Unused funds expire every year, so don't contribute too much ahead of time

But yes they are a great deal

Correct. The standard deduction reduces your taxable income.

Works exactly the same as income tax brackets. 0% on first 1676, then 15%.

You didn't account for standard deduction here but just overlooking that for simplicity

You cannot contribute from a paycheck, your employer has absolutely nothing to do with your IRA

I believe Amazon deeming certain items as HSA/FSA eligible is purely to allow you to directly use the HSA/FSA card. Amazon is absolutely not the authority on what does and does not qualify -- if you think an item qualifies you simply buy it with another payment method, save the receipt, and reimburse yourself from the account. I recommend doing this anyway as it allows you to take advantage of cashback credit cards. It also facilitates returns/refunds etc.

If you pay $101 for something and only have $99 in the account, you'll submit the entire expense, and be reimbursed $99. You could reimburse the remaining $2 later, if the FSA balance increases. Some FSA administrators will keep track of this for you and automatically send you a $2 check as soon as you're funded.

No, your IRA balances are considered separately for pro rata. The conversion / pro rata impact is calculated on Form 8606, which begins:

"If married, file a separate form for each spouse required to file 2022 Form 8606"

At 136k income, every dollar you put into a traditional 401k, you're guaranteed to save 24 cents on your tax return.

People often think "well taxes might rise in the future so I could pay more than 24% in retirement"

There's almost no chance. Here's why.

When you pull out, let's say, 80k to live on during retirement

That's currently the 22% marginal bracket. But heck, maybe for whatever reason, congress decided low and middle class Americans (income 41k-89k) need to pay a lot more taxes. They up it to 30%. Dang, my traditional 401k was a mistake! 30% is higher than 24%.

But guess what. You don't pay 30% on all 80k, because that's not how taxes work. Ignoring social security here for simplicity:

First you get a standard deduction and pay 0% on the first 13k.

Then you pay 10% on the next 10k.

Then you pay 12% on the net 30k.

Then you start to pay the 30% on the remainder.

The effective tax rate you paid on that 80k withdrawal is around 15 cents per dollar. If you had used a Roth 401k you would have paid 24 cents on every dollar.

Congress would have to pass very significant tax increases on the lowest income Americans for the traditional 401k to become a bad option -- or, you end up with a bunch of ordinary income during retirement which skyrockets your effective rate.

Must have zero tIRA balance on December 31 in the year that you do the conversion

https://unbury.me/

Taxes are paid quarterly, you can use tax filing software to help with this.

Yes you can claim expenses

You're taxed in the year when you receive the $$, not when it's earned

You don't need a "PTO fund" you should just budget based on the average days you plan to actually work and get paid. You should have or build an emergency fund as well.

This is 100% false and was probably said just to scare him into using it wisely

The exception would be if the grandfather had a 529 account for son and cut a check from it

Alright!

Yes if the original investment rapidly recovers to the point it has no losses and you couldn't TLH in the next year, and all your other investments also have no losses to harvest, and you dont have significant capital gains, you'll be in a position where you missed the chance to offset some taxes on 3k or less ordinary income. That risk doesn't bother me lol

This sub is largely about simplifying financial choices, so my advice tends to revolve around simplicity

>to higher-taxed ordinary income

That's exactly my point. If I carryover losses to next year, I may be unable to use them to offset ordinary income because I have capital gains that year. It's an unknown, which is why I suggest avoiding carryover.

Because your forced to use carryover. One of the benefits of THL is you can choose exactly when to do it. With carryover it's not optional.

It's not the end of the world of course but I just prefer to avoid it.

TLH basically pushes a bigger tax burden into the future. If you want to take the tax savings now and use the $$ for something, it's sensible.

I would be careful to only TLH enough to avoid carryover -- you can only negate capital gains + 3k of ordinary income each year.

I avoid these because I'd rather sign up for a new card with a bigger bonus.

If you do choose to sign up, there's really no benefit to cancelling it (assuming no annual fee). Just chuck it in a drawer. Cancelling actually hurts your credit more than just keeping it open.

Based on the income here they probably don't meet the requirement to file, the income cutoff is $28,700 for married and >65. The reason is simply that the standard deduction would bring their tax liability to zero.

It could be advantageous to file to get taxes back which are being withheld.

I just dont follow how you're landing on a $500/month vehicle. A 2022 Hyundai Ascent is <$17k and they offer financing deals but even if you got a 4 year loan, zero down, at 6% that's $400/month, worst case.

So saying you are planning to buy new, and put money down, and pay $500/month just tells me you want more car than you can afford.

In three years you'll have a 3 year old car, paying for maintenance, and kicking yourself for still paying 500/month that is interfering with your ability to fund other financial goals and leisure. This is a lesson a lot of people learn the hard way, I'm just trying to help you learn it now.

For debt repayment, pay the highest interest accounts first. You should be dumping your savings into any high interest debt, your savings serves nearly no purpose if CC debt is eating you up. If it's low/zero interest then carry on.

For the vehicle, financing at 500/month on your salary is a mistake. What is the actual vehicle price? The two options you have are not "500/month new vehicle or $3000 beater" -- you are choosing not to see the options inbetween.

These studies are retrospective. It doesnt really help to look backwards and say "the stocks that paid high dividends beat the SP500" -- you need to be able to predict and invest in the right stocks before the dividend is paid. I mean, it's akin to saying "the fastest growing companies last yesr beat the SP500" -- ok, great, but how can you know ahead of time exactly which companies those will be?

Now if you know of a high dividend ETF or some backtested strategy that has consistently beaten the total market, I'd be all ears!

Would you be willing to ask a parent to add you as an authorized user on their credit card? You don't even need the physical card, just to be added to the account.

Assuming they have good credit, this will help your score immensely/immediately. You can then apply for a new CC that offers introductory 0 APR, usually for 18-24 months.

As it stands with 650 score and no income, I think you will struggle to qualify for better financing. Make sure you at least pay the minimum each month.

Need to look at wife's plan and decide if there's anything not covered that you'd predictably use the FSA for. Otherwise there's no purpose.

Exactly -- you can be double covered, just won't be eligible for HSA contributions.

If you want to remain covered under wife's plan, you should decline coverage.

You can't be covered under wife's non-HSA plan and also try to get your own HSA-eligible coverage. It's one or the other.