25(m) here. My company is rolling out a Roth 401k in the new year. Matching at 6%.

Last 3 years I have maxed out both Roth IRA and 401k (also 6% but I can’t find anything that says they would match both if I tried it). I probably can’t squeeze all 3. Anyone have any advice on balancing all 3 and making a choice on what to prioritize?? Salary 112k if that helps.

Hello everyone,

I have read through the rules and I don't believe this goes against any of them. Overall the question is about personal finance, income, and investing in financial future.

I am finishing my procedural subspecialty fellowship in a few months and looking at jobs. I am between two jobs currently.

Job 1:

• Private Practice
• Salary 450k years 1 + 2, sign on/relocation 30k, decent benefits, matching 5%
• If at any point I "collect" more than practice overhead (roughly 50% for 1MM collections, should remain relatively stable or go up slightly if collections are ramped up), I keep 100% of remainder. New doc currently taking home 600k/yr after 1.5 yrs
• Opportunity to buy into practice for 300k after breaking even (generally +100k for practice expenses bringing me on) to share practice profits, usually around 100k per doc/yr, could grow after expansion
• Lucrative opportunity to sell practice in the future, unclear potential valuation
• 0% state income tax
• Downside- rural location, no student loan repayment (350k federal loans for me, 150k federal loans for wife)

Job 2:

• Hospital employed
• Salary 500k years 1 + 2 guaranteed, sign on/relocation 50k, decent benefits, matching 5%
• After I make back salary (no overhead considered), high end potential to make 175k additional productivity, low end likely 70k
• No option for partnership
• Likely no option for vertical growth other than being more productive
• After 5 years, my current 350k in student debt will be forgiven through public service loan forgiveness w/o needing to pay taxes. For five years would need to pay 10% of discretionary income (48k per year, 240k after five years). After five years of compounding 6.8% interest and paying 4k per month, the remainder is 211k which would be forgiven.
• Roughly 5.5% state income tax for highest bracket
• Location is more suburban than rural

From a strictly financial viewpoint, which is the better option to choose?

Thank you very much

I received an Acorns email with insights from 2022 and my investment amounts are much higher than average, which got me worried.

I make around 40k/year and have $10/daily recurring investments set up, plus 2x roundups. However, I only have around 10k in others savings, including emergency. In addition, 25% of my weekly paycheck automatically goes to savings.

Am I investing too much? I wanted to take advantage of this year's market but I sometimes worry about not having enough liquidity.

You can't max out both traditional and roth 401k anyway - the limit applies to any combination of both. Since you are already maxing out both, changing to contributing to Roth 401k would let you effectively contribute more (if you want to) because you are contributing with after-tax money.

You should follow the steps in the prime directive in the wiki.

Job #2 looks like it is better, but without knowing how much you'll bill, it's tough to know for sure. But given the high income and relatively similar pay scales, I'd focus on the non-financial aspects in making this decision.

It will be one match and one limit for both 401k plans combined. So look through https://reddit.com/r/personalfinance/w/rothortraditional?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app to see whether Roth or traditional is better for you.

Thank you!

Thank you.

Have there been any recent changes to social security (San Francisco California) in the last 2 months?

My employer suddenly stopped reporting my income to social security on my last three paychecks reducing my SS deduction from $400/paycheck to $0.

I’ll be reaching out to my finance team on Monday but curious in the meantime if there was a change or if this is just a mistake. Thanks!

There is a federal cap on the social security - you exceeded $147K in income a few paychecks ago by my calculations if you are paid biweekly and were paying $400/pay. Anything above that would not have SS taken out. It will start up again on your first 2023 paycheck. The 2023 limit will be $160,200 by the way.

Ahh that’s it! Thank you!

Does it really make sense to invest in the market now with all the questionable signs pointing to a not-so-great 2023?

I would think it would be smarter to invest in an ibond at 6.89%. Gold is even looking like a good hold if inflation continues which it seams like it will. Once Q4 numbers come out I’m not so sure they’ll be in the green.

Anyone have an opinion on how to tackle this uncertainty in the market and rising inflation?

