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Hi everybody, I am a recent graduate and have been working full time since june. I have $5500 of student loan debt and am current in grace period until mid november. My absolutely necessary monthly expenses have been about ~$700 so ive been pocketing about $2500 a month after some spending for myself and will have enough to pay off this debt in 1 payment when november comes. I browse this thread quite often and what ive learned from credit card usage, i should never pay interest. I predict ill have about $10-12k saved up by the time my first payment is due. Is it a good idea to pay for the entire debt in 1 payment or maybe spread it out over 3 or 4 payments to take less of a chunk out of my savings. Im asking because im not really dispersing my money into different savings such as emergency fund or general savings for when i move out. Im hoping i can have some guidance on how i should treat this debt and how i should break down my take home pay into different savings.

So when I look at the contract, yes there cancellation fee is $100.00, which is absurd, not the case. It says when you reschedule they will return you that $100.00. So, I reschedule for maybe 1-2 weeks later. I do my check-up which was normal, and afterwards I asked the front desk how will I receive the $100.00. And she said the accountant only comes once a month..... Now we are almost entering APRIL, and there's no sign of any type of money from them nor emails nor nothing. If I didn't have a high-end job, this would've hurt any typical college student. How is this fair? Assistant: I want to make sure I understand correctly. The doctor's office scheduled you for an appointment on a day they weren't open and then they charged you $100 because of their error? WTF, dude. You need a new doctor's office. Human: Yes, their cancellation fee is $100.00...... which is crazy! I thought 20, or 40 is reasonable but 100?! Assistant: $100 is pretty extreme by itself, but I'm more troubled by the fact that this wasn't a cancellation by you. I'd have immediately told them to give the money back or you'd dispute it. But that's in the past. Call them and tell them you want your money back. Human: I'm going to as soon as I go to lunch, I did ask for the money back after the appointment. Told me the accountant is there 1 day of the entire month. So, that gave me red flags. If nothing happens or nothing gets resolved I have no option other than disputing it, because I'm not waiting another month for a mistake that's on their end. How does disputing work? It would be my first time, since this is why I don't like using my debit card for these things.

Good morning everyone, thank you for your time. I will try to make this as concise as possible. My wife and I purchased our home in 2009 short-sale at the bottom of the market. Comparable homes in our area have increased in price steadily since then. We purchased for 425 and now comparable homes in our area are selling for 600+. I recently called our lender, WellsFargo to see what steps were necessary to remove the Private Mortgage Insurance since our loan amount is no longer so close to the value of the home. In short a representative that I spoke to told me that there is no way I can remove the PMI without re-financing. He said that removing PMI was an option *years and years ago* but that now, since the banks got burned so bad in the crash, PMI is permanent. Was this guy speaking the truth or was he just trying to coerce me into re-financing?

