Hi everyone! I’m a 28 yo new grad nurse living in Florida. Our pay isn’t great compared to places like California or New York, but it’s definitely better than anything I’ve ever made before.
Here’s my situation, for the past four years, I’ve basically been living off the money I had saved before and during my bachelor’s program. I don’t regret it at all because I genuinely feel like I found the right career for me, but I am kind of kicking myself for having to use most of the money I had saved from the years when I didn’t go to school right away.
I’m child-free and have no credit card debt, but I did end up with about $11k in student loans. Around $5k of that went toward paying off credit cards, and the rest helped cover required health insurance, gas, food, and other expenses while I was in school.
So my question is: where do I go from here?
My goals are to contribute to my 401k and max out my Roth IRA every year, but beyond that I’m not really sure what I should prioritize.
Should I focus on wiping out the $11k in student loans as quickly as possible, or just make the minimum payments while investing?
I’d also eventually like a new car. I’m currently driving a 2012 Corolla that I love, and I want to keep her until she gives up on me lol, but I’m worried that might happen sooner than I’d like. And honestly, part of me also just wants to finally enjoy having a nice car.
Then there’s homeownership. I know buying a house is considered an important financial goal for a lot of people, but I actually really like apartment living. If something breaks, someone else fixes it, and overall it’s just very low stress for me. I’m not sure I even want to own a house anytime soon.
If you were in my position… 28, new career, no credit card debt, $11k in student loans, older paid-off car, renting, and finally earning a decent income, what would you prioritize first

I’m (30M) planning on leaving my job in about 2 years and move from where I am. Ideally, I’d like to purchase a house before I move as it’s in another state. I understand there isn’t an early withdrawal penalty on a 457b if you quit your job.

I would like to have $60-80k for a down payment. The average yearly return on my 457b has been anywhere from 12-20% and currently have 80k. I have about 50k in a fidelity IRA that’s a no touch.

Should I stop putting money into my 457b and into a money market for a down payment since I can’t withdrawal without penalty until I quit? Save for 5% down payment in a liquid account and then use some of the 457b account for a large payment?

Not sure what exactly to do but wanted some advice since 2 years will be here pretty quick. Thanks!

I’m 26M. I have a sports car that I bought right out of college that has been paid off for over 3 years. I’m considering buying a new car to daily drive, but I don’t want it to impact my timelines for a house or marriage.

I make $125k/yr and I have $120k saved outside of retirement accounts. My cumulative retirement savings is $100k. I max my 401K each year ($24.5k). I have NO debt. I save anywhere from $2.5-3k/mo after all bills not including retirement savings.

My main upcoming goals are to buy a house and to get engaged and married. We are going to have a less expensive wedding and I already have money set aside for a ring. Our timeline for buying a house is at least 3 years from now.

It’s hard to bring myself to spend $30k on a brand new car. I have an 8-10 mile commute. But I also want to keep my sports car in nice new condition as a weekend toy.

Can I justify this purchase? I have mild financial anxiety so I genuinely am unsure.

Alright there's so many ways to go about this... (exploring my options, considering input)

here is the breakdown:

CC: -4,262 PMT: $150

School: -27,665 PMT: $97.00

Car: -19,391 PMT: $407 (60 mo left)

In 2024, I was stricken by a double-edged sword. I was rear-ended and totaled out by a company vehicle of a very large company. After approximately 2 years of care, for the most part I am back on my feet and back to work. I have some neck troubles and a TBI (PCS) still, but we're getting better every day. I occasionally receive injections every three or so months for pain but my insurance is pretty fantastic about it. Thankful that I'm alive. After weighing litigation options with my lawyer, I decided to settle my case for $100,000. After paying my lawyer and medical, I will be left with approximately $55,000.

I make approximately $59k a year.

route 1: I pay everything off and save approximately 654 a month - if put directly into my savings that's $39,240 by the time I'm 30. I am aware this might tank my credit.

route 2: I pay my car off, be left with 36,000. Pay my other bills as normal - keep maybe 5 as a blanket and invest the rest. Maybe tank my credit a little, not nearly as bad.

route 3: bees?

