You have two options, you can fight this by asking for verification of the debt from the collections agency, as well as notifying the credit agencies and providing your own proof (which you don’t seem to have?). Or you can pay it and hope the damage is not enough to impact your home purchase. If your priority is to buy a house and you don’t have proof of cancellation, your best bet is to pay it off and move on. You stand to lose more if it’s temporarily removed from your credit while you fight is and then added back right before closing on a home, ranking your home purchase.

In a smaller town you may have better luck arranging a private driver.

I would discuss it with your Uber/Lyft driver and also see what livery options are available. Gig drivers only get about 1/2 of the fare despite being private contractors, and arraigning to just call a responsible driver when you need it (or have them pre-scheduled) will result in better reliability and cost over time, since you are not at the will of the app and the driver can pre-plan to be there.

Do you need a car? If you are only driving 2k a year, and are contemplating $500 a month for a car payment/insurance you are talking about paying $3 a mile. In my area you could take Uber/Lyft/cabs or even a private towncar for less then that.

Yes, they can do that.

There is statewide rent stabilization in California, AB 1482 (“TENANT PROTECTION ACT OF 2019″). Most apartments greater then 15 years old are covered by this. The rent increase and request for a written 13 month lease are both in alignment with statewide regulations. Refusal to sign a lease gives them just cause for eviction under Statewide regulations.

https://cal-rha.org/advocacy/ab-1482/

Fighting no, clarifying and working to update any indescrepencies, Yes! This is your association, you are a part of it and third party management is accountable to the homeowners and the board. The HOA can have a huge impact on your property values and the overall desirability of the community. Get involved, ask for clarity, work to get the documentation or website updated. Lawsuits or even just the management costs associated with working these out in an owner by owner bases come out of your pocket.

Why would you chuck it? Even if you don’t want to eat it, it can be used for a bunch of non-edible purposes. Off the top of my head a body scrub, sink cleaner, or salt dough Christmas ornaments. It also is a decent ant repellent at entry points.

Yes, and many people do exactly that. They use the HSA as another tax advantaged savings account and cash flow medical expenses when they can, to get the maximum tax free growth over time.

If you pay out of pocket (with post tax funds from your bank account) and then request a reimbursement from your HSA, you are being paid back with your own pre-tax contributions made throughout the year to your HSA. Your employer may also contribute some funds to the health savings account, but they will be commingled with yours.

The benefit is that you are paying for medical expenses with pre-tax dollars and you never pay income taxes on those earnings when they are used to pay for qualifying medical expenses. They can also be invested and grow tax free over your lifetime and be used for qualifying medical expenses in retirement (also tax free.) You can avoid paying income taxes on that income and all earning for life.

Many people do just that and don’t actually use their HSA for medical expenses during their working years and let it grow.

As others have mentioned the only red flag I see is the Voluntary Disability. The California employee contribution rate for disability is 1.1% and your disability is almost 6%?

One thing that will help bring down your overall tax rate (if you can afford it) is upping your 401K contributions. You are not saving enough in your 401K right now, and the more tax advantaged savings the better.

None of those tricky details makes much of a difference, you still need to break the lease. Let your landlord know ASAP and ask them to begin looking for a new tenant (as should you). Be prepared to deliver the property back to them in pristine condition, and then get on a payment plan for repayment of the fees associated with breaking the lease.

Then find a cheap room rental close to work and start to recover financially.

In the mean time, close any joint accounts with your wife (sounds like they are empty) and make sure that you remove her as an authorized individual on any of your personal credit accounts.

I would have her get a separate renters insurance policy.

There are a number of benefits to this. The cost of renters insurance is very reasonable, deductibles are usually much less, and it won’t impact your homeowners insurance rates for small claims through renters insurance. You would never want to make a claim for a $1500 stolen bicycle on your homeowners insurance (and risk cost prohibitive rate increases and have to pay a 1k+ deductible), but for $120 a year in premiums and a $100 deductible your girlfriend/tenant could it her bike replaced under her renters insurance. Little claims that that can more than make it worth her carrying her own coverage.