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Emacs Headroom
Aug 2, 2003
That computer is a dumb idea (seriously a new CPU + MB + GPU + RAM that would be great for current games is <600$), but your food budget is also insanely high.

If you're smarter about cooking stuff (you can take a weekend to cook and freeze soups, stews, lasagna, etc. for evenings and lunches you'd be otherwise getting pizzas or whatever) then you could save several hundred a month.

Obviously he's fixated on the computer to the detriment of all else which is a problem in general, but you guys should try to be proactive on the food thing.

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Brennanite
Feb 14, 2009

HooKars posted:

He's essentially saying that his own Computer want is worth 9 months of entertainment for both of you since that's how much it costs and that's really the category it should come from, though I think you can tighten things up a bit in the food category as well. Either way, he's not going to be the only one who feels the repercussions of this purchase and it's pretty selfish considering its to play a video game. Plus, he's also being a baby about needing Cable when you have plenty of other forms of entertainment, so it seems lke it's not a bizarre computer lust, but a more general bizarre technology lust.

As mentioned in the thread, have you talked to him about selling some of his other toys to finance buying the computer? He must have old games and things sitting around.
Yeah, he does love his technology. And yes, he has many, many old games which can NEVER be sold. I had to fight just to move them to them into a box in the closet. I mentioned previously that he doesn't want to sell his current system so that he can have it as a back-up. :rolleyes:

quote:

You've been posting in this thread for awhile and it seems like you're going backwards instead of forwards::
On 2/25/11 - You were officially free of Credit Card Debt
5/5/11 You were talking about cutting Cable and switching it up to Netflix/Hulu + Antenna but apparently a change as simple as cable hasn't been done in 2 years
On 2/17/12 (about 1 year exactly after getting out of Credit Card Debt) - You were now back in Credit Card debt at $1320
8/29/13 - You now have $3000 in Credit Card Debt and are considering adding another $1300 for a computer

Now this just makes me sad. What happened in between May 2011 and Feb. 2012 was a tiny bundle of joy. There were unexpected complications that required surgery. That was the $1320. My son also had surgery last summer, which we paid for (I now suspect) by shifting our spending to the credit card, and my husband had a ton of emergency dental work this spring as well, some of which was paid with savings and some paid on the credit card. You know, I'm seeing a pattern. It's almost like things occur unexpectedly that require money now and we don't have enough in savings to cover it, so it goes on to the credit card.

We really can't afford this computer and I really can't compromise on this one, can I? (No.)

Edit: Emacs, we've (I've) made great progress in reducing our food budget this month so far. If we keep on track, we'll end up around $550, which is a big reduction.

Emacs Headroom
Aug 2, 2003

Brennanite posted:

Edit: Emacs, we've (I've) made great progress in reducing our food budget this month so far. If we keep on track, we'll end up around $550, which is a big reduction.

Yeah that's great. My wife got really into following some recipes on freezable food, which is seriously great for the winter (and I got into it also). It kept our food budget around $300 during our lean years; I can ask her the books she'd recommend if you think they'd help.

It's healthier than grocery store frozen food, massively cheaper, and really accounts for the lazy "let's just order something" or "let's get a frozen pizza tonight" factor.

HooKars
Feb 22, 2006
Comeon!

Brennanite posted:

Now this just makes me sad. What happened in between May 2011 and Feb. 2012 was a tiny bundle of joy. There were unexpected complications that required surgery. That was the $1320. My son also had surgery last summer, which we paid for (I now suspect) by shifting our spending to the credit card, and my husband had a ton of emergency dental work this spring as well, some of which was paid with savings and some paid on the credit card. You know, I'm seeing a pattern. It's almost like things occur unexpectedly that require money now and we don't have enough in savings to cover it, so it goes on to the credit card.

Life is full of surprises, some good, some bad - that's why having an emergency fund is so important, especially now that you do have a child (god knows they just seem to attract emergencies sometimes). You said your income would increase by $1600 this month from $3000 to $4600. It looks like in your prior numbers, you were overbudget but it looks like with the new salary, you'll have a little extra money each month - maybe on the new salary, you can come up with a compromise with some of the money being allocated to a more reasonable costing computer for the month's of October and November, then agreeing that after November, you guys will put all the new income towards snowballing yourself out of debt?

