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I’m having window contractors prepare bids and one assured me that financing is cheap, “only a few hundred per ten thousand dollars.” What does that mean?
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Feb 27, 2023 19:47
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Car dealer scam talking. $250/yr per $10k is 2.5% apr. Make more sense now? $250 / $10,000 = 0.025.
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Feb 27, 2023 19:49
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Thanks. It felt like a fast-talking salesman thing.
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Feb 27, 2023 20:07
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and you know that 'a few hundred' is more likely to be 850 than 250.
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Feb 27, 2023 20:14
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H110Hawk posted:Also just double check their website. I got an email today from e-trade (under the MS umbrella now) that my 1099-B and supplement were available to me. They've been on the website for about a week now. Also lol at thinking they will be early. LOL. Not only were they not on time by the 28th, they amended their website notice to say they'll be available by Mar 15.
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Feb 28, 2023 23:11
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I'm a 1099 contractor. I have an S-corp LLC. Theoretically speaking, if I received a large severance (of sorts), it's just treated as income, and aside from the tax-advantaged things I'm already trying to do (SEP-IRA, owner distributions, etc) I'd just pay a buttload of taxes on it, right?
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Mar 3, 2023 01:06
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I have my budget set up into four categories. Is this reasonable?
Lemon Trees fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Mar 7, 2023 |
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Mar 7, 2023 17:26
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I personally like having more (sub-)categories than that, but it all comes down to your goals and behavior. If you're only going to have 4, those seem like a good 4. The only obvious thing that may be missing is some sort of longer term savings buckets for emergency funds, or larger purchases.
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Mar 7, 2023 18:29
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Grumpwagon posted:I personally like having more (sub-)categories than that, but it all comes down to your goals and behavior. If you're only going to have 4, those seem like a good 4. Yeah I have subcategories, I just can't remember them off the top of my head. I do have a bucket for savings too, but the app I use doesn't track those.
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Mar 7, 2023 18:46
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Over the last two weeks, I've had financial conversations with several family members and friends. When talking about savings accounts, I suggested Ally to get a decent interest rate and they were hesitant at first. I told them, "Unless I am gravely mistaken, Ally is FDIC insured." Which, yes, they are. Obviously that means deposits into their accounts are less risky than other silly things like crypto exchanges. Still, it's funny that these talks happen right around the time of the SVB/Silvergate collapses. I am not a bank skeptic and I think the FDIC is a very sensible thing to have. However, I am curious if there is any reason to not suggest HYSAs and online banks to people.
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Mar 12, 2023 09:10
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Magnetic North posted:Over the last two weeks, I've had financial conversations with several family members and friends. When talking about savings accounts, I suggested Ally to get a decent interest rate and they were hesitant at first. I told them, "Unless I am gravely mistaken, Ally is FDIC insured." Which, yes, they are. Obviously that means deposits into their accounts are less risky than other silly things like crypto exchanges. Still, it's funny that these talks happen right around the time of the SVB/Silvergate collapses. Perhaps the interest gained from the HYSA is not worth the hassle for some people in having another account with a bank. Especially if that person is not comfortable around computers and the concept of having to do money stuff without going into a branch. Also, the yield for the HYSA could drop anytime in the future which would result in said person having another account to deal with. Even brokerages such as Fidelity have branches that someone could go to.
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Mar 12, 2023 09:49
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Prefacing this: I am a complete finance ignoramus, a pathetic piece of poo poo, and a huge idiot!  I've managed to not get fired for a little while and so I have a tiny amount of money on hand that I should do something with, plus an account my parents had for me that's making basically nothing. Effectively, I have no savings/retirement fund and around $15k in money that should not be sitting idle. (Theoretically I could put in a bit more, but I have a very nasty habit of losing my job and a few years ago I nearly zeroed out my account balance, so I am very leery of not having a solid liquid (har har) cushion for when I inevitably gently caress everything up again.) What should I do with 15k? Simplest recommendation I've received so far is to throw it into a 1 year CD for now. I don't want to tie it up for much longer than that if I can help it because I do not have a lot of financial or work stability. I know I need to be looking into long-term investments as well, but that's honestly outside the scope of my current abilities, unless the answer to this question is "slam all 15k into a retirement fund". Again, I don't know poo poo about finance and investing, and I could very easily lose my job tomorrow and spend through everything I have while looking for a new one, so I am really nervous about putting money somewhere that I can't get it back. 
