u/Available_Leopard_23

I am in my early 50s working full time but not a high earner. I have been frugal. Currently I have 650K in 401K, and 350K in brokerage account. I started Roth IRA late so it's only 15K. HSA at 15K. (When I started HSA, I didn't realize the system and was using it for paying all medical expenses. But no more).

I went over these finance and I just changed HSA contribution to family max $8750.

Currently, I don't really have a chunk of emergency savings, up to 5K from various checking/saving accounts, after unexpected house repair.

At this point, what should I prioritize? Build up emergency saving? Or try to max out Roth IRA? Open an tradition IRA? I now put 11% into my 401K but the company match is 7% so I am thinking I could reduce it.

Hi, I see some negative reports of using airtrain (full, not operating) and a bit worried. For arriving T7 then transferring to T5 (Jetblue) it should be easy, no? What's the condition as of this month?

My family is arriving so I am trying to help them navigate.

The last time I was there a year ago, we got rerouted because of some constructions, so based on that, I am thinking of telling them to go up to the departure level BEFORE existing the building. (This will be after they go through immigration and get the luggage then come out of the arrival door.) Then, follow the airtrain sign and the walkway to get the airtrain terminal.

Do you think this will be still the right way? My thinking is that, since they will have a lot of luggage, it will be easier to go up the level then cross rather than zigzagging the construction zone.

Has anybody done that study? It looked (the software/format) exactly like other studies that I have done but this one just now..... I cannot write much but is that just me? I was alone and only my dog was around but I turned the volume down.

This happened again. I am currently on hold for 1 hour because I finished study too fast when in fact I was screened out. The study even gave me a completion code saying "thank you for your time." BECAUSE I got the completion code and the thank you message, I of course thought it is a screen-out, so I just clicked I am done and put the code into the box.

This is super annoying. What's happened with AMA? I thought this issue was brought up.

I have been in this company for a long time but this is the first major vacation I will take without a real back up person due to layoffs. This is the only real corporate job I have had so I am not really sure what's "normal" or not.

I work in a department where everybody else has specialized skills (Engineering) and I am the only admin who support them and often a default project manager. A few years ago, there was another admin person in a different department so we covered each other. But due to layoff this person is gone.

Luckily, this company still allows people to take time offs, and my new boss is OK for me for taking my 2 weeks vacation time in August without any issues. I offered to check-in (remotely) if needed and even suggested I work a few days during that time. But my boss is pretty new and he doesn't seem to comprehend the scope of my work.

There isn't a "manual" that can be used to show what I do day to day, but I will write down whatever maybe helpful to my boss. Still, do I just expect things to be crazy (and possible slowing down of a project) while I am gone? It's not my fault for not having a back-up. What do companies plan when keep reducing workers but increasing workloads?

Hello, I read in Dupixent official pages that if I miss a dose and if it's within a few days I can get a shot immediately and then resume with the normal schedule after. But I am wondering if I can plan for and control the delay.

For instance, my schedule is every other Monday. I will take one on 8/3, then in normal situation, another one should be on 8/17. But I will be away for a few days until 8/19. I am a bit nervous being delayed for two full days. So rather than taking the one on 8/3 I will push it a day, to 8/4. Then the following shot will be on 8/19.

I will be in a really hot climate, easily over 90-100, so I won't be able to take Dupixent with me.

Hello, I had a study that screened me out because (I am pretty sure) that I answered that my child isn't available for answering questions. Does Prolific allow children age 13-17 take studies just because their parents participates? I didn't think so.

So I just had a study that supposed to take 40 min. I was supposed to watch a video and it ended just as it was explained. After that I had to return to the study, and finished the study. But the problem was, it was a short video and nothing else, and the study (survey) part was only a few pages. By the time it ended (with demography and all) it was less than 20 min, and I was rather slow because I even re-watched the video. Now, I am doubting myself if I missed something and I am worried if I get rejected. I don't understand they can overestimate that much?

Edit: Yes it was from UCF! I am glad that it wasn't just me. I was getting paranoid and I even went back and watched the video after the study too!

I have a daughter who is 15 and a half, just finishing 9th grade. She has her first boyfriend (turning 16 soon, currently in 10th grade) and understandably they want to spend a lot of time together, just two of them. For now, it has been like going to the mall, movies, or amusement park (carnival) or bike rides. But we are not in a city and not much to do (according to them). I don't want her to go to his house yet, as both his parents work (they have work some weekends). My daughter doesn't really want to invite him to our house because we have a small house with again, not much to do (we don't have TV or games etc). For teens dating before able to drive on their own, what do they do and where do they go?

