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GreenBuckanneer posted:I found out I had some leftover Bitcoin just sitting around, not a lot, but enough to put towards a used beater or pay off my small amount of CC debt. Bitcoin is at all-time highs and remains incredibly volatile. If you've got credit card debt, it would be a good idea to turn this particular upswing on Mr. Nakamoto's Wild Ride into a zeroed-out credit card and maybe a bit of a cash emergency fund.
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Jan 5, 2021 01:31
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GreenBuckanneer posted:I found out I had some leftover Bitcoin just sitting around, not a lot, but enough to put towards a used beater or pay off my small amount of CC debt. Sell, Sell, Sell!
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Jan 5, 2021 01:54
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GreenBuckanneer posted:I found out I had some leftover Bitcoin just sitting around, not a lot, but enough to put towards a used beater or pay off my small amount of CC debt. Sell them shitcoins
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Jan 6, 2021 07:58
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Is there a thread somewhere about rental questions? I live in a large apartment building in a large city, and my rental company has not provided hot water for the past two months. The water is "lukewarm" at max heat. We have filed multiple requests for fixing and each time the maintenance staff shows up, replaces a part, and leaves. They're lovely folks, but this isn't our apartment, and it's way above their paygrade - other people in our huge building are experiencing the same issue. I looked up the laws in my state and it seems lack of hot water is considered an emergency and must be fixed within 24 hours. But the remedy is to "call a specialist and get your heater fixed yourself and take that out of your rent". We don't have that option because it's a huge apartment complex - we don't even have access to the boiler. I'm considering withholding rent, will of course talk to an attorney first, etc, but wondering if there's a rental thread that can answer some more specific questions.
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Jan 6, 2021 23:38
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Is there a retail banking thread? I've been with Simple for years, but they just announced today that BBVA's shutting them down, so I'm gonna need to find a replacement. Problem is, I don't really care about most of the stuff that review sites talk about (extra cash is invested, and not stuck in an account making next to nothing, I don't use ATMs that often so refunded ATM fees aren't super important, etc.), and what I do care about (a clean, modern experience on their web site, a clean, native mobile app, good support when I need to contact somebody, etc.) doesn't really tend to get mentioned. It's often hard to even find screenshots of what UIs look like, let alone what the user experience actually is.
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Jan 8, 2021 09:02
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It seems like a weird criteria to me, but maybe you are logging in to your bank's website a lot more than I am. I use Schwab for checking and the app lets me easily do whatever I want (mostly deposit checks, transfer money, and view transaction records), and I can also do that stuff on the website. Do you require brick and mortar? That's usually a key decision point for most people.
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Jan 8, 2021 13:45
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I would go with Ally or Schwab. Those are what I use.
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Jan 8, 2021 15:59
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Kreeblah posted:Is there a retail banking thread? I've been with Simple for years, but they just announced today that BBVA's shutting them down, so I'm gonna need to find a replacement. As someone who hates most lovely bank UI's, Ally is the best of the worst. For the few things I do it has a nominally intuitive flow. (Deposits, Transfers) They also happen to reimburse ATM fees because you shouldn't pay banks for the privilege of getting your money, regardless of how often. Checking your balance is easy, checking your transactions in savings accounts has recently been made stupid as hell in their app but is fine on their website. Talking to support on the phone has always been fast and painless, more than I can say about other retail banks. I just don't check transactions in my savings accounts generally, and I do get paper statements. One oddball thing, their month rolls over on the 5th (interest, statements, whatever) instead of the 1st. H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Jan 8, 2021 |
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Jan 8, 2021 16:22
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H110Hawk posted:One oddball thing, their month rolls over on the 5th (interest, statements, whatever) instead of the 1st. You don't get interest deposited on the 25th? That is when mine comes at least. E: same with my statements that I just looked at for the first time ever.
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Jan 8, 2021 16:31
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H110Hawk posted:One oddball thing, their month rolls over on the 5th (interest, statements, whatever) instead of the 1st. Maybe its based on when you signed up? These happen on the 25th for me.
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Jan 8, 2021 16:32
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Ally's interest rates are competitive, their support is good by bank standards, and their app is modern to a fault: it's clean, performant, and obviously specced out by a series of product managers each trying to promote their own big new career-defining feature instead of coherently designed. It's probably the best option here. I wouldn't go with Schwab if ATM fee refunds aren't a concern and the app is important. They have a typical clunky brokerage app, that can do a billion different things (including online banking) and shows them all to you at once. Their interest rates also aren't great. The big deal with Schwab is that they have the best ATM fee policy in the business.