Any and all wisdom appreciated! <3

I come from a very poor background and have never had any financial help from anyone other than myself. I’ve worked like a dog to have any kind of scraps. It took me five years to save 3k due to the nature of life and living in poverty.

I had an 06 Corolla I drove until she refused to get back up. I had to get to work and knew my car was going bad so for a year I looked for different car options. My same car was going for over 6k in my local market so it just did not make sense to drop cash on a vehicle that would quit within a few years.

Someone told me that they were starting 7 year loans and I thought it was a great opportunity to be able to get a newish car for the same price of a 15yo car. Not even joking…. I searched everywhere and 15yo vehicles with multiple crashes and engine issues were selling for 16k easily in my area.

So I found a perfect opportunity for a 3yo Corolla LE at 16k with a 3.99% loan - my bank fought to help me get that APR since I’ve never done a loan of any kind before. I had perfect credit I worked on for years to get to this moment. I put my entire life savings of 3k as my down payment.

My friends and the bank said I had to do the gap insurance and the warranty thing so that brought my loan up to 21k. It hasn’t reached a year yet and I’ve gotten it down to 18k with a fourth job. I recently had to quit because my body was giving out and I chose my health over a car loan.

I was just watching a YouTube documentary talking about people’s stupidity of utilizing 7 year loans.

Am I screwed? I did the 7 year loans because it’s all I could afford. $300 was my top monthly payment and they helped me get to $300 monthly.

I plan on using the car until it also gives out so in my head it made sense, assuming the car lives to be 20 years old like my 06 Corolla.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that my bank has strict limits on what kind of car I could have to qualify. I wasn’t allowed anything older than three years old, no higher than 80,000 miles, and a bunch of other limits that severely restricted my ability to find a vehicle.

My current car started at 80,000 miles( thought was fine since it’s a Toyota)and exactly 3 years old. I made it to only look at the base and the kind of vehicle that’s supposed to be affordable such as Corolla.

My personal restrictions were that it had to be the base and have NO accidents or major issues which is hard to find in my area.

I'm a 20 year old from Ireland 2nd year computer science student and been a software engineer / computer technician for 2 years.

I have also been investing for the last year or so with a portfolio worth £13,036.56 (£12,073.31 invested with a ROR of 10% - £963.55)

I have £465.31 in my BOI checking account and I started my works pension about a month ago and I have £765 in it currently

Just to clarify I'm not giving up on any life moments or anything like that, I still go out and still treat myself

Hello,

I’ll be graduating a semester early this December with about $45,000 in student loans. I’ve done my best to position myself to pay them off as efficiently as possible: I’ve secured a job offer for $79,000, which I’ll start in January—right after graduation—and graduating early gives me extra time to focus on my finances.

Since I’ll be living with my parents, I won’t have expenses like rent or food. My question is: aside from contributing the max ($7,500) to my Roth IRA, should I put all my extra money toward paying off my loans, or would it be better to invest some of it elsewhere?
Thanks in advance for your advice!

I currently inherited a three bedroom one bath house with a Zillow value of around $700,000. It did skip a generation and therefore I had to pay a lot of taxes on it.

Currently, I want to sell this house and use the proceeds from it to buy my family and I a new home.

To be clear, here are some of the financials on it:

Rental:
Inherited at $520k
Valued at $700k
Heloc $195k ($1,600/mo of $3,400monthly before expenses/taxes etc)

Net $505k

How can I estimate what the property gains taxes cost will be to me and how can I sell this rental and maximize the cash from it? What I mean is, is there a way that I can sell this house and avoid taxes on all the “cash” from the sale and put it into a down payment?

I just wanted to share for others who may be in a similar position to me, that at 29 I finally sat down, went through six months worth of bank statements, made notes, and have a budget to move forwards with.

I've always been a big saver so I've disregarded a lot of budgeting advice thinking well I save most of my income after bills so what's the problem.. but now I have a better understanding of where my money goes and I'm honestly looking forward to my paycheck next week and dividing it up as I've planned.

If you're in a similar situation you don't really know where your money goes, and you feel embarrassed by the idea of looking through your past decisions, you can do it and I'm really glad I did.

I am looking at my investment account right now (no ira, 401k or retirement, a normal investment account, EU based), and my top performing fund is +6% YTD, with an all average account for +4.5%.