Also, when they go somewhere, they want to spend the entire day. I understand the feeling but I think it's too much. For instance, drop off at 10am, and she wants the pick up to be 5 or later. When I said I will pick her up at 3:30, she thinks I am totally unreasonable.

Edited: It does not have to be at 3:30, sometimes, it's from noon to 5:30. I think that being out for 5+hours is enough. I guess my question is, when teen goes out for dating (or even just hanging out with friends) do you let them stay out as long as they want or is there a duration that you have in mind?

More Edit: I did not think I get this many replies. Thank you all! I guess I should have been clearer why I set this time. She is not good at time management. She over estimates her ability to get things done and underestimates time that takes to do things. Because I don't want to be controlling how and when she does her chores (including homework) I tell her that those things to need to be get done as well. In good intention, she tries to do that, but pretty much every time it fails. She finds extra homework that needed to be done or she wants to polish up assignment that she thought she was done. I don't want to punish her not to go out just because she is likely not get things done. And this is completely different if there a well planned special occasions. In fact, they did a longer bike trail/beach trip the other week which was from 9:30 to 6. But this regular hanging out thing is every weekend. I thought I was trying to have a middle ground. And she can get things done well some time, so it is hard to gauge. So considering all these, I thought 5+ hours seems "reasonable" to me, not something I pulled out this number from out of nowhere.

Earlier today I had one study which showed as 1 place, so I thought I snagged the last available place, but when checked, it was a study that only 1 place available. What does this mean? Was I super lucky to get this or was this specifically targeted to me??

Hello. I haven't really tried to understand taxes before but I realized that I can save quite a bit if I tried. This is our situation and am I understanding this correctly? My husband thinks it's too good to be true....

Our income dropped (unemployment) so our combined AGI in 2026 will be about $120,000. We are filing jointly, and taking the standard deduction, so the taxable income will be $88500 (120000-31500 = 88500). This will put us in the 12% income tax bracket.

Then, I am hoping to move some of my mutual funds which has been sitting in a brokerage account. It is not doing well and expense ratio is higher so I have been wanting to move to ETF.

Because our taxable income will be below $98,900, it looks like we pay 0 for LTCG. Is that correct? I can be a bit more aggressive and lower AGI (put more into 401K and HSA) and that will enable us to take out more funds without taxes, I think.

Edit: Thank you so much for your replies and additional info!! In the past my husband has been in charge of taxes, and I was completely uneducated in terms of personal finances until a few years ago. When I started to ask and talk about finance with my husband, I realized he does minimum and while he is not a big spender and won't waste money, he doesn't care too much about saving or be money smart. He says his time is more important than saving a few percents.

This is the second time in two weeks. I pre-registered for a study, and I received a reminder from the researcher a few hours ago. So I set my alarm, got ready in front of my computer, and the study won't show up. I again ignored some interesting looking studies on my dashboard because I wanted to make sure I am ready at the requested time.

This researcher wrote in the reminder that "At that point, we're at the mercy of Prolific's network code and distribution algorithm." Still, it is totally unfair for asking to allocate somebody's time then not following through. Even if they cannot change the algorithm they should be able to widen the study or set the qualifications etc, right? Prolific too, it should not let algorithm (or set the algorithm right) so that if somebody is qualified and pre-registered, they should at least given a chance to take the study. Otherwise, what's the point of pre-registration???

So I have signed up to take a study. It said "make sure you start right on time otherwise won't get paid" so I set my alarm, rearrange my lunch schedule, and waiting in front of my computer. . . no study shows. Meanwhile, many interesting looking studies pop up on my dash board but I ignored them because it was cutting too close to the time that I signed up. I messaged the researchers before the scheduled time, and I have not heard anything yet. Now, the time has passed. It's rather frustrating.

EDIT: It's supposed to be 10am pacific, 1pm eastern. today......

EDIT2: Thank you for your comments. Still not showing up. I gave up. The researcher sent a reminder earlier that it will be posted 30min before the start time, so I got ready 20min before the start time.

Hello, have any of you noticed that studies time-out easily this past 2 weeks or so? Before, there were a lot of going too fast problems. I received a few such speed warnings 1-2 months ago for a quick 1 -2 min studies. I also saw here that many people got similar problems. Now, instead of the speed check, I am suddenly getting time-out errors. Is that just me??? Many of those are like 10-15 min studies so it is involved and a lot of reading questions. It is frustrating when I take time to read and answer thoroughly, but time-out after I went through the entire study.