That is too close for comfort in my opinion to live on one income. Future expenses to consider: large unexpected medical bill, therapy expenses, child extracurricular or field trip, savings for kids college and braces, new vehicle expenses when current cars get old, major home repair or renovation. You would be in a better situation to maintain 2 incomes while hiring a housekeeper or part time nanny to help with the kids.

You may find these links helpful:

• US Treasury Savings Bonds
• "How to handle $"

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I will look into what you said about getting welfare- not something I would have thought of on my own.

Thanks a bunch!

You are this close to being sued for unpaid debts. Your credit score is the last of your concerns.

>Will my credit score improve after taking it (eliminating the CC debt) or will it ruin it more with this loan I'd be taking out?

If you've defaulted on $6k of credit card debt and are about to get sued, you may not even qualify for a loan and your score is likely a ways away from improving, so its not really a consideration

This is a good reminder to not put two questions in a post - one where the right answer is 'No' and another where the right answer is 'Yes.'

Also a good reminder *for ME* to read the entire post.

I was so confused for a moment.

Edit: In hindsight it may not be obvious that I agree with u/Stock-Freedom but due to the duality of OPs questions I initially took a double take at this response. I thought he was responding to the question in the title, "Is it an issue to keep investing in VTSAX each year?" to which the answer 'Yep.' was confusing.

You don’t “save” money. Example 450,000 home at @6.7% would be 2303 with 20% down. You will be paying around 23k in interest payments a year. There is a cap of 10k reduction due to the salt tax rule, so that would assume, your income would go from 600000 to 590000, saving you a ~ $3,700 plus minus a few hundred in tax liability. Rough estimation, but your spending 23k in order to save ~ 4K.

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• Credit Building
• Credit Reports
• Credit Scores
• Credit Cards

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You’re welcome! There are no advantages of maxing it all at once other than “you can invest your money into the market quicker so your money spends more time invested”.

With a HSA, your employer match does not depend on your contribution meaning you always receive the match whether you contribute or not, so that is not an issue here.

I would advise to contribute to your HSA on a normal per paycheck schedule in case you leave your employer mid-year and decide not to go with a HSA plan with your new employer, this may cause pro-rated contribution issues and having to take some contributions out and stuff.

I'm curious to see others thoughts on this as this is what I'm doing too. To me it's already diversified. If there's a US meltdown in the future, I fail to see how International will do better. The world is so tied to US companies as of now. Over the past 100 years or something, stocks have went down 25% of the years and up 75% of years. My feeling is worst case once I retire or want to retire, if we're in a situation like we were this past year, I could cut spending and get a job as a Walmart greeter or whatever to get a little extra income to not tap into investments for that down period more than necessary. Interested to see what other say on this.

I hate reading this, it reminds me of things I saw friends go through in the aftermath of 2008. It's good he's got his son backing him up. Watch out for his lifestyle, drinking not going out, doctors prescribing painkillers.

Dispute with your bank. They'll cancel the card for you in the process. Lock the new card.

Fraud prevention tip: Keep your debit card locked on your bank app unless you're actively using it at an ATM.

>Other than raising a dispute and canceling my card, is there anything else I should do?

Nope

>I'm trying to figure out how my card info got out, and I'm coming up empty.

You won't. I've had fraud on cards that had never left the envelope they came in.

>I don't have high hopes of getting my money back since it was on my debit card.

Why? Debit cards have Reg E protections.

>Any advice on how to handle that?

You'll be refunded so don't fret

I always lock my debit cards until I need it at the ATM. Mobile apps make it super easy to lock and unlock within seconds.

I would say move out with a roommate so your rent can be sub $1,400/month and you can still add generously to your savings for a future real estate purchase in SoCal or somewhere else.

OP has a state pension, I'd think staying 100% VTSAX would be fine with that safety net in place.

He's been paying $300 a month the entire time with the total beiny roughly 80k over the years. He does all the home repairs and improvement work around the house using his own money. They built an additional garage addition on the house using both their money and a lot of his labor

True , but isn't that what wealth building is 😅

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Studies have shown that higher outcomes seen for kids at private schools practically disappear when you control for socioeconomics.

No loan for $30k, that's pure income. The loan was for $6500 to maintain liquidity so I wouldn't have to pull cash from less liquid sources.

Most retirement plans don't let you move them to a personal IRA (roll over) until after a couple of pay cycles. This gives any laggard paperwork time to filter through the system and your real total for the account has settled down. Additionally, some investment types don't translate well, so you might want to 'go to cash' in the 401k a week before you do roll it over (perhaps something like a IRA with Vanguard or Fidelity or Schwab... just thinking of decent choices) and you have contacted both the destination company and the current trustee to find out procedures, expected fees and such.

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• to spend "X" to save "Y" comes down to you spending alot of "X" to save a small "Y"

Right, technically it's when you don't yet own the home that you're getting a tax benefit, if any.