Weekend Help and Victory Thread for the week of March 31, 2023

Submitted by IndexBot t3_127rsom in personalfinance

If you need help, please check the PF Wiki to see if your question might be answered there.

This thread is for personal finance questions, discussions, and sharing your success stories:

  1. Please make a top-level comment if you want to ask a question! Also, please don't downvote "moronic" questions! If you have not received your answer within 24 hours, please feel free to start a discussion.

  2. Make a top-level comment if you want to share something positive regarding your personal finances!

A big thank you to the many PFers who take time to answer other people's questions!

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lovelikewinter3 t1_jefr8pj wrote

Positive:
As of today, I have managed to pay off 1,700$ off the balance of my personal loan, bringing the total down to 67.9k.

That sounds like a huge debt, and it was all from the equalization payment as part of my divorce. I feel like I'm slowly regaining control of my finances (after the payment, and the subsequent overwhelming prime interest rate increases), and it feels good.

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[deleted] t1_jefjslw wrote

[deleted]

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techcaleb t1_jefzn0c wrote

If you don't plan what to do with your money, it will disappear via lifestyle inflation. Anytime you get a pay increase, decide how much will go to discretionary items and how much to save and invest. Make sure your are contributing enough to your retirement savings, save more on the side and so on. For your discretionary spending, budget accordingly, and beware of common lifestyle creep areas (cars, clothing, food, housing).

As for the "acts of kindness", it's a good thing to remain charitable, but do it wisely, and consider the impact. If you go and help in your local food bank you could be helping people who are really struggling to get by, whereas if you go to a bar and buy a round of drinks for everyone there, you may be popular for that evening, but you are not really helping anyone in the long run. When you do acts of kindness, ask yourself if it's for your ego, or for the other person's benefit. You could even consider doing it anonymously.

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yeppeuntwofive t1_jefraw4 wrote

Hi everyone, have a few questions!

I’m completely new to the 401k and IRA stuff.

I have a 401k with my employer that I match with and invest in Vanguard Target Date Fund 2060 on Fidelity. I’m most likely going to stick with TDF for all of my accounts as I want to set it and forget it. I want to set up a Roth IRA via Fidelity as well. Should I do the invest for the same exact TDF I am with my 401k or is it ok to invest in different TDF on my Roth IRA? The vanguard 2060 has a minimum investment and high fees for a Roth IRA so idk if it’s worth!

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Milkmanism t1_jeg6obx wrote

Yeah, it's fine to invest in a different TDF. Just be careful with Fidelity to pick a TDF that has "index" in the title as they also have actively managed TDFs with much higher expense ratios. FDKLX should be what you're looking for.

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yeppeuntwofive t1_jeh3ypp wrote

Ok perfect! That’s good to know that, I was worried if it would be weird to invest in two different TDFs

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Raspyy t1_jeg6y92 wrote

I think TDFs are fine. Some like to manage their own portfolio and tweak it to be more aggressive or more passive. It may save you a tiny bit on the expense ratios if you do it yourself.

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sciguyCO t1_jeg9b1i wrote

I do find it odd that a 401k plan managed through Fidelity is offering Vanguard's funds. Most bigger brokerages stick with just their own "in house" funds. Could just be something with your particular employer's plan.

But for a personal IRA, while you might be able to buy Vanguard's TDF in a Fidelity IRA, Fidelity is going to charge extra for it, usually through transaction fees. You can bypass those by just sticking with the "Fidelity Freedom Index 2060", their version of a target date fund. But make sure you get the "Index" version, they have an actively managed TDF with a higher expense ratio.

While they're issued by different brokerages, there is very little practical difference between a target date fund through Fidelity and one with Vanguard. Almost all TDFs follow pretty similar guidelines around asset mix vs. time. So a 2060 "Fidelity Freedom Index Fund" won't be too different from Vanguard 2060 "Target Retirement Fund".

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yeppeuntwofive t1_jeh3v7b wrote

Yeah, it was weird that the only TDF that my employer 401k had was just Vanguards even though it’s managed by Fidelity. But thank you so much for the input! Didn’t know about the fees so that’s nice to know, going to follow your advice with doing a different TDF for my Roth IRA! So the Fidelity Freedom Index Fund 2060 is FDKLX, correct? Just want to make sure!

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SailorStarXx t1_jeg5uq1 wrote

Positive: A little backstory, I had two jobs. Got let go from one (for a terrible reason) & laid off at the other a week later! I didn’t have very much in savings and my dog had a $1400 surgery that same week. (I’m young, made very dumb mistakes with my money which I FULLY recognize. Now I know better so it was a great learning lesson.)

It was a struggle and thank God my parents helped me out, but I still had to max out my credit cards to pay bills. I couldn’t find a job for 3 months & I finally got a great one back in January! I’ve been slowly getting back on my feet & realized the number one cause of my problems was my high rent! I’m paying around $2000 after all my bills. The base price of my rent is 1687. Not counting my car insurance, internet and other necessary expenses.

