OnTheLastCastlelet's keep it haimish for the peripateticRegistered Userregular
So I found this in a "what sounds too good to be true but isn't?" reddit thread... your credit card probably does automatic price protection if you tell it to look at certain items you've bought.
So far I bought all of these day 1/not on sale and ended up getting this in statement credit back 60 days later
Gears 4 $60/$30
Dishonored 2 $60/$25
Xbox One S $350 / $50.99
So that's pretty cool. I just have to upload my receipt and it's done.
One of my coworker's sisters worked for them a few years ago, so that year I got a coupon code with it. I've kept using them the past couple years. I fill in turbotax as a double-check that I get the same number, but it's a TON cheaper.
So last year I got married and bought a house. Should I go to a tax person, should we joint file or should we just each file?
Most tax software will do an auto compare for filing jointly or separately.
That being said, it's almost always better to file jointly.
The house purchase will mean you'll likely benefit from itemization, which makes things a little more complicated but not really by enough to need a professional. Standard tax software should work just fine for what you need.
Other thing to be aware of with house if you file separately: if both people are on the mortgage (and maybe even without, given you're married? This is something I'm going to go and talk to a person concerning, actually), you can claim all the interest on one person's, all on the other's, or split it however you want. Plug in the numbers, you might find a difference.
My wife and I weren't married when we bought the house, so we filed separate. We saved a few hundred bucks collectively by putting all the interest on mine.
There's really nothing that you can do except sell and hold onto money I guess. Of course, the irony here is that shocks are triggered by exactly that. In any case we are due for a US recession soon anyway from historical trends
If you expect full on depression maybe buy long lasting foods? Rice will keep for years if stored well. I don't think it will get quite that bad, the economy hasn't fundamentally changed yet
Truthfully, if anything, I'm expecting Wall Street to have a cynical boom at environmental regulation removals, etc, before anything comes crashing down.
But we already had the "trying to judge the market is something of a fool's errand" discussion. Realistically, if you're trying to plan for a depression, your concern should be less "what should be my investments" and more "am I indispensable at my job?"
If you're absolutely certain it will happen and think there's the possibility of credit card transactions being locked out refused or something, having a small bit of emergency cash wouldn't be a bad idea, but really, stocking up on non-perishables and such world probably be a better idea.
Frankly, that might not be a bad idea for a different reason. Given the sort of appointments we've been seeing, I would not expect FEMA to be in their best form. If you're in a disaster-prone area, THAT sort of preparation might not be a bad idea - food, bottled water, emergency heating, etc.
Honestly, if you're worried about the shit hitting the fan financially. Your best bets are, if you're still working.
-Build up savings that can get you through three months worth of living expenses (food, rent, transportation funds, medical needs, basic hygiene stuff, backup for unplanned expenses like say your interview clothes getting damaged).
-Emergency supplies, unless things go really bad, you'll probably only need this for an actual disaster
-Finding time to make yourself harder to fire and easier to hire. If you can get training for free or at a reasonable cost without hurting your budget, it might be worth the effort. Assuming it's something that employers are looking for.
-Take care of existing loans. The less you have that needs to be payed off, the longer you can last on your savings.
-Take care of existing expenses if your are good money wise, that need to be addressed (aka if your car needs maintenance or need to replace some of the wardrobe so you have enough work presentable clothing)
General, it's stuff we should all be doing even if we feel confident that the current leadership won't crash and burn things. I wouldn't stress too much about messing with the 401K. One the market seems disconnected from what's going on and if you have someone doing it for you, they should be keeping things diverse. If you're a ways off from retirement, you may easily see all the losses recovered from by the time you actually start using that 401. At most, if expenses are tight, you might want to consider cutting back from the 401K, no point in putting a ton into it, if it's going to get decimate by outstanding loans when you retire.
