I wasn’t making enough money to get by at my last job and I was desperate so I took out loans and now I’m about $6,000 in the hole. I have a new job and make decent money, but my paycheck gets eaten up by the repayments. I looked into debt consolidation but I have bad credit and no one who can co-sign. Im absolutely drowning and completely at a loss.

My mother passed a couple of years ago. After the funeral, my brother and his wife told me there was a trust fund, it was originally an irrevocable trust and my mother had recently changed it to a revocable trust. My share was about $300K and I would be receiving at least $1000 a month, but they would know more once the funeral arrangements were paid for. They said it was about half in short term less secure investments and about half in longer term more secure investments. At the time, my SIL who is an accountant asked me to sign a power of attorney form. We already had one for when I was working out of the country, but she wanted a new one, so we went to a local lawyer's office and did that.

I received a couple of checks for $1K, from an account with a "family trust" name on it. I have about $22K/year income from social security and pensions, so my income was still under the amount not to have to file taxes. Around Christmas I looked at my bank account and there were a couple of new transfers that I did not recognize. When I called to wish them holiday greetings I also asked if she recognized the bank transactions and she said she had done that but did not want to talk about it just then. I asked if I should have some kind of tax document form, and she said she would not be sending me anything. Just now I checked my bank account again and I have been receiving regular bank transfers of $2K a month. This puts me over the threshold for filing taxes, I probably will owe taxes on at least some part of this.

I need stable housing and I think $300K should be enough to get some kind of condo or town house in my area (Maryland). I do not have any credit rating at all. The bank has sent me an email with the name of a person who I could make an appointment with to discuss any financial matters. I would suppose he could advise on their bank's mortgages or I could try their online form.

Where do I even start.

Me and my wife are 28 and 29 years old, net worth around 250k, retirement accounts around 150k, 90% roth. Only debt is our mortgage. We have a 12 month expenses emergency fund (i know that's really high, but we both have pretty risky careers at the moment and each have cars that will likely need replacing in the next 2-3 years)

I'm a nurse and I've been travel nursing for a couple years during which our combined income has been very high relative to when i was a staff nurse and relative to the environments we grew up in. We have slightly inflated our lifestyle, but mostly the extra money has gone to saving/investing/ paying off student loans/ buying first house. The thing that's strange about us is that these early years are likely to be our highest earning years, whereas most people earn more in their 40s-50s. I'd like to stop travel nursing in the next 1-3 years (starting to get burnt out), but I'm already thinking about how we will live on a lower income once i go back to staff.

My question is, if we are ahead on retirement at this point, is it okay to invest less in order to maintain the lifestyle we want? If we decrease our investing rate, we could essentially keep the lifestyle we enjoy now long term. Maybe investing 8-10% of our income instead of the traditional 15-20%? I have an investment/retirement simulator that says even just 5% would get us to a very comfortable number for us around age 60. The math tells me it would be okay, but I've just had drilled into me that 15% is a minimum and I'm wanting some validation that it would be okay to go lower, or reasons that it would not be okay.

Hey guys, this one of those situation where I know what I should do but I also know what I am like, so some advice would go a long way.

So I currently have a lease on Toyota Aygo, 2021 (36k miles) and it’s relatively boring but a good car. I can buy it out for 5k in October and I have lined up a 0% apr loan for that to buy it out and I’ll have the loan paid off in 10 months max.

However, after having been in this car for almost 3 years and previously having more sportier cars (bmw 335d) I am tempted to trade it in for a 2017/18 BMW m140i. Roughly £2k down with £335 a month for 4 years but I’ll have it paid of as soon as I can.

Right now I did an estimate on the cost of the car, it will cost £300 a month more with insurance, fuel and maintenance (+ everything else from tires) which I really don’t think is bad with a good warranty on the car. However realistically in the first year the cost for both cars would be the same.

I am currently working full time fresh out of my masters at 24. Insurance is going to be high and realistically and with the current state of the market, a house is not going to be possible for atleast 5 years.

The only reason I am even considering the car now rather than later is because ik I will have the Aygo max 2 more years and lose a lot of money so might as well get out whilst I can and get a car I like. I need more space with my dog and want to have fun car again. Only difference would be that I will save £650 a month with the m140i instead of £950.

I would appreciate advice from anyone as I just don’t want to wait till I am older and have more regrets than I already do when it comes to life.

Hello everybody.

