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Leperflesh posted:lol I have a file cabinet with all my tax stuff for every year going back to like, 1993. It's easier to save everything than it is to decide when you no longer need it and cull it selectively. Another option is to take a pic of every receipt as you get them and then upload the pics to dropbox or something. We went to a memorial for a friends father on Saturday and they were showing his complete set of tax returns dating back to 1955. It was honestly pretty impressive although I think they were just headed to the shredder now.
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Aug 8, 2023 17:19
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Thanks for all of the info! I'm currently beating my head against my desk for not realizing earlier that I qualify. I'm on my way to open a HSA with Fidelity. My $10 investment in a comedy forum two decades ago continues to provide the best RoR I've found.
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Aug 8, 2023 17:23
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Your health insurance should be able to give you a yearly printout of your out of pocket expenses (what they didn't cover). I assume the Feds would be okay with that as documentation of what you spent on healthcare stuff.
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Aug 8, 2023 18:37
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Subvisual Haze posted:Your health insurance should be able to give you a yearly printout of your out of pocket expenses (what they didn't cover). I assume the Feds would be okay with that as documentation of what you spent on healthcare stuff. You can use HSA on random other OTC poo poo (notably menstrual products) that's never covered by insurance. Your insurance has no visibility to that.
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Aug 8, 2023 19:02
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I normally give to charity through regular old monthly donations. I have a bunch of VFORX and VTSAX that I have in my brokerage account that I should have just put into VTI and VXUS over time, but here we are. Would it be better for me to stop giving in cash monthly and just make gifts of VFORX/VTSAX while I make my normal investments into my regular portfolio? At least that way I avoid any future big fun tax surprises like what happened a year or so ago.
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Aug 8, 2023 19:24
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:You can use HSA on random other OTC poo poo (notably menstrual products) that's never covered by insurance. Your insurance has no visibility to that. Sure, but if you're planning to save receipts for future withdrawals (intentionally letting the fund grow and compound) this is an easy one to document and hang onto. Tracking every bottle of Tylenol in contrast might be better to reimburse in real time so you don't need to keep hold of those receipts forever.
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Aug 8, 2023 19:26
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MJP posted:I normally give to charity through regular old monthly donations. I have a bunch of VFORX and VTSAX that I have in my brokerage account that I should have just put into VTI and VXUS over time, but here we are. Would it be better for me to stop giving in cash monthly and just make gifts of VFORX/VTSAX while I make my normal investments into my regular portfolio? "Donor advised fund" is the thing you're looking for, I think.
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Aug 8, 2023 19:35
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CubicalSucrose posted:"Donor advised fund" is the thing you're looking for, I think. Would I be able to transfer existing VFORX/VTSAX shares into a DAF if I opened one? Normally I just go through Vanguard and gift the stocks annually to reduce my exposure to VFORX/VTSAX but if I can get the same tax break via moving them to a DAF and having them go to the charities, that's fine too.
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Aug 8, 2023 19:56
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I get why you want out of the target retirement fund in your taxable brokerage account, but VTI and VTSAX are the same total US market index fund. If you really prefer the ETF over the mutual fund I think Vanguard can convert your shares in a non-taxable event if you call them.
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Aug 8, 2023 20:31
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The wife and I have 21k of joint money in a USAA checking account that's earning crap for interest. Can anyone recommend a better place to store it? We use it for our tax return and large purchases for the house typically. We won't be direct depositing our paychecks into it so nothing that gives bonuses based on that is needed. Looking around it looks like SoFi is offering 4.50% but I'm not sure how much I should trust the recommendations of a website called nerdwallet.com
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Aug 8, 2023 20:50
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Retrograde posted:The wife and I have 21k of joint money in a USAA checking account that's earning crap for interest. Can anyone recommend a better place to store it? We use it for our tax return and large purchases for the house typically. We won't be direct depositing our paychecks into it so nothing that gives bonuses based on that is needed. Nerdwallet is fine. SoFi is a real bank with real fdic insurance. Make sure whatever account you're opening has it. That's literally all that matters. I use Ally Bank. It is fine, it has FDIC insurance.
