A while ago, I froze my credit with all three agencies (I can’t foresee the need for a loan in my life anytime in the near future). Recently, I got letters from five different banks that the loan I applied for was denied. I never applied for loans so obviously someone got my info and is attempting to do just that.

All the banks will tell me is that someone tried to do it online no other info.

I added a fraud alert to all three agencies (not sure if that really does anything more).

Is there anything else I should be doing here? I’m kind of worried about other forms of identity theft that might happen to me.

My grandma passed this year and she left some money to all the grandkids. She grew up during the depression so she saved every penny but as she got older became too old to spend it. She wanted us to use the money to do something we always wanted to do like take a trip, learn a new skill, or buy something extravagant.

I want to respect her wishes but I’m not in the best financial situation. I figured I’d compromise and use 1/5 of the money to do something for myself but what’s the best thing to do with the rest? Bulk up my emergency fund? Pay off some debt? Max out a Roth IRA for 2025? Put it into my HYSA?

Appreciate your thoughts.

My wife started work at a very small office about 3 years ago. After she had been there for a year she was “eligible” for the 401k and signed paper work to contribute 10% of her earnings. I think the company was supposed to match a portion as well but I’m not positive. I was looking through all of our accounts this week (just doing some end of years checks to make sure I could get access to everything and that all the investments looked good) and asked her how much money she had in her 401k. She said she didn’t know how to access it and would have to ask. I was more than a little surprised by this. Today she did ask: “I talked to the guy who does our financials about the 401k and he said he doesn’t have the information himself? He said it’s a pooled 401k and it’s a star index and he remembers that its averaged like 8-12% over the last 4 years? He thinks when the w2s come out they get sort of a report but he doesn’t have anything now.” She says there’s not a way to login to an account and see her balance. My 401k is with Fidelity and I can login to see it and manage it anytime I want. Can anybody explain to me what we’re dealing with here? Explain it like I’m 12 years old.

My dad started a 529 when my daughter was little and now she is in college. I think I should start using this money to pay her tuition because my mom might need memory care in the future and my dad really wanted to pay for his granddaughter's college. The problem is that my dad is in a nursing home himself (paid for by the VA). I have an old 529 statement. What do I do to tap into the account to pay for my daughter's spring semester at school? My dad cant really talk and has late-stage Parkinsons, and so he wouldnt be able to start the process himself and my mom is really weird about money and has her own memory issues she is ignoring and what not. Is it enough that my daughter's ssn will match the beneficiary on this account? The 529 was with Fidelity. Do I just call them up and give them the school name and balance we owe for Spring 2025?

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice on how to handle my current financial situation.

I have about $90,000 in stocks, which I want to let grow for the long term. However, I also have about $5,000 in debt spread across three credit cards, and I’m having trouble paying it off quickly. The interest rates are making it harder to get ahead, and it’s starting to feel overwhelming. I’ve stopped using them and t’ll take me 6 months to pay it off at the rate I’m going. I normally don’t rack up debt like this and I’m usually at $1k between all 3 cards. But towards the end of the year I got a bit carried away with holiday gifts for family, traveling etc.

I’ve been thinking about pulling money from my stocks to pay off this debt so I can start the new year with a clean slate. I pulled from it last year to help me with some moving cost about 8k so I’m feeling a bit guilty. My goal is to avoid making this a habit—I just want to handle this situation and move forward. I also receive additional stock regularly every few months, so my portfolio will continue to grow.

A part of me feels like I shouldn’t but the other part of me feels like I work hard, it’s the end of the year I want to enjoy the holidays without being worried about how much cash I have on my debt card or which card I should use etc. Hell, I could die next month and never even spent it. (Extreme but you get the point).

Would it be a bad idea to sell some of my stocks to pay off the credit card debt? Although I don’t have plans for the stock money, I’m torn because I know the value of keeping investments for the long haul, but I also don’t want to carry this debt any longer. Any advice would be appreciated—thank you!

On December 7th i got rear ended in an automatic car wash. Employees of the car wash and the person that hit me both agreed that the other driver was at fault. When the other drivers insurance (state farm) called me a week later they said that their insured states it was my fault. So an other week passes and state farm said that they reviewed the car wash footage and said that I was at fault and they were not liable for any damages. I asked to see the footage they reviewed and the footage was of two completely different cars on a conpletely different date and time. Currently talking with my Insurance to get the correct footage but is this ok? Are they able to just look at whatever footage they want and say whatever they want in hopes you won't check yourself?

