Hi All,
I bought a 2022 Kia Forte in Spetember of 2022 at ~12%. My monthly payment is $535 on a 5 year loan. At time of purchase, my credit wasn't the best as I had no open credit cards. Since then, I have opened 2 credit cards and according to my reports, my score has gone up 90+ points. Would it be worthwhile for me to refinance to try and get a lower monthly payment? If so, should I go through my original dealer, my credit union, or the bank the loan is through? How can I start the process of doing this? Thank you in advance! I live in Michigan if that helps.

Hi all, this is sort of a cross post, and I am not sure I chose the right flair so forgive me and let me know if not so I can fix it! It’s quite an add situation, which is why I was not sure which flair to choose…
Against what I now know as better judgement, I accepted a pretty odd job with who is my current roommate/landlord, which is how I ended up moving here.
The original terms were that rent and food would be covered in exchange for basically being their personal assistant, while also leaving me time to pick up part time work so I had cash inflow.
Took a little longer than I liked, but I found outside part time work toward the end of February, and by the end of March I was told we didn't have time for me to be able to have another job, and was forced to quit my other job on the spot (for fear of losing my housing).
Once again, I'm cooking and cleaning for this person, as well as helping them with anything they needed for their fairly successful online business, including shipping, customer service, and odd jobs similar to research and data entry relating to the industry (sorry to be vague here, but in the off chance they see this, I would really like to do my best to protect my identity because it is a fairly small and close knit industry).
I was told I can't be actually paid, but as an amendment to our agreement, they said they could let me use their credit card for whatever I needed (which honestly ended up not being super true in the end).
I am essentially in a position where I have to ask someone else to do ANYTHING at all at this point, and I asked to take an entire day off (which would be literally my first day off since I got here in January) to spend it with someone I met here, since given the conditions the last month and a half have been a lot, and incredibly suffocating.
They said yes, then about 8pm on the day I was told I was allowed to be off, they texted me and informed me they didn't believe our arrangement was working for them and they have packed my things and will leave them outside and have changed the locks.
I asked if this would include the things that were purchased for me in lieu of actual payment, and was told they would "reimburse" me for the things instead. I told them simply I am not able to come at the moment, because I am not able to get back there.
I have only been paid monetarily sporadically or have had tips they collected in my name from their customers dispersed only at their discretion, and every time I have tried to leave the house for even a few hours before this there have been issues.
As far as I am seeing it, though, I was fired/locked out on a day I received approval to be off from work, for not being at work (we work from the house). I have plans to speak with local legal aid first thing in the morning, but have been trying to do research independently and am becoming increasingly more confused.
Which laws has this person broken? I’ve been researching this tirelessly since I received the message and just need some advice/guidance about what I need to have and know to be prepared to deal with this situation legally.
I feel like the internet is leading me in 17 different directions here.
Any help appreciated!

