
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Dec 16, 2015 08:25
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Looking into HELOC now because we just hit 2 years in our home and my employment history is...cyclical. I read an article that said: "a lender can cancel a HELOC before you're done using it, which can cause financial pain. Home equity loans are sturdier, with various terms locked in." On the surface that makes sense. But I have some questions:
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Dec 16, 2015 09:01
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I've just started a new job, and I have the opportunity to sign up for a dependent care flex spending account. The employer will match 50% up to $1,000, which is great, and the max I can put in is $5,000. I'll be using this for my son's daycare, so there's no question of being able to use it all in a year's time. The benefit to all of this is that it's coming out of my paycheck pre-tax, but in my head I'm having a hard time figuring out just how much savings that will be. How do I figure that out? If taking the money out pre-tax is gonna save me $50 over a year it's probably not worth the hassle, but $500 is a different story.
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Dec 16, 2015 19:26
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jackpot posted:I've just started a new job, and I have the opportunity to sign up for a dependent care flex spending account. The employer will match 50% up to $1,000, which is great, and the max I can put in is $5,000. I'll be using this for my son's daycare, so there's no question of being able to use it all in a year's time. The benefit to all of this is that it's coming out of my paycheck pre-tax, but in my head I'm having a hard time figuring out just how much savings that will be. How do I figure that out? If taking the money out pre-tax is gonna save me $50 over a year it's probably not worth the hassle, but $500 is a different story. If daycare isn't otherwise tax deductible, then you'd save state and federal taxes at the top brackets you're in for the amount you contribute and in addition you don't pay FICA, about 7% if you make less than $118k. For most people, it should be a savings of around 30%
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Dec 16, 2015 19:50
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Yeah you'll "pay" $3500 for $5000 worth of day care. It's without-a-doubt worth it.
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Dec 17, 2015 23:37
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I am a Canadian soon to be US green card holder. My credit is pretty good in Canada, but obviously that means poo poo in the US so I had some questions in regards to building credit. My goal is to get apply mortgage probably in 2 years time... so we're looking at 2018. In Canada, I have credit cards with AMEX\Chase\TD so I assume I should be able to easily transfer\get a credit card once I get a job in the US as they can look at my history with their Canadian operation. The question is, what is the best way to go about this? Should I just try to a credit card from each of those companies when I am in the US? If so, should I continue to hold them while I'm applying for my mortgage in 2 years or should I perhaps cancel them 6 months prior to applying for the mortgage? Any suggestions would be great. My wife has good credit, but I'm guessing her alone, it would be harder to secure a mortgage we would want. Thanks!
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Dec 18, 2015 04:38
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lol internet. posted:I am a Canadian soon to be US green card holder. I don't know about Chase or TD, but I've heard that Amex will use the your history with them in other countries if you call them up when applying. Where did you get the idea that you should cancel credit cards before you apply for a mortgage? Don't do that as large part of your credit score is the average age of open credit lines. You would want to lower your utilization to under 10%, but you can do that by paying off the credit cards early if you have a low limit.
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Dec 18, 2015 10:48
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asur posted:I don't know about Chase or TD, but I've heard that Amex will use the your history with them in other countries if you call them up when applying. Where did you get the idea that you should cancel credit cards before you apply for a mortgage? Don't do that as large part of your credit score is the average age of open credit lines. You would want to lower your utilization to under 10%, but you can do that by paying off the credit cards early if you have a low limit. I already checked with AMEX, I haven't checked with Chase\TD but I assume they will, if not oh well. I heard that if you a lot of open credit, they could see it as a liability as when you can't make ends meet, you might start stacking your debt into all the credit and with the high interest rates, you wouldn't really be able to pay off that much debt. (Can't remember the source) I also am an additional card holder on a BoA visa although I don't have a SSN attached to the account, I'm not sure if it will really help me at all.
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Dec 18, 2015 12:45
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The biggest factors in your credit report are your payment history and utilization, both of which benefit from having multiple accounts open that you maintain a low/zero balance on. Closing credit cards will only increase your utilization percent (because the total available credit will decrease) and they stay on your report for 10 years, after closing, anyway.
