Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the Week of October 02, 2023
Welcome to the Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of October 02, 2023! This is your go-to place to seek guidance, share achievements, and find support from our wonderful community. Whether you are facing challenges or celebrating triumphs, this thread is here to provide you with the assistance and encouragement you need.
In this edition, we will explore various topics that can help you navigate through your weekday struggles, motivate you towards achieving victories, and equip you with valuable information. From productivity tips to self-care advice, we aim to cover a wide range of areas to support you on your journey to success.
Productivity Strategies to Maximize Your Weekdays:
1. Set Clear Goals: Start your weekdays by defining specific objectives you want to achieve. This will help you stay focused and prioritize your tasks effectively.
2. Plan Your Week Ahead: Spend some time on Sunday evening or Monday morning to plan your entire week. Consider both personal and professional commitments, allocate time for important activities, and create an organized schedule.
3. Break Your Tasks Down: When faced with a large, daunting task, break it down into smaller, manageable parts. This approach will help you tackle each element individually, making the overall task less overwhelming.
4. Utilize Time Blocking: Time blocking involves allocating specific chunks of time to different activities or tasks. This technique can prevent procrastination, improve concentration, and ensure that you dedicate sufficient time to each task.
5. Prioritize and Delegate: Identify tasks that require your immediate attention and those that can be delegated to others. Prioritizing and delegating effectively will help you optimize your productivity and focus on what truly matters.
6. Minimize Distractions: Identify distractions that tend to derail your focus during weekdays. Consider turning off push notifications on your phone, closing unnecessary tabs on your computer, or finding a quiet place to work.
7. Take Regular Breaks: While it may seem counterintuitive, taking short breaks actually enhances productivity. Stepping away from your work for a few minutes every hour can help recharge your brain, maintain focus, and prevent burnout.
Self-Care Practices for a Balanced Week:
1. Establish a Morning Routine: Start your weekdays with a routine that energizes and prepares you for the day ahead. This can include activities such as meditation, exercise, journaling, or enjoying a healthy breakfast.
2. Practice Mindfulness: Incorporate mindfulness into your weekdays, even in the midst of a busy schedule. Engage in deep breathing exercises, stay present in the moment, and cultivate gratitude for the opportunities and challenges you encounter.
3. Stay Hydrated and Nourished: Proper nutrition and hydration are essential for maintaining energy and focus throughout the day. Make sure to consume a balanced diet and keep a water bottle handy to stay hydrated.
4. Move Your Body: Physical activity boosts mood, enhances focus, and improves overall well-being. Find time during the weekdays to incorporate exercise into your routine, whether it’s going for a walk, taking a yoga class, or hitting the gym.
5. Foster Positive Relationships: Surround yourself with supportive, uplifting individuals who contribute positively to your life. Connect with friends, family, or colleagues who inspire and motivate you, even if it’s through a quick phone call or virtual meet-up.
6. Unplug from Technology: While technology is a valuable tool, it can also consume a significant portion of our weekdays. To prioritize self-care, set boundaries with technology by establishing screen-free zones or practicing digital detoxes during certain times of the day.
7. Engage in Hobbies and Relaxation: Set aside time during the weekdays to engage in activities that bring you joy and promote relaxation. This could be reading a book, pursuing a hobby, listening to music, or enjoying a soothing bath – whatever helps you unwind and recharge.
Celebrating Victories, Big and Small:
1. Share Your Wins: Take a moment to acknowledge and celebrate your victories, no matter how small they may seem. Share your achievements in this thread, as the act of verbalizing your success can bring a sense of fulfillment and inspire others.
2. Reflect on Lessons Learned: Even in the face of challenges, there are valuable lessons to be learned. Embrace setbacks as opportunities for growth and reflect on how you can leverage them to achieve future victories.
3. Seek Feedback and Support: If you are encountering obstacles, don’t hesitate to seek guidance from others. Reach out to mentors, colleagues, or friends who can offer advice or provide a fresh perspective on your situation.
4. Practice Gratitude: Cultivating a mindset of gratitude can significantly impact your perspective on weekdays. Take a moment each day to appreciate the small victories, the people who support you, and the opportunities that come your way.
5. Set Goals and Track Progress: Setting goals allows you to channel your energy and efforts towards achieving specific outcomes. Break your goals down into actionable steps, monitor your progress regularly, and celebrate milestones along the way.
6. Embrace Adaptability: Weekdays are rarely predictable, and circumstances may change unexpectedly. Embracing adaptability and being open to adjusting plans or strategies can help you navigate challenges and find new paths to victory.
