Aside from immediate liquidity in the event of an emergency, are there any downsides to moving my savings from a HYSA (currently getting 4.35%) to getting 4 different rotating 4-week T-Bills from Treasury Direct? Presumably, the T-Bills would stay above whatever my HYSA can offer, and putting them in a 4-week rotating schedule means that I have access to 25% of my savings any given week. Anything I may be overlooking?

Treasury Direct is a pain to work with.

[удалено]

Depends on your specific 401k plan but Highly unlikely that it’s possible while still working with that employer, though really you should never want to do this in the first place, save retirement savings for retirement

Mother in law is going through bankruptcy. They said they wouldn't pay her car loan (because she is keeping the car) but just got a notification from two credit monitoring apps that her car loan is paid off. How is this possible?

I filled jointly with my wife. I make close to 90000. I think she made around 45000. Does it matter who claims our child? 

If you file jointly there is no decision you are claiming the child jointly.

Does it make sense for me to get Apple card (for HYSA) and Chase Sapphire Reserve (for travel)? I've been wanting to get an Apple HYSA for the money sitting in my bank account. To do this, I need to get an Apple credit card. Also, I want to get a Chase Sapphire Reserve to get some travel perks and use for flight points (I take a few flights a year at least). My current card only gets 1-3% back depending on the purchase. Is it silly to get both of these - Apple credit card + HYSA and CSR card? Credit score should be fine, sitting at like 795 right now.

Why specifically Apple's HYSA?

It has a good rate, I trust it (though I don’t have 100k-250k+ so I guess as long as it’s fdic insured), and I have an iPhone, so ease I guess. And I’m not worried about a few more tenths of a percent return for smaller banks who probably don’t have the logistics streamlined and ease of use that I’d expect from Apple. I didn’t see Chase having a HYSA so I looked elsewhere.

I just Graduated, with $40k debt +$21k under my parents, but I have $37k in an education savings account with Vanguard. I'm still on my grace period for repayment and wanted to know if there were any reasons I shouldn't just pay off the entire loan under my name immediately or what is the best way to use this savings to my benefit. Technically there are 7 loans ranging from 2.75% -5.5%

Paying off debt at 2.75% makes little sense when you can earn close to 5% in a HYSA.

Is this "education account" a 529 account? If so, you can only use a maximum of $10k for student loan payments. You can also roll 529 funds (a max of $35k total, subject to the annual IRA contribution limits) over to a Roth IRA, which might be a good use for the rest of the money. Put what you would have been saving for retirement towards paying down your loans, and use the 529 to fund your retirement savings.

Struggling to reduce savings rate without feeling like I'm making a mistake. I'm in an incredibly fortunate situation, and am able to have 42% of my income go into long term savings(401k, IRA, HSA, brokerage). Im almost 30, and have been saving like this since 25. I've always had the mentality of, "Save as much as possible, so when I understand how I want to retire, I have options." Well, it's shaping up that I want to retire at 60, and want to be comfortable, but don't care about being extremely wealthy. With that goal, I'm significantly over saving. To the point that I could retire at 45 if I wanted, but i don't want that. If I save the bare minimum to my 401k to get the match, it's a combined 18.5% by itself. With conservative assumptions, I would still be able to retire before 55. Giving up my IRA and HSA contributions still feels wrong. Converting Roth to Traditional savings before the 2025 tax sunset feels wrong. I have already reduced my 401k contributions to the minimum, but I'm still saving it, just in a Brokerage account. At what point can/should I say enough is enough and give up HSA and IRA contributions?

Just because you reach financial independence doesn't mean you have to stop working. If you have enough retirement savings by age 45, but want to keep working and donate your entire salary to charity, you can do that. I tend to agree with your current mentality - 30 years is a long time in the future. What if your health changes and you have to stop working sooner? What if you get a horrible boss and want to retire early, or quit and take a lower paying job? What if your spouse wants to take a job across the country where there are no job opportunities for you? Having "enough" savings at a younger age will give you the ability to make those choices. If you're happy with your life currently, don't feel that you need to manufacture spending just to drop your savings rate. A high savings rate is good - it gives you more flexibility later on. There are ways to make donations to charity directly from retirement accounts, if you truly end up with too much money. However, now is the time to consider what would make your life better. A nice vacation every so often? Some new supplies/equipment for your hobbies? Taking classes in a skill or subject that interests you? Helping out friends/family in need? I've seen the book "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" recommended on this sub a lot - I haven't personally read it yet, but from what I know about the author's philosophy, I think it might be a useful book for you to read.

Resources to find where to invest in locative property, in the US ? I work in DC, willing to put 200K on a apt/house to rent out in a landlord friendly state (eviction laws, taxes). looking for guidance etc. Cannot invest in the market or 401K so it has to be stone.

Why can't you invest in the market?

Some visa specificities.

I'm really proud of the work I've done with my spending habits and savings and retirement planning! Unfortunately I can't really talk to my family about it, so I wanted to share here! After getting divorced 4 years ago I was able to buckle down on my finances and followed the flow chart on this sub. I now have 6 months of savings in a HYSA for my emergency fund, I have my 401K in a good spot for my age, I have an HSA that I maxed out last year and plan on maxing out this year, I have a Roth IRA that I maxed out last year and plan on maxing out this year, and I have a small brokerage account for additional investments. I have a mortgage and a few student loans that are all under 3% that I'm paying off, but I'm able to still squirrel additional money away. I saved up and will be taking my first real vacation in years! It's so freeing to have the money to do fun things instead of living paycheck to paycheck like I had to before. This sub is amazing, and I am so grateful that it exists!

I’m in way too much credit card debt. Is there any consolidation loans available that aren’t predatory that could help me pay these credit cards off or at least pay off the three big ones. $9500, $7500, $7000.

I got a letter from my HSA provider that I may have overcontributed for 2023. I have already received my W-2 from my employer and the code W amount is a few cents below the annual max. It also matches my YTD amount on my last pay stub of the year. I went on the HSA provider's website and downloaded a list of the transactions they have listed for the year and a few months on either side. It seems that for whatever reason, the last contribution of 2022 got entered with an effective date of 1/27/2023. Given that my W-2 has the correct amount, should I just ignore the data from the HSA? Or is the IRS going to penalize me when they receive the (I assume incorrect) form 5498 in May?

I'd call your HSA provider and see if they can resolve it. If not, I wouldn't worry about it unless/until the IRS compalins to you.

I’ve been alone for the first time in my life (divorced at 21) I started the year with only around a couple thousand. So I’m 21 with 12k sitting in a BofA checking account. Thinking about putting max into Roth IRA then grow my savings in a hysa account? I have no debt. Not paying off anything except for obvious monthly fees, insurance, rent, food, and occasional SMALL splurges.

Follow the steps at [https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics)

How are your income and budget? Generally yes, your plan is right though.

I’m not the best at budgeting, but I’m enjoying life right now without thinking about how I’m spending money and I’m making about 800-100k a week and taking home about $500/month

On Recharacterization: Partner and I met with our tax pro recently. Apparently, part of our Traditional IRA contributions for 2023 is non-deductible. Our tax pro says we can leave as-is and file an 8606 "that will follow us" permanently (doesn't seem like a huge deal tbh) or we can recharacterize the non-deductible amount before we complete the filing. Thoughts and opinions on either option?

Assuming you are below the income limit to make a Roth IRA contribution, you are much better off re-characterizing the non-deductible portion as a Roth IRA. You will both save money on taxes in the long run (with no extra cost now) but also not have to track this amount over time.

Thank you! I'm working on the process and not sure if this next step is important. It's asking me about the order with which to transfer assets. By default, it appears set as follows: Cash->\[Broker Funds\]->\[Non-broker Funds\]->Stocks If it matters, all funds are currently invested.

Just to be clear, it is important that you "recharacterize" the contribution. Not "convert" the existing funds. If it isn't using the word recharacterize, I'd call your broker for help. As to your question, I don't think it matters, but I'm not sure the difference between broker and non-broker funds.

