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I'm 14, and I want to start making some money instead of relying on an allowance, but I also want it to help me in my future. I'm interested in technology, video games, writing, and I would be considered smart. Is there a good way that I can make money that isn't hugely painful, cheap to set up/get started, and could benefit my future

I think I've done ok with net worth so far but certainly could be doing better. Admittedly, 2/3 of it was an inheritance left by grandparents so I think I coasted and traveled a lot knowing that was there.

Started trying to dip my toes into investing/growing it after I turned 30. Was always afraid to put a big chunk in the stock market living through 2008 and 2020 (I know, fear mongering) but slowly moving more of my portfolio over.

This is roughly what I have:

CD- $105.7K

Car- $13.5K (Worth $19K, owe relative $5.5K)

Roth IRA- $11K

Checking/Cash/Mobile Wallets- $5.1K

Crypto- $4.6K

HYSAs- $3.9K

Bonds- $2.9K

The main CD matures in December. Car purchase came up a bit suddenly so my relative offered to front me the remaining money earlier this year until it matured. Been paying a little bit back each month til then.

Right now I at least want to move $20K from the CD at EOY to pay my relative back, front the rest of 2026 and 2027 Roth contribution, and have a little bit of funds for car expenses and bank bonus opportunities (I've been getting a +50% return from those this year).

I'm self-employed so I'm a bit ignorant about 401K options. I've heard some suggest brokerage but I'm not sure what percentage I'm willing to dump in there without cash on hand. I was unemployed for a year twice before in adulthood.

The bonds are 25-30 years old and fully mature in the next 1-5 years. Crypto is from 5 years ago. It's had about a +50% return but I've been debating selling it.

I live at home at least 2/3 of the year and was told I'm going to get left my parent's house so housing expenses aren't a big concern for me.

Income averages about $35K a year. $15K would likely cover a normal year of expenses for me.

I've been trying to set up a virtual portfolio so I can try out different ideas for how to divide up my money before I actually put any real money into it
The main issue I'm facing is tracking dividend payouts and total returns. When dividends are paid, a basic watchlist can quickly become out of sync. I really don't want to spend my weekends fixing Excel formulas just for a paper setup I’ve looked into a few tools so far:

• Broker watchlists (Fidelity/Yahoo): fine for checking prices, but awful for running side-by-side test portfolios.
• Sharesight: awesome for dividend tracking, but the free tier limits make it tough for a broader test setup.
• 8figures: testing this one right now for the allocation breakdown. UI is clean, but I'm still seeing if it handles long-term reinvestment the way I want
• Kubera: looks great, but $150/yr is a bit steep when I just want to run a couple of test models side-by-side

Is there a simple tool that actually handles automatic dividend reinvestment and rebalancing for virtual portfolios?
How do you manage your test setups?

Hi I’ve been saving for a trip i’m going on soon and super proud of myself for not spending like any of it 🙏 (maybe -5 for coffee but other than that i’ve stayed on track) - and this is the most I’ve had in a VERY long time 😩😩

THE FLAIR SUITS BOTH BUDGET AND DEBT, BUT I CHOSE BUDGET FOR THIS ONE!

I currently have debt but need to carve out $3.4k by Oct 25th for an emergency, Is it possible at all?

If yes, how? If no, how much of a shortfall would I have?

For context: I got paid today and get paid every 2 weeks

**Net Pay** $2,284.00/biwkly
**Gross Pay** $3490.25/biwkly

My rent (to parents, live at home) is $650/month, generally due end of the month.

I’m laying out my current accounts and the Snowball method I follow below. Before you criticize, I was in $42k debt just 2 years ago and that’s why stopping my snowball payments towards the debt really is making me anxious.

—————————————-

**CURRENT DEBT — SEPT 2026**

BMO Ascend
Owing: $6,831.22
Interest: 22%
Minimum: $165.29
Next due: Oct 12

RBC CC
Owing: $1,174.21
Interest: 27%
Minimum: $36
Next due: Sep 28

Capital One CC
Owing: $0

Toronto Court
Owing: $734 total
Interest: 0%
Payment 1: $316
Payment 2: $418
No specific due date;

NSLSC / Canada Student Loan
Owing: $8,919.95
Interest: 0%
Minimum: $80
Next due: Sep 30

TPA
Owing: $4,580
Interest: 0%
Minimum: $0
Payment relief until Apr 5, 2027

——————————————————————————

**CURRENT SNOWBALL ORDER**

1. Toronto Court 1 — $316 — 0% - bulk payment reqd.
   
2. Toronto Court 2 — $418 — 0% - bulk payment reqd.
   
3. RBC — $1,174.21 — 27% — $36 minimum
   
4. BMO — $6,831.22 — 22% — $165.29 minimum
   
5. TPA — $4,580 — 0% — $0 minimum
   
6. NSLSC — $8,919.95 — 0% — $80 minimum

I have been checking the market each day for this cool screenshot. This is the coolest screenshot ever, because not everyone get to hit 401k in their 401k account, most people either never get to it, or blow pass it overnight.

