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Fromage D Enfer
Jan 20, 2007
Strawbrary!

Rurutia posted:

Are you putting off retirement savings until you get the house down payment? Is this something you've worked out as being beneficial? (unlikely)


baquerd posted:

Pull that $20k out of the money market and get those loans paid down starting with the 6.X% loans. It makes absolutely no sense to save at 0.3% and pay 6.8%.

Well, that wasn't what we wanted to hear, but it is a very good point. We do each have retirement savings through our employers, but we do not have a personal retirement savings account yet.
After some discussion, we've decided to keep an emergency savings, but use most of our savings and surplus monthly income to start blowing through the debt. We did the math and if we can totally focus on paying down the debt, we can get it done in 2 years. Then we can focus on retirement and housing. Thank you for your suggestions!

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SiGmA_X
May 3, 2004
SiGmA_X
Keep around 3 (6 is required once you're debt free) months of expenses in the bank for an emergency fund. After that, put it all toward debt. Minimums on everything except the highest interest rate and perhaps smallest balance being you have a few at the same higher rate. Knock them out one at a time. And keep on it! You guys make enough you can totally handle debt elimination and home ownership within 5-7 years, if you stick to it. It'll feel amazing to see those loans be knocked out, too.

I'd only do retirement to what your employers will match until you're debt free, then crank it up to 15% gross minimum, and see how that sits with down payment savings. It may take a little longer but it'll be -far- better in the short and long run!

Good luck.

E: If you post minimum payments, I'll run your numbers in a snowball spreadsheet I found on google. Or I can simply link the spreadsheet and you can play with it when I get to my computer in the AM.

fronkpies
Apr 30, 2008

You slithered out of your mother's filth.
Crossposting from the Investment thread:

Hi, I'm just looking for some advice.

I live in the UK, I'm 24 years old and currently earning more money than I ever have before, and now I want to start making it work for me in long term investments. So hopefully I can retire at a somewhat respectable age.

I earn about £25,000 a year with my total bills costing roughly around 5-6 thousand. I basically pay rent, water, electricity, gym membership and groceries. I dont have a car, no phone, no medical bills etc.

I am currently completely debt free, so where do I start?

I have a full budget set up in YNAB, and my savings are growing pretty quickly. I am buying into a bar with my boss (He own's the restaurant I am head chef at) and a couple of other people, I am investing 2,500.

But apart from that I don't really know where to go from here, so any advice would be great. Mutual funds? Cheers.

Tim Selaty Jr
May 16, 2011

by Pipski

Folly posted:

You're telling him to kick those mice out of their home. That's cold, man.

Are cars more expensive up there? That price seems a little high for what you're describing.

http://www.autotrader.ca/a/Ford/F-150/AIRDRIE/Alberta/19_7523386_/?showcpo=ShowCPO

I ended up paying $10k cash for a 2006 hybrid SUV with 57k miles, along with a 2 year unlimited mileage warranty. The ground clearance is about the same as my Explorer, so it'll work just fine for work with some good tires :)

Tim Selaty Jr fucked around with this message at 12:52 on Oct 10, 2013

Folly
May 26, 2010
That's awesome, and much more like the price I expected. (Also, I think part of my problem was that I was reading km as miles.) And cash? No loan?!

Assuming it's legal, have you decided whether you're going to self-insure the risk of losing the vehicle? I can totally understand paying someone to cover it until you re-build the pool of cash you spent to buy it (sounds like it'll take about a year, so I'm guessing about $500 total cost for the insurance premiums).

The first time I felt secure enough to drop my coverage to liability only, I kept making the same payments into a separate bank account and called it my self-insurance fund. (My dad's idea.) The fund grew to the point where I can keep high deductibles on pretty much everything, even health insurance - not that a Canadian worries about this. Many years later, I no longer need to contribute to the account. Unless I "make a claim," which I treat as my rates going up.

Of course, I had to do it this way because I was a terrible budget-maker. I had to create an artificial environment of economic scarcity to save money. You don't seem to have this problem.

Tim Selaty Jr
May 16, 2011

by Pipski


Folly posted:

That's awesome, and much more like the price I expected. (Also, I think part of my problem was that I was reading km as miles.) And cash? No loan?!

Assuming it's legal, have you decided whether you're going to self-insure the risk of losing the vehicle? I can totally understand paying someone to cover it until you re-build the pool of cash you spent to buy it (sounds like it'll take about a year, so I'm guessing about $500 total cost for the insurance premiums).