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Jan 8, 2021 16:35
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also if you are hitting foreign ATMs for cash, Schwab particularly shines which is obviously not a concern in current world
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Jan 8, 2021 16:39
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spwrozek posted:You don't get interest deposited on the 25th? That is when mine comes at least. E: same with my statements that I just looked at for the first time ever. Xenoborg posted:Maybe its based on when you signed up? These happen on the 25th for me. Huh. Must be. Mines the 5th. Statements are printed on the 6th, interest hits the 5th.
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Jan 8, 2021 16:49
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Kreeblah posted:Is there a retail banking thread? I've been with Simple for years, but they just announced today that BBVA's shutting them down, so I'm gonna need to find a replacement. I have heard good things about Ally as other posters mentioned but I decided to go with Chime as they are headquartered in my city. I really like the app, it’s great and the few times I’ve had issues (my address is weird and I was missing a card that had been mailed) they are SO responsive. Within the app, you can talk to a robot that directs you to the correct customer service aspect and then a human gets back to you quickly (longest I ever had to wait was maybe 35 minutes?) The only issue I’ve ever had was when a friend bought something off me and gave me cash (enough that I wanted to put it in my acct rather than my little petty cash stash at home) and they don’t have ATMs. I think you can pay a small fee at like CVS/Walgreens and they can deposit for you, but I just ended up giving the cash to my fiancé (who’s with Chase and has ATM deposit access) and had him venmo me. That was also a year or so ago so the situation may have changed - Chime is a newer bank so they have new developments and features rolling out all the time. Additionally, if you’re trying to build credit, they offer a “credit builder” card where you deposit X amount into a sub account, that card functions in the world like a debit card but they report it each month as credit. I’ve also never had an issue integrating Chime into other accts like venmo, my Discover card, mint, etc.
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Jan 8, 2021 17:37
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Hmmm. OK, sounds like checking out Chime and Ally would be good places to start. As far as branches go, I really don't need them. I've been with Simple since 2013, and I can think of just a few instances where a branch would have been slightly useful (all having to do with real estate earnest money/down payment poo poo). I definitely get that this is weird criteria, but I really like using Simple, which isn't a thing I'd ever expect to have said about a bank (I mean, technically they're not actually a bank, since their accounts were backed by Bancorp, and then BBVA after they were bought). poo poo like having a question about future functionality and getting a detailed reply from a vice president, or calling after hours with a question about something, realizing their non-emergency ("I lost my card"-type stuff) support was closed for the day, hanging up, and getting a call back anyway has really made me happy with their service. I don't often need to contact anybody, but the times I do, I know I'll get somebody competent who can handle whatever I have a question about, and it's the same with the rest of their service. Their site and app are both really well-designed, their fee schedule is a bunch of zeroes (including for foreign ATMs), they've kept adding features like free next-day ACH transfers, and they've just been really customer-focused the whole time. I don't trust any of that to continue once my account is converted to a regular BBVA account. They haven't announced any details yet (not even a timeline) beyond that BBVA's shutting them down, but I feel it's a pretty safe bet that all this is going away once that happens. So, I figure I should start looking sooner rather than later to figure out where I'm going to jump ship to. Anyway, thanks everybody. That gives me a good place to start.
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Jan 8, 2021 18:53
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Kreeblah posted:Hmmm. OK, sounds like checking out Chime and Ally would be good places to start. That's nuts. I wound up on the phone with product managers at ing direct before. I will say ing to capital one I had to stay on them to not lose things I liked. It worked for a while now I am at ally.
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Jan 8, 2021 19:18
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This google drive spreadsheet (from reddit?) that I'm sure I found here on SA, LINK, is it considered good and/or useful? Do ya'll have any other options you like to use for looking at retirement math?
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Jan 8, 2021 23:10
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Kreeblah posted:As far as branches go, I really don't need them. I've been with Simple since 2013, and I can think of just a few instances where a branch would have been slightly useful (all having to do with real estate earnest money/down payment poo poo). It's a good idea to keep some kind of retail bank relationship, if nothing else because you might end up needing a medallion signature guarantee someday, and it's very difficult to get one of those without going into a physical bank.
