Stop thinking of it as a fee. The bank is reversing the deposit because it was a bad check. They can't put that money in your account because it doesn't exist. So they reversed the deposit by withdrawing that amount from your account.

The $12 - that's the fee for depositing the bad check. That's all you'll get back if the bank decides to be nice and waive the fee.

As somebody that made poor financial decisions in my younger years and did this exact same thing for my first house I say do not touch your retirement funds. That was a few decades ago and I still regret touching retirement funds

I could have got the house without tapping my retirement

And using an online stock market calculator that 10k then would be worth 50k today if I had kept it invested

Here’s an article that might be useful in light of this question and why investing on a consistent basis vs trying to time the market isnt worth it

https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/02/worlds-worst-market-timer/

A low cost mutual fund. And luckily, you are at the right company to do that. Consider VFIAX

So if I'm reading this right, the fee for the value of the check essentially cancels out the initial check deposit and the fee is actually only $12?

You can always ask for an adjustment in fees. It's up to the institution to agree to or not.

Bigger lesson here, multiple bad checks can get your account closed. Be very careful about personal checks, that's why they're not accepted in a lot of places anymore.

Your car isn’t ruining your budget, eating out, shopping, coffee and date night are. That’s $500 right there that you can save

It’s not. Past performance and indicators don’t imply future. So there’s nothing to analyze until after the fact.

I once had money sitting in an IRA for about a year before officially investing it, so I feel you! I just did not understand the process, so I just let it sit there.

I would start here if I were you. JL Collins has some great stuff on investing. The Money Guy Show on YouTube is also another great source for free investing content.

Generally with IRAs, since the money cannot normally be touched until 59 1/2 years old without penalties, a lot of people invest in low-cost index funds in these long term investing accounts.

Good luck!

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No, pretty confident it’s not a scam. Private placements of notes like this that have not been registered under the securities laws and only available to accredited investors happen all the time. My investment would be protected by a lien against the property that would only be subordinate to the mortgage. Appreciate the thoughts though.

If you’re at the end of the flowchart it should all be invested

It sounds like you’re not sure, which makes me think you need to work on step 1… understand your spending, understanding your goals and priorities. Understand what your EF is for to make sure you have the right amount.

You can ask for a fee waiver, but there’s nothing really to dispute. They have a fee for cashing a bad check. They charged you that fee.

Since you’re a good customer, possible they waive it, but if they say no, it is what it is. Nothing to dispute.

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If it's in your budget, then I would try to hit the maximums for the 401k and IRA. You can invest in index funds within an IRA, although the 401k options may be more limited. I would say using tax advantaged accounts is even more critical if you're trying to retire early, and it's great that you're starting early to maximize the time spent in market. You might also check out r/FIRE for more early retirement planning.

1. Contribute up to employer 401k company match
2. Max out Roth IRA
3. Max out HSA
4. Max out 401k

Make sure to have a 3-6 month emergency fund as well.

Your citizenship does not matter. You are an NRI and a resident of the USA. You invested in the USA and made gains in the USA. Thus, you pay tax in the USA.

However, any income generated in India is taxable in India.

ugh bless you

You can absolutely ask, politely. They very well may waive the fee, especially if you've been a customer for a long time. But of course they have no obligation to waive the fee.

Every asset class you just mentioned is already included in OP's two funds. OP is plenty diversified.

Makes sense, I have about 13k of that 37k invested in index funds / ETFs. I was thinking of bumping contributions up to ~18% ish for the 401k. I want to retire before 50 - does that impact how I should think about 401k / IRA planning?

Solid foundation. Eventually you will want to consider bonds and check on your equity diversification. Probably mid-30s or $500k whichever is first.

Highly recommend Personal Capital. Their portfolio analyzer is great to see your portfolio’s allocation, sector concentration and fees across all your accounts

Do you have any other choices or is this your only choice? TransAmerica isn’t horrible but they aren’t amazing they are known to have some high fee products and funds.

Even if you don’t you should still try to raise the contributions on your employer sponsored 403(b) plan. If you have the ability contributing 10-15% towards retirement would be good. If you can’t do that all at once start small an increase as you can.

If you do have other choices for your plan administrator you may consider switching to Aspire Financial Services (non advisor) CalSTRS Pension2 (only in California) Fidelity Investments MissionSquare (formerly ICMA-RC) T. Rowe Price TIAA Vanguard WEA Member Benefits (Wisconsin)

Save up cash and pay cash.

Find someone (start asking around) who does this; maybe one town over. Meet them, have coffee, buy their lunch. Learn before you invest.

(No, do not buy one of those midnight informercial crap on cable/local TV or "seminar"). Talkradio is also full with it).

Go slow with the cash you have.

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