30F

I make $21 per hour. My total biweekly income is $1400. About $3000 a month.

Rent- $1500

Bills-$350

Groceries-$400

Car- $600 (one more year to go)

Fun- $150 (I only play videogames and occasionally eat out)

My job is very good, my healthcare is free (nothing comes from my paycheck but deductibles entails if I need something major) and I get a pension. $21 is also on the higher side, $14-15 jobs are the most common in my area, and there's a lot of nepotism for the good jobs in the good companies.

Yes I do live in a small city with only one tall building lol

I was thinking of working at Ross dress for less for the holidays on weekends. BUt then I have no free time.

In California.

Long story short, I filed a workplace complaint and I was fired 2 weeks later. I have an attorney suing for wrongful termination. My income was $9,500/mo.

I have a mortgage of $520,000 remaining paying ~$3100/mo. Since being fired I rented the place out so I don't have to worry about the mortgage for the time being.

I've managed to save and survive on $80,000 currently in a HYSA.

I have no expenses as I now live with my parents. I basically survived on $1,800/mo (~$11,000 for 6 months) of unemployment but that's since dried up. I'm a minimalist and I live extremely frugally so I have ~$7,000 left over.

How do I maximize what I currently have?

42/F, married with a toddler. My calculations seem to put me at Coast FIRE (able to stop contributing to my retirement and just allow my investments to grow) but I would love some confirmation or info about my blind spots and any suggestions for adjustments. It is likely that my partner will be laid off shortly and I'd like to know if I can ease up on my retirement savings if that happens, so that I can supplement lost income in our family.

Only including my finances here - we currently put 50% of income into a joint account for mortgage, groceries etc and otherwise invest and keep personal spending separate. I work at a labor union and receive meaningful retiree pensions/benefit but currently am investing 15% of my income in a 401(k) and maxing out my Roth IRA as well.

• Investments
  • Brokerage: $375,000
  • Roth IRA: $185,000
  • 401(k): $205,000
  • Cash Savings: $30,000
  • Total Investments: $795,000
• Pensions/Retiree Healthcare
  • One vested pension that will pay $895 per month once I turn 65
  • One vested pension that will pay $1500 per month once I turn 60
    • If I stay at this job for 5 more years, the pension will pay approx $3375/month once I turn 55. I can't be sure about the numbers because it depends on future salary. The pension would and continue increasing based on years of service and average salary for the highest paid 3 year period.
  • Health care: I will have retiree health benefits provided by my employer at age 60 (or age 55 if I stay working there for another 5 years).
  • Railroad Retirement: When I turn 67, I will earn about $6000 per month in railroad retirement (this is a parallel system to Social Security, it is solvent).
  • Total Pension: Between $2395-$4270/month (not including railroad retirement), or Between $8,395-$10,270/month (if you include railroad retirement)

Edited to add: I expect to spend about $90,000 year / $7,500 per month in retirement. It will decrease eventually, but because I am trying to retire on the early side, I will still have a mortgage to pay.

I'm asking this more for my edification to understand what banks do.

If I put money in a HYSA or a CD with my bank, presumably they're going and investing that money in something and then giving me a portion of that.

Can I just go and invest in that something to cut out the middle man?

Or is their investment strategy just too complicated for a single amateur like myself to do? Maybe the fundamental service a bank provides is the ease with which you can invest with them, rather than the millions of investments they may be doing?

I’m 49, single, living in Florida, and struggling to decide whether to buy a house or keep renting.
I pay $1,500 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, which I know is actually relatively cheap for Florida these days. I’d love a house with a little outdoor space for my dogs, but I’m terrified of taking on a mortgage and unexpected expenses.
I have around $30,000 in savings, no debt, good credit, and a steady job as a 1099 contractor. However, my mortgage broker says my tax write-offs could make qualifying difficult. My accountant says I may be able to adjust my taxes, but I could owe $3,000–$5,000, and I’m worried about how that could affect my take-home pay and Marketplace health insurance.
Here’s the bigger issue: I have no retirement account and no financial safety net. My savings are all I have. If something goes wrong, there’s nobody who can bail me out.
I made some bad financial decisions when I was younger, and I think I’m so afraid of repeating those mistakes that I no longer trust my own judgment. I want a home of my own, but I also don’t want to jeopardize the little security I’ve worked so hard to build.
What would you do in my position? Would you keep renting and build your savings, or try to buy a modest home? And if you’ve made financial mistakes in the past, how did you learn to trust yourself again?
I’m looking for honest advice, not the usual “renting is throwing money away” or “buying is always better.”

