I was going through a rough patch and ignored everything. Now, I have a $23k bill from the IRS for taxes I never even filed. I know it’s my fault, but I’m freaking out. Anyone successfully negotiated this down?

After my father passed I spent a half year getting his home ready for sale. It finally sold and I received my share of the inheritance - $200K. I immediately put it into my S&P 500 index fund. And then a day later: the market crashed.

I keep saying to myself, "you can't time the market." But then I reply, "yeah but you probably should have seen something was coming and waited a bit." Ugh.

And I know that historically, it will come back. But given everything going on I'm starting to wonder. And if it does come back it could be years...

Please don’t come for me. I’m 32, recently divorced, and just finished nursing school. It’s been a year, to say the least. I’m basically starting from scratch. I have about $10k in savings, but I’m also carrying $7k in credit card debt that’s keeping me up at night.

I start my first nursing job next week, and I’ll be bringing home around $5k a month. My monthly expenses are pretty manageable, around $2.5k. I do have a car loan and student loans as well.

Should I just bite the bullet and pay off the credit card debt with my savings? The thought of being debt-free sounds amazing, but losing that financial cushion makes me really uneasy. Debt scares me but so does having no safety net. What would you do?

EDIT: no children, 4k is on a zero APR until September and the rest is on another cc. I had about 15k up until February (paid off a large chunk, down to my last 7k).

EDIT: thank you so much everyone! Sincerely appreciate all the insight and advice.

I don't really get the argument relating to Roth conversions. Perhaps with some careers, you could easily predict you'll be out of order. Maybe you're a brain surgeon, and your hands just won't be capable of the precise movements necessary to do it anymore. But for many people, they could wind up just making ten times more in their older age, and now have to pay more taxes on a higher amount. I'm 29 years old. How would I be able to predict what my income is going to be many decades from now?

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.

Went to get a routine cleaning and they said I needed fillings. They didn’t do the cleaning and had me come back in two visits to do one side of my mouth each for fillings and proceeded to do the cleanings with each side.

Insurance covered some of the fillings. I paid like $350 each visit for my portion.

3 months later they want me to pay $800 for more cleaning fees- just the cleaning portion. They billed insurance $400 per quarter of my mouth.

Insurance only covered half because they did some kind of procedure that requires more evidence of bone loss. Dentist is saying I approved a “deep cleaning”. Dentists said they were being preemptive but did not inform me that it was anything beyond a normal cleaning.

Edit: so just expect them to be scum? I asked for details and everything to be confirmed which they assured me of. God. They are medical professionals but apparently only have the morals of carsalesmen or worse

My whole life until about a year ago, I thought my dad was well off and handled his finances well.

Over the past year I noticed things about my father who keeps finances secret from my mom. She just writes checks ok’d by my dad and my dad will just give her cash weekly for home needs

• my mom told me there were periods where her electricity would be cut for lack of payment which she would call my dad who would then “talk” to the electric company

• my brother found out there were credit cards under his name maxed out. My mom did not know of these cards. We talked to my dad who had his name removed off the cards

• I found out my dad had borrowed during the year over 40K USD from my brother. The excuse he used was “it’s to help out a family friend who’s sick and has no health care”. My mom has never met this person and neither has my brother

• we had found out my dad had opted out of his life and home insurance, not sure what my mom would do if something happened to him

• I asked my dad for information on the mortgage in case something happens so I can take care of my mom. My dad refuses to talk about his finances

• deep down I feel like my dad has a second family, he works in a different city 5 days out of the week and hour out in which we have never visited

Is there any way I can get better transparency on my parent’s financial information? I feel like I’m going to find out the hard way later on.

I'm a sophomore in college. I'm at a tough spot in my life. But I need to find a way to budget $48 until early May when I get start working at my internship. Is there anyway of budgeting the $48 for the next 4 weeks for food? Anything I should buy in bulk? I don't mind skipping a meal every other day if that works since my body can use some fat instead. It's also exam season.

I've also looked at the food banks near me and I got 500 grams of pasta and small snacks. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

What the title is asking. My old state has no state taxes but my new state does. Which one am I reporting? My new state considers me a part time resident for the tax year 2024 since I hadn’t been in my new state for more than a 184 days, the requirement.

ETA: new state is Pennsylvania.

I live in the KC metro area and I just became vested in my states pension plan. I now have the opportunity to take a similar position just over the border that also has a pension plan. My question is it worth taking 5 years to become vested in another state pension plan? Or would those 5 years be better spent continuing to contribute to my current pension?

I'm a senior in college who receives a lot of financial aid due to my family's low income. In addition to my tuition being covered, I typically get about $9K per semester which goes to things like rent, groceries, and whatever other expenses come up during the semester. Aside from a part time job, this is my only source of income; I get no support from my family.

