There's usually local services that provide free assistance/advice from certified tax preparers. You might want to check with them and see what they have to say

Since you’ve claimed him, his taxes start at a lower level. He needs to file.

If he has no tax liability anyway, (e.g. he made less than the standard deduction of 12,950) then there's no requirement to file. However, if he had any federal income tax withheld from his paycheck, it makes sense to file to get that money back. However, instead of paying turbotax, use something free like freetaxusa.com

But you're saying that the tax screen showed he does owe taxes. Maybe a 1099, and he owes some FICA taxes?

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Depends heavily on your model of expected lifetime earnings, compared to your age.

The answer will be very different for each of the following people:

• Someone in their 7th year of a trades career after two years of trade school/apprenticeships, who expect to be able to earn about twice their current income by the time they retire at 60.
• Someone in their 5th year of a white collar career, who is coming up on finally paying off their undergraduate student loans, and expects to climb the corporate ladder to where they're making 3-4 times what they're currently making today.
• Someone in their second year of medical residency, who has 6 figures in student loan debt, and only makes about $60k now, but expects to be making an inflation adjusted $250k-400k per year for most of the next 40 years.

I would really like to avoid stopping my 401 contribution. But yes I agree it's an option at the end if I don't want the addtl stress.

And yes, currently plan is throwing the 1k/mo at this until it goes down. I am also actively looking at cutting more to throw at the CCs. Bettering myself is an active process...

Why was he going to owe money?

Was he self employed?

Did he have unearned income?

If he is below the filing requirement he essentially can’t owe, so there’s something going on

Would really need to see a full budget breakdown in order to say if there might be better options for you. You only mention a $1500 rent and $1000 payment towards cards. Your monthly net income is likely in the ballpark of $7200/month, depending on taxes/insurance/etc. If that's the case, where is the remaining $4700 or so going?

Thread from yesterday;

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https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/11cvu27/how_much_should_you_have_in_retirement_at_age_30/

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Imo, if you want to buy a home and are just sitting on a lump of cash, a high yield savings would be good. You’ll still have access to withdraw if needed (think it’s like 6 per month)

My man, if the 0% interest rates on cards thign was working, you would not still have all that CC debt! Getting new cards is just delayign hte invetible. Pay off your debts and do it without losing from your 401k.

Get a second job or something.

To say you are bad with money while making >$100k and still have debt (besides a mortgage) is an underestimate.

Do yourself a reality check and you’ll see much of your spending aren’t really necessities. The only thing I can see that makes sense is if you have to pay child support and alimony.

My advice is do one more roll to another card and just shift all your income that you can to pay this off.

I am an analyst. I am not responsible for managing people's money directly which is the Managing Member's role.

You said you manage a fund? How can you manage other people’s money and not know what to do with your own?

Okay, I’ll try the best to dig through my bank statements and estimate some things. Appreciate your help!

Uh make a monthly budget and cut out anything that's not essential. Cut out any luxuries. Maybe rent a cheaper place.

The savings goes to paying down the debts.

You dont deserve any of those luxuries now because you already enjoyed $20k of them over the last several years.

Take whatever rate you can get, but really you need to get serious on paying them down. You can do it.

You clearly suck managing debt and credit so your best move is to create a budget for yourself, pause your 401k for a few months and do whatever you freaking can to pay down the debt.

I think you would also be able to factor in "business costs" to yourself. Driving to/from thrift shops, shipping charges, taxes/fees, etc.

10k this year, the 6yrs prior I was doing 100% contribution (18k -> 19k -> 20k, etc. as the years progressed). So my 401 is doing OK with roughly 180k in the account.

Yeah, I agree I am still bad with money. But I was way worse a few years ago so I'm trying to look at the current turnaround and have made major progress.

Have you thought about a Health Savings Account or crowdfunding?

Sounds like you know your options (pay the new larger payment of new escrow+mortgage+shortage or come up with the $7700 shortage and pay the somewhat smaller new escrow+mortgage payment monthly).

If it were me, I wouldn't take out an interest bearing loan to pay off the shortage when they'll amortize the amount over the next 12 months interest free, unless you don't have the cashflow to cover that monthly payment. If that's the case, I'm not so sure you can comfortably afford to take out a personal loan to cover it, either. What does your total budget look like? Maybe the new car is the larger issue here? Also, is this a new construction, or have you otherwise verified that the $7700 shortage is accurate?

The better option is to go over your budget and find more money to throw at the cards until the debt is gone. One more transfer can buy time but you need to use the time well.

If you absolutely have to stop contributing to 401k to pay this, that’s an option, but seriously figure out your money situation. Even in SF >100k should let you pay off your debts, and 1k per month should still mean it’s gone in under two years even if you do nothing else.

Don't mistake the situation, you still are bad with money if you make $125k (plus whatever your wife makes) and you are scrambling trying to pay this off by rolling 0% offers. This is a valid strategy, but, it seems like you would be better served dedicating income to pay this off, or at least have that amount on the side earning 5% ready to pay off whenever you want, but if you're only putting 10k into your 401k, it doesn't seem like you've prepared to pay this off at all, ever. Dangerous

Calculate out the balance transfer fee as an APR. It'll probably work out to roughly 3% fee = 8% APR or something like that. Cheaper than a 20% loan.

So if you have 2x 10k balances, and you reduced your 401k contribution by $10k a year that means you are on track to tackle half the debt this year, and with 0% sure you are paying a fee but the majority of your payment goes to the balance. Sounds good, you are on the right track. Sometimes it's best to look at the big picture.