Edit: I do think it's important that you sit down with your husband and show him the numbers and show him what the family, and not just him, will have to sacrifice for his $1300 computer. Whether it's your family security by using the savings account (and pointing out life's surprises that have popped up in the past and the importance of that emergency fund), or the fact that even if he took his half of your joint entertainment budget ($75) and used it to pay off $1300 , that would be 17 months of sacrifice on his part (5 months after the account would have to be paid off on his supposed 0% card) so obviously the money has to come from somewhere more than just HIS "fun" money (nevermind that then means that you guys can't do anything fun as a family since he'd be"out of" money, nor could he want anything else for over a year (obviously he already wants two video games so we already know that's not true). He just has to see for himself that $1300 is a lot of money and unreasonable in your family's situation and involves more sacrifice than just "I'll be good and won't ask for anything for Christmas" -- it's a LOT of money to your family. Just putting your foot down about it can often just cause resentment, which is why I think he really needs to look at the numbers and come to the realization with you that he can't afford this.

HooKars fucked around with this message at 04:58 on Sep 10, 2013

canyoneer
Sep 13, 2005


I only have canyoneyes for you
No really, go take your $1300 computer build details into the SH/SC PC Building, Upgrading, Parts Picking Thread. They will demonstrate to you that you can build something better for 70% of the cost. The thread provides awesome guidance on cost-effective options. Thread regulars Crackbone and Factory Factory have a really good philosophy on buying hardware at the "sweet spot" of price/performance. You'll find that the difference between a guy who spent $1,000 on a computer for games and a guy who spent $1,500 on a computer for games is about a 5-10% performance difference for spending 50% more. If you can snap together Legos and search on Google, you can build a computer.

Brennanite posted:

He says he's done the research and this is the option he thinks is the best. He isn't willing to upgrade his system because he says it's too hard to find a new motherboard w/processor and power supply that is compatible with his current video card and RAM. He won't sell his current system to finance the new one either because he wants to keep it as a backup in case he needs parts to fix the new system. (We don't currently have a backup, but he says he would feel better if we did, so whatever.)

If his system is 5 years old, that's true, there's nothing salvageable in your current PC. 5 year old hardware is either horribly obsolete (board, CPU, RAM, optical drive), at the end of its useful life and could fail any day now (hard drives, power supply), or so inexpensive to replace with something better in a new build (great cases can be found for $40 these days if you're not particular and can wait for sales)

So his old computer can't be upgraded and can't be cannibalized for parts in case of failure. Lets say that if you sell your old beater on Craigslist for $200 (and you probably can), there is a risk of living a week or two without video games if you had to wait to save money and order a broken, out-of-warranty part. Is that risk worth foregoing $200 for?

Remy Marathe
Mar 15, 2007

_________===D ~ ~ _\____/

Brennanite posted:

You know, I'm seeing a pattern. It's almost like things occur unexpectedly that require money now and we don't have enough in savings to cover it, so it goes on to the credit card.

We really can't afford this computer and I really can't compromise on this one, can I? (No.)
Bingo.

You mentioned a while back that you had a small emergency fund of $1500- you can't consider that sufficient for 3 people by any reckoning. Maybe you could feed everyone for 3 months living on the streets on that, but at your current way of life that's half a month. You don't have a "small emergency fund", you have about 1/10th of an emergency fund, something that could be wiped out not only by a rare catastrophe but by a perfectly likely scenario of somebody needing a root canal in the same year your transmission goes out.

People sometimes think when their monthly budget balances on paper they're treading water, but in the long run that's actually backsliding (as you've observed) because unscheduled, costly things very consistently go wrong for everyone. To know where you really stand, in addition to the "emergency/we're completely hosed and lost all our jerbs" fund, you also should be setting enough aside every month to allow for the annual bills, estimated medical and dental expenses and other things that experience has taught you go wrong. If you have a year where nobody's tooth explodes, awesome.

Remy Marathe fucked around with this message at 07:11 on Sep 10, 2013

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

Better yet, put your foot down and don't let him buy this computer at all. He's going to have to do without, he needs to suck it up and stop being such a selfish baby about your finances.