I hate the current US work culture, but if you aren't super miserable and have the time. It might be worth grabbing any over time your company offers, assuming it's not some BS salary setup where the can get free hours from you. The extra money can go towards getting setup. Though I wouldn't recommend getting another job if you really don't need one, since that requires a firm commitment that OT doesn't require and could create additional paperwork headaches for you.
If you're retired or close to retirement. I'm not sure how much of the above is applicable. If the entire economy goes in the shitter, getting a job to help medicare, savings and social security cover things might not be an option for a variety of reasons.
Edit: Before I forget because many of us take it for granted, but I know of at least one coworker, whose boyfriend ran into the issue when he was homeless. Always have a reliable plan for quickly getting important paper work somewhere secure, in the event that you end up without a room over your head and no I do not mean in your vehicle that you might have to live out of. I gather it's rather common for people that are on the street to constantly get stuff stolen from them. Losing important documents like your birth certificate can lead to a host of problems. Best case scenario, you have to go through an aggravating process, courtesy of the Republicans, just to get all of that back and not deal with all the BS that crops up from identity theft. Worst case you have to go through the whole process of getting that shit back, while getting help to fix all the damage caused by some dick that stole your identity. Ideally, you should be able to have this paired up with getting a roof over your head, but I could see how that might not be feasible for everyone. A trusted friend or family member might be able to keep important documents secure, while not really have the means to support someone that is destitute.
Credit card perks often sound "too good to be true" but are, y'know, actually true.
That's the silver lining to being gouged in the ass if you miss a month of payments.
Be a proud credit card deadbeat - pay off in full every month and use those bennies.
Do we want to share ones to look into? I've probably got "too many" credit cards (read: according to credit karma, not enough), so I've got effectively every category covered by SOMETHING. The ones which see the most use:
Costco credit card - requires Costco membership, so maybe not worth it if you don't plan on going to/using Costco - it's effectively a $55 annual fee. 4% gas (including costco gas), 3% restaurants/travel, 2% Costco, 1% everywhere else Citi Double Cash - my default unless I've got a special category. 2% everything, effectively, if you don't carry a balance. You get 1% at time of purchase, 1% when you pay off. If I'm not mistaken, you don't get the second percent on any interest, which is how they make this work. Amazon visa - recently they added a "Prime" tier. If you're a prime member, it's 5% off on amazon, so....yeah. 2% on a couple other things, but....I don't care about 2%s anymore thanks to the previous card. Chase Freedom - rotating 5%. Right now it's gas (not including costco and the sort) and "local commuter transportation," so it's not getting used atm. There'll usually be a quarter where you get 5% groceries and such. Just requires a bit more attention.
Don't really use this one (it's better than the above for groceries, but we mostly go to a co-op that doesn't take credit cards now), but if you're in CA, Golden One Credit Union has a 3% gas/grocery/restaurants
But yeah, seriously, look at the extra perks. Renting a car? Depending on your card, they might cover the insurance for it if you don't buy the extra coverage. Going overseas? A lot of cards (mostly mastercard from what I've seen) don't have currency exchange fees. The previously-mentioned price rewind (double cash has that, although you have to tell it to track any given item).
My question, if there's anyone who is more familiar - I've always just stuck to the X%/cash back angle. How does the whole "miles" thing work for cards, and is it ever really worth it? I'm about a 6 hour flight from my family and a 12 hour flight from the in-laws, so getting some extra miles could actually end up saving in the long run.
I think I've screwed myself over by taking a 2nd job with variable hours. Turns out I had worked hard prior to the yearly recalculation of all my student loans and now I don't think I can make ends meet unless I work 80 hours a week.
Marty: The future, it's where you're going? Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Credit card perks often sound "too good to be true" but are, y'know, actually true.
That's the silver lining to being gouged in the ass if you miss a month of payments.
Be a proud credit card deadbeat - pay off in full every month and use those bennies.
