I have $80k student loan at roughly 5.5% interest rate (tried to refinance but I'm getting roughly the same rate.) I have $50k in RSUs vested - I'm debating whether I should just pay off my student loan with my vested RSU money. The other option is to keep the money in my company stock and eventually buy a house in 1-3 yrs - but real estate prices are sky high and I don't want to buy on top of the market/I think there's going to be a correction in prices soon.

Given above information - what's best way to proceed with RSU vested money?

You've got a point because Etrade has been basically ignoring me. I had asked them if it was a problem to have a Veitnam address on the form with a permanent USA address. they then shut it down but reopened it after I complained.

As for mail forwarding I don't need it, usually there's an option to go paperless these days. As for phone, I don't have an answer for that. I listed my old number and they said the mailbox is full. I figure they want to avoid the hassle but legally they should have to do it, so I'm hoping I can find a workaround.

Vanguard lets you live abroad, but I read somewhere it might not work setting up a new acct while already out of the USA. Get a relative/friend to let you use their address, then change it to the foreign one?

As for the phone number issue, I found an app that cheaply let me get a US phone number. PM me and I'll tell you the name, I dont want it searchable.

Its gimmicky and spammy, but for $5/year I got a number that worked for 2FA.

Not nearly enough info to give you useful advice but given what you've said i'd pay off the loans. 5.5% on debt that you don't have any deductions on is too high imo. Especially if you're at a company that's had a massive run up in share price since 12/31/18

Help me make the optimal decision here regarding investing vs. paying off debt.

Background: 32 years old, stuck around poker a few years too long. Quit a couple years ago, spent about a year re-skilling, and this past year was my first full year of actual work in a career-track type of job. At the beginning of the year I started with about $29k in CC debt, I'm down to $6k now.

I'm a financial noob and have never contributed to any type of retirement plan up to this point, so I would like to start a Roth IRA. As it so happens, the max contribution for 2019 is the same as my remaining CC debt. Google tells me April 15 2020 is the deadline for contributing to a Roth IRA that counts for 2019. I'll have enough to pay off my CC balance by then and a little more, but not enough to max it out. I would have enough for both CC/Roth by the end of May probably. My card has 16.49% APR.

Is there some feasible way for me to max out my Roth for 2019? For what it's worth my credit is actually not too bad, 746 currently. Don't think I've ever missed a payment, but more minimum payments than I care to think about.

As an aside, should I be hesitant about getting into a Roth IRA asap? There seems to be a lot of people saying the market is due for a crash (I understand people have being saying this for many years now, but still looking at the historical returns for people who start investing just before market downswing has me nervous).

Pay off your CC debt first, don't worry about your IRA at the moment. Not only does it make more financial sense to pay off your debt first, it'll be a huge burden off your shoulders and something less to stress about. Having something like that on your mind everyday is not something you want.

Generally, I'd totally agree with the above poster. However, it appears like you have a ton of self control and are aggressively paying things down. If you can do both by May, I'd go ahead and max the Roth IRA for last year and then make sure you can do it again for 2020 contributions. You can't ever get back IRA contribution windows once they pass, so that would be the deciding factor for me if it just means you're paying a couple months of credit card interest. I'd also see if you can find a card you can balance transfer that to for a lower interest rate too. For someone less diligent, I'd always say go for the credit card debt first.

Never hesitate to invest, you can always find people predicting doom no matter what the status of the stock market. Bottom line is that investing is +EV; timing the market is a suckers game for pretty much everyone.

Agree that you can max the IRA and then take the CC debt out right after if you can continue your aggressive pay down schedule that took you from 29k to 6k. Doubt stress on CC debt is a big issue for him since he's already taken out 80% of it.

And don't worry about the market being ready to correct even if it is going to do so. That is just going to work to your advantage as you dollar cost average in over the next X number of years. Congrats on crushing the debt.

Update on this: Etrade is working with me. they just need my current employer's address. I'm worried that they'll reject it if I use my actual employer's address, which is in Vietnam, and vietnam is basically the wild west. Do you think I should use my old employer's address in the states? Or claim I'm self employed? I'm worried about any blowback in the future.

Whats wrong with saying you are self employed?

Do what you have to do to get the account opened. You wont go to prison for lying about what you do for a living to a broker.

Not worried about prison, just a tax penalty in the future from the IRS.

Don't lie to the IRS and you wont have any issues.

esspoker, I really hope you have a good VPN, a US-based bank account, a US-based address, and a US-based phone number. If e-trade ever finds out, you're going to end up in an absolute customer service nightmare. The brokerages and banks have very serious Know Your Customer laws.

