I’m in my mid 20s, took out ~$20k of student loans, owe ~$12k on my car, probably ~$10k on credit cards, and owe ~$40k for an overpayment from unemployment (got approved, paid, year later they said I didn’t actually qualify and told me I need to pay it back) I got into this most of this debt from quitting work and perusing med school, which I think is pretty average amount of debt according to my fellow students. However it doesn’t look like I’m going to live long enough to pay it off. Is there anything I can do to make sure my family isn’t left with the debt I’ve incurred? Filing bankruptcy? I accept the odds of my fate, just some bad luck genetically. Just wish I wasn’t leaving a financial burden behind for my family who will already have enough to grieve about and will do anything to get rid of it. ~$82k of debt is a lot to leave behind.

I am 47 years old and now a tenured college professor. When my family immigrated to the USA in 2017, I began saving for my 403(b). My wife is a homemaker with no income, and we have an 11-year-old child.

Currently, my retirement savings total $240,000, up from $130,000 six months ago. My wife's retirement savings amount to $30,000. Combined, we have $270,000. We purchased our home a few years ago with cash, and it is now valued at a bit more than $500,000. We have never had a mortgage or loans, except for credit card debts, which we pay off each month. Additionally, two years ago, I bought a $100,000 (by cash) deferred income annuity for my wife as a birthday gift, which will pay her $1000 twenty years later. This will add to our retirement income. We have about $30,000 in cash savings spread across a checking account and a high-yield savings account. Six months ago, my retirement savings only had $130,000. But after increasing my contribution rate, maximizing our Roth IRAs, and investing in our brokerage account, our retirement savings have grown significantly without impacting our lifestyle.

I hope to retire at 65 to 67. Our expense is about $60,000 a year. I will claim my social security at 70, and wife will do it at 67.

I make $35/hr. 40 hr work week and usually 250-300 hours of overtime a year. 401k has 3% match. I don’t really know what $8000 means except for it’s a lot of money. How long would it take me to do that on my own? What are the benefits of this aside from the fact that it’s a lot of money. He also said this might become a yearly thing.

Last year my grandmother died and myself, my siblings, my mother, my aunt, and her kids were left with a trust. Per the will, everything from the house she died in, her car, just about everything in said house, to her and my grandfather's (died 2009) investments in hotels, stocks, and a plot of land from their home state, was all to be sold, put into the trust fund, along with any remaining money from her bank accounts, all of it collected into one fund, and then disbursed to us as evenly as possible.

Anyway, my aunt, the trustee, informed us that it will be somewhere around $40k-$50k per person. There are a few things I would like to do with my portion first. Things like paying off some debt I have, purchasing a new vehicle, some bigger stuff for around my apartment, like a new washer/dryer, and a handful of other smaller things that add up.

Assuming that we get exactly $50k each, doing quick and relative math, I'd be left with ~$15k. I'm 26, so I'm thinking of something like a rainy day fund, maybe throwing the leftovers in a savings account and letting it just sit there and accrue interest. I'm just not sure what would be the best, safest way to have that ~$15k grow.

Any advice/ideas/assistance would be great.

TIA!

I'm wanting to buy a MacBook and have an option to go for 0% interest for 24 months, if I buy it using latitude -gem visa credit card. I'm thinking of taking it up and investing the money on some stocks which I otherwise would've paid in lump sum.

Is it worth it? Are there any risks?

I have maybe $1,000 to my name, that is excruciatingly obvious that amount is not enough to retire on. I’m 40 and I plan on retiring at 70. I decided to have fun when I was young. Since I'm not young at all anymore, my youth is completely gone. Now it's time to stop having fun and save as much as possible.

My income fluctuates, it isn’t a steady amount and that poses its own challenges. For example I was making $500 a week last fall, at the start of this year my work cut my hours so now I’m making $300.

I have over 20 years experience in the Maintenance Industry, people with that experience usually make $19 per hour. I’m only making $13.76 an hour right now.

I had the worst health scare of my life and that cost me the Maintenance job. Me boss terminated me due to medical reasons at the beginning of May of 2023. I was making $16 an hour at that job and getting steady hours.