Do we want to share ones to look into? I've probably got "too many" credit cards (read: according to credit karma, not enough), so I've got effectively every category covered by SOMETHING. The ones which see the most use:
Costco credit card - requires Costco membership, so maybe not worth it if you don't plan on going to/using Costco - it's effectively a $55 annual fee. 4% gas (including costco gas), 3% restaurants/travel, 2% Costco, 1% everywhere else Citi Double Cash - my default unless I've got a special category. 2% everything, effectively, if you don't carry a balance. You get 1% at time of purchase, 1% when you pay off. If I'm not mistaken, you don't get the second percent on any interest, which is how they make this work. Amazon visa - recently they added a "Prime" tier. If you're a prime member, it's 5% off on amazon, so....yeah. 2% on a couple other things, but....I don't care about 2%s anymore thanks to the previous card. Chase Freedom - rotating 5%. Right now it's gas (not including costco and the sort) and "local commuter transportation," so it's not getting used atm. There'll usually be a quarter where you get 5% groceries and such. Just requires a bit more attention.
Don't really use this one (it's better than the above for groceries, but we mostly go to a co-op that doesn't take credit cards now), but if you're in CA, Golden One Credit Union has a 3% gas/grocery/restaurants
But yeah, seriously, look at the extra perks. Renting a car? Depending on your card, they might cover the insurance for it if you don't buy the extra coverage. Going overseas? A lot of cards (mostly mastercard from what I've seen) don't have currency exchange fees. The previously-mentioned price rewind (double cash has that, although you have to tell it to track any given item).
My question, if there's anyone who is more familiar - I've always just stuck to the X%/cash back angle. How does the whole "miles" thing work for cards, and is it ever really worth it? I'm about a 6 hour flight from my family and a 12 hour flight from the in-laws, so getting some extra miles could actually end up saving in the long run.
The miles thing is definitely worth it though you need to either be flexible, want routes that no one cares about and thus have high availability, or have points spread across multiple airlines and partners. The real value though comes from the signup bonuses so if you want lots of points then you end up signing up for a lot of cards. Nothing wrong with that, and I personally do it with 15+ cards in 2016, but people seem uncomfortable with it. Without the bonuses it's much more questionable. Most people won't generate that many points and point value is generally not above 2 cents so you'd be better off with Citi DoubleCash.
Two cards that you didn't mention that have general usefulness are:
Amex Blue Cash Preferred - 6% groceries, 3% gas and department stores. Does have an annual fee at $95 though I think they waive it the first year and a signup bonus. Even with the fee a lot of people spend enough on groceries that this card is worth it.
Capital One Quicksilver - this is one of the few card I know of that has no annual fee and doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee. It also gives 1.5% cash back which isn't bad and has a decent signup bonus though you can do better. Another option is BankAmericard Travel Rewards.
American Express Platinum has amazing benefits and also a $450 annual fee. Except for active duty military and their SO. I'd have switched to it already but the wife is anxious about opening another account and wants to wait.
We currently have a Chase Sapphire card which comes with a $95 annual fee. Not for everyone but is excellent if you're traveling and eating out.
American Express Platinum has amazing benefits and also a $450 annual fee. Except for active duty military and their SO. I'd have switched to it already but the wife is anxious about opening another account and wants to wait.
We currently have a Chase Sapphire card which comes with a $95 annual fee. Not for everyone but is excellent if you're traveling and eating out.
That Amex seems pretty sweet. I got a Chase Sapphire Reserve, which is almost identical to the Chase Sapphire Preferred. A summary of benefits:
$450 annual fee
$100 fee for additional cardholders (we don't pay this, but throwing it out there in case anyone's wondering)
$300 annual travel credit (taxis, hotels, airline tickets all count). Note this is based on the calendar year, not the anniversary of when you got the card.
$100 reimbursement of global entry fee (for cardholder)
Free priority pass which is an airport lounge club thing.
3x points on restaurants and travel
1.5 points when redeeming for travel
No foreign transaction fees
i think now they're offering a 50k points sign-on bonus, but they were 100k pts up until last week. Might still be able to get 100k points in a branch.