You don't have an adequate emergency fund even though you've been through several emergencies.
You've been adding to your credit card debt every year.
You're treading water and are one major emergency away from financial ruin.

Don't compromise, don't get suggestions on build a sweet rig for 1/2 the price. Tell him that once your family has no debt, a healthy emergency fund and he's saved his pennies to pay for this unnecessary expense in full, in cash, then and only then can he buy something like this (and something nice for you too).

revengeanceful
Sep 27, 2006

Glory, glory Man United!

FCKGW posted:

Better yet, put your foot down and don't let him buy this computer at all. He's going to have to do without, he needs to suck it up and stop being such a selfish baby about your finances.

You don't have an adequate emergency fund even though you've been through several emergencies.
You've been adding to your credit card debt every year.
You're treading water and are one major emergency away from financial ruin.

Don't compromise, don't get suggestions on build a sweet rig for 1/2 the price. Tell him that once your family has no debt, a healthy emergency fund and he's saved his pennies to pay for this unnecessary expense in full, in cash, then and only then can he buy something like this (and something nice for you too).

I don't disagree with the sentiment, but this seems like entirely the wrong way to go about it. Marriages are all about getting on the same page as your other half; they need to have a conversation and she needs to show him and get him to understand exactly why they as a family, not he as an individual, can't afford this right now. Dictating to your wife/husband what they can and cannot do is a great way to foster resentment and will probably just cause larger problems down the road.

Sephiroth_IRA
Mar 31, 2010

ntan1 posted:

I have a modern really good high quality computer, with 16g of memory, a good graphics card/processor, ssd, and even I didn't spend 1200 on the machine.

Newsflash: $1200 is a ripoff.

Yeah the only time I ever really waste money is when I get a new computer every 5 years or so. I realized after I built the last one that I usually end up building the computer because I'm super excited about one or two games (which usually are available on consoles) and after I get bored of it I end up spending the rest of my time playing emulators or indie games like Hammerwatch that could probably be played on my computer at work.

So yeah next time I'm going to build a budget PC using whatever is listed in the Serious Hardware discussion thread sticky.

Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Sep 10, 2013

100 HOGS AGREE
Oct 13, 2007
Grimey Drawer

Orange_Lazarus posted:

Yeah the only time I ever really waste money is when I get a new computer every 5 years or so. I realized after I built the last one that I usually end up building the computer because I'm super excited about one or two games (which usually are available on consoles) and after I get bored of it I end up spending the rest of my time playing emulators or indie games like Hammerwatch that could probably be played on my computer at work.

So yeah next time I'm going to build a budget PC using whatever is listed in the Serious Hardware discussion thread sticky.
Frankly if you follow the pc building thread you'll be fully capable of playing any game that comes out for the next couple years. I built my last one based on their suggestions like four years ago for like 650 dollars and I haven't found a game I can't play yet. My graphics settings might not be maxed out all the time but who gives a gently caress. The thing that lags my computer the most is Chrome and I doubt any amount of upgrading will ever fix that.

The important thing to remember too is most video games are terrible and you will probably regret buying them and then you'll go back to playing some dumb game you've been playing since like 2004. I cut my "gaming" budget down to like 20 bucks a month after I realized this.

Your husband's research was probably going through newegg and looking at the really highly rated stuff and picking out poo poo that looked cool and fit together at random. That's what I did before the SH/SC thread set me straight.

100 HOGS AGREE fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Sep 10, 2013

Duckman2008
Jan 6, 2010

TFW you see Flyers goaltending.
Grimey Drawer

Emacs Headroom posted:

Yeah that's great. My wife got really into following some recipes on freezable food, which is seriously great for the winter (and I got into it also). It kept our food budget around $300 during our lean years; I can ask her the books she'd recommend if you think they'd help.

It's healthier than grocery store frozen food, massively cheaper, and really accounts for the lazy "let's just order something" or "let's get a frozen pizza tonight" factor.

For any links for this?

Edit: I posted before on my loans that I'm working on paying off, and that I had a $8,000 life insurance investment plan taken out from when I was young. Well, I decided to cash it out and apply it elsewhere. Advice on the best of the following options?