I have not paid any attention to retirement until now. I currently have multiple accounts at multiple companies (voya and tiaa) totaling something like $80k. New job does not have benefits through employer. Total noob but I gather I want to bundle this amount into an IRA. I’ve read a little online but is there someone I can go to to ask all my questions that doesn’t work for Voya or TIAA who’s not going to be trying to sell me their products? I talked to someone at Voya and they seem helpful but that’s not my only option obviously. No solid plan for what’s next or who to trust with my money. Help?

Long story short. I paid my rent on the 1st of December on the apartment complex app, got a confirmation email. Days later on the 13th, my landlord texted me that I owe rent and late fees. I told him I paid, he says it didn't go through. I checked my bank account and it didn't show my payment. So I called my leasing office and they told me that they will take off the late fees if I bring proof of payment error on their end but there is a $100 charge because the payment didn't go through the first time. I paid again with late fees hoping they will keep their word, which now I regret. I called my bank and they told me that the leasing office never retrieved the payment, so it went back into my account from pending transactions. They told me they needed proof and then she basically accused me of not having money in my account, she told me to bring her my bank statements and she will show me that it was a mistake from my end, because they dont automatically take off payments, so I probably didn't have enough money in my bank account, so it bounced back. I went to the office with my bank statements she brings out a spreadsheet of all the payments I have made and how this last one shows as if my account is frozen, therefore they could not retrieve my payment. I can't close my account because I pay with my checkings account on the apartment app and the only way to' turn it off' is to close my account. I called my bank to ask for some proof that my account has never been frozen or any payment rejected. But they told me since it has not been frozen and the payment was never retrieved by the merchant they don't have a statement on that. The leasing office lady needs proof to give me my money back. What do I do???

Our property manager was let go this week, and our landlord contacted us today about changing our payment process. Originally we were using a RentSpree portal to submit our payments individually, which worked great because we liked the autonomy of paying on our own time without needing to coordinate one of us to submit a larger payment every month.

The landlord now wants us to use Zelle, can’t (or won’t) accept individual payments for “legal reasons,” and insists the standard in the industry is to accept one payment and one payment only.

Every place I’ve rented so far has had a portal where every roommate pays individually, so this raised a red flag in my head. We don’t inherently have an issue with using Zelle (and it looks like it’s totally possible to use Zelle for individual payments anyway?), and we’re also not really interested in rocking the boat with a landlord we’ve hardly interacted with - do we have any reason to push back against him in this case?

If it matters, we live in Colorado.

EDIT: Looks like more people here are divided on split vs single payments than I anticipated. Our lease agreement is joint for all roommates and doesn't say split payments aren't allowed, but also doesn't say they are allowed either.

EDIT 2: Landlord is saying he's been advised by his lawyers to reject split payments and to only accept one payment in full. Seems like he's sympathetic to our preference but doesn't want to operate that way. Seems like it is what it is.

My parents recently came into a lot of money and want to gift me $45,000. I honestly feel weird about the about the whole thing, but they have insisted. My dad just wrote me a check for it today, but can I really just take that to the bank? Are their tax implications I should be aware of?

If anyone could point me to anything I should think about, that would be great.

Thanks!

Update: I talked to my dad and he wasn’t aware of any forms he needed to fill out. We talked about it and I would feel better if he just did $36,000 (I am married with a joint bank account with my spouse) and call it good. From what I’ve read that wouldn’t need any forms filled out and would be less enough that it would be excluded from anything.

Thanks for all your help!

Hello all, it troubles me to write this as I have gotten myself into this situation But I am trying to figure out my best options to get out of it. I'm hoping that you guys will be able to help me with some advice to move forward and better the situation

I have found myself in about 105k worth of debt because of a gambling addiction and poor spending habits mainly the gambling addiction.

This is between my truck loan, credit cards, consolidated credit card loan (to pay off the original debts) this just enabled me to spend more on the credit cards and put myself into a bigger hole.

