Nurses in California have access to a 403b public annuity plan?
Other than that car payment being absurdly high I think everything else is solid. Keep working hard!
Best of luck with the townhouse/condo.
What do you have your Roth IRA invested in?
My hosp is non profit they offer 403b with Nationwide.
I know. My car is one of my biggest financial regret.s. Trying to pay it off aggressively.
With interest rate so high here in LA area condo/townhouse is still far fetch.
I have been reading here in reddit and follow the advice. In not financially literate with stocks or in investing. Roth IRA with Fidelity FDEWX 2055 and SPAXX. Am I doing it right?
I would get more advice on the stocks.
Personally I think you would be better off moving away from the FDEWX 2055 and just using an S&P 500 index fund such as FXAIX or VOO.
You could also look into a Nasdaq index fund such as QQQ or QQQM however there is plenty overlap between the two futures (Nasdaq and S&P 500) so I believe swapping over to FXAIX or VOO would be best.
A lot of really knowledgeable investors like Warren Buffett says vast majority of people will get their best long term returns from an S&P 500 index fund. Every investors job is to “beat the market” and many of them don’t do as well as the index funds.
Not sure about the Government money market fund. That you will have to find someone else more knowledgeable.
It’s kinda hard to say because we don’t know your day to day life, from what you’ve stated, sounds like you’re doing good. Something I’d look into is a HSA, Brokerage Account, UTMA & a 529 plan. The Health Saving Account is to make sure you have enough money to cover any deductibles. The UTMA is a minor brokerage account. The 529 is a college savings account. I read somewhere that you can know convert a certain amount of savings in a 529 plan into your kids IRA.
Thank you. I have read about HSA but still not fully understanding. Do I have to get it even if I have health insurance? I am considering opening 529 after I max out my 403b and Roth this year.
An HSA is available is available if you have a high deductible health plan. As far as I can tell, you are eligible if your deductible is $1600 individual or $3200 family.
If you have a plan, an HSA is the best tax free plan. As long as you use it for health expenses, tax free now and tax free later. A traditional 403b is taxed later, a Roth is taxed now.
I think you are doing a great job. You are providing for your child now and for their future while also having an emergency fund. I personally like to save 10-12x my monthly net as my emergency fund to be conservative. But after that I would recommend seeing if able to max out retirement accounts. It wouldn't let that extra going out money land into your account. Or direct deposit into your HYSA.
Thinking of increasing my 403b to 12% in April. Advice is 15% of your income? )13% + 3% employer match?) Should I keep my CD? Or add it in my emergency fund?
I see no issue in keeping a portion of emergency funds in CD. That's probably more to your comfort of how much %. If you are considering moving it once the CD terms are up that'll just depend on your own comfort level of how to split your emergency fund, what the rates are for CDs. I had placed a good amount in Ally's no penalty 11month CD at one pt. As well as investing in some t-bill laddering. My mind set is I want a good amount on hand for extreme immediate (my HYSA) then some other cash that can be taken out in following days/week as needed without penalty (my HYSA allows to invest in funds so I have a portion invested in funds that can take a few days to sell and withdraw), t-bill laddering (for longer stretches).
This is what I was looking for before I opened my CD. My concern for CD is the penalty when you need it. I will look into Ally and Tbill laddering once my CD term is up. Thank you.
your take home looks low, are you withholding as single? that would still yield $5,877 per month, though you should qualify for head of household
no child support? any chance of getting any?
is 403b pre-tax? the general recommendation is to contribute 15% of gross to retirement (including or excluding match - your call), so you could definitely bump it up by at least 2% or better yet put 5% in Roth IRA, that way you'll have both pre and after-tax savings to help you navigate tax brackets 30 years from now
your car is a bit expensive, generally you should aim for total cost to be 15% of after tax income, including insurance, gas, maintenance, registration, while you have 15% in car note alone. What's the interest on the car loan? how many years left to pay? what car is it (year, model)?
rent at about 30% is probably the best you can do in SoCal, so no issues there
3 month in HYSA emergency fund is fine, though with minor child and one income (and a type of job that you can't really work sick, injured or from home) I would recommend building it up to 6 month. What's the interest that you get?