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Aug 8, 2023 21:08
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H110Hawk posted:Nerdwallet is fine. SoFi is a real bank with real fdic insurance. Make sure whatever account you're opening has it. That's literally all that matters. I use Ally Bank. It is fine, it has FDIC insurance. Agreed, SoFi is fine. They bribed me with a couple hundo for moving to them, and they process my paychecks a few days early. We use or have used Discover and Amex hysas and they were ok too.
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Aug 8, 2023 21:23
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I'm seriously considering moving savings out of a HYSA. Let's say you're looking at something like SGOV: highly liquid, treasury-only. Its current 30-day yield is 5.32, holding nothing but treasuries (well, almost nothing). Looking at a HYSA like Ally putting up 4.25, I'm wondering if the FDIC insurance should really cost that much. I mean, it's essentially the same credit.
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Aug 8, 2023 21:32
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Brain Curry posted:Agreed, SoFi is fine. They bribed me with a couple hundo for moving to them, and they process my paychecks a few days early. We use or have used Discover and Amex hysas and they were ok too. What does that mean, "process my paychecks a few days early."? My money shows up in my bank account on payday. Did yours normally take a few days after payday?
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Aug 9, 2023 03:36
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Different banks process deposits at different times. Our official payday is a Friday, but I get paid early Thursday evening.
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Aug 9, 2023 03:50
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I bank with USAA and in the last few years they've started clearing my paycheck 2 days before payday! I'm not ever waiting for the money or anything but it is interesting.
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Aug 9, 2023 04:06
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Direct deposits are actually sent days in advance of the official posting date. In the past the receiving bank wouldn't show it in your account until the official posting date requested by the sender, but in the last few years some banks have started making it visible immediately (basically a day or two earlier than the sender intended) and advertised this behavior as you getting paid earlier if you bank with them.
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Aug 9, 2023 05:10
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cool now i get paid on wednesday instead of friday, still every two weeks people are so silly
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Aug 9, 2023 05:27
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Jows posted:What does that mean, "process my paychecks a few days early."? My money shows up in my bank account on payday. Did yours normally take a few days after payday? Nope, it’s processed on the 13th instead of the 15th. Doesn’t do anything for us personally, but it’s different than other banks I’ve had
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Aug 9, 2023 08:12
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I recently rolled over a 401k from my previous employer into my Vanguard account. Should I throw this money into VFIFX like my Roth IRA from them, or should I do a mix of VTSAX, VTIAX and VBTLX?
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Aug 9, 2023 08:20
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Easychair Bootson posted:My $10 investment in a comedy forum two decades ago continues to provide the best RoR I've found. Dead comedy forum. And no loving kidding, this forum rescued me with “lol Edward Jones is terrible what are you doing” years agos.
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Aug 9, 2023 13:23
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withak posted:Direct deposits are actually sent days in advance of the official posting date. In the past the receiving bank wouldn't show it in your account until the official posting date requested by the sender, but in the last few years some banks have started making it visible immediately (basically a day or two earlier than the sender intended) and advertised this behavior as you getting paid earlier if you bank with them. It probably has to do with most banking transactions taking 2 days to "settle" in the US? It is kind of unusual how my money appears in my bank account on Thursday but the paystub itself and its details don't appear on my employer/HR site until Friday.
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Aug 9, 2023 14:26
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Fuschia tude posted:A quick gut-check: while I was underemployed* over the past dozen years, I put retirement savings into a Roth IRA. I also have about 20% as much in taxable accounts (mostly** checking, savings, CDs, HYSA). quote:** But, in fact, I also have about 20% of that in stocks. This is mostly "play money"; I keep no more than 5% of my portfolio in single stocks or very specific targeted ETFs, just in case one of them takes off, and this is a subset of those. But considering I'm taxed on those gains in this account, and holding cash inside my Roth accounts isn't very efficient, maybe I should sell them from the former and rebuy them, or similar stocks, inside the latter? How do I know when that's worth it? For the most past I've been selling things I hold in this taxable account when I need to rebalance, and buying that asset class inside a Roth when I need to rebalance the other way. But should I just pull off the band-aid, or is it not even worth worrying about, considering it makes up 2.3% of my portfolio?