7. Be Kind to Yourself: Remember to be kind and compassionate to yourself throughout the week. Avoid harsh self-judgment, prioritize self-care, and give yourself permission to rest and recharge when needed.
In conclusion, the Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of October 02, 2023, is here to support you in navigating through your weekday challenges, celebrating your achievements, and providing you with valuable guidance and advice. By implementing effective productivity strategies, practicing self-care, and celebrating victories big and small, you can make the most of your weekdays and move closer to your goals. Remember, you are capable of achieving great things – we believe in you!
I started aggressively paying off my credit cards a year ago this week. I had $10,500 in credit card debt at 26% interest. Today I’m at $3400. It’s not gone, and I really wanted to get it paid off by the end of this year, and I’ve made some purchases. But it’s manageable and the end is in sight. $7100 in one year. Makes me feel like I can forecast how long it will take me to pay off my other loans at lower interest rates!
I opened up a HYSA about a year ago as my emergency fund was building and I wanted a place for it to grow modestly but still be fluid. Over the year as (housing) rates rose my HYSA did as well going from 4% to eventually 4.7%. With the last couple rate hikes my HYSA has not gone up.
Can any explain to me to correlation between the two (if there is one) and if so, should I expect to see my HYSA rate go up again?
Thanks.
Windfall—
Long story short, I inherited 180k from a family member I didn’t know. Yes I’m fortunate. Please keep the comments “I wished this happened to me” to an upvote.
I feel my wife and I are already well prepared for retirement at 37y/o and was not counting on this at all. Consider it a windfall that should get me to retirement faster.
Dual income family in a HCOL area. 750k in shared retirement accounts, 20k cash savings with 1M+ house @ 2.75%/30yr.
How should I invest 75-100k of the inheritance?
Another ibond vs CD query.
I have two bonds.
One purchased 11-1-2021. The other 1-1-2022.
Both currently earn 3.38%
Bond one balance 11,272$
Bond two balance 11,208$
I’m considering redeeming these and going into 15 month no penalty CDs at 5.25%
Good idea? Dumb idea?
TIA
Alternatives to Ally for HYSA
I currently have nearly double the amount of money that can be FDIC insured in a HYSA w/ Ally, as I’m saving to by a house with cash in the near future. Ally has been fantastic. However,
I’ve been thinking recently that If something tragic were to happen economically, and banks were to go under, my money is only insured up to $250K with Ally. Is there another great/similar online bank with a competitive APR that you would recommend?
**Is Acorns worth trying?**
I’ve gotten a late start in life, I’m 27f. I couldnt really start working until 24 bc I was raising my siblings and had no transportation to get to a town to work. Now I work at a library and I make 1000-1200$ a month. Even with that I’m pretty much paycheck to paycheck paying for necessary bills and food, I’m still raising my siblings so it’s a significant amount. I want to start investing in my future, building credit and investing. My brother uses acorns but he makes much better money than I do. I make 9$ an hour he makes almost 25$.
Is it worth investjng in acorns? How much would that impact my taxes? Is there a better option? Is it stupid to try acorns at all?
**Question:**
Should I move funds into my HYSA and then take them out at end of month to make loan payments?
**Context:**
Hello! I’ve been having trouble wording this for a google search, so I’m hoping you all can help me understand what the best option is!
I have a CITI HYSA that’s at about 4 or 4.5% interest. I also have two loans that I am paying the monthly minimum payment on (Student loans varying rates, car loan 5.99%). The total I pay monthly comes to about $800.
I am wondering if I should A) leave the $800 in checking and use that to pay my loans, or B) each month should I transfer $800 into my CITI HYSA and then transfer it out again to make payments at the end of month?
I believe CITI compounds interest daily, but I’m not sure if this would have a big enough impact to make it worthwhile to switch the auto-payments to the savings acct from my checking (at a different bank).
Currently, I only deposit into my HYSA and have never taken money out. I had a difficult time determining whether there was a daily/monthly withdraw limit on either $ amount or # of transactions.
