It's a phone. They aren't going to negotiate price unless I buy in bulk, but I only need one.

not op but:

VTI/VTSAX has at least 2x lower Expense ratio and is older thus more "attractive"
Not saying its better just that's I why I picked it.

really you cannot go wrong with either

Pay off credit card debt. That could be 19% to 29% guaranteed rate depending on the interest rate they charge.

Find a collectible hobbie. Supposedly whatever you buy will increase in value.

This will relieve you of guilt when spending

Well, my hands are tied, because it's not like the devices are getting any cheaper... and the used market is also maintaining super high prices. So what do I do? I either pay cash, or leverage credit and at least get to keep my money making me income for a little while longer.

So buy tbills of less than 6mo. Easy, and no state income tax. Trade, fixed income, search, treasury, sort by YTM, depth of book, buy, done. YTM is your interest rate, as long as you hold until maturity.

It’s not that CK isn’t giving you an actual score (Vantage 3.0 is a real score), but majority of lenders don’t use vantage. Lenders typically lean towards FICO 8 or 9 and that’s what Experian give you.

Majority of people and myself uses the free Experian tier. General rule is to check your CS once a month.

I use Equifax because they give me a free FICO score. My auto loan is with Wells Fargo. They also give me an updated FICO score every month.

If you're planning to purchase this year, then you should put it in a HYSA. Any other reasonably safe option would tie up your money. Or expose it to risk for losses. Which you have no tolerance for, since you're planning to buy in the immediate future.

I very strongly believe every couple should talk to a lawyer to find out what the default state-written prenup says for their state so that you can accurately determine if a custom prenup might work better for your situation. Maybe it would, or maybe the default prenup is fine. Most people don't realize they're agreeing to a prenup one way or the other though. But you should fully understand the most important and far reaching financial legal document you'll ever sign in your entire life. You can just pay for an hour to understand the basics for your state, and if you decide to do a custom prenup then it'll be a few hundred more but then you both can feel safe knowing you're each protected. Sometimes there's some very surprising things in the default prenup, as I learned the hard way when I got divorced even though I never in a million years thought I'd ever get divorced. But shit happens sometimes.

So for things like the debt, in some states you'll become legally responsible for any future debt your spouse racks up. Spouse racks up $50k hidden credit card debt during the marriage? Well you're now legally responsible for $25k of that if you decide you can't deal with drowning in debt anymore even if none of it is in your name.

Anyways other than that, make sure you fill out the W4 for this year as if you were married because when you file your taxes next year you'll be considered married for the whole 2023 year. But also be aware that if you fill the W4 as "married" the form will by default assume only one of you is working. So you either need to allocate extra with holding (the calculator will walk you through it) or just select "single" to ensure you don't under withhold for 2023.

The biggest thing is just making sure you're on the same page about money. That you both (hopefully) prioritize saving and retirement and not spending frivolously. Because if one is a saver and one is a spender that's going to make something that should be quite easy (marriage) into something that is quite challenging.

What a lender will accept and what is actually doable are two different things.

I once had a 70,000 household income in HCOL. That is $5800 gross per month.

I borrowed $216,000 at 9 percent. That is $1700 per month. Taxes $250 / month. Insurance $100 / month (earth quake insurance required in those days)

2050 / 5800 = 35 percent debt to gross income.

No kids. No other debt.

The banks and realtors convinced me I could afford this.

5 months into ownership I realize I was being lied to. My cash in the bank account was declining each month and I realized I had 4 months left.

I hustled a new job that brought household gross to $7900 / month.

2050 / 7900 = 26 percent.

After that I everything was better.

Imagine if everyone did this? The US govt would see any revenue until Dec every year.

Recently appraised at $425k. Could comfortably see selling quickly for $400k (but who knows)

FMR is ~$2400 for the zipcode.

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Third question is a thinker...I think I'm willing to put in the work if it's what is best for my family. However I understand that I don't fully understand yet what the implications of having a new born will be.

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Marcus currently at 3.75% easy to open and manage. If you don't mind taking a couple more steps you could also look into brokerages and open a Money Market account. Edward Jones is currently above 4% on their Money Market Savings.

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Can we create a pop-up that appears if you’re detected writing a post about HYSA options that asks, “Have you looked at any of the five million other posts asking this exact same question in the last month?”

I am starting to slowly considering buying something and can see myself potentially doing the following:

1. Buying in the next 6 months
2. Buying in the next 12 months
3. Choosing to continue to rent and roll down payment into investment index funds

Any input about wealthfront? They claim to offer 4.05% apy currently.

I don’t wonder why it’s not good to be fair. I never questioned how well I cared for it. A car isn’t something I put much value into, I just wanted to know the most cost effective and safest option.

My husband and I (28) just passed over making an offer last month on a 3x1 1200 sq feet house ($364K- remodeled home and one of the lowest priced in our county) with no garage because with a $75K down (which would have required a 401K withdrawal) the payment at 20% down at 6.5% interest would have been $2,300 per month and like $400 in utilities and ou condo I bought pre-marraige runs us $1,200 total. We could not justify $1,500 more a month for 1 more bedroom and a small grass backyard.

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$2K rent is alot but would possibly be a smaller monthly increase than buying in this market.

Sure, there is a middle ground.

I wrote what I did in response to someone who said it's pointless to save beyond savings goals unless you can't think of anything else to do with the money.

I would say that you should save excess money unless you can think of something worthwhile to do with the money rather than basically spending it on whatever you can think of at the end of the month to get rid of it, because you'll probably come up with something worthwhile at some point in the future and wish you had some extra money.

That doesn't mean you need to obsess over what you have, constantly worry whether it's enough when those concerns are not objectively valid, or not spend any money at all. Just don't spend money to spend it because someone told you saving beyond what you can think of right at the moment is "pointless".

Given the person I was responding to said that "any other savings goals" in his list can include saving in general for literally anything you haven't even thought of yet, I would say he actually agrees with me.

Edit: Sorry about your dad.

Lots of great options already. Just avoid Citibank - they like to freeze you account and the refuse to return your money.

Yeah could be doable but you're going to really need to budget. Hopefully that's not 1000 before saving money. If it is you probably need to reevaluate the decision.

Thank you!