It's not worth it over the potential earnings in the future when you need to withdraw from your account.

You may be able to set up the account, you might not get your money back in any sort of timely fashion when you withdraw from the account.

I don't get why this is, if I'm an American citizen and technically paying US taxes, why it's so hard to set up a roth. The tax benefits make it almost necessary to do it for dividend stocks.

I think you're probably right, but they seem willing to work with me now. I am only putting in money I don't need, so cashing out shouldn't be an issue. And I'm assuming any time I go back to the states, I could get the money easily. And we're not talking millions of dollars, just thousands.

You're muddling what should be done with what is done. You're a US citizen but not a US resident. Nearly every US brokerage spells out that they don't offer a retirement account like a Roth to non-residents (google e-trade non-resident, fidelity non-resident, etc.)

The brokerage companies have to comply with FATCA and KYC laws, or they have their own interpretations of those laws and decided its not worth servicing non-residents.

Kindof a stupid question but what do you guys think of using different brokerages for the same service? Mostly just low cost index/ETF investing.

When Schwab and TD Ameritrade merged a few months back, I thought do I really want all my investments with essentially 1 company? Just seems wrong if diversifying is preached with investment then why not with investment houses?

I guess it really doesn't matter but just curious if people like to diversify the actual brokerages they use and not just their investments within them?

Optimal I've found is three accounts...
1) Interactive Brokers for best margin rates
2) Merrill or Chase for banking perks
3) Whichever brokerage is currently offering the best sign-up bonus

What about my reasoning though? It isn't to diversify for different features.

It is just for the sake of diversifying, possibly against some type of massive fraud/catastrophe. I know this is probably like <1% but the industry is rapidly consolidating and I'm sure it has crossed the minds of a few people because of this. Scottrade was bought by TD then TD merges with Schwab.

Tons of consolidating after the GFC and probably more after the next 1 as well.

There is no reasonable chance Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, etc go broke/fraud/etc. You will complicate your tax documents, and possibly run into wash sale issues if you make trades.

Also, you can only have 1 Roth right? So you cant exactly break that up.

-IB for margin, gambling, quick trades
-Any large brokerage for buy/hold/Roth

I realize now I probably should have posted this in the General newbie/queries thread, but since I received thoughtful advice I'll continue here.

So I just found out that foreign earned income that goes toward the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion can't be put into a Roth IRA...

I don't believe this affects my 2019 taxes because I worked in the US Jan-July '19, but I've been working overseas (China) since August '19. So my understanding is that I will not have been out of the country enough days to qualify for FEIE and can contribute to a Roth IRA this year (right?).

However, after learning this I'm concerned/confused about the optimal plan going forward, as I intend to qualify for the FEIE for the foreseeable future. Does this completely eliminate Roth IRA as an option (assuming I don't surpass the FEIE income limit, which I almost certainly won't)? And if so what should I do with the money I save?

You should be able to contribute to a roth for 2019.

You cant contribute excluded income to a roth, so taxable account I guess.

If you are able to avoid income taxes in your new country its fine, but if you are paying full local taxes on income then its a horrible deal for you.

heh, I see you answered more or less the same question not too long ago. My salary is net, but that's because my employer pays the local taxes so I'm not really avoiding them. I don't know if this helps, but I'll give some more info:

I only make ~$35k/year (net), but my employer pays for my apartment, roundtrip tickets to US, and some meals. Basically, I can save about 90% of my salary. I would like to save aggressively but it's kind of a bummer if I can't use the Roth. Does it make sense to forego the FEIE in my case (going forward 2020 and beyond) so I can contribute to Roth IRA?

Would it be legal to just make my own company and cycle the amount I want to put into the Roth through that?

Taxable income that low might make it worth while to forego it, but you'd have to run some numbers to figure that out.

I am 33 and just started investing, am self employed so it’s important to contribute, maybe 20k a year for now. Currently have 7k since starting last summer and bought a sp500 index, also a pot stock that I held 4 months and just sold at a loss, TELUS and that’s it. Should I just be going into index funds or am I missing out on this growth by not buying certain stocks ?

I'm in my mid-thirties too and started learning about retirement planning and investing a few years ago. I'm not the most knowledgeable poster on here, but I think it would probably be best to keep investing into the index fund. IMO, if you haven't already done so open a Roth and contribute the max to that (and continue to do so every year), then open a SEP IRA and contribute the remainder of what you are comfortable contributing every year. Don't miss out on 2019 tax year contributions if possible. The SEP IRA will help you contribute amounts past the Roth cap and has the added advantage of giving you some tax savings. In case you're not aware, the Roth is sweet because you can withdraw contributions (although not earnings) tax and penalty free.