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ASK BRIANNA: WHAT MONEY MOVES SHOULD I MAKE IN MY 30S? By Brianna Mcgurran NerdWallet
“Ask Brianna” is a Q&A column from NerdWallet for 20-some-things or anyone else starting out. I’m here to help you manage your money, find a job and pay off student loans ‚Äî all the real-world stuff no one taught us how to do in college. Send your questions about postgrad life to [email protected].
I’m upending this column’s usual question-and-answer for-mat and posing a question of my own to the experts this week. In a couple of days, I turn 30. Besides pondering the existential stuff (Am I where I thought I’d be? Did I wear enough crop tops when I was 22?), I want to know this: What should I focus on financially in the coming decade?
Here are four tips for embracing financial adulthood.STEP UP RETIREMENT SAVINGSIf you heeded advice to start saving for retirement in your
20s, look for ways now to kick it up a notch.“If you’re just dabbling in retirement savings in your 20s,
you should be maxing out by your 30s,” says Bobbi Rebell, the author of “How to Be a Financial Grownup.”
You can contribute up to $18,000 a year to a workplace plan such as a 401(k) or 403(b). If that feels unattainable, contribute at least as much as your company’s match, if offered.
Try a Roth individual retirement account if you don’t have a workplace retirement plan, or the plan has limited investment options or high fees. You can save up to $5,500 a year in a Roth IRA if you’re single and earn less than $118,000 in modified adjusted gross income. Married? The income limit is $186,000 for joint filers contributing the maximum to a Roth.
If you earn more, you can contribute a reduced amount. Or save $5,500 a year in a traditional IRA instead. Those contribu-tions are tax-deductible now, whereas you pay taxes upfront on your Roth contributions.
WRAP UP OUTSTANDING DEBTNo house or kids yet? Those delightful but money-sucking
milestones might be around the corner. Think child care, col-lege savings, a car upgrade and home maintenance. You’ll also need life insurance when you have children and homeowners insurance when you own property.
Rebell recommends getting rid of other debt before your family expenses mount. Use portions of bonuses or tax refunds to pay off your high-interest credit cards or student loan debt. If you have good credit and a solid income, you may be able to refinance student loans to get a lower interest rate.
STREAMLINE YOUR FINANCESNow is the time to automate your financial life, including
setting up recurring transfers to a savings account and putting your bills on autopay. Additional family responsibilities and moving up the career ladder might limit the time available in your 30s to track bills and expenses.
“You’re not going to have more time to devote to all this stuff,” says Cristina Guglielmetti, a certified financial planner and owner of Future Perfect Planning in Brooklyn, N.Y. “So keep things as simple as possible.”
Consider using an automated investment adviser for your Roth IRA, which will pick investments for you based on your risk tolerance and rebalance them as you age. Look into roll-ing over old workplace retirement accounts to a single IRA, which means fewer statements and, potentially, lower fees than a 401(k).
CHECK ON YOUR PARENTS’ FINANCIAL HEALTHAs an ultimate sign of being a grown-up, you can talk to
your parents about whether they are on track to meet their retirement savings goals. The discussion may be uncomfortable, but you should figure out whether they’re counting on your
financial help in the future. An analysis by Fidelity, a financial services company, says people should aim to have savings of at least 10 times their salary by age 67. A retirement calculator can offer them a more customized target.
Long-term care insurance also should be on your parents’ radar, Rebell says. It will help pay for at-home assistance with daily activities or residency in a nursing facility if needed. Premiums increase as people age, so they should buy long-term care insurance by their early to mid-50s, AARP recommends. But such policies are expensive, and your parents’ premiums may increase.
For help with these potentially difficult conversations, con-sider paying a fee-only financial planner to meet with your par-ents for a one-time checkup. Your parents can weigh retirement savings and long-term care options, and you can pay them back for helping you get to 30.