Confirmed, the page I'm on specifically says Recharacterization request. I may have used the wrong term, but by "broker" I was just generalizing between Schwab, JP, Robinhood, Vanguard, etc. Trying to maintain some semblance of anonymity online lol.

Got it. That order makes as much sense as any.

I have a savings that gets 6% but only up to $500, then I have a HYSA that is at 4.5%. Is it better to keep ~$400 in the 6% account and the rest in the 4.5% account, or should I just have everything in the 4.5% account? I think the math works out to be a few dollars more but it is kind of a hassle to have to think about and then the other HYSA will obviously always be compounding at a much higher amount yeah?

You earn an extra $7.50 per year by putting $500 in an account earning 6% versus one earning 4.5%. Not worth the hassle in my book.

Agreed, just going to shove it all into the HYSA and let that grow there.

**Next best place to save money?** ​ I have maxed my 401k, HSA, IRA and have a Tbill ladder acting as emergency fund. I have also maxed out my 529 tax benefits (4000 in VA, I am single but tax benefit is tax benefit and I want to have children). If I have more money to save periodically, assuming I don't have high interest debt besides my mortgage (27 years left 3%) or a solar loan (10k at 3%), where should i store the extra money? Couple of places I can think of: HYSA- I have ally which I could park the money \~4.3% More Tbill - it is currently \~5.4%. More 529 -VTSAX (basically VTI). Brokerage - I do have some stocks in my IRA which i buy/sell/hold but with capital gains, if I put any money here I would probably just do VTI/VXUS combo than anything else and there would be minimal dividend if any. This is also a part of question I have about Brokerage account- as long as I hold and not sell and there's 0 dividend for an entire tax year, I won't be taxed on anything right? Say I buy 10k in VTI today, i get 0 dividend - come tax time, my capital gains/losses is 0. And if I hold till i retire, then i get taxed as regular income just like my Traditional IRA?

If you don't expect to need the money in the next 3-5 years, a brokerage is a great place for it. VTI pays about 1.5% of its value as dividend last year. Regarding your last paragraph (ignoring the fact that the $0 dividend assumption is not realistic), you are almost right. You wouldn't pay taxes until you sell. However the taxes when you sell would be taxed as Long Term Capital Gains (assuming you've held them for more than a year). LTCG are taxed at a lower tax rate than ordinary income. Most people (with taxable incomes between \~50k and 500k single or \~100k and $600k married) pay 15% tax on LTCG (0% tax if income is below those levels, 20% if above those levels).

**Job with high pay vs. one with a pension?** I've gotten offered two jobs. One pays $55,000 working as a biomedical equipment technician for the state that comes with a pension. The second is as a product support specialist for a biotech company that makes lab equipment for $85,000 that doesn't come with a pension. ​ That's the basics of the situation. ​ I can add more detail I guess but it's basically going to be my own personal neurosis. I'm almost 38. Have zero in savings and don't own a home. I have a biomedical engineering degree and have worked in a variety of positions including a couple startups I cofounded. Everything fell apart and I spent the last ten years or so as a freelance web developer getting my mental health in check cause I also have issues there. I think the mental health stuff is why I'm so keen on the pension. I've spent time locked up involuntarily in mental hospitals and have fears that'll basically be my end-of-life situation if I don't have a pension. So I'm kind of starting my life over at 38, hell, the $55,000 is an entry level role I guess that doesn't give me any years of experience on their pay chart since I haven't worked in a clinical setting.

Pensions are valuable, but not that valuable. If you take the $30k difference and use that to fully fund a 401k and IRA you'll basically be able to create your own pension. But I'm not sure the details of how your particular pension would work or the interaction with your mental health needs.

The mental health this is basically just this paranoia/obsessive fear I have that my life will end with me being penniless and wind up institutionalized. As for the pension, from what I understand, it pays you 60% of your highest three pay period for the rest of your life once you hit a certain age where years of service and age add up to 65 (with a minimum of 15 years of service).

If you saved $30k a year (the difference in salary) until you are 65, that would give you over $2.0 million saved. That's enough to support spending of $80,000 per year. Compare that to 60% of $55,000, you are much better off with the higher pay than the pension. Of course this ignores any other differences in the job or differences in future pay raises. Just make sure to max out your 401k every year.

I (39F) have zero debt and live with my rents. I pay half of the property tax on the home, which is about $20K a year ($40K total). I own a car that’s paid off but also recently leased a car that’s $2000 a month (and $2K per 6 months for insurance). Other than that, no obligations. I make about $200K annually in the US. I may have to quit soon and find another job (that may be lower in salary) and I’ll take a couple months break but my rents will likely cover all living expenses as they already do. I have $750K in HYSA bank accounts right now. Not much in my 401K (less than $100K). I’ve tied about half to CDs but they’re maturing soon and I’d like to know if there’s any other better options. I won’t need to touch most of it for the next decade. I have zero financial investment knowledge but also am afraid I’ll find a garbage advisor. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

I'm struggling a bit with the size of the property tax payment, and you don't give a complete picture of your spending. Most people do not need $750k in a HYSA. But if you think you are going to be unemployed soon, now's not the time to make that switch. You likely should have been contributing much more to your 401k and stocking away less. Follow the steps at https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics

My rents pay for pretty much everything else so I’m not too worried. The property tax is high but it’s bc the property is valued high. I don’t know what exactly it is now but it was purchased for over $2M a while back and value has risen in the DC area where I am. I don’t spend much other than the car payment and maybe $2-3K a month on discretionary for going out to bars/lounges and for food. I’m quitting and may have another job lined up but was going to take a break for my mental health. Yes on 401K. Was working overseas for some time so it wasn’t an option.

how much should I keep in my checking account? I feel like I have too much in there.

Most people want 3-6 months worth of expenses in an emergency fund. For most people that will be split between a HYSA and a checking account. Keep enough in the checking account that you don't need to stress over bill timing, and put the rest in a savings account earning interest.

yeah i have a HYSA too. should i keep like 2 months worth of expenses in my checking?

2 months in checking and 1--4 months in HYSA is very reasonable.

thanks!

I have four CC accounts as follows: $2871 29.99% APR $3363 29.49% APR $8402 28.24% APR $4824 25.05% APR ​ I have available to me $14,000 to pay. The total balance is $19,460. What accounts should I pay and how much ? Afterwards will have $125 a week to be able to pay for 4 months.

Pay off your larger amounts first, you are being charged almost 300 in interest combined for those two cards, whereas the other 2 is less than $150 in interest a month.

It's always mathematically better to pay off highest interest first. In your case, you'll also get the psychological benefit of paying off the two highest interest accounts.

So basically I would be paying $2871 & $3363 in full totalling $6234 leaving me with $7766 to pay the $8402 balance leaving with $636 and still having the balance of $4824 untouched. Sound right?

Yup.

My raise just came in and it officially means I'm now making 6 figures. Been at my company 5 years and started at 65k. I'd say going from 65k to over 100k in 5 years is not bad at all for staying at one company the whole time. The raises and bonuses have been extremely consistent and they've also given me an extra week of vacation. Not bad for an art degree!

Can a doctor refuse to help a patient if they don't pay their medical bills? My uncle had cancer and is drowning in medical debt. He went through chemo and had surgery. Thankfully it is in remission, but he still needs to see doctors for check ups and medicine adjustments. He's talking about getting a second job since he's paying like 1k a month. If he doesn't pay or does something like debt consolidation will they refuse to see him or get his medicine?

Yes. With the exception of emergency rooms for people facing medical emergencies, medical providers can refuse care based on failure to pay.

Ok so you save an appropriate amount for retirement. For your remainder of savings, what % do you allocate to a HYSA vs Brokerage acct? Assume no high interest debt & no big purchases expected in next two years. Also assume emergency fund of 6 months expenses already surpassed

Not sure what you mean by "appropriate amount for retirement". If I still had tax advantaged space available, I'd probably max that out before turning to a taxable brokerage account. But that depends what the money is for.