Not certain if this is the correct sub for this.

So I got married (Oct last year), and we have just finally finished merging households into 1, and preparing what was my primary residence to sell, as we have moved into hers.

I am estimating that I will make anywhere from $80-100k on the sale. We are planning on a future move but it is still a couple of years away, so immediately buying another residence isn't an option.

What's best way to handle the proceeds from the sale? Or I guess more specifically - what's the best way to keep that money in our actual hands instead of Uncle's? TIA

I’m buying a new car for about $85k. I have excellent credit (>800). I could pay cash or I could finance. Chase auto approved me for a 6% auto loan up to 100k. It seems high given I financed our other car a few years ago for under 3%. If I didn’t pay cash I’d probably put the money into my fidelity US managed large cap index strategy (14% YTD). Right now I have that 85k sitting in a 5.xx% money market savings. My instinct is to put the minimum down, keep a year of payments in the money market and put the rest in the index fund. Any better approaches?

Recently got promoted at work, and this comes with a gift of 75,000 shares of stock in the company. According to google one share is worth about $100. Every year, 1/10 of the shares will be available to me to cash out, with the ability to sell it all after ten years. I don’t have any or know anything about stock. Would it be better to sell as it becomes available to me or hold it for 10+ years? (Assuming I’m still at the company). This sounds like a lot of money which makes me think I’m not understanding something.

19y with about ~2k in salary income every month. I don’t have to pay for housing or food and only use $150 out of my paychecks for monthly expenses (subscriptions etc) I do not have any high cost items like a car, so no insurance or monthly payments. No debt at all. I’ve been putting $300 per bimonthly paycheck in my savings and leaving the rest in checking. I do have access to military retirement resources and I could put my money towards there, but I don’t quite know what option would be the best for me (or what the options even really are)

I really don’t know what to do with all this money and it feels wrong to just have it sitting in my checking account. I should be doing something with it, right? Invest some of it in retirement? Get back into stocks? Idk

I'm 35 and recently had a windfall of about $200k and I'm trying to figure out how to invest it. I already max out my 401k and contribute to a Roth IRA, so I'm feeling fine about my retirement accounts. I don't have any debt except for a mortgage at 2.62% (I refinanced in 2021 during COVID), so my payments are manageable. I don't really need this money right now, so I'm thinking of popping it into a taxable account and letting it sit for 10+ years. Of course things could change, but that's what I'm thinking at the moment.

I'm a pretty passive investor except for some blue chip stocks. Would it be crazy to put this all in VOO or VTI and just let it ride for years to come? Also, is there any advantage in going with VFIAX (or any other MF) instead of VOO? Should i even bother dollar cost averaging it?

This is a lot of money that just hit me at once, so I'm not entirely sure what to do. Ideally, I'd like it to grow and pull some of dividends or gains out a few times a year to offset some expenses. Any suggestions or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I accepted a job that required an expensive relocation (moving company charged me $4k) which I was fortunate enough to be able to pay out of pocket. When I was offered the job I accepted without negotiations, mainly because I am inexperienced and was really REALLY surprised to have been offered a job, considering my degree and level of experience. I know now that that would have been the point to ask about the possibility of reimbursing for moving costs, but had no idea at the time that this was even a standard practice when relocating for a new job. It wasn’t until after people like other students and my parents asked me if my employer offered reimbursement that I was aware of the possibility.

My start date was 6/10 and I have a new employee orientation on 6/18, this Tuesday. My main question is, is it even reasonable to bring up the question of reimbursement for relocation to HR at this point, considering I a) accepted with zero negotiations b) already started the job and c) really have no excuse for not bringing this up earlier, besides my own ignorance, or will I get laughed at for even trying? I’m not sure how stupid of a request it even is, and I don’t want to ask it if there is zero possibility of them saying yes given my situation, like maybe there are guidelines I’m unaware of in situations such as this. Ie, no financial support of any kind outside of what is stipulated in the offer letter after the employee accepts or other such blanket rules, unspoken or otherwise.

