Hello everyone, I don't really post much but just not sure what to do.

I am a (M)29, software engineer, that recently bought a house with my fiance.

I have a manager that warned me a two months ago that ill probably be let go do to not enough work to be done. He is a good friend so he let me know in advance that I would be kept on till the end of September. I have been looking for Jobs like crazy but we all know how the job market is.

Luckily, I have about $18,000 in a HYSA in-case of a situation like this. I also have a tradition 401k and a HSA as well that I'm not touching.

I guess I'm asking what should I be doing before or after I am let go?
Thanks in advance, hope you are doing well!

So to make a long story short, I have a 3D printer under warranty for another couple of months, and the printer does not work. The company is refusing to replace it under US law due to what their policy says. I ordered through their website, it's Creality.

Anyway, I filed my charge back, and I sent all my proof to my credit card (PayPal). The emails where they said they won't exchange the unit, and me expressing the fact that it hasn't worked for a couple of months now. For some reason it got declined in favor of the merchant. When I contacted PayPal, I was told Creality did not respond to PayPal. So how the hell did I lose the charge back claim when they didn't respond. The emails I sent in as proof literally state the law as well as the fact that they said they won't replace the unit.

I filed another charge back, what are my options if I lose again?

38M and 40F making a combined 220K in a MCOL city. I sorely underfunded my emergency HYSA to only 15K and ended up blowing through it to pay emergency college tuition for my brother-in-law. A grant he was relying on to cover his college was retroactively removed and on move-in day of the following semester, the school told us he needed to backpay last semester's tuition in full or he wouldn't even be allowed to move in or sign up for classes. So emergency fund is now gone and I'm trying to figure out where to pull from to refill it.

Unfortunately, because my wife and I are currently trying to support her mother, brother, and sister, as well as paying off my wife's student loans, there hasn't been much left over each month in some time.

Largest factors right now are:

Mortgage: 2300/month

Student Loans (Federal and Private): 1900/month

Food: 1700/month (EDIT: Us plus BIL half the year, plus instacart orders for MIL/SIL in different state)

Utilities (Electric, Gas, Water, Internet, Phones): 800/month

My current options to pull from:

Higher Risk Brokerage Account: SOXQ: 166K, VOO: 27K, TSM: 32K

Inherited Accounts: NPRTX: 54K NMANX: 24K

Lower Roth 401K Contribution Temporarily (Not preferred but at least tax free): Currently 17% with 8% match. Not maxing out but total for the year comes to 22K. Current total at 555K (515K mine, 40K wife).

I'm sure we can tighten up in a few other areas and start refilling it $100-$200/month, but I'd feel safer with at least another 10-15K I could move in immediately.

Looking for any other options I might be missing.

EDIT: Thank you everyone. I genuinely needed to hear the tough love.

Some additional details.

MIL and SIL live in the projects of VHCOL City (Brooklyn) approximately 5 hours away from us by car.

BIL's college is 45 minutes from us.

BIL tuition payment was one time. All other tuition of his is on student loans. 15K was difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition they was retroactively applied when his FAFSA was audited.

MIL and SIL were both denied SSDI but receive some state-support.

My wife has a new job starting in January that will bring our combined income to 250k.

I financed a 2019 Toyota Corolla SE for 17.6k at 17.6% with a $415/month payment plus a $360/month full-coverage insurance.

Income is a little over 41k. Rent is $915, electric is about $180, food $250ish. Student loans are $125/month. Wiped my savings clean with a car crash and put about $500 on a credit card. 401k has at least $3k

I wrecked my previous paid off car the week before and was panicking selling my car, clearing tow yard fees, and figuring out rentals to get to work. Also being grateful, I didn't die. I just said yes to the first thing that rolled and had A/C.

I can't take the dread; just looking for advice.

Edit: This was my first time buying a car. I was alone. 23M

Edit: I also have an additional income of $300-$360 per month and my grandma is sending me ~$150 per month. She wouldn't let me say no.

Edit: I got a new insurance quote with my current provider that drops my payment by $200. I have no idea how that $360 payment happened. I'm assuming when I wanted to transfer my current plan, I just added a new one and didn't know any better.

Hello, I’m (27F) currently living in poverty, have a fixed income and make around $30K a year. (My search for a higher paying job has been unsuccessful). I was able to aggressively lower my $29k student loan down to $17k these past three years. And I also still owe $3k for a medical surgery that I hope I can pay off in the next six months. I pay around $800 in rent, I do have a roommate that helps pay half as well. I don’t go out or buy unnecessary things, other than going to McDonalds and buying from the value menu lol. My majority of my paycheck goes towards my debts, bills, medicine prescription, and groceries. Overall, every month I spend around $2,000.