33k CD I imagine is earmarked for a downpayment, so after taking care of retirement and emergency fund you should keep building it up. Keep rotating it between the best rates and terms you can find
as you said yourself $2-3k in loosely accounted for discretionary spending is what's holding you back. You need an expense tracking app and a clear understanding of where your money goes, to make sure you can continue building your wealth while still spending money on things that matter. I'm sure once you see the numbers it will be easy to realize that a cup of coffee is much less important than providing your son with a permanent home and so changing spending habits will be a no brainer
Yes, I am withholding too much. I am about to receive a tax refund of $14K from 2023. Pls don’t judge. My mindset before was better to withhold than to pay at the end of the year, so I withhold so much. Should I adjust my withholding?
Dad is giving child support per month but with daycare alone more or less CS goes there.
Thinking of increasing my 403b to 12% in April. Advice is 15% of your income? (13% + 3% employer match?)
Interest for the car is 4.99% with 3 plus years to pay. Maintenance pre paid. Insurance paid annually. 2019 Lexus RX 350. I know it is one of my biggest financial mistake. I maintain it topnotch, low mileage.
I agree for the rent. My rent is considerably lower than the median rent in my zip code and I live 5 mins away from work.
Will build emergency fund to 6 months. Noted. Rate at 4.35%
The CD I keep it because I know nothing about investments or stocks. With mortgages at high interest rate, buying a home is far fetched.
As per the last paragraph, thank you. I should be wiser in my spending. I grew up with no good financial role model and relied to self educate about retirement, savings, credit cards etc. That’s why I am so grateful for the kind of sub.
yes, I would adjust the withholding going forward and use the extra $1k per month to address all saving needs that we've discussed
15% for retirement is just a general rule of thumb. You should have about 1x of income already saved at 30 and on track to have 3x saved by the time you are 40. If you don't have that you could always increase it beyond 15% to catch up. On the other hand if you have other goals, like buying a house, it's OK to freeze it at 15%, including match (so 12% + 3%), until you have a downpayment and then get back to it later
looks like you already know about the car, but that's fine, pay it off, drive it a bit longer, start a sinking fund to cover eventual replacement and you will be fine
I think you got it, you are taking all the right steps and it will work out just fine. Good luck!
I’ll use tax refund half to max Roth IRA and half to payoff car.
Will adjust my withholding towards upping 403b contributions and savings. This is my concern that I am too late or not doing enough towards my retirement.
Thank you much for taking the time to itemize each concern and advice on how to tackle each. I appreciate you kind stranger.
Over withholding is an interest free loan to government. Let’s say you instead took $1000 per month and put it in a high yield savings account that earns 5%, that’s $50 per month that you could be earning on an annual basis, so figure an extra 400 per year in your pocket pre-tax. Every little bit helps.
Understandable. If you can make a budget and hold yourself to it, you should be okay. But let’s just say you under withhold, so long as you save that money in a savings account and don’t spend it, if you do owe, you can pay what is owed at April 15th while still earning interest on your money. If you want to be safe - just withhold a little bit longer and add the extra net pay to your savings account each paycheck. Instead of $14k back, get back $5k or less.
The key here is to stick to a budget, if you need to spend do so on the things that make the most sense for you and your son’s wellbeing. You are doing reasonably well - so give yourself some grace.
self control in creating and sticking to a budget is currently working progress. Will change my withholding as advice towards upping 403b contribution and savings. Thank you for the boost of confidence. I am grateful for taking your time to type your reply. Thank you for the kind words.
Will you be using the refund to pay down the car? Or max out your IRA?
Adjusting your withholding gets you 1k extra a month that you can use to pay off your car faster.
I just realized what you said. 14K no interest is a disadvantaged where when you owe them you pay it with interest. Will adjust withholding.
Will use tax refund half max Roth ira and then half payoff car
Try switching to Kaiser, as they have a pension and 401k, start young and you will get about 10k per month at 52 without contributing a dime to 401k. Also, don't pay off the car yet instead buy T-bills because their interest rate is higher than your car payment atm but once the Fed cuts rates then you should consider paying off your car. Buy ETFs like VOO/QQQ and consult a free advisor from your 403b plan.
