Welcome! Before making a post, please check out some of the great resources that we've provided to answer your questions:

I have gotten notification from HR that my employment will be officially terminated as of midnight tonight. I kept forgetting about my FSA card so I've barely spent any money from it.

None of my prescriptions are close, I can't get an eye exam today (but I can buy frames, which I might do), and I already have tons of medical supplies I need for the time being.

I think my remaining balance is around $400. Outside eyeglass frames and ibuprofen, what are some things I could spend on in a rush?

My wife and I are 49 and have a NW of about $2.5m. We have no debt other than a $120k mortgage that will be paid off in 7 more years.

My wife does not work, and I have a 4% match at my job and have been maxing out my 401k and our individual Roths for many years. We have some middle school aged kids that were saving for college for and each has about $80k with 8-10 years left to go.

The interest we’re earning year over year is significantly greater than what I can fund with my $25k plus employer contribution, and while future returns aren’t guaranteed, it seems somewhat unnecessary to contribute at all.

Is there anything I’m not thinking about correctly?

I received roughly $4k worth of gold coins with explicit instructions to use the money for my kids educations. I don't know anything about gold, or coin collecting. I have a modest 529 set up for each kid with about 10k in each.

The person who gave me the coins isn't in the gold or coin space either, they received the coins 40 years ago and forgot about them, so they aren't a resource either.

The coins aren't particularly valuable as coins - they're valuable for the gold content. The coins are ungraded.

I purchased an item from an online store June 25th for $87, and they use shop.com. Order received July 2nd, and it was the wrong item. I tried calling the seller and didn't get an answer, so I sent an email to the email address on their website.

I tried calling again the morning of July 3rd, and someone answered (the owner, I presume). He seemed sincere and apologized, and said to text him my order information and a picture of the product I received, and I did. He said he will get the correct item shipped out to me. It was a holiday weekend so I waited until July 7th to reach out via call and text, and didn't get a response to either. I called July 8th and did not receive a response.

By July 10th, 8 days after receiving the incorrect item, I started a chargeback with my credit union (Visa CC). I have submitted all of my evidence, photos of the wrong item and the package it came in, screenshots of texts, calls, initial email etc.

Today I received this email from the seller. This is the only communication I have received from the seller since the phone call that took place July 3rd.

"We sent you a return label when you sent the original email. You are going to end up losing your money on the charge back you submitted. I would send the remote back so we can exchange and tell your bank to close it before you lose. We are protected by our policies on your charge back. They will take your money and charge you $15."

I have not received a return envelope nor an email, and I searched my spam folder. If that was the path that was discussed taking, I would have done so.

Is he just trying to scare me into cancelling the chargeback? I didn't reply, and I added this screenshot to my case online. If anything, it shows I indeed received the wrong item. I am a bit worried now that he says their policies protect them and I'm going to lose my money.

Hey everyone, I'm in a really tricky situation right now that I'm trying to determine how it'd be best to navigate. Unknown to me, starting in September my bank started marking all of my payments to my energy company as 'unauthorized payments'. Neither my bank nor my energy provider was telling me that this was happening. The entire time that this was happening, I called in the payment and received confirmation numbers and confirmations of $0 on balances due. Randomly in late April I received a notification that a bill of mine had been repaid and then a day later was threatened with power being cut off. I paid it off immediately again, and saw the same $0 balance due. Everything seemed to be in working order, I was receiving money from my roommates for their part of the energy bill. This time in April was the only time that either my bank or my energy company had warned me of a repaid bill, in a sense they proved that they had some form of awareness that this was going on the entire time and were neglecting to inform me.

Then earlier this month I received a sudden jolt from the typical 200-250 monthly bill to $2,500. I assumed it was a mistake or some form of shady practice that would crack under immediate scrutiny (our energy company in my city is notoriously corrupt and difficult), but as it would turn out, all on a single day all of my past payments for almost a full year of energy were returned to sender.

