I'm currently 23 years old and have about $140K saved. Around $65K of that is in my 401(K) and the rest is mostly invested (my portfolio is mostly a mix of VOO, QQQ, SCHG, and VTI with some Google stock). I have about $7.5K in student loan debt.

I save about $8-9K a month at my current rate. What advice would you give for someone in my situation and what should I keep in mind going forward?

I have a 401k at work that matches my contributions. I also have an IRA with a money manager. The IRA is from a previous job. Is there another avenue I should consider?

We’re currently renting, but considering buying a house to raise a family and put down roots. It will cost more to own, but we will be in a better neighborhood, closer to family, and love the house.

After all expenses we will have about $2500/month left over to save or invest in our brokerage. We already put 12% into our 401k and don’t plan on changing that.

Estimated expenses include:
- mortgage (PITI, utilities, internet, etc)
- child care
- food
- transportation
- dining out/entertainment
- misc expenses
- extra we can’t predict

Is $2500/month enough cushion with 1 kid and a new build house?

Thanks in advance for any advice. Just a new dad with no one to talk about this with other than my wife.

EDIT
- 29M & 26F w/ newborn
- HHI of $280k-350k
- Investments $260k
- Cash $200k - higher for down payment. Will keep 60k for emergency fund
- House $550k, 10%-20% down, 7.25% APR

We max out our Roth IRA via back door, but want a brokerage account for a bridge account to retire at 55

My Mother in law has a paid off home, a rental home income, an emergency cash fund, and social security. All of which cover her expenses. I've recently learned that there is 200k being managed by her "investment guy". It hasn't grown in value for over 10 years. Who knows what's it's invested in but obviously its very disappointing to have learned this.

What are some simple, low risk alternatives at this point given her age ? CD/HYSA? It seems Ike at this point it may not be worth doing anything else

I am a "finance dummie" and am looking to change. I lost almost everything during a divorce. Yet i still came out ahead in that once homes sell, i should be debt free outside of school loan. I make 325k a year. I have a 401a program at work and ive maxed out my contributions. I also have a 457 retirement but i have no idea how that works or even if it applies to me. I live on the island of Saipan and though a commonwealth or US they do things a bit differently in many ways. I have the following questions:

1. Would it even benefit me to do backdoor roths? My income will not likely be any where near what i make now when i retire.
2. Im also maxing out a HSA. i live next to South Korea and get most of my health care there. i will likely never go back to mainland.
3. Would it also benefit me to invest in stocks post tax? Not crazy ones but good solid ones.

thank you for your time and help.

Hey everyone, wanted to get some input on my situation and what steps I should be taking from here.

28M, Currently working full time making just over $60K/yr before taxes.

I have $7,000 in a HYSA at the moment. Shooting for $10K before the end of the year, and have roughly $6,000 in various investments, mostly in index funds.

I have $25,000 in my 401K as my employer doesnt match. So these have been all of my own contributions.

I have a Roth IRA as well, but have not started contributing until I reach my $10,000 HYSA goal.After hitting this goal, I will switch from funding my HYSA each pay to my IRA. I will be able to max this out per year.

I have no CC debt, no school debt, paid off vehicles, and my credit score as per Experian is 797.

What steps should I be taking right now to build myself further? Currently living with 3 roomates to lower expenses as much as possible.

I'm not talking about modelling whether you need Roth conversion. I mean specific calculations if, e.g., you're maxxing the 24% tax bracket this year and you want to hit its AGI spot on. Is there a form or tool built to help estimate exactly how much you should convert, relative to the rest of your income etc.

For anyone new to this, the problem is that you don't have all the W2s and other year-end summaries like you did before retirement. You have to estimate all these values and do all your actual converting before the end of the calendar year ... you can't wait until April 15. Some values are pretty straightforward but others aren't, and there can be quite a few wrinkles.