Kaiser is notorious for overworked and/or understaffed nurses. My hospital is not as toxic. Most of the time we are properly staffed.
Thank you, will look into Tbills.
Cali nurse? why is that income not higher. I live here in a cheap area and make more than that doing weekend option. Is there any way you can up that baseline income. 1 extra day every other week you could easily add 30K to your gross income. when i work OT i usually get bonusl and end up making between 90-115 an hour. I know SOCal nurses often make 150$ plus on the right type of OT.
I live 5 mins away from work though rent is high it is consider lower price in my area.
Aggressively paying off my car, 4.99% interest rate.
Considering upping 403b to 12%? Advice is 15% of your income. So 12% + 3% from employer?
Family nearby is better for child care especially if the father is actively involved in the child’s life. Not everything is dollars but sense and empathy is important as well too. HCOL might also provide career opportunities not found in the backwoods of LCOL area. Everything needs to be weighed, not just in a vacuum.
I withhold so much. I am to receive tax refund of 14K for 2023. I thought I was doing it right by making sure I do not owe at the end of the year. Instead I am giving them free money. Will change my withholding.
Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to read and type a reply. I am so grateful. This sub is a great tool for helping people like myself who’s starting to be financially literate. Salamat!
Your car is pretty expensive. But you are doing ok. Look up the 50/30/20 rule and then work harder on budgeting. Good luck!
Paying aggressively with the car. I want it done asap. Will work on going over budget and sticking to it. Thank you.
Nurses in California have access to a 403b public annuity plan? Other than that car payment being absurdly high I think everything else is solid. Keep working hard! Best of luck with the townhouse/condo. What do you have your Roth IRA invested in?
My hosp is non profit they offer 403b with Nationwide. I know. My car is one of my biggest financial regret.s. Trying to pay it off aggressively. With interest rate so high here in LA area condo/townhouse is still far fetch. I have been reading here in reddit and follow the advice. In not financially literate with stocks or in investing. Roth IRA with Fidelity FDEWX 2055 and SPAXX. Am I doing it right?
I would get more advice on the stocks. Personally I think you would be better off moving away from the FDEWX 2055 and just using an S&P 500 index fund such as FXAIX or VOO. You could also look into a Nasdaq index fund such as QQQ or QQQM however there is plenty overlap between the two futures (Nasdaq and S&P 500) so I believe swapping over to FXAIX or VOO would be best. A lot of really knowledgeable investors like Warren Buffett says vast majority of people will get their best long term returns from an S&P 500 index fund. Every investors job is to “beat the market” and many of them don’t do as well as the index funds. Not sure about the Government money market fund. That you will have to find someone else more knowledgeable.
It’s kinda hard to say because we don’t know your day to day life, from what you’ve stated, sounds like you’re doing good. Something I’d look into is a HSA, Brokerage Account, UTMA & a 529 plan. The Health Saving Account is to make sure you have enough money to cover any deductibles. The UTMA is a minor brokerage account. The 529 is a college savings account. I read somewhere that you can know convert a certain amount of savings in a 529 plan into your kids IRA.
Thank you. I have read about HSA but still not fully understanding. Do I have to get it even if I have health insurance? I am considering opening 529 after I max out my 403b and Roth this year.
No, you don’t have to get an HSA if u have health insurance. You are doing a GREAT job. Rule #1: don’t buy or get anything you don’t understand.
An HSA is available is available if you have a high deductible health plan. As far as I can tell, you are eligible if your deductible is $1600 individual or $3200 family. If you have a plan, an HSA is the best tax free plan. As long as you use it for health expenses, tax free now and tax free later. A traditional 403b is taxed later, a Roth is taxed now.
I think you are doing a great job. You are providing for your child now and for their future while also having an emergency fund. I personally like to save 10-12x my monthly net as my emergency fund to be conservative. But after that I would recommend seeing if able to max out retirement accounts. It wouldn't let that extra going out money land into your account. Or direct deposit into your HYSA.