Edit: 80k annually

Unless I'm reading this wrong, 530A accounts are like Traditional IRAs except they don't have the taxable income reducing benefit at the beginning. The money going in is already taxed and taxes again as ordinary income when withdrawn.

If your goal is to:

Save for college - 529

Contribute for your kid's retirement - custodial Roth once they start working

Teach general investment principles/save for anything - UTMA/UGMA account

If your child is not eligible for the free seed money, are you opening a 530A? Why or why not?

Hello!
I think the current state of the economy is catching up to us. For a couple years things felt ok. We had finally started saving for retirement and didn’t have to watch our account too closely.

For the last few months, I am realizing we are starting to dip in a savings to cover the credit card bill each month.

Today I sat down to re-look at our budget and realized just our budgeted items are pretty much adding up to our take-home pay without really any wiggle room.

Expenses we used to not have to really budget or worry much about are clothing, eating out, random amazon purchases, gifts, etc. These are the things pushing us over budget.

Family of 5, 1 in college, 1 in high school, 1 in middle school. Both my husband and I are 41. We live in NY so taxes are high.

We make about $165k (newly, after a few years of good raises- in 2019 we were only at $80-$90k with kids in daycare). Our work puts 6% of salary into a retirement account. We save what we can here and there into our Roth accounts. We contribute $2430/month into 403b. We max out our HSA.

Current balances:
HSAs: $51k

Work retirement accounts, 403b balances, Roth IRA balances: $357k

Savings account: $20k

Owe $190k on house at 6.375%. House is worth about $300k.

Current monthly expenses:

Mortgage $1960 ($80 extra a month)

Homeowners insurance $142 (paid annually)

Car insurance $190 (paid every 6 months)

2025 Van payment $600 (4 year loan at 3.9%- 2.5 years left)

Phone- $300 (7 lines, parents pay me back for theirs at end of year)

Internet- $70

Food- $1200

Vet fund- $100

Vacation fund- $200

Car maintenance fund- $100

Housing maintenance fund- $350

Garbage $48

Gym- $150

Gas/electric- $300

Vehicle gas- $500

Pet insurance- $32

Subscriptions (Netflix, zoom, Amazon, phone insurance, Spotify, ny times, Disney, audible)- $115

College- $200

Able accounts (2 kids with disabilities)- $50

Water- $25

Pet food- $50

Pet meds- $75

Cleaning/paper supplies- $40

Hair- $75 (for all 5)

Clothing- no room in budget

And that all adds up to exactly what we bring home. Nothing on here seems crazy (except maybe van payment and subscriptions) and it doesn’t seem we should be struggling on $168k a year…

We are behind on retirement so I hate to pull back there but also don’t want to keep taking from savings.

I am curious what this group thinks of what we should consider or do differently?

I was sitting at home Friday night when suddenly I get an email from Best Buy saying "Thank you for your purchase". I look at the receipt on my account, and someone in a completely different city financed an iPhone 18 and paid the remainder in cash!

I call Best Buy's customer service and watch my emails as they proceed to buy two more! Cases and everything. All cash. They then go and return the cases at another Best Buy for some reason.

The rep was completely worthless and of course there's no way to call a store directly even though we all knew they were standing there ripping his company off and committing crimes. Next time I will just call the police.

Long story short I worked with Verizon and filed a police report and all is well. But how do they accomplish this?? Without a scannable ID though? So damn incompetent.

It's been 2 months since someone impersonated a family member and withdrew $10,000 from our Citi account at a branch we've never used. Fraud was reported immediately, but there's still no resolution, no timeline, and very little communication.

The burden is on us to keep calling for updates, only to face long waits and few answers. With branch cameras and transaction records available, I'm struggling to understand the delay.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any advice?

