Dish wont let me change DUE date on bill
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I totally agree with that. It is best to leave that 401K alone until you retire. That said, I was eligible to withdraw without penalty, just pay the tax, and that helped me to save over $750 a month, not to mention the interest saved.
Taking money from your 401k is almost never a good idea. However, it appears that you had that "almost never" exception. Good job! I'm sure that you feel much better about your situation now then you did before.
I never took money out of my 401k ,I only took a loan out of my 401k . A loan out of my 401k that I pay back each month out of my pre take home money. So I am paying Myself the money and the interest back into my 401k account. I suffer NO penalty unless I don't pay it back . It has provided me money that I can access if I need to in time of need without putting more money on credit cards. Something I will not do again unless I have no other alternative. My wife and I have both done this when we needed money for things that broke like a dishwasher , hot water heater , and last but not least plumbing repairs that we didn't expect which all happened at the same time. The last time I did take money out it ,was to pay off credit card debt that the credit union load didn't cover. Tomorrow we will pay back one of our older loans to bump back up our take home pay. We need to get our take home pay up since our state run health insurance is going up again.
You may want to look into a high deductible HSA insurance plan. Premium and money spent out of the HSA are paid for pretax and you can use it for health related items such as Tylenol etc. You still get discounts on services and prescription drugs but there is no copay and everything is 100% out of pocket up to the deductible. Office visits and prescriptions count toward the deductible. It allowed me to cut our health ins premium in half. For my wife, son and my self we pay $300 a month with BCBS. But it is a gamble because if something major does happen we have to pay a $5k individual and a $10K family deductible.
The key is to build up your HSA balance to cover the deductible which is very doable for young healthy people. Also the HSA balance can be used for retirement if you build up the balance long enough and don't use it.
The key is to build up your HSA balance to cover the deductible which is very doable for young healthy people. Also the HSA balance can be used for retirement if you build up the balance long enough and don't use it.
Thanks for the advice Jlong27. I will look into it. Since you live in Texas like I do , you know that we are facing a 15 - 20 billion dollar deficit next year when the legislature meets in 2011? The only reason why we were able to balance our state budget this year was the Obama stimulous money of 12 billion.
IF you work for the state like I do, you will see less benefits and more pay freezes or cuts as the case may be. Perry is already ordering a 5% cut in all state department budgets NOW. Seems the state only budgeted for a 6.5 % increase in our medical insurance for both 2009 and 2010 and it will be more like 8 - 9 % increase. So come Sept. of this year they will either cut benefits or raise co-pays , deductibles , drug benefits etc. It is going to keep on going up every year.
IF you work for the state like I do, you will see less benefits and more pay freezes or cuts as the case may be. Perry is already ordering a 5% cut in all state department budgets NOW. Seems the state only budgeted for a 6.5 % increase in our medical insurance for both 2009 and 2010 and it will be more like 8 - 9 % increase. So come Sept. of this year they will either cut benefits or raise co-pays , deductibles , drug benefits etc. It is going to keep on going up every year.
I don't work for the state but I do work for a small business. They don't cover any of the cost to cover your dependents. Yes Texas the govt budget is bad but it could be worse.
The other nice thing about an HSA is after the deductible as long as the service is in network there is no out of pocket for anything. I had a situation in 2009 with my son and the bills were above $250K. After the deductible everything was paid 100% except for 1 thing. Life Flight, which was conveniently out of network. BCBS paid 50% and I am stuck with about a $6,500 bill. I'm sending them $25 a month and they haven't said anything. He's ok now, he was 2 months old and got RSV which put him in ICU for about 3 weeks.
One last thing is we were able to pay the deductible in full which resulted in a 25% discount from the hospital. I'll tell you what though, I wouldn't change a thing about our insurance and the care we received. I am glad health care reform didn't pass in it's current form.
P.S. Boy this got way off topic. LOL
The other nice thing about an HSA is after the deductible as long as the service is in network there is no out of pocket for anything. I had a situation in 2009 with my son and the bills were above $250K. After the deductible everything was paid 100% except for 1 thing. Life Flight, which was conveniently out of network. BCBS paid 50% and I am stuck with about a $6,500 bill. I'm sending them $25 a month and they haven't said anything. He's ok now, he was 2 months old and got RSV which put him in ICU for about 3 weeks.
One last thing is we were able to pay the deductible in full which resulted in a 25% discount from the hospital. I'll tell you what though, I wouldn't change a thing about our insurance and the care we received. I am glad health care reform didn't pass in it's current form.
P.S. Boy this got way off topic. LOL
This is way off topic, but you do suffer a penalty. You suffer the loss of earnings that you would have made while you had the money out of your 401k
Sure did get off topic, but we are talking about cutting expenses so you can live, so it is all relative.
True enough, but it beats running up more credit card debt and I am using my own money that I earn interest off of when I pay it back. Came in handy when I had to replace my central air and heat A frame in my house a couple of years ago. I am not using it for idle crap here, just necessities that I can not do with out. Like plumbing , air/heat , etc.