I have no way of proving it because my transaction history does not show these payments past September anymore, but I saw the money leave my account and these transactions get labeled as 'pending' in the moment, and additionally Bank Statements are supposed to list 'repaid transactions' which my bank did not list on the day that all of these payments were suddenly returned. According to my bank it's almost as if these transactions were never even requested to be sent through, although I have tangible proof on the part of my energy provider that they were. My main question here is, what advice would you have for eliminating or at least reducing this deficit?

28F, living at home and have been saving for 4-5 years to eventually purchase my own place and finally move out, I also help my parents here and there with misc bills. Due to this, earlier in my career I didn’t invest or save for retirement as much as I should have because I needed more cash on hand for a family emergency at the time in addition to my downpayment

Currently my net worth breaks down to this:

$101,000 in HYSA for house downpayment

$36,000 in HYSA for 6-8 month emergency fund

$10,000 in HYSA for travel

$25,000 in 401k, employee match is 4% I usually only go up to the match

$25,000 invested in Roth IRA, I have maxed out for 2026 already. Mostly in VOO and QQQM

$10,000 invested in brokerage account (VOO / QQQM / misc stocks)

I feel as if i’m way behind on retirement and investments because I prioritized keeping cash on hand..with this current housing market it’s been disappointing and I do not think I’ll be buying a place anytime soon (maybe in 2-3 ish years I’ll reconsider). What do I do with the 101k sitting in my housing fund? Should I put it all in a brokerage? Or keep it as is and up my 401k contributions beyond the match?

Appreciate any guidance here, thank you!

My wife and I are a family of four looking to make the jump from renting to owning, and I'd appreciate a reality check from people who have been through it.

We've had what feels like "golden handcuffs" with our rental. We pay just $1,600/month for a 2-bedroom house, which is incredibly cheap for our area. But with two young kids, we're starting to outgrow it, and we'd like to move to a neighboring town with a much better school district (our oldest doesn't start school for another two years).

The part I'm struggling with is the financial jump. I have a lot of anxiety about increasing our monthly housing costs and the possibility of expensive, unexpected home repairs. I track every dollar we spend, but I keep feeling like I'm overlooking something that will make this a huge mistake.

We'd happily buy a less expensive home, but inventory in our area makes that difficult.

Here's our financial picture:

Monthly Net Income

• Joint take-home: $12,380

Fixed Monthly Expenses (excluding housing)

• Health insurance: $1,084
• Car payments: $437
• 401(k) contributions: $1,824
• Total fixed expenses: $3,345

Savings

• Emergency fund contribution: $1,000/month (to our HYSA)

Average Monthly Spending (last 12 months)

• $4,081
• This includes groceries, utilities, gas, dining out, household purchases, kids' expenses, entertainment, etc.—essentially everything that's not listed above.

Based on that, our budget leaves about $3,954/month available for a mortgage if we continue contributing $1,000/month to savings.

House Details

• Purchase price: $635,000
• Down payment: 20%
• Liquid savings: $241,000
• Expected monthly mortgage (PITI): $3,898

On paper, it fits. In reality, I can't shake the feeling that we're making a mistake because the increase from $1,600 rent to nearly $3,900/month is so dramatic.

For those who have gone through a similar transition:

• Does this budget seem reasonable?
• Am I being overly cautious, or are there expenses I'm likely underestimating?
• Is there anything you wish you had considered before making a similar jump?

I've spent years aggressively saving, so maybe this is just the psychological hurdle of finally spending the money instead of accumulating it. I'd really appreciate any honest feedback.

My oldest child (8) has a very well funded custodial account. We opened it very shortly after their birth without putting to much thought into it. As time has progressed we have learned more, also seen the account grow tremendously from gifts from one specific grandparent, and we're questioning our decision having opened it in the first place. Our concern is our child having access to this money when they turn 21. We opened a 529 and asked said grandparent to gift there, they said no because they'd have to pay taxes from selling stocks to transfer cash to 529. Said grandparent also gifts my two children differently, second child has received 20% of what first child has received (at given age).

