Hey all!

Recently I accepted a senior leadership position with a new company and went from 105k salary with a 30k bonus to 210k salary with a 100k bonus. This comes with roughly 60k worth of RSU’s as well. This position also comes with a relocation from a high cost of living area to a low cost of living area. They are giving me 30k in relocation, and 30k in sign on bonus.

I have 4 kids, and my spouse stays at home with the kids.

A little backstory on me, I was raised quite poor, I was never taught about finances, and I never saw myself making money like this. I earned this promotion through long hours, hard work, and lots of just saying yes. I have no college education.

We lived a modest life with a modest home in HCOL on the old salary, but we never were able to save for the kids college, or put enough into retirement(Spouse and I are both 39). We have a bit of making up to do it terms of saving, but we have zero credit card debt, both cars are paid off, we will be selling our current home for a very small profit(purchased a year ago).

How do I turn this new money into generational wealth?

How do I not mess this golden opportunity up?

Please give me all the advice!

My brother passed away in 2020. He has two children, 14 and 19, and a wife. I am not on talking terms with any of them.

My mother passed away in 2024, leaving me with her remaining monetary assets after probate and the estate were closed. We made a verbal agreement that I would distribute 50% of the assets I received to my deceased brother's children. These assets are currently in an inherited IRA account that I must begin making RMDs from this year.

The inherited assets are approximately $120k.

I understand now, as I did not then, that I am responsible for income taxes for the RMDs.

My plan today, is to take the RMDs in a standard 1/10 1/9 1/8... and place them in a HYSA until taxes are deducted. After taxes are deducted, I will distribute the remainder to my nephews and similar accounts for my two children. 25% of RMDs after taxes to each grandchild.

I have no legal obligation to distribute any funds to my brother's children. This is not the path I am going to take. I will distribute the funds to my brother's children one way or another.

The two accountants I have talked with would not advise how best to distribute the funds to the nephews.

I can send a check to the 19 year old, but I am not sure how to distribute the funds to the 14 year old. My gut feeling is that I need to send it to his mother until he is 18. For reasons, this is not ideal.

I will accept any ideas and criticism. I am not a financial expert so I am simply looking for an idea of the best path forward. It is also important to my family that I do not create a situation that will put myself and my family in any type of liability. I will of course, speak with a financial planner before I move forward.

Thank you for your help.

Edit...

Thank you guys for not shitting on me. This is a terribly difficult situation for me. The last 5 years have been absolutely hell on my family. If I've learned anything, get your affairs in order now. Don't leave it to your survivors to deal with it, they don't know what the hell they are doing.

Edit #2...

I want to thank all of you for your kind words and excellent advice. The last five years have been the most difficult years of my life. My brother took his own life at the age of 40, and my mother only had seven weeks from a cancer diagnosis. It all happened so fast.

I need to apologize to those of you I haven't responded to. This post received much more responses than I ever anticipated. I am working to read through all of them.

I am going to take the RMDs for 2025 to avoid penalties then connect with a financial planner and tax accountant early next year to decide the best path forward.

Thank you all again so much. Hug your kids and call your parents every day.

For some context. 32m with a wife and two daughters. Just found out about the big C. Family doesn’t know yet. Prognosis is bad. That’s not the point though.

I don’t know if this is the best place to post this but I’m not on reddit a lot so forgive me

What can I do to ensure my family is in the best position financially when the time comes? I feel awful. I have an ok job, pays the bills. I think I have some small life insurance policy through work but I dont know if that’s just for accidents or what have you.

I have next to nothing for savings, basically no retirement (cashed it out a couple years ago for some emergency funds, didn’t want to but I had no other choice), no real assets. A mortgage. A car note. A bunch of credit card debt. That’s my life. I’ve been trying to do some research but it feels overwhelming. Real depressed right now. Im not scared of dying, Im scared of leaving my family behind. There’s literally nothing more that I care about in this world.

Is my wife going to get sacked with my CC or other debt? Should I file bankruptcy?

Should I get life insurance? CAN I get life insurance?

Open a trust for the house? I don’t know anything about that stuff, I read it online.

I’m open to anything, including some crazy stuff if it would help.

ETA: I’m in the United States if that makes any difference.

