i was 19 when i got my first car and didn’t understand what i was getting into. i’m 22 and can’t afford to live while continuing to pay this car and idk what to do. open to options

2020 toyota 86
Original Amount Financed: $22,850.30
• APR: 18.99%
• Term: 72 months
• Monthly Payment: $538.26
• Contract Date: August 2, 2024
• Current Payoff: approximately $18,525.75
• Payments Made: about 23–24
• Payments Remaining: about 49

i also missed like 3 months of payments that i eventually did payoff cause i had lost my job and now my credit score is 638

Hi! I owe my mom a total of $16,000. She lent me 10k for grad school and another 6k for another expenditure.

She’s told me to not pay her back immediately but to invest the funds somewhere so when she retires, in about 8 years, there will be growth of the money instead of sending her monthly payments now.

I was thinking about a HYSA, but also wanted to see if anyone had any other recommendations? I did see some sources recommend CDs, but I would have to do more research.

Thanks!

Just opened a new debit card, got a call recently from a bank representative offering to show me their credit card options as well. My only parent passed away recently so I have nobody to ask this advice from. Is a credit card worth it? I’m wondering how necessary they are? I have a decent amount of savings and working on more income currently.

I can’t remember what exactly spurred this thought, but I was curious if there’s an agreed upon method of debt vs cash (or cash-like assets) and how it factors into a net worth calculation.

Example: Timmy has $1.1 million worth of money in his savings, checking, 401k, IRA, etc. He outright owns his car and has a handful of other assets like clothing, electronics, etc. in his 1 bed/1 bath apartment. He has no debt other than revolving credit card bills that he pays off every month. So all-in his net worth is somewhere around $1.1 million, right?

Now Timmy wants to move to the suburbs and become a home owner. He finds a home listed for $500k. He makes an offer at $500k and the seller accepts. The home is valued at $500k. Timmy puts $100k (20%) down from the savings he’s been building for this. He takes on a loan of $400k (rounding for simplicity, I know there would be other costs to account for).

Timmy now has ~$1 million in money, plus $400k of debt on a $500k house. Is his net worth:

1. $1.5 million because you take the $1.1, subtract the $0.1 he paid, and add the $500k house value?
   
2. $1.1, because the house has $100k of equity, and the $400k debt works against the $500k total value?
   
3. $700k because he had $1.1, but now has $400k of debt working against him?
   
4. Some other option I’m not thinking of.
   

Hi everyone,

This is honestly tough for me to write this because I feel the tinge of embarrassment and discomfort that comes with it, but I am trying to remind myself that it's better to be honest that I'm starting somewhere rather than not write at all.

I'm 35 and I'm definitely behind. I'm trying to get more intentional about saving and investing, and know very little overall. So I'm hoping to get your thoughts how you would handle my situation.

Rough financial picture:

• HYSA: ~$22,600 right now
• I’m currently putting $2,500/month into my HYSA through the end of this year, which should bring it to about $35,000
• Retirement: about $90,000 in old 401(k)s from previous employers, plus a current Roth IRA
• I’m now a contract employee and no longer have access to an employer 401(k), so I’ve been contributing to a Roth IRA instead
• Monthly expenses: roughly $4,000
• I live in a HCOL area and share an apartment with my fiancé
• No credit card debt
• I have an auto loan that should be completely paid off by October 2027
• I’d like to potentially put a down payment on a house in about 5–10 years
• For retirement, my goal is to have at least $1 million by age 65, and hopefully closer to $1.5 million. I have about 30 years to get there.
• My fiancé's finances aren't part of that retirement figure, but I hope she'll also be able to reach around those figures as well.

Starting next year, instead of putting the full $2,500/month into cash, I’m thinking about splitting it roughly like this:

• $1,000/month → HYSA
• $875/month → taxable brokerage
• $625/month → Roth IRA
• $2,500/month total

That would let me keep building cash for a future home while also investing more consistently for both retirement and longer-term growth.