Thank you in advance! All help is appreciated 🙂
hi! i’m looking into opening up a HYSA with my meager 1k. i’m hoping to be able to benefit from any opening offers and i’m cool with doing direct deposit since i have a job (which i feel confident about it being stable, but yknow knock on wood). i was planning to split my direct deposit so that only a certain amount of my paycheck was deposited to my savings account and the rest was available to me to make my necessary purchases, bills, and etc. i like my credit union debit card, and i don’t wanna let it go 🥺
i was looking into sofi with their $200 accounts bonus, but i’m not sure at what deposit they offer that, and it’s a little obscure so i know prioritizing that bonus comes at the expense of inconvenience. and i don’t even look at discover despite having their credit card because of their 10k minimum for the bonus, which i definitely don’t have, so. (or maybe i should? it’s the yield that matters more, right?).
does anyone have any specific advice? i don’t want to end up in analysis paralysis and i know ultimately the sooner i act the better, but i also know that i’m poor 🙁 and i have a goal i’m actively working towards, so the more money i have now the better. any advice?
I feel stupid asking this but I just don’t know how to go about this. I opened a Chase Checking and Savings Account and want to transfer all my money from Wells Fargo to them. Transferring the money online had a limit of 6K. Do I just goto a physical Wells Fargo, withdraw all the rest of my $ in cash and then tell them I would like to close both accounts? Is it that easy or are there other things I need to do?
I’m looking to save for a down payment ($90k) and closing costs in ~3 years time. I live in Virginia and qualify for using a First Time Home Buyer’s Savings Account (FHSA) to save up to $50k principal or $150k principal + interest in a savings account. Should I set up a high yield savings account (HYSA) as the FHSA or just a standard savings/brokerage account? Is there a good bank I should work with?
Also if folks have any other suggestions for first time home buyers please let me know!
HYSA question/advice
Just wondering who most of you guys use for a savings account. I’ve been looking into capital one for a savings account, but there’s not an actual bank close to me. Thank you guys in advance!
Investments vs CDs in 2023-2024
Hi all,
I kept hearing of 10-15% returns from family in 2019-2020 and had some cash just parked in CDs so I said I’d give it a shot late 2020.
Since then my money has been fluctuating, mostly losing then bouncing back while I’m paying the investment company $1,000/yearly. I have never gained any money except maybe 3,000 in the beginning which was washed away. Currently $5,000 under unfortunately.
I’m strongly thinking about pulling out and going back to CDs (4% rates) in the meantime with the way the market has been. Single income family and would be nice to have the extra $, last year I bought Solar and told the firm plan to use profits to pay off the $23k Solar loan in say 5-7 years but currently don’t see that happening.
Where do you all see the market or thoughts/opinions welcome.
I’m was just informed that I will be laid off at the end of the month (Oct 31). Do I have to wait until Nov 1 before I can apply for unemployment?
edit: I’m in California
I opened up a 529 (AZ529 plan) for both of my kids and put $1k in each in June and to my surprised they’re both down to like $950. I know it’s only been a few months but is this normal to fluctuate like that?
I have about 1M in cash sitting in a cash management account with Fidelity. It is convenient but I don’t really need to use it with any immediacy. It’s only getting about 2.75% right now.
There are plenty of HYSAs out there as high as 5.35% that are FDIC insured. I’m thinking about moving to a few of these in $200K chunks. I’m leaving about $25K on the table (assuming rates stay up) by not doing this.. wondering if there were any thoughts on alternatives or if this is a decent strategy? I want to keep the cash handy for various business/RE opportunities, but am waiting things out for a bit..
I’ve got about $50k in savings that I don’t need to be liquid for at least another five or six months or so. I’ve opened basic accounts with both Raisin(a.k.a. Savebetter) and with Fidelity, but am having a hard time deciding where to put the money or, in the case of Fidelity, how to do it.
For Raisin, it’s mostly simple: choose a CD based on the rate and maybe a little background research into the participating bank. Deposit it from your linked checking account and it’s done. One question I’m not clear on though: there’s of course a penalty for withdrawing early, but all the CDs I’m seeing say “The term will automatically renew on the next business day after the maturity date. You can elect to pay-out and close your Certificate by logging into your account prior to the maturity date.” Does that mean that you have to log in on the exact day to get your money out or you’ll pay a penalty (earlier than that and it’s an early withdrawal, later than that and it’s an early withdrawal from the newly renewed CD)? Or does electing to pay-out at maturity on Raisin different from an early withdrawal?
For Fidelity, it’s a lot more intimidating looking. I’ve never managed my own investments before – I’ve got a Roth IRA under that my parents opened for me with their retirement advisers a couple decades ago, and a 401k through work. I’m looking at the TBills buy/sell page and feel like I don’t know what the **** I’m doing. It looks simple, but I don’t want to accidentally buy something that’s riskier than I think it is or that will incur penalties I’m not seeing if I don’t do something I don’t know to do currently.
