Unfortunately what you experienced is more common than it should be.

To add to the disappointment, you pretty much have no realistic recourse with respect to punitive actions against the employer.

You'd have to have provable damages as a result from this practice. And obviously, that's going to be difficult as stolen information can be set aside for years before being sold and acted upon. By then, who knows how your information was stolen. Could have been through the see-through envelope. Could have been any number of other breaches.

Anyways, you should act as if your identity has been stolen. Even if this event didn't happen, you should act as if your identity has been stolen. As in, follow the Identity Theft guide in the PF Wiki. Freeze your credit at all the various credit bureaus. Again, should be done regardless of whether or not this event occurred.

> I’m reading about One indirect IRA rollover a year

Conversion /= indirect rollover

Friend... they are separate and distinct things.

You did not perform a rollover.

You performed a conversion.

Rollover rules do not apply to you.

Unless... you didn't actually perform a conversion. Maybe you should go back and clarify with your brokerage exactly what it is you did.

> will I be punished with an iron fist if I'm a couple bucks off?

This is a common misconception with the IRS.

The IRS is more like a very understanding parent.

Understanding parents know that their children are going to mess up. Understanding parents are not out to deliver punishments out of joy/fear. Understanding parents just want their children to follow the rules.

The IRS is very reasonable. The IRS wants to work with the Taxpayer.

Just don't do illegal things like intentionally evade the rules.

> didn’t realize it was only one time a year.

What led you to this conclusion?

Because it doesn't exist.

Conversions are unlimited both with dollar amount and frequency.

> So I was really just wondering if getting refinanced is easy

Your OP title asks a different question.

"Easy" is a relative term.

• Sale price - your cost (- fees) = Gains

1099k reports sale price.

You report your cost (and fees).

You report your gains (if any).

You should (if you can) save up to buy rather than take a 10+% interest rate.

Nobody can force you to do anything.

You can choose to move out.

401k (assuming Traditional) disbursals stack on top of your income. Then ordinary income tax brackets are applied.

So…

Start with your income without the 401k distribution.

Enter it into an income tax calculator like this:

• https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes

Write down your total Federal income tax.

Then start adjusting the income until you get an additional net post tax income of 200k.

Do you like green or blue?

Then by this:

> I had the HDHP for 5-6 years with my last employer, until end of June 2022.

You have unlocked 6/12 of the HSA maximum.

This simplifies to 1/2 of the HSA maximum.

This is the total you (including employer) can contribute to the HSA for 2022.

If you have not hit half of the max HSA for 2022, then you can make a contribution directly (out of your bank account).

You can also consider moving the HSA to somewhere with no fees and allows you to invest the money in whatever you want.

Fidelity is the one you should consider.

• https://thefinancebuff.com/best-hsa-provider-for-investing-hsa-money.html

It made sense until you said:

> On 12/1/2022 I had the HDHP

Because you also said:

> Since ~July 2022 and through to present I have a non-HDHP.

So... you didn't have HDHP 12/1/2022 then... right? (and basically don't plan on having HDHP for entirety of 2023)

Clarify, exactly when did you have HDHP?

Most interested in the 1st of every month.

Clarify when the HDHP was "lost?"

Clarify, what coverage you had on 12/1/2022?

Clarify, what coverage you have since 2023 began?

> My monthly payment went up $400 a month

So your previous payment was made up of escrow in addition to loan payment.

As in:

• Monthly payment = Loan payment + Escrow

So when your monthly payment went up by 400, you're paying the previous escrow amount and plus an additional 400.

So your calculation of:

• $400x12

is definitely not going to "add up to over $11,000" because you are missing the original escrow payments.

You should be doing:

• (Original Escrow payment + 400 ) * 12

That will be around the 11K.

You can have AU listings removed from your credit report fairly easily so I really would not worry about this too much.

Dollar amount of utilization matters less than the utilization expressed in % of available credit.

And the bigger factors are going to be history of on time payments.

So, again, I wouldn't worry.

> Could you please clarify?

Here is the W4 as published by the IRS.

Read Step 2.

• https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf

> However, she claim's 1 dependent.

"Claiming" things is no longer a thing and hasn't been for a few years. Update your W4. If your employer still has exemptions listed as an option, it's very very very behind the times.

If you haven't updated your W4 in a few years, both of you should update it.

And pay attention to Step II of the new W4.

> I need hotspot on my phone to play wow

You state this as a "need."

Like I said, we're going to have differing values.

You ultimately decide what you "need."

You ultimately decide what you are willing to do differently.

That goes for everything else in your response.

> Today, their adjustor called

Don't take advice from "their" people (insurance, adjusters, etc).

They have an active interest in minimizing their losses.

Talk to your insurance folks if you're concerned.

So the way to do this next is to go through each of the expenses that you have listed and ask yourself:

• Can it be cut?
• Can it be reduced?
• Is it necessary?

What I consider necessary for me, may not be necessary to you (and vice versa).

You have to decide what you can do without. For example, Pandora/Spotify seem like overlapping services. Can you really not tolerate ads? Youtube. Same deal.

Is the WoW a need?

Is the Six Flags a need?

Why is the phone so high?

Have you ever tried calling your internet provider and asked to cancel? (to get a deal from the retentions department)

Rent is a big expense. Is taking on roommates or moving to a lower cost place realistic?

Is selling the car and using public transit realistic?

Does the car need all the washing? Is this something you can do for yourself?

No one can answer these type of questions for you. You have to be the one who discusses what you are actually interested in changing/adjusting/eliminating.

What’s the long term realistic plan here?

If you can’t have a job because of language proficiency, what is the purpose of continuing a foreign masters program?

It’s a Debeers marketing thing that has convinced entire generations that a ring must cost a substantial amount.

• https://youtu.be/iqf9EAGp-Mk

Here's another way of looking at it.

You're getting married, right?

What's mine is yours and yours is mine, right?

For better or for worse, right?

One person's financial decisions impact the other's, right?

There is no more my money. There is no more your money.

It becomes our money.

No, I'm not saying you have to be completely combined with zero assets in each of your own names. (We each maintain a small separate balance more for gifts to eachother.) It's more the general mentality of things.

Large financial decisions (such as a ring purchase) should not be a one sided phenomena. If I use "my" money to pay for it, that's less money going into the "family" pot or towards the "family" goals. This takes away from the SO's money. So it's all the same whether I pay or SO pays.

We (as a team) are still paying for it.

The smartest thing we did was we discussed finances.

We opened up our budgets and disclosed all assets.

Then we made a family budget.

We added "engagement ring" as a line item to save towards.

And then we shopped for the ring together.

We both saw the price. We both knew the price.

The ring was not a surprise.

The engagement event itself was a surprise.

Play around with a capital gains tax calculator.

It will help solidify your understanding:

• https://smartasset.com/investing/capital-gains-tax-calculator

> I pay 0% on $1,676 of my capital gains, and only pay 15% on the $324 in capital gains that pushes me over the $41676 income threshold?

This is the correct version.