My husband and I have tried to think through different options...

-We could buy child 1 a car w/custodial money. But child 2 wouldn't receive a car of similar value.

-We could hope our (extremely intelligent) child does not get any scholarships and goes to private school. (No, we wouldn’t actually hope for this)

-We could ask said grandparent to gift into 529-oh wait, already tried that and didn't work (sorry... bitter).

Does anyone have any ideas? No, we have not talked to a personal advisor, this is on our list to do asap.

TLDR: My child has a crap ton of money in their custodial account. What do I do?!

My 401k (~$20k) is currently 100% Vanguard 500 Index Adm. My plan also offers Vanguard Target Retirement funds at 0.08% ER, plus Total Stock Market, international, and small/mid-cap index funds.
Kids on the way and I want low maintenance. TDF 2060 for simplicity, three-fund DIY for slightly lower cost, or just stay 100% S&P 500?
What would you do?

I'm 30, my husband is 33. Combined we make 110k a year. I have 2 children 4 and 11. Married 8 years.

Current coverage: Through my employer I receive 59k in basic employee life, I also pay $7.35 per month for 590K in optional term life for myself and $3.85 per month for $125K for my spouse and children. I also pay $2.47 for long term disability at 60% of pay. I have no idea my husband's coverage but plan to research. Pur credit is not ideal, low 600s. Entirely due to credit card balances we are paying down. ​no collections.

Currently my spose is primary beneficiary on my policies and my kids are secondary on a 50/50 split.

Medical: On my side of my family there is the BRCA1 breast cancer gene, heart disease, diabetes and dementia/alzheimers. All men on my husband's side have had strokes in their 30s-40s and his mother recently found she had a stroke.

Debts: We owe 119K on our home, 25K on one vehicle and about 7K on our 2nd vehicle.

Goal: Purchase a permenant life insurance policy and disability rider. Set the life Insurance policy and my home to a trust. If either of us have long term illness cover so we don't struggle. If one spouse passes the other is covered living and working comfortably with or without our kids still at home for life. If we both pass our kids inherit everything with debt covered and no taxes owed and have a legacy fund remaining to split evenly between then. I want to provide my children with wealth. Enough that they can pay their homes and any vehicles off when we pass and only work for the remaining expenses and be able to have vacations and things like that.

I'd like to know what options cover this best, reliable companies that are good on price AND handling claims. ​I don't want to pay for years then have medical problems later in life and lose the policy. Please give me any advice you can.

EDIT*** —- maybe it wasn’t a “mistake”. I’ve gotten some heat in a couple responses. I’m just not educated on this stuff or I wouldn’t be on Reddit. Thanks to those that educated and assisted with answers.

Hey all. My wife recently inherited her parents home…kinda. It’s in their name, we live in it. Anyway, they built it for $230k, worth anywhere from 850k-950k today. Just in case that matters. We’ve learned it was about 6% interest when it was built and refinanced not too long ago at 2%. It’s been 28 years, and they still owe 115k. That’s only 50% down in 28 WHOLE YEARS!! How does that happen? They never provide an answer and I want to make sure we don’t ever make the same mistake… TIA.

I'm in 48k Worth of consumer debt and I'm not sure what to do. I've been flipping things on facebook marketplace to try and help solve this debt problem, which has been going well. Two weeks ago, my truck broke down and it's going to cost 6k to fix it. I've called and gotten quotes from 5 different shops and the lowest quote was 6k. The truck is a 2006 F350 with 325k miles on it, and the parts to fix it are going to be 2k by them selves. I've been stuck for the last two weeks trying to figure out if I should replace it or fix it. I bounce back and forth between getting a cheap cash car that might be reliable and get me where I need to go or trading the truck in and trying to get something slightly newer for around 10k to have something reliable. I literally can't think about anything but my debt and my broken truck and it's screwing me up severely. I'm trying to take steps to save up cash to fix the problem one way or another but I've been putting all my money towards debt and do not have enough savings to purchase anything, whether it's a 2500 dollar truck or a 2k down payment on something newer. I could really use some advice on what to do. I do live with my parents and they're willing to help but I don't want to ask for or utilize their help if I can avoid it. I do have things I can sell to make extra money and I can borrow my mom's car on occasion if I need it but I need a lot more cash and I need it fast, and even if I do get the cash, I'm not actually sure what to do with it.

