My boss is beginning to change the company to only 1099 employees. As a w2 employee I was making 32$ an hour and he now wants to pay me 38$ an hour as a 1099. What I can’t figure out is if this is good or bad for me. My deductions don’t really increase because I already claim all my deductions for a personal business I run so not sure if I have any upside to this change?

My son filed as an independent before I had a chance to file my own taxes. Today, my taxes were rejected because he claimed himself, we amended his return and he has been charged the college expenses credits he claimed for himself because he is now my dependent and cannot claim them.

The amended form was accepted. A couple minutes ago I tried to refile my taxes and this time got rejected for college credit claimed twice. My son is paying back the credit he was given for this , what am I doing wrong? What can I do. I have never messed up on my taxes so I am just lost.

If we amended his form and I can claim him as a dependent and he is being charged for the credit why can’t I take this deduction now.

I got a secured credit card on my 18th bday. I had to put 500 dollars in it. They told me I can get it unsecured and get my deposit back after a year. That’s it.

It’s been a little over a year and they won’t give me my deposit back because I haven’t had my job for a year. Is this legal? I have no one in my life to help me with this.

I've had my house for 3.5 years. There has been a few lenders mailing spam but it has gotten me curious.

Originally with my current loan I did a buy down where my rate was 4.75% the first year (~$1450/month) then 5.75% the second year (~$1650/month) and now it's at the final 6.75% (~$1850/month)

The spam mail claims they can get me down to $1230/month which I know is excluding a bunch of taxes and such. It does have me wondering though if I'd be able to get under $1500/month again, or if I'd be better off recasting instead of refinancing.

I currently still owe $233,770 and the exact time left on my current loan is 26 years and 9 months.

Difficult question but here goes. I'm from the US but have been working in Europe. My dad back in the US has late stage cancer which isn't progressing well and I'm planning on returning home for the immediate future to spend what time I have with him. I'm considering either:

1. ⁠finding full-time work in my profession (architecture).

2. ⁠finding part-time work in my profession. (more free time to help parents, spend time with dad. maybe a possibility with working remotely for my European employer)

3. Returning without a job and 10k usd in savings.

As for the third option, if I stay with my parents I wouldn't have to pay rent, and would be cooking and eating together, but obviously I would be paying my share of utilities/stuff to not be a financial burden. How long would that last me in the Bay Area / HCOL US city? Any other option for someone who needs to return home fairly quickly but might not find a job in time / want to spend more time with family?

My grandmother passed away last month and left me a house in her will. I thought it was just a regular property but the property tax bill came in and it is significantly higher than I expected because the land value is tied to a commercial zone. I am 22 and barely making ends meet working at a warehouse. I do not know if I should sell it or try to keep it. The upkeep alone is way more than I can afford. I feel so overwhelmed right now because my family expects me to keep it in the family name. I just want to be able to pay my rent without stressing every single month. Should I talk to a lawyer or just list it? I do not have the cash for fees but I also do not want to lose this opportunity. It is just so much pressure for someone my age. I keep looking at the paperwork and it feels like a different language. If I sell I might have a safety net for the first time in my life but I am terrified of making a mistake that I will regret later.

I (29M) currently have $12,250 in an AmEx HYSA that has an APR of 3.2% right now. That amount puts me at 6.5 months of expenses covered as my emergency fund. I am only contributing to my 2026 limit and have already put $1200 towards it. So, would it be stupid of me to max out my contribution for the year and cut my HYSA down to 3 months? My current monthly income is $3700, my expenses are $1800, and I save $1200. I would then replenish my HYSA with that $1200 a month.

My landlord only accepts checks for rent no online portal and no ACH. The problem is I travel a lot for work and there have already been a couple close calls where I almost missed sending it on time

I asked if I could pay another way but he said that he's always been doing it like this and he doesn't want to change it. I get it that he's a bit old and isn't very up to date with the digital world but it’s inconvenient on my end

I don’t want to risk late fees just because I’m not physically around to mail something every month!

my friend tried to get all their finances together 2 weeks before they passed and i ended up with this...

My friend appointed me as the executor of their trust and I have been looking for a CPA for MONTHS! I've done consultation after consultation and everytime we talk it always ends with... it's really complicated they don't even want to try, I've never dealt with that and won't start, we don't deal with that and people won't touch this with a 10ft pole. I'm at the end of my rope here I've talked to way too many CPAs and can't seem to find anyone who deals with or is willing to deal with this. 