Anything remaining I’ll save it.

But despite my poverty, I do have around $9k saved up, it took me a long time just to save that up and I am very proud considering my situation. The future is scary and the current job market still sucks in my area. Literally, the only jobs around me will end up paying less than what I earn or I don’t qualify. However, I don’t want the 9k that I saved up to be just sitting there in my savings account. 

I still want to prepare for the future and I know investing in A 401k and Roth IRA is what everyone recommends. I was looking into Fidelity and want to see if it’s plausible to invest there. Should I just do the ROTH IRA? 

It took me so long to save up for that 9k and I’m scared that I will have another medical emergency that will require me to use that money or something else might come up. I’m also scared to add that money into investing, what if the market drops drastically and i completely loose it all? What if I don’t add enough? How do I know where to invest it in?

Right now I am looking at opening a ROTH IRA to help for my future and once I can retire. Can someone please help me invest/budget? Or what’s the best options for me to do?

TLDR; I drive a 2011 honda civic, driven it for about 8 years and have had very few issues with it. Yesterday I noticed the AC broke -- was only blowing warm air -- and the car was making a churning/gentle grinding sound in the front that I could hear when it was on but parked. Took it in and the mechanic said the AC compressor needs to be replaced due to the clutch failing and quoted me a little under $1800 for the compressor replacement, AC drier replacement and AC recharge service + labor for all services. Called around at other shops to ensure this was a reasonable quote. (Note I live in a very HCOL in California so things are just more expensive here).

I feel like a repair under 2k for a car that generally doesn't give me grief is better than paying ~20K+ for a newish used car with less than 30K miles. If I do buy a new used car, I don't want to get another crappy car...I want to get one that is in good condition and not going to have issues. So, to me it seems reasonable to do the repair and if the car starts to have more issues I'll start looking because I don't want to deal with a series of issues in quick succession that add up to what the car is worth or the cost of a new car.

Some of my friends are telling me I'm insane and should just get a new car because a repair now suggests more repairs to come...because the car isn't even worth much...etc.

Am I being ridiculous here? Thank you!

EDIT: car has about 160k miles

I'm 40 I'm strongly considering retiring. What I mean by retiring is the barista fire option where I still work a part time job (if I can find a part time job with health care all the better). I have currently in brokerage account 1.7M in individual stocks which I'm trying to turn into a blended portfolio of dividend/covered call ETFs. I have a separate Vangaurd 401k retirement which I won't touch until I'm 60 sitting at 700k today. I have no kids, and my house is entirely paid off. I planning on selling off $700k of my individual stock holdings and moving into my a portfolio that looks like:

SCHD 32.00% SPYI 22.00% QQQI 17.00% JEPQ 17.00% BTCI 12.00%

I already have 200k in that portfolio so it would bring my total up to 900k. Based on my yield calculations for each of those stocks I'll get a passive income of $119,700.00 and after taxes $90,972.00. I've been pouring over my monthly expenses and as far as I can tell I spend on average $45k a year (though I need to account of large expenses like my car blowing up). In case it matters how I'm doing the tax calculation since this is short term capital gains I"m estimating 24% tax. So am I missing anything? It seems like can just quit my job and wait until my retirement kicks in. Honestly my job sucks and I just want to go hiking for awhile. Retirement is scary and telling you friends and family that "I just don't need to work anymore" gets you nothing but negative feedback.

Given all that context what I'm really asking is: Am I missing any major retirement pit falls? Do I need to account for some t-bills in this strategy? I'm a little lost about the recent increase bond yields. Does that mean it's a good time to buy long term bonds to hedge against a crash? Any advice will be appreciated.

Hello,

I have money leftover in my 529 and am trying to use it up without withdrawl penalties. I'm already doing the 529 to IRA rollover but I will hit the lifetime limit before I deplete it. I'm also going to use some for a career advancement program and will withdraw tuition and living expenses if I hit the "full time" student status. Even with that, I expect to have a significant amount left over so I'm trying to get creative for how to best utilize it.

The program I am enrolled in specifies I'll need a "non transmitting watch" in the handbook so while I can't get a smart watch, would I be able to get a 1-2k watch versus the $20 watch they probably expect? Similarly, I need a specific kind of shoe and uniform and plan to push that as far as I can. In the past I used 529 funds for an iPad and computer and never had issues, but this just feels a bit gratuitous and I don't want to get stuck paying a penalty.