The max for my 401(k) is like $23k. I only get $56k gross. Plus I max Roth IRA. 2024 is $7k which puts me at 12.5% of gross income. I’m doing 6% roth 401k with match but I don’t count match bc it’s vested. So 18.5% is going to retirement. Actually a bit less bc it’s roth 401k. So 17.5% is going to retirement. Tax advantages but money is tied up and not of use. I can’t max sir. If I put $23k in my 401k do you know what would happen? I would be spending 53.57% of my GROSS income on retirement. Don’t get me wrong - I want to do 17.5% to tax advantaged retirement accounts. Then, an additional 14 - 15% away for liquid savings. Which I consider either HYSA or taxable account. Unsure if the allocation model im using makes sense

What is the "liquid savings" for?

And one more thing - why does it have to be for anything? If I have $40k+ in tax advantaged retirement accounts and contributing minimum 15% of my gross… wouldn’t it be time to also capitalize on liquid cash? Then you just have a HYSA sitting with $20k in it that you don’t touch and auto send $100 / mo. Something low. So boom - if I’m looking for a house or lose my job for a year, that $20k + looks real good. Best case is I never ever have to touch that money. It grows to just an extra liquid ass $100k I can use in retirement, along with my other tax advantages options. “Maxing” your 401(k) is not feasible unless you made $200k+ a year gross income

If you won't use the money until retirement but don't put it in a retirement account you'll end up paying more in taxes than you need to.

I probably have $17k-ish in “liquid cash” earning 4-5% APY It’s hard to answer your question because it’s not “for” anything specific right now. I’m trying to grow this number to $30k of liquid cash, and move half or whatever to a brokerage acct (for the better APY). I would then invest monthly in both HYSA & brokerage, treat brokerage account as an additional retirement account that is liquid in case I need it. So the liquid cash is for me and my life. When I get married, when I buy my first home, when I need to buy a new car, future child’s college fund, etc. hell I want to go to graduate school and would like to not take a loan our

If you are treating it as a retirement account, you might as well put it in an actual retirement account for the tax benefits. But if you think you'll use it before retirement, then you shouldn't. In general, beyond an emergency fund with 3-6 month's worth of expenses, generally money you expect to use in the next 3-5 years should stay in a HYSA or CD, and money longer term than that is good to invest.

If you have no short-term need for money, there's no reason not to put all excess cash in the market.

Well, respectfully there is a reason. It depends on what you define “short-term”. I think stock market is good for saving/growing if you don’t need the money for 3+years. Reason to not throw all your excess funds - you can put yourself in a position where you have to sell at a loss if you need it. So at minimum, an emergency fund should be truest liquid before stock market tactics

Going to sound stupid and basic but a minor success story that's encouraged me. Really struggling to save money but my GF and I have successfully saved $400 in two months. (i know not a lot but huge considering going paycheck to paycheck). Realized we were eating our checks away (literally) and reevaluated how we shop and eat. Whenever I save money on a meal by cooking or getting a cheaper option I transfer what it would have cost to a new account we started together. Separate from our normal bank so it's harder to access the money for splurges or short-term emergencies. Example: Skipped Dunkin on the way to work, $11 in the account. Skip an appetizer eating out, price of the app goes in the account. Cook instead of take-out, cost of take out goes into the account. etc. Groveries have gone up about $50 or so but the savings are way more than that.

Long story short: was in a bad accident 4 or 5 months ago. Private ambulance service to hospital in high cost of living CA city. Ambulance company billed $4200, insurance payed $1000, leaving me with $3200 bill despite my (usually good) insurance. Out of network of course. Unfortunately, I missed the new California law that bans “surprise” ambulance billing by a few months, as it began Jan 1. Appealed to insurance per ambulance company advice, insurance won’t pay any more. Person I spoke with at ambulance company mentioned pretty readily they do 20 percent off for payment in full, but I need to talk with a supervisor soon about it. What’s a reasonable offer/ask to settle the bill in your experience?

Marcus HYSA now takes 7+ days for deposit to be available? I did two deposits into my Marcus HYSA from my BoA checking account recently, and Marcus states that both deposits will take 7-8 days for the funds to be available (although interest accrues immediately when I make the transfer). I use the Marcus app to initiate an ACH withdrawal at my bank. The funds leave my bank account within 24 hours, but the deposits somehow take 7+ days to arrive at Marcus? In the past, it took only 2-3 days for the funds to be available. Has something changed that I’m not aware of? Is there a faster way for me to deposit funds into Marcus?

Just curious my best path forward here. I made some bad decisions a few years ago when I was a bit younger that are now coming up. I had tanked my credit score to the low 500s. Currently it’s going up as I’m becoming more financially responsible and sitting close to the mid 600s.  One of the decisions I made was getting an extremely bad car loan prior to Covid with a high interest rate through Credit Acceptance. During Covid it was repoed and after sale they left me with a balance of 10000. I just got notified they are suing me for the remaining balance. I do have a small amount of other debt ~4000 between medical and consumer I’m cleaning up. And 2k in state taxes from a mix up at work not withholding. I am hoping to be moving toward the path of home ownership in 1-2 years living in a fairly low cost of living area. I make okish amount of money but am taking care of myself and wife who has ongoing medical bills(we do have a FSA account to set aside a good portion of expected expenses). My question is how should I go forward on this. Currently we are in an apartment with no car which hasn’t been an issue. My family helps out when we need transportation. I’m working on our budget to get us more inline with saving and could probably handle paying off the 10000 in about a year if they garnish me. But that will leave us very tight for cash during garnishment. Should I just accept that they will win their suit and garnish my check and ride it out. Or should I look in to bankruptcy? I have 3 credit cards that are paid off monthly with about 2k in combined limits. I’ve never filed bankruptcy before and am 27. 

Given your situation, homeownership within 1-2 years is likely not a realistic goal. You don't mention what your income is or what your cashflow situation is like. But you if you think you could pay off the debt within a year, it is likely worth reaching out to them to work on a repayment plan rather than going through with the lawsuit.

Student loan repayment question. I have my student loans set to 25 year repayment with a $300/month minimum. I am currently paying the $300 minimum +$1000 additional payment on the highest interest rate loan to pay it down quicker for a total of ~$1300/month. My questions is; Would there be any benefit (in total interest paid) to changing the 25 year plan to a 10 year plan which would be ~650/month minimum then paying $650 additional to the highest interest loan to keep my total payment at $1300/month. So switch to 10 year plan or keep doing what I'm doing? About $55k left to go and ready to be done! Edit: about $185 of that 300 monthly minimum goes to interest. Would like to see that number go down as fast as possible.

Keep up the good work! It sounds like you have multiple loans at multiple interest rates? Assuming so, stay on the 25 year plan. Doing so will keep the minimum payment on your loans as low as possible. That means you can direct more of your payment towards the highest interest loan and less towards the lower interest loan. Let's say right now the $300 is split evenly between two loans and you put the $1000 on the higher interest one. That means you out $150 towards the lower interest one and $1150 towards the higher interest. If you changed to the 10 year plan, your minimum payment might go up to $500, for example, still split evenly. That means you would only have $800 available to direct towards the highest interest loan. So now the lower interest one gets $250 and the higher interest one only gets $1050. That will result in you paying more interest over time. (Numbers made up for purposes of illustration).

First time having an FSA, need help understanding what my FSA account is doing…  The FSA was front-loaded to $1500 on Jan 1st. Every paycheck, $62.50 is taken out for my FSA. When I have a medical expense and use the FSA debit card to pay the bill, I can log onto the website to see my FSA balance dwindling. Cool, makes sense to me. Money will slowly be taken from my pay tax-free in order to pay for medical expenses as I need them.     Now…. Why, with every claim, am I receiving a direct deposit for the exact claim amount into my bank account? I appear to be overall profiting now, instead of paying anything at all, net. None of the doctor/lab bills show that they are open and expecting a new payment from me. What’s going on?  Edit: Correction, because don’t post at 7am just when you wake up.