I was filing taxes this year through turbotax as usual and somehow only this year I came upon the menu which asked about my tuition and educational expenses, prompting me to upload my form 1094-T. I know its really, really dumb and I'm honestly not sure how I failed to do this for the last three years, but this was the first time I did this. Typically when I do my taxes I end up with a small refund from my job, but after uploading it turbotax indicated I owed around $1.2K. I was a little horrified seeing this, because I think this means I have not been paying the taxes I owe for the time I've been in college. Another wrinkle in this is that I've budgeted my remaining financial aid for next month's rent, so I can't afford to pay what I owe all at once.

After doing some reading, my current plan is to first get into a short-term payment plan for this year's taxes, and then file amendments to my last three years of taxes in order to pay whatever else I may owe. I have a job lined up once I graduate which will pay me very well, so if I can wait to pay the bulk of it until around July, I don't think it will be a major financial burden.

My question is, am I screwed? I mean, it is definitely gross negligence on my part, but honestly I truly made an error in my filing, I did not intend to dodge taxes. I've never been in a position like this before and it's been stressing me out. I really don't want to be in bad standing with the IRS, and want to resolve all of my issues ASAP through the proper channels. Does my plan seem sound, or is there other stuff I should know? And lastly, would it be better to do a short term payment plan for this year's taxes and file amendments afterwards, or file all my amendments before this year's tax deadline and get into a payment plan for whatever the total amount comes to?

My wife and I started putting money in the s&p a few years ago to start saving for a down payment. We are hopefully about 6-8 months away now but obviously in the last few days we've lost a pretty sizeable chunk of it. At the moment we're actually perfectly even to where we were when we started, I'm at about $100 unrealized losses, even though I'm down $25k from a few months ago. Is there a best way forward? Should I cash out the minimum I need for a down payment and start slowly reinvesting what I can?

Hi guys. I would like yalls input on this potential plan since I have to move out of my parents home within a year or so.

Plan goes like this: Buy plot of land --> Spend maybe 6-9k cash on an old but in good decent condition mobile/manufactured home ---> save up to eventually build a multifamily or modular home. Like a duplex or triplex or something ---> profit.

I would like to just buy a duplex but houses in my area are really expensive and out of my budget. I was looking into maybe building a modular or something but even that's too expensive so I was thinking about buying the land first to build later. I saw some pretty cheap small manufactured and mobile homes listed online that look to be in good condition from the pictures but pretty old (40 yrs) within like 100 miles. I work in the trades and fairly handy so I could save money on potential repairs or maintenance.

Does this seem like a reasonable plan or is there another course of action yall would recommend?

Thanks for any input

I'm wondering what would be the advantage of contributing $3K into an HSA for the next 10 yrs... Or only contribute up to the annual max deductible amount and stop there? It sounds great to save 20-30K for future medical expenses as one gets older and less healthy, but what if you have $50K in HSA acct but never have/need to pay for a major medical expense and now your 80yo? What does one do w those funds? Can you pass the acct/funds down to your children? Assuming they don't have an HSA account of their ownn would this be a taxable event for them or can the funds be transferred tax free (if they have an HSA)?

I know there are three million posts about this exact thing but I am looking for some insight on my particular situation.

Last March, I bought a 2022 Subaru Outback with (at the time) 19k miles for $31k. I also rolled over negative equity from my previous car. So, it says my 10 day payoff amount is $35,742 but then it also says I have paid $9,805 so far and I have $47,312 left to go. My current car payment is $800/month with an 11.96% interest rate for a 73 month loan term.

Now that my frontal lobe has developed, I can’t help but feel how much of a pickle I’ve put myself into. Clearly, I have made mistakes getting here, but it is draining my soul to be paying $800 every month for a car. I really wanted a reliable car as my last one was a mess and made me honestly afraid to drive, however I know there are reliable cars that cost less than $30k.

I’ve been reading some other posts about this on here and it seems like there’s pretty much two options that stand out. From what I understand, it seems like I should either A) focus on paying down this loan as fast as I can before trying to refinance it or B) sell it for something cheaper.

What do you think my best option is, or would you recommend something different? Thank you in advance.

I’ve been going back and forth on this for weeks now, so I figured I’d ask people who’ve actually been through it: is a debt consolidation loan a good idea, or does it just end up being a temporary band-aid?

I’ve got about $25K spread across multiple credit cards, plus a personal loan that’s hanging over me from a car repair disaster last year. My credit’s okay-ish (high 600s), and I’ve never missed a payment, but the interest is crushing me. I’m throwing close to $900/month at debt and most of it’s just covering interest. I’m exhausted.

I’ve been prequalified for a few consolidation loans, and the offers say I could lower my monthly payments and lock in a fixed rate. Sounds great on paper, but I keep reading that people do this and end up worse off because they don’t change their spending habits—or the fees/terms screw them over in the long run.

