Start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics

I would contact whomever was the administrator (start with fidelity, they're the most popular). It may take some digging, but the accounts could been passed to a 3rd party clearinghouse. Also check with whoever did your payroll at those hobs (ADP, paychex, etc) to see if they have records, be it paystubs, withdrawal authorization forms you may have signed, or w2 forms from previous tax years. Any retirement withdrawals would be a line item sonce they came out pre tax, typically

iirc some states don't require pay stubs

You may need to find those old pay stubs...or you should be able to tell if there was tax deferred contributions from old W-2?

I don't know how much student loans you have left, but if your post tax pay is 6100 / month, I think this isn't a big deal. As long as you also have enough to max out your roth and at least match employer match at the very least, and have somewhat of an emergency fund, you seem good.

Thank you!

You should first ask the insurance seller for its "EOB" regarding this billing event. Any person or business that's owed money can use whatever legal means are available to to recover the money owed, and that includes the civil court system. But I wouldn't worry too much, or at all, over his vendor and its $250 demand.

Do you put it all in at once? You should spread it out throughout the year. Probably good to diversify even with funds. maybe 3-4

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OP, Roth limit for 2023 is going up to $6500 if you are below the income phase out, so you can put a tiny more in there if you like

A 0% HELOC can be like free shipping; they just up the product price to pay for it. Make sure the quote is competitive.

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I checked with insurance today and they don’t know why I’m being charged so they’re investigating. I also checked the insurance app and it just shows that I owed $50 and it was “paid”

This.

Don't do it too fast, or you'll end up doing it twice.

In the grand scheme of things, it's minor, but still...ugh.

Your 99.65 investment went up to 100.00 in 28 days.

That is a 0.351% increase in 28 days. To annualize it, multiply by 365.25 and divide by 28

Which comes out to 4.58%

You paid the co-pay, but had you already maxxed out your deductible for the year when you went to urgent care? If not, you still owe up to the deductible amount and that means you'd owe $250.

>What am I missing?
>
>Rent is $2500 and monthly expenses are ~$2600.

Nothing, you answered it right there. People pay off that much debt quickly by continuing to live the "poor grad/medical/law student" lifestyle they're accustomed to for an extra few years, and plowing everything towards their debt. It's easy to pay off $300k+ in loans if you take home $15k/month and live in a $1,000/month apartment, drive a paid off car, and eat cheap home cooked meals.

This isn't true, there are the IRS rules and the who maximizes most "rules".... Whoever gets to claim the child will also qualify as Head Of Household and could potentially qualify for Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). If you're willing to share your respective incomes here, I can explain which would benefit the most and why.

Now onto the IRS rules, whoever is providing a majority of the financial support for the child, should be claiming the child.

Losing EITC and HoH when getting married is another form of the "marriage penalty" for lower income earners.

You could. Some people prefer the dedicated retirement savings rather than the house-as-retirement savings but if you go into it understanding you need to sell the house to access the money I think that's a better way to approach it than the more common "but we won't have a house payment in retirement" strategy.

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Also married last year, yes you are qualified to file jointly, as it goes by your status as of December 31st 2022. You were married by then so your marital status should be listed as married whether you file jointly or not. You can file jointly or separately but your marital status must be listed as ‘married’.

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Here's how I look at it: there's a risk that OP is going to have to pay the school anyway, either to avoid collections or maybe even if they end up suing.

If your employer has already remitted the taxes to the IRS and FTB then they don't have that money and probably won't be able to help you.

Waiting until you file your tax return is absolutely an option, and it may be your only option.

When you get a new job, which I hope you do soon, you can adjust your W4 to account for the amount that was already withheld so you would have less withheld going forward for this year. I understand this doesn't help you right now, but I don't see any way to get around it until you file your tax returns.

You can expect more than a 3% return from your investments.

The number you're looking for to retire is 25x your expenses. Don't overcomplicate it by trying to estimate what things will cost by then. Inflation will have driven the price of everything up, but the return from your investements should far exceed the rate of inflation.

Maybe you're saving too much for the wrong things. If you don't have a healthy emergency fund, make this your top priority. Keep making your retirement contributions, but all other cash that would go into other buckets should go into this one instead.

It sounds like you have a lot of savings goals, so it may feel like your money is spread thin. Saving up for a down payment on a home will take some time, but other things like affording larger appliances may be getting in the way of your other goals. Maybe it's time to reassess your priorities and figure out when and which goals you want to achieve first, then do the math on how long it will take to get there.

Do you own your larger appliances? If not, don't worry about this goal yet until you near a point where you do (e.g. when you buy a house) since your landlord will take care of repairs and replacements for you. If you do own them, maintenance will come from your emergency fund. I wouldn't consider these things "long term" by any means, and for more expensive purchases like these you can always look to short-term financing in a pinch. For example, I've seen 0% interest rates on appliances if you pay them off within 12 months (YMMV).

I get the feeling that you like to plan for the future, which is good. However, it can reach a point of obsession once you start to realize how many inevitabilities there can be. Save yourself the mental burden by simply building a healthy emergency fund that you can turn to when things go south. Just focus on building it back up whenever you do.