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Aug 9, 2023 15:30
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Fuschia tude posted:Anyone? Trad vs Roth depends on your tax rate now vs expected tax rate at retirement. Rule of thumb don't listen to this think about it and make your own decision - if you're like at the like 24% bracket it's a toss-up. Lower than that, Roth. Higher than that, Trad. If you're going to retire at least like 5 years before 65, then I'd lean Trad at the 24% bracket. Second part, don't hold individual stocks. Yes your case is fine enough probably. But that's still the advice.
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Aug 9, 2023 15:50
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Fuschia tude posted:For the most past I've been selling things I hold in this taxable account when I need to rebalance, and buying that asset class inside a Roth when I need to rebalance the other way. Isn't this a wash sale, except it's the bad kind where you can't recoup the loss later when selling because it's in a non-taxable account? Or are you rebuying correlated, but not identical assets? And yes, you should probably have your contributions be 100% Traditional for the 401k since you want to fill out your lowest tax brackets in retirement with that money and you're comparatively overloaded in Roth money. This may be less beneficial if you end up saving beaucoup Traditional bucks and get fat Social Security checks in retirement because taxable Social Security eats up all your cheap tax brackets and RMD rules force you to take out 6 figures from your 401k after you turn 72.
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Aug 9, 2023 15:59
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If you’re gonna have play yolo wallstreetbets money don’t hold those positions your retirement accounts. You want to be able to tax loss harvest on your inevitable bad beats. I finally got the choice to pick between trad and Roth 401k contributions last year. I stuck with trad because if I end up having similar annual income in retirement I’ll be in great shape. Of course lots can change in tax policy but I also fully fund a Roth IRA so I’m at least somewhat hedged.
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Aug 9, 2023 17:20
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Subvisual Haze posted:It probably has to do with most banking transactions taking 2 days to "settle" in the US? Payroll system payments get loaded days or weeks before the actual pay date. I assume there's some kind of early warning system now for these big batch payments, and the banks that are on it are basically giving you the deposit on credit as a marketing and loyalty benefit. My state UI payments worked the same way, got them 1-2 days early. But there's also a lot of variance in how fast and frequently banks process ACH payments. My Capital One account tends to process incoming payments 1-2 days faster than my USAA account, for example. I've also noticed Capital One will process and credit incoming ACH mid day while USAA never does.
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Aug 9, 2023 17:44
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It’s a low bar in the US but in my experience Capital One has their backend and tech stuff pretty well together
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Aug 9, 2023 17:47
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I was let go from my job of 25 years a few months ago. Among the myriad ripple effects, I'm now just realizing I may have to do something with my 401k. I don't have an IRA. Is it mandatory that I roll over my 401k into an IRA? Where would I open that IRA?
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Aug 9, 2023 19:22
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SouthShoreSamurai posted:I was let go from my job of 25 years a few months ago. Among the myriad ripple effects, I'm now just realizing I may have to do something with my 401k. It's also not time sensitive so you don't need to decide immediately.
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Aug 9, 2023 19:30
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SouthShoreSamurai posted:I was let go from my job of 25 years a few months ago. Among the myriad ripple effects, I'm now just realizing I may have to do something with my 401k. Other people have answered most of this. How are the fees on your 401k, and the expense ratios on your fund choices?
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Aug 9, 2023 19:44
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Ok, I've got more SGOV/treasurys/money market questions I've been shoveling money into SGOV, kind of thinking of it as a high yield savings account rather than the ETF that it is. I've been keeping my checking account as low as possible to take advantage of high interest rates, but found I needed some money to pay my rent, so I sold off a bit of SGOV - realizing that as an ETF I'd be taxed on it. So it's probably not a good idea to use it like this right? Dumping cash in when you have it, and selling off when you need it as a regular thing. Two alternatives right now are money market/cash reserves (FDRXX, SPAXX) which still have decent yields, nearly 5%, and treasurys, which have the best yields but of course it's hardest to access that money until it matures, and then you can get it back as cash...without being taxed? Have I got all this right? I guess the thing to do is make sure I have enough fast cash, which is combined checking account + money market.