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Jan 9, 2021 01:15
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H110Hawk posted:That's nuts. I wound up on the phone with product managers at ing direct before. I will say ing to capital one I had to stay on them to not lose things I liked. It worked for a while now I am at ally. Yeah, Simple has been awesome, and I have very little to say about them that isn't positive. It really sucks that they're getting shut down. Space Gopher posted:It's a good idea to keep some kind of retail bank relationship, if nothing else because you might end up needing a medallion signature guarantee someday, and it's very difficult to get one of those without going into a physical bank. If it comes down to it, I've got an account at my local credit union that I keep open for stuff like that. It's how I took care of the real estate stuff I mentioned above (transferring money to my credit union account, and then getting a cashier's check). It was a bit more of a pain than if I used them as my main institution, but it worked. It's a good thought, though, and I guess notary services could be handy, too. Up until my office got permanently closed last year, I could just talk to the notary at work, but that's not really an option for me any more.
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Jan 9, 2021 06:56
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Edit: Moana is smarter than me
Rythe fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Jan 10, 2021 |
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Jan 10, 2021 17:58
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Well, for one she's committing fraud, so maybe don't admit that in an online post. Doing this will make you an accomplice to fraud. You could get in big trouble if found out, perhaps even go to jail. Assuming she just wants to give you the money as a gift: She can legally give you $15k every year without any issues or paperwork required. Above $15k and you'll have to fill out IRS form 709 that reports it. That's it. There will be no issues going to the bank with this, you'll at most have to fill out a form there. If you invest that money (which is now YOUR money), you will have to pay taxes the same way you would normally, and if you decide to give money back to her, you can do that with the same $15k restriction as above. Again, this is committing fraud so please don't do it.
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Jan 10, 2021 18:09
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Thanks for the advice, I figured something along those lines.
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Jan 10, 2021 18:16
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I don't know what kind of scam was being suggested but to make it seem even dumber - you don't start having tax implications until you hit 8 figures. If the individual mentioned here isn't worth that, stop fretting about it.
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Jan 10, 2021 18:41
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H110Hawk posted:I don't know what kind of scam was being suggested but to make it seem even dumber - you don't start having tax implications until you hit 8 figures. If the individual mentioned here isn't worth that, stop fretting about it. Oh, it was not that kind of problem at all. It was entitlement program abuse.
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Jan 10, 2021 18:43
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Motronic posted:Oh, it was not that kind of problem at all. It was entitlement program abuse. If you need to hide assets while maintaining benefits of them it suddenly is attorney territory to make sure you don't get busted. But you need to already have the assets, not be earning them. 
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Jan 10, 2021 18:46
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There might have been some concern in an edited post about the bank's eyebrows going up at a large cash deposit. Just a reminder that banks deal with large cash deposits all the time, and although there is reporting around them, they're not a huge deal. On the other hand, deliberately trickling money in just under reporting thresholds or otherwise structuring your transactions to evade that reporting is a crime all by itself. And, if it's caught, which it probably would be, it would go from "oh, a substantial cash deposit, hmm, first one of those this week" to "what exactly is this person trying to hide?"
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Jan 10, 2021 19:27
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GreenBuckanneer posted:I found out I had some leftover Bitcoin just sitting around, not a lot, but enough to put towards a used beater or pay off my small amount of CC debt. (USER WAS PERMABANNED FOR THIS POST)
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Jan 11, 2021 15:51
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Thursday Next posted:Is there a thread somewhere about rental questions? There's a legal questions thread in A/T. Ask there.
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Jan 11, 2021 19:40
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Bumped it up  
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Jan 13, 2021 05:50
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I've been contacted by a well-known European company that you've probably heard of. They are looking to partner with or purchase a company here in Japan, and they want my assistance with the deal. I'm assuming the size of the deal will be $10-50 million US. An investment bank would probably ask for 1-2%, but I don't expect to be asked to do nearly that level of IB stuff. Instead, I expect my role in the deal would be: -Generic information gathering about market size and its participants (I'm already putting together a basic list for our next call, this Friday) -Initial contact with the target(s) -Ongoing negotiation assistance and translation/interpretation -COVID permitting, their team will visit Japan this year, so probably coordinating some in-person meetings or site visits to the target companies Some things that I DON'T expect to be asked to do, given they have their own M&A department and have done other deals like this throughout the world: -Valuations (I could take a rough guess, but I assume they need something more professional) -Bidding strategy -Drawing up a contract when the time comes (I am definitely not a lawyer) -Any kind of due diligence They've asked me to come up with a fee structure for assisting them but I'm at a loss about where to even start. On the one hand it doesn't seem like it would be a ton of work, requiring me to quit unrelated my full-time job for instance. So a couple grand would suffice. But given the size of the companies involved, asking for even like... $50K plus some bonus if it goes through seems like it would be a drop in the bucket. Does anyone have any resources or advice about what may be appropriate to charge for something like this?
