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Boon posted:Quick question: Common sense?
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# ¿ Aug 3, 2012 22:30 |
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# ¿ May 10, 2024 10:57 |
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Boon posted:Well my hesitation to do it was why I posted here, but since I just squirrel away excess cash into mutual funds I don't really have any experience with this. Thanks for the advice. Thank you for listening
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# ¿ Aug 4, 2012 16:52 |
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Wow, saving that much is great. One thing that might help is if you make a budget and specifically give yourself a certain amount to spend on fun stuff. That way the savings won't feel as much like a deprivation. If possible, I'd suggest you start a Roth IRA and put some of the money in that. Starting to save for retirement early (REALLY early, even ) is a very solid thing to do, and it'll give you a chance to learn a little bit about different investment options. CDs are kinda lovely right now, like everything else, but once you have your emergency fund set up they're as good as anything else I guess. Eh. My vote is e-fund & retirement fund. If you have more than $5000 earned income this year spare to throw into the Roth, I'll be very surprised. The bonus of a Roth is that you can take out any of the principal (the amount you put in before gains from the market are added) for any reason at any time. So it's not like you're locking it up for ever and ever if it turns out you need it later (except you are because DON'T TOUCH YOUR RETIREMENT FUND).
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# ¿ Aug 8, 2012 04:27 |
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Orange_Lazarus posted:Do you even need the scooter or is this just something you want? How do you get around now? Also after you graduate you would probably benefit more from having a car than a scooter right? Exactly this. I would put that money into your schooling to avoid more student loans. Why? 1. Scooters depreciate. Loans appreciate... and not in a good way. 2. Student loans, unlike vehicle loans, cannot be discharged by bankruptcy. 3. I do not think you have taken insurance into account which is probably going to be high.
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# ¿ Aug 8, 2012 20:20 |
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Don't throw all your savings into it. You need retirement savings and I'm guessing from your post that you'd be spending those. Fraternite is probably right, unfortunately. Could you post a breakdown of your assets & your budget so we have a better idea of what situation you're in? It might at least be possible to help you work on the not quite paycheck-to-paycheck situation.
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# ¿ Aug 15, 2012 15:12 |
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What kind of IRA, normal or Roth? If it's normal, you'll get hit with penalties if you take it out early. You can take it out of the Roth, but not more than the original amount you put in- meaning you'd get more money for your retirement I guess, but you wouldn't be able to use the growth on your house downpayment. Also you can only put $5k a year in a Roth so I'd keep that for retirement personally anyway. Then there's the big fat glaring issue: anything you put in the market can disappear. This is a risk you accept with long term things, and 8-10 years is probably fine, but do be sure to weigh the inherent risk before you put your downpayment savings into investment. On the other hand, it's not like there are any savings vehicles right now that will get you reasonable growth anyway. ALTHOUGH... if we're talking 8-10 years, savings/I bonds might be a pretty darn good way to go.
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# ¿ Aug 15, 2012 20:33 |
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Sure can't. Go for it! Then treat yourself to an ice cream for being prudent.
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# ¿ Aug 16, 2012 02:52 |
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psydude posted:Gotcha. I thought you could take out up to a certain amount for the purchase of the house . Would a flexible CD that allows contributions before the maturity date be a good way to go, too? The rates tend to be a lot lower than a traditional CD, but they still put out more interest than a savings account. I was also looking at tax exempt bonds as some of them have a reasonably high rate of return. Ooh that is possible. I am not an expert, just an amateur. It looks like with a traditional IRA you could withdraw up to $10k penalty-free, yeah. With a Roth you can withdraw all the principal you put in, so $5k/year for the next 8-10 years would be $40-50k, not bad. I guess so long as you have other retirement vehicles that wouldn't be bad. I don't know anything about bonds. CD's are poo poo right now.
