Random Question Thread.

[Apelila]

You're not leaving the practice if it's just a physical that you need for work or something. If you need them to look for and diagnose something, then that's different.

[Apelila]

Just getting around to it today and I noticed that work printed the wrong address on my W2. Can I still file anyway or do I need to get them to correct that?

[Blubbartron]

Anyone good with financial shit? I'm at the beginning of my career, have a shitload of debt, and I'm having trouble deciding whether I need to pay down debt (prioritizing higher interest rate loans) or if I should join the 401k plan at work.

Details:

Student loan debt - $67,000 (~$37,000 is private loans, and that interest is not tax deductible)
Car loan debt - $13,000 (can't pay towards principal on this loan because Wells Fargo is full of fucks, they "store" my extra money in a side account, not applying it to principal until the side account has more money than the remainder of the loan)

Work's 401k plan allows me to stash 6% of my salary, and they'll match half of what I stash. Is getting a "free" 3% of my salary worth the extra interest I'll pay over the life of my debt? Is it worth letting all this debt completely tank my credit score for even longer (granted, loan consolidation may remedy the credit score thing, since it's the fact that I have like 15 installment loans, but I need good credit to qualify to improve my credit).

Right now both options seem fairly equal, but I'd really appreciate if anyone knows of something I may not have considered, of if I'm just failing at basic math and 3% of my salary is way more important than the various 3-7.5% interest rates on all my debt.

[Lucki]

Join your 401k and since they match up to 6%, do the max. Free money is free money.

[RKenshin]

Anyone good with financial shit? I'm at the beginning of my career, have a shitload of debt, and I'm having trouble deciding whether I need to pay down debt (prioritizing higher interest rate loans) or if I should join the 401k plan at work.

Details:

Student loan debt - $67,000 (~$37,000 is private loans, and that interest is not tax deductible)
Car loan debt - $13,000 (can't pay towards principal on this loan because Wells Fargo is full of fucks, they "store" my extra money in a side account, not applying it to principal until the side account has more money than the remainder of the loan)

Work's 401k plan allows me to stash 6% of my salary, and they'll match half of what I stash. Is getting a "free" 3% of my salary worth the extra interest I'll pay over the life of my debt? Is it worth letting all this debt completely tank my credit score for even longer (granted, loan consolidation may remedy the credit score thing, since it's the fact that I have like 15 installment loans, but I need good credit to qualify to improve my credit).

Right now both options seem fairly equal, but I'd really appreciate if anyone knows of something I may not have considered, of if I'm just failing at basic math and 3% of my salary is way more important than the various 3-7.5% interest rates on all my debt.

Is it a 'match your first 3%' 401k plan, or 'match 3% when you contribute 6%'? If you can get away with matching only 3% and still getting the max employer contribution, then yes, you would be best off using any money past that to reduce your debt.

Also, it isn't necessarily always the best plan of attack to prioritize higher interest rate loans. You have to keep in mind the principle as well.

IE:
Loan A: 10-year - $20,000 - 10% interest
Loan B: 10-year - $60,000 - 5% interest

You may want to put more towards A on instinct and because it has a higher interest rate, but in actuality, you would save the most in interest payments by applying the extra money towards B.

Loan A would be accruing ~$2,000 in interest a year, while loan B would be accruing ~$3,000. Loan B would have to fall below at least $40,000 before it may be more desirable to pay loan A in its place. Keep that in mind when prioritizing your payments.

[Siniroth]

You'll still save more if you pay off higher interest first, unless there is some other factors of how interest gets applied. If they're two loans like you described with A and B, paying off A will be better over time.

Edit: Better explanation as I had to go do something when I posted.

If you broke down the loan B into loans B1, B2, B3, you'd have

Loan A: 10-year - $20,000 - 10% interest - $2,000/yr
Loan B1: 10-year - $20,000 - 5% interest - $1,000/yr
Loan B2: 10-year - $20,000 - 5% interest - $1,000/yr
Loan B3: 10-year - $20,000 - 5% interest - $1,000/yr

If you have $x to put towards the loans, putting it towards Loan A will result in lower interest across the board than any Loan B

[RKenshin]

You'll still save more if you pay off higher interest first, unless there is some other factors of how interest gets applied. If they're two loans like you described with A and B, paying off A will be better over time.

