Great point. State is Indiana in this case. I'll add that to the OP

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

Get more quotes and have it fixed. There is a lot of life left in the subaru.

State is important. In Michigan for example once you’re married assets are split, so having her purchase on her own at a lower rate makes sense.

Look into your states marriage laws.

Interesting, that's valuable insight thank you!

You’ll get an opportunity to talk to both USAA and Navy Federal banks while in boot camp, they allot specific time to set up new banking/work on existing things! You can ask them about refinancing at that time. Also, once you get to your duty station you can ask about a new insurance rate through USAA.

If you have the opportunity I’d keep the car for A school depending on where A school is located. A lot of a schoolers with cars actually make out well because folks without cars pay them to give them rides and such. A lot of rides share services still don’t have base access.

I shopped between 3 companies and geico claimed this was the best they could do, do I need to be more aggressive on the phone with insurance?

I'm aware of the 15.3 and that I can deduct half from the income tax.

There is no state tax here but a $25 yearly filing fee.

I'm an engineer developing unique products, if the price is estimated to be higher than I think the market will accept then I will not develop that product. 10% is the entire profit margin or more than for some businesses so I hope you can see why that makes a big difference.

We will be married this summer. Moving / buying timeline unfortunately doesn't coincide for it to happen the other way around.

$2K/mo for allowance/fun is a lot especially when you have $54K of debt, even if they’re low-interest debts. You’re essentially borrowing at 1.49 to 3.49% each year for fun money by just keeping those loans around to spend 10% of your take home every month.

At your income level there’s no reason why you cannot max out your 401K and IRA unless you’re paying off high-interest debts or saving for a big purchase.

I already mentioned in my post that I'm not going to discuss the homebuying timeline. For reasons both personal and circumstantial, our next home will be purchased and not rented; not discussing that further.

To your last point, it's not a matter of me not being able to be on the loan. We are approved regardless. It's a question of whether or not the lower payment with my fiancee being the only one on the mortgage is worth any potential downsides.

I know most folks are focusing on your debt but do you have any savings? I would set aside a small amount each month for an emergency fund in addition to making (ideally) a bit above your minimum payments so you don’t end up with a surprise expense that ends up putting you back farther in debt.

Thanks for your help. Sorry that I didn't have the numbers, but someone did use an example with arbitrary numbers that helped display the point.

I think in the end I realized I was wondering how much would be the difference between me utilizing my commuter benefits for a transit pass versus straight up spending my own cash on it.

Only married people should be joint owners

> Year in and year out my ETFs do better than my managed funds

Wow really, that's helpful to know. thanks.

You're absolutely right. I was super into my own head and made this even more complicated. I think I just wanted to make sure that it was indeed as straightforward as it sounds, so thanks for that.

How is it tax evasion?

Not being defensive, but genuinely curious. If I am using my commuter benefits to purchase transit currency for use of traveling, is that really evading taxes?

Despite my vague and confusing post, I was looking more into if this is beneficial to save money for something I am already spending money on.

thanks! so far I looked at the policies and there's no specific wording on it had to be work-related travel. as long as it's used towards transit like busses/trains, it's allowed. I'm interpreting this as "hey remote workers, you technically can work from anywhere so we're not going to be on your ass about where you're using your transit pass as long as you're using the benefits to purchase transit passes, then you're good."

the only work-specific wording i see is parking, which is a separate commuter benefit where the parking has to be near a workplace, which I'm interpreting as near any coworking spots as we don't have an office anymore.

> My primary concern about going about it this way is that this would make my fiancee’s debt to income ratio comparatively enormous even though for our combined income we’re buying well below our means.

Her DTI is the same if you’re on the loan when lenders look at her individually, so it doesn’t matter.

> we could refinance in a few years when my credit is improved and the bankruptcy has been removed from my credit report and that would solve it, but my concern is for how this will impact her credit score and what implications it may have to get another loan like a car loan, renovation loan, etc. The lender I spoke to was pretty assertive that this would be a better move for us overall, but I wanted to field some other opinions.

No different than if you are on the loan

The full loan payment, regardless of the number of co-signers, will be used to calculate her DTI for future credit

[deleted]

thanks! sorry if it wasn't clear. i think being in my head about it too much is just making it more complicated than it needs to be.

but you answered it perfectly with a good example even though i didn't provide any data (that's on me). your explanation really makes it clear.

Thanks so much! I do want to contribute again this year, I was just thinking that after moving out I want to have all the money possible in case of any emergency. I will contribute again at some point soon.

I not familiar with what you’re saying in that second paragraph …. How would that free up my income more?

I agree the zero-based budget is going to help me a lot. I’m going to start that this month so I can get a feel of my exact ranges. I think knowing this will ease my anxiety a lot lol.

Once I reach my 20k emergency fund, I’m going to start some sinking funds to focus on! I lucky and my dad helps with those things, but I still think it’s important to have that just in case

after expenses... The net profit of the side hustle is added to the top of the 9-5 job.

You charge what the market will accept as the price.......

Also you owe 15.3% for FICA.

Also you owe state tax (if your state has income tax).

Sorry. I just realized you said you have a 403b. It’s functionally the same as a 401K. You can’t just open a 401K unless you own a business.

Contribute to the trad 403b, not Roth 403b. Do a backdoor Roth IRA if you want to do Roth.

Here’s your answer: The Warren Buffett Challenge — hedge funds vs. index funds.