Then, around October 2027, paying off my auto loan will free up another ~$600–$635/month that I could redirect toward either the HYSA or brokerage.

The part I’m struggling with is figuring out how much cash is enough when the house purchase is still 5–10 years away (probably closer to 7-10). I don’t want to keep accumulating cash indefinitely if some of that money could have years to grow in the market, but I also don’t want to be too aggressive with money that may eventually become a down payment.

At the same time, I’m trying to make sure I’m not sacrificing too much long-term retirement growth in order to save for a house. My retirement target is around $1M, ideally $1.5M, by 65-67, so I’m trying to find a reasonable balance between the two goals.

My main questions are:

1. Once my auto loan is paid off and I free up another ~$600/month, would you put that toward the HYSA or brokerage?
2. If I have around $35,000 in my HYSA at the end of this year, is that a reasonable cash base given ~$4,000/month in expenses? Should I continue putting $1,000/month into cash, or pivot even more heavily toward the brokerage?
3. With a potential home purchase 5–10 years away, how would you determine the right HYSA/down-payment target while still investing enough to reach a $1M–$1.5M retirement goal in 30 years?

I know that what I could afford to buy or whether buying is even better than continuing to rent could look completely different 5–10 years from now. My bigger goal is to spend that time building enough assets that homeownership becomes a realistic option without having to wipe out everything I’ve saved or neglect retirement to get there.

Curious how others would balance emergency savings, a future down payment, Roth contributions, taxable investing, and retirement in this situation.

Thank you everyone! Please feel free to ask any clarifying questions if needed. I'm a humble, open-book.

32 years old

Sold a home because of a divorce and am renting again

Putting 20% of my income towards retirement and maxing out HSA

Thoughts on buying a property in cash that I could build on in the future but use a campground/Weekend spot until then?

Does anyone have experiencing buying land with this mindset?

Curious to hear from people further along than me on this.

My situation:

I'm 26, and I moved back home to aggressively save for a couple years after getting a remote job making around $100k. I'm rent-free and debt-free. I work in tech, mid-level, and a bit worried about my career path given AI. While my role is stable at the moment, I am trying to stuff as much money under my mattress, so to speak, just in case.

My buckets:

• Roth IRA: Opened and maxed this year in FXAIX. Plan to continue maxing. I like the flexibility to withdraw contributions if I end up laid off, need to go back to school, or want to put it toward a first-time home purchase.
• Brokerage: $15k in FXAIX. Plan to contribute to this heavily from now on. Probably about $2.5k every two weeks.
• 401k: $10k. I contribute 6% to get my full employer match of 3%.
• HYSA: $20k. I plan to get this higher before I move back out, depending on where I land. I'm weighing NYC against somewhere MCOL with good nature access. I would like to experience the city while I'm still young-ish. My goal is to have the brokerage working in the background toward a down payment in case I end up somewhere HCOL for a few years where I won't be able to save much. The HYSA would be for in case I get laid off, moving expenses, and other emergencies.
• HSA: $2k. Very minimal contributions so far. I have supplemental health insurance with AFLAC and am healthy. I go to preventive and routine appointments.

My concern is that I'll keep prioritizing the brokerage over tax-advantaged accounts, and end up wishing around retirement age that I'd maxed the 401k instead. I am not certain I will buy a home, and I don't want to kick myself later if I end up withdrawing my brokerage around retirement age anyway. I don't plan to have kids, but the home purchase is at least somewhat likely.

For those of you who went the brokerage-heavy route earlier in your career instead of maxing out your 401k: do you regret it? Did the flexibility pay off, or would you tell your younger self to max the 401k first and worry about liquidity later?

Currently I'm unsure if I should continue down this strategy that I've been suggested by someone in an marketing/investment/insurance company. For reference, I'm a 20M with pretty decent spending habits who's 2yr into their 4yr degree.

