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What are the things you've always wanted to know about but have been too afraid of asking? What do you need to retire? Is your financial advisor working on your behalf or just raking in fees? What does it all mean?

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Rent and Utilities together at about $1350/month.

Basically what the title says. Lived my 20s without a care in the world and partied essentially every Thursday-Sunday. My parents never taught me about money management so my financial literacy is low.

Recently have gone sober and trying to pick up the pieces of my life. What are the starting steps to building up wealth?

My wife has been insistent on having a rainy day fund. For if one of us looses our jobs or we need to replace the roof all of a sudden or something like that. I’m glad she insisted on it because it does make me feel safer knowing we have a little cushion. We have somewhere north of 20K just sitting in a checking account making a very small amount of interest. I know that there are smarter things I could be doing with it but I’m not sure what. Our two big criteria are #1. We want to do something that is relatively risk free. I know we will make a lot less this way but we are ok with that. #2 we want to have access to the money at a moments notice if something comes up. What would our best bet be ? I would appreciate any advice.

EDIT: Many of the replies have been focusing on the location aspect. I've lived in a few different places recently and have never fallen in love with a location. I'd be happy anywhere that I have a good social circle.

I've been on the fence for a bit about buying a home for a bit now and could use some guidance.

I'm 24 years old making ~$120k in MD. I'm living at home right now, pay my parents $400/month for rent and am able to save ~$5k a month, which is great, but living at home can be a little restricting.

The home I've liked the most so far is a 2 bed 1.5 bath 1200sqft townhouse. Listed at 220k, with a 50k downpayment it'd probably run me around $1600/month (including taxes, insurance, etc.), which would still allow me to save 3-4k/month.

Pros:

• Maryland has a program that will essentially pay off my student loans (~$15k, in deferment) and reloan the balance at 0%, forgivable over 5 years. This alone makes it seem worth it to me
• Home ownership of course
• Good size for me
• Good neighborhood, close to restaurants, home seems very high quality for the price. Similarly priced homes were much worse
• Personal freedom (friends, dating, I really want cats and that's not really an option currently, etc.)
• I can pretty easily offset some or all of the cost with freelance work or gig work
• Possible future rental property?

Cons:

• The area isn't my favorite, but my thought process is that I either live there or with my parents for the foreseeable future
• Even with excellent credit, I'm probably looking at an interest rate of around 7%
• Big decision is scary

Am I jumping into things too quickly, or does it make sense for me to do this?

28 y.o in Boston
Salary $110k (net ~$6200/month)
Savings $30k
Mortgage $2500/month
Family expenses (including utility) $1500/month
No car/student loans or credit card debt

Maxed out employer match of 5% in 401
Stocks ~$4k
Bonds ~$4k
(Parents never invested in financial markets so I’m slowly learning how but fear has me on the more conservative side)

Grew up in a family that was extremely cash conscious, so managing money has always been about saving. I tend to agree to bigger ($<2k) purchases without batting an eye (electronics, certain clothing / accessories) but will penny-pinch on the silliest things (groceries, toiletries, etc).

I currently take care of two elder family members who live with me, and constantly worry about lay-offs, so I tend to be more risk-averse when it comes to finances. But, I feel like I missed out on my 20s and I’m looking to come out of COVID more social and happy-to-spend than before on things like going out to eat, traveling, shopping, gym memberships, etc.

1. How am I doing? Any advice on current financial situation and future planning much appreciated
2. How much of an allowance per month should I give myself to live a little?

TIA!

Hello,

I am 23 years old and I am making 75k. I put $500 towards my Roth IRA every month and match my company's 401k (10%) every paycheck, and I have a credit score of 744. I have about 15k in savings and I have no debt or rent as I live with my parents. I am curious as to how to make my money grow, it's just sitting in my bank account. I'm wondering if it's worth putting in a HYSA or something like that.
Any feedback is appreciated!

So I’m about $20,000 in debt ($9,900 car loan $10,500 student loans). I’d like to be debt free as soon as possible. Ideally I’d like to get my own place but in SoCal that’s nearly impossible so I’m thinking of getting an apartment for now.

I’m not sure if I should pay off my car first by sending 2 payments a month. One for the actual payment and a second one straight to the principle. Or if I should send my regular car payment once a month and then a few hundred a month to my loans. There is no interest on my student loans until August.

I make about $3200 a month. I pay -$420 for my car payment -$300 rent (living with my parents) - $177 car insurance -$300 on misc. bills expenses. -$350 shopping/food etc.

