>How do I get my parents financially secure, physically taken care of, without my brother feeling under-minded?

You don't. Unfortunately, they've chosen their bed and now get to lie in it. They chose to enable him for years and this is what happens

I think folks will have a hard time helping you assess the impact of an event without knowing what that event is, unfortunately. So you may want to add more clarity so any and all impacts could be assessed

https://thefinancebuff.com/how-to-rollover-an-hsa-on-your-own-and-avoid-trustee-transfer-fee.html

She never says “how” you accomplish this (from what I could gather) either. She just days “do you research” which is code for “this is BS”

There’s nothing you can do within a week

Start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics

Looks like you both selected married filling jointly on your w4 and failed to complete step 2

Numbers check out as such.

> Should I even be looking into an IRA if I don't have a retirement fund?

An IRA is a retirement fund

> I can barely grasp the idea of what an index fund is

A bunch of stocks. Often, all the stocks.

(effectively anyway. If you buy VTSAX or FZROX or VTI, you own a basket of all the US stocks)

> I don't know if what I am considering doing is feasible

Saving some is better than saving none.

>And even if I manage to open IRA, I don't really know what to do.

buy index funds and wait 40 years

>. Do I constantly have to buy index funds?

Only when you contribute new money

>Can I just throw money into it regularly and forget about it?

Yes

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_investing

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_retirement_accounts

Should explain it

> but even then I'm still at a loss of what to do.

Why?

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics

How did they initially obtain your email?

If that is the case, it may be worth a complaint to the CA department of insurance to see about a refund for this year and a pro-rated refund for last year

> She admitted to not actually canceling

Ahh, so we have the truth.

She can call and cancel and get a pro-rated refund.

She should have called and cancelled in March 2022 and gotten a pro-rated refund

I think you need to figure out the timing better

And she was charged each of the last four months?

Start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics

“Did you call the insurance carrier and ask to cancel your renters insurance?”

Renters insurance is a personal expense.

She should have called and cancelled it herself.

If she didn't do so, it'd be her fault

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics

> My primary concern about going about it this way is that this would make my fiancee’s debt to income ratio comparatively enormous even though for our combined income we’re buying well below our means.

Her DTI is the same if you’re on the loan when lenders look at her individually, so it doesn’t matter.

> we could refinance in a few years when my credit is improved and the bankruptcy has been removed from my credit report and that would solve it, but my concern is for how this will impact her credit score and what implications it may have to get another loan like a car loan, renovation loan, etc. The lender I spoke to was pretty assertive that this would be a better move for us overall, but I wanted to field some other opinions.

No different than if you are on the loan

The full loan payment, regardless of the number of co-signers, will be used to calculate her DTI for future credit

It passes through and it’s all added together

Yes yields are always expressed in annual terms

> Anyone other than me think this is ok?

If youre properly saving it doesn’t matter.

The problem is the people carrying 30% credit card debt for a full year getting a refund.

If you're paying a nanny or something similar, all it takes is them filing an SS-8 with the IRS if you somehow slight or wrong them. Then comes the pain train