At the very beginning of my Freshman year, my mother and grandpa passed away. [sorry for the dramatic cold open!] I was struggling a lot that first semester, and while I was getting through the classes, I wasn't doing great at them. Not as great as I know I could.
By second semester, I ended up transferring into online classes, where I basically gave up, and dropped all of them. After that, I applied to a tiny private College-Prep liberal arts school and that's where I'm at now. It's nice, they lean heavily into having everyone do focused college-like Humanities classes and Arts. The summer before I started attending, my father also passed away. I hadn't been living with him, my parents were divorced and he wasn't in a position to take me in, but that still sucked.
Now obviously, having an entire semester of Fs on my transcript is problematic. Another issue is the fact that the school I currently go to doesn't actually do GPAs. All our grades are basically written as narrative evaluations, and since very few schools do that, it's hard to find resources outside of the web of my own school. If a College were to request a GPA, our school would be able to provide one, but that's basically a matter of the Principal reading through my evaluations, and determining roughly what they would be roughly equivalent to if I was at the nearby public school.
All of my evaluations have been absolutely solid, I'm fairly certain I would have straight As. In addition, while attending I did take a virtual French II class over the summer, Japanese 101 and Biology 101 at nearby Colleges; I have an A in all of them. I'm sure if I requested a GPA for my regular classes, I would have mostly As. I have taken Calculus I [AB], but I'm awaiting my AP score. Calculus AB/BC are the only AP classes my school offers. For what it's worth, I got a 1350 on my PSAT 11.
My goal is to go into Math. I plan to take Calculus II/BC and Engineering next year, and also Linear Algebra in the fall off-campus [which I will likely be eligible for, just need my AP score]. When it comes to colleges, I really don't know what is reasonable for me to even shoot for.
I'm in a weird nebulous position where I was supposed to graduate next year, but failed so I'm behind a year, but also have enough credits to graduate next year anyways as a Junior, if I wanted to. I've thought about it, but I don't know if that's what I should do.
I have had conversations with my principal, and I think they recommend I take the extra year simply to offset the Fs from those online classes from before I transferred. My principal jokes that now is pretty much the only time in my life where it will be beneficial to be an orphan, and I think that's probably kinda true. I had to pick myself up and take initiative for a lot of the things I'm doing, and I have constantly excelled since moving schools. I have been living semi-independently, juggling between houses [I haven't lived with my legal guardians in ~2 years, but they're still present]
When my principal was in High School, he attended Telluride for the summer, and now has the opportunity to 'nominate' students for it, and he plans to do so for me in the Fall. I'm thinking of doing that, it sounds great.
This Spring I applied for PROMYS, and although I think I did well on the application, I unfortunately, got rejected. Of course, I knew that was a reach program so I didn't expect much, but now my summer's free! There's always next time.
I also thought about simply applying to a few absurd reach schools in my Junior year (Hail Mary), since technically I could be eligible, and if I end up getting rejected from them, then I would still be fine. I could just go ahead and do my Senior year, after having gained experience with the College admissions process.
I'm also somewhat aware of QuestBridge, and that could be a good option if I went that route this Fall; if I'm eligible for the match, apply for what looks good, and if I match, then free money! If not, then try again next year with a stronger background. From my understanding, finalists for that tend to be high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds. I'm certain I fall under that umbrella. Only one of my parents graduated High School and went to College, however, given that my mom's culinary degree probably hasn't impacted my life much in about 3 years, I've been told there may be room to argue I'm a "first gen" -- No idea if that's true.
All of this is to say, I don't really know what I should do. I hope I described my situation well enough for you to get a gist of my predicament, if anyone has advice, I would appreciate it. Although I feel like I'm in a very unique situation, I'm sure there's someone else who's been in a similarly-shaped boat on here.
In the meantime, I need some rest. I have to move out soon, I'll be taking French again online this summer, and I'll be starting two independent studies in Game Design and Novel Writing; I would like to get a job with my city's public library soon, because I've been an intern for my school's library this year and that seems like a nice transition. Probably try and take the SAT in August... also need to learn how to drive.... well, I have a busy summer.

JOB POSITION: Medical Information Specialist
JOB DESCRIPTION:

Minimum Qualifications for Med Info Spec I:

• MUST be a graduate of Bachelor of Science in Life Science courses (Pharmacy, Nursing, Biology, Medical Technology, Psychology, and etc. – Chemistry is not considered**)**
  • Fresh Graduates are welcome to apply (Med Info Spec I role only)
• Excellent English Communications Skills – both speaking and writing.
  • Must be willing to undergo English Language Assessment (if required)
  • If they meet minimum assessment score requirement, they will immediately be scheduled for interview with the hiring managers, otherwise they will be scheduled for retake or rejected if they don’t meet eligible score for retake.
• MUST be amendable to work on Night Shift (US business hours) and Hybrid work setup (1 to 3x a week onsite after training period)
• During Med Comm Academy and client-specific Training period they must be willing to report onsite 5x a week for 10 to 12 weeks.
• Must be amendable to start July 1 for those who will be required to undergo English Language Training or July 15 for successful passers that does not require additional language training.
• Company Location: BGC Taguig
• Company: PPD Philippines (part of Thermo Fisher company)
• Kindly send your CV at [nicoli.resurreccion@ppd.com](mailto:nicoli.resurreccion@ppd.com)
• Salary package 30k+++ (exact salary package cannot be disclosed)
• Fixed weekends off
• HMO from day 1 plus 3 dependents
• With performance bonus every March
• DM me for more job info. Overview of the hiring process will be discussed (for my referrals).