Other than that I have a chase freedom to get the 5% on various categories (i transfer points to the sapphire to redeem at 1.5x) and a costco card because its free w/membership and gets me 2% cash back at Costco.
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Re: Doomsday -- You could start building your own shelter/place to store shit. Buy a shipping container (<$5000), rent a backhoe or excavator for a weekend, dig a hole and drop the container in (spray the container with waterproofing stuff they use on foundations and line the hole with landscaping fabric). Add pre-made root cellar stairs and cover everything back up.
Bonus: run conduit for electrical/internet (possibly a gas line?).
I'm single and don't have big expenses so I do standard deduction and my withholdings are right sooooooo I'm getting a sexy $25 refund this year.
Yes gonna make it rain on you
My medium term goal is to get to this point. Thanks to kids and a rather complicated life, I'm not sure if we'll ever make it. I may start tweaking my withholding, though, after some of our financial wrinkles get smoothed out.
We have and primarily use a uPromrise card. It is zero annual fees and the benefit is cash back in the form of deposits into a 529 college savings plan. You get 5% just for using the card and then on certain things an extra percent of usually 1-5% but sometimes up to extra 10% and even 15% on very rare things (usually like "buy this specific model of tv in the next week). In three years of having it, we've saved about $3,000 extra into our daughter's college savings plan that just automagically appeared through our normal use. Whenever we plan a large purchase or gift purchases we try to remember to check the website for extra deals that sometimes align with what we are doing for that sweet sweet extra cash back.
I think I've screwed myself over by taking a 2nd job with variable hours. Turns out I had worked hard prior to the yearly recalculation of all my student loans and now I don't think I can make ends meet unless I work 80 hours a week.
I think I've screwed myself over by taking a 2nd job with variable hours. Turns out I had worked hard prior to the yearly recalculation of all my student loans and now I don't think I can make ends meet unless I work 80 hours a week.
Oof. How does this work?
Income based repayment is calculated as a percentage of your last 2 pay stubs. So if you were an idiot and put in a lot of hours in the two months before yearly renewal...
Marty: The future, it's where you're going? Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
That sounds like something you could appeal; but I'm extremely non-versed in school loan info.
Also, two most recent pay stubs is just lazy and stupid. I could see that being a requirement if you've got less than, say, 6 months on the job. Otherwise, it should be based on either more stubs than that or your W2.
I think I've screwed myself over by taking a 2nd job with variable hours. Turns out I had worked hard prior to the yearly recalculation of all my student loans and now I don't think I can make ends meet unless I work 80 hours a week.
Oof. How does this work?
Income based repayment is calculated as a percentage of your last 2 pay stubs. So if you were an idiot and put in a lot of hours in the two months before yearly renewal...
Typically it's based on your previous year's 1040, but you can opt to have them go off of pay if your situation has changed. I believe it is more than 2 paystubs, however, as that could be rife with fraud. Check with your loan servicer and they'll be happy to tell you what you need to do.
Don't really use this one (it's better than the above for groceries, but we mostly go to a co-op that doesn't take credit cards now), but if you're in CA, Golden One Credit Union has a 3% gas/grocery/restaurants
By the way, as a former Californian, I can attest that Golden One is a very good credit union.
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
Don't really use this one (it's better than the above for groceries, but we mostly go to a co-op that doesn't take credit cards now), but if you're in CA, Golden One Credit Union has a 3% gas/grocery/restaurants
By the way, as a former Californian, I can attest that Golden One is a very good credit union.
I've been using Provident Credit Union. 2% interest on first 25k in your checking account, as long as you meet a few requirements. The most difficult is $300 debit and/or credit purchases with their card per month. I've just put my utilities/internet bills to use that card by default, and voila - instant 2% interest.
MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
BECU (Boeing Employees Credit Union) is great if you're in Washington state. You can stay with them if you move out of state too since they're in the shared CU network.