The first time I felt secure enough to drop my coverage to liability only, I kept making the same payments into a separate bank account and called it my self-insurance fund. (My dad's idea.) The fund grew to the point where I can keep high deductibles on pretty much everything, even health insurance - not that a Canadian worries about this. Many years later, I no longer need to contribute to the account. Unless I "make a claim," which I treat as my rates going up.

Of course, I had to do it this way because I was a terrible budget-maker. I had to create an artificial environment of economic scarcity to save money. You don't seem to have this problem.

I had liability only on the old rig and will keep that on the new one. $900 vs $1500 yearly.

I'm bad at budgeting also, mostly because I'm so financially comfortable that I justify going over my budget and making really bad decisions ($100 on energy drinks and junk food at gas stations last month, ugh).

Creating false scarcity is probably a good idea for me a at this point.

Guinness
Sep 15, 2004

Folly posted:


The first time I felt secure enough to drop my coverage to liability only, I kept making the same payments into a separate bank account and called it my self-insurance fund.

Maybe it's different in Canada since you guys have UHC, but not carrying uninsured/underinsured motorist in the US is a very bad idea. Only takes one chucklefuck that doesn't have insurance (or has poo poo insurance) to plow into you and total your car and send you to the hospital, and if you don't have un/underinsured then you're up poo poo creek.

It really sucks that you kind of have to pay to insure against other people not having insurance/having inadequate insurance, but it's unfortunately the world we live in.

If you can afford it and feel secure enough to not carry collision or comprehensive (or if your car is only worth a few grand or less), by all means drop those coverages, but don't drop un/underinsured.

Edit: This write up describes some of the nuances of car insurance (in the US at least) pretty well: http://faq.ninja250.org/images/b/b0/Insurance_options.pdf (PDF warning). It's about motorcycles, but just mentally replace 'motorcycle' with 'car' and it all still applies.

Guinness fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Oct 10, 2013

Folly
May 26, 2010
I actually do carry an Underinsured Motorist policy. I left it out of my original write-up because it takes some explanation and I'm wordy enough as it is. I'm pretty sure I have a fairly high deductible on it, but I admit I don't know it off the top of my head.

But I'm certainly not advocating against insurance. I think it is great to have, and believe me I have a ton of it. But the high end of insurance is cheap, go check out umbrella policies. It's the low end that's expensive. So keep your deductibles high and don't insure things that don't need to be insured. This also applies to extended warranties at Best Buy.

FrozenVent
May 1, 2009

The Boeing 737-200QC is the undisputed workhorse of the skies.
When you get into underinsured coverage and medical expenses, I'd really recommend against giving cross-border advice. Things can get pretty incredibly different... Heck there's a significant amount of difference in auto insurance law depending on which province you're in.

Slack Motherfucker
Aug 16, 2005



Pillbug

SiGmA_X posted:

Keep around 3 (6 is required once you're debt free) months of expenses in the bank for an emergency fund. After that, put it all toward debt. Minimums on everything except the highest interest rate and perhaps smallest balance being you have a few at the same higher rate. Knock them out one at a time. And keep on it! You guys make enough you can totally handle debt elimination and home ownership within 5-7 years, if you stick to it. It'll feel amazing to see those loans be knocked out, too.

I'd only do retirement to what your employers will match until you're debt free, then crank it up to 15% gross minimum, and see how that sits with down payment savings. It may take a little longer but it'll be -far- better in the short and long run!

Good luck.

E: If you post minimum payments, I'll run your numbers in a snowball spreadsheet I found on google. Or I can simply link the spreadsheet and you can play with it when I get to my computer in the AM.

I'm Mr. De Enfer, and I want to first reiterate that we're very grateful for all the advice! We'd love a link to that spreadsheet, and we'll mess around with it this weekend.