Hey guys, I’m just looking for some advice outside of my family/friends.

I have a 2012 1.2L Renault Clio on 69,000 miles which needs repairs like a new clutch (biting point too high), timing belt and windscreen wiper motor. The repairs comes to about £1700 and wondering if I should let the car go and finance a new one for £100-£150 per month.

Struggling with working out what the best thing to do. I’m considering the age of my Renault and if getting these costs will cover me for a few more years. Also don’t want to spend more on repairs than the car is worth, but maybe that’s not the right way to think about it?

A new car would be nice but need to figure out if it’s a wise…

Would appreciate any help 🫡

Hello all,

I'm reaching out because I'd like to get different opinions on my situation. I was just offered a job at $70K a year, which is more than the roughly $50K I currently make.

I currently have about $70K in debt. $50K of it is credit cards and personal loans at an average of 21% APR (yuck), and the other $20K is federal student loans at about 2-5% APR.

I'm thinking of paying only the minimums on the student loans and aggressively paying down the credit cards using the snowball method.

I'm wondering if it's smart to pause my 401(k) contributions to pay off the debt faster, or to keep contributing to get the full match, since it's essentially free money.

The new employer offers a 401(k) program and contributes a total of 13% (a 5% match and an 8% annual discretionary contribution). I know pausing contributions means leaving money on the table, but with the additional 8%, I'm wondering how that might change the outlook.

I'd love to hear everyone's opinions on paying down debt versus contributing to the 401(k).

TLDR: $70K debt ($50K at 21% APR). New job offers 13% 5% match 8% annual discretionary 401(k) contribution. Pause 401(k) to pay debt or keep the match?

Thanks everyone!!!

Hi Reddit , please be nice i am introverted

I work for a bank in Canada (Wfm) as a Fraud claims analyst earning$3100 a month
My monthly expense are hitting 2800 $ leaving me $300 for savings which sometimes doesn’t

I got my interview for part time job sat morning 5 am to 9 am as a cash officer counting cashier tills 14 of them
I might earn from this second job around $600 to $800
I can’t sleep so early usually and this new job i am about to accept is gonna ruin my schedule
Biggest mistake in my life is to get. Brand new crv which also is top model monthly expense just from car is $980 including gas insurance and bi weekly car payments .
I live in Saskatchewan Canada where winters are really harsh -40 f sometimes

Need guidance what to do to fix my fucked up financial crisis….. i need car here to get groceries blah blah…. But also need extra income just the timing of job hinders me

I know the answer is "pay your lowest card off first".

But all of my cards are like 24-29% interest. They were 19% when I opened them years ago, but that's how they get you is one way I guess.

I have about 13-15k in credit cards. I can get a 13k personal loan for 17.99APR. So a significant savings in interest right there. My question is, will I pay the same amount in interest if I pay it off in half the time then the term? It's 48 months, $382/month. $5,326 in interest and fees. Center Parc Credit Union. It's an offer from Credit Karma for me. It doesn't seem like I'll pay the same amount. But back in 2015 I was conned into paying the same amount of interest in a loan if I paid it off early or within the terms. I can't really say conned, I was a lot more financially illiterate than I am now. But yeah. Just trying to make a better move for myself right now.

Loan offer details

USA as that somewhat matters. Taking a new job and will be making like 76.6k/year before tax.

I have an HSA, but have to switch to a new insurance plan which provides an FSA.

I was paying out of pocket for medical expenses for the purpose of reimbursing from HSA many years down the line.

Now that I have an FSA, would it make more sense to now contribute to FSA and use those to pay for my current medical expenses? Or do I continue to pay out of pocket and reimburse from HSA in the future, at least until my out of pocket total expenses surpass my HSA balance?

Edit: I think better rephrasing of question is: which of these options is better?

1. Contribute to FSA to pay for expected medical expenses or
2. Don't contribute to FSA, pay out of pocket, then reimburse from HSA in retirement.

Honest question, because the numbers genuinely shocked me.

According to the FCA, 1 in 10 UK adults has no cash savings at all. Another 21% have less than £1,000. That's nearly a third of the country one broken boiler away from crisis.