Is this the place to ask for 401k investment advice? I'm honestly clueless and for the past four or so years have just been copying whatever my Dad invests in (he pays someone to plan investments for him, so the idea is that I'm benefiting from that for free). However, I've also become increasingly wary of just following my Dad's financial advice.
If you have access to any target date or life cycle funds, those are your best bet. Put everything there and let it ride.
Otherwise, give us your 401k provider and fund options. Ideally, you want a mix of risk profiles so you can take advantage of highs while managing your risk.
Is this the place to ask for 401k investment advice? I'm honestly clueless and for the past four or so years have just been copying whatever my Dad invests in (he pays someone to plan investments for him, so the idea is that I'm benefiting from that for free). However, I've also become increasingly wary of just following my Dad's financial advice.
What info do I need to provide?
Don't forget to include expense ratios. No point in investing a fund if the fees eat up all of your returns. Simple index funds are what you should be investing in anyway and they typically have a very small expense ratio.
Is this the place to ask for 401k investment advice? I'm honestly clueless and for the past four or so years have just been copying whatever my Dad invests in (he pays someone to plan investments for him, so the idea is that I'm benefiting from that for free). However, I've also become increasingly wary of just following my Dad's financial advice.
What info do I need to provide?
Don't forget to include expense ratios. No point in investing a fund if the fees eat up all of your returns. Simple index funds are what you should be investing in anyway and they typically have a very small expense ratio.
Yeah, I've got access to target date ones, and the expense ratios are disappointingly high (and honestly, I haven't found the returns to be amazing).
....and this made me go and look again. Protip: If you're moving money out of a high expense ratio fund, make sure that you also change your distributions for new funds, too.
The average expense ratio according to Morningstar is 0.78%, but even that strikes me as high. Many stock market index funds have expense ratios around 0.03-0.05%.
S&P Index at 0.12% is solid.
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
What expense ratio is good? My 2050 fund is ~0.7%. I can get a s&p index at I think 0.12%.
Disclaimer: I am not a person in anything remotely related to finance.
Anything over 1% is right out the window. Below that, just weigh it based off of performance, really. Compare your 2050 fund's performance to the S&P - Is it beating the S&P by enough to make it worthwhile?
My Roth is split between one fund which has an expense ratios of .45, and two with .045 (FSTVX, FUSVX) - the last one is basically S&P 500, the former one is slightly outperforming it, and the first one (with the higher expense ratio) isn't performing near as well (but is also more stable-value, looking at it - it didn't crash in 2008). The last two are cheaper because I basically had saved enough over the years to be able to "buy in" to a better one which requires a higher balance (and looking at their performance vs the first one, I may be shifting my funds out of that one because it's another case of "more expensive and not doing super well.")
My company's "target growth 2045" is .84 expense ratio and was doing alright, but nothing special (it's 9.78% in the past year, 3.55% in the past three, 6.84% in the past 5). Meanwhile, I have other options like a .32 ratio with 14.31/9.42/13.42, or 0.03 with 17.93/8.31/15.49, or 0.02 with 11.95/8.87/14.65.
I know past performance does not guarantee future performance, but when you're paying more and it's doing less, I'm going to shift to the better performing/cheaper ones.
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You can't give someone a pirate ship in one game, and then take it back in the next game. It's rude.
So far I bought all of these day 1/not on sale and ended up getting this in statement credit back 60 days later
Gears 4 $60/$30
Dishonored 2 $60/$25
Xbox One S $350 / $50.99
So that's pretty cool. I just have to upload my receipt and it's done.
That's the silver lining to being gouged in the ass if you miss a month of payments.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Be a proud credit card deadbeat - pay off in full every month and use those bennies.
Cheapest self-file place I've found of late:
https://www.freetaxusa.com/
One of my coworker's sisters worked for them a few years ago, so that year I got a coupon code with it. I've kept using them the past couple years. I fill in turbotax as a double-check that I get the same number, but it's a TON cheaper.