-one student loan of $8,000 at 6% interest via Sallie Mae (would bring base student loan payments down). Monthly base is $100
-current savings is about $5,000, goal is to get it to $10K. Put some towards that?
-car loans are at $4000 and $11000, both at $300 a month each. I'm hoping to use my February s tax return to kill the lower one. I could use it to kill most of the other one. It's a lower interest rate, but it would free up cash flow.

I'm looking to certainly pay more monthly towards student loans than the base, its just nice to have lower required payments in case I have a low commission check or whatever. I'm leaning towards halving between savings and one of the above payment options. Logically I should probably do student loans and call it a day there.

Duckman2008 fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Sep 10, 2013

Zeta Taskforce
Jun 27, 2002

FCKGW posted:

Better yet, put your foot down and don't let him buy this computer at all. He's going to have to do without, he needs to suck it up and stop being such a selfish baby about your finances.

You don't have an adequate emergency fund even though you've been through several emergencies.
You've been adding to your credit card debt every year.
You're treading water and are one major emergency away from financial ruin.

Don't compromise, don't get suggestions on build a sweet rig for 1/2 the price. Tell him that once your family has no debt, a healthy emergency fund and he's saved his pennies to pay for this unnecessary expense in full, in cash, then and only then can he buy something like this (and something nice for you too).

What's key here is not that he NEVER gets a new computer, but that he doesn't get a new one when it puts his family at jeopardy. I'm not going to be over-dramatic here. The thing is that if he gets it, even if some emergency happens, it sounds like you are credit worthy enough that you would probably, be able to borrow your way through meeting any material needs, no guarentee, but you most likely will be able to. Crisis adverted, right? Not really because it sounds like you still have not drawn the line in the sand where debt stops here, and until you do, you will be bouncing along from one thing to another, paying this bill and that bill, never really saving, justifying it because you are never sinking that far, and you will be just like the millions of people who manage to work for the better part of 40 years and have nothing to show for it.

In the meantime, not having a new enough computer to play the latest game is a very first world problem. I hope you both realize this.

reflex
Aug 9, 2009

I'd rather laugh with the mudders than cry with the saints. The mudders are much more fun. Hoorah.

100 HOGS AGREE posted:

The important thing to remember too is most video games are terrible and you will probably regret buying them and then you'll go back to playing some dumb game you've been playing since like 2004. I cut my "gaming" budget down to like 20 bucks a month after I realized this.
Ever since I decided I would never pay more than $20 for a videogame, I've just stopped buying them. By the time the game is that cheap, the internet hivemind has long since moved on and you realize it's just a stupid videogame, not the life-affirming experience a lot of the marketing and discussion might try and get you to believe.

FrozenVent
May 1, 2009

The Boeing 737-200QC is the undisputed workhorse of the skies.

Duckman2008 posted:

For any links for this?

Edit: I posted before on my loans that I'm working on paying off, and that I had a $8,000 life insurance investment plan taken out from when I was young. Well, I decided to cash it out and apply it elsewhere. Advice on the best of the following options?

-one student loan of $8,000 at 6% interest via Sallie Mae (would bring base student loan payments down). Monthly base is $100
-current savings is about $5,000, goal is to get it to $10K. Put some towards that?
-car loans are at $4000 and $11000, both at $300 a month each. I'm hoping to use my February s tax return to kill the lower one. I could use it to kill most of the other one. It's a lower interest rate, but it would free up cash flow.

I'm looking to certainly pay more monthly towards student loans than the base, its just nice to have lower required payments in case I have a low commission check or whatever. I'm leaning towards halving between savings and one of the above payment options. Logically I should probably do student loans and call it a day there.

What are the rates on the car loans? At 6% on the student loans, it starts to become interesting to wipe that out, since you won't get a better rate in the current market. That is of course if you consider 5k to be a sufficient emergency fund.

DemonLlama
Jul 11, 2005
Duckman: Unless your car loans are more than 6%, throw the whole thing at the student loan and just get rid of it. It'll really make you feel better actually getting rid of a payment.