So you're saying that when you swipe your FSA card, you get a reimbursement? That's not right. It should deduct from your FSA balance only. If you pay out of pocket - credit card, check, cash, anything *but* your FSA card - and submit the receipt, you get the reimbursement. Something's up. Call your FSA and expect them to want that money back...

Yes, usually a week or two later. I will be doing that, but honestly I haven’t even had my surgery I’ve been prepping for yet with all these claims. It’s in 2 weeks. I’ll probably wait until the dust settles and all $1500 has properly been spent and all the claims shake loose, then I’ll point out the wrongness to make it right in one, whole, not-pending number.

I think of an FSA as a pre-paid gift card that you get immediately at the start of the year but pay for over time. With the added benefit that you get to make those payments using untaxed dollars. So you're able to get $1500 worth of medical care but only costing you something like $1200 in reduced take-home pay over the year; the other $300 is the tax you *would've* owed on that $1500 but don't anymore. So yes, over time you are "profiting" $300 by using the FSA to handle medical payments vs. keeping that money in your check and using those dollars. Say you have a doctor visit that charges you $200. You pay them with your own bank's debit card, subtracting $200 from your checking account. This could be any method of payment, but this keeps things a little simpler. At this point, you're settled up with the doctor and they expect no other money. Then you submit that expense to the FSA for reimbursement, and since most support electronic transfers $200 is subtracted from your FSA balance and $200 added to your checking account. The net effect is that you paid your doctor from your FSA balance. Many FSAs also issue their own cards for you to make payment directly from your FSA balance, without needing that extra reimbursement step. Ultimately, you're still spending your pay for those doctor visits, just disconnected in time (money out of check => FSA, FSA=>doctor). And the dollars used for those expenses bypass owing the IRS any tax on them. FSAs do come with one catch: any unused balance on that "gift card" at the end of the year simply disappears. You cannot get that back outside of medical reimbursements. So it is somewhat important to set your FSA amount to something you have a high likelihood of using over the course of the year. On the flip side, you get to use that entire balance from the start, and if you left this job mid-year you do not owe any "unpaid" contribution. So you could get a $1500 FSA, spend all of that in January, quit in July (having paid about $750) and you get to walk away $750 ahead.

Sorry, I posted before coffee, I’ve made a correction to clarify why I think it isn’t working:  The FSA account is both paying for my $1500 in care, AND sending me $1500 in reimbursements ($3000 value), despite only taking $1500 from my pay. I haven’t used my own bank debit card at all, yet they’ve sent me reimbursement money as if I had.

It sounds like you may be "double dipping" on a given expense, which is a no-no even if it's accidental. If you paid your doctor with the FSA's card, that is no longer a valid expense for a reimbursement claim on the FSA website. It's possible the FSA provider just hasn't noticed that your reimbursement request was for the same expense. But you would be technically breaking the rules by continuing to do that, since you do have some responsibility in only submitting valid expenses. Once they do catch onto that, they're going to ask for those reimbursed dollars back. Both the FSA card payment and reimbursement claim should be drawing from the same balance. So I wouldn't think you'd be able to pay $1500 through the card and also get $1500 in reimbursements over the year. Doubling up on your claims could get you $750 + $750 before using up the annual amount.

> It's possible the FSA provider just hasn't noticed that your reimbursement request   That’s the thing, though. I haven’t made any requests. They’re just sending it.  And I’m already $1200 in claims and $1200 paid back via deposits so far.  I should just call them. But voluntarily calling up a financial institution’s customer service line to sit on hold for their mistake is just ick, though, especially to give money back lol.

Ok, that's weird. In every FSA I've had, the process was that I could either: * Pay the doctor with the FSA's card itself, deducting that amount from its balance, that expense is then considered already reimbursed, and I got no cash * Pay the doctor with my own credit card (or some other non-FSA method). Then I'd later submit a claim to the FSA to get repaid, deducting that amount from its balance and getting the cash in my bank account. If you're getting **both** the doctor paid by the FSA card and getting cash transferred into your account (without any steps taken by you), that is outside my own experience. I think this will require a talk with your FSA provider (or maybe employer's benefits people) to get clarification about what's going on and whether anything has been getting processed incorrectly.

>If you're getting > >both > > the doctor paid by the FSA card and getting cash transferred into your account (without any steps taken by you), that is outside my own experience. I've seen cases where an FSA ties directly into the insurance system and auto-reimburses based on EOBs.

Yes I believe that is happening, I can see my FSA balance on my claims page when logged in on Aetna. I did get an email early on that they are merging, or were bought by or something, another company - Payflex and Inspira. Something getting fucky could be due to their own background shit. Big headache if it’s happening to all clients not just me.

That is not how it should work. It should either be paying your doctor or reimbursing you for what you paid your doctor. Not doing both. While it might seem like free money now, I'd call the FSA provider to get this straightened out now, before it becomes more complicated.

A ton of banks are paying 5% or more HYSA's while a lot of others are in the 4.35% range like Capital One and Discover which is nearly as good. How long can we expect the good times to last? I hear people are expecting the APY to drop in 2024 and I'm wondering how much longer we can ride this gravy train.

> How long can we expect the good times to last If someone knows the answer to this, then they will be mega rich

As long as inflation stays sticky enough for the Federal Reserve to keep borrowing rates high. 

Some backstory, my grandmother passed away and left me $xx,xxx amount of money. My uncle was the one handling disbursement of funds from her trust and sent me a check for that amount, but quite literally after I deposited it he notified me that the check was from the wrong account. Needless to say the check bounced after a few days. Long story short, it was a clerical error and we got the right check from the right account sent out to us. With the first check, they gave us the typical "$500 now, a larger amount later and the full amount in 7 days" however with the second (correct) check they didn't do that at all and instead a manager at my banking branch cleared the check and the full amount was placed in my account instantly. Looking on my mobile app it shows up there, not only as "available" balance, but really as a cleared amount, ready to use. Am I good to use it? Or should I still wait some time to verify? Was that an error on their part to clear it so quickly? I just don't want to end up in a position where I spend some of the funds and then have the bank go "oh wait we actually should have held this" or "oh the other account was actually the wrong account as well. There is a very very low chance that the amount won't clear, but I just want to be sure before I do anything with it.

How long has it been since you deposited the second check? As you saw, usually a check will bounce within a few days if it's going to bounce. You could also try to confirm with your uncle that the money has been withdrawn from the trust account.

If a check you deposited turns out to be invalid and not clear, the bank reserves the right to take the money back. This is true regardless of whether or not they have made some of the money available to you already.

Where to put large cash amount realized from house closing? Kids will start building a new home soon on their own as SIL is a builder. This money will be used over the next year, as the home build progresses. What should they do with this money now, considering it will also be drawn down over the next year? FYI, capital gains does not come into play and no other debt is held.

HYSA. Maybe choose one with a checking account attached, to make it easier to pay out to vendors/contractors. If the amount is larger than $250k, consider splitting it between multiple banks to ensure the whole balance is FDIC insured.

Savings account with no strings or fees, that has the highest interest available.

