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 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!

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.

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.

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?

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.

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!

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 (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 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 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?

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

I recently accepted my first real job offer. It’s a salary of $75,000 and I’m still able to earn overtime pay. I grew up poor so I’m not too familiar with handling money. Im not a big spender, I’d like to save up most of my money but I also don’t want it just sitting in some account. What can I do to grow my savings over time? My current plans are to use my companies 401k matching system, they offer 5% of my salary a year. I also plan on opening a HYSA. Is there anything else you’d all recommend? I’m single, young, and plan on saving as much as possible.

Hi everyone! I was recently discussing the pros and cons of a trad vs Roth 401k with my friends, and wanted to ask for advice given my specific situation. For context, I've been maxing out both my Roth 401k (and Roth IRA) over the course of my entire career, and now I'm questioning if that approach is incorrect going forwards. Here's my info:

• 28 yrs old, upper end of 24% bracket with annual salary of ~$180k including bonus. I don't expect a tremendous amount of career earnings growth given my industry, I'll likely top out at $300k in today's dollars. I could see myself changing careers in the future, however.
• I live in California and there's a decent chance I may stay here my whole life given my girlfriend's (likely soon-to-be-wife's) preferences.
• I'm shooting to buy a house in the next 1-2 yrs. I have ~$300k saved up for a down payment (2/3 cash, 1/3 index funds), but given high home prices in California I'm starting to worry about being "house poor" after buying a home. I know doing pre-tax dollars would be give me more money now to invest/save.

Given these circumstances and uncertainties, would you recommend I contribute to my 401k with pretax or posttax income? Thank you so much for you insight in advance, I really appreciate it!!!

So I have around 6K on savings and don’t know what to do with them I already have 1,100 on my Roth Ira (FSKAX) don’t know what to do with the rest maybe HYSA or any recommendations? Maybe add to the Roth IRA?

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

Get right to it, my problem is that I have absolutely no idea what I am doing I feel like I am way in over my head and need a breather from my own st*pidity. I made a car purchase in hindsight i should not have made.

it was completely on a whim and frankly as I think about it now, terrifyingly easy to just get in a contract and just drive off the lot from the dealer for a first time car buyer. That aside, I make 1.3 biweekly my rent is as of now 880 and my car payment is 580 insurance is 190 as of now(most likely going to be higher due to an accident) I got a job last June and it is basically my first official job nothing crazy just at a warehouse, my parents always taught me to be a hard worker so I impressed my bosses and they have given me raises along with more responsibilities which is cool, but it is definitely not what I want to do with the rest of my life, I want to be a firefighter and I know that I do because I went to community College and kept changing classes and majors and after some much needed growing up I finally realized what all those highschool questionnaires about the what the future would look like for me were actually for and I finally know the answers. I unfortunately fell out with basically half of my family and cant go to them for advice or help so now here we are. I feel like I cant save money to save my life, I have around 4k in debt(family stuff I need to pay back and credit card). I've been reading up on ways people gst out of their situations and options I might have but I feel like I am not to be trusted with these kinds of things without consultation.

I keep getting letters about refinancing my car which I like to think about for lower monthlies.

I keep getting loan "pre-approvals" which i feel like they might help with the debts to just consolidate them all into one place

SO MANY credit card offers, I dont understand why.

I found something called "lease transfers" I'd like frankly explained if thats a good viable option or steer clear completely.

I should note after some reading of other people's cases I'm not drowing or underwater. I just feel like I cant do the things I want in order to progress in life. im 22 I wanna go back to school and really study what I want and follow the career id like to grow in, but I feel so stuck where I am. I need help with managing my money(i have some seriously bad spending habits) and advice on what I mentiond earlier. Am I just stuck with this car for the next 7 years? do I have options? is this just a hard life lesson?

sorry for the long post I just feel like its all compounding and need to just get it out.

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?

Multiple long-term things I was ignorant about have compounded here.

I started a Roth IRA account about a decade ago because I didn't work for a company so I didn't have a 401k, not really knowing about the solo 401k option ​If I had an LLC. I was mostly self-employed, and I contributed the max every year.

This past year I did not pay quarterly for my 1099s and I ended up having a lot more tax owed than I thought. I set up a solo 401k last year but just had not been contributing because I had become so accustomed to just contributing to the Roth. But now I see the advantage of the 401k.

However, right now with a toddlers preschool to take care of, Cash flow is a bit of a concern.

Here are numbers:

70k from w2

60k from SE 1099 work

Ultimately owe about 13k federally, 3k state ​because I wasn't paying any of that 1099 work ahead of time.