Brennanite: There's some serious relationship issues here. Why are you having to argue over cutting cable vs splurging on his hobby? Top priority needs to be providing for the family. Some of your statements are disturbing and make me think you are not really pushing him to prioritize the family over his own personal wants:

"he has many, many old games which can NEVER be sold."
"He won't sell his current system to finance the new one"
"that's why he wants to get a loan or do a payment plan for it."

Financing is spending future money right now. That's bad for people who are just getting by. You should be selling the old games AND his current system to pay down debts. Never finance ANYTHING. Meaning you already spent todays money in the past. It may take threats or marriage counceling, but he MUST GET ON BOARD FOR THIS TO WORK.

Brennanite
Feb 14, 2009

DemonLlama posted:

Brennanite: There's some serious relationship issues here. Why are you having to argue over cutting cable vs splurging on his hobby? Top priority needs to be providing for the family. Some of your statements are disturbing and make me think you are not really pushing him to prioritize the family over his own personal wants:

"he has many, many old games which can NEVER be sold."
"He won't sell his current system to finance the new one"
"that's why he wants to get a loan or do a payment plan for it."

Financing is spending future money right now. That's bad for people who are just getting by. You should be selling the old games AND his current system to pay down debts. Never finance ANYTHING. Meaning you already spent todays money in the past. It may take threats or marriage counceling, but he MUST GET ON BOARD FOR THIS TO WORK.

We have been working through things for the last two days. We worked out a thorough budget which we *both* went over in detail and which he committed to following. It's got a decent amount going to build up savings for the next four months, then to paying off the credit card. I feel a lot less stressed about money now. When he saw how much of the budget he was taking up, he felt really bad. I guess he really didn't understand how things were until he saw them in front of him. He will still be getting a new computer, but a much more reasonable system at Christmas paid in full with the money he will get from selling some of the older games and his current system (plus his parents agreed to kick in some in lieu of birthday/Christmas). I honestly didn't think he would sell anything, but as I said, he felt really bad when he saw the budget.

Duckman2008
Jan 6, 2010

TFW you see Flyers goaltending.
Grimey Drawer

DemonLlama posted:

Duckman: Unless your car loans are more than 6%, throw the whole thing at the student loan and just get rid of it. It'll really make you feel better actually getting rid of a payment.


I'm thinking I'll do this. Thanks!

Brennanite posted:

We have been working through things for the last two days. We worked out a thorough budget which we *both* went over in detail and which he committed to following. It's got a decent amount going to build up savings for the next four months, then to paying off the credit card. I feel a lot less stressed about money now. When he saw how much of the budget he was taking up, he felt really bad. I guess he really didn't understand how things were until he saw them in front of him. He will still be getting a new computer, but a much more reasonable system at Christmas paid in full with the money he will get from selling some of the older games and his current system (plus his parents agreed to kick in some in lieu of birthday/Christmas). I honestly didn't think he would sell anything, but as I said, he felt really bad when he saw the budget.

This warms my heart to see a family influenced well and taking a positive step in the world thanks to the Something Awful Forums (cheesy but serious statement). Remember you are now required to do a "where are they now" in a year or so.

INTJ Mastermind
Dec 30, 2004

It's a radial!
What's the downside to having my "emergency fund" be my Roth IRA? I read that withdrawals of contributions can be done anytime tax and penalty free. And I'll still leave a couple of grand in an online savings account for minor emergencies and for liquidity.

Harry
Jun 13, 2003

I do solemnly swear that in the year 2015 I will theorycraft my wallet as well as my WoW
There really isn't one if it's an either/or situation. I guess one downside is you have to reimburse the funds within 30 days (maybe 60?) or you can put the money back in. I really can't think of a reason where you would need to come up with several thousands of dollars and be able to pay it back that quickly though.

Remy Marathe
Mar 15, 2007

_________===D ~ ~ _\____/

Also any gains on it are still taxed, right?

INTJ Mastermind
Dec 30, 2004

It's a radial!
Not if you don't withdraw more than the sum of your total lifetime contributions.

I believe withdrawn contributions cannot be repaid. So I understand there's definitely a big opportunity cost to taking contributions out for emergencies But right now my options are literally max my Roth OR put that money into savings. So I figure getting started on my Roth now is better than sitting on that money for an emergency that might never come. Right?

