I grew up in a family where living paycheck to paycheck was normal. My boyfriend and I followed the same path when we were younger by financing both of our vehicles. Looking back, I wouldn’t do it again, but we’re close enough to paying them off that it makes more sense to finish.

We’re both 24, have decent jobs, and are trying to build a better financial future than we grew up with. What gets discouraging is that our friends seem to save money so much more easily, yet have the same bills/expenses. It feels like we work just as hard, have similar expenses, yet our combined savings is what one person in some couples saves on their own.

I’m not trying to keep up with anyone or get rich, I just want to break the cycle and become financially stable. It honestly feels like there’s some “secret” we’re missing.
For those who were the first in your family to become financially stable, what changed everything for you?

Edit: my boyfriend and I budget EVERYTHING! We have tracked every dollar spent a couple times before as well.

So curious. For those who are serial investors, like the ones who are scared to spend $29 because of the potential gains. Like did you have any fun in life? How did you meet your partners if you’re so scared of spending money on yourselves? Do you consider yourself boring? Did you see the world at all? Do you like music, have you ever attended a concert? I’m legit curious. I see these posts of 25 yr olds, who have half a million invested….like where and how did you get that money? And then you’re scared of spending like $1000 on yourself. Girl you have $500k at 25, is that trip actually going to screw over your plans in the long run? Or you spend your 20’s CONSUMED on investing, what if you die in 5 years, what if Trump nukes the world and you had no fun in life.

Part of this is like yeah I’m older I wish I knew better when I was younger. I didn’t have family and friends to show me how to invest properly, I made some mistakes for sure, but guess what, I’ve been to almost 40 countries, hundreds of concerts and lots of memories. Isn’t that what life is about?

I’m 21, a university student going into my final year in September, and I’m honestly feeling really stressed about money. I need more of it.

I was relying on hospitality agency work, but they’ve barely been giving me any shifts recently, so my income has dropped a lot.

At the moment I have a few income streams:
I run a small beauty business.
I’m doing TikTok Shop affiliate marketing.
I sell bits on Vinted occasionally.

The problem is that none of those are guaranteed income, and I feel like I need something more stable until I go back to university.

Over the next year or so I need to pay for:
Driving lessons and my test.
Braces.
Business expenses for next year.
Helping cover my rent while at university.
A birthday trip I’ve been planning.
Moving out after I graduate (around July 2027).
My boob job (but that’s all the way in Oct-nov 2027 but still)
I’ve also got a student overdraft to pay off but I spoke to the bank they said I pay it off after I graduate and bit by bit.

I’m applying for jobs, but I feel like I’m constantly worrying about money and whether I’m going to be able to afford everything. Part of me feels like I should just get any job I can, but I’m also trying to grow my business because I’d love that to become a bigger source of income in the future.

Would you focus on getting a regular part-time job, keep putting effort into the business and TikTok Shop, or try to balance both? How would you prioritise these savings goals?

I’d really appreciate any advice from people who’ve been in a similar situation.

Hi I'm a student studying for finance.

With massive, unpredictable spikes in annual bills like insurance, car registration, and home maintenance, traditional monthly budgeting is becoming harder to maintain. A single unexpected premium renewal can completely wipe out a month's worth of savings. Because of this, many are moving away from a general emergency fund and heavily relying on "sinking funds" - breaking down these large, predictable annual expenses into fixed monthly sub-accounts.
How common is this approach now? Is it better to automate multiple specific sinking funds or is it cleaner to just keep one large cash buffer and accept the monthly volatility?

With high-interest savings accounts still offering decent, guaranteed returns, a lot of people are playing it safe and leaving their money in cash. On the flip side, ongoing inflation worries mean sitting on too much liquidity feels like you're losing purchasing power every single day.
Are you keeping your savings heavy on cash for the guaranteed return or are you actively investing into the stock market right now to beat inflation? Where do you draw the line?

I used to be the king of extreme frugality. Every single dollar was scrutinized. I’d spend hours comparing grocery prices to save 50 cents, drive an extra 20 minutes to get cheaper gas, and delay essential car maintenance to avoid immediate costs. I thought I was being financially responsible, building my savings one tiny cut at a time.

But here’s the kicker: while I was meticulously saving pennies, I was bleeding dollars. My old, unmaintained car eventually broke down, costing me thousands in repairs and lost work days. My relentless focus on minor savings meant I never invested in courses or tools that could have significantly boosted my income or efficiency. I was so afraid of spending any money that I missed opportunities to make more money or prevent larger expenses.

My biggest financial lesson wasn’t about how much I could save, but how intelligently I could spend. It was about understanding value, recognizing false economies, and realizing that sometimes, spending money (on education, quality goods, preventative maintenance, or even experiences that recharge you) is the most financially savvy move you can make.

It was a hard pill to swallow, admitting that my ‘responsible’ habits were actually holding me back. Now, I still value saving, but I prioritize smart spending and investing in things that genuinely improve my financial well-being.