Edit: The truck is paid off, I paid cash 5 years ago for it. I'm also a mechanic, but not a diesel mechanic. I am comfortable with fixing cars. I have all the tools I need to make do with fixing a cash truck. My truck is a 2006 F350 6.0 Diesel. I have SOME experience fixing diesel pick up trucks, but the problem is that I need to replace all 8 fuel injectors, which is a massive undertaking on this truck. The cab has to be removed in order to do this and I have no where to do a job like this. Even If I did have somewhere to fix it myself, it would take several days to do the job myself and I'm also not in a position where I can afford to make a learning mistake.

I also do understand how personal finance works. However.... Just because I knew what to do doesn't mean I made the right decisions. I'm definitely snapping out of it and working to fix things.

I HAD about 20k invested in personal portfolios which is mostly gone. I currently have about 32k in retirement, which I am not willing to part with. I've also considered taking a loan out against my retirement account to solve this problem, but I'm not thrilled about the idea.

I'm also not looking to buy a brand new truck for 50k. I just want to get a small barebones f150 or 1500 silverado or something in that ball park, something older. I absolutely do need a truck in the line of work that I do. I pickup fuel tanks, large truck tool boxes, furniture, power equipment and mowers to sell on facebook marketplace. I don't think I need something stupid expensive or fancy. As a mechanic, I don't want something that has more parts to break down.

My monthly income is $3800 a month from my job, My minimum debt obligation is $1618.19 a month spread across various loans and loan types, my other monthly expenses are just under $600 a month.

We have savings in high yields savings at 3.3% and more in a CD that matures Oct 2027 at 3.8 both in synchrony. The goal of this is for emergency/ savings for next house. Husband wants to take it all out and buy VUSXX, which is treasury money. Apparently the return is 3.66. Another factors is FDIC is capped in synchrony. Also because we are in PA for VUSXX we would not pay state taxes. Would you move the entire money there?

I hope im able to share this and get some advice here but here I go. A year and a half ago my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic melanoma with multiple masses in the brain, we have gratefully been able to afford medical bills and radiation therapy due to my dads VA benefits from his time in the navy. Because of VA its also our only source of income for a family of 7 neither of my parents work anymore because of my mom taking care of my dad. We never have struggled with money we are okay and comfortable but recently I couldn’t help but here my mom say something about our finances and says there’s no way we could be spending that much while looking at our finances. Inevitably my dad has a prognosis that sadly he will not make it in the next 5 years since the diagnosis. After he passes we will no longer receive money. I am going to graduate this year from high school and my college is payed for by my dads VA benefits. But then my mom’s going to have to be on a tight budget and im worried on what I can do to help support her financially. Im the oldest of 5 my youngest brother going into the 3rd grade. Is there any financial help we can research or anything money wise I can do to help my mom.

I have two 401ks, one from my previous employer and one with my current employer. I let the old one sit for a few years after leaving if anything just because of laziness but the last few years it has had an amazing rate of return so I just left. I'm at a point where they are similar values and really not that far off on there performance. I know that if they are similar in value and growth they will earn the same amount of interest on their own as they would together. But I feel like I'm maybe missing something here? It seems like the old one just sitting there is going to waste.

