|
Thanatosian posted:You have insurance? Comprehensive & collision? If so, then don't worry about the car getting totaled in an accident; your insurance will pay you out for it. If not, then get it, and stop worrying about it. Oh wow, I had no idea. I guess I'm just worried that if my car is at a point where it could get totaled in an accident, I might not get more than a couple of thousand dollars and then you still will do better if you have a down payment saved up. (I might be significantly misunderstanding car wreck horror stories that happened to friends of mine) quote:And assuming you're in your 20s, you're right around average for mileage; a little low, even. You aren't the first person to say that (I'm 27), so that makes me feel better. The car has been through a couple of interstate road trips and I'm getting much better about commuting with public transportation/consolidating trips to put fewer miles on my car. quote:The rest of this will require more information. What's your income currently? What's your one-year plan? Three-year plan? Five-year plan? Income: 42,800 As for the yearly plans, that's kind of a struggle for me. I got a free financial advisor through my bank who advised me to pick out some short term goals and medium term goals, and it was difficult. I know I want to have enough for retirement and I have two major travel destinations left on my bucket list (China and a scuba trip to see whale sharks and a coral reef), but sketching out specifics is very difficult because I'm not really chained down to my current city with a boyfriend or kid or anything. The closest I have is saving up for a new car when my current car falls apart. Maybe saving for a down payment if there's ever a buyer's market again wherever I'm living when I make that decision (again, not tied down with kids and also not in love with my local housing market). I thought about starting to save up for fertility treatments/adoption because I have a condition that will probably make me infertile. I know that's jumping the gun since I don't even have a boyfriend, but my parents were caught off-guard by my mother's fertility problems and it was a gigantic financial/emotional strain that I would like to at least try to nip in the bud if I decide to have kids within the next 10 years. How do people in my situation (late 20s, not tied down with a partner or children or debt, no property, etc) normally sketch out goals? legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 21:38 on May 28, 2015 |
#
?
May 28, 2015 21:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 8, 2024 22:05 |
|
|
Good with money: Adopt through the foster care system for free! And get paid by the state/county while you wait for their parents rights to be terminated! (Full disclosure: I'm a child welfare social worker, please only do this if you can love a child with a serious trauma history unconditionally, but for real its super rewarding and you're not guaranteed a perfect child whichever way you go). Also, at 27 you should familiarize yourself with how things like car insurance work. Will collision and comprehensive insurance you should get the full value of your car back from your insurance provider. If you're worried about your provider, see if you qualify for USAA - I've had very good experience with them paying out easily and quickly. You don't need a goal to save, but it helps. If you're undecided, you need to pick a percentage of your income and hide it from yourself, either in retirement accounts or perhaps something like an online savings account (which you are already doing). If you put it in an online savings account, once it hits 10k make a decision - invest it, dump it in an IRA at the end of the year, buy a new car, book that vacation. Keep your emergency fund in that account or separately, don't count it towards the 10k. Definitely contribute the $1800 to your retirement, that's a small amount and maxing out gives a ton of satisfaction. And it keeps you from impulse spending it! Since you live at home, I think 3 months of living expenses if you suddenly had to survive on your own would be a good start (like if you get a job out of state). PS: since I keep seeing people in these forums talk about adoption, anyone can feel free to PM me about what it might be like to be an adoptive foster parent.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2015 21:37
|
|
|
Mocking Bird posted:Definitely contribute the $1800 to your retirement, that's a small amount and maxing out gives a ton of satisfaction. And it keeps you from impulse spending it! Totally agreed! I got some potentially dubious advice that money in your IRA goes further if you invest at the beginning of the year instead of in the latter half of the year. Would it be better for me to put in the $1800 as soon as I get it for 2015 (which would be July), or would it be more efficient to wait and put it in for 2016 so it can gather more interest? As a note, if I decided to stop investing in my roth for 2015 and to start to save up to max out my 2016 roth deposits at the beginning of 2016, I would be putting in closer to $3000-$5000 since I would have more time to save. I'm rereading what I just typed, and I'm not sure if this question makes sense... If it's more sensible to just put money in my roth right away, I can do that.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2015 21:41
|
|
|
legsarerequired posted:Totally agreed! I got some potentially dubious advice that money in your IRA goes further if you invest at the beginning of the year instead of in the latter half of the year. Would it be better for me to put in the $1800 as soon as I get it for 2015 (which would be July), or would it be more efficient to wait and put it in for 2016 so it can gather more interest? The contribution limit for IRAs is $5500. The advice is that if you have $5500 at the beginning of the year, it's better to put it all in at once rather than break it up into about $450 every month (dollar cost averaging). However, if you don't have that lump sum already saved up, it's better to put whatever you can now than not contribute for a year to save up that amount. The goal in both cases is to have your money invested for as long as possible.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2015 21:59
|
|
|
If you're bad at driving to the tune of two accidents in 83k vehicle miles traveled, taking a defensive driving course could be a worthwhile investment.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2015 22:12
|
|
|
I figure you guys can give me some advice on this. What little savings I have were drained last month by having to do car repair. Two weeks ago my heat pump on my primary home I am paying mortgage on went belly up and after 3 different looked at it, they all ended up with the same response. Fixing it would be temporary and I'd be just patching it for further trouble down the line so I should replace the system. The best quote I got was $4,800. Money that I don't have laying around. From what I can tell my options seem to be to try and get a bank loan, try to file hardship and withdraw it from my 401k, or possibly a home equity loan which I know absolutely zero about. Are there options I am missing or haven't thought about?