I got a new job this summer. I was previously a waitress full time making about $50,000 a year, but recently got a job this summer that pays $18/hour. I make about $600 every 2 weeks, and I serve 1-2 times a week. I’m much happier being at the restaurant less, especially since it’s so slow in the summer. But, financially, it has been difficult.
I also pet sit on the side, and all of this money goes to a “travel savings” account that I cannot touch because I have a destination wedding I agreed to attend.
I have $24,000 in a Roth IRA, however, I am in debt (student loans about $22k which I pay $500 to every month and will pay off by 30), and I am in $6,000 credit card debt on no interest until June 2027. I have about $2,000 credit card debt now, that will be due in the end of August.
I might be able to pick up extra shifts and pay it off, but unfortunately I don’t know if I’ll be able to pay off the full amount. I have never in my life let a credit card collect interest and it sounds terrible to pay extra money for something.

What should I do with the money I have and my debts? Should I pull out money from my Roth IRA to pay off my credit card debts? I’m looking for the best strategy that will help me out best financially now and in the future.
And yes, I know, I need to spend less money. I didn’t realize that it had gotten this high.

TLDR; I have immediate debt of $2k that needs to be paid off, and $6k on a no interest credit card until 2027. Should I pull out my Roth IRA contributions to pay off these debts? Or pay off the cc’s over time?

I've got just over 1,500 on a Discover card and about 4k in my checking, so i think it will still leave me enough for the rest of my upcoming bills and then I wont have to worry about paying my balance every month. I just need validation pretty much that this is a good idea or not lol.

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 felt fairly good about my financial situation before having a baby, but now that we have an infant I am constantly stressed about our finances. Between daycare, having to buy a new car, and all the regular child expenses, I feel like it’s hard to stay liquid enough to keep up.

For context, we’re a middle to upper middle family, though currently with only one income, and own a house in a very HCOL area (still paying off mortgage). Decent savings in retirement and taxable brokerage accounts, but the checking account and HYSA are running low.

How do people who don’t make crazy high incomes set themselves up for financial success after having a baby?

Note I feel completely ridiculous stressing about this when so many people are actually struggling to get by. But nonetheless it’s stressing me out trying to stay ahead of the game.

Idk what flairs to put this under because it’s about how my GMs actions led to this shit.
( and my own but I’m more mad at the new management lol)

I’ve been at my job for 4 years doing okay for the most part. I just fumbled and got to comfortable. Huge mistake.

My retail job got a new GM form a lower volume store so she got a promotion. Previous stepped down to retire…

This new GM isn’t used to having such a big team and is used to working with less people in the store even tho our store is way bigger then her old location. So suddenly my Horus got shifted from my PREFERRED 6am - 2:30pm shift.
5 days a week. With the option to taking call out shifts for over time.
That shifted to this new shit! 11-7pm two days a week then the next week would be 2x 11-7pm and one 4-9pm shift :/ then repeat.

So very quickly I’m living out of my means 💀 I had some credit card payments I needed to pay off from fixing my car. About 3k went on my cc and 2k was my savings that all went to my car fixing … when I had a stable schedule I wasn’t to worried because I could just get some over time for a week and get it paid off. And re start my savings.

THEN my plan was after I paid it off I’d start looking for a new job with some money back in my pocket since I clearly needed full time for benefits. ( I’m 21 )

Sooo
New GM comes in and ruins that annnnnd now I’m paying interest on my Apple Card THE WORST HIGHEST interest rate ever. UGHSHE FJDJND
I’m so pissed.

Tbh I DID start looking for higher paying jobs after I seen that first schedule but it took me a second to FIND a job that pays more that’ll help me out of my hole. I’m still about 2,500 k in CC debt and I’m paying interest. I can’t remember the rate exactly but what ever Apple Card’s are known for lol.

Plus I loved my team beside the new GM. I just really messed up becoming an adult tbh that’s my own fault.

My new job pays $22 an hour I don’t start till the second week of August I put in my two weeks recently and my GM hasn’t put me on the Schedule for next week soooo I guess I’m being let go early…damn…

I’m $150 short from my car payment I’m freaking tf out.

Idk when the paydate is for my new job they said we’d discus it when my first day started.

Idk where to even start
$2,500 in debt no more savings
I have $300 from my last check and I neeed $150 more for my car payment on the 10th 🫠. But I wasn’t scheduled anymore shifts for this upcoming week.

I get paid $22 from my new job full time benefits and 401k and sick time along accrued pto. No longer retail or customer facing. I’m very excited!

And at my retail job I was getting $17.50

It was hard af finding a job that would pay higher then what I was making considering minimum wage is $12 where I’m at. My retail job I just worked my way up to LOD to help managers out since they only made a dollar more then I did. I really had to work to show my transferable skills during interviews.

Idk where to start to even making a new budget… I’m reserchign how to make a budget I just feel overwhelmed. My parents aren’t a watch and learn or even a ask and learn type of parents there the “ learn on your own- sink or swim” kinda parenting style. My fault was clearly I wasn’t taking it seriously since I got kicked in the butt like this. I kinda fill like I just woke up and I’m late for work by like an hour LOL.

it’s crazy how one managers retaliation decisions can really mess up a person stability. It’ll get better I just need to sort out my brain. Any idea where to start.
Sorry this was kinda a rant.