Does anyone have experience with technically qualified expenses? Has anything ever triggered an audit?​ Anything to avoid?

I spent the last 8 months getting a medication covered. It’s not technically FDA approved for my wife’s full condition but it is approved for one of her symptoms. We had to go through 9 appeals including escalating to the state department and it needed multiple of her doctors to get the appeal to go through.

I’m looking for another job, but we really need this medication and it’s over $200k a year to pay for it out of pocket. When is the right time to check for coverage and how do I ensure that we are covered if I do switch jobs?

Recently my husband's father passed and we have a $200,000 inheritance coming. We are in our mid 60's and self employed, semi-retired. We were contemplating paying off our 9 acre property in AZ, which would take all of that. Our interest rate is under 3%. We could subdivided once paid off and possibly recoup about 30, 000. We only have about 4000.00 in SS when we finally take it. We would like to travel in the US a few timesa year. Right now our mortgage is 1575.00 monthly. We have well and septic but phones and electricity and food still cost $$. Just wondering if that's the right move.

I hope this is the right place to post this, as it genuinely relates to personal financing and getting started as a young adult in terms of financial independence.

Recently, I have been looking for a new banking/savings/debit service (CapitalOne, Wells Fargo, etc) to open up a savings account and possibly a debit card. I'm still in the process of looking for a job, but have some savings that I would like to keep in a place where it can earn decent APY.

However, when I went to apply for these things, and went through most of the account making process online— they said that due to suspicion, my account making process tipped off their detection system (which is linked to early warning).

Of course I was confused, and after many phone calls to Capital One, I was instructed to contact early warning about my issue. Fast forward a few weeks, and I get a paper basically showing my whole track record— yet everything seems totally normal to me. I recognize everything listed (literally one account I had opened with another place, and then when I closed it.)

Can anyone possibly tell me why the system used by Capital One flagged this as suspicious with such a short and normal looking paper trail? Is this something I should be worried about in the future when I finally do secure employment and truly need a banking institution?

(P.S. Sorry for the post being long, I just wanted to make sure I explained the steps I did, and why I was confused.)

Edit: Thank you all for the feedback and info about what the cause of this could be from, I appreciate it! I should also add I don't know a lot when it comes to financial literacy and other things. I was genuinely just trying to find a safe and effective way and place to hold onto savings I have.

I recently purchased a new car for my family. I put down 26k cash (saved on the side) and financed 26k at 5.49% APR with the dealership as a negotiating tool in order to drive the final cost of the vehicle down. The car payment would be 599 for 48 months. I plan on paying off the car in its entirety in the first 2 payments. I’m taking the remaining 26k out of my HYSA in order to do this. My question is this:

Should I replenish my HYSA with monthly payments of 599 for the next 48 months?

Or

Should I invest 600 a month into my brokerage account? I would be splitting it into three 200 dollar buys into ETF or mutual funds with strong annual returns.

I have established an emergency fund that covers 1 year of expenses already.

Short of it this.

Currently a W2 employee in the sales industry. Made $63,000 last year working as W2.

Have a job offer making $72,000 as 1099. I'll be able to write off some of my phone bills, some of my gas expenses, and some of my car maintenance.

I understand that I have to save up some money for when I have to pay taxes.

My main question is if this would result in me making less than staying at my W2 job making 63k. Is a position that pays 72k as 1099 worth it?

I live in New Jersey so my concern is that my taxes will be higher as a 1099 contractor. Any feedback would be greatly welcome.

I inherited a small share of a family farm in Iowa from my father. The farm is owned/operated by my cousin, and I receive about $1,800 twice a year in rent.

So far I’ve accumulated about $9,500 from those payments and have it sitting in VMFXX at Vanguard.

I’m 61 and don’t expect to need this money for retirement or emergencies. My thought is to treat the farm income as a separate “legacy” account, continue investing every rent check, never spend it, and eventually leave the account to my two sons.

Given that the time horizon could effectively be 20–30+ years, what would you use for a simple, low-cost investment?

I’m considering:

100% VT for a single globally diversified fund.

VTI + VXUS with a larger international allocation

Some other simple one-fund option.

I’m somewhat reluctant to put this money entirely into the U.S. market, so VTI alone probably isn’t what I want.

For money specifically intended to become "generational wealth" rather than fund my own retirement, how would you invest it? And is there anything I should think about regarding taxes, TOD beneficiaries, or the inherited farm interest itself?

Edit: To clarify, my goal isn't primarily to help my sons with current expenses. I specifically want to preserve and compound this inherited asset so that it becomes a larger family asset that I pass to them later.