WARNING: Very long and detailed but will provide you with instructions to accurately estimate your ‘financial freedom’. First I'm going to tell you my financial situation to give you some perspective. At the end I'll explain some math (just basic taking proportions) so you can accurately estimate your 'financial freedom' based off of how much you make, have in debt, want to spend, where you live, etc. My situation: My undergraduate was in electrical and computer engineering (I graduated in May). I make $70k/yr, which equates to like $1800 biweekly after tax. I have $90,000 in student loans. I live in Baltimore, MD. With my $991/month loan payments I am by no means burdened by my debt. Thinking about it pisses me off, but I can live very comfortably and still make the minimum payment. I can essentially do anything (reasonable) I want to do with my leisure time and afford it. I also don't have a car payment though. If I had a car payment, I would definitely feel some pressure. I understand I am lucky and have a high-paying job, but hey, it’s because of the major I chose. To put some perspective into my lifestyle: I pay $635/month (very cheap for Baltimore) in rent, let’s say with utilities $700/month. I'd say $250 a week is needed for minimal spending without serious lifestyle changes and cutting corners. This includes food, gas, misc, etc. My actually spending on average is closer to $500-550. This extra spending includes alcohol, restaurants, various things for entertainment, but mainly alcohol. I'd say if I averaged spending somewhere around $550-600 then I'd make exactly enough to afford my loan payments and wouldn't be able to pay 'extra'. At the end of every paycheck how ever much more money I have than $5000 (my personal cushion) I put towards student loans. At my rate I'm currently putting about $200 a month extra. Pretty much after you can afford to pay your minimal living expense you start thinking about ‘financial freedoms’. I’d like to break them into 4 major categories that I think are popular ‘financial freedom’ choices. They include: 1) Making additional student loan payments or savings contributions (which wouldn’t be wise if you do have debt), 2) Quality of your apartment 3) Quality of your car, I’ll use the very broad term for 4)“Entertainment”. For me, based off of my income per debt, I was able to afford 2/4 of these decisions. I chose “entertainment” and additional student loan payments. My apartment is very cheap and I didn’t buy a new car (I drive a ’98 Lumina). I think I would still be very happy if I could only afford 1 ‘financial freedom’. If your projected number of ‘financial freedoms’ hits 0 and all your money is going toward essential living expenses I believe you would then feel financial stress and start drifting from middle class to lower class. Now time for some math! Let’s quantify these 4 categories and use proportions to see how much ‘financial freedom’ you will have. (To help yourself come up with some estimates on expense ratios you might want to google ‘cnn cost of living calculator’ to compare Baltimore to where you live). 1) Let’s find out how much you’ll make. After my taxes, 401k (%4 contribution), cheapest health insurance, etc, my $70k/yr translates to $1800 biweekly. 1800/70000 = x/(your salary) Solve for x: So if you will make 50k: 50000 * 1800/70000 equals the amount you make biweekly. $1285 every 2 weeks. Feel free to calculate your take home pay some other way. 2) How much will your student loans be? I’ve noticed monthly payments are about $100 for every $10,000 you have in debt. If you have $50,000 in student loans, expect $500/monthly loan payments. Now, your biweekly income is: 1285 – (loan payment) * 12/26 The math I did above translates loan payments from monthly, to biweekly. So for our example: 1285-500 * 26/12 = 1285-230 = $1055 every 2 weeks. 3) Minimal Cost of living. This varies from person to person depending where you live, how much you drive, how you spend on groceries, etc. My groceries, occasional takeout at work, gas, misc expenses I declare without too many corners being cut is about $250 per week. If you came up with an estimate of $150 by only accounting for food and gas I ask you to rethink. Consider household products, parking tickets, holidays/gifts, misc, etc. It adds up. I don’t think this number will vary too much from city to city. Let’s say for this example this person doesn’t order out for lunch and saves some additional money and spends $200 a week. 1055-2 * 200 = $655 biweekly income. 4) Now based off how much is left we can figure out your ‘financial freedom’. Let’s start with your apartment. How nice do you want your apartment to be on a scale of 1/5? Say you choose a 3/5. You want a decent neighborhood, decent sized room, but nothing special. But. You live in NYC. In NYC the cheapest you can find to live is $1000/month and the most expensive a ‘normal’ person your age would spend is $2500/month (I don’t know if these numbers make sense, but you will have to determine them for where you live with some research). To determine the scale of apartment quality: (2500-1000)/4 = 375. So in NYC a 1/5=$1000/month, a 2/5=$1375/month, a 3/5=$1750/month, a 4/5=$2125/month, and 5/5=$2500/month. I chose the $1750 options. Let’s convert that to biweekly: 1750*12/26 = $807/month. 655-807=-152. Woops! I can’t afford that! Guess I’ll downgrade to a 1/5 apartment or move out the city. 1000 * 12/26 = $461 Biweekly income = 655-461 = $194 5) If you wanted to buy a car you’d have to convert the monthly payment to a biweekly payment. Don’t forget that newer cars come with higher insurance, registration fees, and monthly maintenance that you should factor into the monthly payment! In our example we realize we can’t afford a new car right now and drive our old hoop-d. (We should probably use some of our ‘financial freedom points’ on saving up for a replacement). I think this