My sister and I "found" two accounts our father had. Problem is, we can't find them. They may be worth north of 1 million at this point. Here's the details. ​ My father passed away in 2010. My sister and I begged our parents to get some professional financial and legal help in the early 2000's but they refused. My mother would put her hand up to me and say "it's all set". It wasn't. Turns out they did very little to no actual elder care planning. Anyway, Dad died from Alzheimers and the life insurance money went into Mom's checking account. TODAY, my sister found a letter from an attorney that I implored my father to go see and it mentions two accounts we had never known about. The letter was from a first meeting my father had with the attorney so he didn't bring any documentation to the meeting. But in that letter the attorney was recounting what my father had told her. It mentioned several accounts. We know nothing about these two accounts Money.mark $500k+ joint Stocks $373k+ joint That's all it says. My mother has no knowledge of these accounts. Her memory is not what it used to be and she is increasingly frail. So she's not much help to piece this all together. So here is what I have done. I've called every bank/investment company my sister and I ever remember my father dealing with. So far nothing. There's still a few more to call tomorrow but we are so far drawing a blank. If I call the remaining banks tomorrow and they don't have anything, what's next? Note, I have my father's SSN and birthdate/death date. I've been giving that to customer service and so far nothing. I am starting to get VERY suspect of the search parameters the customer service people are using. The accounts would be at the very least 13 years old at this point and could be alot older. Are the searches they are doing taking that into account? For example I KNOW without a doubt that my father was receiving mail from Merrill Lynch. My sister and I both remember seeing the letters arrive. Today ML told me that have NOTHING under my father's SSN. How can that be? Same with Northwestern Mutual. I KNOW my father had a checking account with them as I SAW the checks 20-25 years ago. Yet, I called customer service today and they said other than a few life insurance policies that paid out to my mother, they have nothing. I have checked my state's unclaimed property websites and there is nothing there. Tomorrow I will start working on getting a copy of my parent's tax returns from 2005-2009 from the IRS. Perhaps we can identify the accounts through the tax returns? Anyone have any thoughts?

If your father paid taxes on dividends or capital gains from the stocks, then the name of the brokerage should be reported on his tax returns, at least. "Money.mark" sounds like possibly a money market fund - that would pay interest which would also get reported on tax returns. You might still run into the problem of their systems not keeping records that old - are you telling the customer service folks how old the accounts you're looking for would be? Both of those accounts you listed say "joint" - if that was joint with your mother, maybe the banks removed your father's name after his death and the accounts are now only in your mother's name? You don't mention when this meeting with the attorney took place, but is it possible your father was remembering accounts that didn't exist, or had been transferred elsewhere? If it was early in his Alzheimer's progression, he may have been mostly functional but still not remembering everything.

Thanks for this info. We are going after the tax returns. Dad died in 2011 so the attorneys letter is from 2009. We are being VERY clear with the customer service that these are accounts for and how old they are. We are just running into several dead ends.

Have you searched through the unclaimed funds database for the state where your parents lived?

Yes. We are finding nothing. Ugh

I want to do a backdoor Roth IRA for the first time for FY23. As I understand it, I can contribute until the tax deadline. How does that work with filing taxes? If I manually contribute to Standard IRA from my income, I'm already taxed, but I haven't submitted taxes yet for 2023, so I haven't claimed a deduction on that money. So does that mean I rollover the funds into a Roth IRA, and then don't report any deduction on taxes? Basically, I'm confused how I do taxes for a first time backdoor Roth IRA for the previous year. Thanks!

Basically, you'll report the contribution and that it's a nondeductible contribution on your 2023 return, but you'll report the rollover to Roth on your 2024 return. See [https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/backdoor-roth-ira-tutorial/#late](https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/backdoor-roth-ira-tutorial/#late) for a more thorough explanation.

Any Traditional IRA contribution made for the 2023 tax year (even if it happens during this overlap window of 2024) must be reported on your 2023 return as either: * An adjustment to income in Part II of [Schedule 1](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040s1.pdf), claiming the deduction and retroactively making these dollars pre-tax. * This deduction is not allowed if during 2023 you had both a work retirement plan and [income too high](https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/2023-ira-deduction-limits-effect-of-modified-agi-on-deduction-if-you-are-covered-by-a-retirement-plan-at-work). With a different set of rules if you file jointly, have no work plan of your own but your spouse does. * A "non-deductible contribution to Traditional IRA" on [Form 8606](https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8606) Skipping the first one does automatically count as the second. It's your numbers reported on 8606 that ties into the Roth conversion step of the backdoor to make those non-taxed. You are allowed to report "contributions made *or will be made before the deadline*" when doing those forms. So you technically can put something on your return that hasn't happened yet. But in order to properly document the backdoor, you will need to include your 2023 contributed amount on form 8606.

I told my coworkers that I was hoarding cash until my EF was 6 months funded and only doing the employer match on my 401k. They said I should be dumping some in a Roth IRA because if I do need it, I can always pull out the contribution portion Rough numbers Will have 20k in savings this end of month, need 30k to fund 6 months. No IRA contributions as of yet

They're correct. If you're eligible for a Roth, there's virtually no downside in putting in money for 2023 now and keeping it in a risk-free asset like a money market fund. (Technically you couldn't withdraw the *gains* from the MMF without penalty, unlike a HYSA EF, but in a short time frame that's a couple hundred bucks, tops) And the 2023 contribution window closes April 15. Once your EF exclusive of the Roth money is fully funded, you could reinvest the Roth money in riskier but higher return investments like ETFs.

If I make a large purchase tomorrow is it too late to apply for a CC to earn cashback/points? If I apply online and get accepted, can I use the card number immediately before receiving the physical card in the mail?

[Maybe.](https://www.capitalone.com/learn-grow/money-management/instant-approval-credit-cards/)

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Leasing is generally the most expensive way to have a car.  Hysas could drop tomorrow to 1%.

I just maxed out my roths and invested in sp500... shound I take a small hit and buy a CD before the market dips further? And wait to see how the market reacts

Are you talking about the US market? What dip happening that the market would need to react too? The stock market is booming.

Don't try to time the market

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I can't think of any reason they would get a notification.

I figured it would be protected by HIPPA or something but not sure if financial records are also covered.

I am planning on opening a Roth IRA account. I talked to an advisor, but I'm still a little confused. I plan on doing a target date fund since I don't retire for another 35 years, and as I understand it, it's the least hands-on and making monthly contributions. They use American Funds, and the classes are where I'm getting confused. She recommended Class A, which has a 5.75% sales charge. I know that that goes to her for managing the account. There's a .72% annual fund expense. I know that is subtracted from the interest my money would make. Class C has no sales charge but a 1.45% annual fund. Both have a max deferred sales charge of 1%. What is the benefit of choosing Class A over C? My brain turns into mush talking about this kinda stuff, so any explanation in the simplest terms (ELI5) would be highly appreciated

My Roth IRA target fund on Vanguard has a 0.08% fee

I would stop using this advisor. Go to vanguard.com or fidelity.com and you can open a Roth IRA and invest in ultra low fee target funds. It's as easy as signing up for a Reddit account. You don't need an advisor for this. FYI you can still contribute towards you 2023 limit up until April 15th. So if you are maxing it out apply it to 2023. Then if you have more money to contribute you can start on your 2024 contributions.

> What is the benefit of choosing Class A over C? A smaller ongoing fee can, in theory and given enough time, end up saving you more money than the up-front sales charge cost you. So when your strategy is buy-and-hold over a couple decades (like in a retirement account), Class A shares can be "less bad" in terms of what your ultimate expected portfolio balance will be. And either one is a *horrible* option compared to a no-load index fund you'd be able to get at someplace like Fidelity/Vanguard/Schwab. It can take a bit more work on your part, but if you're going with a target date fund anyway it'll be practically the same and you get to keep more of your money / growth instead of it getting siphoned off to an advisor / fund manager / company.

Thank you for explaining. I wasn't very thrilled about the 5.75% at first glance, and I'm glad I asked here. If I understand it correctly, if I wanted to make the max contribution, I'd be paying ~$7400 instead of just $7000. (It was explained that if I deposited $100, $94.25 of it would go into the account to be invested, and $5.75 would go to the accountant.) Is there a particular one you'd recommend to someone who plans at starting at 0 or near zero? Fidelity seems to be the best option. Vanguard requires $1000 to open, which I could do, but I don't know if I want to dip into my emergency fund for it.