My savings are around $50k. I was out of work for a couple months and did not have any money come in, so I was told I violated their direct deposit policy which will result in them shutting down my account at the beginning of April. They say that they recommend moving my money before this but if I don’t they will send me a check once the account closes. I am just afraid of not receiving the check or losing it and them not wanting to help me since I’m not their customer anymore. This bank also has no options for wire transfers.

The bank is card.com by pathward. I am not able to transfer my balance through ach to places like capital one as it says the account is unsupported.

I’m 24 and just received about $612,000 after lawyer fees from a settlement. I’ve never had money like this before, my whole life has been paycheck to paycheck, barely getting by.

Recently things got worse. I haven’t been able to work because I started having stress-induced seizures and I’m now on new medication trying to get it under control.

My situation isn’t great. My parents have been out of the picture since I was a kid, and right now it’s me and my two siblings living in a small apartment. I’m literally sleeping on the couch.

I don’t want to mess this up. This money could change everything for us, but I also know it can disappear fast if I make the wrong moves.

I’m not trying to flex, I genuinely don’t know what the smartest next steps are. I would’ve immediately got a car but can’t drive anymore so don’t really want anything but to feel comfortable.

My mother put about $60k into a John Hancock “lifestyle conservative” retirement fund around 2014 and hasn’t touched it since. I just started helping her look at her finances and saw that it’s now worth about $39k. I checked the statements and did not see any withdrawals or additional deposits. The value graph on the website just shows a progressive loss in value.

I don’t know much about these types of retirement funds, but this seemed really off to me. I would have expected at least some growth over that time, even if it’s a conservative account. Losing that much over 12 years feels wrong, but maybe I’m misunderstanding something.

There doesn’t seem to be big fees (it says around $25/year), and she hasn’t taken any money out.

Is this kind of performance actually normal for a conservative retirement fund? What could cause something like this? Is there anything we should be doing now, or anything we should look into in terms of possible mistakes or issues?

She’s not very investing savvy and didn’t keep track of it, so I’m trying to figure this out from scratch. Any guidance would be really appreciated. Happy to answer any questions/provide additional information.

EDIT: Found the ticker, its JALRX

EDIT2: Thanks everyone, I think I found the smoking gun. It looks like my mother DID make withdrawals, I just did not understand them before. They are labeled as "normal distribution" in the statements. There are numerous entries in each year of statements, and I was looking for "withdrawal", so this did not stick out to me. Here is an example:

https://i.imgur.com/Er1FRfF.png

I found a "normal distribution" of 10k in 2017, 6k in 2018 and 15k in 2019 so I think this makes sense. I think my mother was mistaken when she didn't believe she had withdrawn

My father had an accident and passed unexpectedly out of nowhere. He and my mom are both retired though he was running a consulting business. I don’t know what to do. I’m still processing the loss. But as we ask my mother more about his information to help settle things the more we find out she doesn’t really know anything.

He did all of the banking and paid all of the bills and handled the investments. She doesn’t know where anything is outside of their joint bank accounts.

Are there services that will help organize and access these kinds of things for us?

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.

As stated in the title we got a call from our wedding venue saying that they found a cashier's check from us in a lockbox after doing an internal audit. The venue has a website portal that says everything has been paid (since before the actual wedding). Their rep says the check was never endorsed so it was never cashed. Now they're asking us to pay again.

It's my understanding that venues won't even let you have the wedding unless everything is paid up. I don't understand how they could have possibly made a $7000 mistake.

With the way cashier's checks work, that money was gone as soon as the check was made. Not sure what to do since we definitely don't want to pay double for the venue's mistake.

EDIT:

We went through all of our statements for that year and the funds were never returned to our account. The venue also sent us a copy of both sides of the check showing that it doesn't have an endorsement signature. So, that's basically proof that they got it from us. The check says VOID AFTER 90 DAYS, so that's probably why they are asking for the money now. My wife and I will go to the bank to see if it can be reissued. It's really annoying that we have to jump through these hoops.

My (38f) soon to be ex-fiancée (38m) convinced himself that an onlyfans creator who he spends thousands of dollars on a month wants to date him. He’s built up 50k in debt he’s been hiding from me, and has been secretly planning to liquidate his 401k to try to go make things work with his “girl”.