Hello fellow PF subredditors! Do most people get busy in their lives and forget about their monthly auto loan or credit balance? I have always been on task every month, I feel like chase bank jp Morgan chase is super greedy? I accidentally went negative like $3, and they instantly gave me another negative $40 the same day in negative balance fees at the exact moment. Are credit cards worth it? Never have them or use them on groceries and gasoline to build credit? But I am guessing people get busy to pay it off?

Our rent is $1400/month and we made $190k last year. I've read that the mortgage interest deduction is quite rewarding for higher income couples in California. We plan to stay in this area for a long time, but I love the lower rent but would like a little higher standard of living (we currently rent 1100 sq foot house but having a big piece of land with a modest house would be awesome). What kind of tax savings can I expect back on a $360k mortgage (if I put 10% down on a $400k house)? It seems to me that if our mortgage is say, $2100 a month after principal/interest/tax/insurance, will the tax benefit lower that by $300 a month? Or more? We have no kids and no debt. Edit: thanks for the helpful replies. I am trying to find a good tax professional to help me, but wanted to get a few quick answers here first. One alternative is to buy a $200k house on a 15year mortgage with 20+% down, and that math does make sense when compared to renting in my current neighborhood.

I recently found out my parents owe $300,000 in federal taxes, $25,000 in state taxes, $100,000 on their mortgage, and $10,000 on their credit card. I know that this is just some of what they owe, not all of it. Neither of them are employed and both seemed depressed about job outlooks. I have no idea what my first step should be and i'm afraid they risk losing assets along with their house. Assistant: If you haven't already done so, get your credit report, and then put an alert on your account. This way your parents can't try to use your name to get additional funds. That's about the only thing you can do at this point. Human: Thank you for this suggestion. I did it immediately and thankfully everything looks fine.

I’m in college but I’m taking a semester off and working. I have a 14$/hr job and going to average about 25-30 hours a week. I am about 4000$ in debt because I was out of a job for a while and had bills to pay. I also love to spend money on tech stuff (TVs, computer components, monitors, etc). I have no savings really. Another thing is my car is also shitty and definitely totaled. I need new tires, new radiator hoses, new A/C and a new windshield. What’s an easier way for me to stop spending, save and pay down my debt? Also, should I just finance a used car or fix mine? Monthly income: 1400$-1600$ Monthly bills: 550$ Monthly food: 140$-200$ Have any further answers, I’ll fully answer.