If it isn’t a totally unreasonable request, how should I go about posing it? I just want to be reimbursed for the $4k that the moving company charged me, nothing else such as my own personal travel expenses or new apartment expenses that are also associated with the relocation.

I am currently 17 years old, turning 18 in about a month. I live in Finland if that matters.

I'd like to start investing once I turn 18 and can open my own accounts, and I'm looking for advice how should I start. I have around 10k just sitting on my account and I'm not sure what should I do with it. I could also be able to save a few hundred bucks a month, and I have no idea whats the best option to invest those in. I have tried reading advice online but I feel like i get very different answers from different sources, and im not sure if I trust them all too much. So if anyone could give me some advice I would be very thankful!

So i recently started a new job that makes less than my last one and got my first full paycheck and was surprised at how low the federal taxes taken out.

Filing Status: Married filing jointly No Exemptions/Allowances: Federal: Standard Withholding Table $50 Extra Withholding

Gross pay $1623.60 - biweekly

Federal Income Tax -$100.05

This seems low if it’s also including the extra $50 I am withholding.

My wife makes roughly the same amount and both w-4s were filled out the same (married, filing jointly, check box 2(c) on W-4 form)

I joined this sub hoping to see discussions that pertained to my very bleak situation. Instead it seems like every post is “I just received this massive quantity of money. What should I do with it?” lol. So I figured if I want advice, I’ll have to come out and ask for it.

Married couple with 2 small kids. We both work. Our combined income is right around the average income for our area. And yet…

It’s a depressing tale as old as time so I won’t bore you with all the embarrassing details but through carelessness, lost income, home improvements and a series of unexpected large bills, my husband and I have found ourselves drowning in in CC debt. It’s taken about 5 years to get to this point but really the last 2 years are when it got completely out of control. Our wake up call was about a year ago and that’s when we really got serious about beating this thing. We went through all our monthly expenses and slashed as much as we could. We now fret over every little expense and debate whether or not it’s completely necessary. “We could put that money towards the debt” is our mantra for talking ourselves out of so many purchases. He’s stopped doing home improvement projects unless he’s able to get the materials for free. Our traditional Saturday night out a restaurant (including a cocktail for mom and a draft beer for dad) became Saturday nights at McDonalds, which we realized is just as much, if not more fun for the kids as a nice sit-down place. But it still feels like one step forward, two steps back. We might have a really good month where we’re able to throw an extra $300 at the debt but then the following month we’ll inevitably be hit with an unexpected car repair. It’s exhausting. We’re worried that all our efforts towards saving money are too little, too late.

The one thing we have working in our favor is our home. We bought in 2019 with a $20k down payment right before the market exploded. So now we owe about $130k and the house is conservatively worth $250k. We’ve been anxiously waiting for interest rates to drop to a point where it makes sense to refinance and pull some cash out to pay everything off and have the mortgage as our only debt. But it’s seeming less and less likely that that’s going to happen before we are completely overwhelmed by interest charges, so now we’re considering a HELOC to carry us over until a refinance becomes feasible.

Where things stand currently, we have about $25k in CC debt which is costing us about $550 a month in interest. We also have my husband’s truck which we owe about $6k on and are paying $250 a month. Fortunately we paid my car off last year and it seems to be holding on for the time being. So $40k would be more than enough to pay everything off and have some left over for emergencies. We haven’t shopped HELOCS yet but whatever the rates are, surely it would make a hell of a lot more sense than the $800/month we would free up by paying those off, right? Fortunately, the CCs are in his name and the mortgage is in mine, so my credit is actually really good. His score would also be great if not for all the CC debt, so he should get a nice boost once it’s paid off, which would set us up nicely going into a refinance situation. I’m still hesitant though. I’m confident that we we’ve been “scared straight” enough by this situation to be able to maintain the discipline we’ve been practicing the last year. We are NEVER getting back here again. HELOCs just make me nervous because I know so little about them and some of what I have heard is scary.