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Mar 20, 2023 03:18
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If no savings means no emergency fund, that should be your number one priority. Toss three months of expenses into a high yield savings account and, if you have leftover, either pad that out a little further since you anticipate job volatility or toss it into retirement savings via an index fund in a tax-advantaged space. First post in this thread and the long-term investment and retirement thread are highly-recommended reads.
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Mar 20, 2023 04:04
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Yeah, the flowchart will walk you through what to do with extra money, but if you don't have high interest debt to pay off, 15k seems like a good emergency fund (or start to one). You can open up a high yield savings account online or stick it in a short term CD (worst case scenario, you have to pull it out and eat a small penalty). It might be good to do a CD just to get into the mindset of investing. If you have a 401k match, I'd be tempted to contribute there, because even if you have to pull from a 401k the match might outweigh the penalty for withdrawing. Does your job offer that? And we were all financial idiots once, you have to start somewhere! It's good you're starting to learn more now, congrats on saving up and getting going on this stuff.
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Mar 20, 2023 05:09
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Cugel the Clever posted:If no savings means no emergency fund, that should be your number one priority. Toss three months of expenses into a high yield savings account and, if you have leftover, either pad that out a little further since you anticipate job volatility or toss it into retirement savings via an index fund in a tax-advantaged space. moana posted:If you have a 401k match, I'd be tempted to contribute there, because even if you have to pull from a 401k the match might outweigh the penalty for withdrawing. Does your job offer that?
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Mar 20, 2023 06:19
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theshim posted:I mean, I have all told a little under 30k to my name, sitting in either a checking account or a pathetically low-yield money market account (and some student loan debt but I'm hoping against hope that actually ends up getting cancelled). Basically I'm extremely uncomfortable having less than around 15k in immediate cash after past experiences, so that's my emergency fund right there (unless you mean something specific by that phrase that I'm unaware of), and I'm looking to figure out what to do with the other 15k, with the caveats that I need it to be accessible within a fairly low time frame in case I lose my job again or the like. (Yes, unemployment insurance exists, but I moved states while still working in my old one so I don't even know how I'd get that, so I'm trying to assume I'd have no income at all for at least six months to a year if I lose my job, based on prior experience.) I bonds might be the way to go? They're relatively liquid after a year, and are pegged to inflation, so outpacing savings accounts/CDs at the moment by a substantial amount. https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/i-bonds/
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Mar 20, 2023 07:25
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theshim posted:I mean, I have all told a little under 30k to my name, sitting in either a checking account or a pathetically low-yield money market account (and some student loan debt but I'm hoping against hope that actually ends up getting cancelled). Basically I'm extremely uncomfortable having less than around 15k in immediate cash after past experiences, so that's my emergency fund right there (unless you mean something specific by that phrase that I'm unaware of), and I'm looking to figure out what to do with the other 15k, with the caveats that I need it to be accessible within a fairly low time frame in case I lose my job again or the like. (Yes, unemployment insurance exists, but I moved states while still working in my old one so I don't even know how I'd get that, so I'm trying to assume I'd have no income at all for at least six months to a year if I lose my job, based on prior experience.) This is a bit outside of this thread’s main function , but you’re being pretty open on job instability and it sounds like lower paid jobs. This is way easier said than done, and yes the US sucks, but if there’s any pathway to getting yourself to a “stable job with decent income / work / life balance” that would be a huge priority. The life style difference between living on the edge (trying not to be political but that’s a lot of America) and having a safety net is so big in America (and other countries) that doing whatever you can to get to that plateau is something to factor in.
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Mar 20, 2023 13:09
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theshim posted:Prefacing this: I am a complete finance ignoramus, a pathetic piece of poo poo, and a huge idiot! well outside the scope of this thread but if this is how you address yourself you should drop some of that cash on therapy
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Mar 20, 2023 13:27
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Duckman2008 posted:This is a bit outside of this thread’s main function , but you’re being pretty open on job instability and it sounds like lower paid jobs.
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Mar 20, 2023 15:51
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moana posted:Yeah, maybe check out the career path thread? It is super stressful to be always worried about losing your job and if there is anything worth putting in effort to change, it may be this. As far as my initial question went though, it looks like my primary options are a HYSA, a 1-year CD, or maybe I bonds? I know none of these are going to make me wealthy overnight, but right now my money is just sitting idle, so something around 4% is a lot better than nothing at all, and that's what I'm seeing for most of these options on some cursory searching. One thing that's kinda worth keeping in mind for my situation is that if I were to find a better-paying job, I would almost certainly need to purchase a car. My last couple jobs have been fully remote (which I vastly prefer!) and before that I was living in NYC so I was always able to commute via public transit, an option that is likely not going to be available for most things going forward. So even if I did find a new, better-paying job, it would most likely have a pretty hefty up-front cost, another reason why I'm a bit hesitant to tie up too much of my money.