I started automating my savings withdrawals from my paycheck. I have my job deposit $500/month into my HYSA so I never see it. I've never made a ton of money (and I still don't) so the idea of doing this was a little scary, but two things I've discovered: a) it really helped curb lifestyle creep because less money was hitting my checking. And b) boy did it feel good to log into my savings account at the end of the year and go "holy shit where did all that come from???"

If all goes well I'm going to try to up it next year.

So we maxed both of our 401ks and IRAs this year, I laugh because our retirement funds have less funds than they did on 12/31 last year.

Congratulations. Try to think of it this way: each time you contribute, you own a higher percentage of most of the companies in those funds.

> would let you effectively contribute more (if you want to) because you are contributing with after-tax money

This is really the wrong way to think about this (basically, what you're saying is at best technically true).

1. You're ignoring the tax savings from contributing to a Traditional that result in more income which can then be invested, used to pay down debt, etc. Only if you spend it on ephemeral stuff does that money "disappear".

2. The goal with the "Roth vs. Traditional" decision should really be made based on whatever nets you the most money to spend in retirement. For most high earners, that's almost certainly Traditional. Read Roth or Traditional for a longer discussion.

(tagging /u/hankmoody666)

I'd suggest asking this on /r/medicine or perhaps on the White Coat Investor forum.

If only timing the market was that easy. Your best bet is to ignore the noise and follow the steps in the Prime Directive.

More on market timing:

• Warren Buffett: "to buy or sell on current news is just crazy"

• Burton Malkiel, author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street: "market timing is dangerous"

Remember that you're investing for the next 30-40 years, not trying to predict the Dow next week, next month, or next year.

I lost 70k in 2008 from my retirement account through divorce. It was in a moderate aggressive mutual fund. Can you estimate how much it would have grown to now? I am unable to even know how to begin figuring it out. A rough estimate is fine. Thank you in advance.

Edit: this is not just a “what’s gone is gone” but a situation for a “make amends” estimate. I appreciate any input

I do. It’s just sad because my retirement spreadsheet says I’m further from retirement after 50k contributions

Curious- small banks. They offer a little bonus to join (maybe like 200 USD for 15 debit card transactions) and eat a little loss up front. Do they make money just based on their location/being very convenient for locals to use?

What's stopping someone from just switching to a bigger bank (for the convenience nationwide, more ATMs and support, etc)

Savings accounts that have a signup bonus but offer close to 0% interest rate. Are they hoping you will just put the money in and forget about it? Is that how they make money on it?

If you invested $70000 in the S&P 500 at the beginning of 2008, you would have about $256,352.88 at the end of 2022, assuming you reinvested all dividends. This is a return on investment of 266.22%, or 9.15% per year.

This lump-sum investment beats inflation during this period for an inflation-adjusted return of about 169.77% cumulatively, or 6.92% per year.

If you used dollar-cost averaging (monthly) instead of a lump-sum investment, you'd have $328,833.90.

I rolled over a small bit of a savings IRA from a previous employer's brokerage into my main, central brokerage. It's fairly small (<$10k) since I wasn't at the company for very long. Any general ideas on how to invest it? I kind of want to use it to play around with, but am not sure if there are any restrictions with rollover IRAs.

You can generally invest what you want in an IRA, but I would consider keeping your retirement funds in something relatively vanilla and playing around with money you’re more ok with losing in a taxable brokerage account, but your call.

Like any company that offers a sign-up bonus, they're (correctly) anticipating that the vast majority of customers won't bother switching after the promo period is up.

So i have an amount left in my FSA account i'm trying to use at the FSA store. My card is being declined even though i have the available amount in my FSA. However, my eligible amount is lower than my available amount, any idea why that might be?

2021 we bought a house and had a ton of spending associated with that. Furniture, repairs, carpet, etc. it adds up fast.

I’m pumped though that after a lot of work this year, all of our credit card accounts have a $0 balance today.

2023 is going to be a good year.

My asset allocation already takes the bad years into account, and rebalancing helps me make the most of them.

