I had a bank employee tell me recently that if I wanted more info on the loan I was looking at, they would need to do a hard pull on my credit, and that it would be a 10% hit on my credit score. I'm not sure she was right, but I'm not willing to test that lol. I told her thanks for what info she could give me without the credit check, and then made a mental note to see how much a hard pull would actually affect my score by researching online, without doing one until I had to.

Don't get a whole new card unless you plan to keep it for awhile, because the age of your credit helps you, and if you add a new card on, in the short term, it will bring your credit age down, and therefore your score down. If you decide to get one, do it to either get a better interest rate for the long term, or to get rewards that you will bank and use in the long term, but just know that in that scenario, in the short term, it might bring the score down. It is a good idea if you're playing the long game, though.

Examples when this might happen: you get engaged and want to go on a honeymoon in a year or two. You could get a travel card, and make loads of purchases through it, paying it off as you go, and then accumulate travel rewards to a free flight on that honeymoon.

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If you take the job and use it to move closer it makes a lot more sense

Regarding help or advice, if you're worried about going over your 30% utilization ratio, you can pay onto the card ahead of time, but just don't carry a balance of extra money on your card. I have paid extra money on my card before in order to use it to pay something higher than the max limit of the card, so I know it will work.

Regarding your worry about qualifying for loans, you should be ok on that 700 or above range. When your score is there, they'll just be wanting to verify you've been employed for over a year or two at your current job, and that you're making enough to make the payments on whatever loan.

Focus on that Capital One card, as it has high interest and the amount is low enough you will see progress and be motivated to pay it off. Then the Paypal one, which is most likely 20% or higher interest.

Consider selling that 2003 Jeep, you seem to not be using it now because it "needs some work", maybe have it evaluated/appraised and see if its value will increase if you pay to have that work done on it... increase enough to be worth paying for such work. Your insurance may also lower if you no longer own it.

May make more sense to sell it at a small loss and pay your debts because you'll save hundreds or thousands of dollars in interest you would pay over the next year or so. You're paying around $70 interest on just that Capital One card each month.

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Yeah it's real. It's not a ton of money though. A friend of mine did it recently and I think it was $100/visit first 8 visit then like $40/50 visit after. You gotta do a physical and pass a questionnaire and they won't let you donate if XYZ have happened recently. If I was unemployed I'd do it because it's theoretically $100/hr but it typically doesn't work out to that.

I would suggest that you take photos of your car. And the area when you next are there. Also imo it’s kinda weird for them to think you hit them. if I hit someone’s car I would not just park there, I’d move! Good luck.

He’s not working an extra day a week, he works from home 4 out of 5 workdays per week. 1.5hrs commuting. Young, no kids (mentioned at least), tons of flexibility. It’s 7.5 hrs travel per week, not 12. Do it while young & free / if there are no kids or major commitments in the picture. That base salary is also a stepping stone to higher salaries. I’ve made a number of jumps and without bouncing around, it’s generally really hard to get to a certain income.

Baldrick

The best case situation is probably that the property has been condemned or should be and the only reason it hasn't been torn down yet is that it costs money to do so and they'd rather pass that cost onto someone else.

At that point, consider the cost of the land and the cost of demolition to see if the listed price matches up.

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You commute 12 hours a week? That’s genuinely crazy

CFG keeps up with rates based on Doctor of Credit.

With $1k, you don’t need to rate chase or anything. Just find somewhere to settle in as you work on saving.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/whats-the-best-high-yield-savings-account/

They also happen to be top of the pack as of this writing.

I mean people making minimum wage live in Seattle so it is possible but the cost of living is very high.

Minimum wage here is $15/hr so 15 x 2080 = $31200 a year so two people making minimum wage living together would pull in $62,400.

So your income in Seattle would mean living slightly above minimum wage standard of living.

The neighborhoods around Seattle are not much cheaper and the ones to the east in many cases are more expensive.

If you want to drop out of school you need to make sure you keep learning. Read books, listen to podcasts and even YT has great content if you look. If you look at all the richest people they are still learning. The successful drop out decided to do it as school was not a efficient use of their time. Most of them already had a plan/opportunity in place before dropping out though.

Find a high paying skill/trade and focus in on it. There’s lots of good jobs out there that will pay you to learn the necessary skills. The. It’s all about leveraging you time and effort.

I’m dropping out of school after this semester also. I have a career already lined up in sales. Last year I make just over 100k and this year I’m on track to make 250k+. I never did sales before last year and I only did it for part of the year. Most of my success came from expanding my knowledge, working with mentors and grinding.

Edit: spelling

You didn't say a single positive thing about the job, even in retrospect. It is time

Not all drives are created equal, but I had no idea the kind of mental and physical stress that commuting a little over an hour each way put on me, until it stopped.

It's not just those hours, it's the hours you lose when you get home because you are tired and stressed and need to calm down just from your drive, and then you're up earlier because everything has to start an hour earlier.

I value time not spent driving to be almost unquantifiable. Time is the only real commodity any of us have. If it's an easy drive and you like listening to podcasts and you get home refreshed then go for it.

That wasn't my commuting experience.

Something you have to realize about longterm investing...

Today you buy $100k of a stock fund and you get 1000 shares worth $100. The next day the markey crashes and drops 80% of its value. How many shares do you own now? Well...still 1000, they are just $20 a share now. That only matters if you withdraw the money then. Almost certainly in 10 years those shares will be worth more than $100 a share...and you still have 1000 shares.

Number of shares matters. Value of shares only matters when you cash out. If you are longterm investing what the market is doing right now doesnt really matter.

You have to examine each house on a case-by-case basis to see what the condition is and what the flaws are.

Some former owners had to give up the home because they couldn't pay the property taxes.

If you find a home in relatively good shape that only needs minimal repairs, it might be worth the investment for you to live there or get income from it as a rental property.

He is spending basically 2 hours a day commuting, he is working an extra day a week. After calculating his costs of his vehicle, along with 12 hours of time spent traveling per week or 624 hours of travel per year. I doubt he'll barely earn more than does now.

Having just scratched the surface of a neglected house, the only time I would buy a foreclosed one is if I planned to tear it down and put in a new foundation.

Two words will ruin your life: Water. Damage.

dollar cost average $5k every month, keep the rest in a money market fund (which will give you 4% plus guaranteed and you can deploy your capital gradually over the next 12-18 months)