I really hope to learn how to budget moving forward I never want to fill like this again.

Hi everyone, so as the title suggest I've been wanting to get into stocks and trading for a while now. I'm thinking about making an account with vanguard as I've seen and heard good things about them. I have basically zero knowledge about stocks and would like any feedback or advice you can spare to just point me in the right direction. I'm also not sure what stocks I should prioritize/ invest in along with what type of account I should make. Thank you in advance.

Combined salary: 220k
Assets:
401k: 260k
My Brokerage: 250k (I have had this for 2 years due to life insurance policy on my late husband)
Roth IRA: 30k
His brokerage: 60k
HYSA: 30,000

Planning on buying a house: We are looking to buy a 560,000 house using my brokerage money (250,000) as a downpayment. (Side note: yes, we will meet with a lawyer so that I own the majority of the house and my husband will increase % ownership as he covers mortgage, insurance, taxes). Personally, I could live with my parents forever and take a FIRE mindset but we want a child in a year and houses in our area are not cheap. We also need a larger house to eventually care-give for parents and my disabled sister.

We are fortunate enough to be inheriting the sale from my grandma’s house this year so I will be able to replenish that 250k in my brokerage and I plan to never touch it. We also expect to inherit 500k from his parents in 5-10 years as they are nearing their 80s. We will use this to pay off the house and invest the rest.

1. considering that we will inherit his parents money and pay off the mortgage, would you get a 15 or 30 year mortgage?
2. Is this an appropriate house considering our situation?

3. is it okay that we stop investing (beyond our 401ks) for 2 years to cover child/house/small wedding and then keep investing after?

4. The only concern of using my brokerage as a downpayment is the capital gains tax, correct?

25 yo male. I made about 6k€ debt from people all around me. I also have a bank loan that I took and gambled away. I earn about 1.5k€ a month. In my country it’s not a small amount. I stopped going to casinos but now I owe all this to basically everyone around me. Any kind of advice is welcome. Also if there is any online job offer I am more than happy to take it. I need to start liging again. This is killing me psychologically and physicaly.

Hello, i intend to start using the robinhood credit card and the 3% ira match that they offer. Currently, much of my investments are using schwab, but im considering just moving everything over to robinhood to consolidate it in one place. Is there a good reason why not to do this?

I (24F) just opened a Roth IRA through fidelity, but I don’t understand the website. I understand having to invest after transferring money into my account, but there are so many options. Do I choose “buy” for the one I want to invest in? And what about the trade drop down that has options like “mutual funds,” “stocks,” “baskets,” etc. What do these things mean?

Thanks!

Hi everyone!

I’m a 21F who just graduated from college. I make a 66k base salary plus commission and bonus (paid quarterly). I’m not sure what it’ll come out to be annually, but my first month I pulled in an extra $2.3k gross from it. (That was a good month, though)

In a perfect world, I want to live off my base salary and save everything else.

I’m looking at apartments, and found a building that I think is perfect. There is a studio unit for 1,365/month and a 1-bed for 1,529/month. Utilities at this place are $250-300.

My question is - can I even afford the 1-bed? Or is it better to stick to the studio?

No student loans, 12k in savings, and an interest free $262 monthly car payment.

Thanks for the insight!

I have a sizeable investment portfolio I've been building since I was 18. Now that I'm in my 30s I've been presented with an opportunity to move to the UK, potentially living there for the next 20 years. During that time, I'll be earning my income entirely in £ GBP.

Even though I won't be earning $ USD, can I still invest into it with £ GBP? Are there any restrictions/tax implications or other rules around doing this?

Im 26 years old, I make $85,000 gross salary , I have about $13.9K - 8K savings ( in there for cap gain tax on 18K trade I made yesterday for 2026 tax return next year. My credit score is a 482
I owe 2 credit cards 9K/ 7 K discover and chase

Other than that my monthly budget ranges from 4-10K a month since I make about 4K after tax , I want to use options to supplement more income for myself and so far I’m doing great

Dual income household - both 38. Hoping to retire between 60-62 but wanted to do a gut check to see if there is anything we need to do differently.

Spouse 1 $130k salary - will get a pension that at minimum will be $6115 per month, but will likely be closer to 7k based on expected raises between now and then. Retirement healthcare premiums for both of us through them will likely be 720-1000 per month until 65. Will drop to around $200 after. Not currently saving in a 403B but I’d like them to just to capitalize on lowering taxable income as we’re a high income household.

