Married, filing separately is the worst filing status ever. You’re literally losing money.

When you got married, you and your spouse needed to file new W4’s to take into account the combined, family income. Look at the W4 form and follow the instructions.

Owing when you complete your tax return means that the amount withheld from your checks during 2022 was not enough to cover your final 2022 tax bill calculated on your tax return.

My guess: your commission checks used a default "supplemental income" withholding, which is 22% unless payroll uses a more complicated method (not many go that route). On $250k of base + commission, that puts you just inside the 35% bracket, with a lot of your income in the 32%. So if your commissions were handled as supplemental income, you'd have at least 10% "missing" withholding from those, which results in a big amount owed on your return. Owing another $12k on $100k of income somewhat lines up with that theory.

>On my W4 I do not claim ANYTHING. No dependents, no other witholdings, 0s across the board.

What filing status? Since you do your returns as filing separately, do you have your W-4s set for that, or is it using "Married filing jointly"? If your W-4 has "Married filing jointly" that won't withhold enough for separate returns. And with multiple jobs, it wouldn't withhold enough when filing your return jointly either.

>I am claiming nothing on my W4s, so withholding nothing.

Not's not really how it works. Withholding is the money kept out of your income and sent to the IRS to pre-pay towards your yearly tax bill. With the current version of the W-4, having nothing other than your filing status means that payroll will calculate your estimated annual tax from your income (known to them) minus the appropriate standard deduction, then run that "taxable income" estimate through the tax bracket calculations. That amount gets divided by the number of pay periods in the year to get your per-check withholding. Even with nothing on your W-4, your paystub should show some amount for "Federal income tax withheld" (or similar wording).

>My husband and I both file - currently are set up to be filing separately due to the amount of income we make together.

In general, a married couple's total tax owed will be lower filing jointly vs. filing separately. There are sometimes reasons to file separately anyway, like if one has an income-based loan repayment.

Use the sidebar wiki here and read the prime directive and budgeting sections and get started with that process.

Remember the downpayment is only part of what you need when buying a house, there is also closing costs, moving costs, and an emergency fund. So if you want to put $30k down, you probably need around $40k? Obviously, this varies.

>I bring home $3200 a month and have $800 in expenses right now.

It depends on why you only have $800 expenses on $3200 income.

If you're in a two-income household with a $650 mortgage that you split and are otherwise frugal, $500 won't break you. If it's because you're living with parents, you have no "living" expenses, and $800 is all entertainment spending, it's unlikely the $500 will be continue to be affordable for the life of the loan.

That your interest rate is 13% suggests the bank doesn't think this is a good idea for you.

Everyone doesn't.

But a lot of them are motivated to post.

They have the referral base, marketing staff, office space, training, necessary technology subscriptions, and administrative staff to make the operation work. I pay them 40% and only have to focus on providing the service and a small amount of paperwork. Im not business minded unfortunately, and I really love where I work.

plug that into an amortization schedule (there's plenty available on line)...eyeballing it, looks like you'll be paying almost $8k interest over the life of the loan.

so...you're paying $28k for a vehicle that will be worth probably $9k when you finally own it.

that may help your decision.

Honestly, it sounds a lot like you're getting caught up in FOMO with this car. Is there any reason why you can't wait until the apparent public hysteria about this model dies down, and then see if you're still 100% into the idea? This will give you more time to save, as well.

You need a car to get around in most of the country. But having an existing paid off car makes buying a new one (without trying to trade in the old) odd.

Thank you!

We were able to get a meeting with a CPA yesterday for today, so hoping someone can make sense of this. I know each person's situation is different, but i can say friends/colleagues of mine that are also making around the close to the same range as me and not claiming allowances/or further withholdings are not having this issue But thank you so much for all your help, these have been really helpful comments.

If the owner of the house decides to offer a discount to market-based rent, that's going to depend on their overall assessment of the situation, and income change doesn't necessarily change anything about the situation (although it might, and probably would in this case.) Suppose one of the couple didn't have a change in base income, but did receive a huge inheritance. Then what?

Ordinarily if you rent, you don't take the landlord's income into consideration in terms of what you are willing to pay.