Anyone going to places like H&R Block are pretty much just paying someone to click through TurboTax for them.
Unless you have a massive income difference just joint file.
Otherwise this is honestly still in relatively simple territory. As an anonymous internet person I'd say use a tax program rather than seeing someone.
Most tax software will do an auto compare for filing jointly or separately.
That being said, it's almost always better to file jointly.
The house purchase will mean you'll likely benefit from itemization, which makes things a little more complicated but not really by enough to need a professional. Standard tax software should work just fine for what you need.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
My wife and I weren't married when we bought the house, so we filed separate. We saved a few hundred bucks collectively by putting all the interest on mine.
If you expect full on depression maybe buy long lasting foods? Rice will keep for years if stored well. I don't think it will get quite that bad, the economy hasn't fundamentally changed yet
But we already had the "trying to judge the market is something of a fool's errand" discussion. Realistically, if you're trying to plan for a depression, your concern should be less "what should be my investments" and more "am I indispensable at my job?"
If you're absolutely certain it will happen and think there's the possibility of credit card transactions being locked out refused or something, having a small bit of emergency cash wouldn't be a bad idea, but really, stocking up on non-perishables and such world probably be a better idea.
Frankly, that might not be a bad idea for a different reason. Given the sort of appointments we've been seeing, I would not expect FEMA to be in their best form. If you're in a disaster-prone area, THAT sort of preparation might not be a bad idea - food, bottled water, emergency heating, etc.
-Build up savings that can get you through three months worth of living expenses (food, rent, transportation funds, medical needs, basic hygiene stuff, backup for unplanned expenses like say your interview clothes getting damaged).
-Emergency supplies, unless things go really bad, you'll probably only need this for an actual disaster
-Finding time to make yourself harder to fire and easier to hire. If you can get training for free or at a reasonable cost without hurting your budget, it might be worth the effort. Assuming it's something that employers are looking for.
-Take care of existing loans. The less you have that needs to be payed off, the longer you can last on your savings.
-Take care of existing expenses if your are good money wise, that need to be addressed (aka if your car needs maintenance or need to replace some of the wardrobe so you have enough work presentable clothing)
General, it's stuff we should all be doing even if we feel confident that the current leadership won't crash and burn things. I wouldn't stress too much about messing with the 401K. One the market seems disconnected from what's going on and if you have someone doing it for you, they should be keeping things diverse. If you're a ways off from retirement, you may easily see all the losses recovered from by the time you actually start using that 401. At most, if expenses are tight, you might want to consider cutting back from the 401K, no point in putting a ton into it, if it's going to get decimate by outstanding loans when you retire.
I hate the current US work culture, but if you aren't super miserable and have the time. It might be worth grabbing any over time your company offers, assuming it's not some BS salary setup where the can get free hours from you. The extra money can go towards getting setup. Though I wouldn't recommend getting another job if you really don't need one, since that requires a firm commitment that OT doesn't require and could create additional paperwork headaches for you.
If you're retired or close to retirement. I'm not sure how much of the above is applicable. If the entire economy goes in the shitter, getting a job to help medicare, savings and social security cover things might not be an option for a variety of reasons.
Edit: Before I forget because many of us take it for granted, but I know of at least one coworker, whose boyfriend ran into the issue when he was homeless. Always have a reliable plan for quickly getting important paper work somewhere secure, in the event that you end up without a room over your head and no I do not mean in your vehicle that you might have to live out of. I gather it's rather common for people that are on the street to constantly get stuff stolen from them. Losing important documents like your birth certificate can lead to a host of problems. Best case scenario, you have to go through an aggravating process, courtesy of the Republicans, just to get all of that back and not deal with all the BS that crops up from identity theft. Worst case you have to go through the whole process of getting that shit back, while getting help to fix all the damage caused by some dick that stole your identity. Ideally, you should be able to have this paired up with getting a roof over your head, but I could see how that might not be feasible for everyone. A trusted friend or family member might be able to keep important documents secure, while not really have the means to support someone that is destitute.
battletag: Millin#1360
Nice chart to figure out how honest a news source is.
