The Finances and Debt Thread

[The Voice]

Fuck RITA

 

[BMAN]

Looks like you'll be on the hook for 1% of your income per year plus penalties and interest for when you lived in Lakeline. Concord is a township so you're alright there. No additional tax due or filings needed. If its within Mentor city limits you're still mostly fine assuming you work in Cle. No additional tax would be due, but technically would have a filing obligation though so likely a small failure to file penalty.

Might be able to get penalties waived. Probably not interest. Just ask and see what they say.

Now say I never changed my address, but moved to Lakewood and Tremont for only a year each, is that something they could find out?

 

[Pick6]

Now say I never changed my address, but moved to Lakewood and Tremont for only a year each, is that something they could find out?

Living in Lakewood or Tremont (cleveland) rather than Lakeline would be a good thing for your audit as neither are members of RITA. Maybe a lease with your name on it could be sufficient proof. Other than that....driver's license, registration to vote, W-2 address, utility bills could all be sufficient proof, but most of them probably won't help you if you didn't change your address.

 

[BMAN]

Living in Lakewood or Tremont (cleveland) rather than Lakeline would be a good thing for your audit as neither are members of RITA. Maybe a lease with your name on it could be sufficient proof. Other than that....driver's license, registration to vote, W-2 address, utility bills could all be sufficient proof, but most of them probably won't help you if you didn't change your address.

Thanks for the info.

 

[The Voice]

I have always been of the notion to work smarter, not harder. I have always worked feverishly to stay at the minimum required hours while being successful. I have been able to excel and obtain regionally impressive numbers at the retail management level for my store, and I hope to obtain the same level of success in Banking. I'm hoping to stick to 40-45 hours. I'd do 50 hours/week if (1) the pay is good enough) and (2) the commute is under 15 minutes. My current work week has me at about 54 hours per week, but that includes five half-hour lunches and all commute time. I work 45 hours per week if you don't include those things.

I'm looking at total "away from home" time. If I had to work 55 hours per week, the pay better be worth it, or I'll stay with my current job or look at a different avenue. I may still take it just to use it as a stepping stone. 4 weeks of vacation to start along with 10 holidays beats out my 2 weeks of vacation and 6 holidays at my current job.

I'll definitely be asking questions about the required amount of hours worked, what their culture is like in terms of sales goals, etc., to help determine how serious of an offense it would be to be reasonably short of goal if that were to happen.

Like I said, I can’t speak for Chase. I can however, speak for 3 different known banks I’ve worked for and all three had goals where sometimes we had to work extra hard to achieve. This isn’t every month either btw. Some months we coasted and others were a struggle. If you hit your goals, you get a larger check. Via monthly bonus, commission and quarterly/yearly bonus as well.

 

[The Process God]

Chase called me for a second interview. This time, it's with a different market director this time. It's probably going to be on September 17th.

 

[The Process God]

Like I said, I can’t speak for Chase. I can however, speak for 3 different known banks I’ve worked for and all three had goals where sometimes we had to work extra hard to achieve. This isn’t every month either btw. Some months we coasted and others were a struggle. If you hit your goals, you get a larger check. Via monthly bonus, commission and quarterly/yearly bonus as well.

I have some questions for you if you'd be willing to answer them:

1. How many hours per week did you typically work per week? Did you work on Saturdays or Sundays usually? Could I get away with working <=45 hours per week if I'm good with time management? Would that even be allowed?

2. What did your typical day/week look like task-wise?

3. What kind of pay should I expect/negotiate for? I'm in the greater Seattle area (just north of Seattle, so pretty expensive). I have many years of retail experience and about 4 years of management experience. I have no banking experience, but I do have a master's degree in a field similar to leadership. I have great evidence to show high-level sales skills through success on both an individual level and a store level. I would start out at a trainee position for 30-90 days of training, then move into a BM position as soon as one opened up and was within a reasonable commute. I make $52k a year as a base and about $56 after all bonuses for the year. Glassdoor says the average base pay is $65k.

4. What metrics did your companies measure? Which ones were the most important (ones that they put the most emphasis on). Was it the end of the world if you didn't hit them (I'm sure the district trends affected how they looked at your branch's metrics like if, for example, everyone was down)?