Currently we're just doing what our employer matches for 401ks, (4% for her, 5% for me). That's obviously totally insufficient to actually retire one. But like you said, once we're debt free I think we can easily do 15% for retirement and still save for a down payment at a good rate (without neglecting our other savings or anything). If we do everything right we will probably end up coming in at right around the 5 or 6 years anyway, but we'll get there in a way that isn't totally asinine. The collective wisdom of BFC has probably saved us hundreds or thousands of dollars in completely unnecessary interest payments, plus the massive stress of going in on a house too early while we still have the rest of our debt still hanging over us. Once we read the advice, it was so obvious, but I guess we just had to hear it from someone else. Thanks guys :)

And yeah, we ran some numbers and if nothing changes for the worse (fingers crossed) we can be debt free in just under two years. We already completely eliminated our credit card debt, which was pretty minor but a major symbolic victory, and that milestone felt terrific. Can't wait to start knocking out entire student loan balances! :patriot:

GobiasIndustries
Dec 14, 2007

Lipstick Apathy
How does card utilization appear on a credit check/credit report? For example, one of my cards has been hovering around 80-90% utilization for a while but has always been paid on time, and will be completely paid off within 2 months due to an awesome promotion. If 4 months from now, I need to apply for a loan or something, will companies see an extended period of high utilization, or will they just see the end result of a 0-low balance?

Bisty Q.
Jul 22, 2008

GobiasIndustries posted:

How does card utilization appear on a credit check/credit report? For example, one of my cards has been hovering around 80-90% utilization for a while but has always been paid on time, and will be completely paid off within 2 months due to an awesome promotion. If 4 months from now, I need to apply for a loan or something, will companies see an extended period of high utilization, or will they just see the end result of a 0-low balance?

All the utilization history is there if they choose to use it.

FICO only takes into account instantaneous utilization as reported when the score is calculated, however.

Also, single card utilization isn't super-important. If your total utilization (all balances/all credit limits) is less than 30% then you're fine. Otherwise, you're going to have problems. Utilization is a huge part of your score.

malmal
Jan 28, 2009
Any aus goons that can recommend some Australian brokering services? I've been looking to start putting some spare money into the stock market but i'm quite new to the whole dealy. The threads around are very insightful but it's difficult to find opinions about Australian e-brokers. The major banks obviously all offer services but i'm sure the fees are higher too.

If any one has some experience with the banks or independents id' love to hear opinions.

BJA
Apr 11, 2006

It has to start somewhere
It has to start sometime
What better place than here
What better time than now
A few questions in one, and probably related. I have a credit card through GE Capital, that I have had since about March 2012, when I first got it, I got a $2000.00 limit. It has never gone up or down, but in the first year I had it, it creeped up to near it's limit. It's been near it's limit for like a year ($1700/$1800 or so). I've never been late with it, though I was a couple weeks late last summer with 2 other cards. Other than that I have no late payments on credit cards or my car payment. In August I went and refinanced my car loan and went from an 18% interest rate to 3%. I also paid my GE card down to $400 and paid 2 other cards off completely. My credit score went up 43 points from paying these (still only a 620 though, according to the Credit Karma app my score is low due to high utilization, short avg account life, and the 2 late payments).

So the questions, I just logged into my GE account and noticed they lowered my credit limit to $480. for no reason I can see. The two cards I was late on had their limits lowered last year by a couple hundred dollars, but that was over a year ago, and I was only late on them. Another question and possibly a part of this is my (old) car loan and other credit cards are through Capital One, and even though my Auto Loan was paid off, and my CC's paid off completely, they are still showing on my credit at the full amount so I have two full amount car loans on my credit. How long will it take to get the paid off one off my credit, and will it help much, and could this be in part of the reason my limit was lowered?

Thanks.

Zeta Taskforce
Jun 27, 2002

BJA posted:

A few questions in one, and probably related. I have a credit card through GE Capital, that I have had since about March 2012, when I first got it, I got a $2000.00 limit. It has never gone up or down, but in the first year I had it, it creeped up to near it's limit. It's been near it's limit for like a year ($1700/$1800 or so). I've never been late with it, though I was a couple weeks late last summer with 2 other cards. Other than that I have no late payments on credit cards or my car payment. In August I went and refinanced my car loan and went from an 18% interest rate to 3%. I also paid my GE card down to $400 and paid 2 other cards off completely. My credit score went up 43 points from paying these (still only a 620 though, according to the Credit Karma app my score is low due to high utilization, short avg account life, and the 2 late payments).

So the questions, I just logged into my GE account and noticed they lowered my credit limit to $480. for no reason I can see. The two cards I was late on had their limits lowered last year by a couple hundred dollars, but that was over a year ago, and I was only late on them. Another question and possibly a part of this is my (old) car loan and other credit cards are through Capital One, and even though my Auto Loan was paid off, and my CC's paid off completely, they are still showing on my credit at the full amount so I have two full amount car loans on my credit. How long will it take to get the paid off one off my credit, and will it help much, and could this be in part of the reason my limit was lowered?