I'm single and don't have big expenses so I do standard deduction and my withholdings are right sooooooo I'm getting a sexy $25 refund this year.
Yes gonna make it rain on you
Do we want to share ones to look into? I've probably got "too many" credit cards (read: according to credit karma, not enough), so I've got effectively every category covered by SOMETHING. The ones which see the most use:
Costco credit card - requires Costco membership, so maybe not worth it if you don't plan on going to/using Costco - it's effectively a $55 annual fee. 4% gas (including costco gas), 3% restaurants/travel, 2% Costco, 1% everywhere else
Citi Double Cash - my default unless I've got a special category. 2% everything, effectively, if you don't carry a balance. You get 1% at time of purchase, 1% when you pay off. If I'm not mistaken, you don't get the second percent on any interest, which is how they make this work.
Amazon visa - recently they added a "Prime" tier. If you're a prime member, it's 5% off on amazon, so....yeah. 2% on a couple other things, but....I don't care about 2%s anymore thanks to the previous card.
Chase Freedom - rotating 5%. Right now it's gas (not including costco and the sort) and "local commuter transportation," so it's not getting used atm. There'll usually be a quarter where you get 5% groceries and such. Just requires a bit more attention.
Don't really use this one (it's better than the above for groceries, but we mostly go to a co-op that doesn't take credit cards now), but if you're in CA, Golden One Credit Union has a 3% gas/grocery/restaurants
But yeah, seriously, look at the extra perks. Renting a car? Depending on your card, they might cover the insurance for it if you don't buy the extra coverage. Going overseas? A lot of cards (mostly mastercard from what I've seen) don't have currency exchange fees. The previously-mentioned price rewind (double cash has that, although you have to tell it to track any given item).
My question, if there's anyone who is more familiar - I've always just stuck to the X%/cash back angle. How does the whole "miles" thing work for cards, and is it ever really worth it? I'm about a 6 hour flight from my family and a 12 hour flight from the in-laws, so getting some extra miles could actually end up saving in the long run.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
The miles thing is definitely worth it though you need to either be flexible, want routes that no one cares about and thus have high availability, or have points spread across multiple airlines and partners. The real value though comes from the signup bonuses so if you want lots of points then you end up signing up for a lot of cards. Nothing wrong with that, and I personally do it with 15+ cards in 2016, but people seem uncomfortable with it. Without the bonuses it's much more questionable. Most people won't generate that many points and point value is generally not above 2 cents so you'd be better off with Citi DoubleCash.
Two cards that you didn't mention that have general usefulness are:
Amex Blue Cash Preferred - 6% groceries, 3% gas and department stores. Does have an annual fee at $95 though I think they waive it the first year and a signup bonus. Even with the fee a lot of people spend enough on groceries that this card is worth it.
Capital One Quicksilver - this is one of the few card I know of that has no annual fee and doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee. It also gives 1.5% cash back which isn't bad and has a decent signup bonus though you can do better. Another option is BankAmericard Travel Rewards.
We currently have a Chase Sapphire card which comes with a $95 annual fee. Not for everyone but is excellent if you're traveling and eating out.
That Amex seems pretty sweet. I got a Chase Sapphire Reserve, which is almost identical to the Chase Sapphire Preferred. A summary of benefits:
$450 annual fee
$100 fee for additional cardholders (we don't pay this, but throwing it out there in case anyone's wondering)
$300 annual travel credit (taxis, hotels, airline tickets all count). Note this is based on the calendar year, not the anniversary of when you got the card.
$100 reimbursement of global entry fee (for cardholder)
Free priority pass which is an airport lounge club thing.
