Just pointing that out because my folks paid in for a decade and all of it went towards prepaying their payments, none of it counted any extra toward their principal.

No disrespect.

What are your options? Could you get a better paying job elsewhere?

If you don't think you are making enough, and your employer won't give you more, leaving is the obvious answer.

is it a "family" type place, as in we are a family. yeah, thats bs. 8 years in , they are taking advantage of you, and all your expereince and knowledge is worth more. lots more. you should set the bar at the total where you were with bonus. 69k. thats my salary, and i wont take less. i would ask for 75k. plus more time for vacay or tpto. and benefits, like 401k or some type of retirement matching. stop selling yourself short. the open market would start at that figure. retail sucks, the weekends and holidays you give up. the missed family events. my time is worth so much more. i left restaurants making 70k a year, all becasue i was working 55 or more hours per week. and getting no where. i work for 23.50 an hour now, mon through friday, 8 to 5. i gave up a ton of money, but i am 100x better off.

Can you? Yes.

Is it a good idea? There isn't enough info here about your budget, how in tune you are with your real expenses and the gap you need to cover, the duration of the gap and if there are dependents.

Taking care of your mental health is incredibly important, but so is being able to have expenses associated with food clothing shelter and transportation covered.

Be sure that the credit union has your correct address if you've moved at all.

If a car is $20,000 and you put down $4,000, then your loan is for $16,000. There's no "credit against the loan."

This is what I thought; it's not new but the news says these crimes are on the rise.

Everybody talks about making avoiding mailing checks, not using the big blue mail boxes, etc. but none of the stories I have seen mention anything about how to ensure the bank refunds your money they fraudulently gave away.

Who the hell is using personal checks anymore and mailing them?

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That's not how it typically works. Your major stuff should be reported to all of them.

I would look into a personal loan to pay off the non running car and keep your house before you consider a new loan for a car.

>The debt doesn't 'expire' if it's being serviced through payments.

Yes it does. It's called a partial pay installment agreement. Installment agreements don't suspend the statute.

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this. For most of our generation's adult life these options were not great. there was a short period around 2017? when HYSA started coming back to life, but it was short lived.

now rates are the highest we have ever seen (in our short lives) so ya, CDs and Bonds/Bills are back in the discussion.

What makes you think you'll be able to refinance it later on if the only loan you can get now is 10.74% ?

Don’t do it. All it takes is one of your friends dropping out and defaulting and you’re in trouble.

Maybe I am is there anyway once I get the paperwork I can block out personnel information and ya can show me where I’m misunderstanding

While the interest rate on the LOC is high, you have a significant life event coming (congrats about that!) and that has to factor in here.

If it were me, I would absolutely pay off the credit card today to stop some of the bleeding. I'd keep a chuck of the savings in place for emergencies and just in case before your child arrives.

Then, when you have your child home and things are settled, your budget is known etc. then you can make adjustments you are comfortable with and perhaps run at the debt again. You've got this.

As you look to pay down debt, dont forget to keep the car payment on the list too. The sooner you are without high interest debt, the better off you are.

Best wishes to your growing family, wishing you health, peace and prosperity!

How could it affect immigration status? I didn't know it could affect my immigration status.

Not by the owner of the account though. That is part of what I am curious about I guess, since checks have a ton of anti-fraud features specifically to prevent this kind of thing. The bank should be able to tell the check was modified.

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>So now what should I do with all this extra disposable income i’ll have moving forward?

I'd say try out a new perspective: no income is "disposable", it just gets different jobs of varying importance. As a responsible adult, you get to set your own priorities. Though there are guidelines to help out.

The wiki has its Prime directive that gives a good roadmap. The top part of the flowchart there sets you up with a good financial foundation:

• Set up a budget where you plan your outgoing money to be <= your incoming money. This will likely take some time to nail down, especially as things shift while you progress through the next steps.
• As part of that budget, you allocate income to your mandatory expenses (rent, transportation, minimum debt payments)
• Contribute enough to your employer's retirement plan (if any) to maximize the amount of match (if any) you can get from them.
• Pay off high-interest debts (especially credit card balances) as fast as your income allows
• Build an emergency fund to protect you against unexpected events
• Save 15% of your income towards your eventual retirement.

Once you've nailed down those half-dozen things, you have a bit of flexibility on how to move forward. You can (within your budget) expand your lifestyle. You can save for a big future purchase (new car, first home). You can aim for early retirement. Or any mix of those that matches your goals / values.

2017 nissan altima sv

You're right, I do have to specify.

Congratulations, it has to feel good to get a $30k raise on top of what you are making now.

I agree with all the advice you've gotten, but as someone 10 years older than you with a wife and kids I would advise that you take some (not all) of that raise and set it aside for something special for you. I got a promotion last year with a healthy bonus so I got courtside tickets to a basketball game for me and my dad. Whatever it is, I would suggest being financially responsible with 80-90% of the bump up and doing something for you with the rest

I highly doubt you got robbed, you are likely not interpreting the numbers correctly. The sales contract will lay everything out.