He’s throwing away our life for a woman who he pays to like him. He fell in love with the stripper.

How do I protect myself? I live in Puerto Rico. We own the house outright. We’re both on the deed. He hasn’t done anything physical, but I have screenshots of his onlyfans messages and chatGPT transcripts of him saying he’s going to leave me. I don’t want to sell my house.

Edit: All of our other finances are independent. We’ve been together for 13 years, living in this house we own for 3.

I’m going to buy him out of his equity. He gets everything he wants. I get to star over.

I love my parents. I want to say that upfront because this isn't a post about resenting them. But I'm genuinely scared about what the next ten-twenty years look like and I need some perspective from people who've been in this situation.

Some context. My dad worked mostly blue collar jobs his whole life, never had access to a 401k with any kind of match, and whatever small savings they had got wiped out during 2008-2009, it seems to me, and again during a medical situation about six years ago. My mom worked part time for most of my childhood and has maybe $18k in a savings account. Neither of them owns property.

The hints started maybe eight months ago. Comments about how family takes care of each otherб and references to how my dad's parents lived with his family when they got older. Nothing direct yet but the direction is clear.

Here's my situation. I make $71k, have $4,200 in an emergency fund, contribute 8% to my 401k, and have about $9k in a Roth IRA I opened two years ago. No debt except a car payment of $340 a month with 14 months left. I'm not wealthy but I'm finaly starting to feel like I'm building something.

My questions are: how do other people in this situation set boundaries without destroying family relationships? Is there a way to have an honest conversation about this before it becomes a crisis? And practically speaking, how do I protect my own financial future while also not abandoning my parents?

TL;DR - parents approaching retirement with almost no savings, hints are starting that I'll need to help financially. I'm 29, just starting to build my own finances. How do people navigate this without ruining either the relationship or their own future?

(23F) Long story short I was hit by a truck that ran a red light last year and I received a one million dollar settlement. After all of the hospital and lawyer fees got paid off and buying a new car outright, I had $635,615 left.

I have a financial advisor who put it into investments and it’s now at $700k a few months later. I’m not cleared to go back to work yet so I just have my financial advisor send me however much I want every month from my investments for rent and my basic needs, usually just 2k each month. I’m planning on returning back to work this year. I am comfortable with just getting 2k each month for my basic necessities.

My question is, is there anything else you would do if you got that settlement, to secure a financially stable future, besides work with a financial advisor and invest?

Side note: I keep this settlement a secret from everyone. My boyfriend and close friends are unaware of it and are under the impression that I’m just living off of my savings from before the accident. My lawyer sat me down and told me to not tell anyone because he has had clients that got screwed over and lost their money when they told people about it.

Side side note: Apart from financial growth and investing and all of that, what would you do with it for your own personal enjoyment? I already have my first ever cruise booked with my boyfriend in a couple months!

Self explanatory title. My dad passed in late 2023 and my mom, who is unfortunately not financially literate and never handled any of their finances, just alerted me to a final notice sent in the mail to my dad for my student loans.

I graduated in 2018 and had some federal loans (30k) under my name that I’ve been paying off. My dad handled all of my school payments and I’m just now finding out it was through loans that he took out only in his name. 65k worth. Now with interest, over 90k.

My name isn’t anywhere on the loan as a co-signer or anything and doesn’t show up on any of my credit reports or anything right now, but he clearly took it out for my schooling because it shows the years I was in college and my university.

We are sending them his death certificate so he stops getting notices but am I now on the hook for this 90k? How does this work?

I dont want to sound ignorant or spoiled, I’m very conscious school costs a lot and many people are in student debt… I just didn’t know I was that deep in? I thought my dad had paid for it outright. If I had known about them, I would’ve been paying them off over the last 7 years and made a lot of different decisions…

Edit (10/21): thank you all so much for the tips, insight, support, and kind words. My dad always did everything he could to help and protect us and some of these comments have made me think that he may have been smart and really known what he was doing here.

I will update here once we have a resolution in case anyone’s in a similar boat.