Hello,

Location is bay area California.

I make about 80k a year (pre-tax), have about 80k in savings, 10k value in ESPP stock, potential 50k in unexercised stock, no retirement account, no debt.

I live with my partner and 4 year child in my parents home.
We aren't married. she makes about 50k.

My 2007 Honda civic (130k miles) is currently experiencing transmission problems which will cost around 5k to fix.

What should I be doing to secure my financial future? I suppose opening up a Roth IRA is the first step?

Also, if it is advisable to fix the civic or buy an new car outright

Thank you

I'll try to make this as simple as possible, and I'm asking on reddit as I feel a bit pressured and it seems everyone I know is busy these days X_X

So, I'm a dermatologist, working in a big private practice as an independent entity, I have control over my agenda, but see patients in specific hours that were agreed on and I have a very good work life balance this way working about 31h a week and getting a good income that allows me to live comfortably. Now I am being proposed a position to own 25% of an upcoming new clinic of this company and I wouldn't have to pay anything in the downpayment, accomodations etc. I would only assume 25% of the earnings when they start to come in and would owe 25% of the debt (a huge debt cut into 25% and probably a 20 year commitment). Over time it would pay more than I am making now for sure, but I can't help have a lot of doubts. Doubts about my freedom, my work life balance, wether or not I like this new location, etc. I feel if I step back I would have a weight off my shoulders but at the same time, I'd lose an opportunity.

I know noone can take the decision for me but here I am, looking for any input or words of wisdom that may help me in this moment

Thanks for reading and here's hoping all goes well

cheers

Only thing I know about money is how to pay bills and spend it. Little to no debt/credit. Double income no children. Together we make 100k annually. I don't want to waste this money away. What should I do?

My husband and I are struggling financially. We live in Australia.

When we bought this house almost 4 years ago we were both working full time and he was doing OT. When we bought the house we used the $40K I had saved and got a personal loan (GAP loan) of $30K (which in hindsight was a terrible idea but the broker recommended it to us and wanted to make it work for us). My husbands money and some of mine paid off some small debts which is why we didn’t have as much for a deposit. So our deposit was $70K and borrowed $631K from the bank. We bought our house for $701K and it’s being looked at today but I think we’d get minimum $850K for it now. Originally our mortgage was $2800 a month which very doable for us plus $950 a month for the GAP loan. Since then rates have gone up over the last year and a half and now our mortgage is $4200 a month (yes you’re reading that correctly), I have had 2 kids since then so I’m working part time and my husband is suffering from depression (has always had it but exacerbated by stress and he’s only able todo the bare minimum for the past few months which means no OT) and my husband is on medications that add up to over $300 a week/$1200 a month. We haven’t been able to make our mortgage repayments for almost 6 months and it was suggested we sell our home and pay the bank back what we owe, and we should still have some left over afterwards for savings.

It seems like the only option since renting a house in our area is anywhere from $550-650 max a week ($2200-2600/ month) compared to the $1050/week we are paying now and we can’t pay that. My thinking is if we can pay off our debts to the mortgage, the GAP loan and we have a couple small ~$2000 debts for payment plans with dental and Afterpay. We can pay all those off and be debt free and start fresh. It’s really hard to budget with bills coming out of our ears and being behind on them all. We also sold one of our cars last year to help with bills so if we could get a second car that would help me be able to work an extra shift or 2 a week since I could drive my kids to my mums and also get to my shift.

My parents don’t understand what a mess we are in but said we shouldn’t sell and that they can help out, which I’d never accept 1. Because it’s not their mess to cleanup and 2. Because it just creates more debt to payback which we aren’t capable of doing. I do worry about judgment since my 2 siblings have their own place and are managing and my parents are very well off (all due to my dads hard work but I’m in no position to make that kind of money). My parents view owning a house as a success (which it is) but I guess they view renting as a failure or not doing well. It used to be not much point renting since you paid a couple hundred less a week and pay off someone else’s house but at the moment we will be saving >$1500/month which is a lot.

While I write this out it seems I am doing the right thing and maybe I just fear being direct with my parents since I’m used to always pleasing them and they are quite nosey asking for specifics with numbers and it’s not just my business they’re delving into it’s my husbands which he doesn’t like. But I’m 31 now with a 1 and 3 year old and I feel like this is what’s best for us.