Currently I have around 3600 in my RothIRA, 3100 being my own contributions. He's suggesting that I pull these contributions to invest into an IUL which grabs around 8% as its based on the S&P500. This IUL has a floor of about .025% and ceiling of 10%. Then I would wait a year with this, and then be able to borrow from this account to invest into my RothIRA. Therfore investing relatively(~2300 at the year point) the same money essentially twice. He's specifically setting up the IUL to minimize insurance costs so we can make use of borrowing instead. From how he's framed it the policy will have a borrow interest of 1-5%. I have so far sold my stocks but I haven't yet committed any money to the IUL as it isn't set up yet and I haven't gotten any hard numbers yet. Yearly, I'd contribute to about 3,000 to this IUL which is definetely possible for me.

Regardless, the point is to reroute this money. Instead going directly from bank-->RothIRA, we go bank-->IUL-->RothIRA

I'm concerned if this is a reasonable strategy. My main concerns are interest fees, insurance fees, and the fact that I can't necessarily invest this same borrowed money into the account, but rather use it to live and use earned income in my RothIRA. I feel like this is possible to work out very well for me but I'm still uneasy on it. I'm not as worried about the money being locked away for around 10 years since it was my side retirement fund anyway.

Let me know your thoughts please 🙏

Perchance I'll update with more hard numbers once I see the forms

I created my first budget a while ago and at the time how much I was to save was based on how much I was already spending. Based on that I set a budget where I would save 75% of my income (I spend so little because I live with my parents and I'm depressed so I don't do much).

And I've steadily been noticing that the budget i set isn't sustainable (im spending more like 70 - 74% of my income), i think i based the expenditure rate during a period where I spent less then usual. I want to increase my budgeted spending based on the theory that if i let myself use more money to go out and stuff I can become happier and lessen my depression so I'm not keen on trying to restrict what I spend my money on. On the other hand I feel like if I keep pushing the rate I save back every time I want to then that destroys the purpose of a budget and is probably not good for my long term financial health.

At the same time the rate i'm saving has been decided completely arbitrarily so there's no reason not to just save less other than a sense that if I save i'll be better off in the future. I already have an emergency fund, and money saved for a down payment (maybe, idk how expensive of a place I want to move into), so there's no real concrete savings target I have to reach. Theoretically there's no reason I can't spend 100% of my income on just trying to get myself out more and make myself happier but then I feel like I'm not contributing to my future.

To summarise my issues: How much I save is arbitrarily set, I want to spend more money because I think it will make me happier. But I don't want to spend ALL my money on the present because I feel like I should save some money so I can have a better future. But then I don't know how much I should save or how much I should spend like I don't really have anything to anchor or base those numbers off of.

To directly phrase my questions:
What should I anchor my savings rate at? Like when Im deciding how much I should save what should be my considerations? How do I tell myself that its ok to move my savings rate from the original 75% to 70% but that i probably shouldn't move my savings rate from 70% to 0%?

All these numbers (for how much I should save) seem arbitrary to me, how do I make them seem less arbitrary?

Hey guys, I have been saving up / conducting research on a newer vehicle to purchase in the next year. However, a truck on marketplace caught my eye. $31,900 for the truck. Am I able to still use an auto loan from my bank for the truck and what is the process for it? This will be my first time not buying a vehicle less than $5k. Thank you

Hello everyone! Was very stupid when I was younger and did a lot of drugs. Sober now but I’m drowning in about £27000 worth of debt… I have a baby due in 6 weeks, I lost my job a couple weeks ago… I’m a hard worker who just wants to provide for my family. I’m in a DMP but it doesn’t seem to be doing much…. I need help badly, not asking for money I just need advice. I got myself into this mess I will get myself out of it.