Some 30 years ago, my parents and I went to a restaurant near Fenway and saw a live performance of a song "One Strike Away" -- chronicling the history of the Red Sox from the Babe Ruth era thru '86 and beyond. We liked it so much that we bought the cassette they were selling, and I remember listening to it over and over.
Fastforward to 2024, I couldn't find the song anywhere, so I tried recreating it on YouTube and posting to Reddit. With a little sleuthing (including finding a cached page of a 1991 magazine mentioning the song), we figured out who the band was and how to contact them.
Last week, Walter Fay of Wet Paint Band reached out to me personally and send me .mp3 of both "One Strike Away" and another song I remembered ("Fenway Park - This Diamond Is Forever"), and even gave me the green light to create a "music video" and share the music on YouTube. So, after a lot of work to make this fun (with memes and animation no less), here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzgt-jUJuj8

See the comments for links to the other YouTube video which has my keyboard recreation of the song. I remember the lyrics almost perfectly! (I did admittedly miss an entire verse, but it's possible that this was just me subconsciously blocking out the verse about the Yankees...)
Hope you enjoy the music. Huge credit to Wet Paint Band for making this awesome song, and glad I could help find and resurface it as I don't think it was anywhere on the internet. I will be making another "music video" for the other song about Fenway in a few weeks, so subscribe if interested :p
More information about the Reddit sleuthing that led us to the band:

https://www.reddit.com/Lostwave/comments/1c958aa/lost_song_one_strike_away_about_boston_red_sox/

I had no credit other than a $85,000 student loan. I paid that loan off. Four months later I get a letter in the mail stating that my credit score has dropped from 750 to zero. How is that possible? I thought a paid off student loan stayed on one’s credit for ten years. How do I obtain credit with a score of zero?

Here is my score from May. My superscore is a 1380 (700 math). For those familiar with Erica Meltzer, what chapter should I use to study and increase my score in the “Information and Ideas” and “Craft and Structure” sections? For those familiar with 1600.io, what chapter of his Orange books (v1 and v2) should I use to study and increase my score in the “Problem-Solving and Data Analysis” and “Geometry and Trigonometry” sections?

TLDR: about to buy house in cash - Use remaining savings to pay off CC debt and be left with only 1 month emergency fund? Or keep emergency fund in bank and pay CC slowly?
I am going to be buying a house in CASH within the next few weeks (will be my primary/only home). The only living expenses will be very low monthly HOA, electricity and day to day spending. My only other debt is a 0.9% interest car loan that will be paid off in 6 months, as well as about 6k on credit cards.
The reason for the cash house purchase is because of some help that I am getting from family. In my situation it makes way more sense to take this offer of help and have a paid off house, than to take out any type of mortgage that I will be stuck with for 30 years, plus I can’t qualify for much of a mortgage because of HCOL in my area compared to my income.
After contributing my portion of money to the house purchase, I will be left with about 3 months emergency fund savings. Is it better to use that money to pay off my credit cards completely and be left with only 1 month emergency fund, or keep the money in the bank and pay the cards down slowly? My cards are in good standing currently and my score is around 750.
I just signed another 12 month contract at my job so my income is essentially guaranteed to stay the same for at least the next year. All my other bills can be paid on my salary as is, but not much wiggle room.
I’ve never been in this situation before and can’t decide which way to go with it.

Colleges usually give 1 semester of credit for AB, and 2 semesters for BC.
60-70% of BC is straight-up AB content. So for the same $100 and same 3 hour exam, BC could get you an entire semester’s worth of credit. Obviously BC’s harder but it’s only a few weeks of studying more for half a year’s worth.
The score cutoffs are also more lenient on BC. Many colleges also take the AB subscore, making the actual test even less useful.

28M, almost 29. NW ~$210-220k last time checked. Don't have a house yet, but can buy one now. I like finance, investing, and trading. I do it all myself. All money with Fidelity, Schwab, and Health Equity going to be moving that to Fidelity soon.
Last year opened up a Navy Federal membership. Just have the $5 in there for membership and now have one of their credit cards. My other credit cards give me the same and more benefits than Navy Fed's. Only open up the CC to keep my membership. Looking at the website and all the only reason that I would keep this account is lower car and home rates, along with no PMI. But, they are very close with other credit unions and I've heard that it's bad to use Navy Federal for home mortgages because they are such a pain. Credit score with Navy Fed is like 200/400, since they have their own score system. It probably won't go up much since I plan on not putting any capital in those accounts, just wanting to use a loan if I am needing for a car or home.
I do everything myself and am good at it. Am thinking about closing the account/ membership doesn't seem worth it but then sometimes it does barely.
Question is, for those who have, or have had, or have heard about Navy Federal, is it even worth it to keep a Navy Fed account/ membership for just auto loans and potentially a home mortgage?