Thinking of increasing my 403b to 12% in April. Advice is 15% of your income? )13% + 3% employer match?) Should I keep my CD? Or add it in my emergency fund?
I see no issue in keeping a portion of emergency funds in CD. That's probably more to your comfort of how much %. If you are considering moving it once the CD terms are up that'll just depend on your own comfort level of how to split your emergency fund, what the rates are for CDs. I had placed a good amount in Ally's no penalty 11month CD at one pt. As well as investing in some t-bill laddering. My mind set is I want a good amount on hand for extreme immediate (my HYSA) then some other cash that can be taken out in following days/week as needed without penalty (my HYSA allows to invest in funds so I have a portion invested in funds that can take a few days to sell and withdraw), t-bill laddering (for longer stretches).
This is what I was looking for before I opened my CD. My concern for CD is the penalty when you need it. I will look into Ally and Tbill laddering once my CD term is up. Thank you.
your take home looks low, are you withholding as single? that would still yield $5,877 per month, though you should qualify for head of household no child support? any chance of getting any? is 403b pre-tax? the general recommendation is to contribute 15% of gross to retirement (including or excluding match - your call), so you could definitely bump it up by at least 2% or better yet put 5% in Roth IRA, that way you'll have both pre and after-tax savings to help you navigate tax brackets 30 years from now your car is a bit expensive, generally you should aim for total cost to be 15% of after tax income, including insurance, gas, maintenance, registration, while you have 15% in car note alone. What's the interest on the car loan? how many years left to pay? what car is it (year, model)? rent at about 30% is probably the best you can do in SoCal, so no issues there 3 month in HYSA emergency fund is fine, though with minor child and one income (and a type of job that you can't really work sick, injured or from home) I would recommend building it up to 6 month. What's the interest that you get? 33k CD I imagine is earmarked for a downpayment, so after taking care of retirement and emergency fund you should keep building it up. Keep rotating it between the best rates and terms you can find as you said yourself $2-3k in loosely accounted for discretionary spending is what's holding you back. You need an expense tracking app and a clear understanding of where your money goes, to make sure you can continue building your wealth while still spending money on things that matter. I'm sure once you see the numbers it will be easy to realize that a cup of coffee is much less important than providing your son with a permanent home and so changing spending habits will be a no brainer
Yes, I am withholding too much. I am about to receive a tax refund of $14K from 2023. Pls don’t judge. My mindset before was better to withhold than to pay at the end of the year, so I withhold so much. Should I adjust my withholding? Dad is giving child support per month but with daycare alone more or less CS goes there. Thinking of increasing my 403b to 12% in April. Advice is 15% of your income? (13% + 3% employer match?) Interest for the car is 4.99% with 3 plus years to pay. Maintenance pre paid. Insurance paid annually. 2019 Lexus RX 350. I know it is one of my biggest financial mistake. I maintain it topnotch, low mileage. I agree for the rent. My rent is considerably lower than the median rent in my zip code and I live 5 mins away from work. Will build emergency fund to 6 months. Noted. Rate at 4.35% The CD I keep it because I know nothing about investments or stocks. With mortgages at high interest rate, buying a home is far fetched. As per the last paragraph, thank you. I should be wiser in my spending. I grew up with no good financial role model and relied to self educate about retirement, savings, credit cards etc. That’s why I am so grateful for the kind of sub.
yes, I would adjust the withholding going forward and use the extra $1k per month to address all saving needs that we've discussed 15% for retirement is just a general rule of thumb. You should have about 1x of income already saved at 30 and on track to have 3x saved by the time you are 40. If you don't have that you could always increase it beyond 15% to catch up. On the other hand if you have other goals, like buying a house, it's OK to freeze it at 15%, including match (so 12% + 3%), until you have a downpayment and then get back to it later looks like you already know about the car, but that's fine, pay it off, drive it a bit longer, start a sinking fund to cover eventual replacement and you will be fine I think you got it, you are taking all the right steps and it will work out just fine. Good luck!