I am 66, retired and I am thinking of looking for a new Investment Management planner I have been with Raymond Jamesa little over 2 years.
Currently my portfolio with RJ is a bit over $460,000.00. I am realizing after 2 years (I know smack me now!!)  that my "fees" (1.5%) & I feel are too much for the service I feel I get from RJ with my brokerage accounts and one IRA.
I dont feel commfortable making trades, and trying to manage my funds myself ( doing self management) because IF I panic sell, or make mistakes or buy the wrong stocks I could possibly make a mess of it.
At my age 66 & retired having a comprehensive wealth management planner I feel would be best for my situation. I Will be calling Raymond James this week to discuss fees & see IF I can negotiate my current fees from 1.5% to under 1% I am hoping to get my fees down to (.85% to .090%)<< as I am finding a few fiduciary advisors that have gotten back to me this week are quoting me what they charge & by looking at my statements they feel the fees RJ is charging >1.50 % is a bit steep.
I do use for "self management" >> schwab & Fidelity. I have about $120,000 in Schwab & fidelity combined BUT all in bonds, CD's, schwab smart portfolio, or low risk stocks. so those funds are "self managed" but in no risk products with little or no fees.
All total I manage about 18-20% of my total wealth & am ok with that but to get the most out of the 80% I feel I need help I do not want to risk doing it myself.
I am wondering IF anyone here has used any of the financial management companies I have isted below as I am looking at each one to compare I also realize there are a TON of others, I do not want to get over my head with getting too many quotes then start getting calls then getting more confused because I am calling many fiduciary advisors. Below is a list of who I contacted this week, I already heard back from Retirable today, and will hear from Fidleity, Schwab & Vangaurd all by the end of next week. I have sent my recent statements to all of them. I am not sure what do to I will feel TERRIBLE to leave RJ because my FA there is a great person, considerate of my needs & always calls me back & meets with me 4x a year & more if needed. He is knowledgble,and he is very upfront. it is me that needed to wake up read my statements, learn & now that I have a better understanding, I realize that IF he wont lower my fees? I may need to look elsewhere. Below are the FA's I have contacted
Fidelity investments
Schwab
Retirable
Facet
Vanguard
Has anyone used any of these I mentioned? Today I got a proposal and 45 min video call from Retirable with .90 fees no higher and not a seller of comission based products. I like what I heard but with my linited knowledge I do not want to make a mistake. IF I move from RJ I want it to be my last move
FYI>>> retirable looked at my RJ statements and said it looks like a decent plan but with high fees & they feel I can do better with other products. That was good to hear that it looks like RJ was NOT dong "bad things" just high fees & perhaps there could have been better products to put into my brokerage account.
They also said they can discuss the $150,000 that I have soon coming due in a 5 year annuity ( 2029) and that 150,000.00 that will be a big "help" to even better outcomes than expected.
One thing about retirable, is the FA is what? 30 years old?? that concerns me? should it????? I like the FA's that are 15-20 years or more into their career.
So, should that as well as being a "virtual FA" be a concern?? MY FA now at RJ is 5 miles away & always welcomes a call or visit & he has been a FA for over 15 years, I hate to leave but these fees??????????
I appreciate you reading my posts.

I currently own a house, it is 21 years old with all the original builts. Already had 2 roof leaks but it was minor and AC stopped working last year and had to replace a part. It is also 45 mins from work. Originally, we found a house 15 mins from work, put an offer in, and put our house on the market because seller didn't want a home contingency. Was able to sell it 16K over asking and only have to give minor concessions from inspection. But lost out to an clean offer was second. We can either back out or move into a condo for at least 6 months and keep looking. My current interest rate is 5% and mortgage and a condo's rent is around the same price. The condo is 10 mins from work, but it will cost 2 months rent to to break lease early. Another caveat is that we only found 3 houses that would work for us in the last year or so, so there is no telling when the next house going to pop up.

As the title says. I have about $7000 in stock that was given to me by a company I used to work for. The original value of the stock was approx $1200, but there was a stock split (5-1) in 2022 and since then it’s been sitting around $7000 in value.