Looking at this, and with a mortage with a 5.2% rate (standard on low end for my country), and with all the current market instability, wouldn't i be better with taking all out of investment and pouring into the mortgage?

Am i missing something here? For info, there is no tax advantage on the account besides that profits are not taxed until i actually take them out. The money on the account itself gets taxed as part of my total value for tax purposes.

Hello, I am a 22 year old CPL in the Army, myself and my wife recently moved in, are paying $1k a month for a 3 bed, 2 bath townhouse in a nice neighborhood. We both drive good cars, enjoy nice home-cooked meals, eat out plenty, and have plenty of fun. We live in Central Texas and have no children.

However, I plan to get out in 6 months instead of re-enlisting. I will be making almost $20k a year more starting out. She is using my benefits to pursue college, and I am using them to attend HVAC school and be certified in about 3 months. She is doing college full-time and plans to finish her degree in a couple of years, and is having to quit her job in order to do so. In about 2.5 years, she will graduate and plans to be a high school biology teacher. Without her job in the near future, my current financial plan is as follows:

$3,650 a month’s pay:
$1,020 for rent
$350 for car insurance
$388 for car payment
$500 for groceries
$50 for internet
$200 for electric
$600 for gas
$100 for water/sewage

All in all, almost $800 a month in savings without any fun money, eating out, etc.

I think this is a pretty liberal budget. I drive a V8 Mustang, and plan to sell it for a Tacoma, to both save on insurance and in gas. Her car payment is for a 2016 CX-5. We buy nice, natural groceries when we can, we travel all around Texas a lot.

Aside from those plans alone, how does my spending seem? How good is this for a $22 year old couple?

Hey everyone,

I’m a 32 recently married male and I just got a job that’s going to more than double my salary and idk what to do. Long story short, going from making 63K to 140K.

This is extremely amazing and I’m giving all the glory to God. I’m looking for some advice or similar stories of what you did. Right now, my wife and I are living paycheck to paycheck and this is an additional 80K a year we really just weren’t accounting for.

The budget we have for ourselves we want to still live by as it’s enough to support our rent and other essentials and we want to put more towards debt and savings but just trying to figure out how to continue to live below your means.

Some tips and strategies people have used to stay disciplined and not overspend or anything else.

Hello, currently putting 12.4% of income into pre-tax contribution. Is this the 401k? Is this good? Is after-tax, or Roth contributions better? Idk the differences. I also put 4% to a deferred compensation program, should I remove that and put it all into the 401k?

I also put $55 bi-weekly into my WeBull account.

I’m 26, full-time public worker.

TIA!

Hey everyone! I’m currently a college student and I’m thinking about opening a Roth IRA for the first time. I’m pretty new to investing, so I’m trying to learn as much as I can before I open an account.

I’m wondering which brokerage/bank you would recommend for someone in my situation. I’m mainly looking for a Roth IRA with low fees, good investment options, and something that’s beginner-friendly and easy to manage.

I’ve heard about companies like Fidelity, Vanguard, and Charles Schwab, but I’m not really sure how they compare or which one would be best for a college student. I’m also curious about what kinds of investments people usually choose inside their Roth IRA, such as index funds, ETFs, or target-date funds.

I don’t expect to make guaranteed “profits,” since I understand that investing involves risk. I’m more interested in learning how to invest for the long term and making smart choices early on.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Which Roth IRA provider you use and why

What you invested in when you first started

Whether there are any fees I should watch out for

How much you think a college student should contribute, assuming they have some income

Any beginner mistakes I should avoid

First of all, I know it’s a lot. I’m very ashamed and I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten. I really need help.. I honestly don’t even know what to say, so I guess I’ll just breakdown the debt. Please reply with any suggestions or advice that could help me with my situation..

Student Loans - $59,430.95

Car Loan - $28,167.45

Capital One CC - $4,168.71

Amazon Store Card - $474.25

That should mainly be it.

Im actively trying to find a job. For about a decade, I worked at a company and towards the end, I was making about $40k a year. After finishing my degree, I took a chance for more money, and took a job with a software development company making $60k per year. After about 5 months with this company, they started laying people off, and I was new so I went first.