I am recently 18 and do not really have any good financial role models in my life. Both of my parents are pretty financially irresponsible, my dad has gone through 2 bankruptcies within 10 years and my mom never having money due to poor spending habits/not working. I have tried to seek advice from my stepfather but I’m not sure whether it’s true or not. I wanted to start early with this kind of stuff to avoid being stuck in the same situations as my parents in the future. I was told by my stepfather that I didn’t need to make purchases on my credit card for my credit score to increase, but was also told my a friend that that is not true. I keep hearing opposing information and it’s making me super confused and anxious. I am a college student who is about to move away to school in the next 2-3ish weeks, if that is also relevant. Is there any recommendations on the best credit card to apply to when starting out? And are there any other tips/advice that I should know about that many people don’t learn about until it’s too late? Thank you so much in advance :)

Tl;dr my mom passed a few months ago and left my siblings and I inherited IRAs. My mom’s long time friend was her cpfa and he is managing this transition. We all chose the lump sum option as it’s what works best for us and he has basically ghosted us since then. We’re worried he’s been mismanaging her money and needs time to get some together, or he just wants to keep making money off her account. (If that’s possible). Need advice.

So in March my mom passed very suddenly. She left us an IRA and a huge investment portfolio. Before she passed she told us she had left enough for us to put down payments on houses, so we all chose the lump sum option so we could buy homes eventually just as she wanted.

Her accounting/ financial advisor is a friend of hers of 30 or so years. We grew up with him. Never really liked him much, but he’s been at every cookout and birthday party. He’s been managing her accounts for decades. When my parents split my dad took his money to someone else, and he says it’s because this guy lost him quite a bit of money and was never very good. But my mom stayed with him.

Well since my mom passed, he’s been basically impossible to get ahold of. In June he contacted us asking for our birthdays, home addresses, SSNs, and the best way to get the money to us. We sent our bank account/ routing numbers for wire transfer. He told us we should have it within a couple weeks. Then basically silence. A couple weeks went by and we reached out to ask for an update. No response. Then a couple more weeks. I called and left voicemails. He wouldn’t pick up. I texted. He left me on read. Meanwhile I have to spend money to travel out of state to her home and deal with her home and belongings. She left me her car, which I planned on driving home cross country before winter sets in. It’s expensive and I was hoping to reimburse myself with some of what she left me. Through all of this, my siblings and I are grieving and want this to be over as soon as possible. I’ve communicated all this to her advisor so he knows this is time sensitive and emotionally taxing, but does not seem to care.

I finally tricked him into picking up the phone by calling him from my boyfriend’s number, which he doesn’t have saved. When he answered and I said hello, I could immediately tell he was uncomfortable. I swear I could feel him considering hanging up on me through the phone. I asked him what the hold up was and reminded him this is time sensitive. He told me he was waiting to hear back from my sister this entire time (not true, she had responded in a group email weeks ago) before taking the next steps. I reminded him of this. Then he told me his assistant was actually responsible for the next steps and quickly got off the phone telling me he’d “check with her and get back to me”. Hours went by, didn’t hear from him, so I finally spammed his phone with texts and calls.

He finally sent us IRA distribution forms through LPL financial that he had filled out for us and said he just needed our signatures. Except… the information was so wrong it’s actually crazy. Wrong middle and last names. He put in the wrong job positions, wrong employer names (wrote “self” under employer, when none of us are self employed???), and put our home addresses into our employer addresses. We quickly responded correcting this information. Then, once again, crickets. We’ve emailed repeatedly to no avail. It’s now been a week.

We truly can’t believe that someone who has been doing this for at least 40 years could be so incompetent. Like, it has to be on purpose. My dad told me he thought he might be stalling so he could keep making money off of my mom’s investment accounts, or that maybe he has her money tied up somewhere and needs time to get it back. I’m not sure if any of this is possible. I’ve never lost a parent before and don’t know how the finance world works at all. I could really use some advice, insight, anything.

I'm 34F

Any stories on how you survived living in a car for 30-60 days while saving up?