The break down of the debt currently looks something like this

Loans
$47,800 (Debt Consolidations )

Car Loan
$10,500

Credit Cards
$46,000

To give you a bit of information about myself to try and help

I'm currently 27, working as a software developer

My Salary is 75k a year and my take home after taxes is just shy of 4k a month, this is with paying for insurance and putting into my 401k.

I have already taken action and got another job bar backing that should be starting in the next week or two not sure how much I will be taking home from this as its tip based. I should be working around 15-20 hours a week with base pay of $11 before tips

For Monthly Bills That I have / expenses

Car Loan: $600

Car Insurance: $230
Car Gas: $200

Gym Membership: $30
Server Hosting: $30

Groceries: $250

Debt Consolidation Loan: $1300

Debt Consolidation Loan : $300

Credit Card Payments : ???
Not sure of the actual amounts paying each month as i was trying to pay more than the minimums each month

As for housing I currently live with my dad and do not have any fees associated with this.

Total Spending for the month before card payments: 2940

Happy to answer any additional questions, with this any responses trying to help me out are greatly appreciated.

My retirement put some of my funds into a bond fund MPHQX. I looked at the market summary graph and I don’t get it. There’s no appreciation like a normal stock. It’s just flat for 10 years. 11.34 in 2001 held steady all the way to 11.96 in 2022 (now 9.71 today).

How does that make money? Is it meant to be bought and sold over time and held for short periods? Like, what is the actual strategy that my retirement management is doing?

My baby is 10 months old and my fiancé and I want to set money aside monthly to be given to her at some point in her 20s.

I’m wondering how best to go about this? We’re in the UK if it changes anything.

I’m looking at the following:

• a high-interest fixed-term ISA (4 years to start)

• a low risk savings and investment ISA

• a relatively lower interest children’s saver

I feel like considering the money won’t be touched for at least 18 years, the investment ISA is a good option? But I wanted a second opinion as I don’t come from the most financially literate family and I want better for my child.

I have some horrific debt that would probably make most scream. I've made average money for most of my life and then a few years ago went on my own to start a business which failed pretty badly during the early parts of Covid. It recovered a bit but ultimately in 2024 I gave up on it entirely.

The end result had me maxxing out credit cards, taking out loans, trying to recover. Then any little bit left over I had cashed out to help out a family member when I really wasn't in a position to help someone other than myself. I am now 40 with a family and have the following debt:

• House - Worth 500k (owe $175k and a 70k home equity loan on it)
• Credit Cards that are closed out with a payment plan for low APR ($35k total)
• Defaulted loans ($75k total) which can be settled for less than paid that totals $45k
• Two Car loans that total $31k combined for my wife and myself remaining.

I had some smaller credit cards but paid those off mid 2024. I then got a new job that was hopefully a blessing that I hope can get me out of this mess. I did look into buying some used cars to trade this in but wasn't sure if this was going to be a smart move just yet as the used car prices on two vehicles which we need was high at this time.

My salary on my new job is 250k which is amazing. I also will be getting a bonus at the end of January of 150k which ends up being about 80-90k after taxes. Obviously this is pretty massive I just want to get some advice on how to properly spend this money.

Do I use it to straight up pay off the defaulted loans to close them out? They are in collections and if I settle for less then at 45k I save quite a bit but it will put that on my credit report that it was settled for less than owed. I could then take the remaining to pay off the car loans and just focus on using left over money each month to pay the credit cards faster or the home equity loan depending on which APR is higher. My credit is pretty awful right now but I want to eventually recover it however there is no rush.

Thanks for any input!

I'm stressed about money, I bearly what I'm doing. My budget says I'll be debt free by 2030 but that is so far in the future it just feels like it might as well be never.

Edit: I have about 60k in debt. 23.5 is a loan from my parents, 16k and a bit in personal loans and medical debt, and the other 20k is credit cards. I'm paying about 1700 a month on the debt

The interest rates are about 10% for the personal loans and medical debt, 25% for the credit card, 0% from my parents.

$1700 is $100 more the. The minimum payment.

I make 69k right now, take home is 1800 bi weekly. rent is 900, utilities is 180ish, phone bill is 125, gas is 130 till memorial day, then it goes down to 10,groceries is 200, 160 car insurance fast food 120, im putting 100 into savings, and what ever is left, about 50 to 75 is general spending money.

Any advice to ether deal with the stress or make my budget work better?