Debit/Credit Cards Accepted No Closing Costs Cash Price: $950 Finance with $150 Down and 9 Payments of $115 Per Month No Credit Check, No Income Documentation, No Prepayment Penalty 

Open Access Scientific Literature

There are multiple movements and sources for open access to scientific literature.
This thread is a resource for open access. Please list links to open access scientific literature. This dynamic is certainly changing, but there is clearly literature that is still pay wall restricted.
Here is a solid opening story by Radiolab

APR 7, 2023
The Library of Alexandra
How much does knowledge cost? While that sounds like an abstract question, the answer is surprisingly specific: $3,096,988,440.00. That’s how much the business of publishing scientific and academic research is worth.
This is the story of one woman’s battle against a global network of academic journals that underlie published scientific research. In 2011, Alexandra Elbakyan had just moved home to Kazakhstan after a disappointing few years trying to study neuroscience in the United States when she landed on an internet forum where a bunch of scientists were all looking for the same thing: access to academic journal articles that were behind paywalls. That’s the moment the very simple, but enormously powerful, website called Sci Hub was born.
The site holds over 88 million articles and serves up about a million downloads to people in practically every country on the globe. We travel to Kazakhstan to meet the mysterious woman behind it all and to find out what it takes to make everything we know about anything available to anyone anywhere, for free.

Special thanks to Vrindra Bhandari, Balázs Bodó, Stephen Buranyi, Ian Graber-Stiehl, Joel Joseph, Noorain Khalifa, Aparajita Lath, Steve McLaughlin, Marcia McNutt, Randy Scheckman Tanmay Singh, Deborah Harkness, Joe Karaganis, Lawrence Lessig, Glyn Moody, and Steven Press.

Episode Credits: Reported by - Eli Cohen Reporting help from - Karishma Mehrotra, Emily Krumberger and Norihelys Ramos Produced by Simon Adler with help from - Eli Cohen Original music and sound designed by - Simon Adler Mixing by - Jeremy Bloom Edited by - Alex Neason
Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
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Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook u/radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [radiolab@wnyc.org](mailto:radiolab@wnyc.org).

sources and resources for open access
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/competitions/finding-and-accessing-scientific-papers
https://www.nnlm.gov/about/DOCLINE/OpenAccessResources
https://www.twas.org/open-source-scientific-information
https://library.purdueglobal.edu/library/oa
https://about.jstor.org/oa-and-free/
https://libguides.cmich.edu/web_research/oa
Please feel free to add resources, links comments etc.

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Remember, staying informed and united is key. Let's ensure a secure and open future for Ethereum and its principles. Happy trading and discussing!

There are multiple movements and sources for open access to scientific literature.
This thread is a resource for open access. Please list links to open access scientific literature. This dynamic is certainly changing, but there is clearly literature that is still pay wall restricted.
Here is a solid opening story by Radiolab

APR 7, 2023
The Library of Alexandra
APR 7, 2023How much does knowledge cost? While that sounds like an abstract question, the answer is surprisingly specific: $3,096,988,440.00. That’s how much the business of publishing scientific and academic research is worth.
This is the story of one woman’s battle against a global network of academic journals that underlie published scientific research. In 2011, Alexandra Elbakyan had just moved home to Kazakhstan after a disappointing few years trying to study neuroscience in the United States when she landed on an internet forum where a bunch of scientists were all looking for the same thing: access to academic journal articles that were behind paywalls. That’s the moment the very simple, but enormously powerful, website called Sci Hub was born.
The site holds over 88 million articles and serves up about a million downloads to people in practically every country on the globe. We travel to Kazakhstan to meet the mysterious woman behind it all and to find out what it takes to make everything we know about anything available to anyone anywhere, for free.
Special thanks to Vrindra Bhandari, Balázs Bodó, Stephen Buranyi, Ian Graber-Stiehl, Joel Joseph, Noorain Khalifa, Aparajita Lath, Steve McLaughlin, Marcia McNutt, Randy Scheckman Tanmay Singh, Deborah Harkness, Joe Karaganis, Lawrence Lessig, Glyn Moody, and Steven Press.
Episode Credits: Reported by - Eli Cohen Reporting help from - Karishma Mehrotra, Emily Krumberger and Norihelys Ramos Produced by Simon Adler with help from - Eli Cohen Original music and sound designed by - Simon Adler Mixing by - Jeremy Bloom Edited by - Alex Neason
Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!
https://radiolab.org/podcast/library-alexandra

scihub https://www.sci-hub.pub/#google_vignette
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/competitions/finding-and-accessing-scientific-papers https://www.nnlm.gov/about/DOCLINE/OpenAccessResources
https://www.twas.org/open-source-scientific-information
https://library.purdueglobal.edu/library/oa
https://about.jstor.org/oa-and-free/
https://libguides.cmich.edu/web_research/oa
Please feel free to add resources, links comments etc.