3x points on restaurants and travel
1.5 points when redeeming for travel
No foreign transaction fees
i think now they're offering a 50k points sign-on bonus, but they were 100k pts up until last week. Might still be able to get 100k points in a branch.
Other than that I have a chase freedom to get the 5% on various categories (i transfer points to the sapphire to redeem at 1.5x) and a costco card because its free w/membership and gets me 2% cash back at Costco.
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Re: Doomsday -- You could start building your own shelter/place to store shit. Buy a shipping container (<$5000), rent a backhoe or excavator for a weekend, dig a hole and drop the container in (spray the container with waterproofing stuff they use on foundations and line the hole with landscaping fabric). Add pre-made root cellar stairs and cover everything back up.
Bonus: run conduit for electrical/internet (possibly a gas line?).
I'm going off the deep end, obviously.
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My medium term goal is to get to this point. Thanks to kids and a rather complicated life, I'm not sure if we'll ever make it. I may start tweaking my withholding, though, after some of our financial wrinkles get smoothed out.
http://www.UPromise.com
Oof. How does this work?
Paid for our round trip business class honeymoon to Thailand from SF on points.
Income based repayment is calculated as a percentage of your last 2 pay stubs. So if you were an idiot and put in a lot of hours in the two months before yearly renewal...
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Also, two most recent pay stubs is just lazy and stupid. I could see that being a requirement if you've got less than, say, 6 months on the job. Otherwise, it should be based on either more stubs than that or your W2.
Typically it's based on your previous year's 1040, but you can opt to have them go off of pay if your situation has changed. I believe it is more than 2 paystubs, however, as that could be rife with fraud. Check with your loan servicer and they'll be happy to tell you what you need to do.
By the way, as a former Californian, I can attest that Golden One is a very good credit union.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I've been using Provident Credit Union. 2% interest on first 25k in your checking account, as long as you meet a few requirements. The most difficult is $300 debit and/or credit purchases with their card per month. I've just put my utilities/internet bills to use that card by default, and voila - instant 2% interest.
What info do I need to provide?
Otherwise, give us your 401k provider and fund options. Ideally, you want a mix of risk profiles so you can take advantage of highs while managing your risk.
Don't forget to include expense ratios. No point in investing a fund if the fees eat up all of your returns. Simple index funds are what you should be investing in anyway and they typically have a very small expense ratio.
Yeah, I've got access to target date ones, and the expense ratios are disappointingly high (and honestly, I haven't found the returns to be amazing).
....and this made me go and look again. Protip: If you're moving money out of a high expense ratio fund, make sure that you also change your distributions for new funds, too.
S&P Index at 0.12% is solid.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Disclaimer: I am not a person in anything remotely related to finance.
Anything over 1% is right out the window. Below that, just weigh it based off of performance, really. Compare your 2050 fund's performance to the S&P - Is it beating the S&P by enough to make it worthwhile?
My Roth is split between one fund which has an expense ratios of .45, and two with .045 (FSTVX, FUSVX) - the last one is basically S&P 500, the former one is slightly outperforming it, and the first one (with the higher expense ratio) isn't performing near as well (but is also more stable-value, looking at it - it didn't crash in 2008). The last two are cheaper because I basically had saved enough over the years to be able to "buy in" to a better one which requires a higher balance (and looking at their performance vs the first one, I may be shifting my funds out of that one because it's another case of "more expensive and not doing super well.")
My company's "target growth 2045" is .84 expense ratio and was doing alright, but nothing special (it's 9.78% in the past year, 3.55% in the past three, 6.84% in the past 5). Meanwhile, I have other options like a .32 ratio with 14.31/9.42/13.42, or 0.03 with 17.93/8.31/15.49, or 0.02 with 11.95/8.87/14.65.
I know past performance does not guarantee future performance, but when you're paying more and it's doing less, I'm going to shift to the better performing/cheaper ones.
On topic.
401(k) starts around 6:30. Talks about expense ratios there.