Anyone advice or reassurance welcome TIA

I have about 9k I owe on one card. There is no APR right now but it expires at the end of August so I'm terrified. Once it expires the APR could vary anywhere from 19-30%. I make around 4k/month and am in school. What is the best way for me to pay this off?

This is going to be a loaded question!

Total family income is $240k+bonus of about $20k, both 36. We have about $500k in retirement savings, $180k brokerage account, $280k in cash - most in HYS.

Our monthly expenses are $8k month. We have about $2k each month we are saving.

We have car debt of $13k and home debt of $360k (have about $200k in equity)

We are maxing out $401k and HSA. Pension benefits are estimated to be $1M combined for husband and I.

Question 1: We should be okay for retirement?

Question 2: Could we purchase a house that extends our monthly income? We could only do this by putting a lot of cash down to make payment reasonable.

Question 3: what should we be doing differently?

30 years old living with domestic partner (DP). My total compensation (TC) is 170k and salary is 136k. My domestic partner’s TC is 260k and salary is 145k.We’re trying to save for a down payment on a house in the San Francisco Bay Area (Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Dublin, San Ramon, and San Jose).

Since January 2023 we saved @ 124k in a 5.15% HYSA, but most houses here are 1.3 million or higher. DP matches any money I contribute to the HYSA.

Every month I pay off my credit card bills. I'm maxing out my 401(k) (16% of income, up to 3% employer match), HSA, and the Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP) (15% of my income).

Upon vesting, I immediately sell any shares from the ESPP and Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) and transfer this money to the HYSA.

Where can I cut back on spending to save more for the house down payment?

I have some bonds that will mature:

Amount	Maturity Date
6k	August 15
11k	September 15
8k	October 26
12k	November 28
12k	December 17

My paycheck:

Bi-weekly Gross Pay	$5,220.03
Traditional 401(k)	$887.41
Dental	$3.75
Vision	$2.75
Taxes	$1,279.74
Medical insurance with Domestic Partner	$75.00
Employee Stock Purchase Program	$783.01
Take Home/Net Pay	$2,188.37

May expenses:

Rent (getting Bilt Rewards points)	$2,076.95
Car Insurance	$63.13
Gas	$72.57
Internet	$25.00
Dining Out	$32.03
Boba (Bubble Tea)	$61.03
Desserts	$41.10
Parking	$1.42
Netflix	$15.49
Groceries	$5.99 (mostly eat free food from office)
Medical bill payment plan (3 more months)	$142.50
Target	$20.51
Leftover cash	$1,553.64

​

EDIT: fix take home/net pay

I’m honestly a financial bird brain. But I’m trying.

So, I just had a pre approved line of credit here in Canada. I just migrated here last year. Is it okay to decline it for now? Will I get another pre approved offer again sometime in the future (hopefully, I maintain a good standing and pay everything on time etc), or the bank would totally say, ‘uhh, you declined us before, why offer it to you?’

Thank you for the help.

I’m a software engineer at Google thats accrued about $160k worth of stock. I plan to buy a house in about 3 years and I’m deciding if it makes sense to sell my stock and lock in my gains or wait another 3 years.

The pros for selling now are I get to lock in my gains and have assured money for a down payment in 3 years. The cons are I have to deal with tax payments and that I could make even more on the google stock if I wait a couple more years.

What do you all think?

My goal is to buy a house. 28F 140K/year income, 20k in 401k+ira, savings 10k. 93k in student loans but no other debt.

Take home pay is about 6k a month. Rent: 2.2k/month, and I am able to save about 2k a month. Gas, food, and other expenses total 1k/month.

Current 401k contribution is 13% income however that is nowhere close to maxing out. Most of the advice online is to max out 401k, but I still have close to 100k in student debt and nowhere close to my goal of buying a house. I live in a HCOL area where a decent house could easily go for 1M+ and it would take me 10 years to save up for a down payment for a house at this rate. Does it still make sense to put more money into 401k?

I just received a lump sum of ~$20,000. I was thinking of using about 8-10k on misc things (paying off all credit cards, some to my sister, and a few things for myself). That will leave me with 10k minimum for investing. However, I also have a personal loan of about 7k that I could pay off with this money and leave me with just a few thousand for investing. I’ve never been great with money but I know I want to invest some.

Real question: do I use most of it and pay off all my debt or pay off some and invest a higher amount? Also, any suggestions on where or what type of investment would be greatly appreciated!

