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A year ago my husband and I bought an acre of land as an investment, either to sell outright in a few years or build a home on. We live in a somewhat rural county just outside of Chicago. The neighborhood was actually supposed to be a custom build neighborhood but that didn't go anywhere with the ho...

Also, find a realtor that has closed a short sale. In my opinion that's not very good - yes they take a long time but people are buying them up like hot cakes. They take a long time but they're pretty cut and dry from the buyer's standpoint. I don't know where you are but here most homes are short s...

We're doing a SS and are on our second buyer. Our first buyer was a cash offer and dropped out because it was taking too long.

Expect 3-6 months - we listed in September, just now getting into the last leg of it.

"Depending on where you are, high-quality daycare for one child can cost $5000-$15,000 a year."

5k?

In the Chicago area expect $30k plus.

Divine intervention. It's no coincidence this happens around the time of a new pope. Hehe.

Hey, it's as good of a hypothesis as any

Living like that is easily doable, even for a family. It really just depends upon your cultural norms. In the US we are at the extreme end of the spectrum with the McMansions, etc. In many Asian and European countries, multiple generations live together in much smaller homes. It is not unusual for ...

I know I am not the only one with this problem and I look to any of you with more experience in this. I am a no-BS type of person. For the most part, I feel we reap what we sow and have the ability to change our lives if we want. I don't expect or want people to help me if I've hit a bump. I have a ...

27 year old lady here. I can't stand pleats but I've also never given it much thought. It could be argued they're more formal. I think they're ok with a suit. NO PLEATED SHORTS lol. Personally when I think of pleated pants I think of upper-crusters and golfers in 80s and 90s movies, a la Caddyshack ...

Groupon coupons for eating out. They are great for both high-end (we had a really good $34 for $75 meal for two last night) and for low end ($7 for a $14 lunch for two at the local Thai place) Keith. Try restaurants.com - this website frequently offers 80% off the certificate too. I've bought $25 g...

#1 - shop at Goodwill. Most of my spare time is spent thrifting, digging, picking. I have a blast doing it and I technically get paid to do it. I frequently find $5 items worth $80+ and sell them.

Some people have to learn things the hard way and some people never learn. Sounds like she has a fantasy prone personality. Give no advice unless asked, bare minimum then. Have you seen anything changes based on your advice? She's probably just looking for a shoulder to cry on - that gets old quick...

It doesn't look like this plan makes any sense. Perhaps it is a holdover from a plan where a discount was offered. Pride is actually one of the worst reasons to own a stock. It can lead people into very bad investing decisions. I should have put "pride" in quotes as I meant it in jest (al...

My company has an employee stock purchase program and I contacted the "plan administrator" to explain it to me. I want to know the benefit of purchasing it other than pride. I've been trying to get an answer to this for a few months and kept getting the runaround from them (because I'm not...

I've been giving some thought recently to getting IRAs started for my husband and me. Currently I have a Fidelity Target 2050 401k that is matched 50% up to 6%. I have $16k in there. My husband has a pension plan and has a Vanguard annuity (not sure of name or details off hand) that his union used t...

I often hear a lot of people from the older generations talk about how younger generations are too entitled, too lazy, etc. I think it is human nature to be nostalgic about one's own time and this is often goes hand in hand with thinking younger people just aren't as well rounded as older generatio...

Fotivator wrote:Everyone's different. I went from -50k to +40k from the age of 22 to 27. Just do what's right for you and screw everyone else.

Hahaha I had to call this out - love it.

I have to catch up, stopped reading at page two. I want to THANK YOU ALL for all of the replies, support and kind words. I feel so much better knowing that I am in the majority with my financial state, though I do not have the benefit of an MBA or Doctorate. :happy I wish I could "enjoy life mo...

I am going to break this out in a few ways, mostly for my own curiosity. Expenses only (Gas, food, coffee, etc) : <$100 for me. My husband smokes, buys coffee and buys breakfast and lunch (sometimes brings lunch though) and has a big appetite (labor intensive job). I don't know what he spends and it...

I would like to know where you were with savings and retirement in your late twenties and if you don't mind sharing, roughly what year that was (so I can compare economies). I feel very behind and stress about it a lot. I've always been very good with money but unfortunate things happen (biggest con...

Well my laptop is now working and only $60 later! I was quoted $300 for them to replace the hard drive (the girl said "obviously I suggest you do it on your own if you can") and though no data was salvaged they loaded the OSX back on for free the next day. All I had to pay for was the hard...

My guess is the initial fall damaged the hard drive (boot screen but not able to actually boot) and now the battery is completely dead (nothing happens when you turn it on). Do you have the power plugged in and still nothing happens? Power cord is lighting up? To my great surprise after being off f...

This is a question for the techies/IT/tinkerers. In 2007 I bought a new Macbook and it worked great. Two years ago it fell and does not work or turn on anymore and I haven't tried to do anything with it since then. When it first happened it wouldn't start up, but it would turn on, it just did the lo...

I think Illinois is pretty expensive... last time I checked, the LLC filing fee is $500. But, just to play devil's advocate, let me say that you may have more risk in your business than you realize. E.g., sales tax collection is an area that can really play havoc with a small retailer... if you don...

I'm optimistically hoping that the current generation being born, generation Z (born after 2000) will be the next great American generation. Their parents and grandparents were dealt harsh realities, with credit card debt and expensive college degrees in basket weaving that got them nowhere. I'm ho...

Selling vintage/antique cookware and house wares.