I’ve dropped about half the money in a High Yield Savings Account with Raisin for the time being. What do you recommend I do for the other half? FWIW I’m in WA, so no state income tax but there is a capital gains tax (does that even matter for CDs or TBills?)
Thank you!
Hi all, I have some good amount of cash lying around that I won’t need for the next year. Is putting my money into a CD in Ally or Capital one, paying around 5.15%, sound like a good idea? Thank you!
Interested in raising my knowledge level about these different types of accounts – cash account vs high yield savings account
Let’s say the only goal is to move money sitting in checking and have it generate as much interest as possible, in a non-risky way.Between a cash account and HYSA, if a user was not making any transactions out of the account and just wanted the money to sit there, is the APY the most important determining factor?
Example: Wealthfront cash account is at 4.8% APY right now, vs American Express HYSA at 4.3%. What are some reasons a person would put their money into the AmEx account instead of the Wealthfront account, if they are not planning on using the money, and only planning on accruing interest? Is there something screwy about the Wealthfront account that makes it not as good as the HYSA at a lower APY?
EDIT: I realized the calculator was giving me annual returns and 52 deposits @ $125 = $6500 vs 12 deposits @ $500 = $6000 so that probably explains it.
Question: Is it better depositing $125 a week vs $500 a month into a High Yield Savings account compounded daily?This has been bugging me. Traditionally I have just done a single deposit per month into a rainy day fund which I have in a HYS account at 5.25% (currently).I recently came across an interest calculator which compares depositing weekly vs monthly and it always spits out a slightly higher gain in interest returns with the weekly deposit. This calculator is based off a daily compounded interest account (same as my account).I Have switched to depositing weekly instead of monthly (bc of the Amex calculator) but it doesn’t fully make sense to me. Doesn’t it make sense to have more money in the account at the start of the Month n let it cook daily until the next deposit next month over adding a 4th of it weekly? Higher balance = more interest daily basically so why is the calculator favoring depositing lower amount weekly over larger sum monthly?(lets assume every month will be same 4 weeks to keep things simple and same number of days)Can someone explain this to me?
Car&AC balance transfer 0% APR for 18 months and utilize HYSA?
Does this seem like a good idea? Are there any gotchas/red flags?
I owe:
Car: $3,118.70 left
AC: $3,961.66 left
Total: $7,080.36
My monthly payments between the two come out to $826.95/mo. AC has a flat $24/mo fee and car interest rate is 4.99% (almost paid off finally!). I will have both paid off next summer (June/July 2024).
I received an offer from US Bank (same place as car loan) for their US Bank Visa Platinum card. 0% introductory APR on purchases and balance transfers for 18 billing cycles and 0 annual fee. As stated above, both balances will be paid off well within that 18 months.
My idea is to transfer those balances to the US Bank card, pay the minimum amount each month on that, and put the rest of the $826.95/mo into a HYSA. I’m thinking I can both save on the interest and fixed payments, but also get a little additional money from the HYSA. The same amount would be coming out of my bank account every month, and I would lump sum pay off the credit card before the 18 month period is over. Good idea? Bad? Anything I’m not thinking of? The only thing I can think of is it potentially affecting credit from opening a new credit card. Thank you in advance!
Is Robinhood good place to invest with? I remember during the GME craze they had issues with their platform, while other platforms like Fidelity didn’t. I have accounts on both but I haven’t deposited into RH in a long time. I do however want to start buying stock again on that platform because I like the UI and feel of it. Any thoughts on this?
I am in my late 40s, didn’t start really saving until my 30s, I have a total of about $500k in retirement.
About 12 years ago I signed on with a financial advisor because I was a complete rube when it came to finances and I was working a ton of hours and had 3 young children (in retrospect I should have invested more in my own money management, but here we are).
I learned a lot of good things from them, and was helped for much of the past decade. Everything from Roth to 529s to FAFSA and college, etc.
At this point, I cannot say what I need moving forward is worth the $$. I am maxing out my 401k, have most college expenses behind me, own my home, have virtually $0 debt. Moving forward, I want to start moving cash into a brokerage account / low cost index funds (that is another question tho still working on that).
The advisor takes a 1% fee, and on 100k that I use them for, they are effectively taking all the gains in that account (I have made 2% over the lifetime of the account).
I even avoided moving an old Fidelity 401k ($300k) out to another account my advisor recommended because I didn’t want to pay more in fees.