Thanks.

You would need to call GE Capital as to why they lowered your limit, but a combination of new credit, high utilization, opening new accounts, and a couple late payments must have triggered something. Your paid off loan will be on your credit for a long time. Negative reporting has to come off after 7 years but positive reporting can stay on there 10 years. If it is still reporting a balance, you can dispute that through the bureaus, but that doesn't usually affect your score too much.

If I were you, I would limit your interaction with these huge, enormous financial conglomerates. It’s not like credit unions and community banks always do everything perfectly, but they won’t lower your credit limits by 80% based on some algorithm and leave you shaking your head why. In the meantime I would apply for nothing, open nothing else, never be even a day late ever again, pay down your debts, save and establish an emergency fund and in a year your credit will have improved and you will be in better shape financially

BJA
Apr 11, 2006

It has to start somewhere
It has to start sometime
What better place than here
What better time than now

Zeta Taskforce posted:

You would need to call GE Capital as to why they lowered your limit, but a combination of new credit, high utilization, opening new accounts, and a couple late payments must have triggered something. Your paid off loan will be on your credit for a long time. Negative reporting has to come off after 7 years but positive reporting can stay on there 10 years. If it is still reporting a balance, you can dispute that through the bureaus, but that doesn't usually affect your score too much.

If I were you, I would limit your interaction with these huge, enormous financial conglomerates. It’s not like credit unions and community banks always do everything perfectly, but they won’t lower your credit limits by 80% based on some algorithm and leave you shaking your head why. In the meantime I would apply for nothing, open nothing else, never be even a day late ever again, pay down your debts, save and establish an emergency fund and in a year your credit will have improved and you will be in better shape financially

I had actually planned on calling tomorrow or Monday, just figured I'd see if there was any insight. As for the other stuff I refinanced my car through my credit union because the 18% to 3% saved a good chunk of money. I've actually been working on paying down all of my credit which is why I paid 2 off completely, was working on paying this one down (which is why I paid 1600 on it). My mother in law got cancer and my wife had to quit her job, take her to the doctors 6 times a week etc and we ran every thing up and missed 2 payments but now she's back working full time so we're getting things back together.

Oh and about the old car loan I figured the account would stay but I didn't think the full balance would still be showing and doubling my total debt shown so I was just wondering how long before it should get reported as paid off.

edit: also meant to ask if it's bad to cancel a credit card account? For example if I call them, don't like their reasons and pay off the card and cancel it?

BJA fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Oct 11, 2013

Harry
Jun 13, 2003

I do solemnly swear that in the year 2015 I will theorycraft my wallet as well as my WoW

BJA posted:

A few questions in one, and probably related. I have a credit card through GE Capital, that I have had since about March 2012, when I first got it, I got a $2000.00 limit. It has never gone up or down, but in the first year I had it, it creeped up to near it's limit. It's been near it's limit for like a year ($1700/$1800 or so). I've never been late with it, though I was a couple weeks late last summer with 2 other cards. Other than that I have no late payments on credit cards or my car payment. In August I went and refinanced my car loan and went from an 18% interest rate to 3%. I also paid my GE card down to $400 and paid 2 other cards off completely. My credit score went up 43 points from paying these (still only a 620 though, according to the Credit Karma app my score is low due to high utilization, short avg account life, and the 2 late payments).

So the questions, I just logged into my GE account and noticed they lowered my credit limit to $480. for no reason I can see. The two cards I was late on had their limits lowered last year by a couple hundred dollars, but that was over a year ago, and I was only late on them. Another question and possibly a part of this is my (old) car loan and other credit cards are through Capital One, and even though my Auto Loan was paid off, and my CC's paid off completely, they are still showing on my credit at the full amount so I have two full amount car loans on my credit. How long will it take to get the paid off one off my credit, and will it help much, and could this be in part of the reason my limit was lowered?

Thanks.

Usually when a large credit card issuer takes action against your account, they hit all the cards so it's not odd that they cut everything.

Your old car loan being taken off would help immensely since I imagine it will significantly reduce your debt to income ratio.

Zeta Taskforce
Jun 27, 2002

Harry posted:

Your old car loan being taken off would help immensely since I imagine it will significantly reduce your debt to income ratio.