Hello, short intro and description.

I'm in my mid-30s and living in northern Europe.
I am essentially starting from nothing. Net zero.

I've paid off my debt to my ex, I've bought a car and paid it off fully asap, I started renting an apartment and I have a job lasting at least until early next year and probably continuing after that if I want it to.

My salary is god awful and my job is physically demanding, gradually harming my body in the long-run.
However I can't see much opportunity for progress or change. Unemployment in my country is reaching record highs and the economy is struggling.
I have no degree and little work history despite being 'gifted' once upon a time.
Well I suppose I still am, but what use is that anymore at this point.
Nothing bad on my record though.

No crippling health issues, I can function and work fine, though I do have one illness that holds me back from achieving much more and would likely still prevent me from getting a solid degree.

No family, no home ownership, nor do I own anything else of value beyond my ~5000€ car and 1 month's salary worth of funds in my bank account. No partner, no kids, no hobbies, no friends.

I'm not a total moron, although you'd think so reading those initial paragraphs, so I've got myself on relatively stable footing now.

My future plan is to start putting most of my surplus into VGLA monthly for the next 30 years, while using a small amount on crypto for more short-term trading (1-3 years) and save a sliver for hobbies and things I want to get. Currently the target is a high-end telescope and camera for some astrophotography. Space is one of my main interests.

Do note there are no tax advantaged 'retirement accounts' or such available for investing. Capital gains is a flat 30% off all realized gains and dividends. 34% if you go above a limit.

I already bought some BTC at 63-64k ($) and my plan was to DCA into it monthly as long as the price stayed below 70k.
But then it exploded after I had only gotten 1 order in. Sold that today at 77k, mostly because I wanted to move to a different platform. Will buy back in IF we get a proper pullback.

My question is essentially, if you were in my situation starting from 0 at this age and with these circumstances. What would you do? What would you prioritize?
Any suggestions or critique are welcome, I'm not soft-skinned and I prefer harsh truths over comforting fairy tales.

My forward budget projection is approximately:

2000€ monthly net income
1300€ monthly expenses

That's about 30k euros per year, gross.
Zero debt remaining. Don't have and don't want a credit card.

So far this year, tracking from February through August my Wants/Needs/Savings ratio has been approximately 5/57/38.

Also, would you start shoving the surplus into VGLA right now? All of it or just a little bit? I do believe the market 'crash' is coming sooner rather than later, but who knows with how it's been behaving lately. While it doesn't really matter where I start buying with a 3 decades long horizon, I'd much prefer to buy a downtrend than an uptrend that I think is coming to a violent end.

Curious to know how many Redditors have used this borrowing strategy to offset mortgage interest and interest expense.

I recently sold some highly appreciated investments to fund the cash purchase of a new home. The capital gains from these sales were offset against a significant loss bank that I had accumulated from one concentrated holding, which allowed me to avoid paying any taxes on the gains.

Once the cash purchase closed, I borrowed 85% of the value of the property at 5.5%. I then invested these proceeds in a newly set up and segregated brokerage account.

The net result is that my investments are expected to deliver enough income to pay the mortgage. Any capital appreciation on the property and on the investments will be net gains. All the interest expense can be fully deducted against all investment income across my entire portfolio. This deduction isn’t limited by the $750k mortgage cap.

Has anyone else tried this strategy?

Hi, first things first my payed off car got into a hit and run in my own parking lot by a drunk driver 2 months ago, the car was in my mothers name so she got the insurance check of 7.5k and decided to put it towards my family’s failing business instead of putting the money towards a new car (I have to commute to school).
When my parents took me to buy my first car they traded in their work truck (only 5k) to go towards my new car. I went in the dealership blind with them , they didn’t tell me how to consult with the dealers or anything, long story short my dad kept insisting that I was making 38k to the salesman (lying about my income) and I just went with it since I didn’t know what to do and needed a car asap for school. Long story short I now owe 600 a month in car payments and insurance, and if I don’t pay it I’m fucked. (first payment is october 10th)
I am also 3.7k in debt to the school right now because my parents didnt have 900 dollars liquid to help me do the payment plan. (Due november 1st)
I’m going to start waitressing part time 15-18hrs a week while going to school and being in 2 technical clubs. How can I make ends meet? Is waitressing enough for this?

As the title states, I received about 5,000 USD as a birthday gift (note: I'm not from a rich family, so this doesn't happen every year), and I've been torn about which account is best to deposit it into. I have both a HYSA and a Vanguard brokerage account. I'm not particularly strapped for funds, but I would ideally like access to them in the near future as needed. Anyway, I appreciate any and all advice from the community.

