/biz/ - Business & Finance

Finally got my 1099 from my brokerage, time to get some tax refunds.

Anyone know where I'd get started with researching the banking sector? I've reviewed some quarterly earnings statements, but I want to understand the internal workings and what each segment "actually" does before going balls deep into some plays.

>>19830177
It depends on many factors, but for the vast majority of people their primary job is their main source of savings, and you save significantly less from that than you'd think.

Hypothetical example, exact numbers will vary by location/context/etc:
> Let's say you make 75k/yr or ~6.2k/mo, pretty good and above the average household income.
> -15k from federal/state/local taxes, new total 60k/yr or 5k/mo.
> Let's say you spend 1k/mo in rent, which is pretty reasonable and falls below the standard rule of no more than 30% of takehome. Now at 48k/yr or 4k/mo.
> Using my own apartment as an example, utilities are about $50 for electricity, $50 for phone, $100 for internet, $200 for groceries, $50 in gas. Heating and water is covered by apartment. That's 450/mo, let's say you treat yourself to $50 worth of eating out per month to get us to a clean 500. We're now at 42k/yr or 3.5k/mo.
> Car loan? Let's say 200/mo (10k@3%). Student loans? 300/mo (30k@4.5%). Car insurance? 75/mo (about 1k/yr). Absolute minimal medical/dental insurance? 50/mo. Car registration at the DMV, plus miscellaneous taxes or maintenance? 25/mo (about 300/yr).
After all that now at (rounded) 33.6k/yr or 2.8/mo. Over half your gross pay is now gone due to taxes, insurance, and a minimum standard of living (and this already assumes you are earning more than average). This doesn't include fun shit like games/toys, or vacations, or going to the movies, or any hobby with a financial cost.

Now let's say you're fine with that, you live a boring life and don't have much going on. Let's say 30k of that goes straight into boring blue-chip stocks that appreciate on average 7% per year with 3% inflation and 15% tax rate. Congrats, you have now broken the 300k barrier having lived like a monk during the prime of your life.

Want to retire? Do that for 40 more years.

I'm generally against second jobs unless you're truly in a dead-end career. For many people, they'd be better off using that time to learn and advance within their primary job (basically any white-collar job that isn't mindless administration or repetitive tasks).

Your problem sounds more like a personal finance issue. Take a hard look at your spending habits (which you admit are poor) and create a plan to pay off your student loans ASAP since the interest is usually decent. That might mean going into monk-mode for a year where you don't eat out or buy games or do fun shit, but hopefully that will mean paying off the debt earlier which frees you up for so much more. Student loans in particular are a bitch because even in bankruptcy you can't get out of it, so that should be a major focus.

Yesterday I received my W-2's and other tax forms, figured we could have a thread about it.

> What was your 2017 gross?
> What are your tax-advantaged accounts? (401k, IRA, HSA, etc)
> What are you doing to maximize your refund/withhold your contributions?

I'll post my own details in a separate post.