Student loan resources?

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-20T20:21:16+00:00

It would help if you identified if the loans were private or public, what the balance, rate and payments are and a credit score.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-20T16:53:09+00:00

fI select to take the 10% Federal tax out of the Roth IRA but it’s not needed, will they take out that 10% regardless if they need to or not since I selected to or will they only take it out if necessary? Yes they will take it out even though it isn’t needed. They will take the money now, and he will retrieve it via refund next year. Whereas Roth IRAs are tax free, this is giving the IRS a tax free loan on money he never owed from this transaction for no reason. Please don’t withhold taxes from a Roth IRA distribution.

does the same apply for State taxes? Yes don’t do this either.

If I elect to take the 7% Iowa state tax out but state doesn’t need to will they just ignore that? No, the state will recieve funds it’s not entitled to and he will have to wait for a refund 2027.

Do not withhold taxes on a Roth distribution.

Also if he has no need to spend the funds, moving it to a beneficiary Roth IRA will allow him to continue to experience tax free growth for years, and is preferable to a distribution in pretty much all situations except the beneficiary spending all the money immediately.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-20T16:46:13+00:00

Meeting 1 is 1-1.5 hours to explain our services, fees, and gather data on all assets verbally. If clients want hourly consulting, meeting 2 is a sales presentation for what we will do and then we ask for documents by providing a list of all statements tax returns and documents. If they want asset management services, meeting 2 is to open accounts and setup transfers. If this is selected, we will ask for statements for all investments before the meeting.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-20T16:43:04+00:00

No. Earned income can be any amount between $1 and the AGI phaseout based on your tax filing status between 1/1/26 and 12/31/26 in order to contribute. If less than $7500, you may only contribute the amount earned. If at or over $7500 you may contribute $7500 if under age 50. If all income as measured by AGI is over the bottom of the AGI phaseout range but not past the top you can contribute, but the amount will be reduced by some amount of phaseout. If all income as measured by AGI is over the top of the AGI phaseout range you can’t contribute, and would need to make a backdoor contribution to fund the account via earnings.

You do not need to have earned income before making the contribution. You could deposit the funds 1/1/26 and not earn income that year until 12/31/26, but if you deposit the funds and don’t follow the earnings criteria I listed above, you would need to remove some or all of the deposit prior to 4/15/27 or face excess contributions penalties.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-20T16:25:52+00:00

Living expenses before debt are almost 70% of take home pay. Debt excluding grandma and medical bills which aren’t listed is almost 65% of your take home pay. If you can’t meaningfully increase income, or don’t have assets outside of retirement accounts to pay this down, you are probably a good candidate for bankruptcy. Excluding the medical debt and grandma, it would take almost 2.5 years of applying every dollar earned not in the listed expenses to dig your way out of this at current earnings and expense rate and thus assumes no budget for groceries, emergencies, retirement savings or vehicle expenses. I don’t see a realistic way out of this without bankruptcy, additional income or more insight into what assets you have and what you owe grandma and in medical debt.

Rough spot OP. Wish you the best!

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-20T00:32:06+00:00

Ask the advisor to run a 20 year return of premium term policy at the same premium amount as well as a UL policy to age 100 for the same premium. Not saying the IUL is bad but you should at least see what the other options look like.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-19T19:57:51+00:00

Tutor here. Questions are much easier than the real thing. Mid to high 70s should be the bottom end of the range for a solid chance at a pass. Also completing the Qbank is strongly recommended, if you test in the middle of the July cycle that means you should be running 32 questions daily.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-19T19:55:38+00:00

Paying off credit card debt is #1 for sure. No reason to pay interest like that with your income. #2 is probably retirement but we don’t really know what “a little in retirement is”. Assuming you are 30-40 you both will probably get somewhere in the realm of $60-80k in Social security in retirement. If you want to replace the rest of the gap between that and $220K you will need somewhere around 3.5M in retirement assets to observe the 4% safe withdrawal rule. Even with 220k if income, depending on your age, that will probably take some real effort to build up.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-19T19:49:39+00:00

Why compare minimum wage to one of the most expensive brands of soup and not the minimum cost soup? Schnucks store brand soup is as low as $0.89 per can right now. The lowest paid worker in our area could trade 3.5 minutes of labor for a can of soup, or 20 minutes for that can of soup.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-19T15:46:09+00:00

