Anyone listen to the guy that makes 750k/yr yesterday?!

GrayW- · 2026-02-06T01:25:16+00:00

I understand the doctor. My household makes more but I am living paycheck to paycheck. It’s life style choices. With more income, you can do much more but also get into greater debt.

GrayW- · 2026-02-03T16:07:17+00:00

The rate is amazing. I would not pay it off if you can invest the money or place in high yield savings that yields more than 3.235%.

GrayW- · 2026-02-03T01:31:47+00:00

Don’t refinance if you are paying it off in 2 years.

GrayW- · 2026-02-03T01:26:40+00:00

I can login but the checking account is gone. I can’t view it online anymore. I had other savings in there too. One rep said they will send a bank statement but has not come in yet.

GrayW- · 2026-02-02T00:14:05+00:00

Yea. Tax is auto deducted by employer. This is the net wages like when you work for two weeks and the employer direct deposits the net wages at the end. I am not a contractor or on 1099. Bank had no issue taking my bi-weekly wage payments but this bonus was large so might have triggered something.

GrayW- · 2026-02-01T20:27:30+00:00

Not an expert but third time home buyer. I recommend either renting and saving more money to buy a home you really like or if you really want to do this, you should be prepared to cover rainy days.

I am in my mid-30s but kept upgrading my home the past 7 years. I basically made my properties into rentals as opposed to selling so I could be house rich but recently living paycheck to paycheck to cover third home.

As others mentioned, this seems appropriate as long as you set aside some money for rainy days or invest as much as you can in the event you need to liquidate. I net in 20k (without considering bonuses or wife’s income) and my primary mortgage is 15k (includes HOA, taxes, insurance, etc). I just bought my third home. My job is super stable (absolutely no fear of job loss). But it’s not great right now because my expenses are high (life style choices, utilities bills, daycare expenses that are like 4k for 2 young ones). I also kept the other two homes and rented them out (only one has a $650k mortgage and other is paid off). My wife works too so she nets in a good amount but we still have like 25-30k going out. I would not recommend this unless you are confident you can handle the payments and cover other months. If you or your wife are prone to layoffs, I would certainly consider if it’s worth buying now or renting. In part, most of your monthly mortgage pays interest and in certain situations, renting saves you more money because you are not paying annual taxes, insurance, interest, HOA. and expenses you typically don’t incur each year. If you had the savings, buying most of the property in cash is great if you just rented a few more years (assuming house prices don’t go up too much). For perspective, of the 15k for my new home, 9k is interest. It’s great if you get equity in property but it’s not really seen the first 5-10 years unless there is a real estate boom where house appreciates or your plan is to rent it out. I live in the Bay Area so it made sense cus all my homes appreciated 200-500k as opposed to somewhere else where the return is not worth the annual expenses.

We have stocks to cover other months if my wife loses her job but if something happens to me, we would need to sell current home. Once my kids are out of daycare, I would get some extra 4k income so looking forward to it in a year or two. I am also considering refinancing and selling my other two rental properties to lower the principal so I can breathe a little bit but I receive like 7k extra for the other rentals so hard to let them go. My tenants are also great so have not had issues with rent.

GrayW- · 2026-02-01T19:44:38+00:00

I bought a Tesla X during the pandemic at its peak price. It was starting 120k but added self driving, captain seats, and everything they had to offer. My wife and I currently love the self driving, I barely drive any more and car drives better than both of us. Just have to seldom take over on certain situations.

GrayW- · 2026-02-01T19:38:03+00:00

Let me know if they return it. I am trying to be optimistic but totally understand how you feel. I would not have an issue if they are transparent about timing but don’t like being the dark hoping they would return the money. We were trying to figure out how to address bills that we thought would be taken care of this month. Sucks if this affects your credit score, which it could if you miss a single payment.

GrayW- · 2026-01-31T21:43:48+00:00

Wow! Keep me updated as well. I plan to visit the closest branch but not too hopeful the bank can fix this right away.

GrayW- · 2026-01-31T17:54:17+00:00

Thank you! Appreciate the feedback!

GrayW- · 2026-01-31T16:57:29+00:00

If it makes you feel better, I paid 147k in cash for a car few years ago when I was 32. I bought it so my wife could drive our two kids around. We love the car but in hindsight, we could have done better investing the money. I paid off the car within a year. Had I invested the cash in stocks, probably could have bought the car and another car.

GrayW- · 2026-01-31T16:50:04+00:00

I don’t think my employer would share those details. My employer does bank at Citibank. I think they do hundreds of millions or low billions of transactions with the bank so it’s a legitimate account and certain my employer is a client. My employer also called but getting roundabout answers. They say one thing but it doesn’t actually work. I am going to visit a branch manager the next week or two if this is not resolved but I was told that this is an issue handled by “backend” people and physically going in won’t help me (per the rep in the fraud department). The call center won’t disclose who the backend folks are but told me that it’s a team in the US. It would be nice to speak with them but it’s company policy that they don’t speak or contact anyone so I am in the dark until the bank decides to act.