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2015 18:03
|
|
|
I guess if you're really in a pinch you should see if your 401k program allows you to take out a loan from your 401k balance. You pay it back to the 401k with interest (that you keep). The cost is an initiation/administrative fee.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2015 18:06
|
|
|
AlexJade posted:I figure you guys can give me some advice on this. What little savings I have were drained last month by having to do car repair. Two weeks ago my heat pump on my primary home I am paying mortgage on went belly up and after 3 different looked at it, they all ended up with the same response. Fixing it would be temporary and I'd be just patching it for further trouble down the line so I should replace the system. The best quote I got was $4,800. Money that I don't have laying around. From what I can tell my options seem to be to try and get a bank loan, try to file hardship and withdraw it from my 401k, or possibly a home equity loan which I know absolutely zero about. Are there options I am missing or haven't thought about?
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2015 22:49
|
|
|
A savings account with $5000 in it is roughly comparable to a credit card with a $5000 limit. If you can manage the one, you can manage the other. Probably.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2015 00:34
|
|
|
I just got the Citi 2% cash back card with a $6k limit. It has 18 months of introductory 0% APR. if you have good enough credit, get a card like that.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2015 02:44
|
|
|
AlexJade posted:I figure you guys can give me some advice on this. What little savings I have were drained last month by having to do car repair. Two weeks ago my heat pump on my primary home I am paying mortgage on went belly up and after 3 different looked at it, they all ended up with the same response. Fixing it would be temporary and I'd be just patching it for further trouble down the line so I should replace the system. The best quote I got was $4,800. Money that I don't have laying around. From what I can tell my options seem to be to try and get a bank loan, try to file hardship and withdraw it from my 401k, or possibly a home equity loan which I know absolutely zero about. Are there options I am missing or haven't thought about? What would it cost to patch it? If it is a few hundred dollars to do a temporary repair that might keep it going for a year or two, that is not a bad option while you save like crazy to fix it. Also, heat pump? Is this what you have for a furnace? Or A/C?
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2015 23:06
|
|
|
Zeta Taskforce posted:What would it cost to patch it? If it is a few hundred dollars to do a temporary repair that might keep it going for a year or two, that is not a bad option while you save like crazy to fix it. Heat pump is reverse cycle aircon. You could try regassing if the external unit isn't completely hosed. For $4800 it must be a very large unit you're replacing. For financing it a 0% card is probably the best way. Other approaches would probably be costly in interest or set up fees.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2015 23:48
|
|
|
In the long term, I'd like to start a business and work for myself, but I keep thinking about this one thing: If I do well, then my company will pay a 35% corporate income tax, and the money I live on will then be taxed at the top income tax bracket of 39.6%, plus an extra 10% for state and local taxes, plus an extra 15% for social security since my own business would pay that. So why the hell would anyone start a business?
