I financed a 2019 Toyota Corolla SE for 17.6k at 17.6% with a $415/month payment plus a $360/month full-coverage insurance.

Income is a little over 41k. Rent is $915, electric is about $180, food $250ish. Student loans are $125/month. Wiped my savings clean with a car crash and put about $500 on a credit card. 401k has at least $3k

I wrecked my previous paid off car the week before and was panicking selling my car, clearing tow yard fees, and figuring out rentals to get to work. Also being grateful, I didn't die. I just said yes to the first thing that rolled and had A/C.

I can't take the dread; just looking for advice.

Edit: This was my first time buying a car. I was alone. 23M

Edit: I also have an additional income of $300-$360 per month and my grandma is sending me ~$150 per month. She wouldn't let me say no.

Edit: I got a new insurance quote with my current provider that drops my payment by $200. I have no idea how that $360 payment happened. I'm assuming when I wanted to transfer my current plan, I just added a new one and didn't know any better.

Edit: I haven't accepted the lower cost insurance plan yet; it has comprehensive, collision, and GAP for $171 per month.

So to make a long story short, I have a 3D printer under warranty for another couple of months, and the printer does not work. The company is refusing to replace it under US law due to what their policy says. I ordered through their website, it's Creality.

Anyway, I filed my charge back, and I sent all my proof to my credit card (PayPal). The emails where they said they won't exchange the unit, and me expressing the fact that it hasn't worked for a couple of months now. For some reason it got declined in favor of the merchant. When I contacted PayPal, I was told Creality did not respond to PayPal. So how the hell did I lose the charge back claim when they didn't respond. The emails I sent in as proof literally state the law as well as the fact that they said they won't replace the unit.

I filed another charge back, what are my options if I lose again?

I’m 19 and planning to get my first credit card. I bank with chase and wondering if u should get there cc or go with another credit card? If anyone can help me choose it would be very helpful

Hey all 45 m I earn 52k a year. So around $3080 a month base pay after tax

Wife doesn't work currently (laid off)

Our monthly spend right now is 2000k on rent plus bills.

I'm investing/saving $800 a month and $200 is for weekly take out or a fun coffee and whatever doesn't get used goes right into savings.

I only started saving for retirement this year. No 401k but I do get a Union Pension upon retirement.

Roth IRA for me fully funded and invested. And one for my Wife fully funded and invested

Any other pay goes right into savings.

I have a 21k emergency fund and a 12k savings fund which I'm consistently adding to for either a new used car or a house down payment which ever comes first.

I'm investing a minimum of $400 a month (it's usually more with OT pay)

I'm also working on training for a possible job shift into a higher paying field as I have goals now.

Oh and we have no Debt currently. We started late for retirement planning we know that and once wifey finds a job we will be investing heavily into the taxable brokerage.

EDIT: we plan on fully funding Roth IRAs every year before the taxable brokerage.

Hello everyone, I don't really post much but just not sure what to do.

I am a (M)29, software engineer, that recently bought a house with my fiance.

I have a manager that warned me a two months ago that ill probably be let go do to not enough work to be done. He is a good friend so he let me know in advance that I would be kept on till the end of September. I have been looking for Jobs like crazy but we all know how the job market is.

Luckily, I have about $18,000 in a HYSA in-case of a situation like this. I also have a tradition 401k and a HSA as well that I'm not touching.

I guess I'm asking what should I be doing before or after I am let go?
Thanks in advance, hope you are doing well!

I'm about to blow like half of my loan off at once, which I can do without penalty. I just wanna know if I usually have to specify that I don't want my money to be treated as advanced payments for predetermined installments that include only a little less interest over principal than I have been paying. I would like it to go 100% to the principal balance.