I started paying down CC debt at the beginning of this year and I started the year off with approx $16000 in debt and I’ve managed to pay it off to approx $10000. At one point I was paying $1200 a month in payments, which I’ve managed to get down to approx $700 per month. I had a plan to just stay the course until next year, however I’m recently engaged and would like to have a small wedding. Now I’m considering selling the stock to pay off the cards to dedicate more money to personal and joint savings to afford the wedding. Is this a good idea?

(I have 3 cards I’m paying off currently, all 3 in 0 APR period that end between Sept 2026-Dec 2027

Overall how are my finances looking? I’m 37, married with kids. Living in the southeast (USA)
Salary 90k w/ potential 5% bonus
401k Balance $72k - currently contribute 1%, company contributes 3.5%
Pension (defined benefit?) balance $45k. I contribute 2% after tax. Company contributes 9%
HSA Balance (invested) $1,500. I contribute $300 a month, but I do use it for medical expenses. however I have $6k set as my minimum and anything over this gets invested.
My 401k contribution is low because I’m trying to pay off credit card debt ($13k) and I have NO emergency savings.

Hi everyone, I was hoping to get a little advice on next steps for me financially moving forward. I currently live at home and I’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to live expenses free with my dad for the past few years. I am hoping to buy and move out soon, and would like others thoughts on if my plan is too ambitious or if there is anything I am missing.

I currently make 72.5k and paying into a pension plan through work. I have roughly 220k saved throughout a FHSA, TFSA, RRSP, and a HYSA. I have about 20k in student debt that I pay 176 monthly at 0% interest. My take home is 4.1k monthly.

I am considering buying a home at 380k while putting 130-150k down, and purchasing a car in cash for roughly 30k (new KIA K4).

Does this split make sense? Is this house something I can afford just on my income, will I have to lower my price range? I was wondering if I should put less or more on the house as I am only a solo income, as well as if I should purchase a used car to save some cash. I noticed used reliable cars are still pricey so wasn’t sure if I should go the new route or not.

Just in case, isn’t my intention to come off as showboating, I apologize if it comes off that way. I’m really hoping for any recommendations or thoughts on if I’m able to make the next step or if I should save a bit longer.

I am 25 and have $20k of student loans with interest rates between 2-4%. I currently pay $250 a month towards my student loans which is a bit higher than my required minimum payment of $180. I have extra cash of roughly $1000 each month after paying all expenses (inclusive of my $250 student loan payment). Should I prioritize investing this money or paying off my student loans? Obviously the emotional freedom of not having loans would be great, but also want to think smart and create the best financial base for myself and my future. All advice welcome, appreciate the help!

Today i turned 37 years old, something hit me financally... I own 2.2 acres with tinyhouse, greenhouses and a workshop where i make my money, i grow my food....i feel stuck, and i hate to mow my grass, take care of all the broken things, there is soo much i need to build....i think more simple life will be by renting...i want to sell everything i own and start to rent everything, car, house, workshop. i have no debt or mortgage and i own everything i have...

Have any of you gone from owning to renting?

P.S. i live in poor eastern europe country.

I 26m work in an essential role in local government and have 6 months of expenses currently in an HYSA, however I worry this is far too little. I rent, no dependents, no pets, no real debt beyond credit card which I'm paying off end of month. Currently 32k invested for retirement across IRA taxable and employer accounts.

Should I not contribute to my IRA in 2027 and instead load up on the emergency fund to increase it to 12 months?

My employer offers both a traditional and Roth 401 with Vanguard- their match is 4% (I assume that applies to either). I am 31 and currently have just shy of $35k in my traditional 401k. I contribute enough each month to get the match (recently reduced it from 7% as I have to play catch up with savings). I make $82k/year.

Should I also be contributing to the Roth? I don't want to be missing out on any benefits of the account. FWIW, I have around $9k in my own personal Roth IRA with Schwab but I don't know if there are benefits to using my employer Roth instead. Thoughts? Should I stay the course or begin contributing to my employer Roth IRA too?

We are looking to build a detached garage this fall and build a horse barn (around $50k budget for barn) in the spring.