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# ¿ Aug 16, 2012 15:03 |
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ZoneManagement posted:I am very close to a foreclosure - this sucks, and was something I never dreamed would happen to me....but here I am. I might, just might be able to afford the payment on my own - but it would be a horrible living. At any rate, what happens if I do get foreclosed? First: Foreclosure is not the end of the world. It is not the end of your financial life. You can recover from it. Second: You are not alone. Obviously you know millions of other people in the U.S. have been foreclosed on or are waiting to be. Third: And I may get called out on this, but getting foreclosed on does not mean you're a bad person. It means maybe you didn't prepare for a rainy day very well, although in this case it sounds like you got screwed by the market. It depends a lot on your state laws, so you'll need to look into that. Specifically you need to find out if you live in a non-recourse state. This makes a huge difference. Basically though once you stop making payments, it often takes over a year for you to actually get evicted. You have time to make plans and consult a lawyer and find a new place to live. Your best bet now is to get informed. Google for foreclosure and your state and you should be able to find hotlines, advisers, and lots of informational articles and such. Finally, and this should probably have come sooner, have you actually discussed things with your bank? If you do, document everything, every conversation, the name of everyone you speak to, every email, etc. Sometimes they won't even consider changing your payment plan until you've already missed a payment, so don't be surprised if they tell you that (assuming you haven't yet). Seriously though, lawyer. Stew Man Chew posted:As an aside, I would NOT heavily weight your state's current retirement plan in your financial decisions, these are being slashed everywhere and will continue to suffer in the years to come. I wouldn't plan on this being anywhere near as robust by the time you reach retirement age. Take it into account, but build safeguards in. This this this this this this. Giant Squid, if you aren't making retirement savings of your own, you need to be. State pension plans are in the shitter, and they're in the news more lately because the expected performance metric has been changed (Rather than estimating that they'll grow c.7% over time, it's something like 5%. This makes a huge difference when you're talking millions of dollars). I don't know what to advise you about investing or buying a house or whatever, but please take this to heart. Oh, and marriage doesn't have to cost a fortune- getting married can be cheap; it just depends on what the couple and their family wants.
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# ¿ Aug 19, 2012 23:22 |
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FISHMANPET posted:Ooof, my pension is only 46% funded under the new rules. It hasn't actually changed the amount of money they have, just the amount they expect to have in time. In other words, it was already lovely, but now it's got a more pessimistic outlook. Here's an NPR piece on the issue, and here's another one focused on the new rule specifically.
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# ¿ Aug 20, 2012 00:51 |
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mfaley posted:I am interested in getting a better card with more rewards as possible... however, I know that this may be a bit early for those kinds of shinanigans. I've read a lot about the AmEx Blue Cash Everyday card and it looks right up my alley. Credit Karma says I'd have a "good" chance of being approved. Am I getting ahead of myself here? First, wow! You're doing well and should be really proud of yourself Second, I have a Blue Cash and it's meh. Not everywhere takes AmEx, and the rewards haven't really stacked up to much for me. I have an Amazon Chase Visa that I use and that I get Amazon credit or a check (I don't know if the check is less) on a quarterly basis. I like that one a lot more because I can use it more places and the 3 points back on Amazon purchases adds up nicely (there are also points on groceries or something, not sure). There's also a credit card rewards thread that you may find useful, or maybe you've been there already since you're thinking about the blue cash.
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# ¿ Aug 22, 2012 21:57 |
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SmuglyDismissed posted:I have both of those cards and I just use them wherever the points are maximized. I kind of wish I would have picked up the Blue Cash Preferred. You don't really have to spend that much on groceries at 6% cash back to make it pay off pretty well. I believe it's around $210 a month on groceries where the annual fee is covered by the extra 3%. Also, the extra 1% on gas is cool. Aha I can see how that would work. I don't have a car, I use a debit card that goes to a joint account with my boyfriend for groceries, so the Amex doesn't even get used much anymore. mfaley, I don't know about approval and all that credit voodoo, but in yourself I think you are okay so long as you keep on paying off your cards as you go and not carrying a balance. It's possible to be responsible with 1 card and it's possible to be responsible with 9 (but that's a bit silly).
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# ¿ Aug 22, 2012 23:41 |
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moana posted:With as bad as rates are right now, you're not going to find much. I have a bunch of cash stored in a yearlong CD at like 1.5% which was the best rate at the time, but I was saving it for the very short-term. Bankrate.com lets you compare rates if you want to go that route. And yet my reaction to 1.5% is " WHERE? WHERE?" Not that I have a use for a year-long CD at this point. I just like to watch them like sports, I guess.