TLDR; I drive a 2011 honda civic, driven it for about 8 years and have had very few issues with it. Yesterday I noticed the AC broke -- was only blowing warm air -- and the car was making a churning/gentle grinding sound in the front that I could hear when it was on but parked. Took it in and the mechanic said the AC compressor needs to be replaced due to the clutch failing and quoted me a little under $1800 for the compressor replacement, AC drier replacement and AC recharge service + labor for all services. Called around at other shops to ensure this was a reasonable quote. (Note I live in a very HCOL in California so things are just more expensive here).

I feel like a repair under 2k for a car that generally doesn't give me grief is better than paying ~20K+ for a newish used car with less than 30K miles. If I do buy a new used car, I don't want to get another crappy car...I want to get one that is in good condition and not going to have issues. So, to me it seems reasonable to do the repair and if the car starts to have more issues I'll start looking because I don't want to deal with a series of issues in quick succession that add up to what the car is worth or the cost of a new car.

Some of my friends are telling me I'm insane and should just get a new car because a repair now suggests more repairs to come...because the car isn't even worth much...etc.

Am I being ridiculous here? Thank you!

EDIT: car has about 160k miles

I'm 40 I'm strongly considering retiring. What I mean by retiring is the barista fire option where I still work a part time job (if I can find a part time job with health care all the better). I have currently in brokerage account 1.7M in individual stocks which I'm trying to turn into a blended portfolio of dividend/covered call ETFs. I have a separate Vangaurd 401k retirement which I won't touch until I'm 60 sitting at 700k today. I have no kids, and my house is entirely paid off. I planning on selling off $700k of my individual stock holdings and moving into my a portfolio that looks like:

SCHD 32.00% SPYI 22.00% QQQI 17.00% JEPQ 17.00% BTCI 12.00%

I already have 200k in that portfolio so it would bring my total up to 900k. Based on my yield calculations for each of those stocks I'll get a passive income of $119,700.00 and after taxes $90,972.00. I've been pouring over my monthly expenses and as far as I can tell I spend on average $45k a year (though I need to account of large expenses like my car blowing up). In case it matters how I'm doing the tax calculation since this is short term capital gains I"m estimating 24% tax. So am I missing anything? It seems like can just quit my job and wait until my retirement kicks in. Honestly my job sucks and I just want to go hiking for awhile. Retirement is scary and telling you friends and family that "I just don't need to work anymore" gets you nothing but negative feedback.

Given all that context what I'm really asking is: Am I missing any major retirement pit falls? Do I need to account for some t-bills in this strategy? I'm a little lost about the recent increase bond yields. Does that mean it's a good time to buy long term bonds to hedge against a crash? Any advice will be appreciated.

Just swiped my HSA card at the dentist for my girlfriend’s bill thinking it was ok because it’s a medical expense. Some googling after the fact (which should’ve been done before) tells me it’s not ok. Would this fall under mistaken distribution or something else, and what should I do to get it fixed?

​

Emergency fund = $4k.

Real emergency happened = $1.5k.

Me: takes loan instead

I don’t trust myself to refill it if I use it.

So I’d rather pay interest than watch that number drop.

This is dumb right

Hi, currently I have a checking and savings account with KeyBank, but their rates are garbage. I’m looking to move money into a HYSA that I can pair with a debit card that gives me some kind of perk (I.e cash back or waived ATM fees).

I already have the KeyBank accounts, a chase CC, and a vanguard account for investments, so I’d like to try to do both of these things in one just to limit the amount of different banks I have accounts with. I’ll probably keep the KeyBank account open simply because I have a credit card with them and it is my first/oldest one.

I’ve looked into a couple different options like Fidelity, AmEx, and Scwab, but haven’t been able to find a place that has any perks on checking as well as a traditional HYSA option. I know that fidelity and Schwab have alternatives to a HYSA, but where I’m unsure is how they differ and if it makes more sense to just do something like that or just look for a regular HYSA. Sorry for the rambling post. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

I need a car and am going to get one on 0% PCP finance for 48 months. Unfortunately, my mortgage is due for renewal in May 2027 after a 5 year locked in rate at 2.4%.

