Ahh that’s it! Thank you!

Thank you for that!

Oh yeah… well, tint is basically a requirement in Texas, but for what you’re charged, it’s pretty basic tint. I’d much rather take it to a shop and have nicer tint installed. A lot of the rest of it is worthless.

Even the money market fund in your brokerage is paying something like 3-4% yield these days. You could put it in there without investing in stocks or bonds.

The law says that the taxable year to claim the tax credit is the year "when the original installation of the item is completed."

Accordingly, if the solar is completed being installed in 2022, the taxpayer would claim the tax credit for the entire cost of the solar system on his or her 2022 taxes, which typically would be filed in April 2023. Here's a comment I made a few months ago that gives more details: https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/yo7g32/can_i_get_the_tax_credit_this_year_if_still/ivdsugt/?context=3

I've had an HSA with Optum for around 15 years +/- and 2 jobs. Vanguard funds are an investment option, along with Fidelity funds and others. I've never had an issue and have had good experiences when I've needed to sort things out. I've contributed via payroll deduction and direct transfer from my credit union account. Hope that helps.

Edit: I have an IRA at Fidelity. My wife has one with another provider and our 401ks are with other providers still. We have joint checking/savings at a credit union, a checking account with a mortgage at a bank and a special needs trust with yet another provider. While I appreciate the idea of a single log in for everything, the main focus for us has always been the financial aspect rather than convenience.

My advice to you would be the same advice I give my son. Find the best solution(s) for the end goal and be organized in dealing with the solutions.

The Roth would be instead of throwing money into your taxable brokerage account, not in addition to (unless you wanted to save/invest more). We tend to think of Roth money as untouchable until retirement, but that's not actually true - you can withdraw your contributions at any time without penalty. Only the earnings are subject to penalty for early withdrawal. I would max the Roth space before putting any more in taxable (full disclosure - this is what I do).

It is an awful idea to make so many changes to your house, just buy another one. Yes you should look for a new job if you feel you need money. At least understand the market so you know.

Go through the mental exercise with your husband of what could be done to eliminate or drastically reduce daycare. Get creative and use your work flexibility. One could start work early the other start work late. Break your day into a morning and evening shift to get your hours in. Put some hours in and Saturday and Sunday to offset shorter work days. Have a babysitter/nanny come in for a few hours a day to help if needed. Getting rid of daycare would add 37K to you bottom line. You would need greater than a 40% pay raise to make that 37K.

At some point, maybe switch over to a target date fund and let them pick the percentage for you. But yes, if you do that in your mid 30s, expect the bond percentage to initially be around 10%, increasing as you get older.

Nope that's the gists. keep receipts so you can reimburse anytime in the future.

I used to have everything at Vanguard. Then I needed an HSA and a solo 401k and Fidelity offers both. I switched from Vanguard to Fidelity and they have been great!

Thank you so much

The guys at EJ are guessing just as much as you. Grow your portfolio 7% - 10% a year, assume your expenses increase 3% a year

Ah, so you already know the drill. Then, go for a fully remote job as long as your husband is down for doing at least his 50%. It sounds doable - unless you were commuting to an office every day.

You don’t know what’s out there until you try. Higher paying jobs don’t mean less flexible. From my experience, lower paying jobs have worst work environment in most cases

> My husband used to talk about going to grad school and his grandfather generously gifted him a check that I believe was around $10,000 4-5 years ago, apparently had to do some taxes differently, and says the money is trackable by the irs and cannot be used on anything other that school tuition. Is this true?

No, it's not true.

If someone pays your tuition or medical bill directly, it is considered a gift to you, but it is completely unlimited in any regard.

If someone gives you money with no expection of getting anything back, it is a gift and has reporting thresholds. Maybe the reporting threshold was $10k Reporting threshold was $14k in 2017. But there is no restriction what the recipient can use it for.

Maybe it was actually a 529 distribution?

• No limit for college/university tuition expenses
• Up to $10k can be spent for K-12 tuition expenses (SECURE Act 1.0)

This still doesn't restrict what the recipient can use it for. It'll just get the 529 owner in tax penalties if used for disallowed purposes.

Thank you. The money is already in my husband’s account. His family is just telling us that the money is trackable by the irs and that it can only be used at a school for tuition

I just don’t know what I need to include in excel, like inflation considerations etc. For me, the idea of missing one thing I should have included in excel is a little scary because it could end up being quite inaccurate over many years.

That’s sort if why i’m here. To get help from smarter people from me to piece this together.

So, thank you!

If the money came out of a 529 account that had been set up by the grandfather and it was not used for school the grandfather would have to pay taxes on amount.

Solar credits are not income-limited. At all.

You might be able to use your low income year to qualify for low income green incentives, however. This would probably be something for 2024 when you can document your low income with your 2023 tax returns. There are state programs available (I'm getting nearly $13k off of my solar project). By the time you can use it, the High Efficiency Electric Home Rebate program should be up and running.

Other stuff you'll qualify for include the full child tax credit, but you don't have to do anything special to get this.

A check is simply a written authorization of a transfer from the account number of the check. To the degree that all bank transfers are recorded by banks, they are "trackable".

You need to learn a lot more information about what is going on here, in particular on what account this check is drawing. Also, as a general note, surprise depositing a check 5 years after it is written without talking to the account owner is, at a minimum, terrible etiquette. Many banks may refuse to honor a check that is more than 180 days old.

This is 100% false and was probably said just to scare him into using it wisely

The exception would be if the grandfather had a 529 account for son and cut a check from it

Tbh, therapy. I wasn’t able to let myself grow when my salary doubled because I was so used to hanging on by a thread. Therapy helped me a lot to work through the causes of those anxieties and to be able to deal with reality instead of what I projected onto reality in my head due to years of trauma related in part to being broke

Ah interesting, why not take a loan? (I was always under the impression loans were always more favorable since return on investment would be more than the loan amount)