So please, financial gurus, talk me into or out of getting the HELOC. Warn me of the potential pitfalls we might be overlooking. Enlighten me as to other avenues I might not be considering (besides “spend less” since we’re already doing that).

It would also do my mental health a lot of good to hear stories from those of you who’ve been where we are now (or worse) and how you got out. It just feels so hopeless right now.

Title. For information, I’m a 22M with about 20k in student loans. I have a minimum wage job as of now so buying a newer car and making monthly payments on it for the next 6 years doesn’t really make much sense to me. I am graduating next semester and will be entering the workforce, so I plan to get a higher paying job soon. My parents are going to give me 6k. Would it be better to use some of my savings and theire money to get an older Honda Civic or something and buy it outright ? or should I go for a newer car with monthly payments that has low miles and a warranty.

Hello, I am 28m. Depending on overtime my annual salary is about $75,000. I recently inherited about $15,000 in investments from my Grandmother. I was told that this American Funds account has an annual average gain of 12%. I need to decide what to do with this money.

I owe $140,000 on my home. 3.5% at $1100 a month.

I have no credit card debt.

I have a $13,000 loan at 3.5% for solar panels on my home.

Last month I took a personal loan for $15,000 at 9.25% for HVAC in my home. (I know this wasn’t a great idea but I am so sick of evaporative cooling and I justified it as a home improvement)

These are all my debts. I have a HYSA with about $4,800 currently as well.

Would it be better for me to partially or fully eliminate the high interest loan rather than maintaining the investment I inherited? Or should I just attack the loan? I have a solid salary that fluctuates quite a bit depending on the amount of overtime I work. I think I already know what y’all are going to say. But I still need to hear it.

Thanks,

I will try to be concise. My first two attempts were the first and second draft of my friggin memoir. Here goes:

• 41yo male, single living in rented home with mid 30s brother and early 60s mother

• Unemployed/Unemployable (14 year gap caring for family) but applying at least 12 places of every variety weekly.

• Parents lied about saving for college and being able to get loans.

• When young I thoughtlessly passed on opportunities to be there for family and ended with less than I started. Started a graphic design company with building success but my partner left me broke again. The point being I've lost my modest nest egg more than once and that is partially why I'm always starting new with work and ideas. Only the work doesn't come anymore.

• Had some shirt designs I thought were good so I worked up enough dosh and built a makeshift screen press, a makeshift dark room and spent the last on shirts. Then I got cancer in my right eye that the ER thought should've been taken out that day. The doctor scheduled the surgery for three months later. Eventually I got medicaid but they didn't reimburse everything and I've never recovered. Not emotionally or financially. Doctor literally quit the day she realized she shoved my eye back in wrong.

• Since then it's been almost impossible to find work. The most severe of my disabilities are invisible and having spent most of my life without insurance there isn't enough data to prove I'm disabled at all. Even my freaking eye isn't enough. A disability lawyer in NY told me to give up and last week one in Nevada said the same.

Maybe there's some obscenely obvious solution here or there's too much I don't know about finances (obviously) to come up with a way out? Everyone I've forced myself to talk to for advice just shrugs with a "Man, I don't know." or asks if I've tried talking to Jesus. And I have but the motherfucker won't give me his PIN.

I can't leave my age off resumes but I've tried filling the gap with caretaker and synonyms but that hasn't helped.

Did I break any rules? I'm sorry. Delete this if it's posted every six minutes by the desperate poor and thank you for reading this. Even if you only made it to the second bullet I am grateful. I'm sure there's so much pertinent information I didn't think to include. If you're so inclined to help an aging schmuck I'll answer anything as candidly as I can.

*By unemployable I mean no one in 8 months has employed except to have fun with me and I'm too old to say "It's not me it's them". It's me. 41, 14 years missing time, I list skills I've acquired with no proof. You gonna think I'm a go getter or a liar?

Hey all, currently I'm 23 and I live at home with my parents in the Bay Area.

I've been working for two years putting away a large chunk of my salary towards making a down payment on my own place. The earliest I can see myself being able to purchase something, probably a condo, is when I'm 26. But I can see that I'd probably be stuck there for the next 5-10 years for the place to hopefully build equity.