On to my question, should I move the $100k IRA to something else with no/low fees (Fidelity for example) to avoid the advisor fees and more-or-less cancel my relationship with my advisor? Are there any other considerations in moving on from my advisor?
I recently bought a house at 525K, put 25% down, 386k remaining on mortgage. Due to some health problems in my family I’m going to have to move back home to support them in 3-4 years.
Knowing that I have this move in front of me, should I put extra money toward the mortgage or into my savings to prepare for the next house purchase? I have about 4k extra per month that I can put to use and right now I’m putting an additional 2k towards the principal and 2k into my brokerage account. Should I change the ratios? What would you do?
I have several HYSAs, should I be moving the bulk of savings to highest interest rate account? Highest is 5 and lowest is 4.25.
Do high yield savings account have a max pay out? For example if you had 5 million dollars in a 5% HYSA would they actually pay you out 250k annually or is it common to have a max earnings?
Any US banks with high yield savings that will let me use a foreign residential address?
Currently living abroad as an expat with no plans to return. Have $70k parked in a CapitalOne 360 Savings where I’m accruing 4.3% intertest but haven’t changed my residential address to my foreign address as I think it might cause problems. The only banks I found so far which “for sure,” will take a foreign address was the State Department Federal Credit Union (which doesn’t have a competitive interest rate on savings) and HSBC which requires a large deposit.
What’s my best option?
Also, if anyone knows, I initially made this comment as a post and it was immediately removed and directed me to comment here instead. Anyone know why?
What more can I be doing? I currently have Zero debt, am bringing in $1k a week take home, have a chunk of money in CDs garnering ~%5.5, and an emergency fund in my savings. Have a house payment, health insurance, phone, gym etc. that adds up to about $900/month. Usually spend about $1000 elsewhere (groceries/food, dog stuff, misc.) I am planning to start graduate school next fall which will cost about $95k over the course of 2.5 years.
My question is, what else should I be doing? I am a good saver, but smart enough to know I don’t know shit about investing/money stuff.
I don’t really understand Treasury bonds. Why would anyone get a 10-year treasury bond at 4.8% interest when you could do just as well with a high-yield savings account and not have your money locked up for 10 years?
Why does everyone recommend a roth IRA over a traditional IRA? You have to pay income tax on withdrawals from a traditional IRA but your income will likely be lower in retirement than while working correct? Or is the rationale pay the income tax now while you are making more money so you don’t have to worry about it later?
Trying to decide HYSA, (currently at Capital One 4.3%), or let it sit in VMFXX settlement fund (5.42% compound yield). I’m open to going to a different HYSA if necessary. Thoughts?
Advice needed – MM, HYSA, INDEX, ETF?
Hey all, just curious on your thoughts and advice on where I should be looking to put my money. Background information: I’m 28, new to investing with 20k invested evenly between FNILX, FZILX, FZIPX, FZROX. I have an additional 25k I’d be Okay with investing/ moving to a nonsuper liquid asset. This would leave me with roughly 8k for an emergency fund which would last me 3-4 months.
I’m potentially investing/saving to buy a house around 300k in the next year or 2 if id be comfortable with the payment and potentially putting 20% down by using the majority of what is invested.
Other than that, I would let the money sit and grow. I’m trying to decide whether to put this 25k in a MM, HYSA, ETF or more indexs. What do toy guys think? I’m also open to options outside of these 4 as well.
Windfall help
I’m a stay at home mom. About to get about 1.5 million windfall from a death in the family. Looking for input on what to do with it.
My husband makes 135k and has decent retirement savings. Zero debt. We have a 19mo old son. Currently renting a house – we had just moved across the country when the death happened and had been planning to scope the area out over the year and then buy.
Obviously we need to do a 529 for our son.
Beyond that tho, what are some options to make the most of this unexpected money? Buy a house in cash? Keep renting and invest it all? The housing market is a little off putting right now. We’d be okay staying in this rental a bit longer.
We have a financial advisor who had been managing the money for our family member who died so I’m just looking for some questions to ask him or possible strategies to go over with him. I’m obviously way over my head dealing with this kind of money.
Thank you for any input!
**I’m 25 and, after my injury settlement, I have $10k to invest.**
Roth IRA already maxed out for the year.
Can’t dump it in my work 403(b) because they only allow paycheck-based contributions.
– I thought of putting 100% of each paycheck into the 403(b) and paying myself out of my 10k investment amount. The contribution limit per paycheck is 25%, though, so that’s too slow of a way to get the funds into investment.