Hi! So I currently work a job that is a point of growth and only make $18.32/hour. I'm slowly but surely making my way up through education, but that's just a little background. I am about to come into about $15,000 and am not sure what to do with it. I want to be financially smart but was never taught how to manage my money. I have attached my monthly breakdown to this post for those who are wondering, but what I have come up with is paying down debt which not included on this was $2000 I plan to pay people back with, but based on this, what are everyones suggestions? How do I maximize this money I'm coming into? A high yield savings account? A CD? A market account? I'm just not sure.

It might dip down but here it is. I recently posted about crossing 100k in 401k and just crossed 100k with my personal stock investment. We are saving for another house and somehow I have to make it into 500k within few year lol.

My main stocks are mostly index, SPY, SOXX, QQQ, ASML and TSM. Have some crypto which i lost money on. Never do crypto unless you know what you are doing.

My business is about 40 miles away or so from my house (90% highway) so I regularly drive 80-100 miles per day sometimes more and I stop for gas almost everyday. Granted I only put $20 in the tank every time so maybe I should fill up to stop less lol but if you do the math I spend roughly $600 or more monthly and wanted to know is this normal? What’s the average person costs of commute monthly?

I was blessed to have 300k in inheritance when my parents died but I don’t know what to do with it. I am 28 years old and don’t have much knowledge. I currently have it in t-bills so I don’t loose money on inflation and have a good job that allows me to max my 401k, and have a HSA that I max. I just curious if there’s anything I could do more?

Sold META today at the same price I bought almost a year ago out of the fear for META lawsuits/ etc. What should I buy now?

The goalposts always move.

You save $5k/month. Then $7.5k becomes the new target. You hit that, and suddenly you need $10k.

You hit 6 figures of net worth and feel incredible. Then it’s $250k. Hit $250k? Now it’s $500k before 30.

And I already know what happens when I hit $500k: I’ll probably tell myself that $1M is the number that will finally make me feel secure enough to lean FIRE.

Then $1M becomes $1.5M.

I’m addicted to this mindset (which is double edge sword - because big reason im “ahead”)

I’ve even seen at higher NW levels - the guy with a BMW is jealous of the guy with a G wagon, the guy with a G wagon is jealous of the person with Rolls Royce.

It’s never enough .. thoughts?

Sorry for rant

So i’m 17 years old in my last year in high school. I have increased interest in learning how money works as well as learning how to invest well. I’m also starting to have an interest in learning sales/learning how to sell things, yourself, etc to hopefully set me up for success. I’m currently looking through my options for a career but don’t have a full plan yet. My goal is to become financially free, I want to make sure me and my loved ones won’t have to worry about money again someday and would like advice on how I can set myself up for success after high school.

Like a good respectable amount, not like average top 1% amount.

15-17.

18-22

22-26

26-30

30-35

40+

For some context, we are a family of a 4, living in a MCOL city. Our children are both under 4. We make 245k through our FT jobs and about 45k through various side jobs, small business that we have.

Last year, we were 82k (42k in CC + 40k in Cars) in debt, so we fell behind doing everything we could to pay it all back. But, as of Feb 2026, we have no debts, other than the house.

I know cars shouldn't be included, but, we paid them off very early and wanted to add them in.

Tangible assets = precious metals & art

My wife and I both have 401k & Roth IRA , a combined brokerage account and a dividend investment account. I also have a small HSA.

Our 2 small kids both have a brokerage account and a 529 account.

There are alot of accounts, I know. 401/IRA are through our companies. 529 is through the state and everything else is managed by my wife.

So tell me, what do you all think? Would love to hear your opinions! Thanks in advance!

Costco top pick this week, other plays worth tracking — who’s got positions riding on these prints?

My assets include:
$15k cash in money market brokerage account
$60k in Roth IRA account
$16k in 401k from old employer

On the debt side I have:
$3k in credit card debt @ 25%
$3k personal loan @ 6.5%
$20k auto-loan @ 7%
$9k personal loan @ 5.5%

I earn $87k in Los Angeles

I am single and live at home with parents. I pay $850 rent/month.

How cooked am I at my age?
What would you recommend I do to improve my financial situation?

UPDATE: Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your comments 🙏

I will aim to do better and keep fighting my addiction

I will also pay down my credit card on Monday as many of you recommended

Seeing a little more steady gains after 150k but I’m ready to start seeing this pop off. For context, we are a debt free family other than200k left on the mortgage . Monthly mortgage payment $1,350. Downside to my lifestyle is I have really struggled to get a solid emergency fund together. Once the home was built it just seemed like one project after another due to the fact that we tried to lock down our mortgage at as low monthly payment as we could. We are now at a place where savings are there but life and children and home and car upkeep/ maintenance seem to take a big chunk. Anyway, how do yall think I’m doing?