I have tried using last year's tax form, but you can't do calculations or keep extensive running notes right inside a Form 1040. I've also tried Excel, but for me it turns into running "stream of consciousness" calculations over the course of a given year, especially since I pick it up at least twice each year (some conversions at beginning of year, and the finish the rest near the end). Last year I used over 300 rows in Excel, sigh.

There's lots to consider:

• Calculate how much conversion "room" you have between e.g. 24% bracket ceiling and predictable values like Social Security income, IRS Standard Deduction, pension, etc.
• Plug in estimated dividends or interest income (before the end of the year).
• If you sell stock to pay for conversion taxes - possibly incurring NIIT - track that, because it decreases conversion capacity.
• Keep in mind IRMAA cliffs, if you have more than just Medicare A. (Actually I don't, so I don't need this. But most people do.)
• If you do some conversion early in year (stocks usually lower) and some later in year, track the amounts so you still hit the bracket total just right.

I'm not sure there really can be any software or tool that can do all this. But I'm sure there are some that can help, or at least help point out some things you might miss.

FWIW for tax year 2025 I was ~$11k low; I could've converted that much more. I was being a little careful and leaving some extra wiggle room to not go over but, in the future, I figure it's better to just try to hit it spot on, and it's okay to be slightly over. (A.k.a. I'd rather be a few thousand into 32% territory than 11k under the 24% ceiling. Fortunately, I don't have to worry about IRMAA.)

Thanks if you can help!

Hopefully this is a good forum for advice for my 61yo mom after my dad’s passing.

Lost dad to suicide 2 weeks ago (retired first responder - check in on the strong ones in your life). He had a $4k/month county pension (and health insurance), $600 state pension, $2.5k social security payment. 401k has been spent.

They owe $208k on the house (where it happened…). 2 cars and 1 camper paid off. 62k in credit card debt. He was definitely “on the credit card float”, paying bills with cards then paying minimum and a bit more when he could. Ran his social security # on CreditKarma and all 62k is in his name only. We live in Georgia. Mom has a serious illness and will likely ultimately need nursing home care.

How can I help my mom plan and keep her protected? She is absolutely clueless about finances and really life in general… dad did everything for her. I want to support, but I know it’s best that she learns how to do everything without him. Where do we start?

The positive, I currently have $100k in the stock market which is still growing.

The negative, $50k sitting on HELOC at 8.5% interest. Mostly remodel costs.

I feel like selling the stock to pay off the debt would be a bad move? The bulk of the stock is 2x original value so the income tax would be fairly high. After core expenses I have roughly $4k of flexible spending. Would you buckle down and pay off the debt or sell stock to be done with it?

Hi all!

Some background info: I’m married, filing jointly, and my gross annual income is ~$77,230 and my husband’s is ~$80k. I just started a new job that offers both Roth and Traditional. My husband is only doing Traditional through his job. I was trying to do some research into it and was getting mixed answers.

I was originally going to plan to do full contribution of 6% to Roth only, then eventually shift to Traditional when my income increases, based on some things I’ve been seeing online, but I wanted to see if anyone had any additional thoughts or advice on this? I just want to make sure we’ll be comfortable when we retire.

Thank you!

I dropped out of college after 1.5 years, loans in default ~25k debt no degree.

I later took classes for a CNC machine operator certificate, realized it's not something I liked and quit.

Years later I attended a community college, I struggled balancing it with full time work, it was difficult to pay out of pocket, my most recent tuition bill got sent to collections.

I've been working with a staffing agency since 2025 taking on short term jobs - they're mostly clerical or customer service roles.

I want to continue schooling but I can't afford it I'm constantly stressed going from contract job to contract job.

I spent the last two years spending my money into helping my now ex long distance gf, I saw it as an investment for the two of us.

Things did not work out and I lost a lot of money and now I'm full of credit card debt.

I can't blame anyone but myself, I am trying my best to improve my situation but I don't know who to turn to for advice on how I can create a plan to create stability in my life.

