my worst case for this sort of thing is AT&T. And it's really bad.

My grandparents bought AT&T before the breakup of Ma Bell.

I think they split off a few of their shares into an UGMA ostensibly to pay for my college.

I graduated college in the late 80s. I learned of the UGMA back in the mid-90s. Grandma decided it wasn't fair to give me all the money and my brother none, so it was split in half and then transferred to me.

At the time of the transfer, I received AT&T, BLS (one baby bell), Lucent, and a mutual fund that I think was used to capture dividends.

AT&T spun out AT&T wireless (AWE), which got bought out by BLS and SBC communications to form Cingular.

BLS bought AT&T.

Lucent spun out several companies, and what was left merged with Alcatel and then bought by Nokia.

Somehow I got ownership in Comcast as a result as well.

In many cases, I had to sell fractional shares as a result of different M&A activites.

at home I've got a big spreadsheet and one tab tracks where all the little pieces of AT&T went.

I've come to the conclusion that consistency is what is needed. THe big question in my mind is that $400.

A deduction reduces your taxable income, which indirectly reduces your tax by whatever your marginal tax rate happens to be.

For example, in the 12% tax bracket, a $4800 deduction reduces your tax by 0.12 x 4800 = $576 over the course of the year, or $48 per paycheck if you are paid monthly.

I think you should offer to match up to X amount in debt payments that they make to bring their debt under control, but it has to go towards the debt. That'll help them while not letting your brother spend it all. If they don't put it towards the debt, which will be obvious if you can see the payments they make, then stop giving it to them.

Would it lower the rate if you kept the same insurance? Or are you referring to being able to change to liability only?

No. I mean that your taxable income is reduced by $6000. The withholding would only reduce by the amount of taxes you no longer have to pay on that $6000. Depending on how much you are making it seems like they reduced your withholding by $50 which lines up if you are making less than $20k a year.

15% is a "rule of thumb" now? I thought it was an horror statistic, like most people not having $400 in savings.

You're talking about monthly payments, right? Otherwise, I assume you would've reported annual income.

So you are saying my paycheck will not change no matter what is written on 4b?

My taxable gross is the exact same for December 2022 and January 2023. Does that mean my updated W-4 has not been processed?

If that’s remotely accurate, you can triple your income by simply transporting one car per month across state lines.

Sounds like a business idea!

But reading this thread, you’re looking for justification, not asking a question. Question is answered already.

We don’t know your expenses. How long is the foreseeable future? What have you been doing to work on your mental health? I know people who quit, use it as a reset, and rejoin the workforce. I know people who quit, lose the structure of their day, let themselves go, and have their health suffer. It’s a leave of absence an option?

Either way, it is harder to rejoin most industries if you’re older and if there’s a gap in your employment. So is your settlement enough to cover your expenses for a few years without impacting your quality of life? If you’ve got expensive cars and a huge mortgage, probably not. If you live a modest lifestyle in a low or medium COL location, you’re more than fine

I'm not seeing the phrase "principal residence" anywhere on that page.

If you look at the table under the row for "homebuyers" it clearly says "no" for qualified plans (401k, etc.) and "yes" for IRA.

In regards to the tax forms, does that mean we're getting taxed to withdraw?

The mobile account method you mentioned means we need to pay like a transaction fee or conversion fee?

I would like to understand how did they even managed to deposited USD and kept it as USD in the bank. If I go to Wells Fargo with RMB and deposit it, won't it be converted to USD value in the account?

Previous poster was correct. Pay at least the minimum wage to avoid a late fee entirely, but there might be some interest. Other people are saying pay as much as you can as fast as you can, which is also good advice

I would try instead of trying to take it out in cash (Presumably in person) to do an electronic wire instead. Without exact details my guess is the problem is the physical cash, not internationally moving money from China to the USA.

It's a deduction, so it only reduces your taxable income; not the actual tax.

Elderly likes cash I guess. They've done this over 10 years ago, details are fuzzy without going back into China, and we definitely don't want to visit anytime soon.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your car payment below 10% of your take home income. $290/month comes out to about a $15k loan at your interest rates. Also keep in mind that a newer vehicle will be more expensive to insure.

I would spend a few months saving up until you have ~$5k or so to put down, then look at cars in the $15k neighborhood. Then you’ll have a car that you can easily afford, not just one that you can theoretically afford.

Knowing its history, personally, I wouldn't buy a Nissan equipped with a CVT. But you've got one - so I'd just take very good care of it. Yes, you may end up with a transmission replacement at some point - but that's generally a $4K-$5k-ish expense, so it can be planned for. Also: Many people seem to skip the maintenance on these transmissions. Check your owner's manual, but I believe transmission fluid changes are recommended every 30K or so miles (and, knowing the weakness of the design, I would err on the side of changing the fluid more frequently).

Principal residence is an exception. Correct?

Number 2 on last irs section you posted.

To deposit USD at BoC while in China, you walk into a branch with your ID and bank card (you need an account) and you hand it to the teller. It takes much longer than in the US.

To withdraw it, you need tax forms. Much more difficult process. To withdraw it without being in person, you may even need a 2FA token generator. If you've lost that, you're most likely fucked.

If you still have access to your mobile account a trick that worked for me two years ago was to use your mobile banking app, transfer that money from the bank app to Alipay, then you need to use a site like swapsy to find someone to trade Rmb for USD.

Can they withdraw in RMB?

https://nhglobalpartners.com/moving-money-in-and-out-china-rules/

China has significant restrictions surrounding capital leaving the country, you’re going to have to comply with those if you want to withdraw that cash.

I would buy VTI instead of either of these MFs. More tax efficient, lower expense ratio, better diversification and 100% stock are most appropriate for a Roth.

I've used Mint for about 13 years now and currently tracks about 20 accounts. We are almost exclusively on CC too. Not sure if it will do exactly what you want for cash flow projection, but the Budget feature shows you what is left over based on current spend and the income/expenditure budgets you define.

A Nissan what?

$9k negative equity is a tremendous amount for a student. Rolling $4k plus into another vehicle loan just keeps you in this terrible debt cycle. While the car might not be very reliable long term, I would probably take the chance and keep driving it until you were at least break even and hopefully by then you have graduated and have a full time job. Making a bad financial decision to increase that negative equity on the chance you have transmission issues isn't very smart. It's not using statistics very well either.

>for a Roth IRA beginner?

Then:

>VFFVX target retirement fund

Since I personally consider VFIAX to be an obsolete recommendation in any account where you aren't limited to a short list to pick from. Doing VFIAX would mean taking on an uncompensated risk factor (the bad kind of risk) of single country while also ignoring a compensated risk factor (the good kind of risk) of smaller market cap holdings.