Reader Case Study - Personal Finance Review (PFR)

[Matt]

If you would like help and support with your Personal Finances please feel free to start up a thread here.

The more information you provide in the thread, the more help we can get you, please follow the structure outlined in this post to help us get off to the best start:

Thread Titles
Please create all threads on this topic with the following title: Reader Case Study- PFR [then anything appropriate] starting off the thread title like this will allow us to clearly identify the thread.

EG:

• Reader Case Study - PFR Financial Noob
• Reader Case Study - PFR What to do with windfall

Etc

Body of Post

Background
Age (him/her)
Marital Status (tax filing)
Income (You)
Income (Significant Other)
Tax Bracket
Residency (State you live in. Note if non-Citizen here)
Expenses (Monthly) If your goal is to save more when you don't have enough money then breaking this down to line items will help find opportunities.

Assets

• Emergency Fund (don't double count Checking/Savings/Etc)
• Checking
• Savings/MMA
• CD's/Notes Etc
• Taxable Brokerage Account
• Asset Allocation (Stock/Bond/Cash) - including Fund Names/Stock positions will help identify cost reductions.
• Tax Advantaged Account
• Asset Allocation (Stock/Bond/Cash) - including Fund Names/Stock positions will help identify cost reductions.
• [listing accounts seperately, EG Roth, IRA1, IRA2, 401(k) is helpful]
• Home
• Other Real Estate
• Other Assets

Liabilities

• Credit Card Debt
• Personal Loans
• Student Loans
• Mortgage
• HEL/HELOC
• Other Debt

Goals

Tell us what you are looking to achieve, do you have 1,3,5 year goals? Want to get out of debt? Create a college fund for your kid? Want to know if you can retire? Whatever it is state it here.

Risk Tolerance/ Financial Savvy

Let us know how you feel about risk, for example, if the market was to drop 20% this month would you:

• Sell
• Hold
• Buy More

By creating such a thread you agree that any advice provided will be for educational purposes only, and that you should consult with a tax professional to confirm the viability of all strategies and ideas shared. We accept no responsibility for any erroneous information provided, as skill levels vary, and rules and regulations are constantly changing.

 

[cocobird]

If you would like help and support with your Personal Finances please feel free to start up a thread here.

Goals

Tell us what you are looking to achieve, do you have 1,3,5 year goals? Want to get out of debt? Create a college fund for your kid? Want to know if you Whatever it is state it here.

Under goals, you have a partial sentence.

Otherwise, this is a nice idea for this forum, going way beyond travel.

 

[Matt]

Under goals, you have a partial sentence.

Otherwise, this is a nice idea for this forum, going way beyond travel.

Thanks for the catch.

 

[ElainePDX]

This is a nice idea, but even though this is a private forum, I wouldn't feel comfortable posting all that info where 200+ folks who may or may not know me can see it. I realize the idea is to help eachother, but I have a feeling that the more assets one has, the less likely s/he would post such info.

Still, I can definitely see it for folks just starting out, who may not seek out a financial adviser due to time/money constraints, but who could use some advice. So many young people have college/grad school loans and/or know little about how best to arrange their finances. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

 

[Alpen_Geoff]

I think this is a good idea, I'll probably be posting soon as we've had some financial hurdles lately and are trying to work our way out of the hole caused by them

 

[Matt]

This is a nice idea, but even though this is a private forum, I wouldn't feel comfortable posting all that info where 200+ folks who may or may not know me can see it. I realize the idea is to help eachother, but I have a feeling that the more assets one has, the less likely s/he would post such info.

Still, I can definitely see it for folks just starting out, who may not seek out a financial adviser due to time/money constraints, but who could use some advice. So many young people have college/grad school loans and/or know little about how best to arrange their finances. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

If people aren't comfortable doing so then they shouldn't do it. It's actually not that new of an idea, it is a mix of what happens on Bogleheads and MrMoneyMoustache. Furthermore, a person doesn't have to go all the way into this depth, but this is the sort of information required to help someone to reach the next level. Less information for a more specific goal can work also.

 

[meph]

I like the idea as well, and although I'm new here, there appear to be a lot of pretty bright people willing to help.

However, I would also highly suggest the person post at Bogleheads as well, as this idea is very well established over there (I had read almost a hundred threads like this over there when I was first starting out to see the patterns in responses, and make my decisions from there).

Matt - is there a way to somehow let a user post anonymously (like a checkbox, or maybe a sub-forum where OP's name is changed to 'hidden' or something)? I'm not a huge fan of this, as I'd like to know who I'm helping, but if it makes more users post, it might not be horrible.

 

[Matt]

Matt - is there a way to somehow let a user post anonymously (like a checkbox, or maybe a sub-forum where OP's name is changed to 'hidden' or something)? I'm not a huge fan of this, as I'd like to know who I'm helping, but if it makes more users post, it might not be horrible.

Not that I know of, but you can always email them to me to post as I did previously.

 

[Matt]

Just bumping this thread. If people want to have an analysis of their current financial situation, or specific questions about their financial plans, you can use the format above, or you can message me the details so we create an anonymous case study.