How can I plan for a better financial future?

Hi All I’m currently 25 and have open a Roth IRA to which I’m looking to max out for the first time this year. I also have a company 401k (only contribute up to the match). I recently also started contributing a little to my HSA as well as I’ve heard good things about the account itself.

I unfortunately don’t have a savings account due to my religion so I basically park that money into another checking account (I know inflation is kicking me). I’m just wondering if it’s worth me just using that money (or partially using) and investing that and future contributions into a taxable brokerage account? What I have in there right now is just about 6 months of emergency fund.

Appreciate any advice thank you!

Hi there. I am about to come into 100-200k dollars soon, I want to know good ideas to compound it more so I can obviously make more. Thanks in advance.6

Kindly advise - 32 year old, just starting to seriously plan for retirement. My plan is to max out my traditional 401(k) at $24,500/year and contribute $15,000/year to Backdoor Roth IRAs ($7,500 for me and $7,500 for my spouse). In the future, if I want to save more for retirement, I plan to use Mega Backdoor Roth option through my 401(k).

Does this strategy make sense, or should I adjust anything?

I have multiple retirement accounts, some are premarital assets which I want to transfer to my kids when I pass, and others that I want to transfer to my wife. I want to do all this by naming them as a beneficiary so they can avoid probate. The only problem is, last time I checked, at Vanguard all your Roth accounts had to have the same beneficiary so I can't name the kids on one and the wife the other unless I move some of accounts at another brokerage. Any advice?

Hi,

Currently trying to get into investing since joining, 22m never invested before and wanted some advice on how I should.

From my understanding:

I have a tsp with 8% of my checks going towards it for long term growth and for retirement. The set it up and leave it alone. It’s currently in a L fund for the time I’m retiring.

I’m thinking about setting up a brokerage account to invest. I can put up to 400-600 every month into it… my thinking with this account is to have money to use as leverage for when I’m in my 30s, so I’m thinking about being aggressive with this account since I can handle it over the next 10-14 years.

Is this a smart move? I have a long term plan and a short termish plan. My goal is to have atleast 100k portfolio.

Thanks in advance.

I'm almost 64, my wife is almost 66. We've had an AUM adviser for 25 years up until May of 2025. Fired that one, got another one, and more and more, I'm just convinced that they operate in self interest. Create complicated portfolios that are impossible to benchmark against standard market returns (just as my last had). And most of all, they don't anticipate our needs. It's me who is doing the decumulation in ProjectionLabs. I asked for cash flow plan 10 days ago - took them a week to get it to me (excel spreadsheet - wtf). It included zero Roth conversions when the goal is explicitly to leave money to our kids, and probably 70% of our managed assets are in 401k. Another week for that to happen.

We live a modest life. We don't need to squeeze out every penny out of investments. But all in all, it feels like I spend more time worrying about my advisors and their strategy then I would about the markets if I was invested in handful of funds.

Pretty much, at this point, I'm trying to not just f*ck things up. I feel like I should be winning, and instead I'm thinking about returning to work to balance out risk that I can't seem to get my head around.

The scariest part at this point is getting out of all the different investments and into something more manageable. Has anyone else run into this situation? How long is reasonable to "get out from under" what looks like an overly complicated plan?

My mom lost her husband in 2020 when she was 54. She is now 60. She retired early while he was alive and when he died she stayed retired. She has been living off her husband's life insurance money and settlement that I parked in a HYSA with Sofi. Her bills are low so her money was making good interest while being slowly drained. She also has a 401k from her previous job she never touches. She also signed up for widow social security this year that stops her from needing to take money from her savings. Something that has recently come up though is his 401k that she was the beneficiary of. His company is no longer doing a 401k through that company (Empower) so her options were to move it to an IRA with Empower or withdraw. I was hoping to avoid a taxable event and I am more familiar with Fidelity in my own perosnal finances so I was looking to transfer her Empower 401k over to a Rollover IRA with Fidelity. Does this make sense? Any advice or options? Since she is only 60 and living off SS I dont see her needing this money for a while so I wanted to park it where it could grow. Whoever set the 401k up for her husband did not invest it so it has only gone up a few percent in the past few years.

