A lot of dealerships aren't so bad anymore, or have a few remaining "bad" salesmen for walk-ins. Once you know what car you want, negotiate price via e-mail. Just e-mail a bunch of dealers for their best price, pick the best / most responsive one. Make sure you get the out the door price.

Only thing I would recommend is - when talking to your lender - talk though any state-specific issues/benefits to consider in marriage vs No marriage.

For example, in CA and other states married couples can title their property with “right of survivorship.” This is a good benefit as in the death of one person, it allows for the automatic transfer of the entire property to the other bypassing a bunch of potential probate issues.

Might be worth considering an on-paper marriage if there’s a legal/financial/tax benefit to buying as a married couple.

Wow Is this really what dealers go through to upcharge?? Just toss on unnecessary shit after they receive it??

Flexibility is hugely valuable. I personally would recommend staying where you are, especially with kids that age & all the things that come up with them.

Since it seems like your family is comfortable financially I would highly recommend staying out & using the flexibility to take care of your kids.

Obviously retirement is important but if there’s a few things you’d like to do to the house maybe scale back the retirement savings temporarily.

Lucky I've been dying to get one of those cards

I would kill for that level of flexibility.

It also seems like you are a valued and respected member of the team and that the company wants to keep you happy and keep you around.

I won’t stick around for much, but I would stick around for all that.

My advice would be to look at adding a contract or second job to your situation. Check out /r/overemployed

Not always true.

It’s not able to VPN because of the security required. Can’t really go into much more than that.

Sounds like you guys are doing fine— and have perfect flexibility for your family. Contribute less to retirement if you need more cash.

I wouldn’t open a credit card just for $100 off tires. Discount Tire has regular revolving deals where you can get a visa gift card for buying tires. The last two times I bought Michelin tires for my car, it came with a $100 mail in rebate.

There are other ways to make $100 that don’t require a credit card.

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do you know anything about the fidelity card I already have a Roth through them so would be easier?

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I mean VPN exists for a reason. No doubt there can be other reasons you can't work from home or it's more nuanced than secured network but if is just, "we need you on our secured network", that's crap.

Schwab provides this with a brokerage account, ATM card as well. You can’t write checks abroad but the debit card will be fee free

thanks

If you're seeing zeros by the Fed tax withholding lines, then probably no withholding on those SS payments. Do you have (or can you get) statements for their pensions?

As the other commenter stated, this is a fact based question. It’s not about who will save money. It’s not something you get to decide. Based on your comments and post, you are likely a dependent for federal tax purposes. Google the tests for being a dependent and see if that’s how you should be classified.

I agree, definately a me thing, but in general these extended warrantees are unnecessary. I hate bringing my car in for repairs because I always feel I will get the shaft. Now I actually have a repair shop I can trust and this issue has been solved!!! Mainly due to word of mouth. The fault here was really with 2014-2016 Honda CRVs as this timing chain issue is almost guaranteed. Should have been a recall issue if you ask me???

Do you own a house, or do you rent?

My new policy is to pick the car I want, compete dealers off each other, and insist on picking up the car straight off the truck. No dealer tint, coatings, VIN numbers, don’t even put the front license plate bracket on car.

Unless you graduated before May (like in a January term or something) then you are almost certainly their dependent for this year - you were a student for at least 5 months, lived in their house for more than 6 months, are under 24, and they provided more than half of your living costs.

Next year you will no longer be a dependent as you will be over 19 and no longer a full time student.

> The Roth IRA adds [...] and flexibility to retire a bit earlier

Can you expand on this a bit? Is this because you can withdraw contributions without tax consequences?

I know it isn't the point of this post, might even get me banned for saying so, but you are god damn lucky to have such a high wage.

I make $9 an hour and I would kill for that wage.