5. How high was the turn-over at the BM position? I know this can vary company-to-company. Would you ever see engaged BMs get canned?

6. How big were average bonuses? How likely was a BM to hit them (I know this can vary greatly based upon initial goals [whether they were fairly set or not] as well as the geographical location and your team)?

7. What would an interviewer be looking for in an interview? I don't think they're going to be asking me very many banking questions and more so leadership/management questions because they know I have no banking experience, but, hey, maybe I can impress them with some research I've done.

8. What questions should I ask them during the interview?

9. Any red flags to look for or try to flush out during the interview process?

10. What would be some other positions that I could move into from being a branch manager as a natural progression/promotion?

11. Would I need to get any series 7, 66, etc. licenses for the job after being hired, and would the company usually pay for them?

12. What are the best and worst things about being a branch manager?

13. What are the hardest parts of your job?

14. Any other recommendations or things to watch out for?

Thanks ahead of time for any answers you can provide. The interview has been moved up to the 12th at 9am, btw.

 

[David.]

Is now a bad time to open an ira

 

[FiveThous]

I used to recruit for a larger bank in WA until I shifted regions earlier this summer. 55-65 was the salary range plus incentives for a Branch Manager role. Hope that helps.

@The Process God

 

[The Process God]

I used to recruit for a larger bank in WA until I shifted regions earlier this summer. 55-65 was the salary range plus incentives for a Branch Manager role. Hope that helps.

@The Process God

Thanks for the response! It seems like Chase is one of the better-paying banks out there from what I've seen on glassdoor.com. Looked at a lot of different banking companies.

Were candidates allowed to negotiate anything else like max commute time, vacation time, equity/stocks, or any other benefits? Just trying to get a lay of the land.

 

[FiveThous]

Thanks for the response! It seems like Chase is one of the better-paying banks out there from what I've seen on glassdoor.com. Looked at a lot of different banking companies.

Were candidates allowed to negotiate anything else like max commute time, vacation time, equity/stocks, or any other benefits? Just trying to get a lay of the land.

I wasn't as involved in that part of the process, I'll circle back with you tomorrow and see.

 

[The Voice]

I have some questions for you if you'd be willing to answer them:

1. How many hours per week did you typically work per week? Did you work on Saturdays or Sundays usually? Could I get away with working <=45 hours per week if I'm good with time management? Would that even be allowed?

On average, I’d say 45 is not a bad number to expect. However, there are times where you may need to work more. (On non holiday weeks, holiday weeks you’re usually working 30)

2. What did your typical day/week look like task-wise?

This can vary based on the bank. There’s a lot of coaching and development involved in employees. Assigning goals and making sure people are meeting them. Conflict resolving with employees and customers. Making sure the branch is hitting its objectives. Also small business visits and cold calls. Community involvement is also big. Creating relationships is huge. Again this can be vastly different from bank to bank. There’s also various reports depending on the bank as well.

3. What kind of pay should I expect/negotiate for? I'm in the greater Seattle area (just north of Seattle, so pretty expensive). I have many years of retail experience and about 4 years of management experience. I have no banking experience, but I do have a master's degree in a field similar to leadership. I have great evidence to show high-level sales skills through success on both an individual level and a store level. I would start out at a trainee position for 30-90 days of training, then move into a BM position as soon as one opened up and was within a reasonable commute. I make $52k a year as a base and about $56 after all bonuses for the year. Glassdoor says the average base pay is $65k.

I’d say 60-70k base is what you should expect. Now, I’ve never worked for Chase as I stated before. I’d say it’s not unreasonable to get over 100k after a few years.

4. What metrics did your companies measure? Which ones were the most important (ones that they put the most emphasis on). Was it the end of the world if you didn't hit them (I'm sure the district trends affected how they looked at your branch's metrics like if, for example, everyone was down)?