Remy Marathe
Mar 15, 2007

_________===D ~ ~ _\____/

Yeah they're mutually exclusive for me this year, and that's what I came up with too after cursory examination. My existing roth fund is fairly volatile though so when the deadline approaches, I'm going to have to find something less so for the portion that's doing double-time as emergency money. When I can afford to catch up, it can get rolled into something riskier for long term.

ntan1
Apr 29, 2009

sempai noticed me

INTJ Mastermind posted:

Not if you don't withdraw more than the sum of your total lifetime contributions.

I believe withdrawn contributions cannot be repaid. So I understand there's definitely a big opportunity cost to taking contributions out for emergencies But right now my options are literally max my Roth OR put that money into savings. So I figure getting started on my Roth now is better than sitting on that money for an emergency that might never come. Right?

Except that you might lose that cash if you put it into the stock market right away. Hence the separate emergency fund which is in hard cash.

As for making your non tax-advantaged investment portfolio your an emergency fund, there have been discussions about this (and it's not necessarily a bad idea), but it's an extremely advanced discussion.

ntan1 fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Sep 11, 2013

INTJ Mastermind
Dec 30, 2004

It's a radial!
My Roth is well diversified among domestic equity, intl equity, and domestic bond low cost index funds. I know this doesn't guarantee me against a big short term loss, but it's not like I have $5000 of AAPL. Yeah getting run over by a truck in the midst of a bear market would really suck though.

FrozenVent
May 1, 2009

The Boeing 737-200QC is the undisputed workhorse of the skies.
Your retirement savings should not be in the same kind of vehicle as your emergency funds. They're diametrically opposed in risk and liquidity needs.

That being said if you don't mind not having significant returns on your IRA... Sure, but ideally you'd want them both separate.

Zeta Taskforce
Jun 27, 2002

INTJ Mastermind posted:

What's the downside to having my "emergency fund" be my Roth IRA? I read that withdrawals of contributions can be done anytime tax and penalty free. And I'll still leave a couple of grand in an online savings account for minor emergencies and for liquidity.

This question comes up all the time. Absolutely not. Your emergency fund is not an investment, it is an insurance policy that makes sure you never get desperate, and desperate people make short sighted, dumb, reckless decisions that make them more desperate. It needs to be safe, accessible and liquid.

Your Roth is an investment that is meant to provide for you in retirement and will grow tax free for decades. Yeah, I get that you can take out contributions anytime and not pay penalties, and it will do better than a money market over time, but for the magic of compunding to happen, there needs to be a complete separation from that and you affording your day to day life. I know you have the best of intentions, you are doing math in your head, but in my job as a loan officer I come across people every day who are nearing retirement and in spite of working for 30 or 40 years, and often making good money, they have nothing to show for it because among other mistakes, they raid their retirement every time they have an emergency. I know you are a special snowflake and that will never happen to you, but I also know that having 3 months salary in a boring savings account isn’t going to make you poor either, even if you are that special snowflake.

SlightlyMadman
Jan 14, 2005

If I had to choose between emergency fund and roth, I'd be tempted to set up a separate temporary emergency fund inside my roth, to take advantage of maxing it out, with a plan to reduce that over time.

Basically I'd pick a separate fund, something conservative like bonds, and mentally separate that as my TEMPORARY roth emergency fund. Once I'm at the point of being able to both max my roth and contribute to a "real" emergency fund, I'd gradually transfer money out of that roth emergency area. For every $1,000 I put into the money market savings or whatever I'm using for the emergency fund, I take 1,000 out of that roth emergency area and transfer it into my normal high-risk funds.

Effectively, this is exactly the same as putting that money into an emergency fund now, but it also allows you to take advantage of maxing out your Roth right away so you don't miss any opportunity of the finite amount you'll be allowed to contribute over your working lifetime.

The big problem with this is it will require a tremendous amount of attention and be super easy to gently caress up completely, so if you have an even remotely an inattentive or forgetful personality, I don't think it's worth the risk.

Hashtag Banterzone
Dec 8, 2005


Lifetime Winner of the willkill4food Honorary Bad Posting Award in PWM

SlightlyMadman posted:

If I had to choose between emergency fund and roth, I'd be tempted to set up a separate temporary emergency fund inside my roth, to take advantage of maxing it out, with a plan to reduce that over time.