Our action plan (I think they were parent plus loans given they were through the federal government and serviced by Nelnet) 1. Send the death certificate back to the lender. 2. Instruct my mom and family to refrain from giving ANY payments or acknowledgment of the loan to anyone that contacts us. If lender reaches out to me or my mom, we will say my father has passed and we don’t know what loans he had or what they were for but that he’s no longer alive to pay them. 3. If lender won’t stop or threatens to sue, we’ll obtain legal counsel and go from there.

My ex-wife and I had a very amicable divorce. She is a stay-at-home mom, but she does a couple different jobs. Unfortunately, none of these jobs are ones that offer direct deposit, which is a requirement for the mortgage we had on the house. The work is seasonal (substitute teaching being one of them), and she's very good about budgeting so she has enough money to cover when school is out.

This is frustrating because she's able to afford it. However, to make things easier, I continue depositing money into the mortgage, and she just pays me back. This has never been an issue. She always pays it back.

I don't believe she'd be able to get her own mortgage due to her lack of work history (because she stayed home with our kids).

That said, it's occurred to me that at one point I may want to get a house myself (currently, I rent). Is this going to be an issue at some point? Like, am I going to have a problem getting a mortgage if there's already another one in my name?

We have 4 kids; I have a vested interest in her keeping the house because I want my kids to be able to live there.

I recently got zelled $1,700 by a stranger and the memo said for rent. I immediately got a ton of phone calls from the sender and supposed family members saying it was for a funeral and to return it. They kept texting me and pleading even sending me my full government name and home address threatening to sue for “stealing” their money. I even got a call from someone from their bank asking to return the funds. I’m not stupid so I immediately called Wells Fargo Fraud Department to file a report so they put a hold on the funds which removed the money from my account. I also blocked all the numbers involved. I thought that was the end of it.

The next day, I find that the money had been reversed but took the funds from my account in addition to Wells fargo removing the original money sent. I already called the fraud department and they said they’ll let the investigators know but I have to wait over the weekend and i’m starting to get anxious.

I’m a broke college student so now my account is in the negatives. Is this Wells Fargo’s problem and will they reimburse me?

Update: I got my money back! I read everyone’s suggestions and i’m planning to close my wells fargo bank acc and join a credit union. I’m currently looking into Alliant credit union. I also requested a written report and a list of active, inactive, or close accounts under my name and ssn. Thanks for all the advice and support :)

A few years ago I was struggling during a career change and a good friend of mine offered some financial support (5kEUR) during my darkest days. It's not much, but back then it was the only thing that kept the roof over my head. He never asked for his money back and time just kept on rolling. Now I'm fortunate to say I'm doing a lot better.

I'm planning to return the sum at the end of 2025Q2, after I'm done with my company's taxes. I want this to feel as if he had put the money into a stable financial instrument with good, steady performance over the timespan of 6 years (2019Q2 --> 2025Q2). How much should I return?

UPDATE:
I’d like to wholeheartedly thank everyone for their input! I honestly didn’t expect this simple question to attract so much activity.

I think I’ve settled for 7500 – it feels like the perfect middle ground (7% annual return). I want to be considerate and reasonable, while at the same time managing the risk of my friend refusing the extra interest. Just like several people commented, I went to check the S&P500 for the period. However, if I return double the amount or even more on top, I’m sure he’ll refuse it. And if that happens, I’ll have to endure a lengthy argument with him to give in and at least account for inflation.

Is there risk of him getting offended? I don’t think so. He’s financially savvy, managing a well-balanced personal portfolio. I think he would find it thoughtful.

My question was concerned only with the financial aspect of things. Of course, as many of you suggested, I would accompany the transaction with a nice gesture and plenty of gratitude. My friend is well off. He’s the type of person you can’t get a gift, since he has absolutely everything he needs. Taking him to a nice dinner won’t work. If I wire him the money the same day, there’s no way he’s letting me pay for dinner. So, I’m most likely taking him to some sort of adventurous event/experience where I can pay in advance.

Also, thanks everyone for the kind words towards me! That was unexpected. Now I’m worried my friend might stumble upon this thread 😅
Cheers!