Might be a dumb question, but is Credit Karma's ratings/suggestions actually helpful or just marketing tools?

I have 3 active credit cards (no balance), a 799 score, and paid-off car (1) and students loans (3). No late payments or delinquencies. Credit Karma is suggesting that I have too few accounts (7) with too low of an average age (5.5 years at the moment).

Is this something I should be concerned about seeking to improve, especially if I am considering purchasing a home within the next 5 years?

I have seen churning suggested, but it's not something I have much interest in, both because I don't feel that I need a new card and because the time required seems excessive given the return.

Interesting. I'm actually up slightly YoY. What is your asset allocation?

And just one word of warning: that cap also effectively applies when you go to take social security as well. So instead of the replacement rate being based off your actual income, it will be based off of the capped income. This means that to maintain a similar lifestyle in retirement you may need to increase your retirement contributions.

Super helpful add on. Thank you! Makes a ton of sense when I read it but definitely didn’t cross my mind before.

Out of sight, out of mind is a powerful force :)

Yes

Mostly just marketing tools. They matter if you are trying to get to a perfect score, but any score above 760 is already considered perfect by pretty much any lender, so it really doesn't matter.

Appreciate it.

Curious about if I could be smarter about my emergency fund.

I currently have ~8 months in my long-term savings account as emergency money that would cover my absolute needs, high priority wants, + about $200 of flex cash / mo. That could be stretched to 10-11mo if I shaved off the P1 wants and flex cash. This was calculated at 45% of my salary for needs.

I was building towards 12 months before I would consider this set.

I'm wondering if now would be a good stopping point to start putting that money elsewhere.

Few points - I have a very low rent because I'm doing the digital nomad thing and paying very little rooms with f/f when I move around. At some point, I do expect to find my own place. I am hoping to wait it out for rent prices to drop (we'll see) but this cost would likely triple once that happens.

I am also working towards trying to find a better job. I make a dismal salary for my experience and am aiming to jump 20-30k for my next position.

Both of these though are hypothetical and do not apply to me right now.

I have no debt, and I am not yet edible for 401k match through my new job but am putting 3% into it.

I am trying to figure assuming this is my next year, should I keep building towards 12 months or start investing or moving that money? I have a few pricer short-term wants (a nice vacation and some cosmetic stuff) that I've been trickling cash into budget-wise that I'm wondering if I could fully fund more quickly.

Just looking for some outside opinions on this? I'm 37/USA so I'm thinking it's time to really think about planning for retirement as well.

Well take into account we have about 600k in retirement funds so the market being down by 20% is 120k lost which can’t be made up by a single year of contributions.

But mostly sp500, my wife is mostly in a 2055 target fund because while I track hers I let her control it and she’s just a set/forget type.

Gotcha, so mostly large cap growth. You might consider adding some small cap or small cap value, but honestly you'll probably be fine.

I have questions about retirement plans and 401k

32/USA

In march my company will start matching for 401k 100% up to 4% of contributions so I plan on maxing that out to 4% as soon as it kicks in. I have a 401k from my previous job that I was contributing a high amount to but have not touched since I left the company. I also have a managed IRA that I inherited from my father when he passed that I also have not touched, pretty much ever, because I was young and had no idea what to do with it.

So I essentially have 3 separate retirement accounts right now. I also have a decent chunk of stock from my previous job that was a mix of EPP and RSUs in yet another account.

Outside of maximizing my company's match does it matter what I do with the other two retirement accounts? Should I be contributing to them as well does it not matter which one I end up putting money into?

Also since all 4 are market-based I'm wondering if maybe I should choose something else to invest into that might be more stable? I think maybe now is a good time to diversify.

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*Edit* Ok so it looks like based on the flowchart I should be doing 15% towards retirement. I don't know if I would be considered behind on this - how would I figure that out? I just haven't made a lot of money (and still don't but hoping to change that). My guess is I can just utilize my current employer's plan and let the others do their thing. Are the maximum yearly contributions total or per account?