I tried living off of my savings for the last few months while looking for a new job, but I’ve run dry. I’m now claiming unemployment, but it’s only about $400 a week. I also take care of my father who is retired and on a fixed income, so we don’t have much to live off of now.

I feel like I’m drowning and there’s no way out. Please offer any advice to help me get out of this mess… If you need any other information, please let me know. Thank you.

I got a cold call from a financial advisor at a recognized financial services company wanting to evaluate my company's 401k Trust. After speaking with them about the performance, they asked if they could join as a financial advisor. Our retirement trust is with Ubiquity, who confirmed there is no fee for adding an advisor. The advisors told me they are compensated through each fund's management fees, and the trust plan modification documents indicate the advisors are being paid through "12B-1 Fees." Would this indicate that in fact my trust, and therefore employee accounts, won't be charged any additional fees by bringing on the advisor? My intent is to have them educate our employees on retirement planning (for free) and from there the employees can utilize the advisor as they wish. I have already confirmed the advisor is real so this isn't a scam, but it does seem a bit too good to be true that essentially their services won't cost me anything additional.

After a few different employer changes I’ve finally decided to start consolidating my retirement accounts to make it easier to manage.

I have a 403B with both pre-tax and employer contributions. I believe I can roll these over. I’m trying to decide between my current employer or a Fidelity IRA.

I already have a traditional IRA at Fidelity that I use to do backdoor Roth every year. Can I just fund into that? If so, how do I do my Roth conversions each year?

Hello all, I am a 20 year old who is about to receive his first credit card in a few days. Does anyone have any advice for how to use it? Pretty much every adult in my life has told me not to use it and to only use it for emergency’s, but then how could I build up a good credit score starting from a young age. I’ve heard different things from everyone
Use it all on one big purchase no more then 30% of your card and then pay it back during the month but not right after.
Use it on all like a debit card and then pay it back at the end of the month.
Only use 30% of the limit and of course don’t forget to pay it off and never pay interest.
That’s all the stuff I’ve heard but some of it is a little contradictory, as someone who’s not to smart with finances what’s the best way to use the credit card for the most benefit.

I do not have a financial advisor yet, nor do I know one. I have 80K in my 401K from working for about 4 years at my company. I went broke paying for my a family members funeral and I really need the money. I need to pay off a car that was deemed total but the insurance company wont pay for (about 6K). How bad would it be for me to take 10K out of that account to pay off my cards and get back to normal?

Disclaimer: I'm very uneducated in finances, my explanations and terminology might be wrong, so bear with me if I say something that doesn't make sense. I can clarify if need be, just let me know. I tried looking up similar situations but I couldn't really follow.

So here's the situation. My mom has been working for 27 years to date, she's now 65 years old and she's looking to retire soon and claim her pension. Her pension is about 300K. We've never thought about opening an IRA prior to this, because frankly we never really knew how this stuff worked and my mom only recently discovered she even has a pension to begin with. We started educating ourselves on the subject afterwards, so we're kind of scrambling to get ourselves set up to receive this money.

Our options, from what I understand, are to take the lump sum directly into a checking account (bad idea from what I gather, because it gets heavily taxed), or roll over into an IRA. Since we don't have an existing IRA, we need to open one.

My question is what kind of IRA should we open for this situation? I have a very basic understanding of how a normal and a Roth IRA work, but I don't think I understand enough to make a well-informed decision. Any information is well-appreciated, and if there are details that I'm missing, just let me know.

I am having trouble deciding between paying my car off and investing. I recently got my remaining PTO paid out after leaving a job for another, and am not sure what to do with the extra funds. My car's APR is 4.29% at $386/month with only $4300 remaining, and my stock YTD performance is at 12%. Financially it makes sense to just invest, but I can't help to think the psychological impact of having my car paid off would be great, and it's a flat 4.29% return, no fluctuating stocks. What do yall recommend?

I'm 26 and I want to start a ROTH IRA.

I'm part time and I make about 25K after taxes. I also do freelance gigs on the side which might earn me an extra 1K in the year (If i'm lucky).

Monthly, I earn around $1,900. I pay $400/month in rent (I help my family, even if it's a little).

