@kkrish you have been very resourceful. What I like about everything you posted is all your suggestions are simple to follow and good habits to develop over long time
@Laks09 your advice is in line with what I read . I met a agent today . What I realized is whole life policy lot of money gets swallowed in administrative fees . Even if the returns are good after all the cuts we won’t get much . I’m planning to call term policy agent tomorrow . The only question I have is after end of term will money we paid disappears or can we use roll it over for next term . I remember back home we used to have lic and we used to get money back after term ends . Do we have some thing like that here ?
@mangaii hi, regarding investment options, you should look into ETFs/mutual funds if you aren't already. There are so many from which you can choose as per your risk appetite. In India, banks pay reasonable interest on savings account/RD/FD but here in US it's close to nil, which is why mutual funds/ETFs are good options to earn returns. You can control your spending by putting a portion away every month.
@Positivity02 you are much needed in this thread. Edited to add do you recommend getting a Robo advisor ? Any specific brokerage account to open ? @Laks09 for 529 plan do you recommend state plan ? if I have teenager should I invest in 529 or mutual fund ? I’m yet to open 529 plan .
i have a tjmaxx credit card where they give 10$ for TJX gift card for every 1000 points earned, spend money anywhere, and it will contribute to the 1000 points. So I have put all my monthly bills on to it now. I use that card quite a bit and use that rewards to purchase anything from TJmax or homegoods or marshalls. It will make you shop more, but I trained myself to spend the rewards money only, as it is a please shopping. I get great finds for DD from there. I have a credit card from Ulta, works the same way, but now I am using it lesser but still good if you want to spend some money on make up items or skin care. They have special offers to earn more points but it is once in a while. Points/rewards on both cards are good for a year.
Mangaii, You are on a roll. The discussion in this forum is great, but I recommend reading at least one or two books on personal financing. #1 Easy read would be Ramit Sethi's I will teach you to be rich ( which is targeted more for kids coming out of college, which means he goes into the basics of which bank account to have which credit cards to get and how to invest in the stock market etc ) #2 I am a big fan of Suze Orman. Any of her books are good as the overall philosophy will be the same ( everything from investing in college fund, term vs life insurance, different between bonds and bond funds, benefits and disadvantages of using target funds etc ) . But get the latest one and she will have the up to date information. Her latest book is called Ultimate Retirment Guide for 50+ Suze Orman I Pre-Order The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+ The site also has free audio of the first chapter.
Thanks @Thoughtful will definitely check it out. I'm wondering if I should change my job. All this time I have been sticking to this job for stability . But now things are little bit stable for other half I should probably bring in more money. I need to study at least 4 hours every day for next 3-4 months consistently to make a jump. I think I need to work on earning more as a process of saving. I'm going to use this thread to post my progress in personal growth too.
@Angela123 How many points/$ contribution for that 1000 points ? @heron when you say you shop for new card every 2 years do you freeze or close the existing one ?
5 points per $1 spent across tjx stores. 1 point per $1 spent everywhere else Mastercard® is accepted
In regular term life insurance, you don't get the money back. There is a "return of premium" term insurance in which you get back your money minus the fees when the policy expires. But this is usually about 25-30% more expensive, and not worth locking away that money there. If I may suggest - do some homework rather than talk with agent first. They can try to sell you things you may not need or want. Look up popular term life providers. Decide the coverage amount (this is usually an easy decision). Then, look into the duration. Keep in mind that as you grow older, at 40, 45, 50 going for a fresh term life policy at that age, the cost jumps. Based on the little research we did before buying a term life, try to buy before you hit 40, or at least 45. Take for 20 or 15 years. This should take care of mortgage, child's college expenses kind of big items.