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Aug 9, 2023 20:00
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:Ok, I've got more SGOV/treasurys/money market questions You do not have it all right. You’re taxed on your profits from sales, and in the case of SGOV those are minimal (and actually any profit you got from a sale would be reflective of the portion of that month’s dividends that you were due to receive, which are taxable).
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Aug 9, 2023 20:12
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Assuming it's all in taxable accounts, you'd be taxed on the gains from a savings/money market account too. Interestingly, the income earned on a HYSA would be treated as earned income, whereas the non-dividend gains on a stock/ETF might be subject to LTCG, which might be more efficient. Not that this matters to SGOV which just does dividends.
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Aug 9, 2023 20:13
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Because SGOV is a bond ETF, its dividend/distribution payments at the start of the month don't benefit from qualified dividend rates. They're treated essentially identical to a savings account, they're taxed as income (with potential state/local tax deduction on earnings proportional to percent in treasuries). I think Fidelity has an agreement with SGOV where the expense ratio slightly decreases when you've held the shares for at least a month, presumably to encourage people not to overtrade it or try to find weird tax loopholes. As an example I've read some overactive posters theorizing that you could buy SGOV at the very end of the month in order to potentially make short term capital losses that could be written off in taxes. I doubt this would accomplish much, probably less than the loss you incur from churn but it is impressive creative thinking.
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Aug 9, 2023 20:32
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I don't invest. I don't really have disposable income. As a joke I have the Robinhood app and with the one free stock and $10 deposited, I play with that and just make some trades here and there. The Robinhood app keeps saying "start an IRA account". Is depositing let's say $5 a month into one even a thing? Do you even bother? Or do you just focus on debt/principal payments on my normal everyday bills and not think of an IRA. Are IRAs only worth investing in if you can max them annually?
Kramdar fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Aug 9, 2023 |
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Aug 9, 2023 23:08
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Any amount of money invested in an IRA is better than $0 invested in an IRA, provided it's invested in something. If you can get the minimum deposit in a vanguard mutual fund you can invest any amount after that-- even $5/mo
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Aug 9, 2023 23:11
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Kramdar posted:I don't invest. I don't really have disposable income. As a joke I have the Robinhood app and with the one free stock and $10 deposited, I play with that and just make some trades here and there. The Robinhood app keeps saying "start an IRA account". Is depositing let's say $5 a month into one even a thing? Do you even bother? Or do you just focus on debt/principal payments on my normal everyday bills and not think of an IRA. Are IRAs only worth investing in if you can max them annually? check the flowcharts at the bottom of the OP in the newbies thread: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3256838 they are your friend edit: I forgot I put the flowcharts in the OP of this thread, too!
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Aug 9, 2023 23:13
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Kramdar posted:I don't invest. I don't really have disposable income. As a joke I have the Robinhood app and with the one free stock and $10 deposited, I play with that and just make some trades here and there. The Robinhood app keeps saying "start and IRA account". Is depositing let's say $5 a month into one even a thing? Do you even bother? Or do you just focus on debt/principal payments on my normal everyday bills and not think of an IRA. Are IRAs only worth investing in if you can max them annually? I mean it all depends on your current financial profile. In general whatever amount you are able to save and invest is good. There are a bunch of personal finance flow charts out there. Generally they go: Pay off debt, create an emergency fund, fund retirement accounts to match, max retirement accounts, and on from there. But yeah, we'd need a little more information for good advice I think. e: f,b
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Aug 9, 2023 23:14
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Kramdar posted:I don't invest. I don't really have disposable income. As a joke I have the Robinhood app and with the one free stock and $10 deposited, I play with that and just make some trades here and there. The Robinhood app keeps saying "start an IRA account". Is depositing let's say $5 a month into one even a thing? Do you even bother? Or do you just focus on debt/principal payments on my normal everyday bills and not think of an IRA. Are IRAs only worth investing in if you can max them annually? If you are low income, you may qualify for the saver's tax credit (https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-savings-contributions-savers-credit). In this case, for example, putting $1k into an IRA can give you back $500 come tax time.
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Aug 9, 2023 23:19
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