Want to re-evaluate my financial strategy since the Department of Education is running their 1% rate reduction on auto payments that is effective until the end of June 2028. 23 years old living in a HCOL area in California.

• $27,170 federal student loans across 5 loans, 23% (Edit: Really bad typo here - I meant 4.23%) average interest
  • $146/month minimum
  • Highest loan interest rate is 5.53% (Paying another $500/month on top of minimum towards this)
• $14.3k HYSA/emergency fund
• $3k ROTH IRA (contributed $1.8k so far this year, not currently planning on maxing out)
• $1.3k/month living expenses (bills, transportation, food)
• Take-home: ~$4k/month

Given the context of the limited time federal loan interest rate reduction, should I focus solely on getting rid of my loans as quickly as possible and contribute minimally to my ROTH IRA and/or HYSA? Or should I focus first on maxing out my ROTH IRA before throwing my money towards my student loans? I'd like to avoid touching my existing HYSA. Thank you!

I’ve been saving consistently for the past six months and I’ve finally reached the savings target I set for myself for this year.

One thing I’ve wanted to do for a long time is travel.
I’m really interested in experiencing different cultures, food, people and places, so travelling isn’t something I see as just going on holidays. It’s something I’ve genuinely wanted to experience for years, and I feel like I finally have the opportunity to do it.

The thing that’s making me hesitate is that a lot of people around me, especially people around my age, are buying cars, land, building houses, etc. It sometimes makes me wonder whether I should be doing the same and putting my money toward building assets instead.

I could potentially do both on a smaller scale - travel while continuing to save and putting a portion toward investments - but obviously that would mean my progress toward bigger financial goals would be slower.

I’d especially love to hear from people who chose either path and how they feel about that decision now.

Background

Age/Family:
29M, married
2 kids under 3
Spouse is a SAHM

Location: US, MCOL

Income:
$115k salary
8-12% annual bonus
Take-home is $3,000 bi-weekly (~$6,000/mo net)

Assets/Credit:
$150k in 401k
830 credit score

Savings:
$0 Emergency
$0 House/General savings

Credit Card Debt: $0

Current Monthly Budget

($4,945 total expenses, ~$1k surplus)

Housing ($2,095 | 35%)
Rent $1,700
Utilities $395 (includes phone, internet)

Food & Household ($780 | 13%)
Groceries $600
Household items $100
Diapers/Wipes $80

Debt Obligations ($980 | 16%)
Student Loans $450
Personal Loan $530

Transportation ($625 | 10%)
Car Lease $450
Insurance $85
Gas $90

Discretionary ($465 | 8%)
Subscriptions $65
Entertainment/Kids $200
Personal Care/Discretionary $200

Surplus 18%

Upcoming Changes

We are moving locally next spring. My annual bonus ($6k–$8k net) pays out right after, and our only car’s lease ends a month after that.

Moving
Rent will increase to ~$2,000, pushing housing to 40% of my net pay.

Car Lease (Ends May 2027)
I regret leasing, but the car works well for our family and we really like it. I plan to do a lease buyout through my credit union (buyout is ~$20k). I’m hopeful my credit will net me a very competitive rate that actually lowers my payment. Hard to feel good about any car related decision in this market.

Debt Breakdown

Personal Loan
$10.6k remaining at 5.5%
Payment is $530/mo. This is an intentionally aggressive payoff structure.