He could just leave the money in a money market account inside a roth ira. That has almost zero risk.

kansas
Dec 3, 2012
I came to post exactly what SlightlyMadman mentioned. The window for a Roth contribution closes forever when the tax year is over. It would be a shame to miss out on that so I would put the money in the Roth, but then keep it in a very safe, liquid fund such as a money market. Once you've built your cash savings in your checking account you can start investing the money in the Roth. Best of both worlds.

SlightlyMadman
Jan 14, 2005

Hashtag Banterzone posted:

He could just leave the money in a money market account inside a roth ira. That has almost zero risk.

Right, the risk I'm talking about is in loving up either accidentally, by not having the willpower to avoid withdrawing too much, or by thinking it's all set and procrastinating unnecessarily on setting up a separate emergency fund as soon as you actually could.

Zeta Taskforce
Jun 27, 2002

SlightlyMadman posted:

If I had to choose between emergency fund and roth, I'd be tempted to set up a separate temporary emergency fund inside my roth, to take advantage of maxing it out, with a plan to reduce that over time.

Basically I'd pick a separate fund, something conservative like bonds, and mentally separate that as my TEMPORARY roth emergency fund. Once I'm at the point of being able to both max my roth and contribute to a "real" emergency fund, I'd gradually transfer money out of that roth emergency area. For every $1,000 I put into the money market savings or whatever I'm using for the emergency fund, I take 1,000 out of that roth emergency area and transfer it into my normal high-risk funds.

Effectively, this is exactly the same as putting that money into an emergency fund now, but it also allows you to take advantage of maxing out your Roth right away so you don't miss any opportunity of the finite amount you'll be allowed to contribute over your working lifetime.

The big problem with this is it will require a tremendous amount of attention and be super easy to gently caress up completely, so if you have an even remotely an inattentive or forgetful personality, I don't think it's worth the risk.

So if I understand, the choice is between a real emergency fund or a temporary, Roth emergency fund that requires almost daily attention, forces you to pay really close attention to fund choices, which it's in a money market, it will earn the same exact rate as being outside, and if you ever do withdrawal your contibution, you have to pay super close attention to the tax laws about restoring the contribution (I think it's 60 days, but not 100% sure on that) because if you miss that, you miss the opportunity of having a full contribution that year, which seems to be the purpose of this in the first place.

I'm not making a moral judgement here, just want to frame the discussion.

Harry
Jun 13, 2003

I do solemnly swear that in the year 2015 I will theorycraft my wallet as well as my WoW
The point of putting it in a money market is not having to pay attention to it. I have no idea what madman is talking about, but you shouldn't be dipping into your emergency fund constantly.

Fancy_Lad
May 15, 2003
Would you like to buy a monkey?
Also remember that you have until tax day to make your Roth contributions for the previous year. So in any of these situations, I wouldn't recommend dicking around with the Roth at all until like April 1st.

Then if you are in a situation where you have, let's say $6000 in your emergency fund and are trying to build it to $8000 at a good rate ($500+ a month) - I think the most likely scenario here would be if you had a fully funded fund, but you had to utilize it and haven't built it back up completely yet. In this case I'd personally max out my Roth so that opportunity doesn't go away (in something super safe like the money market account mentioned above). And start rebuilding the emergency fund to the target number. Once the emergency fund is rebuilt, then invest that money market into whatever you would normally do in your Roth.

*If* you actually follow through with rebuilding your emergency fund to whatever your goal level is, the worst case is that you have to pull it back of the Roth and are in the same situation you would have been if you hadn't done it - just with more paperwork. If you don't have to pull it out, then you fully funded last year's Roth - an opportunity that you lose completely and forever on tax day.

In either case, don't do it until you are riding up on the deadline and don't get into the mindset where your Roth is a part of your emergency fund. Build that fund out to where you want it and get on saving for next year's Roth because you are already 4 months behind on that...