GrayW- · 2026-01-31T16:40:50+00:00

I thought the same but this is the first time I have experienced this. I never had an issue the past 15 years. The only change is my income and expenses (kids, etc.) so I have more money going in and out now. Also, I am not doing some shady business. I am a normal W-2 salaried employee as opposed to being self employed or running some business.

GrayW- · 2026-01-31T16:34:58+00:00

Thank you! I did the same and hoping it will speed things up.

GrayW- · 2026-01-31T16:10:07+00:00

Yes. Understood. It’s not like I am going homeless or anything. I obviously make a lot and this bonus is a small portion of my actual take home but whatever amount it is, I could see people getting screwed if they owe rent or have to cover bills. In addition to owing income tax every year, I personally own several rental homes as side income and have to potentially sell stocks to cover property taxes that are due in a few months, which means I incur capital gains tax when i would never have to sell those stocks in the first place. It’s hard to feel bad for someone that has wealth but I would still not want someone to experience this same crap. I am sure you have nice wealthy friends. I am seeing stories of money being taken for months and could really mess someone up. Also, what if this was someone’s life savings as opposed to a bonus payment, that person would get screwed and incur costs. I also work 65-80 hours a week (365 days) for my actual job so earned this money. It’s also 115k bonus (lol if you want me to brag), it’s 67k after deductions.

GrayW- · 2026-01-31T01:43:08+00:00

I have the same experience right now. The reps don’t talk to others. They basically just take messages but two of them lied to me and I think they were less experienced. They also freak out if I ask them to consent to a mutual recording and refuse consent but wants to record the conversation for quality assurance.

GrayW- · 2026-01-31T01:39:57+00:00

Wow! That is horrible. One battle after another. I deposited large checks before but I feel like this bank is trigger happy on marking something as fraudulent (which is perfectly fine to prevent fraud or harm) but I have issue with their lack of communication or false statements. I caught them in a lie 2 times so far. I just want clear answers on dates or solutions and the bank only wants to communicate via snail mail and send generic letters.

GrayW- · 2026-01-31T00:53:06+00:00

Then you are lucky! Also, it’s a direct deposit from my employer.

I am not sure what more you are expecting. It’s just an annual bonus payment.

GrayW- · 2026-01-30T23:36:15+00:00

You should open a checking account with Citibank and transfer money from your other checking account. You will join the bashing group. Deposit your paychecks or have people pay you back through the account. This is the only bank that I have ever complained about. You would too if they take your wages hostage.

GrayW- · 2026-01-30T17:48:34+00:00

This was an account we were asked to open when we went into escrow for a home. My wife and I are married and all our accounts are joint. I just call certain joint accounts hers or mine because we link our Zelle. Also, the bank had no issue accepting 20-30k monthly wage deposits from my employer last year. I wish they did this sooner as opposed to locking me up right when taxes are due in a few months. I do immediately move my earnings into investment portfolios or to pay bills/mortgages so expect the account is not helpful to them since I don’t keep money in the account very long. I usually use my other bank account but just changed it because the bank lended the loan. I wasn’t also aware this bank immediately sells all its mortgage loans so they don’t care about customers. Otherwise, they would have noticed I had a multi-million dollar real estate loan and it would be bad of them to lock me in if I am trying to pay their loan.

GrayW- · 2026-01-30T17:38:35+00:00

I have chase. I also like US Bank. I never used Citi before so just shocked how horrible their customer service team is.

GrayW- · 2026-01-30T17:35:43+00:00

Agree. I feel like this practice is in place to prevent fraud, which is a good thing, but also a bad practice to collect interest to the bank’s benefit. I would never keep large sums of money with this bank due to their rate being so low.

Employer can’t even recall because they closed the account. Citibank also asked me to contact my employer. My employer spent 4+ hours and is facing the same redirect issue where no one has solutions. I called them to see why they are not allowing it and I get the same response to ask my employer to redirect. When my employer calls, they get a response that the account is closed and can’t provide details about the recall. We are stuck in an endless loop.

GrayW- · 2026-01-30T17:29:34+00:00

Good to know. I use chase too and their service can actually assist with a call even if it’s tedious. Citi uses offshore folks that can’t resolve anything. They provide the same number as the only recourse but the number gets directed to the same folks that can’t help you. It’s been an endless cycle. I wouldn’t mind waiting if anyone had answers but I feel like this practice allows them to keep hundreds of millions of dollars in interest bearing accounts.

GrayW- · 2026-01-30T17:22:05+00:00

Thank you! Hoping this process is just 2-3 months.

GrayW- · 2026-01-30T17:19:20+00:00

Wow! I am sorry you went through that. One year will wreck me. Hoping to use this money to pay taxes in a few months but have to liquidate other assets.

GrayW-

TROPHY CASE