Yeah I'm starting to lean more this way.

As I stated, I don’t know where the notice is physically. Or that would be the first number I called. I called their 800 number and got hung up on by a robot. But perhaps in person may be best. Thank you.

That's a good idea.

I just started a job after many years in Grad school. Been pretty decent with finances, studied throughout my life on scholarships, and have saved a decent chunk of change during my Ph.D. and job before I started grad school.

I'm currently 38 years old and sitting on around $35K in savings, and my job pays around $105K gross in Chicago. No debts. Lifestyle expenses are minimal (staying with grad school roommates and sharing rent and grocery expenses) - I will move to my own place in the Fall. I also invested in a market-linked Life Insurance / Savings plan back in India (ULIP). My savings should be enough to tide over any emergencies for now. No current ailments; never had to see a doctor in the USA.

As I receive my first (real) paycheck in many years, what else do I need to start doing? I've had to make my benefits choices quickly since I didn't have time to research everything. I opted into maximizing my HSA ($3350/yr) and enrolled in my employer's HDHP plan to minimize healthcare premiums. I also opted to put $2500 per month into a supplementary retirement savings account (403(b))

I could pay off both completely, but it would dwindle my investment money (leave me basically just with my emergency fund)

>Their insurance company is offering to pay for my $500 deductible upfront, and a rental as long as I go through my insurance for repairs.

Honestly sounds like the guy who hit you got his friend to call you up and sound like his insurance. He doesn't want to pay for your repair or to damage his insurance. He wants a claim on your insurance and for your insurance to cover repairs...

That’s a weird thing, if true. A cop car hitting me while chasing a perpetrator is bad but maybe I didn’t pay attention to the sirens or something. Arguable. A cop car stepping out of a Dunkin drive through and hitting me when I had the right of way shouldn’t be exempt. I would be stunned if that’s the case.

A little of both but my actual question was an effective way to contact IRS about my payment plan.

I feel taken advantage of - he seems so nice

Totally! I’d love a partner one day and yes the lower rate locked in is one of the pros …

Huh. I always go through my insurance. They go fuck up the other insurance.

The only time this has happened to me, the insurance of the rear ender sent me a check for damages of $2000 unsolicited. The repairs were like $5,000. My insurance got it fixed, the other insurance paid. My insurance said that I would probably have some issue suing in the future but if I wanted I could cash their check. And then I cashed the check. Done and done and done.

Others can give you advice on other savings accounts, but I'm genuinely curious why you wouldn't invest atleast half of that? Are you about to buy a house or move? If it were me, I would put almost all of it in index funds and let it grow for 10 years.

Throw out trading options, cryptocurrency, and individual stocks. Mutual and index funds are where you should focus most of your effort. Real estate is good but often requires a lot of capital to get into so might not be until later in life.

In order of importance in my book 401k up to match, Roth IRA, max 401k, long term savings like a house and car down payments, and brokerage.

There are other accounts like has/hra but that depends on what kind of health insurance you have.

Can you pay off any one loan completely? If you can, do it and get that satisfaction. If not, I like the other idea of doubling your payments in those loans.

You may find these links helpful:

• Retirement Accounts
• "How to handle $"

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There are two reasons to buy life insurance. The main one is that you want to provide for someone financially in the event that you die. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

The other is that it can help with some niche situations. It can be used for tax deferrals. It can also be used to protect assets from creditors. But it is an expensive way to do those things and is generally only appropriate for very wealthy people.

But the commissions on selling life insurance, especially whole life, are very high and so insurance salespeople will jump through all sorts of hoops to convince you that you need it.

You should explain that to OP's insurance company. I'm sure they'll be very receptive to that argument.

Kudos for learning about investing as a 17 year old. Read this - it was geared for new investors like you! It will also tell you what NOT to do so you don't lose your money: - If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly – an excellent free 15 page PDF by William Bernstein: DOWNLOAD LINK

Also since you are looking at trading/picking stocks - this book really explains how hard it is to outperform the market. Many people claim to do so - but it is pretty rare - the book is a classic and explains why: - A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel LINK

Look into a pro rated exclusion of the gain from the home sale. Usually it has to be from a job loss or health reasons but there is a lot of wiggle room. Even if you only lived there for 1 year, you could excluden $125,000 of gain.

That’s a high rate. You can negotiate the rate lower if your going through dealer financing. Just be willing to walk away and they’ll drop it, most likely. Years ago when I was in a similar situation Toyota financial offered me 13%, I was willing to walk away and they came down to 9. Six months later I financed with a local credit union for 4.

Did you go through the entire publication 523 calculations to determine how much was actually taxable?

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p523.pdf

No one can read insurances’ minds. Somehow they think you’re such high risk that they won’t even offer expensive policies. Class 2 obesity and diabetes might do it, and an abscess won’t help.

Whole life’s value depends on the plan but when you really just want death benefit it’s a wasteful, expensive option. You might consider self-insuring: save what could go to premiums as inheritance for dependents. It takes time to amount to much and you have to assess your risk tolerance, but that’s self-whole-life.

>I think the peace of mind of not having that debt over your head is worth $20 a month to most people, but it’s not wrong either way

It becomes a mathematical best vs possibly emotional best.

>There’s also the reality that most people will SAY they’re going to pay the minimum and invest the rest, but in reality they pay the minimum and spend the rest. Paying down debt is irrevocable forced savings.

Yes, self control is required, (edit to finish accidental early posting follows) but that applies elsewhere too.

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Just say no to crypto.

Real estate requires significant up front capital.

Trading options and stocks is major losing proposition for most (read, nearly all). Investing in ETFs/mutual funds is a winning proposition.