My biggest fears: taking the loan, paying off the cards, and then somehow still ending up in debt again… or finding out the new loan has fine print I missed. Also, I’m not 100% clear on how this impacts my credit score. Some say it helps, others say it drops at first.

If you’ve gone the debt consolidation loan route, did it actually help you? Would you recommend it? Or do you wish you’d done something else like snowball/avalanche, credit counseling, or even just toughing it out?

To any who may be going through the same annoyance I did where Transunion forces you to pay to create an account I found this page: https://www.transunion.com/credit-disputes/dispute-your-credit

If you click create free account here it's the only place I have found on their site that doesn't force credit card info. Hopefully this saves someone else a bunch of hassle.

I currently have 10k in a cash account I’d like to invest in a vehicle other than the stock market, given current climate. What would make best sense? I’m hoping to withdraw in 1-2 years to put towards upcoming expenditures.

My sister is 44 and has never had a Roth IRA. She puts $100 a month into a retirement account. She's a teacher with a pension (and a good one at that) so it's not the end of the universe.

I know everyone on here is telling people to keep investing through all this, don't pull your money out, etc., but is now a good time to START investing? Like, should I advise her to wait a few months, or should she set it up and start investing today?

I have finally convinced my 18 YO to start an Ira with the drop in the market this week. He will be starting with up to $3000. From what I can find Fidelity will have fewer or lower amout of fees. I am asking those of you with more knoweledge of this if one is better than another? I am planning on voo and vti Are there any others i should look at? Thanks

Hello! I have paid off some credit cards that had accumulated debt while I was at university. The cards have terrible interest rates so I just want to close them and get new ones that are better. I’ll be able to now since I have a better job and my credit is older. If I close them, I think it hurts my credit score. Should I just let them expire from inactivity? Is that better or worse? How long does that take? Any advice is appreciated. :)

I’m so frustrated and I honestly don’t know what to do. Be as harsh as y’all want, I just need advice. I feel like every month I either lose money, or am just barely making it paycheck to paycheck. The stupid thing is that I’m not even living it up with “fun money” or anything, it’s that it feels like every 2 seconds there’s some random problem. Have to pay for. Car problems, medical bills/ medication, vet stuff, whatever, you name it. I even added a hundred dollar section called “shit happens” to try and account for this, but I keep exceeding it. What am I able to do about this? I got a new job that pays a bit more, but I found out they found a legal loophole to steal our tips, so only by 150 or so more a month. There are times I’m up to 1,000$ in the deficit. (Of my planned budget, not my bank account, thank fuck). Yah I know, it’s ridiculous, and 90% certain it’s my fault, I just don’t know how to fix it

Hi all, hope all are doing well. I would like some suggestions on my scenario before I talk to my financial advisor. I am from India, will be getting US citizenship next year and I will be moving back to India immediately for personal reasons. I am 41, spouse 40 and kids (US citizens) 5 and 3. I have an individual Brokerage account and SEP-IRA with Fidelity. No 401K or anything else.

Goals: 1. To keep things simple for maintenance and tax purposes by having few bank/brokerage accounts to deal with after we move back to India. 2. For kids to inherit after our demise or when they are 21.

Questions: 1. I want to open a joint brokerage account with Charles Schwab for me and my wife as Schwab has international account (to convert to when we move to India) and I am hoping joint account is easier to manage and less advisor fee. Is this recommended for me? I won't have issue with disagreement or anything with my spouse in the future, so that scenario can be ruled out. 2. If I move my current account from Fidelity to Schwab, will my individual Brokerage account be treated as a separate account or is there a way to merge that with the newly created join account in Schwab? 3. Before moving, I will close LLC. What should I do with the SEP-IRA? I read I can roll it to traditional IRA. Is this recommended? 4. Can I add multiple beneficiaries (my kids) to these accounts?

Let me know what else do I need to take care of or do before opening this joint account or proceed this way. Please suggest.

Why don’t banks make their own loans. Like once rates get close to X goal, why can’t I go to the bank, show them good payment history, good income, good credit, etc. and say hey, if you can meet my X number, you can have my mortgage payment. In my mind that’s a low risk investment for them.

It’s apparent that I’m the example so I’ll just say I wouldn’t refinance until my goal is met, what’s stopping this from happening? There has to be a reason.

Good morning!

I just had a quick question. If I paid into the Teacher Retirement System for the past 2 years, but I plan on quitting soon, will I get that money back?

Background: I've been a sub for about 2 years and now, I am pursuing a different career. I am a little ignorant when it comes to retirement funds, but I did set up a Roth IRA recently and plan to start contributing to it very soon.

I am 23 if that info is helpful.

Thank you!