It's hard to say without knowing the exact mutual fund because mutual funds vary significantly. A mutual fund investing almost entirely in US stocks would have a very high return over that period, but one investing more into international stocks or bonds would have a somewhat lower return.

• If you had invested in VSMGX (Vanguard LifeStrategy Moderate Growth Fund) which is about 40% bonds, the average total return each year over the last 15 years is 4.78%. A $70,000 investment would be worth about $141,018 now.

• If you had invested in VASGX (Vanguard LifeStrategy Growth Fund) which is about 20% bonds, the average total return each year over the last 15 years is 5.34%. A $70,000 investment would be worth about $152,756 now.

A "moderate aggressive mutual fund" isn't going to be 100% US stocks and US stocks have outperformed international stocks and bonds over the last 15 years. I think that number is going to be way too high for what OP is trying to estimate.

You’re losing money by investing in acorns, unless it’s into something like an IRA. You should/need to be maxing your 401k/403b match first if you have one, then probably a Roth IRA

I haven't used Robinhood since they had their whole issue a few years ago. What's an alternative app I can use to buy stocks? Not looking for anything complicated, Robinhood fit the bill for me honestly.

Also, the match is always traditional “pre-tax” money. So if you put 6% into Roth for the match, the 6% match itself is pre-tax. So If you did 6% into Roth; it’d be a perfect split of 6% in each category if you wanted to split them.

Fidelity is great.

Does anyone have a spreadsheet template for savings buckets or sinking funds? My HYSA doesn't have the buckets feature, but I want to start doing it that way.

I'm not sure exactly what I want out of it, so hoping to peep a pre-existing one.

Seeking suggestions on how to determine the break even point between paying off my car loan (4.1%) vs investing the cash. Considering the car is a depreciating asset?

We could feasibly pay it off before the end of 2023, about 15 months into the loan term.

Hello. How can we find a good CPA CFP to help plan with taxes, general investing queries, and just overall compliance. I am just starting and keep getting confused, so a person who can guide will be best. I tried finding some online but they are unclear on what kind of services they can provide and charge even when I ask to discuss if they are the right fit for me. Any pointers will be appreciated, thank you. And Happy New Year to everyone!

Wife and I make pretty good money but also have been struggling a bit with the newish financial reality of having two kids in daycare. We knew going in what what were in for, but sometimes the reality is tougher than you expect.

We do not want for much, but we do live fairly frugally compared to others in our friend circle, most of whom make about the same amount of money. However, we did overextend ourselves a bit this year for Christmas. First time having two kids for Christmas and I may have went a little overboard with my 4 year old.

Anyway, thought we were going to have to pay off about $500 on a credit card. Not a huge deal. But yesterday my wife found out that she hasn’t been getting paid the $4/hr raise she got when she moved into a new position at her work in September. It’s looking like not only are we going to get a couple grand in back pay, but we’re also going to have an extra ~$400+ per month in our budget after taxes. Every little bit helps, and a nice surprise to find out you actually make more as a household than you thought.

You should have the ability to pay for it yourself and then upload the receipt(s).

I put in 20% (roughly 20 grand per year) and my balance is also only slightly higher than 1 year ago. It may feel like that money is gone but I assure you it’s not.

If you're talking about tax preparation help, you want a CPA. Generally, I'd suggest starting by asking your coworkers and perhaps your manager if they have a CPA they'd recommend. Friends in a vaguely similar financial situation are also a good source for recommendations.

A good number of CPAs also provide financial planning services. You could try looking for a CPA that is also a CFP or a CPA with the FPS credential.

If you don't really need or want help with tax preparation, I would just find a fee-only CFP.

The financial advisors wiki article has more advice.

I'd also suggest checking the PF wiki to start your own education. There are a lot of articles to read, but the Prime Directive is a good place to get started.

I'd recommend reading the Prime Directive article from the wiki. It'll help you prioritize any extra money you have.

Yea I know, it just makes my spreadsheets and countdown to retirement look sad, but I know progress is being made

I'd suggest Fidelity or Schwab. I'd also suggest reading the investing wiki and this submission.