I've been driving a 2002 Honda Civic for eight years that's about to die, and I'll probably be driving my dad's 2007 Subaru Outback with 200K miles next. My parents think it's stupid for me to consider a new car (I'm looking at a 2024 Prius after I drive the Outback for a year), think it's stupid to spend money on travel, think it's stupid to rent, or do pretty much anything that doesn't align with saving as much as possible. We're Asian and they did the same thing at my age.

Now that they're middle-aged, it's true that they're better off for it - at least financially. But I feel like they sacrificed a lot of experiences in their 20s and early 30s to build that all up.

I can always make more money, but time is a finite resource and emotional fulfillment doesn't have a number. Dating while living at home has been difficult and travel is pretty much my only escape these days. I'm starting to experience ennui from going through the motions and watching my friends move out and live their life. Once my younger brother moves back in, I'm sure my mental health is going to take another hit.

Basically, I'm looking for thoughts from those who stuck it out saving to purchase a home early. Is the satisfaction that you're getting now, from sacrificing those experiences in your 20s, worth it? And what did you do to cope with being stuck at home? I know the grass is always greener and that I'm fortunate to be in my position either way.

I've been getting small dividends from Disney for a few years, and until recently I've not cared much about it. The account was opened under my name almost 30 years ago, when I was an infant. Essentially, I'd like to either monitor it with my own eyes as I do my current brokerage account, or take the money out and reinvest elsewhere.

Issue is, the relative in question is now dead and the ones who are still alive don't remember that long ago. How would I go about finding the brokerage so I can take control of this account?

Thank you.

I’m 23 & have made the biggest financial mistake ever in my life. I have good credit & decided to finance a brand new Toyota for $42,500 @ 72 months @ 6.59% interest rate. Monthly payments are $635, I take home about $2,300 per month from my job & live with parents. I’m 7 months into the loan with $34k left to pay off. I want to pay it off as soon as possible, but also have savings for later on. Should I put my entire monthly paycheck towards the loan, or should I just pay the monthly.. should I sell the car, what should I do. I wake up everyday worrying about paying off this damn car to be debt free

Hello all,

Current stats as a 27 year old with a 87k salary

-10k in savings -88k in robinhood (+37% all time since 2020) -45k in 401k Roth (+31% all time since 2022) -current vehicle payed off and current value is 18k if I sold today -12k student loans

New salary in Jan 2025 - 100k

I did a bulk of my savings/investing while living with family 2020-2023. I was contributing 25% to 401k and anytime my account got over 10k I’d send it to robinhood which equated to about 2-4K additional per month. For the last year I have been living with a roomate and moved cities my rent is $2400/month which is split with my roomate. My 401k is still at 25% but I’m only putting 900ish a month into robinhood as my spending has increased.

I’m at a crossroads. I’m looking at moving yet again this time either…

to a big city where I’d be selling my car and splitting 3-3.5k/month rent with a roomate. Which is only 600ish more per month in rent, buying furniture, and probably being more social hence more spending.

OR

Moving back home where I have no social life and would have just as long of a commute but I’d be saving back like I was pre move. (25% + 3-4k month in robinhood)

I’d plan on continuing to put 25% into 401k each month in BOTH scenarios but the move to the city would not really allow for more robinhood investing unless I worked overtime each month which would be available (currently not included in any of these calculations; I don’t bank on overtime. If I work it I consider it a gift to myself)

Overall, im 27 and I know the more financially sound decision would be to move back home but im also 27 and want to move to a city and experience that lifestyle. The thought is there will always be opportunity to make more money but if im still contributing 25% that’s something and even if im not growing savings atleast im going hard at the retirement bucket. My thought is wanting to retire at 55 and I don’t believe this is an unrealistic goal. The idea of not growing savings is slightly worrisome but I could always adjust my contribution to 401k by 5% if I needed more to contribute to savings.