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Jan 19, 2021 11:13
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What are the odds of any student loan forgiveness affecting private loans? While I'm on pace to pay off the remainder this year, it would be nice to have any amount forgiven so I can throw it at the next loan.
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Jan 19, 2021 14:21
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zmcnulty posted:I've been contacted by a well-known European company that you've probably heard of. They are looking to partner with or purchase a company here in Japan, and they want my assistance with the deal. I'm assuming the size of the deal will be $10-50 million US. This sounds like some kind of Nigerian Prince scam. Why did a major company contact a random person for assistance in international M&A? DTaeKim posted:What are the odds of any student loan forgiveness affecting private loans? While I'm on pace to pay off the remainder this year, it would be nice to have any amount forgiven so I can throw it at the next loan. Zero lament.cfg fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Jan 19, 2021 |
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Jan 19, 2021 14:51
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It sounds like that poster would be essentially a translator and interpreter. Most contracts of that nature are on an hourly / daily / half-daily basis
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Jan 19, 2021 15:20
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lament.cfg posted:This sounds like some kind of Nigerian Prince scam. Why did a major company contact a random person for assistance in international M&A? Advice, basically. They didn't just pull my name out of a hat either. A newspaper reporter that interviewed me a while back put me into contact with them. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:It sounds like that poster would be essentially a translator and interpreter. That seems realistic too.
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Jan 19, 2021 15:34
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I think it would be pretty difficult to work on a deal and have another full time job. You would want to be extremely clear about scope and expectations. Most deals are timed and so require a whole lot of concentrated effort at certain points, which I doubt you'd be able to deliver with a full time job.
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Jan 19, 2021 15:44
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zmcnulty posted:Advice, basically. They didn't just pull my name out of a hat either. A newspaper reporter that interviewed me a while back put me into contact with them. Hourly is the only way to go here if you aren't getting a taste of the deal itself. If you have the flexibility with your current job to take a week or two off during crunch time in the deal go for it. I imagine neither company would flinch at $150/hr but they're also going to expect you night and day. You might even quote high and see what they say, go for $250/hr-500/hr. The overlap between EU and JP is slim pickings and right in the middle of your regular work day, or very early/late if they're in country on either side. Lots of 6am/CEST or 6pm/jp meetings if you live in the -0700 timezone.
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Jan 19, 2021 17:28
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I've finally paid off my credit card!!! Now I am trying to prioritize my savings, would be curious what others here think. 1. Baby Fund - Save up 3 months worth of wifes salary for baby. Would allow her to take FMLA for 3 months to watch kid. We're getting a lot of hand me down stuff like strollers from family so not sure what other costs to expect. We're about 1/3 of the way there with 6 months of pregnancy to go, so on track. 2. Emergency fund. Currently at 1 months expenses for us without any cuts, we could stretch it. Ideally going to get to 3 months of expenses. 3. Car fund. We have $1k in there now. Would like to get up to $3-4K for eventual replacement of my wifes car in another year or two. 4. House fund. Only $1k in there now after paying for tree trimmings, exterminator to remove bats in attic and seal up holes, and replacing halogen basement lights with new LED fixtures. 5. Long term project fund. We're aiming for $25k to fix up our basement in the next 3-5 years. Only at $1k right now. BaseballPCHiker fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Jan 19, 2021 |
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Jan 19, 2021 19:22
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that seems real tight for an e-fund with baby on the way, I'd probably prioritize funding your wife's leave and the e-fund and completely ignore the other stuff for now.
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Jan 19, 2021 19:40
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:that seems real tight for an e-fund with baby on the way, I'd probably prioritize funding your wife's leave and the e-fund and completely ignore the other stuff for now.  dump all those buckets into the efund and keep going. Once that and your fmla budget are funded you can start branching out into things like cars and such.
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Jan 19, 2021 20:00
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:that seems real tight for an e-fund with baby on the way, I'd probably prioritize funding your wife's leave and the e-fund and completely ignore the other stuff for now. Looking into it more I just looked at my monthly expenses in YNAB to calculate a month. Breaking it down it appears the more realistic timeframe is 2 1/2 months of expenses in the efund right now. A large chunk of YNAB expenses were for credit card debt and savings goals. So if I subtract that I am at 2 1/2 months of expenses without cutting any luxuries. I'm just happy the credit card is paid off. I'll be able so save WAY more money now. By the time the baby is here we should be approaching a 5 month emergency fund at my projected savings rate.
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Jan 19, 2021 20:06
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