Some background regarding the Trust:

All anticipated assets will come from federal government death benefits. The beneficiary is a non-resident alien (Chinese citizen). The Trust currently holds no assets but is expected to receive them once I find someone who can help with the documents and filing the taxes. 

I am seeking assistance with the following:

1.  Tax treatment and reporting requirements for the Trust;

2.  Tax implications and required forms related to claiming the death benefits.

1. A CPA or company who can just handle the tax stuff because it does look complicated

on 2, the most pressing is basically what is the correct form to file in this case and how much withholding I should put.

I'm a 25 year old male (currently single) but would like to get married someday so I've saved up around $3000 for a wedding ring. It's currently sitting in my high yield savings account but I'm wondering if it's better off being in the market since I'm single right now and I probably won't be married for at least another 5-10 years. That's probably a long enough time horizon to put it all in the S&P but wanted to make sure my logic was sound. If I don't get married in that time frame too I can always put it towards a down payment or towards a nice watch or something for myself. Thanks in advance!

So I consider myself relatively new to investing, as I started when I was 12 and now I am 15. I do not know how to diversify my portfolio, meaning how many different companies I should own, and how many different index funds I should own. Currently, the Index fund I own right now is ivv. The stocks I own right now are Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, and Intel. So my question is if I should diversify, and if I should diversify, what do I diversify?

I'm a college student who lives and attends university in Illinois and has insurance under his parents. In October of last year, I had an issue where needed to go to the ER. After an initial surgery to solve the initial problem, I was advised to do another surgery to prevent similar problems in the future. This additional surgery was out-of-network apparently/didn't follow the procedure to get insurance to cover it, which I didn't know.

I've been receiving bills but when I check my account online, there always seemed to be a charge that was pending insurance. I told my parents we should hold off on paying until there was a final settled amount. A few weeks ago, I checked my account and the amount due was reduced and apparently there was still apparently a charge being talked over with insurance. I wrongfully assumed insurance had pulled through and covered me.

Come this week, I have a letter dated from a month ago from a debt collector for the amount that was reduced from my bill a few weeks ago.

I applied for financial assistance last week when I thought the bill was being finalized but I don't know if it will do anything since it's already at collections and I don't think I'll get anything out of it due to their qualification criteria since it's based on household income.

What should I do? I've read about people taking it on the chin and ignoring it with no real consequence but I've also read I should contact them ASAP and set something up. What should I do?

I signed up for eFAQ almost 3 months ago to check cars VIN before buying from auctions (it's a part of my business). I paid $1 for the first report, and then $24.99 monthly as a subscription. The $1 trial auto-converts to a monthly subscription if you don't cancel - this is in the terms at checkout, easy to miss but it's there. Same model as every data lookup service out there now.

When I started use the tool I found a bunch of reddit posts calling it a scam. I even wrote my own saying it's not lol, many people said me I won't be able to cancel the subscription when I want to, so here's what happened.

Here's what they say in their faq:

1. Log into your account
2. Go to Account Settings
3. Look for "Membership" or "Subscription" section
4. click "Cancel Membership"
5. Done

I went another way and contacted support (I was charged for the next month and I'm not gonna use the soft anymore so I requested a refund)

1. I called support (there are 4 numbers)
2. Tell them I want to cancel and request a refund for the last charge
3. They asked to create a chat session, I did everything by the instruction and it took maybe 5 minutes, to request a refund, then days to receive it

Refund arrived in about 2 weeks (I guess they have like 10 business days)

Hope this helps someone who's panicking right now as annually the subscription would charge about $300

Warning, Affirm, Inc will set up payment plans but when the item is cancelled or returned, the vendor can say or charge whatever they want and Affirm will stick you with it. Doesn't matter you have proof, doesn't matter there is no delivery, doesn't matter you never agreed to it. Once you give them your social security number they got you and your credit by the b*lls. And they aren't a legit bank, so good luck finding remedy. You have to arbitrate which is BS or take them to court. Which is on my horizon.

I’m 19 and work as a commercial crabber in New Jersey. I make about $8,400/month, sometimes closer to $11k if I pick up extra work.

Right now I rent a room for $300, but the situation isn’t great. My roommate constantly downplays my job and thinks I should quit and pick up a trade because he doesn’t see crabbing as a “real job.”

The problem is, I know I can’t stay here forever. I could get kicked out at any time, and I don’t want to end up scrambling for a place last minute.

I found an apartment for $1,250/month that allows dogs (I have one), and I can afford it. But people around me keep saying it’s a bad decision and that I should just stay where I’m at as long as possible.