At 37, I’d be looking strongly at prioritizing retirement. But a lot also depends on how stable your job is. Take a look at the prime directive in the wiki in the sidebar.

> Outside of maximizing my company's match does it matter what I do with the other two retirement accounts? Should I be contributing to them as well does it not matter which one I end up putting money into?

If your current 401(k) has good funds then you could just roll your old 401(k) into your current 401(k). That link will also help you pick funds in your 401(k).

What you should be doing with the inherited IRA depends on various factors, but I'd start by reading through this article.

> I don't know if I would be considered behind on this - how would I figure that out?

The Fidelity guideline is a good baseline for whether you're behind or not. If you're a bit behind, it wouldn't hurt to try to save 20% instead of 15% until you're caught up.

> Are the maximum yearly contributions total or per account?

Total.

Rule of thumb is 1x income in retirement accounts by 30 and 2x by 35.

You can’t contribute to a former employer 401k or an inherited IRA, so those aren’t options.

Inherited IRAs require distributions from them. You should check with the manager and make sure those are being handled.

Take a look at the article on “rollovers” in the wiki in the sidebar for what to do with the old 401k.

I have enough to pay off my truck, first payment is in January. Besides saving the interest rate, am I benefiting from or hurting myself from paying it all off? It'll be $50k.

I feel that for sure. I took a major hit about 6 years ago because I had to take money out for a down payment on a house. Seeing it slowly crawl back up and even stall makes it seem like a terrible financial decision, but knowing how housing prices have gone in that time on the west coast and the major money it has saved us in monthly payment makes it feel so much better. Sometimes for a better view we need to back up and take in more. Sounds like you’re already doing that, and that you’re in a decent financial position.

To add to this great answer, if I was getting a CFP I’d let them recommend a tax preparer rather than find one on my own. Even if they aren’t a CPA they may still offer tax services or be affiliated with someone who does.

Got enough saved up that I'm starting to pay attention when I see an ad for an online savings account paying 4%. I was thinking of opening several of them at different places so I'm not putting all my eggs in one basket. In case I forget to read SketchBank's fine print that says I can only withdraw funds on a Tuesday by flying in person to their call center in India.

I guess my first question is, is this a good idea? Is there something I'm missing? If a savings account pays more than a CD, what's the catch?

My second question is, if you open multiple savings accounts at once, do you get on some list? I worked at a bank many years ago and I remember they flagged people for all kinds of stupid reasons based on computer models and third party reporting bureaus I wouldn't trust to hold my sandwich.

>I guess my first question is, is this a good idea?

Idk if you need "several of them" at different banks, 2 accounts at different banks is typically more than enough.

>If a savings account pays more than a CD, what's the catch?

It depends on why the HYSA pays so much and the CD pays less. In general with HYSA accounts you just want to make sure you know if there is a limit to how much money earns the high interest rate, if you need to qualify for the high interest rate somehow, and if they have any withdrawal limits you need to be aware of.

Bank A might have an HYSA that pays 3.5% APY but only on the first $5000 deposited, and it only pays the 3.5% if you do 10 debit card transactions per month. But bank B might have an HYSA that pays 3.4% without any limits or requirements, you just deposit the money and earn interest

>My second question is, if you open multiple savings accounts at once, do you get on some list

Generally banks care more about checking accounts because they are higher risk. Opening a savings account should be fine in most cases. There will be a record of you owning the account but that is likely it.

The unfortunate truth is if you want to exist in society today then you WILL have your info tracked somewhere. Renting a house? There are companies that track that. Paying a mortgage? They track that too. Opened a bank account? Tracked. But people ignore it 99.9% of the time and everything works out fine.

Short term your credit score will fluctuate a bit (opened a loan and paid it off in 1-2 months, hard inquiry) but after a couple months it will relax after a couple months. Other than that it doesnt really make a difference one way or another

Does anyone here have direct experience using a 0% APR card for balance transfers? I am looking at the Discover It Balance credit card.