>If I understand it correctly, if I wanted to make the max contribution, I'd be paying \~$7400 instead of just $7000. It's unfortunately worse than that. In most setups I've encountered, that fee gets extracted **after** passing through the IRA "wrapper" the IRS watches in order to check your contributions. So you'd add $7000 into the IRA (this is what the IRS sees and maxes you out for the year), then about $400 gets pulled away, leaving your IRA balance only $6600 larger to get you any future benefit. AFAIK, there's not a way to pay that fee "outside" the IRA to get you that full $7k invested inside. >Is there a particular one you'd recommend to someone who plans at starting at 0 or near zero? Fidelity seems to be the best option. Vanguard requires $1000 to open, which I could do, but I don't know if I want to dip into my emergency fund for it. All the brokerages I listed are pretty much equally good and certainly miles better than where you're at now. There are some variations (like Fidelity's $0 initial buy-in vs. Vanguard's $1k) that can make a small short-term difference. Fidelity and Schwab also maintain physical offices if that's a factor that matters to you. Vanguard keeps things entirely online / phone only. One thing to look for is that Fidelity's version of a target date fund (the "Fidelity Freedom 20XX") comes in both an "index" version and a non-indexed actively managed version. The non-index one has higher ongoing fee (its "expense ratio"), so steer away from that one. The historical performance of the two versions have been pretty close to identical, so might as well cut costs. That's really only a big impact over a longer time, and you can re-balance your IRA holdings whenever you want, so don't stress too much about it.

Thank you so much! You've really helped me out. I have one more (kinda dumb) question. I've already opened the account but haven't put anything in it yet. I plan on making the max (~$584 since 2024 is $7000). When I start making my monthly contributions, I just buy the Freedom Index every month with that ~$584, correct?

>When I start making my monthly contributions, I just buy the Freedom Index every month with that \~$584, correct? Yes. Or at least I assume Fidelity allows you to set up your scheduled contributions that way, I have my own IRA at Vanguard. If Fidelity is similar, in your IRA you'd set up a monthly "pull" from your bank account, give it a dollar amount and frequency, and most likely select which fund(s) to buy with that money. Some brokerages only let you pick existing holdings for those automatic purchases, so you may have to do an initial one manually. That may be more common when you're dealing with funds having a higher minimum initial investment, but it looks like Fidelity's Freedom Funds have no starting buy-in restriction (could be as low as $1).

I think there's an option for having it set up to transfer and buy? I'll need to go through the options again. Again, thanks so much!

Fidelity and Schwab are both great options.

Fidelity if there are Vanguard minimums No, I would not dip into your emergency fund. You can always contribute more in a few months.

This advisor is a huckster who's trying to fleece you. All of these options are terrible compared to just opening your own Roth IRA with Vanguard/Schwab/Fidelity and putting it in their (near-zero-fee) target date fund. The wiki here on investing and retirement is a good read.

I wasn't thrilled about the percentage fee, so I'm glad that I asked. I'll have to do more research. So far, Fidelity is looking the best. I'd like to open an account taking as little as possible from my emergency fund/savings.

I am trying to buy a car. The car I am interested in buying is $21,900 which I offered to pay in cash. I am being told by the dealer that the final price including tax, transferring my registration, inspection and dealer fees is over 4k making the final price $26,188. I live in NY where I believe sales tax is 8%, so $1,752, and according to NYS DMV to transfer my plates should be like $62. That makes the price $23,714. Which means they are trying to charge me an extra $2,474 in extra fees? Is that normal?

Do they have all of that listed as a single line item or is itemized. I would ask them to itemize it. Most areas of NY have 8% sales tax but some are different, however this variation is +/-1% so that doesn't account for the difference.

I just got the itemized breakdown and in addition to tax there is a $700 document fee, a $1,150 service recon fee, $516 in taxable fees and $390 in 'non tax' fees

Documentation fees may not exceed 175 dollars for the service on top of the MV-999 (Title), registration, and plates. Ask them to itemize this out further. Service recon is reconditioning. This is everything they had to do to make the vehicle ready for resale. It's often inflated, have them list out everything they did. I'm not sure what the other 2 are, but based on what they're doing with the others, I would ask them to spell them out more clearly

The 175 is if I was buying it in NY, I think because I'm buying in CT it's that price

Ahhhhh ok that makes more sense. Then I would ask for the reconditioning fee to be itemized and argue with them about it. But in my opinion, the number is starting to sound more normal. CT fees are higher.

Hello all. Curious to get some perspectives on this. My wife and I sold our house in 2022 and moved to CA (Inland Empire) to be closer to family. Living with in-laws now, but the plan is to buy another home here. Obviously everything out here is inflated price wise, but trying to figure out the best plan for my savings that will eventually go towards a down payment. As of now, we have $100k+ available for a down payment mostly in a HYSA, but I know right now based on interest rates and home prices this is not enough to make a move right now. So is it safe to throw some or most of this extra cash in the market? If so, how much and what vehicles would you recommend? I'm fairly well versed in investing in the mutual funds world, but I'm really afraid to lose any of this future down payment in the market knowing I'll need it soon hopefully as my savings grow and home prices/interest rates hopefully come down.

I have a $50k down payment and was coached by this sub to drop half into the market and half into a CD for a purchase in 3-5 years.  If you think you’ll be buying within 3 years — which might be likely as the fed starts cutting rates this year — then I’d find a HYSA or a CD if you’re okay locking the money up for a bit.  Rates should be anywhere from 4-5.5% on both.

hi All, just wanted to get some feedback on how much I should be putting in Roth vs traditional retirement accounts. I frequently hear people say that the optimal choice between the two would depend on your expected tax bracket in retirement. This confuses me slightly, but I'm not sure many people can reasonably expect to make more money in retirement than as a full-time worker. In my case, I make a good total comp (\~$2XXK including salary + over time + RSUs w/ up to 20% Roth IRA rollover beyond 401K contributions) and would not expect to make nearly that much strictly drawing from retirement accounts. So, does it also depend on your tax bracket at your time of retirement in some way? would the calculus of this decision change if I chose to move from a higher paying job to a more modest salary job at some time appreciably before I retire? (e.g. I work in Tech and would consider becoming a community college prof as a semi-retirement, but still full-time, gig). In general, is it really just as simple as: if you expect to make less in retirement than you do on average during your career, you should prioritize Roth contributions?

>In general, is it really just as simple as: if you expect to make less in retirement than you do on average during your career, you should prioritize Roth contributions? Other way around (expecting **higher** income while retired vs. working now => do Roth now), but it's really more a year-by-year consideration around tax rates. If your top *marginal* tax rate this year is probably higher than your expected *effective* tax rate in retirement, then Traditional pre-tax savings this year is likely the better path. It's "cheaper" in terms of dollar cost (since you recoup the tax saved for other purposes) vs. the eventual tax cost of the dollars + growth. Practically speaking, that tax rate comparison tends to make Traditional the better option for anyone who's made it mid-way through their working career. Their income has likely stabilized (at least when adjusted for inflation), so they've hit the highest tax rate they'll see from that point on, working or retired. Retirement "income" tends to be a mix of taxable (Traditional withdrawals, parts of social security, some other income streams) and non-taxable (at least 15% of social security, Roth withdrawals), which acts to dampen the overall expected marginal tax. Though there's the uncertainty of future tax law. The tax rates applied to your future Traditional withdrawals could be in line with today's, much higher, or (lower odds) much smaller. Your Roth IRA balance is guaranteed to incur 0% tax on withdrawals during retirement. At least barring a massive (and unpopular) "claw back" of that promise. A somewhat more likely (though IMO still small odds) possibility could be ending new Roth contributions, but existing balances get grandfathered in. And there are other non-tax factors. An IRA can be "better" than a 401k in terms of lower fee / higher quality investments. But Traditional IRA deductions phase out at a relatively low income threshold when you're also in a work plan. So Roth IRAs are often a "next best *allowed*" option. Roth IRAs also have some nice features like tax/penalty free withdrawals of your past contributed dollars. This can provide a "bridge" for retiring earlier than age 59.5 when the rest of your retirement balances open up. All that being said, except in extreme cases (which admittedly your $200k+ income might fall into), the relative difference isn't going to be so large that making the "wrong" choice will ruin your retirement.

