Thanks so much. I guess it checks out that I’m paid correctly.

While I think it’s wonderful to give your estate to the humane society, please keep in mind there are many smaller animal rescue organizations as well that could desperately use a little help. Some just do horses, parrots, elephants etc. Just something to consider.

This is when you vote with your wallet. Get a card at another bank or better yet a credit union. Commercial, for profit banks are usury.

I would say leave the card open, get paper billing (if free), and charge once a year just to have them service the account. But then, they could report that as part of their numbers and people might keep investing with them. Just stop doing business with them and if enough people follow then they'll go out of business eventually. Bad businesses that don't treat their customers right should go out of business....not be bailed out.

It's down for year end processing.

You should have done all of that a week or more ago.

Is the $104/ month car insurance cost because you have insurance bundled with your parents' policies? When you move out and have a new address, you'll need to get your own policy, and the cost may increase. It's rare for 20 year olds to have inexpensive insurance just because young people are riskier to insure, on average.

> - $50-$100 misc. category

This may be accurate if you are super frugal, but I suspect your actual costs will be higher. Think about everything you might spend your money on in the course of a typical year: new housewares (towels, bedding, cooking equipment, small appliances), oil changes, gifts for others, social activities with friends, new clothes and shoes, contacts/ glasses if you need them, dentistry costs not covered by insurance, vehicle registration fees, travel/ vacations, replacement electronics, furniture, parking,

It's hard to predict how much you'll spend on all of these things, but with your budget you are only allocating up to $1,200 for the entire year, and that seems unlikely to me.

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>I guess my first question is, is this a good idea?

Idk if you need "several of them" at different banks, 2 accounts at different banks is typically more than enough.

>If a savings account pays more than a CD, what's the catch?

It depends on why the HYSA pays so much and the CD pays less. In general with HYSA accounts you just want to make sure you know if there is a limit to how much money earns the high interest rate, if you need to qualify for the high interest rate somehow, and if they have any withdrawal limits you need to be aware of.

Bank A might have an HYSA that pays 3.5% APY but only on the first $5000 deposited, and it only pays the 3.5% if you do 10 debit card transactions per month. But bank B might have an HYSA that pays 3.4% without any limits or requirements, you just deposit the money and earn interest

>My second question is, if you open multiple savings accounts at once, do you get on some list

Generally banks care more about checking accounts because they are higher risk. Opening a savings account should be fine in most cases. There will be a record of you owning the account but that is likely it.

The unfortunate truth is if you want to exist in society today then you WILL have your info tracked somewhere. Renting a house? There are companies that track that. Paying a mortgage? They track that too. Opened a bank account? Tracked. But people ignore it 99.9% of the time and everything works out fine.

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I have 3 attempts left on my work visa (so 3 years). If selected I have 6 years on my work visa My employer matches 5%

Your wife should get her own credit card, a starter card or a secured credit card, and build her credit with little day-to-day purchases on the card and always paying the full credit statement amount before the due date. That will build her credit score.

Meanwhile, of course put any bigger payments on the credit card that earns travel points.

As for investing, I'd open an account with Vanguard (or Fidelity or Charles Schwab) and go for their low-fee diversified index funds or ETFs. A book you could read (perhaps before doing this) is "The simple path to wealth" by JL Collins.

> I've heard a lot about how the standard "get a job, IRA and investment portfolio" won't be enough for us to retire.

Well... depends on the size of the investment portfolio, I'd say. Other things you could do is 1. keep your expenses low, don't give into lifestyle inflation 2. don't have (a lot of) kids and 3. try to take care of your health (to reduce healthcare costs in older age).

With number 1 would also come not living in a very fancy house and not driving the fanciest cars.

> Finally, I'd like to maximize my money for today, be able to make big purchases, go on vacations etc.

As Paula Pant, financial podcaster, says: You can afford anything, but not everything. Making a big purchase now means retiring later, later. So you've got to ask yourself what you really want to do and achieve on your always-limited income.

Don't buy real estate. Rent. Buy at the end of this recession.

Thanks, they’ll just have to learn from their mistakes

Gramma invested in index funds, retired and move to France. Last we heard, she’s living large good life

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Parents fine but lazy siblings who don’t work or contribute and they live there, How old are they ? Why don’t they work?

Yeah, I suppose.

But if I were to have chosen a young adulthood of amazing financial responsibility ... I would sure have a nice bit of savings, but would always be wondering "What If?"

So how much do you still owe to the bank?

I got it for my family, my parents are immigrants who were not here for a while so getting them a home doesn’t seem wrong…

Not my kid, but to be honest would still post if it were because my intention is not a bad one here

The IRS (and really Congress) are the authority. Amazon lists items as FSA eligible so their purchase system accepts FSA cards.

> will I be reimbursed 99

Should be $99. You should request this amount and not the $100. In my experience FSA providers are lazy/incompetent. I had one reject my LASIK claim even though I uploaded the bill from my doctor that had all the billing codes and amounts. However, the bill had a boilerplate box that said "Insurance pending: $0". They rejected it because this evidently meant that insurance may have been paying and you can't double dip.

I would consider saving 0% in the 401k right now, but saving A LOT in your savings account for the move. But then after the move you should start putting in 10%.

Yeah thats one thing I was worried about. I dont really have the energy to do that, wish I did though! Thanks for the list!

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Something like the Humane Society would have someone who would be able to help with an estate gift like this.

Yes but I’m not sure if the details. I know there are “married for 10 years” rules etc.