On the thinner sweaters that I want to keep them on for hanging, I usually tuck them into my bra strap, preferably in the back (depending on my shoulder mobility that day). On clothing that stays on hangers ok and won’t distort I cut them off.
3 Likes
I let the people looking at me worry about my free range straps, and continue happily
3 Likes
I can for Australia.
It depends on the state, but the majority of states have no covid community transmission. And life is almost normal (for example my state is hosting a sporting event with 60k people on saturday).
Our 2 states with the highest population and one Territory have covid outbreaks at the moment and are in varying levels of lockdown depending on where you live within the state.
The overall vaccination rate for the country is about 47% people over 16 having had two shots.
Victoria had 628 new cases today and has a vaccination rate of about 45%
New South Wales had 1035 new cases today and has a vaccination rate of about 54%
ACT had 17 new cases today and has a vaccination rate of about 55%
In Victoria there have been lots of protests about the covid lockdown, this is the state with the most days in lockdown since the beginning of the pandemic. Some of the protests have turned violent.
Our federal government has done a very bad job with the vaccine roll out. States are managing the pandemic with various levels of success and there are lots of border restrictions for people wanting to travel overseas and interstate.
A lot of the cases have also been from returning overseas travellers who are in hotel quarantine and not from community transmission
6 Likes
Ty! Okay excellent I wasn’t far off base with the Aus situation. Someone had mentioned cases and I was like “wait did community transmissions tick up?” And then I realized I hadn’t looked in on others in a while. Frustrating about the roll out- are people at least pretty willing to get it when they can? Or are we exporting our vaccine hesitancy too?
4 Likes
What are the tax implications if I’ve been give a big chunk of money?
My mother-in-law gave us a check that is more than our annual salaries combined. Yay, thanks but also…ummm what do I do with it? I want to chuck it into my VTSAX and start earning some sweet dollars on it but I don’t know what this means for taxes. Is there something smarter to do with it? And probably what we will do with it within the next year is put it all toward a house. So, should we label it that way and do something else with it in the meantime?
6 Likes
My understanding is it’ll be her, not you, who owe taxes (above $30k, $15k in gift to each you and husband). https://www.rocketlawyer.com/blog/will-you-owe-gift-taxes-if-you-are-giving-or-receiving-a-large-gift-928479 but I’m not an expert and don’t play one on TV, and don’t even know anything about that website- it was just the only readable one I found lol.
I would not invest money you need in a year. I would put it in a high interest savings account.
6 Likes
super late for the party but these are the best boots ever. i am passionate about them 
5 Likes
Yup, gifts are not considered taxable income. Technically your mother in law will need to file a gift tax form for any amount given over 15k per year per person receiving (like @Bracken_Joy said 30k for you and your husband). The gift tax form is just to track how much money has been given to compare it to the lifetime estate tax exclusion of 11.8 million.
If your MiL thinks she will continue to make gifts like this (and her estate is likely to be over 10M upon her death), she should talk to an accountant or attorney to see what her best options are.
5 Likes
Everyone covered the tax thing. As someone who is currently trying to buy a house, I would ask her to write/sign a letter saying that she has gifted it to you. Nothing overly complicated, but just a bit of backup for the lender when they dig into your finances. Large (or even small, sigh) unexplained cash is not what they like to see.
10 Likes
Another money question:
I’ve been looking into moving my money to an institution that aligns with my values (i.e. no funding for fossil fuel/for profit prisons/etc; invests in community and minority owned businesses). One that seems to fit the bill is Beneficial State Bank but I finally got around to calling then and their rates are lower than my current large bank (0.1 vs 0.4 APY). So…how do you weigh this type of decision?
Also, does anyone have recommendations for similar banks?
2 Likes
With that short of a timeline I personally would not invest it. I’d stick it in an online savings account. Not much yield but the typical recommendation for savings needed within 3-5 years or less is not to invest so you don’t need to pull it out during a down market.
1 Like
if you want the money in a year for a house, don’t put it into stocks. Yes, they might go up, but they could go down.
Put into a high interest savings account
Stocks are for money you don’t need for 5 years, or are ok if it drops
3 Likes
I must be a risk-taker because I find myself… resistant to this advice. I know it can go down, but I watch my VTSAX account and it mostly goes up up up. I don’t want to miss out on free money!!
Thanks everyone, for explaining the tax/gift thing to me!
4 Likes
I hold a pretty high risk allocation- like 97% stocks, some in international and small cap indexes. I don’t think investing on a short time horizon counts as risky so much as like… foolhardy? The odds of a down market on a short timeline are high, quite simply. Unless I was happily willing to change my plans accordingly, I would never consider keeping a downpayment fund in the market for anything under 3 years at the riskiest. The risk versus reward just isn’t worth it. What do you stand to gain on that chunk of money, versus how bad is it messing up your timelines, when you can get into the market, etc.
5 Likes
I would not put a down payment for within a year into stocks either, and we are almost 100% equities. I might do it if house buying was a couple years out (husband would not, and his discomfort would trump my preference), but definitely not on a one-year timeline.
6 Likes
I have an HSA from my previous employer. I can still log in but maybe I don’t have it as an HSA anymore? They sent me paperwork about how I could get COBRA. My question is, since I’m not eligible for an HSA with my current employer’s plan, what do I do?
2 Likes
It’s still an HSA, and you can still use it as one. You can’t contribute anymore.
Since you changed partway through the year, there are also going to be limits on how much you should have contributed to it this year. Here’s the limitation calculation chart from the IRS instructions:
Basically, you are likely okay if you only contributed 1/12 of the yearly limit each month. If you contributed too much, you can withdraw the excess (and treat it as taxable income) any time before the filing deadline for this year’s taxes.
4 Likes
I contributed far below the limit so I’m not worried about that!
2 Likes
You said it is more than your combined annual salaries. This makes me think it is also more than you need for a house down payment (even considering your crazy housing market). I’d definitely invest anything over what you need for a down payment. As for the amount you do need, consider how risk-tolerant you are. If you want to chance it, maybe split it between savings and investment? Especially since this was surprise money you weren’t counting on having anyway. But that seems contrary to advice from everyone else here. And also probably contrary to what I actually did.
4 Likes
It’s competitive enough in areas here you often need 20% down, and it’s very easy for normal houses to have 20% be more than two teachers make in a year.
4 Likes