It will have a minor effect on the score itself because credit reports do not measure income, and income is needed to calculate a debt to income ratio. It may be more difficult to get a loan with it on there, but things like this happen often enough that they will just exclude it once you show it is a zero balance

Demon_Corsair
Mar 22, 2004

Goodbye stealing souls, hello stealing booty.
I have a question for the Canadian financial wizards. Pretty sure I know the answer but I wanted an opinion.

For the last few years I have been plugging away at a debt consolidation loan that is taking about 30% of my take home pay. It's paid down to the point that I have only slightly more then a year left to go.

But it is now about the same amount as what is sitting in my rrsp. I'm not sure off hand what sort of penalties/tax hit I would be taking to withdraw them, but it would let me clear the loan by this year. Which would then let me put the money back into a tsfa instead of making loan payments.

Plus since the loan payment is fixed it would give me more flexibility in my budget.

How bad of an idea is this plan?

FrozenVent
May 1, 2009

The Boeing 737-200QC is the undisputed workhorse of the skies.
You'd lose a huge amount of your RRSP to taxes and penalties. Don't do it.

Demon_Corsair
Mar 22, 2004

Goodbye stealing souls, hello stealing booty.

FrozenVent posted:

You'd lose a huge amount of your RRSP to taxes and penalties. Don't do it.

Yea, just looked and saw that if I withdrew it they would take 20% right off the top.

mcpringles
Jan 26, 2004

I've always paid my credit card it full each month and never been charged interest. I just made a big purchase on my card and most likely will be paying it off after one month of interest. I was just wondering is the stated interest on the card the monthly or yearly rate? For example if I carry a $1,000 balance and my APR is 12% I would actually be paying 1% in interest or $10 after one month right?

Harry
Jun 13, 2003

I do solemnly swear that in the year 2015 I will theorycraft my wallet as well as my WoW
It'll be 1%, but when you don't pay the balance in full you lose that 20 days free of no interest so get ready to pay off the entire card and then sit on it for a month.

Dik Hz
Feb 22, 2004

Fun with Science

Tim Selaty Jr posted:

I'm a big stupid who forgot that interest on government loans is tax deductible here, so I'll throw all my bux into the car loan when I get it.
Student loan interest is means-tested and caps out at 60K-75K MAGI. So, if you're in the position to repay $3k/month of debt, you may want to check if you actually qualify for deducting student loan interest.

Edit: gently caress, missed the part about being in Canada. I guess that also explains how he can have a variable rate student loan currently at 5.5%.

Dik Hz fucked around with this message at 14:27 on Oct 13, 2013

Omne
Jul 12, 2003

Orangedude Forever

I'm sure others are getting these too, but I got a notice from my old employer about taking a lump sum payout from my old pension (which I had no clue I even had!) in order to lower their obligations. Fine with me, this is money I didn't even know I had (I left the job in 2009). It's only $6k, so not a super huge amount, but better than nothing. My understanding is I can set up an IRA and roll it into that with no penalties or taxes, or I can take the cash and pay out income tax and the 10% penalty, correct? Part of my likes the idea of diversifying my retirement (already have a 401k), but I also have a balance on an old credit card that this would more than cover, even after penalties. Then again, my current rate of pay-off will take care of that card by January at the latest. What should I do?

Dead Pressed
Nov 11, 2009
I would roll it over.

Guinness
Sep 15, 2004

Dik Hz posted:

Student loan interest is means-tested and caps out at 60K-75K MAGI. So, if you're in the position to repay $3k/month of debt, you may want to check if you actually qualify for deducting student loan interest.

Yeah, be sure to account for this. The interest deduction starts to taper off pretty rapidly once your MAGI crests 60k, and once you get over 75k then you get no deduction at all.

I learned this the hard way one tax year after getting a much higher-paying job, which then put me into student loan pay-off overdrive mode.

VodeAndreas
Apr 30, 2009

malmal posted:

Any aus goons that can recommend some Australian brokering services? I've been looking to start putting some spare money into the stock market but i'm quite new to the whole dealy. The threads around are very insightful but it's difficult to find opinions about Australian e-brokers. The major banks obviously all offer services but i'm sure the fees are higher too.

If any one has some experience with the banks or independents id' love to hear opinions.

Didn't see a reply to malmal's post yet but I'm in the same boat... I've got a large amount of cash in a savings account which I could probably do better with.

Any suggestions for Australian's looking for their first investment options?

nyerf
Feb 12, 2010

An elephant never forgets...TO KILL!

