smart1n

I borrow from my retirement accounts all the time and use the money to invest in Dividend Stocks in a Brokerage account . I plan to continue borrowing 50k after I pay off the loans for additional investments (ex. income property) The limit is 50K across accounts. There may be an exception for a Solo 401K, but you would have to research that. For me I don't plan on depending on my 403B for retirement (Direct investing is my preference and I am satisfied with the results so far) so after contributing the maximum required to borrow the 50K, I stopped investing in the plan. Make sure you have a contingency plan to pay the money back if job loss should occur.

Could have used this when I was in high school.

I would love to see one here.

SOOOO Very true! A lot of those large refunds are not due additional withholdings. I rather my current status, I rarely get a refund and if I do it is for very little. I am cool with that! See post 19. You actually can manipulate your withholding to account for these credits. In most cases, you will have an idea of your expected income and if you will have a child or not during the year. Some are fine with refunds, others hate the thought of the IRS earning interest on your money (@1% only about $30). Me personally, I don't want to pay more than I need to but also don't want a big refund check. Finding that happy medium is a challenge though. Don't forget about Ibonds. You can only buy 5000 a year via Treasury direct account electronically. You can buy an additional 5000 if you adjust your Federal Tax accordingly. Ibonds currently pay higher interest than most bank accounts, and you don't have to go through a bunch of hoops (debit transactions, etc) to get the rate. Many people over withhold on purpose for this reason also as it's the only way to obtain the paper version now.

I am more concerned about Sharebuilder than anything. I too, will do a wait and see. Still, I am not exactly thrilled. I love the company to the point that I bought a few shares for the heck of it. (Wished I had thought about that when I felt the same way about Netflix before they blew up)

New Rate for IBonds is now 4.6%. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/products/prod_ibonds_glance.htm Remember you have to hold IBonds for a minimum of 1 year.

Do you have a family member you can trust that is good with Money? For example, I am essentially my mothers financial planner. She is good about paying her bills but she overextended herself with credit. I have been working with her for probably 5 years now and she has eliminated almost 25,000 in debt and will soon be debt free. I will continue to work with her to make sure she stays that way. She calls me when she gets credit card offers, etc. And she knows not to accept any terms without letting me look at them. Could she do this herself, sure.. but like you she knows her limitations and she calls her dear daughter (me) for anything else. If you have a family member like that, most likely this is the least expensive measure (I don't charge her for my services )

Do both. My answer is making a lot of assumptions. As mentioned before confirm the type of auto loan that you have with the finance co. If you have a cash back credit card, save the earnings until you get a decent amount. Transfer the amount to an brokerage that does not require a minimum investment account. Research and purchase dividend stocks. Rinse and repeat. Set up the stocks so that u are reinvesting the dividends. Let these compound and accumulate. Start with dividend stocks under 15.00 that have been paying dividends for at least 5 years consistently. If your receiving offers less than your current rate (considering the transfer fees). Transfer the portion of the auto balance that you are absolutely sure you can pay off in the specified time frame in the offer. Rinse and Repeat until the balance is gone. When our done, you have created a small bit of dividend income without actually occurring any cost other than what you would have charged normally that you can let compound or use it for other investments, generate savings, etc.

You may never get this opportunity again. The chance to pay your debt and save for a house will always be there if you have a job. Life is too short. Get the hell out of here and post pictures when you return.

First all markets are manipulated, some exchanges more so than others. If you don't believe that, than I have some prime real estate in Detroit I would love to sell you. Second, I invest where there is an opportunity for me to make money (which I have). I don't care what exchange it is, as you get into the penny stocks you just have to be more careful as the scams are just more obvious and there are very few "real" companies. I retract my statement about Yahoo message boards. Not all are bad (I hate generalities myself). But some are not the best. I wish yahoo would do more to filter some of the posts that are irrelevant to the discussion or have no value like "This is going to double in a year". I have seen that on non-penny stock boards as well.

Bree, I would head over to the Business Forum. There is gobs of info on there. As for LLC info, I would look for the commerce site in your state, the IRS for laws. For general info check out Garrett Sutton's blog on his website. He is an asset protection attorney, and I like his articles on the subject.

I would love for use to have one here honestly. Maybe not in the Money Management forum, but possibly a sub-forum here or under the General Discussion Board. I detest the Yahoo Finance boards, to many silly people insulting each other all day or pumping/dumping stocks. If I wanted that, I could watch C-SPAN and Jim Cramer. From the looks of it so far I like investor village. The Fat wallet finance forum has 1 long massive thread on stocks if you can't sleep at night. I have yet to find a place myself so I frequent all of the above as a lurker for now. Bumping this post as I am also interested in the responses.

Have them open a 529 (if they don't have one already) and put the funds in that. Alternatively you can just pay some of their costs directly up the amount you were going to spend. (Put it on a credit card and pay it off with cash).

I'll replace mine, when there is no more duct tape left, and I can no longer put some Robitussin on it. My Rodeo has become a member of the family almost like a pet. So many memories in that car. I know it sounds sick considering its jut an object, but I am going to really cry the day I put her down. I'm saving up the cash now preparing or the inevitable, I hope she can last until then.

My answer depends on 2 things: 1)her job is stable 2) She isn't a debt "junkie" or was and is now reformed. I would roll the 401k into the a 401k at her job where she works currently (I am assuming there is one available). I would take a loan for the 7,000 and pay off the auto loan. She will save at least 7% I would have her take the difference between what she is paying now with the auto loan and the 401K , split it and put part of it in a saving account for emergencies and the other part towards the credit card. Whatever raises she gets should be split in 4: credit card debt, emergency fund, Roth IRA contribution, general savings Once she has paid the auto loan off, I would take out a second 401k loan for the remainder of the credit card debt and repeat the process as defined before. Once she if finished paying both off, split the difference as defined above. This will help her 1) pay the loans off with a lower interest rate 2)force her to give the money back to her 401k with at least an additional 4.5% in interest 3)Keep the 401k intact 4)Increase her contributions to the 401k 5)Start an Roth IRA, and generate an emergency fund, and savings account from the "bill" money. I had bad credit and high interest rate loans and did something similar. I was able to pay off my debt much faster and save more because of it. I know max out my 401K and Roth every year, my credit score is in the 800's any my net worth is very positive. (no house or car included in my calculations)