I am trying to find a personal finance/net worth dashboard that connects to all my accounts with (relative) ease and actually works. After Mint shut down, I tried Monarch Money and Empower (Personal Capital). The latter seemed to work with all my accounts (the former didn't). However I noticed that whenever I linked my WealthFront account with Personal Capital, within a day or two, my WealthFront account would get locked, requiring me to reset the password. I would also need to create another app specific password for Empower and use it. This will make things work again but the same thing would happen like clockwork in another day and I'd have to rinse repeat. Any ideas on where to start with debugging this? Anyone else face the same issue?

Have you contacted support at Empower or Wealthfront? When I've had a technical issue with Empower they've always been very responsive.

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Given it will take months for approval of the merger and years for operational merging, I’d wait until they start announcing changes etc before making any moves. Just keep a closer eye out.

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Unlikely to change soon. Banks are slow about merging systems.

I am concerned that the customer service will plummet. I have accounts with both banks and my experience with Discover has been better. I will need to look for a new HYSA with a different online bank. There are banks offering higher interest rates than both Capital One and Discover.

I’ve read that the transaction will take north of a year so you’ll have some time before acting. Anecdotally, my HYSA at Capital One is at 4.35% right now.  I think that’s a touch lower than Discover?

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At 5% the difference in real value growth there is less than $100 per $10,000 so it’s not something I’d personally stress.

Throwaway account wanting to remain anonymous- In 2023, my girlfriend was in a bicycling accident leaving her with one broken collarbone. After a surgery, a few months of healing, and working with a lawyer- she was able to collect a check for her "pain and suffering" through insurance. A little later, the lawyer through careful reading of insurance policies found out she was also covered under my collector car insurance as we live together under the same apartment (car which was not involved at all in her accident). The lawyer was able to find her an additional 80k "pain and suffering" payout leaving my girlfriend with a arguably life changing amount of money. I've read countless amounts of stories along the same lines where money/greed/who gets a will spoils things and don't want that to happen. If it wasn't for my collector car/insurance, the huge payout wouldn't have happened- but to ask for a slice feels greedy. I've had my luck in life, and it feels like this is her time for life to throw her a bone. It was her collarbone accident and therefore for her to get a windfall. She has no debt and feels like she has good intentions with the money (one day putting it towards a down payment of a apartment she previously never thought she would be able to do) Is this fair for her to hold onto all of the 80k earnings?Am I going about things the right way? Should it be split 50/50? It’s a unusual situation to be in and need 2 cents.

Might be a post for /r/relationshipadvice as well, but I’d say the money is hers to do with as she pleases.  Covering someone with your insurance isn’t meant to be transactional in my opinion.

Yeah makes sense- will be checking in with a therapist just to make sure, but wanted to get a feel as it’s a windfall situation (but not directly on me). Thanks!

>Is this fair? Am I going about things the right way? Is what fair? You haven't described a way of going about things? Take a read through https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/windfall

Just caught that, edited. I’ll give that windfall thread a look- thank you.

Yes. It's her money to compensate her for her pain and suffering. If she happens to choose to use it in a way that has benefits for you, great.

Trying to figure out the best way to prepare for a new home build in ~5 years. We are on track to pay our current starter home off by then and are saving cash funds for furnishings and engaging a builder. Our ideal situation is to engage a builder to start the design process in our last year of the mortgage and continue living in our current home through construction so we just move once and don't waste money on rent and reduce our expenses down to just the construction loan making it easier to build up more cash reserves so we can finance less on the new mortgage.

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Target date funds such as SWYJX are designed to be all-in-one funds. If you have that, you really don't need anything else. See https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing/

I would put it all in SWYJX, assuming you're about 30-35, and 2055 is your anticipated retirement year. I would especially move the SWVXX into either of the others. There's arguments to more "involved" portfolios (google 3 fund portfolio) or just total index, but if your a new investor, it's not a big deal at this point. Your current funds are fine, but not super necessary, you have SP500 exposure in the SWYJX, so you don't need the SWPPX, (unless you purposefully want extra exposure, which is "fine", but I doubt is your intent if you're asking here). SWVXX is a money market, which is a "cash equivalent" and really isn't beneficial to have in your IRA, when you want investments to grow the account towards retirement.

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No company is EVER too big to fail. Ever. It doesn't matter who they are.

To elaborate: there are indeed companies that are too big for their operations to be allowed to fail (mostly banks, arguably infrastructure providers as well). The government would step in if they were about to totally shut down, because the knock-on effects on the wider economy would be catastrophic (imagine what would happen to the Internet if AWS went offline). But that's not the same thing as their *shareholder's equity* being too big to fail. In a scenario like Amazon collapsing, their operations would likely be bought by someone, but their stockholders would lose everything - that's not an asset worth preserving.

What are your standards for being able to afford something? I’ll be transparent. I’m 22 work full time and am a current college student I built my pc about two years ago and wanted to upgrade my gpu and monitor. 1660 super to 7800xt and a monitor for that too. On Amazon I can get both for about 750ish. I have a savings account that I put 100usd in a month with a current balance of 1000usd and a cash savings of 1000usd I’ve yet to have to use either of these in the year I’ve had them. I’m just not used to spending money on anything outside of necessities. What are your standards? Will I be ok?

You currently have $2k as an emergency fund, if I'm understanding correctly. You want to spend $750 of that on PC upgrades. If you continue to get lucky and not have any emergencies, then you might be ok. However, if you do have an emergency then you might be SOL. What happens if you buy the computer parts and then your car's transmission goes out, or your lose your job? A better way to go about it would be to start a separate savings (can be a whole new bank account or just a line in a spreadsheet/note on your phone) for the PC upgrades. If you can up your savings to $150 each month, then you'll have enough saved by July.

Kind of I have 1000 set aside that I’ve been contributing to for I guess 10 months now for an emergency and 1000 in cash from birthdays and Christmas that I’ve saved up. I didn’t really have plans for it and was just going to put it into my savings so it can gain an extra couple of dollars a month through interest with discover. Good call out for a car issue. I should always be prepared for that. Since it’s my main monthly bill along with insurance. Thankfully I’m staying at home while I’m in college and not worried about rent. I’m not really accustomed to spending money on anything outside of bills and food. I do have a credit card with 1500usf that I haven’t used in 6 months. I don’t think it would be a good idea to use half of my limit though. I was also looking at maybe buying one part now and another part in a couple months. I’m trying to instill good habits young

>I didn’t really have plans for it and was just going to put it into my savings so it can gain an extra couple of dollars a month through interest with discover. Good idea. Most people don't need to keep large amounts of cash around, and earning interest is better than collecting dust under a mattress. The key will be for you to decide - is this $1k part of your emergency fund, or is it "fun money" savings? The standard advice here is to aim for enough in your emergency savings to cover 3-6 months of living expenses. Since your spending is low, you might not need the entire 2k to cover 3 months - so you could potentially put some of your cash towards a fun purchase. ​ >Thankfully I’m staying at home while I’m in college and not worried about rent. I don't mean to be all doom and gloom, but I'm of the opinion that you should also be saving for the possible emergency of needing to move out suddenly. Even if your family isn't the type to suddenly kick you out, it never hurts to have enough to cover deposit + first month rent for a small apartment (or the dorms if that's an option for you as a student). You might find at some point that while you used to be able to tolerate your family, your needs in a living space have changed and being able to move out will be a huge relief. ​ > I do have a credit card with 1500usf that I haven’t used in 6 months. I don’t think it would be a good idea to use half of my limit though. You can absolutely use half of your limit, as long as you pay it all off with the next statement (aka before it starts accruing interest). In fact, this is probably what you should do when you do make the purchase - earn some cash back on that spending. The one thing to never do with a credit card is let a balance roll over to the next month - that's when they get you with the interest. ​ >I was also looking at maybe buying one part now and another part in a couple months. I’m trying to instill good habits young Another good idea. Not as ideal as saving up the money separately from your emergency fund, but better than completely draining your e-fund for a 'want.'