Mother is a single mother of 4, holds 1 full time - two leave on the weekends. 2 days out of 7 is considered 50-50 to court legality. Income is near $34k. Husband purposely fucked up reported earnings to hinder the progress of the divorce as well as stopped payments on cards registered in both names to purposely hurt credit score. now at the lowest credit in her life - filed chapter 7 bankruptcy to vanquish debt. Now saving $120 a month yet it goes towards "eating out" though we don't sit down to eat. it goes towards pizza delivery often due to her not shopping. I'm 17, couldn't slice tomatos in the kitchen at BK, but could use every god damn knife possible at my last pizzeria job. Now jobless. Reconsidering even getting a job because my mother takes half my paychecks. making getting a car, twice as hard as it needs to be for somebody who'd previously bought their own once already. /r/personalfinance I need your advice. the divorce hasn't gone through and I'm still near starving. I find myself weak as I'm deficient in vitamins. I heavily rely on school lunch for the majority of my caloric intake. My mother says we don't have food because she doesn't like to shop. she blames me for not working. Though, I don't work in protest of her bad financial decisions. She did nothing to change her bad financial ways - yet felt dignified in demanding half my paychecks in return for her to provide me with a ride (I used to have a car that was previously purchased for $1,800 but the title was in my step fathers name who signed the title over to the next door neighbor in trade for some tires for his new truck that was eventually taken away by the bank for not paying on it for 4 months.) Although doing the math I'm clearly getting ripped off by the 12 mile 2-3 times a week deal. I find myself jobless now with nothing local. (I couldn't get many hours due to it being family owned and favoritism / nativism plays a role in deciding hours) My YTD in 4 months of working was around $800 before tax. I didn't get much hours but it was the best I could get. I spent all my money on buying myself the basics for eating at the local grocerie, and not fast food for I knew that'd be a bad decision. unfortunately, I was at disadvantage due to "Piggly Wiggly"'s buisiness model where they buy commerical zoning as close to residential zoning as physically possible than put higher prices upon product. so the closest market, is essentially the most expensive and conveniant. so I spent all my money on food over the course of 4 months. How do I budget myself to get a car? so basically $100 a month to self fund eating once a day. TL;DR Teen working minimum wage $7.25 before taxes divided in half needs to save for a car so he can't drive himself to work. But also, needs to feed himself so he doesn't lose more weight. (I was previously a model who didn't get any work as is because of the small market in Wisconsin, but lost too much weight in the face to even me marketable to anything but a heroin ad.) so what do I do? Also to add, the moment I get a job. she will start taking half - you say stop eating and start saving but that takes alot of willpower not eating... what do you say? as bad as it sounds I actually have a fund of $38 so far that I've kept hidden from my mothers borrow and claim you put a roof over my head tactics, so I'd like to say I'm on the right track witholding money. does anybody have any experiance with a job that could pay half above the table and half under so I only lose a quarter to taxation?

Hello all, I'm going into my senior year and I was wondering if the personal finance classes at high school are any good. Is it worth taking? Would I be fine if I switched it for something like piano? Thank you.

So like the title says, I'm in over my head and about to give up. I've got $60K in credit card debt, $18K in student loans, and now owe the goverment $2K. The debt is due to bad decisions and divorce. I'm not sure how to deal with it all. Income after taxes: $2650 a month Monthly expenses: Rent/utilities: $350, varies by $10-20 a month Student loan (on extended payment plan): $220 Debt consolidation (for the $60K in credit cards, have about 3.5 years left, and the payments are as low as can be negotiated): $1650 Cell phone bill (family plan): $150 Car payment (4 years left on loan, 2007 Hyundai Accent): $140 Car insurance (above car and a minivan): $140 Credit cards not included in consolidation: $336 Total: $2986 As you can see, my income is less than my expenses. I'm trimmed about as much as I can (got rid of gym, tv, etc). I donate plasma for food and gas. I charge stuff to credit cards when I don't have cash (not extravagant things, I'm talking food and gas) I have my kids 3-4 nights a week, which would make it hard to get a second job although I should probably take that step. I could also move back in with the ex, which would be awkward, but would save us some money. I don't know what else to do. I figure I just have to make it for 3.5 years until the debt consolidation is paid off, but things are looking grim. Seriously thinking about just saying screw it and declaring bankruptcy (I know that won't get rid of taxes or student loans though). Anyway...any ideas for how to survive this?

Got a new job today and need to have reliable transportation-- it's 50 miles round trip a day so this car needs to get great gas and last a while. I've really been thinking of a Honda Civic or something similar (Toyota Corolla maybe) but I am torn on whether or not buying an older model (say 2000 or 2001) for around 2.5 or 3k is a better option for me than financing a little bit better purchase around 8k, 2k down and 6k loan so I can get an 06-07 hopefully even a hybrid... Rent isn't exorbitant for me, only have 15k of student loans, and this job is 55k/year. I have set a lot aside in my budget for a car cus this is SoCal and I need it, but I don't want to be paying more than I can afford, especially if paying cash in hand may actually work for the model I'm looking to purchase.