Here is my situation and thought process: I have a higher than normal credit card balance. I have plenty of cash on hand, more than ten times this balance. But I am thinking of just transferring the balance over at zero % for 18 months and then paying it off in full. I’d continue then paying off the cards I normally do in full each month, and planning to wipe out the transferred balance with a lump payment from A savings account before the interest begins to start (appx 15-17 months from transfer).

Does this make sense to do? Am I missing anything or failing to consider anything?

But I am unsure on the following:

1. How will my existing credit card issuers going to view this, or do they care at all?
2. How does the transfer work? Is it as simple as giving the info where the balances reside to the new creditor?
3. How would this impact my credit score? I am assuming a ding for a hard pull, but potentially increasing my overall credit limit and having a Marginal impact?
4. Am I missing any considerations that would possibly dissuade me from pursuing this course?

Thank you.

Alright, this was an urgent buy as my car was totaled in another state and I had to go to work after getting back. So even with my 750+ credit score, the interest rate is still not what I wanted. So, I figured I’d just pay it off now and it’ll save me $10k in interest.

1. Won't generally care
2. Usually they give you a check that you write and mail to the old credit card, but some can do it online now.
3. Same as any new credit card: hard inquiry plus lowers average age of account. Also will increase your utilization while you have the credit card balance.
4. Usually there is a fee for doing a balance transfer. How much is this ones? Also, you will still have to make minimum payments on the card even while at 0%APR

Thank you. I missed the huge transfer fee…

Investment Firms are going to be your best friend. Brokerage Account = savings account with access to the market. You can choose your own investments (self directed) and pay little to zero expenses for the account. A one year CD currently at 4.25%. Any equity’s aka stocks- you should have a long term hold on. Great time to buy in a down market. Do yourself a favor don’t EVER try and time the market and park your cash at a bank…that is LAME AF. Cheers!

Honestly, IRS.gov is your best resource- unless you have a seriously complex situation ie business, amt, trust etc

Fidelity

Make sure all cash in any account (number of ACCOUNTS doesn’t matter) is INVESTED. You are correct 15% for 401k is great. Roth is the best if you are not over the annual income.

Savings accounta can change their rates. Very common for them to have a great rate during a period of expansion and then it starts to go down relative to peers. CD rates are secure for the length of the CD.

Yeah, I do have a trust set up in another country. Many such complications, not a lot of money though so looking for an efficient solution instead of going to an expensive advsior

Is it still possible to fill out your W9 such that you withold $0 for taxes and just pay the full bill come tax season? Or is that not allowed anymore

You mean pay the full bill plus underpayment penalties?

Topic No. 306 Penalty for Underpayment of Estimated Tax

The current interest rate for underpayments is 6% (the underpayment penalty is based on the federal short-term rate plus 3 percentage points and it's updated quarterly).

I maxed my traditional 401k last year and I've been contributing post tax dollars for the last few months. Now I need to do the in service withdrawal but I'm not sure what options to choose. The 401k is with merrill if that makes any difference.

To get started, I went into my account looking for an in service withdrawal option, but I'm not seeing that. What I do see is a 'start a withdrawal/rollover' option, and a 'in plan roth conversion' option, which, each option has a component in the name of what I'm looking for so now idk what to do.

The in plan roth conversion sounds like it's going to move those post tax dollars into the roth 401k with merrill. I also tried clicking through the withdrawal/rollover section and this apparently allows me to send money to an IRA (though, 'roth' was not explicitly mentioned).

So I guess the question is which one of these is the one I should be doing? Is there any difference between these options from a tax perspective? They seem identical to my untrained eye, aside from the obvious of where the money will be stored following this action and how many investment options I'll have.

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I assume you mean w4, not w9.

That was never allowed. You are required to fill out your w4 accurately and will owe penalties if you under withhold too much.

Down payment? Payments? If you buy a want, buy it in cash. If that makes you uncomfortable, you can't afford it.

My employer doesn't offer retirement benefits. I'm temporarily allowed to work in the US, I'm not retiring here.

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Because it's not a need. The smarter answer is to continue driving your car that's perfectly fine. Getting into the payments game is a dangerous field.