Oh my other stupid question.. that doesn't have much impact. We're doing taxes and insurance separately from our mortgage.
Tax payments are due (correction) 4/1, and late on 4/10. Would you pay as early or late as possible?
Professionally, when my clients pay invoices on or before their due date when they could stretch their vendors, but instead rely on my financing to pay them, I cringe. (I mean.. it's how I make money, so I don't cringe too hard.) So I'm not sure if it's the lender in me that wants to wait until 4/1 (9 days before it's "delinquent") or if it's what most people would do. I know the mortgage brokers make payment on the actual delinquency date. FWIW, we aren't borrowing the money to make payment and it's not in a particularly high yield account (CapitalOne)
Ours are a little different. Due Nov 1, late Dec 10. I always pay after Dec 1. In your case, with such a short window, I don't think it matters that much.
Susie , we get the bill for them in August. First payment due 11/1, delinquent 12/10, second due 4/1, due 2/1, delinquent 4/10. Both payments are listed as "due" in the system the date the bill generates. So I'll have paper sitting around for along time either way. In reality, I'll just set up an auto pay either way, just not sure what date to set it.
ETA: I obviously am uncaffinated. This payment is not due 7/1 or 4/1, it's due 2/1, so the due date is 2 months before the delinquent date.
ohgillian , thank you! That was helpful, I couldn't figure out how to pick a state within Schwab and didn't realize it was only the Kansas plan. I had already decided on New York, because we are potentially moving there soon (like 95%) and it offers tax credits plus gets pretty good reviews. Does that make sense to chose that plan?
Susie , I saw your answer right after I posted this. Have you been happy with NY?
Adding that we currently live in NJ, which has one of the worst plans from what I read.
I can't promise, but I *think* they only have Kansas. Like how I'm at Vanguard and they only have the Utah.
ETA: To answer your question, I think that if you are likely moving to NY and they have a tax credit, that's the right one to pick. The financial benefit of the tax credit should far outweigh any differences in fees, etc.
thank you! I finally just opened an account with the NY plan...thanks everyone for you help and that extra push I needed.
Susie , we get the bill for them in August. First payment due 11/1, delinquent 12/10, second due 4/1, due 2/1, delinquent 4/10. Both payments are listed as "due" in the system the date the bill generates. So I'll have paper sitting around for along time either way. In reality, I'll just set up an auto pay either way, just not sure what date to set it.
ETA: I obviously am uncaffinated. This payment is not due 7/1 or 4/1, it's due 2/1, so the due date is 2 months before the delinquent date.
What retirement investment options are there beyond Roth IRAs that aren't workplace affiliated? My partner works for a small office with no retirement options, and we've just gotten to a point where we can start saving for his retirement. We will likely put $6k in a Roth, but have another $6k that I want to invest for him, but don't know where.
My employer offers a 403b that they match, and with that we're already saving 15% of my salary, so I'm really looking for ways to fund his retirement.
If you really wanted to, you could put $6k in for 2020 (until April 15) and then put the other $6k in for 2021. I wouldn't necessarily do that now b/c the market is pretty high and it'd be better to dollar cost average (fund the 2021 amount with $500/month or something like that) but if you aren't sure you'll actually keep that money in savings until it's time to invest, you could go ahead and do it all now. Do you max a Roth for yourself?
I know you said he's your partner, but coming from someone possibly on the verge of divorce, unless this is all his income you're talking about investing, I'd be maxing out your stuff first with your income.
Would you contribute to a 529 if your spouse worked for a university that (currently) offers full tuition waiver for children and a generous tuition exchange with many other universities? We are 35, have 3x salary saved in retirement accounts, and have 3 kids ages 8 and under. We've had significant daycare payments for years that didn't allow much college savings but they've come to a halt due to COVID and we're trying to figure out the best way to allocate those funds instead of leaving them in savings doing nothing. If it plays into your decision, assume that neither you nor your spouse are currently maxing retirement contributions.
where is the best place to open a 529 account? Should I do it with my existing brokerage firm where most of my money is (Schwab), or direct from the state I choose or a different brokerage with better fees? I consider myself pretty investment savvy but I've been holding on to some cash for my daughter because I feel so clueless as to what to do with it.
I chose NY (nysaves.org) because it's my home state, and it offers a state income tax deduction for contributions. If your state does as well, that may be a good choice. If not, your options are wide open. I hear Utah and California chosen frequently, but didn't get this far in the decision tree because NY made easy sense for me.
