A little late responding, but some banks have a limit on the monetary value of a check that one can deposit using mobile banking. For example, my bank requires that an account holder has to deposit any check over $2.5K in person (i.e., go to the bank). That might be the case with your check.
Our accounts took a huge hit when everything tanked a month or so ago. But it’s all better now. Whew.
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Thanks the mobile deposit limit is $18,000 ish range.
If it was $2500 I would have been motivated to move banks many years ago. I’ve been too lazy to move them and kept a ln account that I’ve had for the last 40 years. It’s a national bank system but no branches in my immediate area.
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So my husband keeps showing me tables of how much he says we can afford to spend every month and still be perfectly fine. I told him I would be happy to rise to the challenge 
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My husband and I were having a conversation today.
I’ve recently received my portion of my mom’s investments.
It’s not going to make any difference in our style of living. We have enough to not worry and more money wouldn’t change what we do.
We aren’t going to buy another house. Maybe if we had some disposable money we could do all of our home improvements at once instead of piecemeal. But it wouldn’t change the scope of what we do.
We aren’t thinking of upgrading our almost 10 year old cars but if we needed to replace one, we could.
At some point your lifestyle is what it is and you are blessed enough to live it the way you want.
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This story makes my stomach hurt.
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The rise in withdrawals also points to a larger issue: Many Americans are falling behind on retirement savings.
Well, yes … I mean, people who need to withdraw from their retirement accounts to make ends meet are not in a position to contribute more. Pay for most is not keeping pace with expenses.
The fact that retirement plans and retirement portfolios can now include risky investments like crypto is another concern.
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Unfortunately, if you are struggling to make ends meet, you simply can’t afford to put any money towards your retirement. This is particularly dangerous in today’s world where there are no longer pensions and these retirement accounts are all you may have (besides SS).
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The scary thing is the story’s scenarios is that the young people were no longer unable to contribute to retirement savings… AND their current expenses outstrip income, thus need to raid the 401K. That can not be sustained.
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As much as some on this thread dislike Dave Ramsey, he gave some very good advice IMHO to a lady who called in who was living in too high a COLA with disability retirement, SS, and only $70,000 nest egg (and was renting) and seeing her nest egg going to be dwindling because of rent increase and her incoming money was not covering expenses.
The young lady that regrets her decisions on taking hardship withdrawal from 401k and also having credit cards to pay off did not adjust her spending to her income change in other areas (outside of the emergency).
It is hard to change behaviors, to make a strict budget, to find ways to increase income (including side hustles), to cut things out of spending.
Many on this thread are in good shape but are concerned about children and grandchildren. For DH and me, the grandchildren (who are ages 1 - 7) are where we want to spend time and eventually have the overflow on our cup go financially - DD1/SIL and DD2 are in years where they have to stretch their financial resources and continue to make sound decisions. One big area is being blessed with good health for all of us - no chronic illnesses for them or for us (DH and I are managing with the typical aches and pains of 69 year-olds.) SIL’s parents are a different story.
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It’s not possible for people whose incomes have been raided over years by overpayment of top executives, to “spend less”. All the budget advice in the world doesn’t help the fact that salaries have not kept pace.
Isn’t Dave Ramsey the one who talks down to people and demands no use of credit cards despite the fact that this leaves cash on the table, and keeps listeners out of middle/upper-middle class habits?
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But it is possible that in at least some cases people can change their expenses/live within their means. I KNOW it’s not possible for everyone, but I know plenty of people who spend on things they definitely don’t need, and yet they “can’t” save for retirement.
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Yes, some people spend more than they absolutely need to spend (that is, they could survive on less). However, after working in financial aid at a public university (not a flagship), I can tell you that there are A LOT of people living on VERY little money. There is no extra to be saved. The people who have to visit food banks in order to eat are not just folks who don’t have jobs.
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Dave Ramsey has some decent advise, and I knew a couple who listened and really changed their ways… which enabled earlier / better retirement
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I always love the advice to buy less Starbucks. You’ll save so much money.
Ummm, what if you aren’t buying Starbucks? What are you supposed to cut out then?
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One of our kids earns far less than the other. But that lower income kid started a Roth that he contributes to every single year. It’s a priority. And he contributes the max he is allowed to contribute. He has a very small retirement from a very part time job, and will have some SS. Luckily he owns his place to live.
Our other kid earns far more. She and her husband work with a CFP to map out what they need to do to save now for current spending, and save for their retirement. Both have 401k with matches from their employers and they contribute the max to the match…plus more. They are also saving for a house, but unless something happens job wise with one of them, this should not be a problem…we hope.
Our kids are far mor savvy about retirement planning than we were at their ages!
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He definitely has worthwhile advice for people in certain situations, particularly those who need to pay off debt. If we had to, we could go full Dave Ramsey and get it done. But after that, some of his advice is terrible. 
Regardless, getting people intense and excited about paying off debt can be just the thing.
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Many people can change where they work but I do understand when someone gets ‘stalled’ in income and benefits due to business changes, especially when one is in their 50’s and very difficult to get hired elsewhere. That happened to DH - and we as a family had a lower income stream with COL going up; sometimes one cannot help ‘market conditions’ on employment - but we had earned enough and had enough in retirement. We didn’t ‘rob’ retirement - we did slow down to just getting the 100% match with future 401k participation.
In the future, there will be times when one may be without a job or income before retirement years. No crystal ball.
I don’t really disagree with you all, but the problem comes when we’re blaming people individually (“holding them responsible”) for structural problems and inequities. Yes, ageism is very real, @SOSConcern . One thing that would be a great hedge would be a return to stronger and more widespread labor unionization of work. Another would be limits on CEO compensation. Another would be more robust funding of social security (and I don’t mean nonsense like raising the retirement age again).
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I think we have been living in a world where a disproportionate share of the gains has been going to a shrinking set of people. As I have said in the threads on AI, AI is likely to exacerbate the concentration of high pay jobs. That is structural. The fixes are political. Redistributive taxes, making it easier for unions to organize and extract value from employers (unions are not high on my list of organizations), etc.
What can individuals do? Spend less (hard but doable for some; not for others who are already at the edge). Move to a lower COLA city (but incomes also go down, perhaps proportionately – isn’t economics great?)
Maybe I’m too much of a capitalist. I tend to think of arbitrage. Because my income is not tied to any one place in the country or any one country, I had always told ShawWife that our Plan B was to go to a low COLA state or country. Similarly, if your retirement savings are lower, how about moving to a lower COLA area or country? West Virginia, New Mexico (https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/cheapest-places-to-live) or Panama, Mexico, etc. Your SS can go farther assuming that you can get good medical care.
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