The win: I secured a new apartment this week that’s super nice and cheaper! Now my base price is 1436 and I’m SO happy with that. I don’t move in until July. I live in metro Atlanta so that’s great & should help me start turning things around! After insurance, groceries, internet, etc, over half of my current income is going towards my rent right now.

I’m also looking for a part time job somewhere to help pay off my debt & pay my parents back! Fingers crossed!!

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ElleTR13 t1_jefkl5w wrote

Question about rolling over 401k:

I rolled over my 401k from my previous employer to Vanguard, where I had a Roth IRA account and where my new employer 401k is. The total amount is sitting in a brokerage, so I need to invest it somewhere, right? I feel like this is a dumb question.

Also, if I invest it, is a target date fund the best option? I’m 38 but probably 25-30 years from retirement. So I’m looking at a Target 2050 date fund.

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OnionDart t1_jeg1vwz wrote

Is there a 401k calculator that uses direct company contribution and not just that standard of a percent of a percentage? I can not seem to find one that would work for my rules.

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abcdeathburger t1_jefnn4b wrote

My state sent me a tax refund of less than I was supposed to get. I have no idea if this was a clerical error, but they never sent me a letter explaining any adjustments on why I would be receiving a lesser amount. As a practical matter, is it better to deposit the check and fight them for the remainder or have them void the check and send a replacement for the correct amount? Of course all assuming they ever respond to my contacts on why they're underpaying me...

The other unusual thing is they sent it via check even though I selected DD (and federal + the other state I lived in part of the year sent it via DD). Perhaps more room for clerical error.

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sciguyCO t1_jega2wb wrote

Any refund check you get from the state is going to be considered paid to you, so might as well deposit it. It won't have any major impact on your ability to dispute an adjustment, it'll just be factored into your overall tax situation. If you thought you were due $1200 and they sent you $1000 instead, if you can get that fixed they'll just send the missing $200. You don't have to undo / cancel the "wrong" $1000 check to get the full $1200.

As for why the refund amount changed, that's harder to guess. When did you file? When was your return accepted and refund check sent? Government bureaucracy can sometimes cause communication to lag behind money moving around. I've had explanation letters show up a couple weeks after the check. But if it's been more than a few weeks since you got that lower refund check, that feels like time to start pushing harder on them for answers.

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abcdeathburger t1_jegbzss wrote

I filed sometime in early March, they sent it around March 10. Return was accepted within a couple days (basically immediate business-days-wise, I think I filed over the weekend). All pretty quick. But no letters to explain anything, and no responses to my contact attempts.

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TheGreatestUsername1 t1_jefw99v wrote

Credit Card Question:

I'm thinking about getting my 3rd Credit Card and am interested in Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Card. My credit score is approaching the Excellent mark, so I might get approved. I'm only interested in the special financing option similar to PayPal where you pay a certain amount per month. But after looking on the website, it isn't too clear if it is available for this card. I think the store cards are more explicit about it. My question for anyone who has this card is if you get access to special financing similar to Amazon Store Card with the Amazon Rewards Visa Card?

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Raspyy t1_jeg6s3q wrote

If I refinance my mother’s parent plus loans in my name, will it show up as an educational loan on my credit report?

I am trying to utilize the smartbuy 3.0 program in MD. Looking into that as a possibility of student loan forgiveness. I asked a lender and they said only loans that show up on your credit report as “educational loans” qualify.

Would this fall under an educational loan?

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FartboySlim t1_jegohcq wrote

I just started a job after many years in Grad school. Been pretty decent with finances, studied throughout my life on scholarships, and have saved a decent chunk of change during my Ph.D. and job before I started grad school.

I'm currently 38 years old and sitting on around $35K in savings, and my job pays around $105K gross in Chicago. No debts. Lifestyle expenses are minimal (staying with grad school roommates and sharing rent and grocery expenses) - I will move to my own place in the Fall. I also invested in a market-linked Life Insurance / Savings plan back in India (ULIP). My savings should be enough to tide over any emergencies for now. No current ailments; never had to see a doctor in the USA.

As I receive my first (real) paycheck in many years, what else do I need to start doing? I've had to make my benefits choices quickly since I didn't have time to research everything. I opted into maximizing my HSA ($3350/yr) and enrolled in my employer's HDHP plan to minimize healthcare premiums. I also opted to put $2500 per month into a supplementary retirement savings account (403(b))

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Sad-Round8961 t1_jeh1daf wrote

My parents have $2.1-2.5 million in savings(uninvested). $650k-$900k in antiques and other physical assets, and around $1.6-$2.4 million in real estate.

They are looking about moving country, selling all real estate and antiques and all assets and buying a house in the US (don’t need one more than $1m in value ish) and investing all of their savings.

What are good options for them to invest in?

How should we go about this process?

Thank you for any answers

EDIT: also for both my parents combined they have roughly a $62,000 a year pension for them to both live on separate from this

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