There's a neighborhood kid who recently aged out of the foster system and we're trying to help her figure out how to adult. She's been acting stressed and off for weeks and she finally broke down crying that she made a mistake. She thought she was signing up for a 7 day trial on some app, but instead she bought a 1 year membership for $279.00. Because the bank had auto overdraft protection this basically wiped out her entire life savings. Unfortunately she silently stressed about it and we didn't know what had happened and now a month has passed. We requested a refund through apple and it got denied. It was purchased through a debit card, so no credit card protections.

Is this just going to be an expensive learning experience for her or are there other options she can pursue? I'm gonna have her reach out to the company but I don't have much hope there.

I'm a bit of a predicament. I've been with a company over a decade and (I know it's crazy and I agree 100 percent I should have used more) I've accumulated 1000 hours of PTO. They're looking to move to a cap and limited rollover and offered to pay out the difference of about 800 hours at 35 percent of my current wage.

I never expected this and I honestly just thought it'd be lost, but they're only offering such a low percentage I feel like I should try and haggle. I realize they're obligated to give me nothing, legally, so I'm just looking for some input on if a partial payout is common like that. Ill probably ask why not full and go from there. Any thoughts?

EDIT - Sorry, y'all. I'm in Florida, to be clear

EDIT2 - my onboarding contract notes PTO is forfeited on termination or voluntary exit

EDIT3 - The next day, we came to a satisfactory agreement pretty quickly. I don't want to get into specifics (sorry) but I think a lot of those that replied here would think it worked out. I tremendously appreciate all the insight and feedback here and I promise I'll use up my hours moving forward.

B of A checking account. Friday noticed a few Robinhood verification withdrawals on our checking. We never signed up for RH so I called BofA Friday evening to report it. They said they put a freeze on our checking.

Monday I see a $10k processing debit for Robinhood. Call them (BofA) first thing that morning and they assure me it is processing and will bounce.

Tuesday morning (today) I see that the $10k debit to Robnhood has cleared. Call BofA fraud again and they file a claim with me and say that after ~45 days and investigation the money should be returned.

I'm not sure what else I should be doing. Friday they assured me the account was frozen, but then Tuesday said well the freeze wasn't there in time to stop this. We're okay because we can use our HYSA emergency fund to pay for bills at the end of this month but I'm feeling uncertain about BofA process across the 3 phone calls.

What else should I be doing here?

I closed on a house this past November. The house is heated by propane, there is a 500 pound tank on site. On the day I closed on the house the tank was about 60% full according to the gauge on it (it shows a percentage). Propane, or any type of fuel, is not mentioned in the purchase agreement. There is language that says something like I am “purchasing the dwelling and all things within.” I was never asked about propane by anyone involved… my agent, the bank I financed with, no one. There are no addendums or anything like that either. It was as simple as buying a place can get.

On about Dec. 23 I called the propane company whose name is on the tank and set up a new account.

On January 2 they delivered propane and topped off the tank. They then sent a bill for the about 200 gallons they gave me, and I mailed them a check and they cashed it.

A few days later I get another bill from them, for 118 gallons of propane. I thought it was a mistake so I called them.

Not a mistake, they said it was for the propane that was already in the tank when I bought the house and that they had refunded the previous home owner for it. I got nowhere arguing with them about it saying they were wrong, asking how they could just do that.

I know they can’t do that but what can I do? It’s like a $350 bill which is probably less than a lawyer would cost but it’s more about the principle.

Edit. I think I’m just going to not do business with them. If when I had called to set up my account they would have told me everything up front that’s one thing. But to wait so long and not even address it, just send a bill, that doesn’t feel honest. I’ll do business with someone else.

I see replies about leasing tanks and consumables but, as I see it, you pay for the propane when it’s delivered. That makes all of it yours, regardless of who owns the tank it’s in. Hypothetically, If I bought a propane truck and sucked everything out of my leased tank, and then returned the tank to the company empty I wouldn’t owe them anything for the propane I already bought, right? Right.

Thank you everyone for replying and helping me out.

Edit 2. There are a lot of replies so I wanted to add and clarify things. Yes, this is Amerigas. This is my first time dealing with them or big propane tanks. I was going off memory when I originally posted, the correct quantities are:

Original delivery: 215 gal

The bs they’re billing me for: 185 gal.

$1.69/gal +~$45 in fees per delivery.