If it happened at a time of a downturn in the markets wouldn't it lower the cost of the loss? I just retired with a 401K in middle of 2007. I believe the hi rollers on Wall St. know within a few bucks each weak how much the workers put in the pot. And they skim the cream off the top a little on the heavy side quite often. They are well aware that if they mess up or even steal money and hide it, the gov't will throw money back in to cover it up. I think he may have used it in a wise way. I'm sure it helped him more this way than it would have if the crooks on Wall St. used it their way! Just this ol guy's way of lookin at it.
Could have, just depends on what he was invested in. However I think that your view of the market is either naive, ignorant or an atempt at humor that went over my head. If you honestly believe that (which I can't imagine anyone does) then you have no business investing anything in the market unless you are "hi-roller"
I understand where the OP is coming from. Mine bills on the 26th of every month. I am paid but once each month and by the 26th or so, the cash flow has slowed to a trickle. I also have had a pay cut.
Still, I know it is coming and I prepare for it. On the rare occasion when there isn't enough cash to cover the bill, I pay a portion of it via credit card then pay that off when the paycheck hits the bank.
Still, I know it is coming and I prepare for it. On the rare occasion when there isn't enough cash to cover the bill, I pay a portion of it via credit card then pay that off when the paycheck hits the bank.
This is the way I do it. On the 1st of the month I enter every bill that I owe into my checkbook. I have enough money in my account to pay every one of them on the 1st of the month. It doesn't matter to me when the money is actually withdrawn, the money is already accounted for. I never have a problem this way.
Very smart! That is a very simple way to properly "budget". Some people have elaborate spreadsheets or use fancy programs, but your method works just as well. Start with the known in flows (income) and outflows (bills) and record them in your checkbook. Then you know what you have left to devote to savings, and after that you know what is left for discretionary spending. It almost sounds too simple when you look at it that way.
What ticks me off is when this happens, some of the companies have figured out how they can turn late fees into a revenue stream, in my humble opinion unethical when it's done this way (anything owned or issued by Discover is the absolute worst): I've got a bill that comes every month, for as long as I can remember the due date is the 15th. Guess what, this month it's due on the 13th and I didn't notice. Hello $39.95 late fee! I wonder how many people they hit with that scam every month.
Ideally they can only successfully do it once per customer, if the customer gets ticked off enough to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Ideally they can only successfully do it once per customer, if the customer gets ticked off enough to make sure it doesn't happen again.
That happened to me before. I used online bill pay to automatically pay once per month on the same day and the damn date moved! Bam, late fee. I did call and complain and they refunded half the late fee. I told them look back over the past year and tell me what day I paid on, it was the same every month!
There is a law going into effect soon that will stop this.
I know what you're saying, Bob. I just went through the same mess with Dish Network, and all I can say is, I'm never having service with Dish Network again! It was bad enough that they flat-out lied about the 24- month contract being price-locked for the whole 2 years (turns out it's only 12 and their sales rep made a 'mistake' and didn't tell me that). Which is actually the basis for a class-action lawsuit against them - which shows I wasn't the only one they lied to....But now, when I come to them with an honest request for help, they can't do this 1 simple thing for me, when I need it the most.
Same excuse, too - 'we can't change what the automated system sets out' which I think is pure b.s. Data entered into a computer is only as good as what the human operators put in. They shouldn't be schluffing off responsibility on a machine... And, every other creditor on the planet can change billing dates for most any good or service, albeit usually with a prorated amount. That would be fine by me, but they won't even consider it.
I went all the way up through the chain-of-command, to the Executive Dep't;, but no dice. So, since they're clearly unethical (due to 1st problem) and unprofessional (due to 2 nd problem), I put in a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I got a call back from someone in the Executive Department basically defending their actions - apologizing - but making no effort to resolve the issues I brought up. So, I'm going to let the complaint stand since they didn't resolve anything; and I'll look into seeing if it's cheaper for me to ride out the contract as is, or break it. AND, I'll be looking for alternatives to cable and satellite, since they're all pulling the same b.s. these days.
Sorry I can't contribute a solution, but perhaps you should file a complaint with the BBB in your area, too - perhaps negative reviews from an agency that they'll pay attention to will get them to change their ways!
Same excuse, too - 'we can't change what the automated system sets out' which I think is pure b.s. Data entered into a computer is only as good as what the human operators put in. They shouldn't be schluffing off responsibility on a machine... And, every other creditor on the planet can change billing dates for most any good or service, albeit usually with a prorated amount. That would be fine by me, but they won't even consider it.
I went all the way up through the chain-of-command, to the Executive Dep't;, but no dice. So, since they're clearly unethical (due to 1st problem) and unprofessional (due to 2 nd problem), I put in a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I got a call back from someone in the Executive Department basically defending their actions - apologizing - but making no effort to resolve the issues I brought up. So, I'm going to let the complaint stand since they didn't resolve anything; and I'll look into seeing if it's cheaper for me to ride out the contract as is, or break it. AND, I'll be looking for alternatives to cable and satellite, since they're all pulling the same b.s. these days.
Sorry I can't contribute a solution, but perhaps you should file a complaint with the BBB in your area, too - perhaps negative reviews from an agency that they'll pay attention to will get them to change their ways!
Perhaps you should look at the date of the original post. The last post for this thread was over 2 years ago. Bob left Dish a long time ago....
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