I live in Illinois so an LLC is probably expensive. With what I will be selling it won't be as crucial, like if I were selling food.

You may want to consider setting up an LLC to limit your liability for anything that happens. Nothing worse than a little side business ruining your actual business. Thanks for the tip - I've been thinking about that but wondering if it was overkill. I don't think it is, I'll have to look into what...

I'm starting up a small side business, nothing huge it will just be me. I'm going to get a separate checking and probaby a savings as well for business earnings/expenses. For something as small as my one-person operation, do I need or have to have a small business account? What's the difference? I'v...

I think young people are more worried about never recovering from graduating into the worst job market in 80 years. Wasted generation. This compounded with the increasing debt burden of tuition and the lack of proper financial education... I can only thank the random walk that lead me to: - enterin...

Dismall, hopeless and depressing. I was taught early on about investing, savings, stocks, mutual funds, all that jazz. That was in the 90s when everyone had money, dad was getting $30k bonuses and having a few hundred dollars in a savings account actually gave enough interest to impress an 8 year ol...

Sorry that's so hard to read, I added space and aligned everything but it didn't stay that way...

I was just looking through my 401k history since its inception and I noticed something bizarre and need it explained to me becuase I'm not quite sure what happened here and couldn't find much info online regarding the fund. Originally the fund was called "Fidelity Freedom 2050" and then ch...

My mom's cousin and her husband both mysteriously, at separate times, died unexpectedly in their sleep. Turned out it was from black mold. A friend of mine's mom was sick for a long time and they finally attributed it to black mold. My husband is a contractor and we've talked about flipping houses b...

Thank you pingo, that was the type of explanation I was hoping for :happy I feel much better now. I'm ok with the 2050 at the moment - we are hoping to expand our family in a year or two in which I will be home. Then I will change it over to something less risky. Right now I'm trying to accumulate a...

It looks like I can't pick and choose but I'm asking HR (and they probably will answer with a question or direct me to a document that I don't understand). I found this: Investment options are chosen by the Investment Committee. Currently (as of January 1, 2003) you may choose among twelve Fidelity ...

Real Estate Debt Funds 0.05% Fidelity Series Real Estate Income Fund - Class F 0.05% I assume the percentages are the portion of the fund allotted to these assets, not the expense ratios. If so, what possible impact could .05% of anything have on the return of the fund? I'm not a big fan of the Fid...

Are those what is contained in that fund? The more important question is what are the other choices in your 401K and the associated expense ratios. Yes, sorry, that is what is contained in the fund. I don't know if I have other choices in the 401k - poked around and the only choice I have is to swi...

I have learned so much since I joined, however there is so much more that I don't know or understand. I would like your feedback on my 401k. I recently increased my contributions and it is at 12%. My company matches 50% up to 6%, which is what I had my contribution at until recently. I've been worki...

I've heard of people exchanging money for rolls of quarters to find silver, then return the quarters to another bank (so as not to overload one bank with quarters). They seem to find enough to keep them happy.

Also wanted to add: I tried finding work while in school but couldn't get anything the first few years. I finally ended up writing for a newspaper that I think paid $12 for each published article lol. It covered a night out to the bars (quarter beers!) and made me a sort of celebrity, people would c...

I'm not a parent of a college-aged kid, but I did graduate college 6 years ago and I think my situation was really good though at the time I hated it. I did not acrue a penny of credit card debt. Keep in mind that I was already money-conscious at this time - for example I was one of only a few frien...

Thanks everyone. I think you're right, I think it should go toward debt too. Having fun with it is more "fun" of course. But paying down debt is more necessary.

Me: 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe, 80k, paid off in a few weeks. Love this car.
Husband: 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 aka the Money Black Hole, 160k, still about $5k left on the loan - unfortunately, needs it for work

I posted about this before but have a better idea of what to do with it. I have $1k in a useless money market. I would either use the $1k towards debt (our biggest financial goal over the next year is to pay off 75% of our debt - my car will be paid off in mere weeks (!), my school loans and credit ...

Also just looked at the HARP program and we would not qualify.

We don't wish to stay because of a number of reasons. To name just a few, my husband is making about 50% less than when he bought it. The industry he works in is partially reliant on a healthy real estate industry, so his pay won't improve any time soon. Riff raff is starting to move into the neighb...

He refinanced before we got married. I don't know anything about "free money" he's never said anything about getting money when he refinanced. I know nothing about refinancing and it sounded like all he did was get a lower interest rate. I will look into that joint money thing, but the law...

Thanks everyone for the responses! I have a lawyer and a real estate agent that I am working with. The mortgage is with Wells Fargo and I keep hearing the'yre pretty good about letting people go completely (sorry, don't know the terms). If they don't completely write off on it, which I'm not worried...

I would like to know the opinions out there on this situation. I'll tell you my POV after I explain. In 2007 my husband bought a new-construction townhome, got a 5/1ARM rate. Loan was for $215,000. The home is now worth no more than $90k so it has lost 60% or more of its value (our neighbors home is...

Five years ago I started working, put $1k into this money market at the suggestion of my parents' advisor. I was supposed to add more but never did (thankfully - I ended up only losing $2) This is a Class A share (don't know what that means exactly) I have $1014 in it now. It has had zero growth in ...

Hello - my husband and I are NOT expecting to "expand the family" for a few years but as my mom always says, "God laughs at those who make plans". I read an article on how in the 1940s a baby's delivery, hospital stay (of 4 to 5 days!), etc cost $70, or $728 in today's money. I n...