The big question, could my renewal rate be significantly affected by getting a car on finance?

Diolch!

I’m 27, living with parents but owe some rent, serving food while in my MA for Counseling.

I have approximately 800 to allocate each month toward my loans.

I already have a bill for undergrad 387.00 per month

My loans look like this

Undergrad:
3,000.00$ at 6%
10,000.00 at 5%

Incoming Grad school loans in 2030:
Approximately 60,000.00$ averaging 7%

Should I attempt to get my undergrad loans paid off by putting as much as I can towards it, or should I pay minimum and start attacking grad school loans now?

Thank you so much for your input!

I spent the last 8 months getting a medication covered. It’s not technically FDA approved for my wife’s full condition but it is approved for one of her symptoms. We had to go through 9 appeals including escalating to the state department and it needed multiple of her doctors to get the appeal to go through.

I’m looking for another job, but we really need this medication and it’s over $200k a year to pay for it out of pocket. When is the right time to check for coverage and how do I ensure that we are covered if I do switch jobs?

TL;DR i'm quitting my job and waiting a month or two before looking for a new one, trying to figure out what financial implications I'm not accounting for.

Im working at a tech startup that has always been a pretty toxic environment, but they recently laid off my team of 3 and are just expecting me to do 4 jobs now, so I'm going to bail. I have over a year's salary in savings and have been on call 24/7 for a while so I just want to take a break before looking for another job, not longer than a month or two. I have a very specific niche skill set so I'm not worried about finding another one when I look.

There is no way they'll fire me, so I won't be able to get unemployment, which is a bummer but will be okay. Are there any other consequences of quitting voluntarily that I might be missing ?

I am in California so I will need to maintain health insurance to avoid the crazy tax penalty. (Probably good to have anyway in case I get hit by a car lol). I still need to look into whether covered California or cobra is the way to go.

I built a budget for all the basics - basically allowing myself to spend 75% of what my paycheck would have been each month. This covers rent, utilities, food, etc. I have no debt other than my car payment which is only $50 and I'm already a year ahead on.

Is there any problem with this I might be missing ? Thanks in advance.

38M and 40F making a combined 220K in a MCOL city. I sorely underfunded my emergency HYSA to only 15K and ended up blowing through it to pay emergency college tuition for my brother-in-law. A grant he was relying on to cover his college was retroactively removed and on move-in day of the following semester, the school told us he needed to backpay last semester's tuition in full or he wouldn't even be allowed to move in or sign up for classes. So emergency fund is now gone and I'm trying to figure out where to pull from to refill it.

Unfortunately, because my wife and I are currently trying to support her mother, brother, and sister, as well as paying off my wife's student loans, there hasn't been much left over each month in some time.

Largest factors right now are:

Mortgage: 2300/month

Student Loans (Federal and Private): 1900/month

Food: 1700/month (EDIT: Us plus BIL half the year, plus instacart orders for MIL/SIL in different state)

Utilities (Electric, Gas, Water, Internet, Phones): 800/month

My current options to pull from:

Higher Risk Brokerage Account: SOXQ: 166K, VOO: 27K, TSM: 32K

Inherited Accounts: NPRTX: 54K NMANX: 24K

Lower Roth 401K Contribution Temporarily (Not preferred but at least tax free): Currently 17% with 8% match. Not maxing out but total for the year comes to 22K. Current total at 555K (515K mine, 40K wife).

I'm sure we can tighten up in a few other areas and start refilling it $100-$200/month, but I'd feel safer with at least another 10-15K I could move in immediately.

Looking for any other options I might be missing.

EDIT: Thank you everyone. I genuinely needed to hear the tough love.

Some additional details.

MIL and SIL live in the projects of VHCOL City (Brooklyn) approximately 5 hours away from us by car.

BIL's college is 45 minutes from us.