We don’t live in NY/no plans to move there and chose that plan. I’m in KS, and we get a state tax credit for investing in any 529 plan, not just the KS plan. When I opened my oldest’s 529, UT, IA, NY and one other were highly recommended. I don’t remember al the reasons why, but we ended up choosing NY, and 6+ years later (and now with 2 kids having NY 529 plans), we’ve been happy with the plan.
Would you contribute to a 529 if your spouse worked for a university that (currently) offers full tuition waiver for children and a generous tuition exchange with many other universities? We are 35, have 3x salary saved in retirement accounts, and have 3 kids ages 8 and under. We've had significant daycare payments for years that didn't allow much college savings but they've come to a halt due to COVID and we're trying to figure out the best way to allocate those funds instead of leaving them in savings doing nothing. If it plays into your decision, assume that neither you nor your spouse are currently maxing retirement contributions.
How happy is he in his job? Does he have good career prospects there long-term/room to advance and be promoted? Your kids are still a long way from college, so if be inclined to at least invest something.
Would you contribute to a 529 if your spouse worked for a university that (currently) offers full tuition waiver for children and a generous tuition exchange with many other universities? We are 35, have 3x salary saved in retirement accounts, and have 3 kids ages 8 and under. We've had significant daycare payments for years that didn't allow much college savings but they've come to a halt due to COVID and we're trying to figure out the best way to allocate those funds instead of leaving them in savings doing nothing. If it plays into your decision, assume that neither you nor your spouse are currently maxing retirement contributions.
I'd be dumping it into Roths, if you are not already. If necessary, you can access the Roths for school when you reach school age. With a benefit like this, it's hard to not consider this. My last employer had this as well, and I took advantage of it while working to get my doctorate. Calculating back, that tuition benefit probably saved me about $60K in tuition costs while I was working on it, so nothing to sneeze at.
The concern I might have is that during Bush's tax cuts, they took employer provided tuition off the table as a taxable benefit (I only had to pay one semester of taxes on my tuition). With what's going on with the government these days, and with what's going on at universities hemorrhaging money, it's entirely possible that things will change.
ETA: Also, not all universities have tuition reimbursement. Also in my experience, having worked in universities for over 30 years is that positions become highly political. In my career, I wound up working in 4 different institutions, and my job change was largely due to a change in the university's political climate. So you need to consider how stable your husband's job is and the likelihood things can go south.
Would you contribute to a 529 if your spouse worked for a university that (currently) offers full tuition waiver for children and a generous tuition exchange with many other universities? We are 35, have 3x salary saved in retirement accounts, and have 3 kids ages 8 and under. We've had significant daycare payments for years that didn't allow much college savings but they've come to a halt due to COVID and we're trying to figure out the best way to allocate those funds instead of leaving them in savings doing nothing. If it plays into your decision, assume that neither you nor your spouse are currently maxing retirement contributions.
This is tricky for so many reasons. Is it a public or private university? My sense is that those are more in jeopardy at public universities than at private ones. (aka the waiver might not be around in a decade). It's also tricky b/c if I understand 529s correctly, if your kid gets a $40,000 scholarship, you can withdraw $40k of growth from the 529 without a penalty -- but tuition waivers are in a gray area that aren't exactly scholarships, so it's not 100% clear to me that you'd be able to take out $40k if it were waived, vs a scholarship. There are a lot of issues with waivers - I'm not at all saying they're bad, but they legally are not identical to scholarships.
You say you aren't maxing out retirement, but are you saving "enough" for retirement, whatever that is?
We're trying out a HDHP this year, whereas we've typically gone with a traditional PPO.
How does it work when we go to our appointments? Do we pay in full then? Get a bill later? The subscriber and group numbers on our cards haven't changed, which is interesting to me.
My H forgot to change the insurance on file with his PCP and went in for an appointment and blood draw, and when he called a week later to update the insurance on file, the receptionist didn't seem to understand what he meant when he said we now have the HDHP. He's freaking out (not sure why), and I told him I don't see the big deal and am happy to wait for a bill, which we can then pay with our HSA account (we have those cards).
We're trying out a HDHP this year, whereas we've typically gone with a traditional PPO.
How does it work when we go to our appointments? Do we pay in full then? Get a bill later? The subscriber and group numbers on our cards haven't changed, which is interesting to me.
My H forgot to change the insurance on file with his PCP and went in for an appointment and blood draw, and when he called a week later to update the insurance on file, the receptionist didn't seem to understand what he meant when he said we now have the HDHP. He's freaking out (not sure why), and I told him I don't see the big deal and am happy to wait for a bill, which we can then pay with our HSA account (we have those cards).
Am I out in left field?