I am going to start looking for a second job, probably something fastfood again.

Hi all thanks for clicking/reading.

I am very very late to the game (48 now) but I spent most of 2024 reviewing and taking more of a hands on approach to my finances/budget and I'm pleased to say I've largely got my week to week and month to month finances sorted out. They were starting to look pretty dire, but just having a plan and sticking to it has resolved that nicely. I'm a single parent so I'm making ends meet with a little left over each month (on average) but I don't think I have enough disposable income to greatly increase what I'm putting toward retirement each check... at least for now, though I could always tighten the belt a little further.

FWIW: I have no credit card debt and my only real liability aside from food/gas/utilities is my mortgage and a HELOC.

I'm fortunate in that I work in the public sector and so (knock wood) when I reach retirement age I have a pension waiting for me. I have been contributing a modest amount (about 2.5% of gross income in 2024, but generally significantly less than that in the past) to a 457(b) for 10+ years (no employer match) and I opened a Traditional IRA at some point to gain a little bit of tax relief. This Trad IRA is an afterthought now because my MAGI is too high for the deduction, so I think I contributed about $150 to it over the course of 2024... but its there.

Prior to reviewing my numbers for the year my plan was to invest my tax refund (first time I'll be getting one in several years) and some of the extra savings I've squirreled away over the course of this year in CDs (and/or Treasuries) some time in Q1 2025... but reviewing everything this week I noted that I might be better off putting most or all of that into a Roth IRA and then shifting my check-to-check contributions into that to max it out. I think I could do this and still put some of my money into CDs while maintaining and continuing to grow my emergency fund/savings.

I'm still fairly ignorant to all of this so I guess my question boils down to:

Where should my refund, extra savings and ongoing month to month investment go in the new year(457b, Trad IRA, Roth IRA, CDs, Treasuries, pay down the HELOC, oh my)?

I appreciate any insight or advice offered.

Where to invest 150k

My wife is in her mid thirties and is a semi stay at home mom. I'm in my mid forties. We own an e-commerce business that she dedicates a few hours a day. I work at a fairly large company and make around 65k a year, with 20% going to a 401k. The 401k is sitting at 80k.

The business will do about 600k in sales this year. 25% of that being profit. The business has less than 50k in debt. We hope to pay it off within the next 4 months. I would love to leave my job to focus on the business full time. It's a goal of ours within the next 12 months. We've got roughly 40k in operating capital.

We have no personal debt outside of our house.

Our house is worth around 300k and we owe 130k at 2.3%. The mortgage is a FHA. Our mortgage is around $1100 a month. Our PMI is around $100 a month. The original mortgage was $154k. UPDATE: because it's a FHA loan we have a MIP not a PMI - and cannot be removed. This is where I'm getting hung up at. We're paying roughly 8% of our mortgage to MIP - for the privilege of a 2.3% interest rate.

Both vehicles are paid off. A five year old Honda and a beater of a truck I drive a few miles a day.

Our emergency fund consists of 10k.

We currently have 150k sitting in a savings account. We've been exploring ways of investing this money for at least the next 12 months or more. Would paying off the house be best, traditional investing, a CD?

What would you suggest we do with this money moving forward? We appreciate any and all input. Thanks.

I (31M) have about $25k remaining (original balance of $37k) of student loans at varying interest rates. I'm considering paying down a large chunk of these loans, but am curious to see what people think. My student loans look like:

• $5,400 at 3.61%
• $5,200 at 4.41%
• $10,700 at 5.59%
• $3,700 at 5.06%

My income, funds, investments, expenses etc. look like:

• $135k gross salary
• $78k in savings, most in a HYSA at 3.8%
• $137k in 401(k), contributing 15%
• $1,400 in Roth IRA (I created this two years ago with an original $1k investment)
• $23k in an individual investment account, which includes some random stocks I've played with and $10k of 13-week T Bills that I continue to reinvest.
• $2k in my HSA, not invested
• $10k of I Bonds purchased in 2023
• Pay $1,600/month for rent
• Pay $420/month on the student loans above
• Pay $300/month to my parents for other student loans they assisted me with (I'm ignoring these loans when considering my options)
• Pay other typical expenses: groceries, electric, gas for car, subscriptions, etc. Estimating between $800-$900/month? I need to look at this closer though. This does not include going out for dinner (not much), out with friends, etc.

