My brother and I bought a house together when we were in our early 20s. We are now both pushing 30, and he has a serious girlfriend. I imagine they will want to move into their own place at some point. I may want to continue living in the house, so selling it and splitting the profit isn't the solution. I can afford to pay the entire mortgage payment.

Currently owe about $160k, mortgage interest rate is 2.99%.

Say I turn age 65 in the first week of December and sign up for social security. I work a state job and will receive a pension and 401K. I am thinking of working until about April the following year and then retiring from my job. That way I can earn right up the the earnings limit of about $24,600. And still collect Social Security payments (about $2,000 a month for me. Would this plan work?

30F - I currently contribute 6% to get my employer match and I have a 401k balance of about 50k, which is less than I wanted at 30 but not bad! My husband & I are saving for adoption, we’ve got a good plan as we’re able to save his salary entirely, but we’d like to accelerate the timeline a bit & I’m trying to figure out the best way to do so. I do not plan on taking on any debt for this, but if I was going to take a loan (NOT a 401k loan), would that be better than pausing my 401k contributions for about a year while we saved? It’d be roughly $400/mo

I am now 46 and planning to retire at 52 in the Philippines. What will happen to my roth 401K money? Will I be able to take it just like normal when I reach 59.5? Or will there be a penalty because I stopped working between 52-59.5?

Hey everyone, I am in my late 20s and have had roommates for the last 4-5 years. Since I moved to a higher cost of living area. While they are good guys, I am getting really sick of dealing with living with other people. I am sick of having roommates and would like to live on my own.

I am currently paying 800 for rent (my master room in a 3 bed apartment). I take home 4000 a month, and am currently able to save about 1000 a month.

Currently, 1-2 bedrooms places (apartments and the occasional townhouse) are going for 1500-2000 depending on typical factors like niceness, amenities, rental company etc.

If my math is right, since I am paying 800 and saving 1000, I could theoretically go up to 1800 but that would be stupid since I wouldnt be saving. So 1500 is my personal max.

Is that too tight for me? is it reasonable? am I being stupid for considering trying to get my own place?

A little background, I travelled around a lot in my 20's. Started a new job at 30 and an older guy i worked with took me under his wing. He was months away from retirement and taking a little time off before coming back to retire. He got sick from covid and died a few weeks later. The last time we talked, he told me he was ready to retire because he didn't want to work until he died. Made me realize i needed to take my health and finances seriously. Started my saving journey and worked on increasing my income. Since then I've had several promotions at work and increased my wages 350%. Paid off last 5k of student debt and maxed out my 457b for the first time last year. Looking for any advice to help me get to my goal of being able to step back from working full-time when i hit 55. Here's where I'm at now:

Salary: 157k/yr no kids, no house, & ~18k car debt (Should be paid off in 1.5years)

Retirement:

401(a): ~145k (Employer puts 20% in without personal contribution)

457(b): ~84k (Employer matches half up to 4% and puts in 401(a), currently set to max this out every year, some was Roth but switched to all pretax after latest promotion)

RothIRA: ~3k (opened this year to still take advantage of Roth, set to max out as long as income limits allow)

Traditional IRA: ~2k (used last year to limit pre-tax, now considering a Roth conversion)

Personal:

~5-10k in money market that I operate as main account with checking

HYSA: ~38k 3.2%apy ( used to save up car down payment and now saving for house down payment)

Rewards Checking: ~8k (4%apy up to 15k)(also used to save up car down payment, currently working on saving back up to 15k)

Fidelity Brokerage: 1.7k (switched to funding rothIRA after latest promotion. Hoping to used to invest after 457 & RothIRA are maxxed each year)

misc crypto: ~2k

Effectively 65k/yr being saved between 401a,457b,rothIRA contributions each year.

I've looked into HSA but have also been working on health last few years so not quite ready to move to high deductible plan, but I do put ~1k/yr in FSA to fund my health journey.

I'm looking for any advice on things I can do better, accounts I'm not currently utilizing, books? or even advice on how best to estimate your costs for retirement? I grew up fairly poor and have been doing my best to teach myself financial literacy.