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2015 05:35
|
|
|
fruit loop posted:In the long term, I'd like to start a business and work for myself, but I keep thinking about this one thing: Because you can hire people, and then bill clients at 5x the rate you're paying your employees. The American dream.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2015 07:10
|
|
|
fruit loop posted:In the long term, I'd like to start a business and work for myself, but I keep thinking about this one thing: Because that's not how taxes work.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2015 10:24
|
|
|
fruit loop posted:If I do well, then my company will pay a 35% corporate income tax, and the money I live on will then be taxed at the top income tax bracket of 39.6%, plus an extra 10% for state and local taxes, plus an extra 15% for social security since my own business would pay that. So why the hell would anyone start a business? Yeah, you should do some basic research on businesses. Not every business is a corporation and not every corporation type pays taxes directly. In addition, most start up businesses fail, so you probably won't have to worry about the doing well part anyway. You'll be lucky if you ever have the "problem" of being in the highest tax bracket.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2015 14:03
|
|
|
Long story short if your business is small enough and organized correctly, you can get by with "pass through" taxation, where the profits and losses just flow into the owners individual tax returns as earned income without the corporate tax rate applying. If your company is so big that's not an option and you're actually paying other people salaries, congratulations, now pay your taxes.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2015 17:26
|
|
|
If you're making enough that you're being taxed at the highest bracket of 39.6% after corporate taxes are accounted for, I don't think you'll get much sympathy for your tax situation simply because you'd have to be grossing, as an individual, over $410k a year.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2015 17:36
|
|
|
Not a Children posted:If you're making enough that you're being taxed at the highest bracket of 39.6% after corporate taxes are accounted for, I don't think you'll get much sympathy for your tax situation simply because you'd have to be grossing, as an individual, over $410k a year. His post is also conveniently ignoring that income tax is progressive. Even if you're wildly successful and end up "in" the 39.6% bracket, most of your income is getting taxed quite a bit lower than that. Also real wealthy people don't pay much in income taxes, they pay a lot of capital gains taxes, which if they are LTCG are relatively low.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2015 17:46
|
|
|
Yeah, the point is to become one of those wealthy people. Seems like it's impossible because the game is rigged to stop you from doing so but make sure that those who have remain so.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 00:52
|
|
|
fruit loop posted:Yeah, the point is to become one of those wealthy people. Seems like it's impossible because the game is rigged to stop you from doing so but make sure that those who have remain so. No all you need is an accountant to make sure you get all of the correct write offs so you minimise your tax. As noted above if you are hitting the top tax rate you would need to be grossing $410k per year. That is not the income of the working poor despite what CNBC report.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 01:17
|
|
|
where are you getting "working poor" from do you even form thoughts in your head or were you just scanning threads looking for a chance to post that zinger
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 01:20
|
|
|
fruit loop posted:where are you getting "working poor" from From your pissing and moaning about how everything is rigged, and you don't want to listen. People moaning about earning large incomes and complaining about being poor is very common, and they are financially retarded. http://frugaling.org/the-new-rich-middle-class/
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 02:16
|
|
|
if theyre so common then go find one of them to make yourself feel better lol or point out where i complained about being poor? all i see is a complaint about obstacles to becoming actually for-real rich
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 02:50
|
|
|
Obstacle 1: inability to read information about how taxes work
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 02:55
|
|
|
and thats really the most important one :/
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 02:58
|
|
|
fruit loop posted:In the long term, I'd like to start a business and work for myself, but I keep thinking about this one thing: This is the newbie personal finance thread, not the ronald reagan trickle-down whiny thread. Knock it off.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 02:58
|
|
|
Series DD Funding posted:Obstacle 1: inability to read information about how taxes work  froot loop: Get unignorant. You will realize the tax code is not an obstacle to business. Then you will probably create other mental obstacles instead of doing it but, who knows, maybe I'm wrong and you'll actually follow your dreams.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 03:11
|
|
|
sorry
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 03:11
|
|
|
nelson posted:
This, and running a business usually the most tax advantaged thing you can possibly do. Write offs on dual use items for business and personal use are a huge tax saving.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 03:13
|
|
|
fruit loop posted:sorry No worries. D&D is ready and waiting for you! You might like to start here or here.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 04:48
|
|
|
You don't have to be a libertarian nutjob to think it's screwed up that people who work for a living are taxed at a higher rate than people who live off their investment income and contribute nothing to society. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 14:26
|
|
|
Letting other people use your money == contributing nothing to society, got it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 15:05
|
|
|
This is the newbie personal finance thread not whinge about hedge fund tax rates and tax havens megathread.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 20:45
|
|
|
fruit loop posted:You don't have to be a libertarian nutjob to think it's screwed up that people who work for a living are taxed at a higher rate than people who live off their investment income quote:and contribute nothing to society.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2015 20:57
|
|
|
Wasn't there a debt collections megathread a while ago? I have a friend who is freaking about collections, but I can't find the thread now.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2015 15:01
|
|
|
There is! http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3234974
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2015 15:59
|
|
|
My wife is a recent graduate and (hopefully) will have a full-time teaching position for next school year. We're doing fine financially, and slowly paying off debt on one income. We will be killing it with two incomes. In what order should I squash these three debts? Car note: $7500 balance, 2.54% interest, $235 monthly payment Student loan 1: $3000 balance, 8.24% interest, $50 monthly payment Student loan 2: $12,000 balance, 9.99% interest, $125 monthly payment I can knock out the biggest monthly payment debt, the easiest debt to pay off, or the biggest interest debt.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2015 22:46
|
|
|
Biggest interest first gives you more total money. Psychologically, it can help people pay off debt to do it other ways to check things off or reduce their monthly, but it sounds like you are doing fine on that front.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2015 22:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 8, 2024 22:05 |
|
|
There it is, thanks!
|
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2015 02:19
|
|