For the most part, we just pay the bills afterwards. If I recall correctly at some specialists - radiologist and chiropractor we pay at the time service but for the vast majority of things they bill us later.
Would you contribute to a 529 if your spouse worked for a university that (currently) offers full tuition waiver for children and a generous tuition exchange with many other universities? We are 35, have 3x salary saved in retirement accounts, and have 3 kids ages 8 and under. We've had significant daycare payments for years that didn't allow much college savings but they've come to a halt due to COVID and we're trying to figure out the best way to allocate those funds instead of leaving them in savings doing nothing. If it plays into your decision, assume that neither you nor your spouse are currently maxing retirement contributions.
This is tricky for so many reasons. Is it a public or private university? My sense is that those are more in jeopardy at public universities than at private ones. (aka the waiver might not be around in a decade). It's also tricky b/c if I understand 529s correctly, if your kid gets a $40,000 scholarship, you can withdraw $40k of growth from the 529 without a penalty -- but tuition waivers are in a gray area that aren't exactly scholarships, so it's not 100% clear to me that you'd be able to take out $40k if it were waived, vs a scholarship. There are a lot of issues with waivers - I'm not at all saying they're bad, but they legally are not identical to scholarships.
You say you aren't maxing out retirement, but are you saving "enough" for retirement, whatever that is?
This validates my feelings about the situation and not being entirely confident in what to do! If I follow general "save X by age X", then we're definitely on track. He's at a private university in IT and overall considered very secure. Your understanding of 529s re: scholarship is also my understanding and I didn't think waivers would be considered the same way. I think ultimately we'll bring our retirement contributions both up to the 2021 max and then put the rest in a 529 for the time being.
This is tricky for so many reasons. Is it a public or private university? My sense is that those are more in jeopardy at public universities than at private ones. (aka the waiver might not be around in a decade). It's also tricky b/c if I understand 529s correctly, if your kid gets a $40,000 scholarship, you can withdraw $40k of growth from the 529 without a penalty -- but tuition waivers are in a gray area that aren't exactly scholarships, so it's not 100% clear to me that you'd be able to take out $40k if it were waived, vs a scholarship. There are a lot of issues with waivers - I'm not at all saying they're bad, but they legally are not identical to scholarships.
You say you aren't maxing out retirement, but are you saving "enough" for retirement, whatever that is?
This validates my feelings about the situation and not being entirely confident in what to do! If I follow general "save X by age X", then we're definitely on track. He's at a private university in IT and overall considered very secure. Your understanding of 529s re: scholarship is also my understanding and I didn't think waivers would be considered the same way. I think ultimately we'll bring our retirement contributions both up to the 2021 max and then put the rest in a 529 for the time being.
For various reasons, we used to use a 529 but now save for college in our Roth 401ks. That may be an option for you? I still have the 529s but i'm not adding to them for now.
Would you contribute to a 529 if your spouse worked for a university that (currently) offers full tuition waiver for children and a generous tuition exchange with many other universities? We are 35, have 3x salary saved in retirement accounts, and have 3 kids ages 8 and under. We've had significant daycare payments for years that didn't allow much college savings but they've come to a halt due to COVID and we're trying to figure out the best way to allocate those funds instead of leaving them in savings doing nothing. If it plays into your decision, assume that neither you nor your spouse are currently maxing retirement contributions.
How happy is he in his job? Does he have good career prospects there long-term/room to advance and be promoted? Your kids are still a long way from college, so if be inclined to at least invest something.
He's happy and secure and has no plans to look elsewhere because of work-life balance. My thought was that it made sense to at least invest a chunk of that savings now in a 529 and let it (hopefully) grow and then we can reevaluate in the future. Thanks for the input!
Thank you for the input mich1! I should have mentioned this but I don't think we're eligible to contribute to Roths for the time being because we file separately. While he's very happy and thought to be very secure overall, you're absolutely right that the benefit may not be. I think we're going to end up splitting the savings between upping our traditional contributions and a 529 as a safety net for the time being.
We're trying out a HDHP this year, whereas we've typically gone with a traditional PPO.
How does it work when we go to our appointments? Do we pay in full then? Get a bill later? The subscriber and group numbers on our cards haven't changed, which is interesting to me.
My H forgot to change the insurance on file with his PCP and went in for an appointment and blood draw, and when he called a week later to update the insurance on file, the receptionist didn't seem to understand what he meant when he said we now have the HDHP. He's freaking out (not sure why), and I told him I don't see the big deal and am happy to wait for a bill, which we can then pay with our HSA account (we have those cards).
Am I out in left field?
For the most part, we just pay the bills afterwards. If I recall correctly at some specialists - radiologist and chiropractor we pay at the time service but for the vast majority of things they bill us later.