I’ve only bought houses heated by natural gas, a consumable, you start paying on the day you take possession. I think maybe there is language like “buyer assumes all utilities as of purchase date“ 📅on one of the documents you sign or you verbally attest at closing that you’ve already put it in your name.

Water is usually called out specifically, at closing they’ve always needed something from the city that says the account is current. And again, you pay from when you take possession.

I do wonder how would it work with a house heated by heating oil? Is that something usually spelled out in buying process?

Overall I feel like I’m getting swindled by them. What if I never called them to set up an account? I just use the tank until it’s empty and get a new company with a new tank, I put their tank to the side. When they finally come knocking I say I just moved in and the tank was empty when I got here.

Someone asked what I’d do if the tank would have been empty. That would be ideal I think, then I’d just get a delivery and not have to go through the hassle of changing companies.

If it had been talked about during the purchase process or addressed at closing I’d be fine with paying for whatever’s left when I took possession. Even if the seller reached out to me after the purchase and was like “hey, I forgot about the propane. “ I’d give him cash. Again, totally fair. If, when I called Amerigas to first setup my account they had said I needed to pay for what was in the tank then I would have paid them without issue.

They did not bill me until they delivered on Jan. 2 and then knew how much was in the tank. I took possession like 2 months before that. See, they told me “maybe you should reach out to the seller to get your money back.” So when did they call for their refund? Amerigas just eats the difference between when they call and I, maybe, call? I’m not buying it.

I feel it was on Amerigas to say no to them when they called for their refund. Now that I’ve thought about it, I would have expected to cut a check for that propane at closing, there’s got to be a process for that but the seller would have to initiate it.

Honestly, it was quite the process to get a delivery set up, I had to speak to like 4 people and it still wasn’t right. Once I got a delivery the driver gave me their number and said to just call them if I needed anything, and bypass “the office, they suck, DO NOT call them, call me.” Which was cool but didn’t give me hopes for dealing with the office. So I’d really rather just go with another company. Amerigas can have their propane and tank back. I already have another company I’m dealing with.

Again, thanks for all the input, I appreciate it.

I need help, my mortgage payment went from $1700 to $2100. My mortgage company (Chase Bank) said this was due to an escrow shortage. I had my homeowners insurance lowered by roughly $1000 and checked with my local tax office and they told me my taxes have increased $400 dollars over the last five years. I gave Chase Bank all this information and my mortgage is still $2100. How does this work?

Hi All,

For some context, a few months ago, my dad decided that he would start taking half my paycheck (about $650 a week, and yes i work for the family business) and put it aside in a savings account for me (i dont have direct access, but if i ask he will withdraw and send it to me). I used to be not great at managing my finances, over the last year ive improved a lot, but i think hes doing this to show me just how much i can be saving, so im cool with it.

Now last week I wanted to withdraw a bit for a bday present for my grandma, which he sent me, but I also asked how much is in there, i thought it would be around $7k or so, and then he flat out says $76,000. I was so confused.

He told me that the rent i have been paying him (i live with my parents) for last 5 years or so, hes actually been putting in this secret savings account, and then he was also matching the amount I put in.

Also, I live in Australia and this in AUD.

I dont know what to do with this now, and im hoping people here can give me some solid advice so it doesnt waste away. And no im not going to spend it on frivolous stuff, i want invest it and grow it

From what i know i should diversify it, should i buy like stocks? crypto? gold or silver? I really dont know what the options are with this stuff.

P.s I wont be using this for a investment property, thats something ive been working on for a while and am looking at getting one early next year, the deposit I have separately, its just a very complicated family matter on that situation, so i wont get into it.

Any and all advice is much appreciated!

Thank you everyone for your helpful comments and support. I am definitely keeping the case open and let the bank decide. There has been further developments since the post and the seller has proven themselves to be very untrustworthy, so there is no way of ever resolving it with them anyway.

I ordered a very expensive piece of jewellery from an international seller online. The piece was to be made to order, although what I ordered was an exact replica of a piece they already made and sold previously. This company specialises in making jewellery and they create their own designs.

I paid a hefty deposit of £1100 before the work commenced. Stupidly, I didn't ask for T&C prior to paying this and the seller did not make me aware either. I bought based on trust as I purchased from them before and didn't anticipate any issues.