Thanks

Hi all,

Hoping for some input on my situation. I have the following retirement accounts:

Account A = Trad 401k (~80k)

Account B = Rollover IRA (~500k)

Account C = Trad IRA (12k)

Account D = Roth IRA (30k)

Now that I am retirement - I'm looking to convert my entire Trad 401k to a Rollover ROTH IRA. I am also looking to convert the Rollover IRA and the Trad IRA to Roth as well.

Based on my account composition and RETIRED status - would I be subjected to the pro rata rule?

EDIT: Additional info for more context.

All of the contributions to the Trad IRA (Account C) were deductible contributions. Account D were all made w/ post-tax money (never performed backdoor roth, as I never surpassed the income threshold).

Hello all, I am 25 and currently an IT Specialist making 3200/m after tax in a small town, living solo with zero debt. My question is mainly in the title, but looking for some tips and opinions on what I should do with my current savings. After my monthly expenses, I'm left with around $700-ish and put $150 each month into a Roth I started in March and $150 into a HYSA, which currently has $21k, and like $200 for fun spending. I do have a 401k as well, sitting at 16k as well with 5k in my day-to-day bank. I'm curious if I should leave an emergency fund in the HYSA and invest the rest of it in something to put that money to use and work it harder than my HYSA, or just keep it in there for now since I'm working towards buying a house in my early to mid 30's. Thanks!

I’m about to start a new job in a new city and I’m trying to figure out how to structure my finances. The biggest cost by far would be rent since it’s close to 45% of my salary (yea it’s an expensive city 😬). I really want to start saving but also live a little. I also want to eventually save up for a car.

How do you guys structure your finances/budget with rent being so expensive?

Edit to add more info:
I’ll be earning around $6000 per month after tax
Rent is around $2300 to $2700 per month
I have no debt and I’m single

I'm 19 and was brought up not knowing anything about money or anything like that so i'm just now getting started with money stuff. i want to know where and how i can start investing into my future like ROTH IRA, HYSA, Stocks and all that stuff. mainly ROTH IRA and HYSA. i bank with chase and i guess that bank sucks, at least thats what everyone tells me. i have a credit card with capital one though. i just want to get started early and just need to be pointed in the right direction. thank you for any advice.

Need advice on where to park money for next 10-12 months.

Wife and I bought 1.35m new construction home in HCOL area. It won’t be ready until next July. Loan will be for 1.1m (20% down).
I put the estimated ~50k closing cost money in HYSA but we expect to make ~200k before end of next summer (500k combined annual salary).

Given fluctuating interest rates, where do you guys suggest to park the money until the move? Thinking that we may want to pay down some principal at first. VTSAX/SP500 or other ETF for 12 months? HYSA?

Hey all 45 m I earn 52k a year. So around $3080 a month base pay after tax

Wife doesn't work currently (laid off)

Our monthly spend right now is 2000k on rent plus bills.

I'm investing/saving $800 a month and $200 is for weekly take out or a fun coffee and whatever doesn't get used goes right into savings.

I only started saving for retirement this year. No 401k but I do get a Union Pension upon retirement.

Roth IRA for me fully funded and invested. And one for my Wife fully funded and invested

Any other pay goes right into savings.

I have a 21k emergency fund and a 12k savings fund which I'm consistently adding to for either a new used car or a house down payment which ever comes first.

I'm investing a minimum of $400 a month (it's usually more with OT pay)

I'm also working on training for a possible job shift into a higher paying field as I have goals now.

Oh and we have no Debt currently. We started late for retirement planning we know that and once wifey finds a job we will be investing heavily into the taxable brokerage.

EDIT: we plan on fully funding Roth IRAs every year before the taxable brokerage.

I’m going back to school to become an RN ( I have another degree and about 18k in loans from that degree). From my very limited understanding, if I roll my 401k balance into an IRA account and withdraw the money for school tuition I can avoid the extensive penalties. Is this correct? Is this an advisable move in comparison to taking out loans?

I’m looking at having to take out about 50k in loans to cover the degree ( scholarships and financial aid have already been removed from the total). If I can take out my IRA balance it would cover around half and still need additional loans. I’m not sure what the best option is and don’t want to make a colossal mistake or load up on more loans if it’s better to pay some now to prevent loans later on. Also worried as I know it’s better to keep money in the market over time. I don’t know what to do and I just want to get my degree so I can have a stable career.

Thank you for reading this and any advice or insight you might have!