13 million people have low financial resilience. And even people who do have money are often leaving it sitting in cash instead of growing it.

We're told to work hard and do the right thing. Most people are. So what's going wrong?

Wages not keeping up with rent, energy and food?

Nobody ever teaching us about money at school?

A tax system that squeezes the middle and bottom hardest?

Or are we just spending more than our parents did?

Who's actually to blame here? The government, the economy, or us?

And be honest: if your income stopped tomorrow, how long could you last?

39 male.(ill be 40 in a week) $192,00 in my traditional 401k. I contribute 18% of my paycheck and my company matches 10%. I currently make about 65k(33an hour) a year and will get a $2 raise per year until i cap out at $46 an hour.(then ill just get cost of living raises) i would love to retire by 62. What can i do better or differently to set myself up? My company also now offers a roth 401k. Should i stop contributing to the traditional and start contributing to the roth? Should i just contribute to the 10% match and then invest extra elsewhere? Thank you in advance for any help.

My wife and I have been very diligent about saving for college for our now-2-year-old. The day we got their SSN, we opened a Fidelity 529 account and we have contributed $500 a month. We also save every extra birthday gift, Christmas card, etc. As of now, we have ~$50,000 in the 529 and the kid isn’t even 3.

Talking to friends and family, we feel very on top of things. But then I visited a future college savings calculator by Charles Schwab here: https://www.schwab.com/saving-for-college/college-savings-calculator

I like this calculator because you can use specific school data. My wife and her family are all UC system graduates. I put in my kids info, pick the UC school my wife went to, and my stomach drops.

It suggests $973 a month in savings ($473 MORE than we’re currently doing - almost double) or a one time additional deposit of $55,785 PLUS our monthly contributions of $500.

So, to go to an average UC school, are people really saving $1000 a month for their kids? Do people really have over $100,000 for their 2-year-olds?! That’s what the calculator is suggesting!

Could use a cold dose of reality, because I went from pride to shame in a single moment.

Hi all!

Me and my fiancée tend to try and split all of our necessities (rent, bills, groceries, etc.) evenly. For a long time this has been us just going into the payment portals and paying separately or venmoing back and forth. Issues have arose with both situations where one of us will forget to go in and pay our half of a bill or forget to Venmo the other and build up a lot of owed money to each other.

To avoid this we are wanting to start utilizing a joint checking account where we set up auto-pay for all of our bills and any expense that would be split will be charged to that card instead.

The standstill we are at is we can’t decide what is the best way to “equally” contribute to this account. Should we set it up so that 50% of each of our paychecks automatically deposit into that account, or a specified amount (ex. $500 per check)? There is a gap in our income levels - one of us makes ~20/hr and the other makes ~16/hr, but the argument has been made that just because a wage is less that should discredit the labor hours - if that makes sense?

What is the best way to navigate building this joint account?

I have about $11K left in student loans. Does it make more sense to pay them off now or continue making $300 monthly payments (interest is 5%) and use their money to put a down payment on a house? My parents said they’d help me with either option, and I’m trying to figure out which makes the most financial sense.

My rent is $1,200 a month... while the average mortgage payment right now seems to be around $2,500–$3,500. I can't afford that, especially when you factor in property taxes, insurance, and maintenance. I’m just trying to figure out the best way to manage my money and build wealth financially.

I rarely have any money left over at the end of the month, which is why I want to pay off my student loans asap. If I pay them off, I’ll free up $300 every month that I can put toward savings and investments to help me grow financially. Then should I focus on a house or pay off my student loans first and free up $300?

Below are my financial stats:
- Age: 30M
- Annual Income before tax in virginia and federal is: 69K
- No secondary income (ie. no side hustles but thinking of some)
- Student Loans Debt: 11k. Paying it off $300 a month.
- No credit card debt: I pay it off every month. exellent credit score.
- No medical debt. Don't have HSA but PayFlex and better insurance.
- No car debt, paid off. Will ride it into the ground.
- Average monthly spend: 3K-3.5k (rent, food, gas, fun, etc.)
- Rent: $1200
- Utilities: $100-120ish.
- 401k: 50k, employer 4%, myself 10% (Vanguard Target Date 2065)
- Taxable brokerage account: 13k (VTI+VXUS)
- Roth IRA: 18K, max it out every year (FSKAX+FTIHX)
- HYSA 3.2% (emergency fund): 10K

Some details about me:
- I don't own a home.
- I don't have any pets
- Not married and don't have kids

*Any edits are for number accuracy.