CANADIAN JUDGE DENIES BAIL TO ALLEGED YAHOO HACKER By Rob Gillies Associated Press
A judge denied bail Tuesday to a Canadian man accused in a massive hack of Yahoo emails, arguing that he would likely flee if released from jail.
Karim Baratov, 22, has alleged ties to Russian agents and access to significant amounts of cash, making him a serious flight risk if freed on bail, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Baratov was arrested last month and faces extradition to the U.S. He was indicted in the United States for computer hacking along with three other people, including two alleged Russian intelligence agents.
American officials have said Baratov has the money to leave Canada and the ability to destroy evidence while on the run.
Justice Alan Whitten denied bail in a written decision, saying Baratov appeared to be highly skilled at hacking and calling the U.S. case far from weak.
“Baratov is a flight risk. He could instantaneously access the funds,” the judge wrote. “He can ply his trade from anywhere in the world.”
Baratov looked at his parents and shrugged when he exited the court-room.
Prosecutor Heather Graham noted earlier that Baratov owned a num-ber of luxury cars and flaunted his lifestyle on social media. She also said he has webmail and PayPal accounts with “large unknown sums of money” accessible anywhere. Graham said police seized about $22,000 ($30,000 Canadian) cash from his home and another $670 ($900 Cana-dian) from his wallet when he was arrested.
She also said there is evidence Baratov may have been trafficking in identity information. And there are allegations he continued hacking while on vacation in Jamaica.
Graham also noted Baratov faces up to 20 years in a U.S. prison.“The evidence of Mr. Baratov’s connections to Russian officials expo-
nentially elevate the flight risk in this case,’ Prosecutor Heather Graham said.
U.S. law enforcement officials call Baratov a “hacker-for-hire” paid by Russian Federal Security Service members. He has Kazakh origins, arriv-ing in Canada in 2007 and becoming a citizen in 2011.
“It would appear that Baratov’s activities were quite the cash cow: a million by age 15 and the array of extremely expensive sports cars,” the judge said in his ruling. “There is the potential for further income ...
Baratov would appear to be a valuable operative for the FSB.”Baratov’s parents had offered act as their son’s sureties. The young
man’s attorney Deepak Paradkar argued Baratov would have never been alone because his father Akhmet Tokbergenov works at home. The father had agreed to turn off the internet in the family home if the court requests.
The breach at Yahoo affected at least a half billion user accounts, but Paradkar said Baratov is only accused of hacking 80 accounts. He said the charges against his client have been “inflated” and said he financed many of his luxury cars.
Paradkar maintains an Instagram account under the name ‘Cocaine Lawyer” and has often used the hashtag #bestcocainelawyer.
Baratov’s other lawyer, Amedeo DiCarlo, arrived to the courthouse again Tuesday in a chauffeured Rolls-Royce.
In a scheme that prosecutors say blended intelligence gathering with old-fashioned financial greed, the four men targeted the email accounts of Russian and U.S. government officials, Russian journalists and employees of financial services and other private businesses, American officials said.
In some cases using a technique known as “spear-phishing” to dupe Yahoo users into thinking they were receiving legitimate emails, the hackers broke into at least 500 million accounts in search of personal information and financial data such as gift card and credit card numbers, prosecutors said.
The case, announced amid continued U.S. intelligence agents’ skep-ticism of their Russian counterparts, comes as American authorities investigate Russian interference through hacking in the 2016 presidential election. Officials said those investigations are separate.
Alexsey Belan, one of the others accused, is on the list of the FBI’s most wanted cybercriminals and has been indicted multiple times in the United States. It’s not clear whether he or the other two defendants, Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin, will ever step foot in an American courtroom because there’s no extradition treaty with Russia.
The indictment identifies Dokuchaev and Sushchin as officers of the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB. Belan and Baratov were paid hackers directed by the FSB to break into the accounts, prosecutors said.
A weekly section to spur conversation
Ta l k i n g Po i n t s
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