VodeAndreas posted:

Didn't see a reply to malmal's post yet but I'm in the same boat... I've got a large amount of cash in a savings account which I could probably do better with.

Any suggestions for Australian's looking for their first investment options?

I'm subscribed to Scott Pape's Barefoot Blueprint thingy (http://barefootinvestor.com/), which didn't use to feel quite so gimmicky but otherwise I found it a pretty easygoing start to investing. His focus is on building a varied share portfolio and compounding their value by reinvesting the dividends--probably suits best someone who has at least 10-20 years before retiring.

He hand-holds you through the steps in becoming a shares owner--they've got a deal with e-trade (https://invest.etrade.com.au/) I think that gives you something like $500 off brokerage for the first year you're with them, so that's always handy. Though last I checked cmc markets had cheaper brokerage (http://www.cmcmarkets.com.au/stockbroking/low-brokerage-rates). He's also got tonnes of practical advice, like about First Home Savers Accounts giving free dosh from the government (up to ~$1k free money from the government if you save ~$6k into it in the financial year) which I never knew about. And making sure you have a 20% deposit for a house before buying, and how investment properties as spruiked in the media won't return you the same gains as the same amount of money invested in a large property trust instead. Also which superannuation funds let you invest part of your money in shares that you choose without having to all-out go into a SMSF.

There's a weekly email with brief updates on the 'recommended stocks', and every month he puts out a magazine-like publication with in depth financial analysis of a particular stock. I think the main criticism he gets from anyone with tons of cash to invest is that his technique is to make money sloooowly but steadily. It's all easy to understand stuff for non-finance-banker types, so might not be as involved as what you guys are after I dunno. I figure it's like having a budget financial adviser, the cost of the subscription is after all tax-deductible.

VodeAndreas
Apr 30, 2009

nyerf posted:

I'm subscribed to Scott Pape's Barefoot Blueprint thingy (http://barefootinvestor.com/), which didn't use to feel quite so gimmicky but otherwise I found it a pretty easygoing start to investing. His focus is on building a varied share portfolio and compounding their value by reinvesting the dividends--probably suits best someone who has at least 10-20 years before retiring.

He hand-holds you through the steps in becoming a shares owner--they've got a deal with e-trade (https://invest.etrade.com.au/) I think that gives you something like $500 off brokerage for the first year you're with them, so that's always handy. Though last I checked cmc markets had cheaper brokerage (http://www.cmcmarkets.com.au/stockbroking/low-brokerage-rates). He's also got tonnes of practical advice, like about First Home Savers Accounts giving free dosh from the government (up to ~$1k free money from the government if you save ~$6k into it in the financial year) which I never knew about. And making sure you have a 20% deposit for a house before buying, and how investment properties as spruiked in the media won't return you the same gains as the same amount of money invested in a large property trust instead. Also which superannuation funds let you invest part of your money in shares that you choose without having to all-out go into a SMSF.

There's a weekly email with brief updates on the 'recommended stocks', and every month he puts out a magazine-like publication with in depth financial analysis of a particular stock. I think the main criticism he gets from anyone with tons of cash to invest is that his technique is to make money sloooowly but steadily. It's all easy to understand stuff for non-finance-banker types, so might not be as involved as what you guys are after I dunno. I figure it's like having a budget financial adviser, the cost of the subscription is after all tax-deductible.

Thanks, I'm not after any instant wins, just something better than the bank rates - I'll give these links a look :)

three
Aug 9, 2007

i fantasize about ndamukong suh licking my doodoo hole
So, I have an emergency that will warrant using my emergency fund. Essentially, I have a large home repair (do never buy). Is it better to empty my emergency fund to pay for this or to use a bit of the emergency fund and put the rest on a credit card and pay that CC off over the next 3 months?

The total cost of repair is $6000, so I was thinking of using $3000 of my emergency fund and $3000 on CC. I calculated the interest would be around $100 or so doing it that way ($3000 at 18% over 3 months comes to $93.19).

My wife and I neither have a fear of losing our jobs, but I'm worried about vacating the emergency fund and then something crazy like we both get laid off and I can't use my CC to pay my mortgage or something.

Dead Pressed
Nov 11, 2009
Have you checked to see if the contractor will do a payment plan?

three
Aug 9, 2007

i fantasize about ndamukong suh licking my doodoo hole

Dead Pressed posted:

Have you checked to see if the contractor will do a payment plan?

