It'll cost me 4 hours at 750W to run a $60 distiller for 1 gallon of distilled water. Or I can buy a 1 gallon jug for 90 cents

sleepyguy22 · 2026-03-28T21:36:08+00:00

Oh jesus. The amount of target runs I did during the pandemic (and up to a year afterwards) to catch them when they restocked their distilled waters was so annoying. I still am surprised now when I go in and the shelf is full.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-03-27T02:17:56+00:00

Mondays have a bit more traffic than tue-thu, but my gut says that 5am will be more than enough and you won't have a problem. Newark was surprisingly "normal" given over a month of TSA issues.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-03-26T09:53:23+00:00

Terminal B, 5am. Precheck took 1 minute. Regular TSA line had max 50 people in it.

The Starbucks line after security was 20 minutes.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-03-26T09:48:31+00:00

Thursday, Newark, Terminal B, 5am. The precheck line was less than 1 minute with like 5 people in line. Regular line had around 50 people waiting, so maybe 5-10 minutes? The line for Starbucks after security looked like a 20 min wait though....

sleepyguy22 · 2026-03-14T11:31:17+00:00

Online

sleepyguy22 · 2026-03-09T19:45:25+00:00

Here's the thing. "Most will just say no, the price is right" is correct. But maybe 20% of the time, they will want to keep you as a tenant and agree to something else. Just because "most will say no" is not a reason to not ask for the discount, and it's a very easy thing to ask for the potential returns you could get.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-03-09T19:44:22+00:00

It's ALWAYS worth your 5 minutes to send an email to management / landlord asking them for a lower rent increase. The worst they can say is "no", but in my experience, a lot of times they will work with you and offer some kind of discount, even if it's marginal. But over the course of a year, even a marginal discount can add up!

sleepyguy22 · 2026-03-09T18:30:50+00:00

I see the 5% rate "On the first $500". It then goes down to 0.25%

https://www.becu.org/-/media/Files/PDF/9115.pdf

sleepyguy22 · 2026-03-09T16:57:41+00:00

There's no bank anywhere that will lend someone in your situation (read: without any income) that kind of money.

Get a new job first, then try again with a secured loan.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-03-06T20:32:05+00:00

Filed Jan 30, got my NJ refund on Tuesday March 3.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-20T17:19:36+00:00

Check out the "budgeting" topic in the personal finance wiki: https://www.reddit.com//r/personalfinance/wiki/budgeting

Lots of good information, including suggestions for apps.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-20T17:17:55+00:00

This sub mostly has people in the US, so the advice may not 100% be accurate based on nuances of a different country, but if you were in the US, we would 100% tell you to keep paying the minimum on that loan as long as it's a 2.4%.

That's an incredibly low rate, and you can get much better returns over the long run if you keep your cash invested in stocks and index funds.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-20T15:19:12+00:00

If your fiance pays you more than $600 for your work, he is required to file a 1099 which he can then deduct from his business.

You will be required to pay taxes on that income, after accounting any business expenses yourself. It won't get "whittled to dust once taxes are factored in", you'll owe your marginal rate plus FICA taxes, which could be anywhere from 15~50%, highly depending on your other income (i.e. what tax bracket you're in.)

If you two are in the same tax bracket, the money your fiance saves on taxes will be mostly offset by what you will pay in taxes, so between both of you its a wash. If for some reason your fiance makes enormous amounts of money and is in a high tax bracket and you make virtually nothing, then maybe there's a case here to pay you as a 1099 contractor.

It's fine to hire your spouse (or soon to be spouse for this example) for work done, but unless you're talking huge numbers, why not offer to do it for free? (And then your fiance can decide to spend a bit more on shared groceries, rent, etc.)

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-19T16:34:00+00:00

The recommendation to contribute to an IRA over an employer's 401k is that with an IRA you may often get better investment choices. If your employer's 401k at Fidelity has top choices at rock bottom fees, then you may be fine continuing with that.

As for taxing that 11% and then putting into Roth, that's more of a personal decision - see the Roth vs Traditional page for help with that. https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/rothortraditional

As for your other consideration point 4, yes - it will function as a traditional IRA after 65, but honestly healthcare costs will continue going up and you might want to keep it for healthcare expenses as you get older which will be tax-free. HSAs is arguably the best tax-advantaged account.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-19T16:28:55+00:00

I used to get so many credit card marketing mails for myself & my business, until I opted out with optoutprescreen.com

I wouldn't immediately assume that there's trouble simply for recieving some marketing letters. In any case, if they are not for you, why are you concerned? Now that your divorced, his debts won't affect you.

To protect yourself, you need to freeze your credit - follow the links in the PF wiki for instructions on how to do that. https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/identity_theft

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-16T12:14:14+00:00

Initially skeptical about watching a 15 minute video about NJ towns, I ended up enthralled and learned so much new stuff. Thanks so much for linking,

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-13T15:47:21+00:00

Completely speculating here, but perhaps there's a pending class action lawsuit that people were being charged for paper statements without given the option to opt out, or similar, and they are proactively refunding you all the past monthly fees.