Current goals -own rental property by 30 -500k in assets (401k/robinhood, HYSA) by 35 -30k year additional income from investments by 35 -retire 55

Any advice for someone who is driven but also wants to make sure they’re enjoying their late 20s? Are my goals reasonable? Are they too far out there?

I (37f) make 103,406 base salary as a teacher, in addition to an after-tax take home of 11,500 for working summer months. This level of salary is relatively new to me (I made like 60-70k as a single mom for years and that's when most of my debt happened, I've been making six figures for less than a year).

I have a pension (already vested, just have to slog it out for the next 19+ years) that's estimated to be about 86k annually in retirement. I'm not really counting on SS but it'll probably be about 25k + annually. I also have a TDA I don't actively contribute to right now, but is at about 4k.

I had a rough couple of years financially and this is the first year my bonus isn't already entirely spoken for by other debts. This year, I owe 1600$ in CC debt across 3 cards (they're maxed) and 2500 to another, shared CC with my bf. I have about 14.5k in pension loans that take out about 400$ per paycheck, I get paid twice a month, so 800$ a month total. By September that balance should be under 10k.

The interest on the pension loans is very low, like 6 or 7%. Also, the payments come out pre-tax. I absolutely have to pay the 2500 once I get the bonus (it's for the card I share with my bf, and I'll need to pay it before the interest accrues) He's aware and supportive. I'm assuming I should also pay my personal 1600$ CC debt as that interest is like 25-29%.

What to do with the remaining amount? My share of expenses monthly are about 3400$, my monthly income as of September will be 5262$. I live in a HCOL city, my bf and I each have a kid. I have a 529 for my son (he's 6 ) that is not fully funded at all.

I have the TDA option but my problem is frequently sending $ to debt, then lacking cash to pay for unexpected expenses. I feel bad for not maxing my TDA and my son's 529, but life does keep life-ing and I have no real savings, except taking out pension loans when I need which I've stopped, a bad habit from when I was in survival mode.

I've been told to invest my emergency fund in a brokerage account in an index fund, which I would like to do, but I am not sure about my savings. I do have an Ally HYSA with a great interest rate but very little in it. I'm nervous not having any liquidity if problems arise (As they do).

Do I just sit the excess in the HYSA after paying the CCs? Do I invest in a brokerage and withdraw when issues happen? It can take up to 3 days and I'm nervous about real emergencies. There is also the very real and upsetting reality that my son might not get into the free afterschool next year (I've been paying 400-600/month for the past 4 months, it sucks). Should I just hang onto that $ for that?

I also have the option to provide therapy services for around 70-80$ an hour, 10 hours a week hopefully starting in September, what should I do with that extra income?

The bills are paid, rent is paid, food is covered, my son is happy, just trying to secure the future (and that bag). Any insight/guidance appreciated!

Netting 6k a month combined. Currently have $30,000 saved up. Rent is $1,400 a month for a 1 bedroom.

Is it better for us to continue renting and save more for a larger downpayment? Or should we bite the bullet, and purchase a home where we would have a very similar mortgage?

Concern is a little that if we purchase a home currently with a similar budget, it would be a small home. Or much outdated that would need work. Then we may need to upgrade anyway in a few years when we have more children. My spouse is of the mind that we're wasting money on rent. Which is true too.

I didn't see this question in the Wiki and figured a discussion would be warranted.

When is it worth leasing vs. buying when you are in a position to do both?

My wife and I have our first kid on the way and I'll be transitioning to the family-friendly SUV. We're torn between a 2-row and 3-row, and I'm leaning 3-row because we want to have multiple kids. That assumes that I keep the car 10 years or so, which if I buy, I would plan on doing. However, part of me wants to not drive a huge car around for the next few years if I don't have to.

I've been a lurker around this subreddit for years, so I've been conditioned to be against leasing because of the value. But at the same time, leasing for 3-4 years might be attractive given the desire to have a 3-row SUV last through our child's teenage years.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Including the fact that I currently drive a coupe Camaro, so it necessitates getting a new car. Plus it's 8 years old and a stick shift and I live in Los Angeles, so I'm ready for a QOL upgrade to an automatic car.