I have two reasons for hesitating to pay off a large chunk of my loans. First, I plan to buy a home sometime in the next few years. I live in Chicago and plan to buy here, so I'll need a decent amount of cash on hand for a down payment. Second, I am extremely risk averse. I know I'm in a pretty secure situation, but I always imagine worst case scenario (I lose my job, have sudden medical expenses, etc. all at once). I have definitely experienced some lifestyle creep, as I'm not as frugal as I used to be as my income has increased.

Does it sound like a good idea to pay down some of my student loans? Should I pay off the $10,700 at the highest interest rate of 5.59%? I'm feel like I'm just losing money since my HYSA is only 3.8%, but I'm nervous to see that cash gone. Also, is there anything I'm missing in terms of investment opportunities? Should I do something better with my savings?

I hope this post is in accordance with the rules.

I’m 32M, live in the northeast. My wife and I make 200k combined annually and currently this is our portfolio.

Both currently investing 12 percent into our 401ks.

I am currently maxing out my Roth IRA (which Is invested in FZROX (sp500)

I also invest another 500 per month directly into a Fidelity index for the sp500 FXIAX.

We also own 4 properties. 3 are rental and very cash flow positive.

We have approximately 35k in cash for an emergency fund.

We have no exposure to crypto, and I am not really sure HOW to start that.

So to recap; 200k in 401ks, 3 cash flow high equity rentals, another 30k in the sp500 via Roth and personal brokerage, no crypto, 35k cash on hand.

Beside putting the cash into a HYSA, what more can I do? I am currently looking at all these things as 25 year or longer retirement type investments. Won’t need to touch them because we live comfortable but frugally.

2021 Minivan with 22K left to pay over 4.5 years. Auto loans are down to 5.74 from my current rate of 8.24. Is it worth refinancing for a 2.5 points?

So I work in Jersey City but live in Manhattan. Today I received my first pay statement and on it I am being taxed for:
- Federal Income Tax (FIT)
- NJ State Income Tax
- NY State Income Tax
- NYC Income Tax
- NJ SUI Tax
- NJ Paid Fam Plan INS

FYI: I am single and do not have kids. I haven't found any good posts by people in the same position and it got me wondering if I am being over taxed, why is this happening and how to fix it.

Will I receive any credit from the state of New York at the time of Filing Taxes? or am I just **d?

11 years ago we started a 529 for my son and then didn’t start one for my daughter. Is it problematic or possible to transfer from one to the other if circumstances change? I own the account and my son is the “benefit of” person.

Hello everyone! Okay so here’s the deal. I have 32k right now. I have a car loan of 26k interest is 9%. No credit card debt. The monthly payment on the car is almost 500. Should I just pay off the car? Or should I just pay it slowly and use the cash on a down payment for a condo? Let me know what you think. Thank you

LATE PAYMENT 30 days GM FINANCIAL

Pretty much sums up, I changed my lease for a newer one … and there was a misscomunication mostly my fault . I already paid was 36-38 days past due and evidently , there’s a delinquency claim on my credit report .

I check today Credit score around 640-655. So I spent mostly all day investigating ways to boost, and checking if gm financial can waive that claim but unfortunately, gm financial is known for not correcting any deliquency claim .

What do you guys recommend ? Should I dispute with credit agency’s ? Or send a good will letter to GM FINANCIAL?

As for boosting my credit ? What do you guys recommend ? I have been a client for like 8 years and have not missed any late payment so that helps I think.

As for my credit background ,

I currently have the lease that I mentioned and another car that I’m buying ( truck loan around 40K~)

1 credit card max limit 2300, I’m trying to pay each month in full around 50% of the credit limit.

Any recommendations and suggestions ,

Would be greatly appreciated

For some background I’m 21 and a junior in college. Next semester I’ll have an internship from Jan-June.

I’ll be making $30/hr along with $1500/month for housing and $4200 signing bonus (pre tax).

I’ll be paying $2000 a month for rent but only around 200-400 out of pocket with the stipend and bonus. I have 5k in savings and 8k invested (4 in brokerage account and 4 in Roth).

Assuming I’m spending around 300-400 a month plus rent what should I do with the money I have left over?