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Mar 20, 2023 19:51
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theshim posted:As far as my initial question went though, it looks like my primary options are a HYSA, a 1-year CD, or maybe I bonds? I know none of these are going to make me wealthy overnight, None of those things are going to make you wealthy ever in any amount for any length of time. HYSAs are below inflation rate, 1 year CDs are well and the function of an iBond it to literally track the inflation rate so you don't lose any money to inflation. It really doesn't sound like you have sold enough plans to be locking any of this money up for any length of time. It's an emergency fund. Keep it as such and understand that there is a cost to keeping that fund - a worthwhile cost.
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Mar 20, 2023 20:00
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theshim posted:I think that's a little outside the scope of my question (unless y'all really want me to go full E/N here), but it's something I'm considering. Long story, not for now, etc. Yeah, given the volatility of your scenario , I wouldn’t do I Bonds or anything that locks it up. Honestly, a HYSA is at 3.6% now, that’s close enough and liquid enough where that’s where I would recommend it. That way, let’s hope you get lucky, get whatever better job, you have extra liquidity to then buy a car and move up with better job. Hope that helps and def hope it works out for you.
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Mar 20, 2023 20:13
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Is Empower (formerly Personal Capital) still the go-to for seeing all your accounts and transactions in one place? I find need to review all my credit card transactions (across quite a few cards and banks) going back through last July. In the past I used Personal Capital for this, but they don't play well with at least one of my banks. Just curious if there is anything else out there with more polish that isn't evil incarnate like Mint.
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Mar 22, 2023 18:01
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What's wrong with Mint?
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Mar 22, 2023 18:22
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It's owned by Intuit, the NRA of taxes. They consistently pour money into lobbying against any and every little thing that could possibly make your yearly tax filing experience easier, because they want to sell you TurboTax. Right now they're waging war against the IRS' attempts to great a government-run free tax filing option. Obviously this isn't unique to them, any predatory corporation hates it when the government eats into their free lunch by, you know... actually helping people with the issue that their business model is taking advantage of. But Intuit takes it to an exciting new level when it comes to making and keeping your taxes as complicated as possible. And you support them by using Mint because they monetize all that free, juicy data. It's also just less useful than Personal Capital/Empower, in my experience. Unsinkabear fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Mar 22, 2023 |
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Mar 22, 2023 18:35
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How the gently caress do I get my credit score to 800!?!? It’s always doing this bullshit where it’s at 750ish for a few months then drops to 720ish for a few months then goes back to 750ish and the cycle continues. I put everything but rent on my credit card and then pay it off in advance every time. I had student loans and paid that off without missing a payment. I have no autoloan. What the god drat gently caress, any reasonable person would look at my credit history and be like “0% risk, as reliable as a human can be”. What’s the secret strategy to get my credit to 800???
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Mar 22, 2023 18:52
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Ornery and Hornery posted:I put everything but rent on my credit card and then pay it off in advance every time. Stop doing that. Pay the entire statement balance when the statement period closes/before the payment is due. Paying the entire card off all the time does weird things in the models I've paid attention to and looks like you've paid off a fixed line of credit (which temporarily lowers your score).
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Mar 22, 2023 18:56
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Unsinkabear posted:Is Empower (formerly Personal Capital) still the go-to for seeing all your accounts and transactions in one place? I find need to review all my credit card transactions (across quite a few cards and banks) going back through last July. In the past I used Personal Capital for this, but they don't play well with at least one of my banks. Just curious if there is anything else out there with more polish that isn't evil incarnate like Mint. Oooh I’m excited to see what empower can do
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Mar 22, 2023 18:57
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Motronic posted:Stop doing that. So wait until there’s a relatively large lump sum of credit and pay it off right before it’s due? Credit score rewards procrastination?
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Mar 22, 2023 18:58
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Pay the statement balance when you get a statement. That's not procrastination; it's just normal credit card user behavior.
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Mar 22, 2023 18:59
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Ornery and Hornery posted:What the god drat gently caress, any reasonable person would look at my credit history and be like “0% risk, as reliable as a human can be”.