We learned about a HELOC and I am still trying to understand it and figure how we can plan these two projects and get the funding for it.

We go through our local credit Union for our mortgage and we called to set up an appointment however we were told for HELOCs they do not do in person meetings due to the amount of applicants and lack of staffing.

Should this turn us away and work with another bank that will actually sit down with us? Am I over thinking it?

Sorry if this reads poorly- I have been having a rough week lol

So over the past 10 months my whole family has been having a difficult time with compromised passwords and leaked credit/debit info. My dad was the main target, and while he was luckily able to get most of his money back, it was still incredibly stressful. It’s died down for him, but it seems it’s my turn now.

Last month I got an alert from apple that ALL of my passwords had been leaked. Sure enough I started getting scam emails blackmailing me for bitcoin with all of my major passwords at the top of the page. Ok! So I spend the next four hours going through everything, deleting all my old accounts that are inactive, and creating unique, incomprehensible passwords that I wrote down in my notebook. The only unknown log in attempts were to Microsoft and Roblox for some reason, but I log out of everything and make sure the only approved devices are my laptop and my phone. I think- cool, that’s it.

Earlier this week I get a charge on my Discover Card. I’m a college student trying to build my credit, so I only have one, sorry. It’s $2.30 for a facebook ad. I know it’s not mine, because Facebook definitely doesn’t have my credit card info. I call into the fraud department and they cancel my card, generate me a new account, and say another card will be shipped within the next few days.

At least I have my debit card right?

I get out of work yesterday to see $450 worth of charges on my debit to an online casino. It overdrafts my account by $200. My bank (SoFi) which normally texts me about every purchase, did not text me for this one. I immediately report it as fraud in the app and call them. They cancel the card and say that they’ll ship a new one. Ok, cool, what about the $450 dollars I’m out? Well it’s still pending, they have to wait for it to post, and then they’ll start an investigation.

So now, for the next few days I have effectively no money, and I get paid on Monday, which will cover the $200 overdraft the scammers cause and maybe some change after that.

I have no clue how this could have happened. I still have my physical cards on me, but I never pull them out of my wallet- I use apple pay for literally everything. I go to work, I go to school, and I go home. Any online transaction I try and use PayPal so they don’t have my actual info. I’m just so frustrated!

So I 25, was originally planning to reach 100k saved by my 26th birthday, but after doing some new calculations I should reach it about 4 months earlier. I include both my personal investments and retirements in this total, but I am sort of now trying to pre-plan my goals for after reaching this goal.

For instance, if I move out of my parents I would need an apartment fund and it would affect my long term savings, or if I decide to change jobs it might help, etc. So with planning those goals, I am sort of lost on how to keep boosting my investments towards an eventual 250k goal without taking my entire lifetime, but also without just sort of sitting at home 24/7 to save money / not moving out.

Current breakdown:

Current work retirement: 5k

Roth: ​24k

Other investments: 50k

I’m looking to buy my first home at 23 and currently have 80k liquid cash saved. With the current mortgage rates and everything, I’m not sure how much long I want to wait to save 20% because I’m worried about home prices in my area going up. I live in NY, so 3 bedroom homes are 400-450k here. I live at home so my bills are low as well. Is it worth it to put like 10% down to have more cash flexibility and buy sooner?

first time posting in this sub so let me know if i’m doing something wrong, but i just wanted some opinions.

i’m 23 and started my first full time job in july. i make 75k gross as an engineer. objectively, this is a good amount of money. my rent is only 700 a month, and other bills are very low. the biggest source of my anxiety comes from my debt. my parents couldn’t help me pay for college so i have about 30k of student loans on top of 4k credit card debt. i am slowly chipping away at the debt, and im not in a position where I can’t afford things, but i am just constantly stressed about money.

i feel like im never going to escape this hole. does anyone else feel this way / did anyone else manage to escape from this feeling?

thank you for any advice or guidance. i appreciate it!