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Dec 18, 2015 17:03
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I just got a promotional flyer in the mail from my primary CU about obtaining weird home loans and/or HELOCs. I know we've talked about HELOCs in this thread many times; if I have no debt aside from my mortgage and have a sizable taxable fund from which to draw, does it make sense to take out a HELOC and keep that in my back pocket? I have no desire or plan to make any big purchases in the next 2-3 years assuming my current house and car continue to work out, my credit score is very high, and my taxable account's balance is currently sitting at about $10k above the remaining balance on my mortgage. Is there any advantage of disadvantage of looking into a HELOC just to hang onto if poo poo hits the fan, if I'm not worried about my current utilization (near zero) or my overall credit score?
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Dec 19, 2015 07:36
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So I'd say I'm in a fairly decent situation right now: age 25 with ~30k in a checking account (I know  ), contributing a little over 10% of my pre-tax paycheck to my company's 403b, and I have one credit card with my bank (US Bank if that matters) that I pay off completely every month.I guess my question is: what should I do with the 30k? I've read through a few of the megathread OPs, but I'm just wondering what's better for someone in my situation - dump most of it into a savings account? Max out my 403b contribution for 2015? Start a Roth IRA? Try to invest in the stock market? Buy bitcoin??? I would like to keep some in the checking account (~5k?) for general purposes such as rent, food, bills etc, with the leeway, but that might be a dumb idea, I have no idea  .
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Dec 19, 2015 10:05
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First instinct is bitcoin, but between now and the beginning of 2016, you could put $11,000 of that into a Roth IRA for 2015 and 2016. I'd check if it needs to be opened in 2015 to contribute for that year. Like, now. $5,000 in emergency fund, which leaves you with $14,000. Any student loan or auto debt? If not, I'd say throw a little more into the 403b, maybe open a taxable investment account, and for christ's sake, spend a little on yourself 
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Dec 19, 2015 12:18
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Antoine Silvere posted:So I'd say I'm in a fairly decent situation right now: age 25 with ~30k in a checking account (I know Open a Roth IRA right away and dump $5,500 in, then dump another $5,500 in after January 1st. It's probably too late to max your 2015 403(b), but you may consider setting your contribution level to 100% of your paycheck beginning in 2016 and then live off the checking account for awhile. Obviously you should reduce your contribution once you start to reach that $5,000 level in your checking account. Do not under any circumstances buy bitcoin.
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Dec 19, 2015 19:04
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I had to sign up for myfico.com for an apartment rental (long story) and it's showing my scores as 750/738/734 from the three credit bureaus, which looks good on paper, but I've only had a secured card since March 2015 and an unsecured card since Nov 2015. The secured card just shows up as a line of credit on my report, right? There's no penalty assigned? I applied for some higher end cards in November knowing I would be moving cross-country and also buying a lot of airline tickets (just finished moving) between TX and CA to try and get some miles racked up, but despite paying off the card in full every month, I only qualified for a dumpy unsecured card with just $500 limit and an annual fee. Will my ability to qualify for 'real' credit cards with actual rewards begin to improve after I hit that magic one year credit history number? Or do I need to wait 18-24 months before I begin qualifying for real credit cards? Despite six figure income and a high credit score nobody wants to touch me even though all the credit calculators say I smell like roses. Hadlock fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Dec 19, 2015 |
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Dec 19, 2015 19:35
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You should be able to get better cards. poo poo, I got a number of alright cards with 650ish. High utilization? Multiple inquiries? You don't have to answer that here, but take a look at something like Credit Karma.
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Dec 19, 2015 20:11
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Anyone have a link to a withholding calculator that works for 2016? Every one I can find is just trying to calculate the last week of this year which isn't super helpful. Due to some weird circumstances I had 6 allowances as a single person with no kids in 2015. I'm guessing that wont be the case in 2016 which should be a more normal year.
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Dec 21, 2015 15:30
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Xenoborg posted:Anyone have a link to a withholding calculator that works for 2016? Every one I can find is just trying to calculate the last week of this year which isn't super helpful.
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Dec 21, 2015 20:38
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I just inherited a gold coin, silver coins and some silver dollar certificates. Is there any reason I should hold on to them instead of sell? They have no sentimental value.
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Dec 22, 2015 00:42
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Fuschia tude posted:I just inherited a gold coin, silver coins and some silver dollar certificates. Is there any reason I should hold on to them instead of sell? They have no sentimental value.
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Dec 22, 2015 01:12
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Sell, but don't take it to the mall. Find a reputable online dealer or jewelry shop. Small amount of research will go a long way.
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Dec 22, 2015 01:21
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