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Mar 22, 2023 19:23
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Ornery and Hornery posted:So wait until there’s a relatively large lump sum of credit and pay it off right before it’s due? Setup autopay for "statement balance" (not current, not fixed amount, not minimum) for 5 days prior to the due date and ignore it. If something goes wrong you have a 5 day buffer to fix it before it's late. Read your statement top to bottom every month and make sure the cash is in your checking account.
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Mar 22, 2023 19:29
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Unsinkabear posted:Is Empower (formerly Personal Capital) still the go-to for seeing all your accounts and transactions in one place? I find need to review all my credit card transactions (across quite a few cards and banks) going back through last July. In the past I used Personal Capital for this, but they don't play well with at least one of my banks. Just curious if there is anything else out there with more polish that isn't evil incarnate like Mint. I started using it again earlier this year--i'm not sure what the alternatives are but I'm really enjoying it. it did fight me forever on removing an old car loan but i think that's probably a bank sync issue and not anything directly wrong with empower
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Mar 22, 2023 19:29
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Ornery and Hornery posted:How the gently caress do I get my credit score to 800!?!? in addition to the other good advice you received: why do you care? why is this important to you?
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Mar 22, 2023 20:04
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Ornery and Hornery posted:What’s the secret strategy to get my credit to 800??? Dumb poo poo like having really old credit lines too. My score has dropped when Ive payed off a car early, or when I moved and one mortgage dropped and another got added.
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Mar 22, 2023 20:14
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:in addition to the other good advice you received: why do you care? why is this important to you? Pretty much. Once a month two friends and I share our credit scores provided from our credit union as a laugh. The running gag is that they are millionaires, I am not, and my score is always the highest. They have a jumbo mortgage but I'm sure don't carry any other revolving lines of credit. My credit score is usually 800-825, theirs is usually 20-50 points lower. No clue why. The highest earner, by a good margin, has the lowest score, go figure.
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Mar 22, 2023 20:20
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dreesemonkey posted:Pretty much. Once a month two friends and I share our credit scores provided from our credit union as a laugh. Credit scores are not about your ability to repay, it's about your history of repayment of various types of financial products. Think about it: nobody who is lending you money really cares if you CAN pay. That's merely one prerequisite of the thing they care about - that you DO pay. And if you don't use credit much because you don't have a need to there is no history to show that you pay lenders.
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Mar 22, 2023 20:24
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Motronic posted:Credit scores are not about your ability to repay, it's about your history of repayment of various types of financial products. I understand this. These people are older than I am and are financially responsible people, so it is a mystery.
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Mar 22, 2023 20:25
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Ornery and Hornery posted:How the gently caress do I get my credit score to 800!?!? I pay my cards off in full every week or three, and my score hovers a couple points above or below 800, depending on which bureau you ask. I don't do it religiously on a specific day or anything, just whenever I think about it. The secret to having an organic-looking payment pattern is to have an organic payment pattern. Just pay them whenever you think about it, and set up autopay at statement time to catch you if you forget for a while. And then stop thinking about it. Plenty of other people in the CC rewards and churning threads do this too (some even pay it off in full every week), with the same results as me. The last time it came up in a thread, there was no discernible difference in the score patterns of people who did this, people who only pay at statement time, and people who do the thing where they keep a balance on one card and the others fully paid off. The key to min/maxing this is to not bother trying to. While the other posters advising you aren't wrong, your payment behavior isn't the death knell they're making it sound. With a profile like yours, you're losing a few points if any at all. A much bigger clue imo is the fact that you said "credit card" singular. I'd bet  that to get the movement you want, you would need to add more cards to increase the width of your credit file and total available credit. This is not something you should do just to raise your credit score, though. Yours is fine. If you do it at all, it should be in pursuit of a much more tangible goal like extracting SUB money from the big four. And don't do that, either, unless you are the type of person who can keep a level head about your purchases for months at a time, only buying things you already needed and planned, rather than falling into the trap of treating yourself with extra spending to help hit a bonus.You're probably also taking a medium (not as big as your credit file thing but still bigger than the payment timing thing) score hit for having paid off your student loans and having no auto loan or mortgage, because that means lower diversity of debt. I forget what the term for this is, but some lenders like to see you handling a range of different types of credit. This is also not something you should go out of your way to address. I only mention it for the sake of giving a complete answer in hopes that it will reassure you that the reasons for your score don't matter. Unsinkabear fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Mar 22, 2023 |
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Mar 22, 2023 20:27
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Ornery and Hornery posted:How the gently caress do I get my credit score to 800!?!? Motronic posted:Stop doing that.
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Mar 26, 2023 21:40
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