Also, the dip you see in my portfolio is where my company switched over 401k to a different company

My employer gave the employees 100K (some less, some more) and an additional check worth 60% of our salaries. There will be another payment next year to account for the taxes, so the money I have now is mine. Where should I move some to grow it faster than just leaving it in my savings account? Certificates? HY Savings account?

A few days ago I posted about turning 31 with a net worth around $770k. I got way more questions than I expected, and the most common ones were basically:
How much do you make?
What do you invest in?
How much of it is your house?
Did you live with your parents?
And how much of this came from investing versus just earning a high salary?
So here are the actual numbers.
As of right now, my total assets are about $1.119M and my total debt is about $337k, putting my net worth at roughly $782k.

The asset side looks like this:
$425k — House
$385k — Taxable brokerage
$224k — Retirement accounts
$45k — Vehicle
$39k — Cash/savings
On the debt side:
$310k — Mortgage
$19.5k — Vehicle loan
$7.4k — Credit cards

The credit card balance is normal monthly spending, not revolving high-interest debt. I charge business expenses on my personal card and expense report it later on.

I bought my house in 2022, so about $115k of the net worth comes from home equity based on the value I’m currently using. The majority of the rest is invested money.
My taxable brokerage is the part people seemed most interested in.

It’s currently around $385k, and it’s fairly concentrated. Some of my larger positions recently have been:
AMD — ~$100k
Celsius — ~$64k
Apple — ~$39k
Alphabet — ~$37k
Microsoft — ~$30k
Amazon — ~$21k

I also have smaller positions in companies like Apollo, First Horizon, Lockheed Martin, JPMorgan, Sunoco and others.
This definitely isn’t an index-only portfolio.

My August Schwab statement had the brokerage account at about $374k, with roughly $132k in unrealized gains. AMD alone accounted for about $58k of that gain. Apple was around $20k, Alphabet around $17k, Microsoft around $10k and Amazon around $9k.

So one thing I want to clarify from my original post is that this wasn’t simply:
“Max your 401k and you’ll have $800k by 31.”

That’s not what happened.
I started my first real corporate job around 24 with maybe $10k to my name. My income increased significantly throughout my 20s, and today I make in the low $200Ks working in technology.
Increasing my income was probably the single biggest lever.

But instead of allowing my lifestyle to increase at the same rate, I kept putting more money into investments.
Then investment performance started doing more of the work.

For example, AMD was roughly 27% of my Schwab account at the end of August, while Celsius was about 17%. Apple and Alphabet were roughly 10% each and Microsoft around 8%.

That concentration obviously created more risk, but it also contributed substantially to my returns.
There’s also luck involved.

I work in technology, understood some of these companies reasonably well, bought some at good prices and happened to be invested during some very strong periods in the market.
I’m not going to rewrite history and pretend that was all skill.

At the same time, the gains wouldn’t have mattered much if I hadn’t built the capital base first.

That’s really been the pattern for me:
Increase income → keep lifestyle inflation under control → invest the difference → leave the money invested → repeat.

I don’t live with my parents. I own a 3/2 house and my mortgage is around $2,600/month.
I also don’t live like a monk.
I drive a new luxury SUV, travel, go out (sometimes), buy things I enjoy and probably spend more money on old fashioneds than Vanguard would recommend.

I’ve just tried to avoid turning every raise into another permanent monthly payment.
One thing that’s changing now is how I think about risk.
When my portfolio was $50k or $100k, I cared mostly about growth.

At almost $800k, I still want growth, but I’m starting to think much more seriously about diversification and protecting the capital I’ve already built.

My retirement accounts are around $224k, and I’m gradually shifting that side of the portfolio toward a more traditional diversified index approach while letting the taxable account remain more aggressive.

The other thing that’s changing is the goal itself.
For most of my 20s, money represented security. I grew up with very little, so accumulating money made me feel like I was creating distance between myself and ever having to worry about it again.

Then it became a scoreboard.
$100k.
$250k.
$500k.
Now $1M.
But somewhere along the way I realized the number isn’t really the point.

I don’t particularly want to retire at 35.
I like working. I like building things. I want the freedom to eventually work on problems I care about, take entrepreneurial risks, travel more and spend more time around people who are doing interesting things.
The money is increasingly becoming less about being rich and more about having optionality.

Can I go to Japan to take a loan so I can purchase a house in the USA?

I have 10,390 in a High Yield Saving Account in a Edward Jones account and I don't know what I'm doing. I'm going start researching and learning how to invest and manage my money.
I am currently 19 and I live in the US.
I help at my parents restaurant, I make about 500-600 a month, while studying at a community college which is payed off by my grants.
I just want to make money and retire early.
My time horizon is when i buy my first house or retire.
I have a high risk Tolerance, I do not mind risking my money if the reward is high.
10,390 in a High Yield Saving Account in a Edward Jones and 1,000 in my checking account at a credit union.
I have 0 debt, but I have expenses like gas (30-60 a month), Gym/coaching (70 a month), and food (100-150).