My plan so far is to save enough to be able to step back/stop working full time @ 55yo. Maybe find a gig with the least amount of hours to still have health insurance coverage until 60.

Thanks to anyone who's read this far. If there is a better subreddit for this post or any recommendations they'd be much appreciated, I'm newer to reddit.

Hello, I read a bunch of posts along these lines, but as usual, everyone's situation is a bit different, so hope I could beg for some advice.

Spouse is getting a couple of big (to us) 1099 payments in the next 6 months - one in the next month, the other in about 6 months. About $40k each. We are in our 60s.

Our income: ~$165k (not including these upcoming payments)

Our debt: ~$95k mortgage is it. (2.6% interest rate, 10 years left on it.)

Savings: ~$500k 401k, $13k in HYSA. I will also get an old-school pension of around $1k/month upon retirement.

Seems like I need to beef up our savings with all of this money, because I'm not liking how paltry the level is. But how best to do this? The HYSA is 3.1%, so I think I don't want to put it there.

Obviously we need to set aside tax payments first. But then, where's the best return + safety + somewhat liquid place for this money?

I am a bit of a financial neophyte with terminology, so please be gentle with me :)
Thank you all very much.

Looking for advice on what to do with an inheritance which will be about $400k. Both me and wife have secure jobs making about $180k/year. At 65 will also both be getting pensions which will pay 50% salary for each. Have about $600k in 401k, about half Roth . Have mortgage at 2.75% and no other debt. Would putting it in a brokerage account be good so could bring in a little more annual income with dividends to be able to do more fun activities such as more vacations. I am 46 and wife 43 for reference so 15 to years until retirement. Thanks for any advice

I’m 16 newly hired at Chick Fil A, I quit my old job because of it being a hostile workplace but I’m projecting to make ~$400 from working 18 hours a week (36 bi weekly, my hours are confirmed to be 18 hr/per week)

I have $1.8k saved up as general savings. I think of it as like an everything savings. If my car breaks down, money from there, if I need to cover a purchase I didn’t prepare for, that account, if something happens that requires funds that my checking does not cover or partially covers, that savings is used.

But I’m thinking to begin having an emergency fund. Do I even need one?

Edit:

I always do

$Paycheck/3

3 accounts for guilt free spending, roth and savings. I always keep 1 month of guilt free spending and sweep to savings.

I was given an estimate on an MRI and payed it in full prior to my MRI appointment. Well I was in the machine for quite some time, IV in and all when the tech pulls me out and states the machine is broken and reading artifact so I would have to reschedule the exam. I call to reschedule and I get a new estimate in mychart for the rescheduled MRI. I haven’t spoken to anyone in the financial department yet since it is Sunday but are they really going to try to charge me? Any suggestions?

I calculated mine at $2.4mil, which is about 100k a year at a 4% draw down. I've been saving into a 401k for effectively 3 yrs, currently at a balance of 38k. (I lost a job and had to drain it at some point.) Currently I'm on track to reach 1.8mil when I retire. My problem is that I cant save for emergencys (get to 1-2k before it's drained by a flat tire or something), and a windfall can wipe out my entire retirement (has twice already). I'm not sure how people at my age (36) can have 250+k 401k, savings, and a house.

I'm starting to think being responsible isn't worth it. I see people making what I make and they get vacations and other stuff. I'm sitting here stressing about my family's future and my retirement, when I could just do what everyone else is doing and enjoy life. But on the same vain that'd probably make me anxious too. We aren't guaranteed tomorrow though, so this may not even be worth it. How do you guys handle it? What's you're I'm done stressing number? Am I just ignorant on finance, as engineer, I've run the numbers every month and adjust my projects on potential varying market situations.