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# ¿ Aug 23, 2012 13:22 |
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1) Start in this thread. It has an excellent OP (I'm super humble) and it's designed for peeps like you. 2) I don't know what that is. SOMEONE ELSE? 3) 25-33%, please not more. 55% is insane.
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# ¿ Aug 25, 2012 03:14 |
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Remy Marathe posted:My mom just sprung a thing on me whereby she wants to turn her bank account into a joint account with my name on it "just in case anything happens [to her]". Maybe she could give you power of attorney instead?
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# ¿ Aug 28, 2012 00:06 |
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Remy Marathe posted:Thanks guys, I'll ask about the beneficiary option and find out her motives, see if we can't come to an arrangement that makes more sense than a joint account given that I need no access to the account while she's alive. Though maybe she's thinking access during a medical emergency wherein she's alive or something. Yeah it would be pretty extreme. Maybe talk with her about setting up a living will in case of medical incapacity on her part, and do that beneficiary thing someone else mentioned. Whatever else, definitely don't agree to be joint on the account. You said she's money-dumb and at the same time said it's unlikely she'd make mistakes like overdrafts, and financial fuckups are a very common thing that happens to elderly people who are beginning to lose some of their sharpness.
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# ¿ Aug 28, 2012 14:10 |
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Small available credit will do that. Your score isn't horrible by any means. I'd guess those collection issues will stay on till they're 7 years old. Don't spend so much energy (and money) on worrying about your score. Live your life and make good financial choices and it'll come to you. The thing with credit scores is that there's no such thing as the credit score. There are lots of different ones, and different industries use different ones to rate applicants. The score most people mean when they say credit score, however, is the FICO score, and you're only going to get that one from myfico.com. You can get it if you sign up for a 10 day trial membership- just be sure to immediately cancel the membership. It's very easy to do. All that said, really, just reread the last two sentences of the first paragraph some more times.
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# ¿ Aug 30, 2012 03:02 |
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Chillllllaaaaaaaax fellow. A rewards card isn't like a retirement account- it's not a must-have part of every financially savvy adult's portfolio. A rewards card, UNLESS you fly all the time and can use/rack up airline miles, is more of a bonus than anything else. For example, I just spent $500 on dental work (). I will get $5 of Amazon credit for that. That's pretty nice, but it's not going to make or break my monthly budget. If you really really want to keep building credit lines, look for another low limit entry-level card like you have. Really though just keep your usage ratio low and keep on doing what you're doing. e: Friends, does said surprise dental work count as emergency fund money or "if you take that out of your emergency fund you have to pay it back" money? I am not getting paid again for another two weeks and I don't like to leave large charges on my card so I want to pay it off now but I'd be left with about $200 in my checking account. I don't actually have to pay the card balance again till October 4 so I'm just being a sperg. Also that checking account is for my personal stuff; food & rent & gas etc. come out of a joint one that is quite healthy. Eggplant Wizard fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Aug 31, 2012 |
# ¿ Aug 31, 2012 20:36 |
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Champing (no one but me cares though) Hmm that is pretty weird. I'm sorry if I seemed like I was talking down to you. I guess I would say yeah, try and get your limit raised and try for some babby beginner cards. I just googled and found this neat place: CardHub. It looks like they specialize in finding you a card by credit type, and they even had some suggestions for "no or limited history" which apparently you are. Since your loans are paid off, you see, you don't have any open lines of credit so your stats don't look as good <- I may be making that up but I think it's true.
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# ¿ Aug 31, 2012 21:54 |
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Eggplant Wizard posted:e: Friends, does said surprise dental work count as emergency fund money or "if you take that out of your emergency fund you have to pay it back" money? I am not getting paid again for another two weeks and I don't like to leave large charges on my card so I want to pay it off now but I'd be left with about $200 in my checking account. I don't actually have to pay the card balance again till October 4 so I'm just being a sperg. Also that checking account is for my personal stuff; food & rent & gas etc. come out of a joint one that is quite healthy. So it turns out my new position is paid on a 12 month schedule (I have been a TA before which is 10 months), which means that when I got my first paycheck today, I got two months worth of backpay from July. Paying myself back is DONE in one fell swoop. Yesss.