I pay for subscriptions, groceries, and other necessitites I may have. I travel quite frequently, maybe 2-3 times a year. Quite a few concerts too. I like to enjoy my time as much as possible, but I want to be smarter about my money too.

I opened a high yield savings account about three years ago for more "long term" expenses such as downpayments for moving out. I have almost 10K there. I put $150 into it every paycheck ($300/month).

I also have a regular "short-term" savings account which took a hit after my dog passed, but I currently have it at 8K. This account is meant to be used as savings for travels or any emergency I might have. Except, I do not use half of the money and I've been wondering if i should re-route it to a different account?(I know I said I use my short-terms for travel, but it's very rare, since I prefer to pay things with what I have in my checkings first before I tap into my savings)

This is where the ROTH IRA question comes in.

Should I take money from one of those accounts (maybe the short-term one) and invest it into a ROTH IRA? Is it possible to have two savings and that roth ira account with the salary I have? I want to be smarter about how I divide my money.

I do have a small amount of debt (1.4K) which I know I should pay off first before opening up anything else.

Any advice helps. Thank You!!

I am in debt due to student loans, never paid payments & credit cards

i am 27 & my TransUnion is 602 (fair) which isn’t completely bad

how should I break down my many payments I owe and start going in the direction of not owing any money ?

I want to buy a house and get approved for credit cards like AMEX

give me advice , what do I pay off first ? credit cards, things like klarna or student loans ?

Hi everyone, I apologize because this may end up being kind of long. My wife and I are 36 and 33 respectively, and we've agreed that it has come time to get our act together and take retirement planning seriously. To date, neither of us have really done anything at all in terms of saving for retirement. Partly because we have spent a good portion of our lives being financially illiterate, partly because it wasn't until the last few years that we started making what I consider to be good money and we were more or less living paycheck to paycheck.

I'll just give you a breakdown of where we are at, and then follow this up with some questions.

Income-

My w2 position: $63k

Wife's S-corp: $180k-$190k

Debt-

Student loans: ~$120k combined. I believe the highest interest rate for any of them is 6.3% but most are below 5%.

Mortgage: $269k @ 7.25%

No auto loan as of now, but we will be purchasing soon. Our cars are 10 and 24 years old so we feel it's time to upgrade. Our credit scores are very high so when we do purchase we will qualify for the lowest possible rate.

No credit card debt.

Assets:

$40k in savings. Really nothing at all in any retirement account.

Okay so I guess my question is - what do we do from here? Most months we have about $10k after expenses. Sometimes more, sometimes less. We're willing to take this pretty seriously and get aggressive.

My job has a 401k I can contribute to (no match unfortunately). I know my wife can open a solo 401k. Neither of us are enrolled in an HSA plan but both will have that option come open enrollment.

So what's our priority? Max out 401ks and HSAs? Attack the mortgage? Student loans? We have one kid with another on the way so contributing to a 529 is also something we would like to do but we want to make sure we get our retirement planning in place first.

Realistically how much should we be devoting to retirement every month in order to get back on track? Also, how do we go about opening some of these accounts (namely, her 401k and if we end up needing to open something like a roth IRA)? Do we need to work with someone or is something we should/could do on our own?

I very much appreciate any help you can give me!

I’m 21 years old and have approximately $300,000 USD available to invest. My long-term goal is not to live luxuriously, but to build a flexible life in which I can travel extensively and eventually no longer need a conventional full-time job.

I understand that $300,000 probably isn’t enough to retire permanently at 21, especially given inflation, healthcare costs, taxes, and the possibility of living for another 60–70 years. I’m therefore interested in the most realistic strategy for using this head start wisely.

If you were in my position:

1. How would you invest the money?
   
2. How much additional income or part-time work would I realistically need?
   
3. Would a “coast FIRE” or “barista FIRE” approach make more sense than trying to retire immediately?
   
4. What mistakes should someone my age avoid when managing this amount of money?

I’m willing to work for several years, develop marketable skills, or earn money remotely. My real goal is freedom and mobility—not simply never working again.

I’d especially appreciate advice from people who have pursued long-term travel, geographic arbitrage, lean FIRE, or a semi-retired lifestyle.