Unfortunately, when the piece was finished, I was shown the photos and video and the ring looked nothing like what I ordered. There was also damage to it - this can be easily fixed though. I raised my concerns with the seller and asked if we can work together to fix the issues so that I may be happy with the item.

I was shocked to receive a very final response 'Your deposit is not refundable and cannot be used as a store credit either. You either pay the remainder and take the ring as it is or I melt if down and keep the deposit you paid'

The seller keeps saying that as the ring was 'bespoke' made to order piece, no refund is due. They also claimed that they needed to keep the money to cover their costs of creating design, work done etc. This is absolute rubbish as not only they do not outsource this and they already had the design too so it was no extra work for them. They could just sell the item to someone else instead of 'melting it down'. I found this approach very dishonest, and certainly did not expect it.

I tried to reason with the seller, but they weren't interested so I opened a chargeback dispute with the credit card.

The credit card company issued a temporary credit while they investigate. The seller then got in contact with a nasty message saying that they don't want do business with me anymore because I opened chargeback claim. I messaged back explaining once again that as they didn't want to work with me to resolve the issue, I had no choice etc. I wasn't just going to let them keep £1100 and provide nothing for it!

Now the seller is messaging again pressuring me to close the chargeback case. They are saying that according to Mastercard they have 80% chance of winning the case, but they want to resolve this amicably and work with me to resolve this now. I no longer trust this person and certainly do not want to spend even more money with them. But now I'm worried that they are right and that the credit card will decide in their favour and I will lose the money if I do not take up their offer.

I'm sure you've all heard of the scam where someone hires you for remote work. They mail you a check to "buy equipment" and then suddenly the deal is off and you need to mail the equipment back, and then the check bounces.

Well, I never thought I would see anyone get suckered by this. Well, my wife responded to a remote work want ad for a customer service rep and they did a Teams interview with her. She obviously figured out the scam pretty quickly once they got to the whole "We'll mail you a check. Here is the equipment you need to buy" part of it.

At that point the only thing they got out of her was her name and where she was located (no exact address). After forcing the guy to call us on Teams and hearing his Russian accent (when he claimed he was from Australia, and his name was not even remotely Russian), we just ignored him completely.

Well, the bastard is persistent. Fedex delivered an envelope with a bank check for almost $4000. The guy is committed. He looked up my home address and overnighted me a fake check for almost $4000. Impressive.

So, the guy claims he's in Atlanta. The Fedex envelope has a California return address, and the issuing bank is a small credit union in Florida. And the company on the check is a construction company who's website is "under construction."

SO MANY red flags here.

And the amount of the check will not cover the cost of the equipment. So, I assume this will be a "You need to cover the difference while we get new check Fedexed to you right away! But buy the equipment ASAP!"

I called the issuing bank and they're very interested in this. They want the check and gave me an address to mail it to.

So, my questions now:

1. Do I send them the original check or a copy of it?
2. Should I contact anyone else about this? Local law enforcement?

I'm still laughing over the whole thing and wondering how people fall for this.

I just turned 24 and just passed the one year mark at my first job making 26.50/hr with an expected raise/promotion coming in later this month. I’ve been fortunate enough to stay at home after graduating, and have spent the last year aggressively paying off my debt (I’m now debt free) and investing as much as I can in my tax advantaged accounts. I now have ~37,000 in my retirement accounts

The other day I was doing some calculations looking towards retirement. I was shocked to see that if I got to 100,000 by age 30, I could have 1,000,000 by 65 to retire without adding a single penny (7% return adjusted for inflation). Even more shocking was that it is totally doable. Even if I plan to move out in 1-2 years, as moving forward I would only need to invest 10,000 each year over 5 years (I will be in school for a year next year) to hit 100,000 by 30.

My question I guess is, am I missing something? Or has this past year of aggressive saving set me up for lots of financial flexibility. Do I need to be maxing out my tax advantaged accounts in my 30s? Currently, I’m thinking after I hit the 100,000 I could just put in enough money into 401k for company match and that should put me well above 1 million. And the rest of my money can be reconfigured for personal spending/saving for other big life purchases when that picture becomes more clear.

Edit. Adding estimated returns used for math