EDIT: Since many asked here are more details and line item budget. As a history, my family declared bankruptcy in March of this year because of medical expenses. Turned in our cars and bought two used vehicles as of June. The problem I'm having is reeling in my wife. Between spending hundreds on birthdays, stupid day trips, random things the kids need, stuff laround the house. I have only managed to save 400 since then. I have spoken about my anxiety but it seems we last a month then end up needing to dip into savings either for the family or to replace all four tires. Not to mention the car maintenance on two used cars. All in all we've dropped probably 8k on cars, 1k on vacations, almost 1k on kids stuff, etc

income
biweekly 2500

monthly expenses
rent 1250 internet 120 phone 115 gas 180 electric 250 grocery 450 insurance 250 water/trash 120 subscriptions 60 ave medical 300 misc 200

I work as a nurse for a UC employer and I'm trying to figure out the best way to balance retirement savings with having more take-home pay. My employer has a mandatory pension where 9% of my gross income comes out of my paycheck, and the employer contributes another 14%. I also have access to a 403(b) and 457(b). Right now I max out my 403(b)-$24,500 gross, and I also max out a Backdoor Roth IRA-$7,500 net. The problem is that I started contributing to my 403(b) later than I should have, so I feel like I'm a few years behind, and all these contributions make my take-home pay feel pretty low compared with my actual gross income, especially when I'm not working overtime.

My thinking has been that since the pension is mandatory and I don't really control that contribution, I should almost treat it as if it doesn't exist when deciding how much I need to save. In other words, if I'm maxing my 403(b), I could consider that my personal retirement contribution rather than counting the pension toward my savings rate. But I'm not sure if that's the right way to look at it.

At this point, would it make more sense to keep maxing the 403(b) and Backdoor Roth, or reduce one of those contributions to give myself more breathing room in my paycheck? And once my cash flow is better, I'd eventually like to start building a taxable brokerage account for more flexibility, but I don't feel like I can comfortably do that right now. Also, eventually, I would like to stop working overtime to make up for my contributions.

I'm curious how others would approach this. I'm mainly trying to figure out whether I'm being too aggressive with retirement contributions right now and unnecessarily making my day-to-day cash flow tight, or whether I should just keep grinding because I'm behind.

Edit:

Age: 30

Annual: $170k, with overtime $225k (eventually would like to stop picking up this much)

Until retirement: 25 years

403: $75k

Roth: $30k (still need to max 2026)

Pension: 30 years × age factor × highest 36-month average salary: I plan to hit 30 years, age factor at 60 will be 2.5%=0.025 75% of gross and gross will probably be $200-225k? - on average has been 5-7% base pay increase, can fluctuate due to contracts.

Expenses: about $6k

Expected expenses: not sure honestly

I feel very dumb for not noticing this during tax time. I’ve been with the company for a year so I’ve only filed once/received one W2. I’ve just noticed that there’s a typo in my SSN on my paychecks and ofc on my 2025 W2. I logged into the SSA website and my credits are there and the listed 2025 income is accurate.

I will obviously tell my employer about this, but do I need to do anything other than that? Do I have to tell the IRS about it?

To avoid the wash sale rules, does anybody know a list of ETFs of major indices that would qualify under the "similar but not identical" rule? Like, are VOO and SPY viewed as identical even though they track the same index but are run by different managers (i.e., Vanguard and State Street)? Or does the difference need to be larger, and if so,o is there a list of generally accepted pairs someone has?

Also, once you have a pair, how often do people harvest losses? Maybe I am misunderstanding, but wouldn't it make sense to set something up that lets you sell daily whenever any individual share's cost basis goes negative to harvest that loss? I'd imagine you can set up a program to do this or give a check daily/weekly on a good enough interval that it doesn't make too much of a difference whether manual vs. programmed, but I'm wondering how people approach this? Especially if someone has experience with Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, I meet the asset mark, and it seems free, so I'm wondering whether I should just go with their automated tax-loss harvesting/does it solve this problem?

I (25) have just landed a new job with the option to open an HSA. The thing is, I plan to expatFIRE in my early 50s. Since HSAs are only allowed to be used for health/medical expenses... how would that work if I am no longer in the USA. Should I even bother with it or is there something else you would suggest? Is there something that I'm missing that would make it make sense for me to use it?