New relationships or households is how most companies measure accounts. Business loans are huge at most of the smaller banks (including Huntington sized ones), but I’m not sure about Chase. The companies that I’ve been involved in cared about business accounts, business loans, merchant services and pretty much anything business first. Then consumer loans and accounts. Monthly goals didn’t matter as much for the companies I worked for, as in you could miss them if you made up for them in other months. Each company has a different review process, but they aren’t just going to can you for missing goals once and a while. They’ll get you if you fail yearly and then you don’t meet expectations on your reviews for a few years. You’re looking at probably 2 years of failing in which case you’d probably already realize the job isn’t for you.

5. How high was the turn-over at the BM position? I know this can vary company-to-company. Would you ever see engaged BMs get canned?

It really does vary a lot depending on branch to branch. I’ve only seen engaged bm’s canned for stupid things they did (I.e. HR issues, stealing, sexual harassment etc)

6. How big were average bonuses? How likely was a BM to hit them (I know this can vary greatly based upon initial goals [whether they were fairly set or not] as well as the geographical location and your team)?

Really this depends on the company. I’ve had ones where year end could be up to 30k. Some banks offer monthly, quarterly and yearly bonuses. While others offer just monthly and yearly. I don’t want to tell you a number that’s too high and then you be down about it. It’s not unrealistic to think 6 figures after bonuses though if you’re hitting all objectives and you’ve been with the company a year or 2. I’m not sure if you’re automatically eligible for the yearly bonus with Chase.

7. What would an interviewer be looking for in an interview? I don't think they're going to be asking me very many banking questions and more so leadership/management questions because they know I have no banking experience, but, hey, maybe I can impress them with some research I've done.

Sometimes no banking experience is better because they can mold you to the way they want. Where as if you came from another company you’re most likely to carry over traits from that other company. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to google interview questions JP Morgan Chase just to get an idea.

Huge questions in banking right now are about coaching and employee development. So they might ask you about how you’ve helped someone get promoted in your previous job and how did you mentor them. Or how you’ve dealt with conflict between employees. Or how you’ve dealt with a difficult employee and what was the outcome.

8. What questions should I ask them during the interview?

Is the interview at the branch you’d be working at?

I’d ask how busy that branch is in terms of others, I’d ask them about progression (if you’re serious about moving up),

9. Any red flags to look for or try to flush out during the interview process?

It’s honestly sometimes hard to gauge this.

10. What would be some other positions that I could move into from being a branch manager as a natural progression/promotion?

District, regional, and divisional manager are all in line of direct progression, but there’s other things like auditing that might be achievable.

11. Would I need to get any series 7, 66, etc. licenses for the job after being hired, and would the company usually pay for them?

If the company requires them, they will pay for them. That’s one thing about banking (they aren’t cheap when it comes to that type of expense). If you have to go out of town for training they’ll put you in a nice hotel and pay for everything. You also get an expense card typically for buying your team lunch/dinners/etc.

12. What are the best and worst things about being a branch manager?

You’re your own boss for the most part. I mean you do have oversight, but they aren’t in everyday. Typically I saw my boss about once a month when I had a hands on boss. When I didn’t, it could be months.

13. What are the hardest parts of your job?

At times I felt like an overpriced babysitter when you walk into a lot of conflict at a branch. Unfortunately your team is going to spend a lot of time together (more then they see their families) and the number 1 conflict in banking is personality diffences.

14. Any other recommendations or things to watch out for?

Thanks ahead of time for any answers you can provide. The interview has been moved up to the 12th at 9am, btw.

Dress for success and good luck.

 

[Ob1]

Is now a bad time to open an ira

It's never a bad time to open an Ira. You could just park cash in it and still get tax savings on the money market fund or a bond fund.

 

[David.]

It's never a bad time to open an Ira. You could just park cash in it and still get tax savings on the money market fund or a bond fund.

But pulling it out renders it taxable income.

The idea is to do an index fund (s&p 500) but if we're at a peak, and it looks like we are, I don't wanna see this shit drop to 600. I'd rather wait til it hits 600

 

[Pick6]

Time in the market > timing the market. See Bob's story that I linked a few pages back.

You could also do ROTH IRA. Pay taxes now, pull out principal whenever you want with no penalty, and never pay taxes on any gains (assuming you wait until retirement age).