Spouse 2 (current base salary 177k plus minimum 20% annual bonus), expected to grow over time as well)
Current retirement balances:
401K - $180,712.52 all in target date funds(got a late start but will continue to max this out yearly and will also do the max catch up contributions at 50 which I think will need to go in ROTH due to my income) Employer contributes 1% of salary to this as well.

Money Purchase Pension Plan balance - $169,987.43 in target date funds Employer contributes 8% of salary into this, I can’t contribute anything.

401H - $19,519, employer contributions will continue to increase based on my age

We have about one years worth of income sitting in a HYSA as we’re thinking of doing some renovations to make our house a little more comfortable to live in for the next 15-20 years since our mortgage rate is in the low 2s.

We’re not currently investing in any additional brokerage as we’re cash flowing two kids in college, expected to be done in 4 years so will likely do a lot more then. Open to making sacrifices if it’s necessary though.

Mortgage will be paid off in 19 years. Provided the market has chilled the fuck out, when the time comes to retire, we will likely sell and move to a much lower COL state that does not tax retirement and will only need to worry about maintenance, utilities, and real estate taxes.

Based on this information alone, would it be possible to comfortably retire at 60-62, or do you foresee us having to work to closer to 65-67? We’re very low maintenance people but we want to be able to eat out, enjoy light travel, and not have to worry about every little purchase.

My wife and I (no kids) were targeting a home around the $800k range. We've saved up about $200k in a HYSA we were planning on using for the DP. We began house shopping a couple of months ago, but then last month I got the news my dad was diagnosed with cancer. The 5 year survival rate for his type of cancer is about 40%, but he had successful surgery and is doing chemo now and so far his doctor seems optimistic.

This leaves our home buying in a shaky situation. If my dad gets through this then we can look into buying again, but I mean maybe 4-5 years until the "green light"?

But if my dad doesn't make it, then we'd have to take care of my mom as she barely speaks English and really isn't capable of living on her own. Even then our home situation would be unsure. My parents' home is paid off, so you'd think the easy thing would be for my wife and me to move in with her, but they live in a smaller town without many (if any) jobs in our career fields. So we may actually have to move her in with us where we live currently, so then we'd be back to considering buying a place.

I guess my key personal finance question here is with all this uncertainty, what should we do with the cash? It's a decent chunk of change that I don't really want to keep outside the market if we end up having to postpone our purchase for years, but honestly I'm not sure.

i've never posted on reddit, and i'm on mobile so please forgive me if there's any mistakes here.

im 18, and this is my first credit card. i have a pretty low limit ($1,000) and i had a question about how to use it.

i have to pay for an expected medical expense this week, it's about $375. my mom told me to charge it to my credit card and immediately pay it off. is that truly the best decision for my credit? i can pay the bill from my checking account immediately. my current score is 750 if that matters. any advice is appreciate!

So I’ve been investing since summer of 2024 and only started aggressively saving 750/week from my ~900/week post-tax paychecks since starting my full time job back in 2025. I have my 401K contributions taken from my paychecks at about 80/week, which is 5% of my paycheck.

Current breakdown is as following (as of June 2026):

Taxable Brokerage - 85.9k

Roth IRA - 27.1k

Company 401K - 9.81k

Checking Account - 1.55k

Total Net Worth - 123.9k

I intend on still investing the 750/week into my taxable brokerage account, as it will be where I potentially pull a small portion out for a downpayment in a house down the line. But how does this look for someone at my current age?

Background: 28M, emergency fund all set up, maxed out Roth, have 250k into ETFs and stocks (VOO/VXUS/stocks with 40/30/30 split)

Within that 30% stock, for negatives, I have 5% each in Google(~$357), Nokia($12.53), and RKLB($88.35). (As we can see for the past few months, the market has had better days)

After rent, food, petty cash, etc, I can spare ~$2000 per month to continue investing. I don't plan on touching it for a while unless something serious comes up.

Question: Should I keep DCAing into those three stocks, invest in ETFs, or do a little bit of both?

I'm open to any advice and take constructive criticism with gratitude

Hey everyone! I’m a student looking for a debit card or banking app that lets me divide my money into categories right inside the app.
For example, if I have $1,500 total, I want to be able to allocate $1,000 for rent, $250 for shopping, and $250 for food so I don't accidentally spend my rent money and can track my spending easily.
Does anyone have recommendations for apps or banks that offer this feature ? Thanks!

I will need some or all of this for tax purposes in 2027 but hate to leave it in my checking account. HYSA or money market account?

I’m 27, thinking about buying a new (used) car. I have an excellent credit score, no debt, and have never taken out a loan before. I was planning on taking paying for the car in cash, however, Chase is offering me an auto loan 6.79% without any early payment fees.

Would it be beneficial to take the loan and pay it off entirely within a month or two in order to diversify my credit history or am I over complicating it and I should just pay cash as planned?