The four grand is in your new checks

I think the preferred strategy would be to tackle the loans from highest percentage to lowest first.

Only once you have all loans >4% eliminated, then save and invest.

If the cash is just going to sit there collecting dust you might as well pay cash for the car and avoid the auto loan interest.

To an extent, absolutely. Bigger snag is not having 4 grand in the extra checks to fill the Roth and scrambling to fill it without cutting hobbies and travel. Now that it’s ‘okay’…Little details as you said, like calendar timing and how to shift to new accounts.

I'll have to look up the interest Raye for the margin, but the interest charge is about $21/mo.

HELOC is at 2% right now until later in the year, them it will match the prime rate.

Primary mortgage rate is 3.75%.

The interest on all of the other loans range from 5%-18%.

They’re not encouraging OP to commit insurance fraud. They’re encouraging OP to break their own contractual relationship with their insurance company, but that isn’t fraud.

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I think they're meaning like a target date retirement fund. Basically vanguard or whomever you use will set up a fund that re balances itself based on when you pick a target date. The closer you are to retirement the less stocks it holds and starts switching to less risky investments automatically. You can just automatically contribute $x/week to max out your Ira and it does the rest. Typically like a .1% fee or something

Thanks I’ll check them out!

Thanks that would be cool though if you could!

Trust me, I worked in insurance for 5 years. The company determines fault - not the police report. Unless a driver is cited for a violation in regard to the incident, the report means nothing to the insurer when it comes to their determination of fault. I can't tell you the number of people who'd come or call "but the police report says the other person was...", Doesn't matter - the companies decided differently, now pay up.

That doesn’t matter. If you’re paid less frequently you just get more money in each check

Sounds like you need to buy three dozen eggs and you’re agonizing over buying three dozens or two packs of 18 when it’s the same price

That why it's considered a chronic disease. I'll be doing fine and then all of a sudden I have a complete breakdown and my brain turns to mush for weeks sometimes.

I think any used auto has already depreciated. If 12k is going to get you between 100k and 150k miles, how long will you have it before sinking money into it for repairs? If 20k gets you 50-75k less miles on the same car, that's years of driving before you get to the mileage. If I had 'substantial' savings as you state, I'd get the more expensive car and drive it until it was dead or too costly to keep repairing.

Still reading over data on expense ratios and all. Seems like going with the Njbest plans make them eligible for up to a $3000 scholarship through the program if they go to a NJ school. Leaning towards opening that plan until we make enough contributions to max out that scholarship and then open an additional account with someone like vanguard

Still reading over data on expense ratios and all. Seems like going with the Njbest plans make them eligible for up to a $3000 scholarship through the program if they go to a NJ school. Leaning towards opening that plan until we make enough contributions to max out that scholarship and then open an additional account with someone like vanguard and

Thank you for those ideas. I know going back to school is a good idea, figuring out which direction to go in is a challenge though, especially when my brain feels like mush.

That cool you were able to use a blend of degrees to get a unique job!

Because the popular mindset is a an older car you pay cash for isnt reliable. And/or it is more expensive to repair an older car than just buying something newer.

The reality is people judge each other for the cars they drive and your average person is scared to be seen as the broke ass they are driving a beater. So they make terrible financial decisions buying cars they can't afford and find ways to justify it.

One other thing to keep in mind... When applying for credit, 760+ is usually the category of top tier credit. Having a 761 or an 845 gets you the same interest rates and the same opportunities. Be proud of your credit and as long as it stays over 760, your golden!

You just experienced the major downside of investing in property when you don't have enough liquid assets to cover unexpected expenses: you have to sell the entire property to get your money out. If you have no liquidity, then that's the position you're in. Remember, there are other ways to invest besides property that are very lucrative, a standard brokerage account and an S&P 500 Index fund being one of them. The benefit is you can sell some of your investments instead of the entire thing to get some cash out.

I would sell the property and put the proceeds (minus what you pay in taxes), into a brokerage account. No debt on that investment either. Pretty big plus.

If you don't plan what to do with your money, it will disappear via lifestyle inflation. Anytime you get a pay increase, decide how much will go to discretionary items and how much to save and invest. Make sure your are contributing enough to your retirement savings, save more on the side and so on. For your discretionary spending, budget accordingly, and beware of common lifestyle creep areas (cars, clothing, food, housing).

As for the "acts of kindness", it's a good thing to remain charitable, but do it wisely, and consider the impact. If you go and help in your local food bank you could be helping people who are really struggling to get by, whereas if you go to a bar and buy a round of drinks for everyone there, you may be popular for that evening, but you are not really helping anyone in the long run. When you do acts of kindness, ask yourself if it's for your ego, or for the other person's benefit. You could even consider doing it anonymously.

I would rather feel bad and have money than feel bad and not have money because that would make me feel even worse. It sounds like you feel bad whether you are medicated or not.

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It's weird too because I have trouble imagining the insurance company is happy footing a repair bill (minus deductible) when the other company should be paying?

Like when OP goes to their insurance and says "hey bud my car needs repaired" aren't they gonna ask how it happened? And then contact the other insurance?

Hell I would worry about the insurance company denying to cover anything and saying policy was somehow violated by making an agreement that might save the other insurance company from paying damage they should

Biweekly means there are two months where I get an extra paycheck, lowering the year-round checks and giving you two little windfalls to manage. I used those for my IRA until now.