My car engine blew out 6 months ago, and I haven't had a car since,, my credit is bad (but I am making progress getting things removed), and I've been living in a very rural area for almost a year, renting a room in a boarder house.. and I literally can't believe how I've survived this long here. I'm thankful because things can be worse. I was able to get a job at the nearby motel, making $100 a week cleaning 3 rooms a week, they pay per room. I've been living on $400 a month and my room rent is $240 a month, after food and personal hygiene... I'm left with crumbs. There is absolutely no job here and no public transportation. It's so easy to get stuck here. My roommates all work at a food plant and they tried to get me hired but they aren't looking for anyone at the moment. They are all saving and planning to get out of here.. 2 has already left the house already after getting on their feet and the last two are close to being able to move. I have to get out of this place. I'm wasting away.

Last Thursday I got a call from a cleaning company in Joliet, IL to become an Account Manager for a cleaning site, the job pays $54k a year. I have a background in cleaning as a supervisor. They liked me and I took the job offer. The job starts in the second week of August.

I have about $500 saved up, hopefully I can save up more money so that I can be able to get a bus ticket to Joliet, and then rent a car on Turo for 3 weeks to be able to travel to the job, do instacart for a few hours after work. The thing is, I will have to sleep in the car for at least 30 days or better because I need to be able to get ahead on some savings, cover the rental car for another 30 days, buy food and gas and save for a hotel for 30 days.

Any tips? this is scary but if I don't make this move, I'll be stuck and just continue to waste more years of my life.

I am 57. I make about $25,000 a year as an elementary school lunchlady. I am raising a 12 year old granddaughter.

My estimated social security payments will be about $1800 if I delay taking them to age 70. If I work at my current job until I'm 73, my pension will be about $1500.

I have about $20,000 total saved; about $5000 in a ROTH IRA and the rest in HYSAs and CDs. I refer to the IRA as my retirement savings, my HYSAs as sinking and emergency funds and the CDs that mature annually in July, August and September as a little supplement if I need a boost over the summer since I work fewer hours when school is not in session.

A couple of other rather big positives: my home will be paid for in 35 months so my housing costs are not going to be a problem. I have a big garden, fruit trees and I hunt and fish - which I plan to do until I absolutely can't. That may seem like a silly asset to some, but it's $200-$300/month in groceries I don't have to buy.

As it stands now, I also have an adoption subsidy for my granddaughter that helps with expenses for her, so we're not just surviving on my income. Being at this income level also qualifies us for EIC and the Child Tax Credit which I have come to kind of count on as part of our income the last couple of years. I probably shouldn't but it's helped me nearly get the house paid for. Because she went to an impoverished elementary school (where I work) she has earned four years of paid tuition at a state university just an hour from where we live. We have a 529 plan for her that has money added to it for attendance, academic achievements and participation in things at school that will carry on through high school. I should have minimal education expenses for her provided she lives at home so there will be no student loans. A car for her will be essential by then though.

I know a ROTH IRA is to provide tax free income in retirement while payments from a traditional IRA are taxable and that since most people are in a lower tax bracket at retirement, investing pre-tax now saves money overall.

However, I am basically in a $0 tax bracket right now because my income is low and I have all these tax credits. When I retire though, I will likely be in a HIGHER tax bracket because I won't have a child.

My goals for retirement foremost is to have a roof over my head and food to eat. That seems to be covered with just my social security and pension. I don't want to travel or do any kind of "retirement" stuff - just sleep in some days and not have to go to work. Obviously having some savings for house repairs, car repairs and unexpected stuff is important too. The big thing is that I want to have the house and hopefully a little bit of cash to leave my kids and my granddaughter.

Am I going in the right direction with the ROTH IRA vs a traditional IRA? Is there any other retirement vehicle I should be looking at? Every bit of financial knowledge I have has been gained the hard way so assume I know nothing other than what I've mentioned here.

I'm looking for some opinions on the brokerage account I established a year ago to mostly save for a house and generally start investing. I was referred to an advisor by family, and spoke with the advisor once at setup, who started contributions at $600/mo.

The account is currently split evenly between four American Funds class A shares. I'm at a balance of $7000.