​
**Possibilities:**
* wait for January/ the new year and max out my IRA again
* Open non-tax-advantaged investment account with Fidelity, dump it all in that
* Any other options?
New job. Significant raise (almost 10x increase), but paid as 1099. Will need to pay quarterly taxes.
I have some credit card debt that I’m paying off.
Was also trying to establish emergency fund & set money aside for taxes, but my thought is that I could pay off cc debt faster and do savings later. Should only take me 4-5 months.
I could even pay taxes with cc if necessary.
Seems cheaper than interest.
Thoughts?
Should I open a savings account?
For the past 3 years I have been working full time while living frugally, resulting in a reasonable amount of money in my bank account which for the moment I have no plans for or don’t know what to do with.
Should I proceed to opening a savings account?The answer is probably yes, I was just wondering if there is anything I should be cautious with, any downsides vs a regular account ( I guess non) etc since the bank employees are not really helpful for various reasons (language barrier etc.)
Also, how effective is a savings account compared to ETF’s or buying land or apartment?
Is there a way to do a backdoor Roth IRA without accruing interest in the time it’s temporarily in my traditional IRA? I use fidelity and I transferred 2023 IRA contribution from my traditional to Roth after letting the funds settle. Fidelity pays out SPAXX at the end of the month so now I have $0.44 accrued in my Traditional account.
I know I can transfer it but it might sound dumb but this is severely triggering my OCD because now my Roth IRA will show $6500.44 contributed.
I paid for a full year of homeowner’s insurance when I purchased my house months ago.
Just found out today that my insurance company hadn’t received any escrow payments from United Wholesale Mortgage. Turns out UWM somehow never got my proof of insurance and bought forced-place insurance without notifying me, and escrow payments were going towards that second policy.
Obviously, the first step is to get my existing policy on file. The second, I guess, is to try to seek a refund for the forced-place insurance premiums.
Has anyone dealt with this situation before?
Student loans came off hold and I made payment one day late. They switched what company owns my loan again and I missed it.
Credit got hit by 14points (possibly related, it also shot up 14 points last week so idk).
I’ve got like $7k in loans at 4.4%, not in any rush to pay it off, just setup autopay paying double whatever the required monthly payment is.
I could pay it off in full, but since I won’t be missing a payment again there’s not really any point. 30y/o with $70k in Roth and $30k in traditional + $25k taxable and $9k cash. $70kish income
So I’m a trader, I just got a promotion email from HR Block about IRS W-4 withholding money now or refund later. I don’t know if it’s just a promotion, a new thing, or if I need to pay taxes on my trades for the quarter. ( I haven’t made more than a few hundred)
With inflation I’m worried about 0% giving money to IRS to get back later with inflation being so high.
Currently my HYSA with capital one is paying 4.3% interest and it was 3.75% earlier this year when I first joined. I’m just curious, how much were HYSA paying back in early 2020 when interest rates were super low?
Hi, I think my identity was stolen earlier today.
– I received an email from Marcus saying that my statement preferences have changed. I didn’t ever change them
– I tried to log in to the app to check and it said my account was locked
– I called their Savings help line and I’m asked to give some PIN (I don’t have this, so either this is something a hacker set up like the recent Schwab fraud, or Marcus just doesn’t have it and it’s meant for other accounts)
– I get connected to a person and give my personal info
– They ask for my phone number again and ask if I have any other number
– They say they can’t verify me with the given information and I have to go through an identity proof process through the mail which will be 2-3 weeks
Based on this, I’m guessing someone called them or got into my account, changed the phone number, tried to withdraw money but ended up triggering the account getting locked. I’m shocked because I swear Marcus has 2FA (but I can’t even get into the app now to confirm!) and I’m remember setting up a verbal password with the account (which I was never asked for).
My questions:
1. Has anyone experienced similar with Marcus? Is there a fraud line I can call for better assistance?
2. I have multiple linked accounts on there; is that enough for the hacker to make fraudulent withdrawals from those accounts?
3. If this means clearly enough of my info is out there to do this, how should I make sure my other accounts are protected? I have 2FA enabled everywhere AFAIK, and I could change passwords too.
4. Am I legally protected? Say this hacker does withdraw my money, but clearly it was not me, and eventually I get through to Goldman and prove that. They owe me my money back right?
Please submit any advice you can, I’m really freaking out, without giving too much info I’m young, just became independent, and I moved allllll my savings into there because of the high interest rate. Even if it turns out I am safe it is so worrying to be locked out of literally all of my money for several weeks, and this is all happening during the busiest week at work. FML.