Edit: Better explanation as I had to go do something when I posted.

If you broke down the loan B into loans B1, B2, B3, you'd have

Loan A: 10-year - $20,000 - 10% interest - $2,000/yr
Loan B1: 10-year - $20,000 - 5% interest - $1,000/yr
Loan B2: 10-year - $20,000 - 5% interest - $1,000/yr
Loan B3: 10-year - $20,000 - 5% interest - $1,000/yr

If you have $x to put towards the loans, putting it towards Loan A will result in lower interest across the board than any Loan B

You're slightly misunderstanding my example. I wasn't arguing for "pay off A first."

You are correct in that much of an interest discrepancy makes A a better choice when considering the life of the loan though. I used simple numbers for the sake of an example without doing all the math, as yes in that case the interest rate difference is too big, but the point I made earlier still stands for something a bit more realistic.

Like:
Loan A: 10-year - $20,000 - 5% interest
Loan B: 10-year - $60,000 - 4% interest

A hypothetical $10,000 lump sum payment towards Loan B would save you $500 more in interest over the life of the loan.

[Blubbartron]

Is it a 'match your first 3%' 401k plan, or 'match 3% when you contribute 6%'? If you can get away with matching only 3% and still getting the max employer contribution, then yes, you would be best off using any money past that to reduce your debt.

Also, it isn't necessarily always the best plan of attack to prioritize higher interest rate loans. You have to keep in mind the principle as well.

IE:
Loan A: 10-year - $20,000 - 10% interest
Loan B: 10-year - $60,000 - 5% interest

You may want to put more towards A on instinct and because it has a higher interest rate, but in actuality, you would save the most in interest payments by applying the extra money towards B.

Loan A would be accruing ~$2,000 in interest a year, while loan B would be accruing ~$3,000. Loan B would have to fall below at least $40,000 before it may be more desirable to pay loan A in its place. Keep that in mind when prioritizing your payments.

Technically it's a "match half of what you contribute, up to 6% contribution (3% matched)". Also, I actually ran the numbers myself, and I'm a complete tard for not joining the 401k sooner. Right now it costs me $5,280/yr to max out my contribution. In other words, it costs $5,280 to earn $2,640 (matched half of contribution). I calculated the total amount of interest I'm gaining per year for each loan, added it all up, and got $3,332.14. The average loan rate over my entire $67,000 in student loans is ~5%. If I used my $5,280 of potential 401k contribution to pay down debt, I would be "saving" 5% of that in potential interest, or $264 on average, with a maximum of $382.80 if I used it on my loan with the highest interest rate.

Long story short, my decision cost me $2,257.20 for the year that I opted not to join the 401k program. Fuck, I hate math.

[Siniroth]

Loan stuff

I did a quick excel thing (which granted might be off, I'm sure it's not perfect), but it turns out you're right (by $70, but that doesn't make it any less correct, and I didn't look at ), the more I know. I could upload the document if you feel like pointing out any changes I should be making to how I'm looking at it, I'd rather save more money overall, but at the very least this will get me to do more than incredibly simple math to see what's better further down the road (right now I have a personal loan with a 9.21% interest and credit card with 19.99% interest, and the latter gets cleared right away anyway, so less of a big deal right this second)

[RKenshin]

Technically it's a "match half of what you contribute, up to 6% contribution (3% matched)". Also, I actually ran the numbers myself, and I'm a complete tard for not joining the 401k sooner. Right now it costs me $5,280/yr to max out my contribution. In other words, it costs $5,280 to earn $2,640 (matched half of contribution). I calculated the total amount of interest I'm gaining per year for each loan, added it all up, and got $3,332.14. The average loan rate over my entire $67,000 in student loans is ~5%. If I used my $5,280 of potential 401k contribution to pay down debt, I would be "saving" 5% of that in potential interest, or $264 on average, with a maximum of $382.80 if I used it on my loan with the highest interest rate.

Long story short, my decision cost me $2,257.20 for the year that I opted not to join the 401k program. Fuck, I hate math.

Yep, but at least you're making the right choice now!

Most people make that mistake for far longer than just one year.