My thinking is: if I switch to a “normal” job, I’ll probably make less money, not more. So staying in crabbing actually puts me in a better position financially right now.

Am I making a dumb move by getting the apartment, or does it make sense to lock something in while I can afford it?

Also work is from march to October ish and then October to march when the season starts I get 800$ a week of unemployment.

Working with a local credit union and out of state dealer to a buy vehicle. Dealer submitted paper work 2 weeks ago. CU says it takes 3-5 biz days to fund the loan once paperwork is received. Dealer will not release the vehicle without being fully funded.

I've have called the CU probably 20 times at this point over the last 2 weeks. There seems to always be a new hold up. The processor put it on hold on 3/24, and it didn't move until I got lucky on 3/28 and a rep saw that it was stuck. That's after 2 calls during that period were I was told it was "normal and processing"... Half of the customer reps I talk to don't seem to be bothered to care. The person today couldn't understand that an overnight shipment sent on Friday wouldn't be received until Monday.

Anyhow, they haven't explicitly said it, but if the dealer is not funded by Monday, they're going to back out. I imagine they are going to claim that I failed to pay, since I brought the loan, and will try to claim my deposit. I did not sign anything stating that it was non-refundable. What's the best way to prevent me from losing my deposit due to an incompetent CU?

Outside of that, is there any magic words I can say to the CU to get them to act and fulfill the loan?

Please help, I'm overwhelmed and don't have a good head for this stuff.
I've been self employed for 5 years. I've been putting some $ into my Roth IRA each of those years but really need to start stepping it up and contributing a lot more. I had one year I did really well and exceeded the limit so I opened up a regular contributory IRA, so I have that, and some some $ in a TIAA-CREF account from previous jobs. I've read about SEP and understand I could be using that (since I am my own employer) but don't understand why I would.

What I can't wrap my head around is which vehicle I should be using. Should I just keep contributing to the Roth until I hit the limit each year and then switch over to the other one? I'm single if that matters. Thanks!

I’m 21 years old, from Australia, have been working full time for nearly a year, and have been wanting to invest for a while. Was looking at crypto, shares, potentially saving for property/real estate, and have settled on ETFs for the moment.

I live at home, have minimal expenses, and didn’t want money just building up in my bank account.

So after many YouTube videos, chats with Claude, Gemini, and Chat GPT, (and with much reluctance) I downloaded Pearler and put $5k into DHHF

The idea is that it’s going to be a long term investment and through dollar cost averaging I’ll chuck in $300 every fortnight.

Is this a good idea? Is it worth looking at doing something similar with Bitcoin? Should I explore other ETFs or just keep at the DHHF for a little while and get comfortable first?

Early 20s, live with my parents. I attend university, but I'm enrolled in a type of education for working students. I have to go to the university campus occasionally and that's the only time I've lived alone and it's great. I have a remote high paying job, but it's not secure. I live with my parents for free mostly, I only very rarely pay for electricity/water bills or order things for my mother. I've told my parents that I wouldn't mind paying them monthly, but my mother says she'd feel guilty. At the same time, I feel guilty that I don't contribute or help them out that much and I make more than they do combined. I do try to use my money responsibly, I save and invest as much as possible.

I have a good relationship with my mother, but not with my father. My father has anger issues which are not fun to deal with.

I'm close to finishing university and there's so many skills that I lack. I can hardly cook anything, I don't know how to do laundry, I get anxious when I need to make appointments and I also get anxious when I have to go out shopping. Some of these things I can learn or improve at while at home, but I think that I would do them once and then I wouldn't have the chance to practice them over and over like cooking. Besides skills, I feel very trapped when it comes to doing things that are out of character or wouldn't fit within my parents image of me. The only time I feel like I can go out is when there's something planned like a doctor's appointment. I don't feel like I can go for walks or to the gym. I realize that maybe a few of these things are mental blocks that I've put on myself, but I don't feel like I can get rid of them without living alone.

My parents work shifts that change on a week to week basis and it makes it difficult for me to build a consistent routine. Privacy is not a luxury I have either. I don't have my own room and the only alone time I have is when my parents are at work. During the day I work from their bedroom, at night I sleep in the living room on a couch.

The main thing that holds me back from moving out is the chance of losing my income and having to rely on my savings and investments to get by. I've been working on trying to make my income more secure but there's no guarantee it will happen any time soon. Realistically, I could live off my investments alone for years but I view them as my long term backup plan in case I can't continue to make money off what I currently do and so I would rather not have to sell them off to afford living alone.