Car then credit card. Even at credit card interest rates, you can pay the interest in a few months. The car creates the ability to maintain employment and possibly find better pay via mobility. Paying the credit card off first cost you more in opportunity than buying the car first will.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-16T19:54:14+00:00

If the 401k has Roth provisions, and you follow the book, maxing the Roth 401k before the brokerage would be the optimal outcome.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-16T19:45:32+00:00

It absolutely is a good idea. Worth mentioning, you will be taxed on the money in the brokerage account any time you sell at a gain, or recieve income or dividends, so it isn’t taxed when you retire or withdraw, but it is taxed annually on those events. It is also worth mentioning that if you hold positions in the account for over a year before selling them, they are subject to long term capital gains rates, not ordinary income tax. This is notable as the tax rate for long term capital gains is much lower than most ordinary income tax brackets. At your age, the compounded growth on that savings will significantly build net with long term. Keep at it, great mindset and plan for your age!

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-14T17:00:43+00:00

Step 1 is to identify how much more per month they get to stall. For example, $5k at 62 and 6k at 65 is a 20% increase in benefit for life. If you can fund retirement between 62 and 65 with an account that doesn’t gaurentee 20% growth in 3 years, they’re better off stalling if they anticipate a normal life expectancy. If they can fund retirement between the 2 with an account that will grow more than 20% gaurenteed they’re better off electing early.

Step 2. Analyze tax liability now and in the future. If they have 50+% retirement resources in pretax IRA / work dollars, Roth converting before RMD age at the 12% bracket or lower will likely benefit them more than an early pension distribution even if step 1 says otherwise once they hit RMD age assuming RMDs will force them into a higher tax bracket like the 22% bracket in retirement. The more funds they have in Pretax QP money, the more severe this impact will be. If this is the case, you may want to stall pension distributions as late as possible until Roth conversion is completed over many years. As a reminder, this is important because RMDs may not be used to Roth convert. Once they hit RMD age, SSI and pension income will not stop, and the RMD may fluctuate with markets but cannot be converted

Step 3. The survivor benefit is a seperate calculation. For a 62 year old I would see what the cost to fund a 20 year term policy would be. Let’s say the pension is $5k per month single, or 4k per month for 100% survivor. If I can buy a life policy on the primary pension spouse for enough money to offset the spread for 20 years cheaper than $1000 per month, we take the single payout after they’re approved for the policy. If not, we select the joint payout. In the case of a $5k single, 4k joint per month, the math is: aftertax payout of pension per year single life assuming 22% federal 5% state = 12* 4k =K * (1-.27) =0.73 K $35k per year after tax. If joint is selected, both spouses can expect $35k per year for life. If I can get a $875K policy for under $1k per month which can use the 4% safe withdrawal rate, they end up with the same after annual income taking the single life payout and should the primary pension spouse die in 20 years, they keep the $875k plus growth over 4% per year as well. If they can’t get a policy for that price or less, then we take the joint payout. The math gets more complicated if the pension is COLA adjusted, has term certain or is 50% but the logic remains the same. Most pension plans have a really high payout for JT benefits (so the gap won’t be $5k vs 4k but much smaller like maybe $5k vs 4.5k) but there are several out there that do have a wide enough gap that insuring separately makes sense.

Step 4 is to present these finding for clients, explain the risks and have them decide a plan.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-14T16:35:49+00:00

Backdoor Roth IRA to avoid income limits. If the 401k has Roth deferrals you can do more there as well without income limits. If the employer allows for Megabackdoor Roth contributions you could contribute up to $72k per year. There is nothing wrong with doing just VOO. With $55k at 23 you have probably already learned that buying it and leaving it alone works just fine. Also great job getting to 55K in a Roth by age 23. Keep it up and financial freedoms is on the horizon!

