fallingedge- is your employer doing any sort of 401k/IRA deal with you?
maximize that match if its available. i hear you can borrow from your 401k in times of emergency and even for education without being penalized.
in addition to saving up, save up 3-6 months worth of living expenses before you jump into any sort of crazy investments. keep in mind that unless youre a total retard, expect yourself to find higher pay at least 3 years from now. otherwise you might be at the wrong job.
Thanks for the advice. I guess this would be easier if I gave a little bit more of my background.
After taxes and insurance, Iâll be pulling in just around 3k a month. Every place I have been lookin at, the cost of apartments are no less than $800. In reality, the $830 lease is a fucking steal considering the fact that I would get a washer and dryer in the apartment, covered parking (on a first come, first serve basis), light rail (monorail type of service) for entry into Denver. Iâve also seen smaller apartments that would cost more for a smaller area. Itâs been hit or miss really.
What really sucks is that even if I go 10-20 miles out, the cost of the apartments stay around the same. I would have to travel about 30ish miles out to start to find the lease dropping around 700ish (which was my initial goal). Even then, itâs still not the greatest bang for the buck.
I really donât think gas will cost me more than $100 due to the fact that work is about 5-10 minutes away (depending on traffic) from my complex and the mall/Target/Safeway are no further than 10 minutes away. If I ever want to hit up Denver, I can just use the light rail.
Food is the real variable for me. I really have no idea how much this would cost and I guess I will just figure it out when I get there. But I will definitely keep what you say in mind.
Car is all good for now. Donât have any monthly payments but in August, I will be giving my current vehicle to my sis and getting a new one. Need to start saving up for that.
In addition to that, I need to start to get some furniture. I really plan on just getting a cheap couch for now as I already have a bed. Just kinda slowly furnace my apartment. What I have also seen is the local furniture stores offer a âNo interest for 1 yearâ type of thing which I might do. Get the stuff I need but just pay it off throughout the year instead of all at once.
No significant other, but you never know 
Again, thanks for the advice and I will gladly take any more info you have to share.
My company offers a 401k and will match at a max of 6% after the first year. Dunno if this is a good idea or not, but I plan to not use the 401k for the first few months just to help me out. I really donât see me hurting myself because they arenât matching what I am investing so I can just save that money and put it to use when I really need it. Donât know if I can borrow from it without a penalty but I will definitely check that out.
As for the raise, I honestly expect a 4-5% increase after my first year. Gotta get that guap
Thanks for the advice.
I think there needs to be a transitional kid-to-grown up thread.
I have a question⌠why is it when u try and cash a check at a bank and theres no money in the acc why must you deposit it first� i had opened an account for my jury duty check and various other deposits⌠but they said i could cash the check and get the money
It doesnât matter what technicalities there are in whether or not income tax is a law.
Whenever you get your paycheck, you will always see the tax withholdings on it, so youâre still paying taxes whether you like it or not. Pretty much no one with a normal job has it to where there are absolutely no withholdings either. Filing income income taxes on April 15th is just a calculation whether or not you withheld too much or too little.
If you choose to be a rebel and âstand upâ against the IRS, you may end up fucking yourself anyway, because if it turns out when you normally file, and the filing reveals that you are OWED money and donât file, you wonât get the see that money. While that money is an interest free loan that the government kept from you througohut the year anyway, Iâm sure most people would like to have that money back.
^ thats the way i saw it also- an interest free loan for the government. my mom used to be a cpa and told me its just easier for the govt to owe you than for them to ask for it after april 15.
so that got me wondering- you CAN adjust your witholdings right so that you (hopefully) zero out for the year? this way the opportunity cost of that money is reaped by you instead of the govt.
You should contribute to your 401k even if it is in small amounts and not yet maximizing the match that your company gives you. You really should be maximizing the match as soon as you start and really 6% you will not really miss. You have to think that this is part of your salary because after all if you do not contribute to your 401k you are missing out on money that your company is giving you for nothing. If you donât contribute youâre just throwing away that free money.
You should definitely look up what you can borrow from your 401k for. For example, I could borrow off this one time to buy my first house and who in the hell would not want to do that. Borrowing from yourself will be much cheaper than borrowing from the bank.