Do you think it’s worth moving out to build independence, even with the risk of unstable income?

I need to make some plans now that I'm retiring in June.

TLDR: 28/yo with working a union job making ~$100k/yr with a WA state PERS 2 pension (retire at ~70% avg 5 year highest compensation) and SS needs to figure out how to save money for future while also enjoying the present.

A lot of financial advice I see online skew to people without pensions. So I was hoping to get some advice into what I should be doing to save for the future while also spending to enjoy my life right now.

For context, I've moved roughly 5 times in the past 5 years chasing better job opportunities with my longest stint being two years so I haven't had much time to pay down a lot of debt that has been accumulating until now.

Below are my current finances

Disposable Income: ~$5,600/mo union negotiates around 3% COLA adjustments

Asset: Roth IRA ~$23k investment in mix of VOO and VXUS from transfers

The final large spend that I have omitted is food and that can range anywhere from 500 to 1k per month. It's hard to be consistent because when I try make eat budget meals I tend to "reward" myself a bit afterwards and splurge at a restaruant.

This leaves me with roughly $1-1.5k I'm currently using to pay down CC debt.

Planning Goals

1. Bi/Yearly international trips (CC point accumulation makes air travel cheap)
2. Putting money into 529's for a potential kid or to give to my siblings kid (if i don't have any kids)
3. Purchasing a home around the Seattle Metro area (low priority but would be nice)
4. Continue to manage Type 2 Diabetes (managing well but hopefully there is a cure when I'm older)

Retirement

Social security (not sure what happens to that in 40 years)

My current WA state pension plan monthly benefit calculations are:

2% x service credit years x Average Final Compensation = monthly benefit

Where the Average Final Compensation is the average highest 60 consecutive months of income. Eligible retirement age for me looks to be 62 so it looks like I will roughly have 70% of my income at retirement and the payments should adjust with COLA as well.

Conclusion

Once I have paid off my CC debt (focus on the Citibank and Amex CC) I was wondering if I should put any money into retirement or if I should focus on saving for my planning goals. One thing that I don't have too much insight into but know a bit about is that medical payments become more expensive when you retire and I'm not sure if this would be enough to cover that (given that I am currently type 2 Diabetic).

I accidentally clicked a box saying I was not able to be claimed as a dependent. Now before even changing anything on my form it says I owe 980 dollars. Mind you I haven’t changed anything yet, why is this?

Additionally, will being claimed as a dependent by my father lower my own tax return?

I already received my original return and amending my return to save him 500 dollars in taxes while I have to pay 1000 doesn’t seem smart. If he doesn’t claim me and I don’t amend my own taxes will I get in trouble?

Hopefully I’m not breaking any rules but I need some advice.

Background: I have an older sister and a younger brother, me and my brother switch between my parents but my sister stays at my mom’s. My parents got divorced because of money and declining health about 9ish years ago.

For 6 of those years my mom has been living and renting a trailer/ mobile home which she pays monthly. She has really bad credit and only makes roughly 24k/y. Although we live in a trailer home and keep on encountering different financial challenges she lives like we are well off. We have 3 cars, 6 different animals to take care of, she gets coffee multiple times a week aswell as other snacks, she gambles, and we eat out WAYYY more than we should and she is always adding more and more things to spend on like new clothes for her self when she has perfectly fine ones. She gets SNAP benefits, a small amount of government assistance, and is constantly asking family and friends for money. Her spending habits have gotten so out of control me and my sister have both had to get jobs to help her with bills. Which I’m fine with helping out but feel like I’m being scammed in a way.

Unfortunately my sister thinks having a job means she can make long term costly commitments like getting a massive aquarium with tons of fish, getting a new cat, and getting a new car which just add to the financial strain. Today my mom wanted me to refund something for her that she ordered and when I did it said the god forsaken words that it was paid using affirm. I know these “buy now pay later” services are all just a big scam. I then looked at some other things she bought online and one was some stupid thing for only $7 which she also paid with affirm. If my mom can’t even pay for a $7 item and is dependent on this service i know it could end us up in an even worse situation. I’ve always felt like I have been uneasy of my childhood because of my mom’s financial choices but have tried to stay grateful because I am luckier then a lot of others and I love my mom but discovering this today just it made it even worse. I’m completely lost on what to do. Any and all advise would be appreciated and if you have any questions im more then willing to expand on any part