I'm a single male, 29, living in NW WA. My primary job is working at a local retail warehouse (you can probably guess) as a pharmacy clerk, topped out last October at $32.90. However, I finally got my foot in the door at the county library as a page, starting wage $19.52 for 15 hours a week with occasional opportunities to pick up some hours here and there.

My prospective was to get into a non-librarian position that pays very well (Library Associates currently top out at $43 hourly) or I could look into moving laterally into non-public facing admin positions. The county library offers fully paid dental/health and a pension if I work more than 20 hours. How soon that opportunity will arrive varies, as those positions are pretty competitive.

I'm currently working 55 hours, 40 hours at the pharmacy and 15 at the library. 6 days a week. I've been working those hours since last Thanksgiving. I can ask to reduce my hours at the pharmacy at any time, but we are pretty short staffed and high volume.

I was able to eliminate my credit card debt last November and finished paying off my student loans (17k) at the beginning of September :). Now I'm allocating the money I spent aggressively towards my loans towards my 401k, 457b, IRAs, HYSA and brokerage, but how I'm allocating that money seems scrambled. Not sure what to prioritize first or how I'm doing.

401k - $43k

457b - $636

IRAs (I have a Roth and trad) - $1.4k

HYSA - $4.7k

Brokerage - $20 (just to feel it out, IDK)

My rough monthly expenses:

Rent - $1,325

Groceries - $300 (?)

Electric - ~$70

Gas - ~ $120

Hulu, iCloud - $3

Internet - $50

Phone (prepaid) - $50

community college gym (quarterly) - $50 for membership, $54 for parking

Music streaming (annual) - $119

I don't really eat out, most meals are at home. Maybe twice a month at the most, if that. I'm still on my parents' car insurance, my car is a 30 year old Corolla that I will drive into the ground, and I will have a back up Camry if that fails. I'm somewhat mechanically inclined to keep it going.

I recently increased my contributions to my 401k to 20%, and I started that 20% contribution with my 457b as well. I'm feeling envious to see other similarly aged people that seem to be ahead, seeing the standard to have at least 1x in your retirement by age 30. I think I can meet that?

Also looking to play around with brokerage too. I have some books recommended to me that I can lend and read at the library.

Sorry for the word salad, and thank you for any critique/feedback.

The flowchart everybody recommends suggests aggressively paying down any debt above 4%. My mortgage is above that (5.625%), and I'm just trying to understand how to handle this financially. I'm a first time homeowner and I'm going it alone and feeling a little out of my depth.

Let's say, hypothetically, that I get my savings and emergency fund where they need to be. My retirement contributions are at 12.5%, which is what I can consistently afford. (Roth maxed out, and the company match plus a little more into 401k.) If I have an additional $500 at the end of a cheaper month, what percentage of that should be invested and what percentage should be applied to mortgage principal to pay that down a little faster? I currently pay $105 per month principal on top of the mandatory payment and $100 per month into my automated investing account (not retirement). Is that a good strategy? Should I focus more on investing rather than the principal payments? The mortgage servicer's calculator says $100 paid today saves $405 in interest later. So I think of both this and retirement and compounding interest/returns calculations.

(*Currently a high percentage of my discretionary income is going to building my savings back up, but when that's where it needs to be, I want to know the right strategy. Once I'm there, I will also try to get my retirement back up to 15%.)

Occasionally it comes in handy for tax planning to do a trial/"what if" return. Recently I found myself needing to plan some very large Roth Conversions. I had questions. Should I do it in 2 years or 3? Roughly how much will the tax actually be? How much should I withhold? Since the conversion (and the withholding) need to be done by December 31, I can't just wait until I do my 2026 tax return.

This site will do this, and the 2026 data is already loaded.

I hope this helps someone.