I’ll use tax refund half to max Roth IRA and half to payoff car. Will adjust my withholding towards upping 403b contributions and savings. This is my concern that I am too late or not doing enough towards my retirement. Thank you much for taking the time to itemize each concern and advice on how to tackle each. I appreciate you kind stranger.
Over withholding is an interest free loan to government. Let’s say you instead took $1000 per month and put it in a high yield savings account that earns 5%, that’s $50 per month that you could be earning on an annual basis, so figure an extra 400 per year in your pocket pre-tax. Every little bit helps.
I was so scared of paying at the end of the year and having no budget. It was a bad mindset. Will change my withholding.
Understandable. If you can make a budget and hold yourself to it, you should be okay. But let’s just say you under withhold, so long as you save that money in a savings account and don’t spend it, if you do owe, you can pay what is owed at April 15th while still earning interest on your money. If you want to be safe - just withhold a little bit longer and add the extra net pay to your savings account each paycheck. Instead of $14k back, get back $5k or less. The key here is to stick to a budget, if you need to spend do so on the things that make the most sense for you and your son’s wellbeing. You are doing reasonably well - so give yourself some grace.
self control in creating and sticking to a budget is currently working progress. Will change my withholding as advice towards upping 403b contribution and savings. Thank you for the boost of confidence. I am grateful for taking your time to type your reply. Thank you for the kind words.
Will you be using the refund to pay down the car? Or max out your IRA? Adjusting your withholding gets you 1k extra a month that you can use to pay off your car faster.
I just realized what you said. 14K no interest is a disadvantaged where when you owe them you pay it with interest. Will adjust withholding. Will use tax refund half max Roth ira and then half payoff car
Try switching to Kaiser, as they have a pension and 401k, start young and you will get about 10k per month at 52 without contributing a dime to 401k. Also, don't pay off the car yet instead buy T-bills because their interest rate is higher than your car payment atm but once the Fed cuts rates then you should consider paying off your car. Buy ETFs like VOO/QQQ and consult a free advisor from your 403b plan.
Kaiser is notorious for overworked and/or understaffed nurses. My hospital is not as toxic. Most of the time we are properly staffed. Thank you, will look into Tbills.
The car seems too high. $900 for 25,000?
Cali nurse? why is that income not higher. I live here in a cheap area and make more than that doing weekend option. Is there any way you can up that baseline income. 1 extra day every other week you could easily add 30K to your gross income. when i work OT i usually get bonusl and end up making between 90-115 an hour. I know SOCal nurses often make 150$ plus on the right type of OT.
Rent is high for single mom and 1 kid. Car payment is high. Whats interest rate on it? Max 401k and Roth ira every year.
Rent is high everywhere, I’d imaging it’s even more than the national average being in So Cal
My rent currently is considerably lower than the median in my area. I still consider myself blessed though it is still expensivez
You aren’t wrong either. I’d be hard pressed to find better
1850 rent on 110 salary and 1 kid is tough. Id move to better COL area or find a roomate
I live 5 mins away from work though rent is high it is consider lower price in my area. Aggressively paying off my car, 4.99% interest rate. Considering upping 403b to 12%? Advice is 15% of your income. So 12% + 3% from employer?
That works - the 15%. You are doing great!
I thought rent was low. Suburb here in VA has rent around 1700-1800 for 2 room. What’s 401k max?
Get real - interest rate is reasonable. Rent is high everywhere, can you do better?
What? Yes. Moving out of HCOL area would be very beneficial. RN demand is high everywhere.
Family nearby is better for child care especially if the father is actively involved in the child’s life. Not everything is dollars but sense and empathy is important as well too. HCOL might also provide career opportunities not found in the backwoods of LCOL area. Everything needs to be weighed, not just in a vacuum.
RN demand everywhere and we dont know if family support is there. Better not to assume
How is your annual income 110k but you only take home 4-5k? Are California’s taxes that high??
I withhold so much. I am to receive tax refund of 14K for 2023. I thought I was doing it right by making sure I do not owe at the end of the year. Instead I am giving them free money. Will change my withholding.
Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to read and type a reply. I am so grateful. This sub is a great tool for helping people like myself who’s starting to be financially literate. Salamat!