I did a quick excel thing (which granted might be off, I'm sure it's not perfect), but it turns out you're right (by $70, but that doesn't make it any less correct, and I didn't look at ), the more I know. I could upload the document if you feel like pointing out any changes I should be making to how I'm looking at it, I'd rather save more money overall, but at the very least this will get me to do more than incredibly simple math to see what's better further down the road (right now I have a personal loan with a 9.21% interest and credit card with 19.99% interest, and the latter gets cleared right away anyway, so less of a big deal right this second)

I wouldn't mind taking a look if you wish to fix it up for your own use. Unfortunately excel doesn't have a 'calculate interest' function so you typically have to use actual equations, but I'm familiar with most of them.

I have a sheet that I made to figure this stuff out myself (and for the given previous example), though ultimately I'd like to add a lot more to it.

[Kais]

yo i just turned 21 today and i'm still green when it comes to alcohol
what are some tasty drinks for a 120lb azn who gets flushed and tipsy after chugging 1 bud light?

[SephYuyX]

yo i just turned 21 today and i'm still green when it comes to alcohol
what are some tasty drinks for a 120lb azn who gets flushed and tipsy after chugging 1 bud light?

http://www.laphroaig.com/images/whiskies/25yo.jpg
http://www.laphroaig.com/whiskies/25yo.aspx

[Mellema]

http://www.laphroaig.com/images/whiskies/25yo.jpg
http://www.laphroaig.com/whiskies/25yo.aspx

Well, if we're going for Liquors that would probably not be truly appreciated by a 21 year old who chugs bud light, I suggest

[Kais]

Well, if we're going for Liquors that would probably not be truly appreciated by a 21 year old who chugs bud light, I suggest

yeah word, I was hoping for bar drinks and stuff. though i did get to try a white russian before, that was pretty tasty

[SephYuyX]

yeah word, I was hoping for bar drinks and stuff. though i did get to try a white russian before, that was pretty tasty

Old Fashioned

[Francisco]

Quick question regarding blood pressure.

Under stress, how quickly can it rise/spike? Does the feeling of increased blood pressure actually reflect a rapid/sharp increase, or is it more mental?

Basically, to quickly sum up...

- For years I was told I have "borderline hypertension" when getting my BP taken.
- Never felt remotely bothered by it, in all those years.
- Past month or so, work conditions have deteriorated with budget cuts, into me doing like 4 people's work at once. Past week, I've "noticed" the hypertension, to the point I felt my heart racing, lightheaded at one particular rage-worthy moment.

Seeing a doc tomorrow, pre-cautionary, etc... but can these rage inducing shifts/instances cause a dramatic BP increase, and is it more dangerous than say a dramatic increase from say, running (which is normal)?

Also, this really only seems to apply at work. I cannot remember the last time I got legitimately pissed off or stressed out while I wasn't at work.

[Acturus]

Your blood pressure can change rapidly. I'm diagnosed Hypertensive, and for a while I had to check my own blood pressure with a cuff I bought at a drug store. You'd be suprised at how your systolic number can move by 10 or more points in a matter of minutes.

I was finally put on a very low dose of amlodipine besylate about a year ago since I'm not a smoker, drinker, overweight, or over 50 years old (i.e. not a typical candidate for hypertension), and while I hate being on medication, the benefit is that not only is my BP kept in a safe range, but it also moves less in response to my normal activity levels.

*edit* since you asked about stress, the secondhand information I have for you that my doctor told me was that mental stress as well as physical stress can show in rapid changes to your BP.

The other thought is less hypertension, and maybe more borderline panic attack. The physical symptoms are the same, panic attacks can change your BP rate as well, but hypertension is just an elevated blood pressure level. Something like panic attacks would have a mental component in addition to physical ones.

[Xantavia]

yeah word, I was hoping for bar drinks and stuff. though i did get to try a white russian before, that was pretty tasty

I was always a fan of Long Island Iced Teas or Amaretto Sour. Or the old stand-by of a rum and coke.

[Salodin]

Amaretto sour is a great drink to have. If you want a shot, see if they can make you something called Bong Water; contrary to the name, it's berry flavored and quite delicious. Other then that, a nice shot to take would be a Soco and lime, that goes down real easy too.

A lot of bars have "specialty" drinks that are fruity and easy on the senses, check out their menu when you're there.

[Kerberoz]

Long Island Iced Tea

Very bad/hilarious idea for someone who doesn't know their limits yet.