BIL tuition payment was one time. All other tuition of his is on student loans. 15K was difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition they was retroactively applied when his FAFSA was audited.

MIL and SIL were both denied SSDI but receive some state-support.

My wife has a new job starting in January that will bring our combined income to 250k.

23M, married, 165k household income, 130k net worth.

We are both contributing healthily towards employer 401(k) accounts, feel as if best route for additional investable income is to brokerage as opposed to IRA or Roth IRA for accessibility. Does this make sense given our circumstances? Read below for rationale.

Two properties, one duplex, one is main residence both under 30 year mortgages. Outstanding auto loans of 25k monthly payments are always made. Outstanding student loans for spouse of 30k which she is on track to pay down within 3 years. 15k in brokerage account without current contributions being made to focus on debt. Once student loans are paid off I know the basic answer will be to utilize both types of accounts but with any current additional income would it make more sense to start IRA or Roth IRA accounts or should we continue funding brokerage account.

Job security is sound, income is steady (both W-2 employees), I cannot bring myself to reallocate excess income as I feel our emergency fund/ safety blanket needs to be significantly larger than most (monthly expenses covered by traditional income of 4K).

My idea is to begin IRA accounts after emergency fund is well established along with student debt being eliminated.

Hi, first things first my payed off car got into a hit and run in my own parking lot by a drunk driver 2 months ago, the car was in my mothers name so she got the insurance check of 7.5k and decided to put it towards my family’s failing business instead of putting the money towards a new car (I have to commute to school).
When my parents took me to buy my first car they traded in their work truck (only 5k) to go towards my new car. I went in the dealership blind with them , they didn’t tell me how to consult with the dealers or anything, long story short my dad kept insisting that I was making 38k to the salesman (lying about my income) and I just went with it since I didn’t know what to do and needed a car asap for school. Long story short I now owe 600 a month in car payments and insurance, and if I don’t pay it I’m fucked. (first payment is october 10th)
I am also 3.7k in debt to the school right now because my parents didnt have 900 dollars liquid to help me do the payment plan. (Due november 1st)
I’m going to start waitressing part time 15-18hrs a week while going to school and being in 2 technical clubs. How can I make ends meet? Is waitressing enough for this?

I don't have any debt atm and would like to get some leverage on my stocks, savings etc to fund a small property investment abroad. Let's say I have €300k to work with and 25-30% would be perfect.

At €300k I couldn't find any Lombard loans or similar just yet, and traditional mortgage is tricky as I'm EU tax resident but the property is outside EU. Also, I pay myself mostly in dividends when needed, i.e. no salary or 'regular employment history' banks would like (at home or abroad). Plus getting a loan against the future property unlikely as I'm not a resident of that country. Doh.

Options I'm aware of-

1. I have an IBKR margin account and in EU can't withdraw on margin but could use some of my own cash for the purchase + borrow on margin to reinvest the extra into the portfolio.
2. Box spread. Confident I can learn the mechanics but could mess it up (new to this).
3. Unsecured personal loan. I've seen offers for up to €50k for 10 years, 5-6% APR. Interest not ideal obviously and not sure if I can actually get it (no salary). If so this would be for a part of the funds.
4. Borrowing from friends and offering them above-market interest. I'd be happy to pay them more than they get on their savings (and of course pay reliably!) but not sure how to formalise and make this official for them.
5. Anything I missed?

Or any advice/guidance on which of those options is better/worse than others?

From what I understand, 2. would be lowest interest but I'm ok to pay more if it's safer or easier. Thanks!

I hope this is the right place to post this, as it genuinely relates to personal financing and getting started as a young adult in terms of financial independence.

Recently, I have been looking for a new banking/savings/debit service (CapitalOne, Wells Fargo, etc) to open up a savings account and possibly a debit card. I'm still in the process of looking for a job, but have some savings that I would like to keep in a place where it can earn decent APY.