Hi I just turned 18 in May and I’m looking to start building my credit I currently have a bank account with Pnc (I’ve been here since I was like 15 my mom opened me an account) and I also have a bank account with chase which is primarily used for short term savings/ bills. Should I go with another company, if so which? Thank you!

Turned 18 yesterday, besides getting a credit card and a Roth IRA, what else can/should I do now to set myself up for the future?

EDIT: Thank you guys for really good info! I’m gonna do some more digging but basically a HYSA, Roth IRA, a credit card (PAY IN FULL!!!!), and maybe try my hand in some investing

Need to relocate for new job and stuck with current home unable to sell. Scenario below.

Condo in a nice area, new construction like 2018 or so. 3 bedroom, 2 bath. Good school zone, pool, gym…etc. bought new basically.

Now it’s on sale for just over 2 month for only 10K above what we bought it for, started even higher but keep lowering.

I am not sure how much to keep going low. Would you keep going low until it sells? I need some equity to buy another place in the new location which is out of state. I am truly dependent on that and have no other saving for a down payment especially with this crazy market.

Would you keep lowering price and take hit in no left equity or very little (few thousand dollar), or would you rent it out? Separately HOA is killing the place too, was in the $300s when we bought and now it’s almost $700…so worried that if we rent it out, in few years it would be in the $1000s…then maybe impossible to sell?

Any advice is much appreciated. I only have couple of months maybe left before I’m really stuck.

I just paid off my car! And while I plan to drive it for as long as possible I want to one day buy my next car in cash. Assuming this is 6-9 years away what’s something I could invest in monthly to keep my money growing higher than an HYSA could?

So this is my senior year and I've waived the student insurance every year, but this fall deadline I completely missed. I've been working a lot more and this semester of nursing school has me so paralyzed by everyday being work or clinical. I've also just been struggling mentally and small things that take 5-10 minutes end up feeling like I have all the time in the world when there's an exam coming up or I'm trying to stop ruminating on social interactions I have daily. I started seeing a therapist for the first time in my life because I'm really trying to motivate myself to stay on track with everything and I've been having really bad anxiety that has been getting of my ability to do things like just talking to people around me. Anyways the thing I never miss I ended up missing after telling myself "I have time, this is just more important" until it left my mind. I waited until the very end and then the deadline and my exam were on the same day and it just left my brain.

I'm honestly just really mad and disappointed in myself because I work super hard at my job to save money and I have Medicaid so a 3k charge right now would be devastating, even if I pay it through loans later on and become more financially stable in the future. But right now I just don't know what to do. I wish I had just waived it the minute the waiver opened but I didn't. I sent an email 2 days after the deadline closed just explaining my situation but I just don't know any next steps I could take but also how to not beat myself up even more about it because that's been the worst part of this whole thing.

How much &or how many months of emergency savings do people really have? The experts say 1 -2 years. I(64m/s) only have 4-5 months at $50k liquid between cash and CDs. I’m not counting equities, retirement accounts like 401k, IRAS or stocks in brokerage accounts. Just cash in HYSAs, checking and savings. I Got a year or less before retirement. Overall saving >$500k with debt around $92k.

I am at a point where I am maxing out my 401, HSA and etc. I now have the rest of my savings invested in stocks and ETF and in CDs and high yields. However, I am wondering if I should expand my investment means to buying properties or not.

I live in the Bay Area in California. I can’t afford a proper house here yet, but I have enough savings for down payment of a 1-2 bedroom apartment in one of the main cities such as San Jose, San Francisco etc (or alternatively a townhome a little outside of the bay are). I live alone and currently comfortable with an apartment I am renting and don’t prefer to move, so if I buy an apartment I would be renting it. Note, I have no experience in buying houses or renting out apartments. Alternatively, I can look into other sort of properties like buying something to AirBnb given I am close to many tourist destinations such as lake tahoe. Also heard about buying storage units, or even retail properties. Sorry if the questions are too broad, I’m a bit lost and trying to get some guidance.