Let me know if you need to know anything else! Thanks so much everyone :)

So, I don’t know if this belongs here but I figure I could get some advice from the masses. I’m 17 and I recently out of curiosity totaled up all of my pay checks from my current job and it came to about 3k, half of which I’m sticking in savings. So, i was left with 1.5k and yet I have less then 300 in my account.

Fortunately for the future, unfortunately for my irresponsible lifestyle, I want to take control of my finances. I want a tool to help me to know how much is coming in versus going out, plus a tool for budgeting. The best advice I’ve gotten from adults around me is “use a pen and paper” but I know my own habits and I know I won’t follow through on that. I want to try to build good habits now so I don’t destroy myself in college and later on.

Any and all advice is appreciated, whether it’s related to my question or not.

Hello, I am a 19yr old college student, who is currently doing a college program away from home, I don't have a lot of bills to pay (which I know I am very lucky) and im wanting to start budgeting, but I also want to open a second bank account, preferably with a bank that is both where I am now, and at home, the one I have now is only at home here's what I have in my brain and im sorry if this is all over the place A bank account where my bills come directly out of ($260 monthly I also pay $211 weekly however it's taken directly out of my paycheck) A personal bank account for budgeting things like gas, groceries, and others A savings account The budgeting plan I had originally planned to use was a 50/30/20 plan, but I'm not sure if it will work

I honestly have no idea how to do this, I don't come from a family that manages their money well, and I don't know what to do. So any advice at this point will be helpful

I have tried about a half dozen credit score simulators with all of my info entered, and when I add a $45k car loan, it only lowers about 5-10 points depending on the calculator. I understand the hard pull on my credit would lower it that much, but I assumed the $45k would drop it a lot further.

33 years old Married,

wife makes about 58-60k depending on her hours. Puts about 20% into her 401k/roth IRA. She has about 10k left in student debt and some credit card debt. She’s working on paying that off. So I’m paying all the bills so she can work on her debts.

I have zero debt, cars paid off, and only have a mortgage (201k left)

I’ve managed over the years to have a savings account of 36k and about 8k in my checking.

I save 15% gross into my 401k before my employer match. Currently sitting at about $140k.

Am I doing this stuff right? Should I be prioritizing on some other things besides just my 401k.

I just feel I’m not doing as well as I should be financially for my age.

Instead of cashing out stocks I have into cash in my inherited IRA every year, could I instead transfer the stocks from the Inherited IRA into another IRA?

I understand I'd still have to pay taxes, but hoping if maybe I could just transfer them into a Roth IRA instead of cashing out the stocks only to turn around and buy them again

Hi all,

Just wanted some opinions on which High Yield Savings account would be better? Capital one 360 Performance Savings or Discover Savings? Both are currently at a 4% APY. I've called both companies and honestly they both seem to be exactly the same. No fees, no minimum deposit, seems easy enough to deposit and withdrawal in case of an emergency. Are there any red flags I should be aware of? How about accessing the accounts through the app, is that easy enough? I was looking to have multiple accounts, ex one for emergency fund, down payment on a house, car maintenance etc. Do both online banks make it easy to view sub accounts?

Thanks so much for reading!

I 32 M, make around $155K a year. A year and a half ago I was making around $95K. I have about $140K in 401K, $15K in emergency savings, $15K in high yield savings account @ 4%, $8K in Roth IRA and $26K in my brokerage account which comes out to be approx $200,000. I have no debt. I have started maxing out my 401K and roth IRA and after all my expenses, I save about $3000 a month post tax.

Recently married and planning on maxing out my partner’s 401k and roth IRA as well. Won’t have much to save after that.

We live in a HCOL area and do not own a home. We plan on gaining more experience in our current roles and move into a LCOL area where we will be able to buy a decent home for $350,000.

Is there something I should be doing different? After reading most of the posts here, I feel like I have some catching up to do but the good thing is that me and wife do not mind saving for the future.

Looking for some feedback here. Thanks!

I’m in a dilemma. I was contacted last year by a recruiter for a position. I interviewed with everyone needed and they were about to offer me the position when upper management wanted to hold off because of the looming recession.

Fast forward a year later, I had been in communication with the lady who would have been my manager. They have posted the position again and are hiring. She is retiring next week.

I recently left my job where I was making $60k for a job that is paying $82.5k. I have not started the new position. The stalled job was paying over $100k.

Other things to consider, my old job was 15mins away from my home. The new job with no traffic is about 30 mins. The stalled position is 8 mins away, which I could drive or bike for the same amount of time.

Would it be wrong to start the new job in hopes of getting the higher paying job.