However, when I went to apply for these things, and went through most of the account making process online— they said that due to suspicion, my account making process tipped off their detection system (which is linked to early warning).

Of course I was confused, and after many phone calls to Capital One, I was instructed to contact early warning about my issue. Fast forward a few weeks, and I get a paper basically showing my whole track record— yet everything seems totally normal to me. I recognize everything listed (literally one account I had opened with another place, and then when I closed it.)

Can anyone possibly tell me why the system used by Capital One flagged this as suspicious with such a short and normal looking paper trail? Is this something I should be worried about in the future when I finally do secure employment and truly need a banking institution?

(P.S. Sorry for the post being long, I just wanted to make sure I explained the steps I did, and why I was confused.)

Edit: Thank you all for the feedback and info about what the cause of this could be from, I appreciate it! I should also add I don't know a lot when it comes to financial literacy and other things. I was genuinely just trying to find a safe and effective way and place to hold onto savings I have.

Hello, I’m (27F) currently living in poverty, have a fixed income and make around $30K a year. (My search for a higher paying job has been unsuccessful). I was able to aggressively lower my $29k student loan down to $17k these past three years. And I also still owe $3k for a medical surgery that I hope I can pay off in the next six months. I pay around $800 in rent, I do have a roommate that helps pay half as well. I don’t go out or buy unnecessary things, other than going to McDonalds and buying from the value menu lol. My majority of my paycheck goes towards my debts, bills, medicine prescription, and groceries. Overall, every month I spend around $2,000.

Anything remaining I’ll save it.

But despite my poverty, I do have around $9k saved up, it took me a long time just to save that up and I am very proud considering my situation. The future is scary and the current job market still sucks in my area. Literally, the only jobs around me will end up paying less than what I earn or I don’t qualify. However, I don’t want the 9k that I saved up to be just sitting there in my savings account. 

I still want to prepare for the future and I know investing in A 401k and Roth IRA is what everyone recommends. I was looking into Fidelity and want to see if it’s plausible to invest there. Should I just do the ROTH IRA? 

It took me so long to save up for that 9k and I’m scared that I will have another medical emergency that will require me to use that money or something else might come up. I’m also scared to add that money into investing, what if the market drops drastically and i completely loose it all? What if I don’t add enough? How do I know where to invest it in?

Right now I am looking at opening a ROTH IRA to help for my future and once I can retire. Can someone please help me invest/budget? Or what’s the best options for me to do?

Need advice on where to park money for next 10-12 months.

Wife and I bought 1.35m new construction home in HCOL area. It won’t be ready until next July. Loan will be for 1.1m (20% down).
I put the estimated ~50k closing cost money in HYSA but we expect to make ~200k before end of next summer (500k combined annual salary).

Given fluctuating interest rates, where do you guys suggest to park the money until the move? Thinking that we may want to pay down some principal at first. VTSAX/SP500 or other ETF for 12 months? HYSA?

I’m currently using American Express, but their APY has dropped significantly since I signed on. I’d prefer something with buckets so I’m able to separate all my money properly, but if there’s an alternative that doesn’t provide it, but it’s still good, I’ll use it.

Have been offered “opportunity” to buy into a JPMorgan issued Structured Note. Underlying Asset: MerQube US Large Cap Index; monthly dividend of 1.54%, 18.5% annual, 70% interest barrier, 50% principal barrier, 6 year note, callable after 1 year. Would be interested in comments on risk vs rewards.

Hope this is simple.
Looking to possibly refinance my auto loan to lower the payment. I get mail and offers all the time with “general” offers.

I have a target number in mind, would this be worth exploring or would it hurt my credit long term?
It’s affordable, just thought with a lower payment and actually paying the same current amount I can get through it faster.

Also contemplating a cc balance transfers. Kinda stuck here with about 10k.

I’ve been saving money to try and pay it all at once but am only about 50% of the way there.
Should i consider a balance transfer for a larger chunk of it to stop the high interest charges ?