B’s name is not on the mortgage, the utilities etc so is losing credit proof needed should B move out. Say, A dies? Basically a roommate agreement would work. A needs a written agreement so it’s easier to evict. I’ve thought of this stuff, not as a love interest, but an actual roommate. What’s the fair rate? Roommates.com will show places rates in your area. I hope that’s net income and both are contributing to their retirement funds. Also, B needs a better job, maybe more education or certification.

Where things get bothersome is home maintenance and improvements. That’s equity responsibility. So I believe one has to determine if B is equal to a roommate paying rent; in which case, the financial burden and yes the fun decisions are A’s to make. Then utilities. A should provide the past years usage and payment. Can the increase be attributed and paid by B? Then food/chores. And as any good attorney would ask A, would you feel differently if B won the lottery?

So you guys net 7200 a month, bills are 1600 a month. I would personally do it income based so maybe 600/1000 bc i like even numbers but you guys arent living paycheck to paycheck. Either one of you could comfortably afford the whole thing so just choose whatever you are comfortable with. But seriously if this is causing a hiccup you should be on relationship advice. It would be different if the expenses were taking up somebodys entire paycheck but yall are doing just fine.

the only way to get rid of $16k of negative equity is to dump $16k cash towards the principal amount owed on the loan.

Partner A is going to own the house and pay the mortgage whether or not they are dating and no matter where the date is living. Offering to have their date live with them doesn’t change anything financially except it saves Partner B from paying housing costs. Even if Partner A normally has a renter, I doubt the renter shares the same bed with their landlord.

If Partner B wants their own room in the house, then determine fair market value of that room and sign a lease agreement. That way, if the dating suddenly stops, then Partner B isn’t also suddenly homeless.

The other financial aspects of dating won’t change. Partner B has their own expenses for utilities, cellphone, groceries, and personal care. Most couples do this on a casual basis such as, “I’ll pay the electric bill this month” or “I’m going to the grocery store, do you need anything?” Partner A continues to pay for all house related expenses because they were going to pay for those anyway.

In the meantime, Partner B saves their housing budget. As mentioned above, they are at risk for suddenly finding themselves homeless so they might need that money.

I second this approach-- I'm not trying to "make a buck" off my partner, but could they find a similar situation for less than what they're paying if we split even a bit different, like 60-40? In my country, they completely could not, so partner pays me equivalent of 50-50 "rent" and I take care of 99% of repairs/improvements.

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You are in the 35% federal tax bracket, but the federal withholding on your commissions is probably 22%. That means you have about $10,000 too little federal withholding just from that. You need to either make estimated tax payments or increase the withholding on your other income to compensate for the underwithholding on your commissions. (You could ask your payroll department if there's a way to increase withholding on your commissions, but usually there isn't.)

what you've spent is a sunk cost at this point.

if you keep the stuff and enjoy it, you've spent the money

if you sell it and lose money on the resale, you've spent the money

you seem to be in a decent financial position with your savings and with what i presume your education will be able to get you salary wise... IMO keep the stuff, enjoy what you have, and be more mindful about your spending in the future. come up with an acceptable budget amount that you can be comfortable on spending as hobby/entertainment.

Claiming no deductions on your W4 and having nothing withheld are 2 separate things.

The more deductions claimed the less you’ll have withheld.

My previous comment is assuming you are not having anything withheld. You should review your W4 and W2 in order to understand which statement is correct (0 deductions or 0 withholding).

You do whatever works for y'all. If you're not married or very certain you're going to get married, I wouldn't put someone else's name on any titles.

Fairness is subjective. She currently has none of the legal or financial risk. None. Talk it through and just make you're not actually losing money. It's also about perception. If someone pays part of the mortgage and utilities may easily think they're a contributor, but what about property taxes, insurance, the risk attached to it all, etc???

That is not the case, no.

Right, "technically" you're dating a roommate. My old-school thoughts - A makes enough to pay for house and utilities and should until you're married. Its A's house. B can help with food and other consumables. If B wants to help with mortgage, more than welcome to.

I'd be nervous to buy a house together without being married. This is coming from someone who doesnt have a seperate account. Every account my wife n I have is shared. I can't imagine any other way but I know people make it work.