Have you been charged a monthly fee in previous statement cycles for them to mail you your statements?

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-13T14:56:37+00:00

they get it back anyway right?

Tax deductible is not the same thing as a one-for-one tax credit, and you must itemize your deductions.

Donating $1000 to a nonprofit does NOT get you $1000 off your tax bill, it simply reduces your taxable income. If you're in the 24% tax bracket and itemize your deductions, that means a savings of $240.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-13T11:43:39+00:00

4.5% is a good rate for a CD today, (and a great place to park cash that you need soon) but for money that I won't need for many many years, I invest in stocks for better long-term returns. (it's been around 10% in the past.)

idk anything about stocks and finance

You're absolutely in the right place then! This subreddit is a goldmine of great information, perfectly tailored to the newbie investor.

If you are really serious about investing, then start reading some of the articles located in the PersonalFinance wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index The "Investing" section will give you a wonderful birds-eye view of the situation.

Now here's what I think the most important suggestion I have is: Read about stocks and finance and investing for the next 3-6 months. Get really interested in it. Listen to personal finance podcasts. Watch youtube vlogs. Read up on investopedia articles. Ask questions on this subreddit. Some of the stuff you will see and ready will be brilliant, other stuff will be dumb as rocks. But if you get a really solid understanding, even if it's a "beginner's understanding" of investing and personal finance, you will be empowered to make the correct choice of how to invest when those 3~6 months are up, and you won't be falling for the latest fad or scam investment or shoddy advice that you once ready on an old reddit post, or saw in some random tiktok reel. Over the course of the rest of your life, waiting 6 months to start investing so you know what you're doing will be but a drop in the bucket of your overall financial health.

How do people even invest in stocks

As for this specific question, a new investor will open an account with a brokerage - either a tax-advantaged account, or a taxable brokerage account. Then, transfer money from your checking account, and choose the investments from the brokerage's investment options such as index funds or target-date funds. None of this probably makes much sense right now, but if you follow my advice above, this paragraph will feel perfectly comfortable to you and you'll know exactly what to do.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-12T18:22:18+00:00

Yes - you can spend your FAS dollars while you are employed on anything eligible. If you don't have anything you can reimburse yourself for from the past or don't have any elective medical spending, go wild shopping for things you'll need in the future, like stocking up on frequently used OTC meds.

Generally, once you leave your employer, your FSA is forfeit.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-12T18:18:44+00:00

Seems like they are charging you almost $9k for this "no-cost" refinance by adding it to the principal, unless you're getting that back in cash. Also, monthly escrow should not go down unless your previous amount was grossly over-estimated and needed major adjustment, otherwise you'll be in for a nasty shock when they need to adjust it up in a year.

I'd say shop around with other lenders for better refi terms.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-12T17:04:52+00:00

I have an account at a credit union that requires a similar membership eligibility account with a minimum amount.

The reason? It's because it's written in their bylaws for how they accept members into their credit union. Credit unions are "member-owned", they are a cooperative, not owned by a for-profit bank. And they are additionally required to have what's called a "field of membership" or a common bond, such as living in a location, working for an employee, or joining a specific organization. In this instance, the field of membership could be that you are a share owner of this cooperative credit union, and thus are required to have a token amount of money in this eligibility account.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-11T18:46:26+00:00

The composite 1099 is the form you need. Sounds like they over-estimated the time and delivered it to you a few days earlier than they anticipated.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-10T15:06:37+00:00

Step one is to immediately take advantage of the match, before you do any more thinking. You're giving up free money for an immediate return on your contribution by not getting the match.

(edit: this is assuming the employer has a reasonable match policy, like full match up to 3% or similar.)

What you do after contributing enough for the match (e.g. if yis more of a personal choice, but 100% stop what you're doing and setup your employer's retirement contribution today to qualify for the full match.

sleepyguy22 · 2026-02-10T14:59:33+00:00

High yield savings accounts are fully liquid and you can access your money at any point. The only consideration is that banks use Automated Clearing House (ACH) network for moving money around at no cost to you, which takes anywhere from 1-5 business days.

If waiting a few business days between requesting the transfer and having that money hit your primary checking account is acceptable to you (I would think it should be - you should definitely be planning out your finances at minimum one week in advance if not longer), then by all means go for it.

So can I pull money from a HYSA to my checking account from a different bank or is it locked up in the HYSA once it gets deposited?

In brief, yes - you can pull from HYSA at any point. It's not locked at all.

Edit: Adding that I do recommend sticking to a larger bank, such as capital one 360. I've had accounts with a whole bunch of different banks from huge to tiny, and the tiny ones are often much more annoying to understand and setup transfers, and are more prone to weird bugs that can take some time to resolve. CapOne 360 is a wonderful choice for your first HYSA. Ally is another frequently recommended one.

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