MM randoms

[purplepenguin7]

Hope it’s ok to start a randoms thread!

My random:

My husband offered to cash out a big portion of his “personal” savings to do some housework that we don’t have joint funds for in the budget. I feel guilty about making him spend his own savings even though I put 10x (literally) as much of my personal money into our down payment for our new house. Ugh money and marriage/relationships is so hard.

[aprilsails]

The same thing happens in my house all the time purplepenguin7. My DH makes 40% more than I do. We split overall household bills proportionally, but at the end of the month he just has more savings than I do. At this point he has maxed out his retirement and I am backfilling mine. This summer he is thinking of paying for the landscaping work that we need to do because he doesn’t know what else to do with his cash (FWP for sure).

However, when we first moved in together 15 years ago I made more by 100% than him and I carried the costs for our vehicle and insurance and paid proportionally more for our household bills. I would pay for vacations too.

Even though the values don’t compare at all anymore due to our increase in income, I view it as the intent. We’re both working towards the same goals, sometimes one person just makes it there first.

[purplepenguin7]

Thanks for the perspective aprilsails! I’ve always been the higher income earner so it’s a flip flop this time. There’s also a lot background including that my H grew up poor, never had any kind of savings and it notoriously terrible with money. The fact that he’s even saved this much is a huge milestone so I’m feeling a lot guilt making him spend it.

[flygirl]

My random-I sold a bunch of stock yesterday but haven’t received any notice of it being finalized. It’s the first time I’ve done so with this place so it’s making me nervous I messed something up. Of coarse the stock went down about $30 a share yesterday afternoon

[just]

I managed to lock myself out of both of our Treasury Direct accounts. The type-on-screen password window meant that my password manager hadn't saved anything and they show all possible questions to unlock the account, and I couldn't remember which one's I'd chosen. 1hr on hold to unlock (not mad - my fault), but now I need to get my DH to do the same.

[Wallflower]

My MM random - I posted in December about getting notice from my state tax department about "undeclared unemployment compensation" and monies owed on my 2020 return. I filed all the necessary paperwork with two separate departments and finally got that cleared up after 3 months.

And now I have another notice for my 2021 return and they've flagged it for what amounts to an informal audit. I have to pull all my paperwork together, including proof of the unemployment fraud that I expect I won't receive for 2 months, and return it by the end of the month.

Stressed? Who, me?

[ohgillian]

Apr 6, 2022 12:41:05 GMT -5 just said:

I managed to lock myself out of both of our Treasury Direct accounts. The type-on-screen password window meant that my password manager hadn't saved anything and they show all possible questions to unlock the account, and I couldn't remember which one's I'd chosen. 1hr on hold to unlock (not mad - my fault), but now I need to get my DH to do the same.

I really really hate that on screen keyboard thing.

[ssmjlm]

I finally got everything transferred to a FA! I have realized I don’t want to manage my money because I don’t have time.

DH is getting a new truck finally, so we’re transferring money from savings to checking for the DP.

I need to figure out what to do with our savings bonds. I think some are fully matured to their max and need to be cashed out.

[chpmnk1015]

Love mm randoms.random.. glad you started a thread.

Mine is I don't have 401k for a year w new job.. so each month I was taking what I would towards it and putting into my stock account or another investment account. The last month and this mo th though I'm just putting it I to a car savings account t I have because my new car comes June and I just want to pay off as much of it as I can...

[egeiger]

We finally started a "college" fund for my kid!

In addition to regular retirement, we started a Roth IRA that will double for college. The house will be paid off the same time as her high school graduation, so the Roth contributions will be in addition to the ability to cash flow. (We also only plan to assist, not fully fund college, so not too concerned about exact numbers. It is just to be a gift to make her life easier, but not an expectation that she isn't on the hook.)

[quesyrah]

My DH got a call out of the blue on Monday offering him his dream job. It is a lateral move but it comes with a pay bump which is going to really come in handy because we need to work on our front/back yard and paint our house.

[simpsongal]

I feel like we're finally catching up after shelling out for so many expenses in recent months. Paying for summer camps last 2 months really hit the budget hard. Our last daycare check EVER is due in June.

Even though older kid expenses offset some of the savings, I look forward to spending that money on activities, sports equiptment, and vacations!

In job news, mine wants me to sign another retention for a bonus. I considered leaving/looking again, but I'll probably just go ahead and sign up again....sigh.

[Susie]

I feel like I need to up my MM game, from 101 level to 201.  In the last year, we sold a house, bought a house, and I landed a client that made a profound positive impact on my compensation (although a very negative impact on my available time!).  Everything felt really upside down for quite a while there, with so many personal, financial, and professional changes at once.  I feel like the dust is settling now, and I need to figure out what our "new financial life" looks like.

I was already maxing my 401k, but this year (tax year 2021) I also contributed the max profit sharing that I could in Feb.