Sab669
Sep 24, 2009

Does my employer owe me unused PTO? This Friday is my last day at this job before I go to a new one (:toot:).

http://www.dlt.ri.gov/ls/pdfs/wagehourbook.pdf posted:

What is the vacation law?
Whenever an employee is separated from the payroll of an employer, after completing at least one (1) year of service,
any vacation pay accrued by collective bargaining, company policy or other agreement between employer and employee
shall become wages and payable in full or on a prorated basis with all other due wages on the next regular payday for the
employee.

My employment started around 05/01/12 as an intern, then I was brought on full time as of 10/01/12 when I graduated. So I've been here as a full time employee for just under a year, but if you include my internship it's been over a year.

canyoneer
Sep 13, 2005


I only have canyoneyes for you

Sab669 posted:

Does my employer owe me unused PTO? This Friday is my last day at this job before I go to a new one (:toot:).


My employment started around 05/01/12 as an intern, then I was brought on full time as of 10/01/12 when I graduated. So I've been here as a full time employee for just under a year, but if you include my internship it's been over a year.

I'm not a lawyer, but from the wording of that I wouldn't expect any vacation pay unless you were accruing vacation pay as an intern as well.

SlightlyMadman
Jan 14, 2005

Harry posted:

The point of putting it in a money market is not having to pay attention to it. I have no idea what madman is talking about, but you shouldn't be dipping into your emergency fund constantly.

I never said you'd have to pay attention to it constantly, that was Zeta. My point was just that it should be a temporary thing, because by being in a low-risk fund, it has a high opportunity cost since your roth ira should be compounding gains in stocks. That means you need to have a plan to set up a real emergency fund as soon as possible, and stick to it, so you can transfer that roth money back into funds with appropriate risk and potential gains.

The "risk" is in the likelyhood that you'll mentally write off your emergency fund as already being established and never get around to setting up one outside of the roth like you should be doing.

SiGmA_X
May 3, 2004
SiGmA_X

Sab669 posted:

Does my employer owe me unused PTO? This Friday is my last day at this job before I go to a new one (:toot:).


My employment started around 05/01/12 as an intern, then I was brought on full time as of 10/01/12 when I graduated. So I've been here as a full time employee for just under a year, but if you include my internship it's been over a year.
The best bet is ask HR. My last employer paid it out and it was shocking as they were a call center. But there is a law - I believe federally not just OR - that sets the precedent based on what they've done in the past.

Zeta Taskforce
Jun 27, 2002

SlightlyMadman posted:

I never said you'd have to pay attention to it constantly, that was Zeta. My point was just that it should be a temporary thing, because by being in a low-risk fund, it has a high opportunity cost since your roth ira should be compounding gains in stocks. That means you need to have a plan to set up a real emergency fund as soon as possible, and stick to it, so you can transfer that roth money back into funds with appropriate risk and potential gains.

The "risk" is in the likelyhood that you'll mentally write off your emergency fund as already being established and never get around to setting up one outside of the roth like you should be doing.

You're right that I said that your plan requires constant attention. Also, you're the one that said that the emergency fund portion would be something really safe i.e. low return. I don't know what the benefit is to have basically a savings account in a Roth compared to a savings account outside of the Roth. Except if you really did have an emergency, lets just say you needed $5000, and you couldn't scrape it together to put back in, then you would be locked out of making that year's contributions.

Or you could just wait until April 15 of the following year once you have saved the money and making the contribution doesn't leave you broke.

Harry
Jun 13, 2003

I do solemnly swear that in the year 2015 I will theorycraft my wallet as well as my WoW
Edit: I see what you're saying now.

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Deviant
Sep 26, 2003

i've forgotten all of your names.


I am about to inherit one-third of my deceased grandmother's 403b account, from Lincoln Financial Group, in the amount of approximately $10,000.

From what I understand my options are as follows:

- Lump sum payment (taxed as regular income)
- Direct Rollover to IRA
- Direct Rollover to 457(b) governmental plan
- Direct Rollover to 401(a), 401(k) plan or 403(b) h Direct Rollover to Beneficiary IRA/403(b)


I make about $42,000/yr and file single, so I estimate the payment will be taxed at about 25% if I'm understanding this right. That's a pretty significant hit, so I guess what I'm asking is, would one of the options be better? I currently have a 401k through my employer, and that's about it.

Just unsure how to proceed.

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