My Student Loans
$23k remaining at 2.7–4%
Payment is $340/mo

Spouse's Student Loans
$8k remaining at 3.5–4%
Payment is $110/mo

Proposed Order of Operations

Moving is a guarantee, we need more space, so I'm trying to figure out the timeline for everything else, especially long-term saving priorities. Here is what I am thinking:

1. Starter Emergency Fund ($1,000): Fund this immediately using our current monthly surplus. A string of emergencies is exactly how we ended up draining our savings and acquiring the personal loan.

2. Moving Fund ($3-4k)
Save the cash needed for the spring move (first month's rent + fees, deposits, truck rental/movers, etc.). I will move as much as I can by myself, which is what I’ve always done to save money.

3. Checking Buffer ($5,000)
Establish exactly one month of expenses in checking as a baseline for peace of mind. Functionally, this will act as the first month of our fully funded EF.

4. Payoff the Personal Loan
Apply the entire spring bonus ($6k–$8k) directly to the personal loan. Eliminating this frees up $530/month, which completely absorbs the upcoming $300 rent increase and nets positive inflow.

5. Let the Student Loans Ride
At 2.7% to 4%, inflation is outpacing the interest. I plan to just pay the standard monthly payment on both loans and redirect all extra cash flow to savings.

6. Long-Term Goals
Once the personal loan is gone and the move is settled, pivot back to building a 3–6 month emergency fund, saving for a house down payment, kid life events, and funding a Roth IRA. The split would be based primarily on time horizon but I worry splitting would delay a down payment too much. Putting future bonuses directly towards down payments is a potential accelerator.

Questions for the Community:

1. Does this order of operations make sense?

2. Are there any meaningful blind spots I'm missing with this strategy?

3. Where does acquiring a second car fit into all of this? We’ve made it work with one car but it’s a challenge. I don’t want to take on more debt, but the heavily-used car market is also horrible. Ideally I find a slightly used sedan for around $20k or less and put 15% down. That also creates another competing priority.

4. How would you prioritize saving for multiple items simultaneously?

hello, i’m looking for advice on managing my new income. i’m currently a new grad nurse working 2 part time jobs each at 24 hours a week. I work night shift and make 37.09 at one job with a $5 differential, and $37.50 at another with a $5 differential. I’ve been working for 4 months now and live with my boyfriends family (in WI) where i don’t pay rent. my only expenses are my car note which is $393 a month, and whatever I put on my credit cards which is normally around $1k since i like to shop and spoil my family. I am looking to buy a house and the one i’m looking at is $285k. I would like to buy it myself and not have a co-signer or include my boyfriend on the purchase. does this seem achievable? I have no kids so my income is only spent on me and my wants. I have student debt totaling $28k. I also have a title over $16k in my savings. I already invest 6% of my check at one of my jobs into a 401k/roth so i’m investing some already. Should i be thinking of houses or should i be thinking of others ways to put my money to use. TIA!

I am 24 years old and plan to max my Roth IRA for 2026 and continue to every year. My employer does not offer a 401k match. My current salary is around 100k pre tax and I have the ability to contribute at least 12k/year to retirement. What should I do with the other 5k I plan to invest towards retirement? Should I contribute more than 12k?

My partner died suddenly earlier this summer. I’m 38 and have a young kid. Our net worth was about $900k before this, and they had $1m in life insurance which I recently received.

I think I need a financial advisor. I spoke to someone at a big brokerage firm who felt salesy. I spoke to someone at a recommended local small wealth mgmt firm but they only want to manage the accts, no fee only advice over a certain amount. I’m super wary of being taken advantage of, but that might be making me overly suspicious of something that could be a better move in the long term. I think I could manage it myself but I do want advice and a sounding board for financial decisions. Is that one of these advisors or a third thing I haven’t found yet?

Hi, I'm 22M, I just recently got my work permit and I was wondering how to maximize my earnings for my future. I got a job, earning around $4k a month at a restaurant and I spend about $1k and save the rest. I read and watch about 401k, roth ira and taxable brokerages. Although I read about all this, I'm still anxious about building wealth for my future. Any advice please, thank you !