H wasn't maxing his 457(b), but as of January he now is.

Last summer I paid off my buy in loan from buying my first 5% of my firm.

We aren't saving super aggressively for kids' college yet, but I did increase 529 contributions.  

We still have student loans, but they're all <4.5%.  Some are as low as 2%.  IDK how I feel about paying them off.  It feels like money into a black hole, when I could do something so much better with it.

We have like 5 payments left on one car, at 1.9%.  I could pay it off, but, meh, by fall it'll be done no matter what.  The other car we own outright.  They both have <35k miles on them, no replacement on the horizon.

I have increased our charitable giving, but it's still pretty haphazard.  Like I see something, get inspired, and give, but I don't have anything automatic or calendared.

I need to figure out what our goals are/should be, other than more home improvements/travel/generic saving.  I'm just so busy working that I haven't had time!

[magdala]

We got the taxes done without needing an extension. Even though we have to pay $2000, it feels like a win to get them done on time.

[midwestmama]

We made a lump sum payment ($5500) to our mortgage with part of our bonuses. It knocks about 4 months off our loan, so not a huge amount, but it's something. (With other additional payments, we've knocked about 15 months off the loan (15 year loan started in Fall of 2020).) Our goal is to pay off our mortgage by mid-2028.

We booked a trip to Florida for right before Christmas (2022). We thought it might be good to book now in case prices continue to go up quickly (especially flights).

I'll be depositing $750 into each of the kids' 529s this month (also money from bonuses). Ideally we'd like to have 2 years worth of tuition in each of their 529s, and we're maybe half way there (with 6.5 years to go for DS).

[pierogigirl]

Apr 11, 2022 8:34:00 GMT -5 midwestmama said:

We made a lump sum payment ($5500) to our mortgage with part of our bonuses. It knocks about 4 months off our loan, so not a huge amount, but it's something. (With other additional payments, we've knocked about 15 months off the loan (15 year loan started in Fall of 2020).) Our goal is to pay off our mortgage by mid-2028.

We booked a trip to Florida for right before Christmas (2022). We thought it might be good to book now in case prices continue to go up quickly (especially flights).

I'll be depositing $750 into each of the kids' 529s this month (also money from bonuses). Ideally we'd like to have 2 years worth of tuition in each of their 529s, and we're maybe half way there (with 6.5 years to go for DS).

We pay bi-weekly and just that shaves a couple of years off with no real effort (there are two months when you make 3 payments instead of 2).

[pierogigirl]

Is there such a thing as a college financial advisor for parents long-ish before their kids are ready to start college? 6-9 years before college.

Details deleted.

[Wallflower]

Apr 6, 2022 13:37:53 GMT -5 Wallflower said:

My MM random - I posted in December about getting notice from my state tax department about "undeclared unemployment compensation" and monies owed on my 2020 return. I filed all the necessary paperwork with two separate departments and finally got that cleared up after 3 months.

And now I have another notice for my 2021 return and they've flagged it for what amounts to an informal audit. I have to pull all my paperwork together, including proof of the unemployment fraud that I expect I won't receive for 2 months, and return it by the end of the month.

Stressed? Who, me?

Update -
I just heard back from the Tax Department ... It looks like, somehow, a $28,000 deduction was entered under Job Expenses. I have NO IDEA how that happened (thank you, Turbo Tax), so that is almost certainly what is initiating the audit. 

And the unemployment compensation fraud turns out not to be fraud but a data entry error, where the person receiving the UC had an SSN close to mine. They've cleared that info up so it no longer appears under my record.

Feeling better about things, but will have a bit of a research project to figure out how I ended up with that job expense deduction!

[midwestmama]

Apr 11, 2022 17:49:37 GMT -5 pierogigirl said:

Apr 11, 2022 8:34:00 GMT -5 midwestmama said:

We made a lump sum payment ($5500) to our mortgage with part of our bonuses. It knocks about 4 months off our loan, so not a huge amount, but it's something. (With other additional payments, we've knocked about 15 months off the loan (15 year loan started in Fall of 2020).) Our goal is to pay off our mortgage by mid-2028.

We booked a trip to Florida for right before Christmas (2022). We thought it might be good to book now in case prices continue to go up quickly (especially flights).

I'll be depositing $750 into each of the kids' 529s this month (also money from bonuses). Ideally we'd like to have 2 years worth of tuition in each of their 529s, and we're maybe half way there (with 6.5 years to go for DS).

We pay bi-weekly and just that shaves a couple of years off with no real effort (there are two months when you make 3 payments instead of 2).

I would love to pay bi-weekly, but the credit union we have our loan through doesn't allow for those payment plans.   Their "solution" is to pay at least one extra payment a year or pay additional each month.  I usually make an extra payment (around $200-$300, directly to the principal) right after the monthly payment.

[lust2hart]

We just crossed the half-a-million-net-worth threshold.