This is what we do. Some of our providers have us pay a co-pay that gets applied towards whatever amount we are eventually billed. It would be difficult to pay at time of service because typically the amount billed to insurance is reduced per contract and we only have to pay the contract amount, not the billed amount. We also have the FSA credit cards (makes life so much easier!) that we use for the co-pays and the services like the chiropractor who do charge us a set contracted rate at the time of service. For everyone else that bills without an online pay option I go into the online FSA platform and request payment be sent directly to them. So much easier than having to be reimbursed all of the time.
Would you contribute to a 529 if your spouse worked for a university that (currently) offers full tuition waiver for children and a generous tuition exchange with many other universities? We are 35, have 3x salary saved in retirement accounts, and have 3 kids ages 8 and under. We've had significant daycare payments for years that didn't allow much college savings but they've come to a halt due to COVID and we're trying to figure out the best way to allocate those funds instead of leaving them in savings doing nothing. If it plays into your decision, assume that neither you nor your spouse are currently maxing retirement contributions.
I would - but I'd work toward maximizing your own retirement first.
This is my situation - I'm grandfathered in to my university policy, which is that my dependents will be eligible for the tuition benefit at the time they go to school. Right now, that's full tuition, but there's no guarantee that won't change in the next 15 years to be 1/2 tuition, or something else. Additionally, it won't cover room/board/books/semester abroad expenses/incidentals. So we put some money away (usually gifts from grandparents, and recently a small amount from us), because who knows what college will look like in 15 years.
Also, depending on the tuition exchange program, it may not be as great as you've been led to believe. Our tuition exchange program requires that there be a student coming from the other school to ours - i.e. if I work at School 1, and my kid wants to go to School 2, there has to be a kid from School 2 that wants to go to School 1. There's no guarantee that there will be one of those every year, so it's kind of hit/miss.
What retirement investment options are there beyond Roth IRAs that aren't workplace affiliated? My partner works for a small office with no retirement options, and we've just gotten to a point where we can start saving for his retirement. We will likely put $6k in a Roth, but have another $6k that I want to invest for him, but don't know where.
My employer offers a 403b that they match, and with that we're already saving 15% of my salary, so I'm really looking for ways to fund his retirement.
If you really wanted to, you could put $6k in for 2020 (until April 15) and then put the other $6k in for 2021. I wouldn't necessarily do that now b/c the market is pretty high and it'd be better to dollar cost average (fund the 2021 amount with $500/month or something like that) but if you aren't sure you'll actually keep that money in savings until it's time to invest, you could go ahead and do it all now. Do you max a Roth for yourself?
I know you said he's your partner, but coming from someone possibly on the verge of divorce, unless this is all his income you're talking about investing, I'd be maxing out your stuff first with your income.
Yeah, I was thinking about doing something like that, but wasn't sure. We've got the money in a Capital One account, so no worries about spending it, and it's at least earning some measly amount of interest there.
I haven't maxed the Roth for myself, so it may make sense to do that this year. I think I've been so focused on catching him up - I've been saving 15% for years without having to think about it, but he hasn't been saving anything. We're joint with all our funds, and we both make about the same net income so that makes it harder in my own head.
I have a general 529 comment to add that I don't think has been mentioned yet. If you choose a state plan for the tax benefits, you can probably roll it into a different 529 plan in the future (would have to verify for your state). For example, my state requires us to leave the money in their 529 plan for one year and then we can roll it to another 529. We started with our state plan, but plan to roll the money into Vanguard because we prefer the investment options and that is where our other investment accounts are held.
Do you consider pensions in your retirement numbers?
DH has a 401K with 50% match that he contributes 15% to and is fully vested (working on raising this as soon as we have income again).
He also has a pension in which he is fully vested. The payout is a complicated formula but the last time we met with a FA they estimated his monthly payment to be about $2,000 if his salary never goes up from his current salary (I hope that makes sense). If he dies, I get 50% of what he would have collected.
I have an IRA that we contribute to but it’s balance is nowhere near as much as DH’s accounts. I have been a stay at home mom for 10 years and have no income of my own.
Should we base our retirement planning without the pension? We can see an FA 2X/year for free through DH’s employee and the one that we have seen uses the pension when determining our income in retirement and how much more we need to save.
But now I am wondering if we should plan without it just in case for some reason it’s not there when he retires? He is 44 and the earliest he can retire is 65 to get full pension payment. He will likely work longer than that though as long as he continues to enjoy it.
Do you consider pensions in your retirement numbers?