I'm looking for a second credit card. My credit history is very short.
Current cards: (list cards, limits, opening date)

• Capital One Quick Silver, $500 limit, June 2023
  • FICO Score: 720
  • Oldest account age: e.g. 11 months
  • Chase 5/24 status: 1/24
  • Income: $70,000
  • Average monthly spend and categories:
• dining $100
• groceries: $400
• gas: $100
• travel: $0
• other: $200
  • Open to Business Cards: No
  • What's the purpose of your next card?
• Build credit, get a higher limit, and/or better rewards. Not looking for traveling
  • Do you have any cards you've been looking at?
• I want a Visa credit card to use at Costco and other places as a safety card in case they don't take MasterCard.
  • Are you OK with category spending or do you want a general spending card?
• I'm not sure what this is, so potentially.

Credit to Opiliones and F1_2004 AKA bob the builder. Anno 1701 doesn't seem as popular as 1404 or 1800, and so it doesn't seem to have as many resources online. However, I enjoy it very much and I would like to bring information from annomuseum and gamefaqs to reddit as well because I want to 'preserve' the information in case those two sources are lost.
Goods produced per minute:
Lumberjack (Wood) 3t Fisherman's hut (Food) 1t Hunting lodge (Food) 1t Stud farm (Horses) ??? Cloth production chain (Cloth) 2t (2 Sheep farms, 1 Weaver's hut) Bricks production chain (Bricks) 3t (1 Clay pit, 2 Brick factories) Alcohol production chain (Alcohol) 2t (2 Hop plantations / 2 Sugar cane plantations, 1 Brewery / 1 Distillery) Meat production chain (Food) 3t (2 Cattle farms, 1 Butcher's shop) Tobacco products production chain (Tobacco products) 2t (2 Tobacco plantations, 1 Tobacco processing plant) Tool production chain (Tools) 3t (1 Lumberjack, 1 Ore mine, 1 Ore smelter, 2 Tool makers) Lamp oil production chain (Lamp oil) 6t (1 Whaler, 3 Whale oil manufactories) Bread production chain (Food) 6t (4 Grain farms, 2 Mills, 1 Bakery) Marble production chain (Marble) 3t (1 Marble quarry, 2 Marble stonemasons) Chocolate production chain (Chocolates) 2t (2 Apiaries, 2 Cocoa plantations, 1 Confectionary) Perfume production chain (Perfume) 6t (1 Whaler, 3 Ambergris productions, 6 Greenhouses, 3 Perfumeries) Jewelry production chain (Jewelry) 4t (1 Gold mine, 1 Gem mine, 2 Goldsmiths) Weapon production chain (Weapons) 3t (1 Lumberjack, 1 Ore mine, 1 Ore smelter, 2 Weapon smithies) Cannon production chain (Cannons) 3t (1 Lumberjack, 1 Ore mine, 1 Ore smelter, 2 Cannon foundries)
How many good are consumed by your inhabitants (100) each minute?
Food 0,800t Cloth 0,500t (till Citizens) 0,450t (Merchants) 0,400t (Aristocrats) Alcohol 0,500t (till Citizens) 0,425t (Merchants) 0,375t (Aristocrats) Tobacco products 0,300t Lamp oil 0,200t Chocolates 0,200t Perfume 0,200t Jewelry 0,145t Colonial goods 0,160t
How many inhabitants can be satisfied by 1 production facility?
Fisherman's hut / Hunting Lodge (Food) 125 Butcher's shop (Food) 375 Bakery (Food) 750 Weaver's hut (Cloth) 400 / 450 / 500 (till Citizens / Merchants / Aristocrats) Brewery / Distillery (Alcohol) 400 / 470 / 530 (till Citizens / Merchants / Aristocrats) Tobacco processing plant (Tobacco products) 665 Confectionary (Chocolates) 1000 Whale oil manufactory (Lamp oil) 1000 Perfumery (Perfume) 1000 Goldsmith (Jewelry) 1380

22F, College Student, apartment complex offers free EV charging. Contemplating the $189/month + $2000 down deal. Parking will cost $125/month and insurance would cost $250 (I’ll shop around, have held a US license for over a year with clean record but have held a license with no tickets in home country since 18) 747 Credit Score.
I should probably mention, my degree ends in 2ish years so leasing is the only sensible choice for me.
Should I try and get pre approved or just go to a dealership straight up? Any advice would be really appreciated