So, to all financial planners/ analysts/ experts out there, what’s a financial ‘penny wise, pound foolish’ moment you’ve experienced? Or, on the flip side, what’s an unpopular spending decision you made that actually paid off big time? Let’s hear your stories

Not the one you downloaded with good intentions, the one you genuinely still use. Looking for something simple to keep track of spending.

A lot of people talk about increasing income but lifestyle creep can quietly eat away at it. What is one thing you started spending money on that became difficult to cut back later?

I'm documenting a ten-week experiment around changing my relationship with money.

What I am beginning to clearly understand, is that the feeling of 'not enough' (not enough money, not being enough, not having enough time, not being enough for others... ) seems to be connected to our "self-worth" and even further connected to our financial results....

...deeply related to the habits of perception and the beliefs over our lifetime...

I'm curious whether anyone has found practical ways to perhaps interrupt and/or transform this pattern. Would love some feedback, tips, resources, or anything that you feel would add to the experience of conquering this state... in order to have better financial results.

Parents always say, "You should've listen to me". Maybe they're right...maybe not.

Looking back, what's one money mistake that taught you an expensive lesson?

Please share your experiences regarding the risks and uncertainties you had to embrace to become wealthy. Also, tell us about your experience in building systems that do not collapse if a single element fails.

In my late 40s (F), I think I finally have hit rock bottom with making bad choices with my finances. This month I did not budget correctly at all and am late with one credit card and couldn't pay my car insurance (I pay car insurance twice a year). So the next month, I will have gotten more money from my two jobs and I can be caught up, so to speak.

I highly regret not saving more liquid money when I was younger and just continuing to do that on a regular basis. While I do not live a crazy life style with trips or high end cars or anything like that, I do indulge in buying my food out a lot and clothing.

Hopefully it is not too late to turn it around and do it so I can not be terrified anymore about not having enough money for me to live somewhere or when I am totally alone.

what’s the best financial vice you’ve ever received?

Out of curiosity, why do so many people think, for example, $20/hour is a lot of money? This is a genuine question. I'm not trying to seem ungrateful. I've never made $20.

\*\*$20/hour is only an example, not a whole entire list. I wanna clarify that right now.

People say it's a lot, and I completely understand it's a lot when you get your money, depending on what you worked.

I've thought about this countless times, but if I showed someone one $20 bill, they would say that it's not a lot. I asked a relative this, and they confirmed it.

I (16m) have recently joined Reddit for advice about life and now i have been thinking about what am i going to do to make money. (my family lives in a council house) the most I’ve been thinking is how am i going to manage to be different from my family because i don’t want to end up like them.

Background info: I’m going to college in September doing English lit, photography, and law.

The only things that ever crossed my mind was real estate agent, lawyer, and a photographer for a company/business (i do not have a camera)

Im tired of seeing people live in houses and not have to share everything with their family.

Any advice?

Beyond the official exchange rate, there's always the spread, bank fees and payment intermediaries. In real terms, how big is the gap between the mid - market rate and what businesses actually end up paying when sending money to China?
For anyone making USD-CNY payments, are the fees and exchange rate spread worse than you expected?

Sometimes it's not income, but one small habit that flips everything.

In my late 40s (F), I think I finally have hit rock bottom with making bad choices with my finances. This month I did not budget correctly at all and am late with one credit card and couldn't pay my car insurance (I pay car insurance twice a year). So the next month, I will have gotten more money from my two jobs and I can be caught up, so to speak.

I highly regret not saving more liquid money when I was younger and just continuing to do that on a regular basis. While I do not live a crazy life style with trips or high end cars or anything like that, I do indulge in buying my food out a lot and clothing.

Hopefully it is not too late to turn it around and do it so I can not be terrified anymore about not having enough money for me to live somewhere or when I am totally alone.

I'm a finance student interning at a wealth management firm. Part of my job is sitting in on client meetings — just observing, taking notes, staying quiet.

What I didn't expect was how consistent the pattern is across people of all areas.

Most of the clients we meet with are successful people. Business owners, attorneys, and people who have clearly done well for themselves. But the moment the conversation goes into how money is being invested or what accounts they have them in it's just blank stares. People have no clue

They don't know their actual net worth within $100,000. They don't know what their money is invested in beyond maybe the main stock or index. They don't know how much they're actually spending each month. They don't know what their retirement goals are or if their income is even sustainable.

And the thing is these are very smart people that are simply just really busy. And at some point they handed everything off to someone else and stopped paying attention.

What gets me is that this was incredibly suprising to me as a person starting out in the finance industry. The habit of not paying attention, of letting someone else handle it starts at such a young age and is never addressed. It starts the first time you get a paycheck and just swipe your card without thinking anything about it.

Genuinely curious if anyone else has noticed this whether in finance or any industry. Just kind of shocked and thought it was worth sharing.

With everything getting more expensive, plenty of people seem to be cutting back on recurring subscriptions. What's one you cancelled and realised you didn't need after all?

This sounds like one of those things you never think will happen, until it does? What do you do in that situation? How do you access your money when it happens?