DH has a 401K with 50% match that he contributes 15% to and is fully vested (working on raising this as soon as we have income again).
He also has a pension in which he is fully vested. The payout is a complicated formula but the last time we met with a FA they estimated his monthly payment to be about $2,000 if his salary never goes up from his current salary (I hope that makes sense). If he dies, I get 50% of what he would have collected.
I have an IRA that we contribute to but it’s balance is nowhere near as much as DH’s accounts. I have been a stay at home mom for 10 years and have no income of my own.
Should we base our retirement planning without the pension? We can see an FA 2X/year for free through DH’s employee and the one that we have seen uses the pension when determining our income in retirement and how much more we need to save.
But now I am wondering if we should plan without it just in case for some reason it’s not there when he retires? He is 44 and the earliest he can retire is 65 to get full pension payment. He will likely work longer than that though as long as he continues to enjoy it.
Sorry that was long and thank you!
I would like to hear how other people approach this, too.
My FA takes our pension income into account in her scenarios, and I take our contributions to the plan into account when considering how much we are saving for retirement.
Do you consider pensions in your retirement numbers?
DH has a 401K with 50% match that he contributes 15% to and is fully vested (working on raising this as soon as we have income again).
He also has a pension in which he is fully vested. The payout is a complicated formula but the last time we met with a FA they estimated his monthly payment to be about $2,000 if his salary never goes up from his current salary (I hope that makes sense). If he dies, I get 50% of what he would have collected.
I have an IRA that we contribute to but it’s balance is nowhere near as much as DH’s accounts. I have been a stay at home mom for 10 years and have no income of my own.
Should we base our retirement planning without the pension? We can see an FA 2X/year for free through DH’s employee and the one that we have seen uses the pension when determining our income in retirement and how much more we need to save.
But now I am wondering if we should plan without it just in case for some reason it’s not there when he retires? He is 44 and the earliest he can retire is 65 to get full pension payment. He will likely work longer than that though as long as he continues to enjoy it.
Sorry that was long and thank you!
I would like to hear how other people approach this, too.
My FA takes our pension income into account in her scenarios, and I take our contributions to the plan into account when considering how much we are saving for retirement.
Thanks, I’ll take a look at that. It is a publicly traded company (anyone would recognize the name if I said it).
Post by rooster222 on Jan 13, 2021 11:49:28 GMT -5
We're starting the paperwork to refinance our house. We have over 100K in equity, with 22 years left on the loan. Wanting to refinance to a 15 year at 2.75. We also have a Heloc that we owe 30K on. The interest rate is 4.something on the Heloc.
What are the considerations when deciding if we should include that Heloc in the refi? Can anyone point me to a calculator so I can play with the numbers and see what makes the most sense? I am not math savvy in areas like this!
We are redoing our entire budget right now because of some changes in monthly expenses, getting new insurance, etc... So, I don't know just yet what the breakdown will look like and how much we can put towards the Heloc but I'm guessing we could have it paid off in two years or less.
As a side note I really hate having that Heloc at all.
How do I buy stock? There is a specific company I have in mind, and I just don't know how to go about purchasing shares. Everything I see online says to use a broker, but is that really the only way? I've never purchased stock before (other than what's in my Vanguard accounts, so that doesn't really count...)
Post by purplepenguin7 on Jan 13, 2021 12:12:44 GMT -5
another question, I think I know the answer but I'll ask anyway. Does it make sense to refinance our mortgage if we plan on moving soon? I don't know how soon is soon, but we know this will not be our long-term home. Ideally we'd move tomorrow if we could, but we need to do a lot of work on our current house before we can list it. By quick calculations we could save $200-300 monthly with a re-fi.
How do I buy stock? There is a specific company I have in mind, and I just don't know how to go about purchasing shares. Everything I see online says to use a broker, but is that really the only way? I've never purchased stock before (other than what's in my Vanguard accounts, so that doesn't really count...)
I guess there are a lot of different ways but depending on how much you currently have at Vanguard you might be able to do it there without fees. Hopefully someone else will reply with more options besides Vanguard; this is the only way I know.
purplepenguin7, ohgillian, we use Schwab as our brokerage account. DH does all of our investing and says we pay zero fees for stock transactions, so that may be an option for you.
How do I buy stock? There is a specific company I have in mind, and I just don't know how to go about purchasing shares. Everything I see online says to use a broker, but is that really the only way? I've never purchased stock before (other than what's in my Vanguard accounts, so that doesn't really count...)
I guess there are a lot of different ways but depending on how much you currently have at Vanguard you might be able to do it there without fees. Hopefully someone else will reply with more options besides Vanguard; this is the only way I know.