Despite people saying oh no youâre only 22 you donât need to think about retirement it is ABSOLUTELY false. The magic of retirement investing is the compounding effect. The sooner you contribute the faster compounding will occur and you can sit back and watch your retirement accounts grow and grow.
edit: f_man yes you can indeed estimate what your withholdings should be; however, there are penalties for screwing it up as you might imagine. I pretty much always owe the govât because like you said I want the money instead of handing out interest free loans to the govât.
This is from the IRS website
If you did not pay enough tax, either through withholding or by making estimated tax payments, you will have underpaid your estimated tax and may have to pay a penalty.
You may understand this chapter better if you can refer to copies of your latest federal income tax returns.
No penalty. Generally, you will not have to pay a penalty for 2007 if any of the following situations apply.
The total of your withholding and estimated tax payments was at least as much as your 2006 tax (or 110% of your 2006 tax if your AGI was more than $150,000, $75,000 if your 2007 filing status is married filing separately), and you paid all required estimated tax payments on time.
The tax balance due on your return is no more than 10% of your total 2007 tax, and you paid all required estimated tax payments on time.
Your total 2007 tax (defined on page 49) minus your withholding is less than $1,000.
You did not have a tax liability for 2006.
You did not have any withholding taxes and your current year tax less any household employment taxes is less than $1,000.
Hope this all helps and sorry for the longish post.
fuck me in the ass (not literally)
My retirement funds are on a rollercoaster ride right now. Goes up and down⌠currently the rollercoaster came off the tracks and through a hole into the depths of hell!
The chances you take of playing the stock investment gameâŚ
I guess in theory if you find out a way to fill out the W4 form or some other kinds of things, you could potentially have zero withholdings throughout the year and you have better potential to maximize your earnings because you held on to all of it throughout the year, but a person who elects this had better take very good care of CASH FLOW and make sure that by April 15th, thereâs a lot of highly liquid money in the back because itâs going to be a huge check to write.
It would be nice to have all the extra money to potentially invest or something, but if a person invests too much to the point where, perhaps the market takes a dive, the investment is at a loss, or the money is locked up in something where the money cannot be accessed immediately, they could be fucked on tax day. Obviously a person living paycheck to paycheck should never elect to do this.
And to put another damper on things, whatever capital gains you make on the investments you make with the extra money you withheld from the government⌠dun dun dun⌠will STILL GET TAXED ANYWAY :mad: It all really evens out in the endâŚ
True but at the same time no matter how much research one does they still need some form of a direction and understand from people of experience. Besides how many times a person is going to do a post like this anyway
i agree :lol:
not true, you will get the money back if youâre audited and the govât owes you money
I need a snazzy title before I make it. How about:
Kid-life cancel into Grown-Up Super: The Transition Thread
I need a bag of money for small business investment. Early estimates point me to about a two million dollar bag. Iâll take 5 though since the govât will stab 2 mill off that.
Dammit wh o wants to rob a bank with me =P
:bluu:wtf
i wasnt audited and i got some money back. in fact, for the past 5 years i got money back and ive never been audited. are you some sort of ron paul supporter? i saw those guys protesting earlier and half of them were teenage boys. they all probably dont have jobs, so go figure why theyre misunderstood.
huh? he was saying if you donât file your taxes and the govât owes you money you wonât see it
but i said if you donât file your taxes and you get audited and it turns out the govât owes you money they will give it to you
Stumbled upon this website:
A consolidated site where you can look at almost all your bank accounts, CC accounts, investment sites in a one-stop shop. The site is in beta, so the way some transactions are labeled might scare you into thinking youâre getting hit with fradulent charges, but if your money matches, then itâs nothing to worry aboutâŚyou just gotta relabel them. Their site doesnât save any of your information other than your email address and your zip. Really cool!
I find this hard to believe, but maybe you are speaking from personal experience? I would think they would have no incentive to send out a check to a last known address where you may no longer live.
huh? if you get audited you have to fill out papers and answer questions to the IRS so theyâre not going to be sending a check to a random address
thereâs no penalty either and no not personally experience i just know how to read and use google
Arent you a gemâŚ
I missed the have to get audited part in your reply. Relax⌠I just dont want people getting the message that itâs a great idea not to file taxes like some of the people around here seem to be promoting.
^Donât let it bother you, itâs sigley. Iâd rather just ignore his little cute remarks and continue the actual good tips/convos/strats in this thread anyway. Anyone try out that site mastermind posted? Could be a neat little resource for some of us.