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# ¿ Sep 14, 2012 14:21 |
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LeftistMuslimObama posted:Either way I'm going to request a copy of the report so I can scrutinize and dispute that poo poo, because they're telling me my score's down to 685 when it was 740 when I got approved for my credit union account three months ago. Zeta Taskforce posted:You need to pull your credit and make sure what you recognize everything. Quoting myself to give instructions on how to pull credit in case you don't know. Eggplant Wizard posted:The annualcreditreport.com is your credit report, which tells you what accounts/lines of credit/debts you have and what your record/standing is like for each. You can get it once a year from each of the three bureaus, so in practice you can get it three times a year. It's good to check it regularly so you can watch out for credit opened in your name by others, or mistakes because of someone who has a similar name/SSN.
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# ¿ Sep 27, 2012 14:17 |
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Dammit people stop trying to get a high score on KREDDIT KOMBATT at the local arcade. Just act financially responsible and take care of your finances in the way that best suits your financial situation. Don't play games. LeftistMuslimObama posted:Checked my report w/ Experian (which is the company the creditor said they used), and the only accounts listed on there at any point are my credit cards and student loans. Across credit accounts my total utilization is only at like 50%, so I really don't understand why I got turned down for the credit card. It's basically guaranteed money to any company that accepts balance transfers from my other cards since I have years of on-time payments and it's debt that already exists. I would call the creditor and try to find out what they're talking about real property-wise. That's super weird. It's by no means unheard of for credit reports to get mixed up for people with the same name, but you'd think that'd show on Experian, then... Definitely call.
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# ¿ Sep 28, 2012 15:10 |
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Annual rent should be no more than 33% of your GROSS pay, so about $1600/mo would be your upper limit. That'll get you someplace pretty decent. I also used the $58k figure so you could potentially go up. That's a pretty comfortable amount to work with, really. PRADA SLUT, I don't think he was asking about mortgages.
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# ¿ Sep 30, 2012 16:06 |
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What's your utilization though? How much credit do you still have available on those cards? Even if each one has a limit of 5k, you're at 50% utilization + student loans, which is not great actually. I know that $5000 in credit card debt feels like peanuts compared to what you see here and hear about on the news sometimes, but it's quite a lot realistically.
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2012 01:10 |
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This may be over already but all y'all arguing about target retirement funds should go talk about it in the long term savings/investment thread instead. CDs are worthless right now because interest rates are so low. I have my money in an ING account and in a brokerage account with Vanguard, in which there are some bonds but mostly the total stock market fund. I am pretty pleased with how they are doing. Whatever you do, keep an emergency fund available in case you need liquid cash and/or the market crashes again and your holdings tank.
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# ¿ Oct 6, 2012 16:17 |
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Devious_05 posted:Are you not able to use a PIN for credit transactions in the US(presuming thats where you are)? How odd. Yeah we haven't moved over to that yet in the US.
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# ¿ Oct 28, 2012 14:08 |
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I do not know anything about Smartypig but I use ING and I like it. I do not have the separate savings accounts set up (perhaps I should), but I have done transfers in and out and I've used their customer service line. No fees, no problems.
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# ¿ Nov 6, 2012 19:42 |
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FCKGW posted:ING Direct is changing from Orange and Blue colors to Red and Blue colors. Goddamn. I like orange I don't really like capital one.