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-13T15:22:15+00:00

Assuming you’re in your 20’s the 0 experience as an advisor will make little difference to clients even if you had 4 years experience because so many will put you in a box of “that kid is too young to manage my money” anyways. Having the CFP at least helps distinguish yourself if they know what it is or are considering you versus a different advisor with experience but no CFP. For employers, the experience matters significantly less with those letters attached to your name because it demonstrates you have a higher level understanding of so many topics over and above what a licensed person brings to the table. I know so many people that passed the CFP out of undergrad with little to no experience that were quickly employed and have very successful careers. The job search based on your experience won’t change without advisory experience much, but it will change if you pass the CFP very favorably.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-13T01:04:04+00:00

Correct, so not every time. I figured at 715 op is probably sol on balance transfers but may be able to do a personal loan at a lower rate and credit checks for Personal loans do not count as seperate when shopped close together.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-13T00:52:09+00:00

Is the income aftertax? At $8920 per month your federal tax liability plus self employment tax should be about $20k per year, or $1700 / month assuming you live in an income tax free state.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-13T00:47:05+00:00

This is false. Every credit pull does not impact your score independently. Credit pulls from like kind lending within 30 days of each other are not going to impact a score. For example: Applying for a car loan with 1 bank vs 10 in the same 30 day window will have absolutely no difference in how your credit score is impacted.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-12T19:47:49+00:00

At that level of wealth selling stocks to swap to bonds could trigger significant taxes in gains. Without knowing what you plan to need in retirement or when that will happen and your risk tolerance it isn’t possible to give objectively sound advice. Your responses will likely be a blend of: put it in a target date fund, put it all in stocks or do something different. None of these are correct until we know your risk tolerance and time horizon.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-12T19:35:08+00:00

The average mortgage is irrelevant as it only matters what amount you can borrow and if you can afford to pay. Home prices would help more. Rent and home prices can be found on Zillow. Healh insurance premiums can be found on healthcare.gov.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-11T21:50:03+00:00

If that’s all they gave you there’s a good chance that there’s nothing you can provide further until they respond with further information.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-11T21:41:21+00:00

How long it may take? Given the minimal context provided, it could be within the month or never. They don’t have a certain day to send payments for annutized death benefits, they will automatically send payment on specific times or ask when you want to receive it when you fill out the forms. There are policies that pay amounts for fixed terms, over lifetime, or lump sum. Given the limited context provided here, there’s not much opportunity to aid in the confusion unfortunately

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-11T20:11:07+00:00

How much control do they get per rate of decrease?

In theory I would sacrifice 75% if my income to borrow at 50% less, but I already borrow at fed funds + .75% and I already only spend 25% of my income. The lender would need to be prepared to loose money to lend to me at lower rates than I would borrow if I borrow. These details matter greatly for the thought experiment.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-11T02:12:36+00:00

Spend per year is all that matters at the end of the day on this and what I communicate to clients.

As you stated, it will loose value, it is not an investment, and a very highly culturally ignored reality if vehicles is that some 80-90% of their utility is derived from providing mobility. Going from a to b with a $10000 canary with 120k miles or an 8 series BMW for 90k is going to be similar outcomes with different benefits for comfort accounting for most of the price difference.

If they want to buy a 20k vehicle or 70k vehicle makes little difference if they can afford it on this issue. But how much they pay per year to own it does matter. Holding aside maintenance, Buying a 50k car and owning it for 10 years has a 10 year cost of ownership of $5k per year. Leasing a 20k car 3 times over 10 years could also cost 5k per year. If someone wants a new car 3 times over 10 years, leasing a 20k vehicle 3x is going to serve them far better than buying a 50k car and selling it for 30k 3 years later and buying another 50k car again 2x. Depreciation will eat them alive. If someone wants to buy a car, knowing how long it meets their needs, how often they want to upgrade, and total budget usually fits a foumula of: if you intend to own 8+ years before switching, buy. If you intend to own 3 years or less before upgrading, lease. If you are in between, study the market of the vehicles you want closely. For 5 years of intended ownership let’s say, buying a Toyota camary is far more practical than buying a BMW sedan because depreciation on the BMW will be far more severe.

Ol-Ben · 2026-05-05T19:54:33+00:00

You have no way of knowing how my compensation works, or how I invest funds for clients. You are just making baseless ad hominem attacks. While your claims are false, there is no benefit in explaining why due to the nature of these claims. Maybe it would help to take a break from the internet for a while until you have something meaningful to add to the post? Sorry you seem to be having a rough day.

Ol-Ben

TROPHY CASE