The fact that you were "told" that it was deductible means nothing. Plenty of people have been mistaken about being able to deduct unreimbursed expenses on W-2 jobs since you used to be able to and that changed only a few years ago. Whether you are a W-2 employee or a 1099 contractor should be obvious on how you are paid: are you cut a check for the total gross amount, or do they deduct taxes from your check before giving you a net amount?

Do this first. If you don’t have a will or an executor I expect they can help you with that, too.

>What would you do differently?

I wouldn't save for "travel and emergencies" and then also

>into a high interest savings account

unless I was certain I would be buying a house within 5 years. If you're going to do that you probably need to dial back saving over 30k per year for retirement.

alright thank you for breaking it down

I'd either use one of the target date funds, or create a three fund portfolio as follows:

• You can combine VINIX and VSCIX in 85/15 ratio to approximate Total US stock market.

• Then use VTIAX for international exposure.

• For bonds I'd probably use ABTIX.

thank you

I haven't read the whole thread, so maybe this has, been answered already, but the snowball is:

-List all debts from smallest amount to biggest, ignore interest.

-Pay the smallest first, minimum on everything else. Throw everything extra at it.

-When that's gone, take the payment from the first debt and start putting that towards the second one, and so on. Until they are all gone.

This is not the cheapest way because you ignore interest, but it is the most rewarding one because you should see some results from paid off debt rather quickly. Psychologically speaking, especially if this paying off debt thing is new-ish to you, this is the version you're most likely to be able to finish.

The other option, the avalanche method, is similar but you pay the debt with highest interest first. This is usually (a bit) cheaper but harder to stick with because it will take a long time to see results.

You will pay roughly 15% of your net earnings (income minus ordinary and necessary business expenses) towards self employment taxes.

You will be taxed federally on the net earnings as well. How much will depend on how much you make both from the contract position and other sources of income. We have a progressive tax system and all income is pooled together before a final tax liability is calculated.

Start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics

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I think I’m trolling myself, because I’ve been putting money into the fidelity index funds because after my reading that’s the kind of fund I thought dca applied to. Is it better to go for one of these etf instead? Is it more efficient because of lack of an expense ratio

When you say any type what do you mean?

An investment account is an account like now checking is an account.

You can open that account at different brokerages like fidelity, vanguard, schwabb. And betterment. Those are all accounts not different types.

You can also open a Roth IRA at these brokerages

Similar to how you can open a checking account at Bank of America, ally, TD bank etc

Thats only about a year or two of rent....barely anything. Spend it on getting a career for yourself.

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The Sooner you start the 30 years the sooner it ends

I'm a beneficiary, along with my mother and my brothers. My mom and I have talked about this as part of a potential retirement plan for her where if I want to upgrade to a bigger house in 5 years or so and she can rent out her large house (which she owns outright) as her retirement income.

> that could be an issue later

Who has potential to make this an issue? My mom given that she is the only remaining grantor?

>Putting the same amount in every week or month is DCA.

Check out the wiki on investing:

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing/

Dollar cost averaging is when you have a sum of money that you want to invest and, rather than investing it all at once, you spread it out over time. If you are investing as you earn, it's not technically DCA. And as the wiki says, it's generally better to just invest the lump sum at once. But by the same logic, it's better to invest as you earn rather than saving it up to invest later (which I need to be more disciplined about tbh)

You can make an IRA contribution for 2022 until tax day (April 18, 2023). And also - the 2023 IRA contribution limit is going up to $6500. (2023 contribution can be made between January 1, 2023 until tax day - April 15, 2924.)

Looks like you got the answer below.

Keep em coming :)

www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/w/commontopics

I couldn’t agree more. There are not guarantees and there are risks in investments. I appreciate your input, this has been on my mind as well.

I wonder if you you can specify the money doesn’t go to the execs bonuses or some bs like that

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Yes. You can contribute up to the maximum each year. Some people space it out through the year. Some people contribute a lump sum in January.

To make it even more confusing you have until April 15 (whatever tax day is) of next year to contribute for the previous year. So for 2022, you have until April 2023 to make a contribution. For 2023, you have until April 2024 to contribute.

Why can't your Roth be part of your overall dividend portfolio or be used as a portion of your emergency fund? Don't understand why some people consider their retirement accounts objective different from their taxable brokerage accounts. Don't know your age but at some point in life you'll be looking at all of your accounts as one retirement portfolio.