>Retail investors are rarely the ones that can figure out which is which

I am surely not going to be able figure it out. Thanks for the advice. It is never too late for me to minimize the fees. Thank you.

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Really for someone at your income, that's probably enough. Get some savings set up incase you need to access the money, use automatic transfers for that too.

Then dump as much as you can into that 401k, even if you have to adjust things down later on.

Gotcha, yes that is the conclusion that i’m coming to as well.

I considered a HYSA but it seemed like SWVXX might’ve been better but I’m not sure what the tax differences are between the two.

Dumping this into a CD account offering ~4.2% over 11 months at my bank is feeling pretty attractive as well.

Some managed funds do beat the market. Retail investors are rarely the ones that can figure out which is which. Even with heavy research it’s hard to wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze. Probably not a major mistake, but you are more likely to come ahead focusing on minimizing the fee drag.

One of the few things you really can’t get back is time. You can budget more effectively and pick up some OT here and there and make up some of that salary difference if you really needed it, but you can’t get back 5 days every month. I would look at it like this: is 5 extra days per month or 60 days a year worth more to you then 20k?

Are you comparing your managed fund to a comparable index? For example, if you are using an active Growth Equity Fund you wouldn't compare it to an S&P500 index fund, you'd compare it to a growth equity index fund like FSPGX

If it helps it was BoA and it looks like since the charges are pending, it should be okay... praying for the better

Damn, i really hope i don't have to T.T

Yeah I've realized I don't understand how my 401k works so I'm probably going to work on that. I actually set up automatic transfers the moment I went back to full time work, which is why I have what I do in savings

That sounds good. A CD account at my bank might be the best/simplest route actually now that i’m exploring it. Thanks for the help!

Sure. SWVXX is a perfectly safe place for cash. You wouldn't really do any better than a HYSA, but probably no worse, either.

I'll second u/Loutro-Fift's idea that CDs or T-bills are perhaps marginally better (depending on what happens to rates).

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A to A+ seems like a pretty modest change considering the undertaking. That said that could be a more significant difference then the rating eludes to, I’m not too familiar with that rating system.

Are you tied to the current general area due to commute, family, just pure preference?

The plan to overhaul your house sounds pretty good in practice but there are so many factors that would go into pulling off a maneuver of that scale, combined with the current economic uncertainty and it just doesn’t feel like it’s worth floating that amount of risk for what honestly has such an uncertain degree of payoff, and if the wrong event(s) take place, could leave you just breaking even or in a financial hole with huge mess to sort out.

I ask my initial question about what ties you to that area, because you might be able to get something that checks all your boxes, is in your budget, located in beautiful town and with a A+ school system if your able to distance yourself a bit more from the city, just say 30-35min opens up a lot of options.

My parent's home, where I grew up on the South Shore of Boston was $12K in early 1950s. Sold for $300K in mid-00s. Later torn down for a McMansion.

None of the things they did actually increased the value; updated kitchen and bath, single car garage, detached shed, etc. It was always proximity to Boston and T.

Per your question, I would be wondering if you're buying into a bubble and any delay would be to your advantage. Similarly, although there does appear to be minor slowdown in interest rate hikes, but these are truly unpredictable until a lot of what spooks the market gets settled.

Would it be possible to add a garage or carport without needing a rebuild? That may buy you a year or two to revisit the question.

As for schools, no idea what 'A niche' means, but lobbying for new taxes for schools usually goes over pretty well in Massachusetts. Also, money saved by deferring the rebuild could be put towards an A+ private school.

High rates can be bought down if you opt for either of your proposed options. My 14% mortgage in 1980 later became 5% seven years later.

https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040gi#en_US_2022_publink24811vd0e4579

> You can round off cents to whole dollars on your return and schedules. If you do round to whole dollars, you must round all amounts. To round, drop amounts under 50 cents and increase amounts from 50 to 99 cents to the next dollar. For example, $1.39 becomes $1 and $2.50 becomes $3. > > If you have to add two or more amounts to figure the amount to enter on a line, include cents when adding the amounts and round off only the total.

Will need a new timing belt in the near-ish future, and the head gasket is starting to seep. But I really like where your head is at. Thank you!

Honestly there's not a lot of "fancy" things for you to do, and the ADHD isn't really an excuse. Set the 401k to max the match your company gives you, and if you can afford it, maybe 7% to 10% total. (Max is like $22k/year so I doubt you're actually maxing it).

Then set up with your bank that $100/mo, or a week, or whatever you can afford goes from your checking account directly into your savings account. Probably can do that online in five minutes.

Yes

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What about the ratings make you want to move and give up the interest rate? Or are there other reasons and you’re trying to justify. A vs. A+ is negligible and likely to change in the next 3-4 years and certainly by the time your child graduates.

I have no clue what they use to evaluate their specific categories, but in general public school districts are going to trail administration and sports. If I had a newborn I’d rather live in a district with A+ admin and sports and a C overall rating than an A+ rating with C admin and sports (likely not possible but you get the point).

Diversity obviously isn’t going to trail any of the other categories so read into that category independently.

Honestly, just use a service instead of treading into that water right there. It'll save you the headache and the idea that something may show up in the mail one day.

As others have stated, disgruntled people can easily send the DOR after you. What happens if they get hurt in your house? How are you going to take care of them? Homeowners insurance is going to sniff around about why they were changing your light bulbs or something like that if it's not just "stepped off the porch wrong" kind of thing.

Thank you, this is a good reminder. I am going to look at my statement and see the how the fees are impacting the return.

>At a 5.5% interest rate - why is 15% of my monthly payment going to interest? Why shouldn't it be... 5.5%?

Because you're not paying down the loan in a single year.

Consider the following cases:

• You pay the loan in full the day after you buy the car. You would pay effectively no interest regardless of your rate, because you didn't keep the loan very long (there might be some minimum duration or something). Your interest would be almost none of the amount you pay, or
• You never pay off the balance of the loan, paying "interest only" and keeping the loan balance the same (this is common in business loans). 100% of your payments would be interest, again regardless of the rate.

When you pay off the loan in a fixed time period, it's somewhere between these two extremes. The interest rate is the percentage of the balance that is charged as interest - if the outstanding principal is $10,000 and your rate is 5.5% then $550 of interest will be charged on an annual basis. The amount of principal you pay in addition the interest is calculated in an amortization schedule in order to both:

• Keep your payments the same amount every month, even though the amount of interest accrued each month will shrink as the balance goes down (you'll note that the interest portion of your payment shrinks each month), and
• Pay off the loan in a certain number of months

It’s a felony. People do get caught. What’s even more likely, though, is that years down the road the person needs to legitimize their income so they file a form saying you fails to give them a W2. Then you’re on the hook for all of the taxes (and penalties) even if criminal charges aren’t bright. It’s also a felony…