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# ¿ Nov 8, 2012 00:51 |
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Does anyone know anything about this AmEx "Personal Savings" business? It's sponsoring NPR so I keep hearing about it. It sounds weird. Also the savings calculator is hiiii-larious. Competitive .9% rate indeed
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# ¿ Nov 8, 2012 01:09 |
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Remy Marathe posted:God dammit I've liked ING so far, but Capital One put themselves on my official poo poo list a while back and I am a big fan of the color orange. Smartypig and that AmEx one I linked to maybe. Dammit I want like Vanguard to have savings; they're (probably) less evil I guess Ally is privately held so at least they're not beholden to shareholders? On the other hand I don't know what that means in regard to disclosure... e: Their parent company got in trouble in the big fuckup and it's still partially held by the government. Minus, or plus? e: Hahaha THE INCREDIBLE BANK is another one. (e again: watch those fees though- $15 for non-electronic statements. https://www.incrediblebank.com/support/fees.cfm) Alliant credit union has .79/.8 on savings, and .75ish on checking. Eggplant Wizard fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Nov 8, 2012 |
# ¿ Nov 8, 2012 15:15 |
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slap me silly posted:Regarding financial advisers, I think there are still a lot out there who will sell you lovely funds just because they'll get a fat commission. Read up on index funds, fund fees, etc. and if somebody wants you to put your money in funds with a 5% load you should probably fire their rear end. Definitely. What you want is someone who is fee-only and has a fiduciary duty ONLY to the client. That means that if the adviser works for an investment group like Schwab, for example, don't use them. People who work for investment companies are going to have an interest in getting you to sign up for their funds, which means they won't give you the best advice for your situation necessarily, but rather for their own commission/sales figures. You can look for a fee-only planner here. WhiteOutMouse posted:So I have a newbie question and I looked at the OP and other threads here and I was not sure where to leave it: Well, for safer choices there are a couple of options. Nothing is super great at the moment because interest rates are very very low (like your car loan).
My opinion? Split it up. Keep 6 months' expenses (emergency fund) somewhere nice and liquid like savings. Possibly you should keep more than that because you have more potential for medical issues, I gather, than us non-cyborg Americans. Then fund a Roth for the year. Next, chuck some into either your car loan or a .95% savings of some kind (if it's less that .9% then you should just pay off your car IMO). Then, if you want to minimize risk, put the rest into a savings account and enjoy that sub-inflation-rate-level-interest. (If I were you I would still probably throw a little into a Vanguard fund just so you start learning more about financial things. Even if it's only $1000, it's a good start and it's better to get a basic understanding of stuff before you throw everything into it. There are lots of good things to look at in the OP if you want to get more into it.) Eggplant Wizard fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Nov 10, 2012 |
# ¿ Nov 10, 2012 14:52 |
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Orange_Lazarus posted:The traditional advice is to fund your traditional 401k to company match then max a Roth IRA, then go back to funding your 401k. The only reason I would ever consider going with a Roth 401k is if I decided that I needed my principal investment back sometime in the near future, so if you ever decide that buying a home outright is more important than saving for retirement it's worth considering the Roth 401k. You can't have a Roth if you don't have earned income. Most children do not have earned income. You could use your own Roth as a fund but there's no reason to, really. The main advantage of a Roth is that the earnings are untaxed when they come out and you're old.
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# ¿ Nov 15, 2012 15:21 |
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Adopt me.
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# ¿ Nov 17, 2012 15:56 |
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WhiteOutMouse posted:It's clear that I need another few days to look over stuff since I am easily confused by all this new jargon and websites with smiling middle aged white dudes. quote:"The maximum dollar amount you can contribute annually through pre-tax and Roth elective deferrals to your 401k is determined by the I.R.S. and in 2012, the annual pre-tax and Roth elective deferral limit is $17,000 ($16,500 in 2011). Once you reach the annual limit, pre-tax and Roth elective deferrals should no longer be deducted from your paycheck for the remainder of the year. Please note, the annual pre-tax and Roth elective deferral limit does not apply to any matching or other contributions that your employer may provide." Okay so this means "You fund your 401k by having money auto-withdrawn from your pay check every pay period. It withdraws before taxes, which means you do not get taxed on the amounts you get auto-withdrawn. The IRS has an annual $17k limit on how much money you can not-get-taxed-on by auto-withdrawals from your paycheck. Your employer might have a matching program but their matches don't count toward that $17k." I assume this also means you can contribute more than $17k/year to your 401k, but that will be money you've already been income taxed on. MORE WORDS: Roth IRA is not the same as Roth 401k. A Roth IRA is an account you fund yourself with money that has already been income-taxed (up to $5000/year). A Roth 401k is an employer-sponsored account that you fund with money that has already been income-taxed (up to $17k/year I think). A 401k is an employer-sponsored account that is funded with money that has not yet been income-taxed, by withdrawing it from your paycheck before income taxes are taken out (so, if you're paid $100, and you put $5 into your 401k, you are only taxed on $95.). A Roth IRA or Roth 401k are taxed already, so when you're an old person and you withdraw money to live off of, it's not taxed again. That is, if you make money off interest or stocks or whatever, those gains aren't taxed either. If you put $100 in your Roth whatever in 2012, then in 2050 you withdraw that $100 + the $7 you've made in the market or whatever, you are not taxed on any of it. A 401k is pre-tax, so you do have to pay taxes on the money when it comes out. You put $100 in now in 2012, you make $7, and in 2050 you pay taxes on $107. You can have both a Roth IRA and a 401k or Roth 401k. Most of us here would suggest having multiple retirement accounts I believe. Generally for 401k's personal finance folks say "invest enough to make your employer match your contributions, then fund a Roth, then go back to your 401k." The point in having a Roth 401k is only if you think you're going to be so rich in 2050 that your income tax rate will be higher in retirement than it is now- in that scenario it makes sense to pay taxes now on money going into a Roth 401k and then not pay taxes later when you'd be taxed at a higher rate if it were a basic 401k. tl;dr: accept investopedia into your heart as your personal savior e: vvvvvvvv Yeah in most cases there's no such thing as saving too much for retirement. Definitely have more than one thing here. Eggplant Wizard fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Nov 18, 2012 |
# ¿ Nov 18, 2012 16:38 |
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casa de mi padre posted:They said they'll send me a letter confirming payment, so it's all good. Good work, man. You did the right thing and I hope you feel a bit about it because you should
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# ¿ Nov 22, 2012 00:21 |
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Sab669 posted:I looked, but not hard enough I guess. Your school's financial aid department might be able to help, too. That situation sounds like bullshit so good luck.
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# ¿ Nov 29, 2012 23:41 |
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Orange_Lazarus posted:I can understand this; I just think our personal risk is rather low Car accident disables one of you, requires a long period of recuperation and relearning how to walk, can't work, etc. Or even just the car gets totaled and you need a new one. House fire. Cancer diagnosis. The whole point of an emergency fund is that you can't plan when you're going to have emergencies.
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# ¿ Dec 1, 2012 02:10 |
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slap me silly posted:You said her mother has done this multiple times in the past, and will do it again in the future. She has ruined your girlfriend's credit, saddled her with $12,000 of debt that isn't her own, and left her with a poo poo ton of cleaning up to do. You also said the mother is a sociopath. And you want to let her off the hook for her past AND future criminal behavior because she said nice things and bought your girlfriend presents with your girlfriend's own money? If you get serious with this girl, your financial life is going to be an endless merry-go-round of cleaning up her mother's bullshit. Just to let you know. Drop it. He's given his side of things and clearly agrees more or less. Short of reaching through the screen and talking past him, directly to his girlfriend, you can't change the situation. Dude with the doormat girlfriend, good luck. Knyteguy posted:Hey so my wife and I are working with a collection company that T-Mobile sent us to when we closed our account, which is ridiculous because we were supposed to setup a payment plan directly to them. I negotiated them down to 60% which I still feel was a bit high (on a $1472.93 debt), but I wanted them to do pay for delete and payments, so I was willing to work with them too. The debt collection thread might be a better place to ask. Good luck. (e: jk I guess you did that) Eggplant Wizard fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Dec 16, 2012 |
# ¿ Dec 16, 2012 00:35 |
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PongAtari posted:I'm planning on moving out of my apartment and into a house (renting) sometime between now and April. I only have a checking account and want to set aside money for moving expenses in a savings account. The online banks I've looked at (Ally Bank, Sallie May, Barclays) have good rates but the majority of their user reviews are extremely negative. Are these just cases of people not knowing how to operate a website, or are online banks not worth dealing with? Most people who post reviews are mad people yes. For what it's worth, I've got Ally and I like their interface pretty well actually.
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# ¿ Dec 16, 2012 18:25 |
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# ¿ May 10, 2024 10:57 |
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Earth posted:I know that I won't get a lower rate or better terms through my own bank. Right now Subaru is offering the 2.9% and my bank when I first asked gave me a quote of 6+%. They don't like car loans is my understanding. What happened to the car thread in here anyway? I was looking for that one to post these questions in, but couldn't find it. It went to A/T for more exposure. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3213538
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# ¿ Dec 27, 2012 15:58 |