Good idea! Didn't think about that.

Zeta Taskforce
Jun 27, 2002

What's the nature of the repair?

In a way it doesn't matter financially what you do, especially if you pay it off in 3 months, but putting half on the credit card cushions it for you where you still see the money in your account and you can pretend that you are not really broke. When you spend the $6,000, and it sounds like you need to, the decision is already made.

INTJ Mastermind
Dec 30, 2004

It's a radial!
Makes more sense to pull the $6k from your emergency fund. Then you still have the credit card available in case a second emergency hits. If it doesn't, you just saved yourself the interest.

ntan1
Apr 29, 2009

sempai noticed me

nyerf posted:

they've got a deal with e-trade (https://invest.etrade.com.au/) I think that gives you something like $500 off brokerage for the first year you're with them, so that's always handy.

There's a weekly email with brief updates on the 'recommended stocks', and every month he puts out a magazine-like publication with in depth financial analysis of a particular stock.

Both of these lines are possible red flags to me.

k3nn
Jan 20, 2007

Omne posted:

I'm sure others are getting these too, but I got a notice from my old employer about taking a lump sum payout from my old pension (which I had no clue I even had!) in order to lower their obligations. Fine with me, this is money I didn't even know I had (I left the job in 2009). It's only $6k, so not a super huge amount, but better than nothing. My understanding is I can set up an IRA and roll it into that with no penalties or taxes, or I can take the cash and pay out income tax and the 10% penalty, correct? Part of my likes the idea of diversifying my retirement (already have a 401k), but I also have a balance on an old credit card that this would more than cover, even after penalties. Then again, my current rate of pay-off will take care of that card by January at the latest. What should I do?

What happens if you don't accept the lump sum? If it was a defined benefit pension (i.e. one where they guarantee you a fixed amount on retirement, usually some fraction of your salary) then it might be worth staying in their pension system -- companies often try to buy people out of these with lump sums that are worth much less than the pensions they're promised, so if this is your situation you might be better off leaving things as they are. Otherwise yeah, you'd probably be better off just rolling it into an IRA.

Harry
Jun 13, 2003

I do solemnly swear that in the year 2015 I will theorycraft my wallet as well as my WoW

three posted:

So, I have an emergency that will warrant using my emergency fund. Essentially, I have a large home repair (do never buy). Is it better to empty my emergency fund to pay for this or to use a bit of the emergency fund and put the rest on a credit card and pay that CC off over the next 3 months?

The total cost of repair is $6000, so I was thinking of using $3000 of my emergency fund and $3000 on CC. I calculated the interest would be around $100 or so doing it that way ($3000 at 18% over 3 months comes to $93.19).

My wife and I neither have a fear of losing our jobs, but I'm worried about vacating the emergency fund and then something crazy like we both get laid off and I can't use my CC to pay my mortgage or something.

I'd say charge it all and then pay it off the next statement cycle just in case the contractor screws you over.

nyerf
Feb 12, 2010

An elephant never forgets...TO KILL!

ntan1 posted:

Both of these lines are possible red flags to me.

They declare any potential conflicts of interest, and you don't have to take the e-trade coupon if you don't want. At the end of the day it's largely buy and hold advice, with the major recommendation being a listed fund, advice which Pape's always given away on his website for free. Hardly day-trading stuff. I'm probably overstating the shares part of the advice, he's really more like MMM but for the Australian financial landscape. Hell, unless you have zillions of dollars to invest, there's a good case for just salary sacrificing money into your (low cost industry) super to the maximum amount. That'll diversify it plenty. For most people I've spoken to they're not even aware of the tax saving of doing so, something the government's Money Smart website can confirm.

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Omne
Jul 12, 2003

Orangedude Forever

k3nn posted:

What happens if you don't accept the lump sum? If it was a defined benefit pension (i.e. one where they guarantee you a fixed amount on retirement, usually some fraction of your salary) then it might be worth staying in their pension system -- companies often try to buy people out of these with lump sums that are worth much less than the pensions they're promised, so if this is your situation you might be better off leaving things as they are. Otherwise yeah, you'd probably be better off just rolling it into an IRA.

If I don't accept the lump sum, nothing happens. The money would stay in the pension fund and continue to accumulate a small amount of interest. I'm not guaranteed a fixed amount at retirement at all. I feel that taking it out, putting it into a Roth IRA would allow me to do more with it, as opposed to earn like 1% a year.

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