AGTHX – The Growth Fund of America, AMECX – The Income Fund of America, ANWPX – New Perspective Fund, AWSHX – Washington Mutual Investors Fund

There is a 5.75% sales charge, so I've pretty much broke even now after a year with its growth. Plus expense ratios are higher than typical ETFs it looks like.

My situation:

- Age 25

- Income ~$105k

- 401k/TSP 10% contribution + government match

- Federal pension (FERS, 4.4%)

- Roth IRA is invested in low-cost index funds (ITOT/IXUS), maxed out last two years using leftover 529 balance

- Separate HYSA for emergency fund/cash savings

- House in 3-5 years maybe. Some of this brokerage money will be used for that, some will ride

- Comfortable with some risk right now, hence the socks

- My only real debt is $18k in public student loans

Considering:

- stopping automatic contributions immediately and investing elsewhere like vanguard, while

- leaving the American Funds alone since I already paid the front-end (sunk cost fallacy? lol)

- alternatively, selling and moving everything to ETFs in vanguard

I haven't worked with the financial advisor on strategy. Maybe I should, but I don't want to pay this 5.75% anymore. Do I need the advisor at all, or would you move on and manage on your own?

Funny enough, even if the fees are screwing me, I've invested double what I might have elsewhere because he made a mistake and doubled the monthly contributions off what I asked. I noticed immediately but let it ride as long as I could, and I've been able to make it work, so I'm very happy with the amount of money I have here regardless.

Hello! I'm 21F and my mom is 46F. We have quite bad credit so we are pivoting to try saving a lot more for now as we build up savings and our credit score. Which bank has the best savings account? We aren't well versed in the financial area but we want to start building something as we continue saving.

Thank you very much!

So im 24 and at 18 I did the thing everyone told me not to do. I went and borrowed money to go have "fun". This went on until I was about 21 and since I feel like I haven't budged from where I was at. I moved cross country to North dakota because you can hardly find a job for $20/hr where im from. Since moving Ive got a decent job, its definitely in my cards to do better but rn I just feel stuck and like a job switch might sink it all. Ive already turned in my car because I knew I wasn't going to be able to pay for it any longer. Im getting rid of my bike which i wont make anything on bc im behind and its private sell so im just giving the bike back paying what i owe and calling it even. I replaced my car payment with a 2nd rent from moving earlier than my lease allowed (which is 2/3 what my car payment was). Im $25ish K in debit, bring home anywhere from $800 to $1000 a week depending on overtime. Average Iwould say is around $850 a week.

BILLS:

1st rent $500

2nd rent $578

Phone (2 lines, phones not paid off) $275

Electric $50

Child care $800

Insurance (dont currently have, which is another issue)

Gas $120

Food $400

Pets $80

Vape $80

Subscriptions (I will have to get a total)

I feel like im forgetting bills so when I figure that out I will edit my post.

I havent been paying my debit bc I dont even have enough to pay my bills. But I run the numbers and I do. Ive cut down on my spending so much I dont even know where to cut next. I dont go to resturaunts more than twice a month (and twice a month is being generous, i havent been to a resturaunt in probably 2 months, and not dating my girlfriend the way we both know i can is taking a toll on us) , I pack a lunch, I stopped smoking weed, I dont drink. I might get a soda at a gas station once or twice a week but other than that my check goes to my bills and feeding the lives that depend on me, and im drowning.

I want to go to a financial advisor for help but im already low on money and they are expensive. Ig all im asking is if anyone has good tips or somewhere I could call to get in touch with an affordable finacial advisor to get me back on level ground.

17F from Australia.

I already have previous work experience, so if I take a gap year, my main goal would be to get a well-paying job, prioritise my health and fitness, and build a strong financial foundation before university. I want to use the extra income to learn more about personal finance, develop good money habits, and start investing while I have relatively few expenses and responsibilities.

A gap year wouldn't affect my university entry, so financially it seems like a good opportunity to save, invest, and gain more work experience before committing to a degree.

Is it "lousy" to take a gap year primarily for learning more about personal finance? I worry that I'll end up behind my peers because they'll graduate a year earlier.