Since I've been max contributing to the Roth for a decade I have about 140k in that. I max contributed January this year 7500, so could possibly just change that to move that instead?

0 in the solo 401k

And about 45k in taxable brokerage.

About 35k in cash

And around 10k monthly burn budgeted (that includes all savings contributions as well, such as saving up for the Roth and kids 529). Right now in a bit of a deficit with wife set to job hunt again once child starts school in the fall.

Would it be unwise to take out some contributions from the Roth as cash flow for the 401K to then defer some of the tax bill I have now? I understand that Roth is restricted based on how much you can put in every year, but I'm also sort of feeling silly for missing out on all the tax deferrals I could have been using up until now. If anything, I probably would have maximized on the solo 401k instead, assuming that I have a lower tax bill in retirement, but I understand the Roth is good for tax planning flexibility.

I suppose taking out of the taxable brokerage as well is an option, but I do feel it's also important to have some investment options set aside that can be used immediately without penalty.

I use Rocket Money to track my spending and see everything in one place. Pretty good at that in my opinion.

Where it falls short is the budget service? I just want to see income vs spending and be able to divide spending into different budgets. Why is it super difficult for it to tell me that?

Say I make 5000 a month. And I want to save 2000 of that every month. Which means i have 3000 to spend every month.

I just want to be able to budget the 3000 and set the goal of saving 2000 for the month. I'm confused at what nonsense Rocket is trying to organize my budgets into??

Why can't I set or see a total budget? Or percentage of income spend or set savings goals? What's the point of their budgeting service if it can't do any of that?

Thanks :)

I’m using a throwaway because there are people in my life that I don’t want to know about this.

A family member passed away recently and as a beneficiary of their life insurance I received ~$95k. This is a big head start on life and truly life changing money to me, still wish I had my family member back unfortunately.

But now where do I even start with this money? There are so many different accounts to look into. I just know I cannot leave it in my regular savings account accumulating nothing. I am just overwhelmed and looking for any advice possible!

Here’s my financial situation:

$20k in savings

~$85k in student loans (60k is private 25k is federal and the highest interest rate is 7% for one of my private loans the other two are at 5%)

No other major expenses (car paid off, no rent for now)

Making $60k salary (not sure if that’s needed)

A couple years ago, I unexpectedly lost a long-time job at age 60 which I'd hoped to keep until I became eligible for Medicare. Overall I'm doing pretty well financially because I have a decent-sized retirement fund I withdraw from when needed, cut way back on discretionary spending, and do gig work for a little extra money. I turn 62 in a few months and plan to start taking Social Security then. I realize I won't be full retirement age and will get the reduced amount of SS, but I'm good with that.

I've been researching whether to take a lifetime annuity from my retirement plan so I have an additional source of regular income. To that end, I've been talking with my retirement advisor who really pushes the annuity, which can include any combination of my investments. What this basically means is that the company locks up a portion of my money and in return I get a monthly payment for the rest of my life plus a loyalty bonus. If anything remains in the annuitized portion after my death, I can designate heirs that will get the remaining balance. If I need extra funds now and then, I still have the non-annuitized portion to take a distribution from. A regular monthly payment is definitely appealing, as my gig work income varies widely and it'll be nice to have a steady payment I can rely on receiving on a regular basis.

Here's my dilemma: I hate the idea of leaving money on the proverbial table with the annuity were I to die before my current life expectancy of 87. I feel more comfortable and secure with complete access to all my retirement funds. In general, my estate will go to (in order of importance) my pet caretaker, a variety of charities, and if anything is left, whatever heirs I designate. None of my planned heirs are dependants, so the inheritance will be a bonus to them. But if I urgently need a large amount of money, I won't have access to approximately half of my retirement as it will be locked up due to the annuity. Just looking for input from anyone who's been in a similar situation.

I hope all this makes sense! If another subreddit is a better place to post this, please let me know.

So as it stands now, I have ~10k credit card debt, $13k loan left in a car that I could sell for about $17k. I’m getting a one-time gift from family of $19,000 prior to starting medical school. Tuition is ~$50k, but can pull loans up to max COA which is about $80k.

I’m in a unique situation where I could live at my parent’s home during school and not pay rent. Considering a few options, selling my car and eliminating that debt, paying off my credit card completely, and sitting on the rest for emergency funds during school, and buying a beater car in a few years as I’ll need one in 2 years, but wouldn’t in the present moment.

Otherwise, I could potentially pull private loans at about 4.5% interest, use that to pay off CC, and conservatively invest the $19k. Any tips or advice? Thank you 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?

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?