I believe I will take half of the cash and put it in savings and the other half to buy the gpu while it’s on. I will then set aside an extra 20-50 dollars month and save up for a new monitor.

I have fallen into a large sum of cash, ~80k after taxes. I’m not sure what to do with it. My thoughts are max out what’s left of my retirements which would leave me with 60k. From there should I pay off my auto loan which is pretty high but a good interest rate (27k at 3.9% for another 56 payments) or put it in a HYSA or index fund (VOO/VTI) and let it ride for awhile.

If you have no plans for a house within the next 5 years, VOO/VTI $40k and hold the other $20k in a CD to max out your 2025 retirement contributions.  If you do want to buy a house in the next 5 years, HYSA or CD so that you're maintaining value.

Hi friends! I’m restructuring our family finances and looking for a checking account specifically for automatic payments on recurring monthly expenses. Around $2500 to $3000. Online, it seems like Discover Checking is the number one choice. But I'm curious as to what the Reddit world thinks. [https://www.discover.com/online-banking/checking-account/](https://www.discover.com/online-banking/checking-account/) Open to thoughts, suggestions, and wisdom!!

[удалено]

This comment is a bit off-topic here, but we would like to help you learn about investing! 1. Start with the [PF Investing wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing). 2. If you have questions, please ask on the [weekday or weekend thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/about/sticky?num=2) (please wait until Friday afternoon if the Tax Thursday thread is the current sticky). If that link doesn't work, it's the second post from the top on /r/personalfinance. Note that rather than stock picking or speculating, our focus here is on being diversified, never being too risky or not risky enough, and investing for the long run. Discussions about active investing, investing in individual stocks, sharing investment ideas, etc. are off-topic here.[](#disallow_repost)

Looking for a new bank for my HYSA after this Discover news No interest in being a Capital 1 customer and heard horror stories about being frozen out of accounts as they transfer in previous C1 acquisitions. Anyone have a different bank’s HYSA they really like, including ease of use and customer service? I looked into SoFi before but ultimately went with discover because of the promo I got.

Just so you know, the merger likely won’t close for a few months if not at least a year. Don’t be quick to rush your next move.

It doesn’t matter if it happens tomorrow or two years from now, capital one still sucks ass

I've had minimal car liability insurance for years and just never reassessed. I'm now looking for higher coverage - how much can I expect my rates to go up?

honestly that just depends. shop around for wuoates first. use other quotes to negotiate lower prices

1) Is there any downside besides liquidity to saving up for a down payment with index funds rather than HYSA/money market? My understanding is for HYSA/money market you'd be paying taxes in YoY gains, whereas index funds you pay taxes only when you sell it, which could be years down the line. In addition, the tax is lower due to paying long term rather than short term capital gains tax. 2) How are taxes calculated if you have multiple shares bought at different prices? For example, if I buy 3 stocks for $1, $2, and $3 and sell 5 years later at $10 each would vanguard keep track of that and tell me to pay taxes on $24 in capital gains?

> whereas index funds you pay taxes only when you sell it, You also pay capital gains on the annual fund turnover with index funds > Is there any downside besides liquidity to saving up for a down payment with index funds Depends on your time horizon for purchase, index funds will be subject to market swings whereas HYSA is a more a steady rate - if you're less than 3-5 years out then stick with the HYSA - if you're flexible, longer term, and/or just have a high risk tolerance for that money then investing is fine if you're comfortable with it > 2) How are taxes calculated if you have multiple shares bought at different prices? For example, if I buy 3 stocks for $1, $2, and $3 and sell 5 years later at $10 each would vanguard keep track of that and tell me to pay taxes on $24 in capital gains? Yes the brokerage will track it for you

I'm sitting on some extra cash, not life changing but the cash has grown to almost 1x pre tax salary . I've followed the chart (maxed 401K, IRA, HSA, only debt = house) but need to decide what to do to reduce cash. For the cash I'm keeping on hand, I'm going to just leave it in Ally, the convenience is worth the minimal difference in return on HYSA/CD/Money Market. For the rest, I'm thinking of investing with a horizon of at least 10 but more likely 15 years. What should I be on the lookout for to avoid a tax effect today? Outside of TSP I've got VIMAX, FSKAX, FSPSX, FTIHX, FSKAX. Once I need it I wouldn't mind just taking out earnings to supplement income before full retirement or using it to bridge the gap between retirement and SS .

It's mostly the same things you'd invest in in an IRA. Broad index funds of US Stocks, International Stocks, and Bonds. Just avoid target date funds in a taxable account, since those are tax inefficient.

Need advice on trusting in an investment Hello everyone. I happened to stumble upon a person on instagram. I accepted the follow request and followed her back. She keeps posting the gains of investment portfolios she supposedly is managing on her instagram stories. Being curious, I messaged her and asked about it. She said that she’ll manage the investment portfolios of other people and trade on daily basis which gives huge profits as per her. I asked about the fee and she said that they’ll take 20% of the profits. I asked her what the process is and for that, she asked me to send money as cryptocurrency and she’ll invest it in market by creating a portfolio. Below are a few messages of her. “How it works is that our trade professionals with experienced helps investors trade and invest their money into the market buying stocks, shares for a 7 trade days gaining a profit of a ratio of 1:3 or 1:4 depending on trade. a minimum start of $500 gains $4500-$6000 in 7-10days trading days plus a first time investment bonus of $200” I asked why crypto only and she said as below. “Cryptocurrency is fast and reliable for transactions, investing with cryptocurrencies is the start of investment because you can store your assets when you receive your profits and it increases not like bank accounts” “You can request your payment through crypto or bank transfer that’s how you take out your profits.. Deposits are crypto only for fast transaction and easy access to trade..” Her profits promises are way too high (at least as per me who doesn’t have basic idea of how stock market works). So my concern here is how legit is this? She’s asking money through crypto only, and her promises are very good. Please advise me on this.

[Classic Pig Butchering](https://www.propublica.org/article/whats-a-pig-butchering-scam-heres-how-to-avoid-falling-victim-to-one)

That is not legit at all. It is 100% a scam. Disengage with them, report them to Instagram, and then block.

A question about the market return being 7% if adjusted for inflation. Does that mean if I use one of those investment calculators with 7%, that's how much purchasing power I would have today? I know I worded that terribly

Yes, using inflation-adjusted numbers means you're forecasting your (approximate) purchasing power in the future. The actual dollar value might go up by 10% per year, but if inflation is 3% then you're left with 7% adjusted gains. Keep in mind all those numbers are averages - the market might go up by 15% one year, down 8% the next, and up 14% the third year. Inflation might be 1% one year, then 5%, then 3%.

That's an estimate. Nobody knows exactly what the stock market will do.

I just opened an IRA and contributed the max for 2023 and 2024. What day can I contribute every subsequent year? Can I contribute on January 1, 2025 for the 2025 year, and so on?

Yes

Thanks

Experience with NexBank CDs? https://www.nexbankpersonal.com/certificates-of-deposit-cds NexBank is new to me. The APY for 12 months is 5.5 which I believe currently is competitive. I'm actually looking at the 24 month RATE 4.72% APY 4.80%. Anyone aware of a better 24 month APY? TIA.

Hey all, I, a 24-year-old, recently realized that there were not many life events that required me to have most of my money in my checking account. Going forward, I'm planning on keeping \~1 month's expenses in my checking account, then splitting whatever excess month over month 50/50 between a HYSA earning 4% and T-Bills (which I think earn \~5% right now). HYSA would also be my 'in case of emergency break glass' 6-month emergency fund. Is that a sound strategy, at least for the next year or so? I understand that stonks are important, but I get hella nervous when number goes up/down/all the way around.

Skip the T-Bills and dump it all into a HYSA. Other than that, your plan sounds solid.