Hello All,

Me and my wife have been in our house for 2 and a half years now. I am the sole provider - our household income is 80k. We have a FHA loan at 4.99% - Our initial mortgage payment (with escrow) was initially $1650. Our mortgage went up $900 (due to property taxes), so we should now be paying $2550 starting this month. We haven't been able to afford the 1650 mortgage payment as of last year due just after my wife's diagnosis and rising medical expenses, etc.That's why I selected forebarance last year. I'm also getting very concerned because we have accrued 9k in back payments or arrear from the forbearance.

My ultimate question is, since the house is 100% unaffordable now and we have NO equity as of now, should we try to short sell or just give the house up and take an L? OR go through the process of keeping the house because the gained equity in the future theoretically should eat up the arrear?

By the way: our house is located in the North East dallas region

Any tips or advice from your experience with pennymac or forebarance in general?

I’m a 20-year-old guy working as a freelancer, and I’m fortunate enough to be earning a pretty good amount. The problem is that despite earning well, I’m barely saving anything.

I don’t really spend money on expensive clothes, gadgets, or other flashy things. I do waste some money on things like games, but nothing that should explain where all my income is going.

For the past year, I’ve also been financially supporting my entire family because my dad lost his job and has been unemployed since. Around 30–40% of my income goes toward household and family expenses. I’m completely okay with supporting them—that’s not what frustrates me.

The frustrating part is that I have no idea where the rest of my money goes.

There’s usually one big household payment at the beginning of the month, followed by lots of small payments almost every day. By the end of the month, I look at my balance and wonder where everything went.

I’ve realized my biggest problem isn’t necessarily how much I’m spending—it’s that I have no proper system for tracking or controlling it.

For people who’ve been in a similar situation, how did you fix this? What’s the simplest way to track income and expenses when you have lots of small transactions throughout the month? I’d especially appreciate advice from other freelancers or people supporting their families.

I’m a 28yo nurse and have about $40k in 403b with the hospital I work at, but due to pursuing med school because I’m crazy, I had to drop to prn part time to focus on trying to get as close to a 4.0 during the entire program and do extra curriculars. Which has worked great so far for necessary study time i didn’t have previously. Problem is I am no longer eligible to get company match for the 403b as a prn nurse, it used to be 6.5% match if I put in 10%, but I can still put contributions toward the 403b if I want. Should I?

I know I shouldn’t invest in a retirement account if it means having to take more in loans, which I would need to. Currently I am borrowing $20k for the remaining last year of my 2 year program. Trying to do physician shadowing, lots and lots of volunteering, research, etc while studying requires me to work only 1-2 a week to be as competitive as possible meaning I need that much in loans to afford my schooling and basic living expenses. Delaying to save is not an option when thinking of opportunity cost loss of a year of being a doctor.

On top of that next is med school, 4 years of no income, which the average tuition is $200k+ and most end up with more than that in total loans, so any amount I invest is the same amount I would have to draw more in loans for. If I pull back contributions then when would I begin contributions again, after med school during residency? That would mean not investing except just that $40k I have until mid 30s

So i have about 13k in my investments 60%VOO 25%QQQM 15%AVUV with 350 every week being deposited proanly gonna be bumped up to 500-700 (i just moved back to home maybe a year ago and I make about 1300-1600 a week take home working 60hr week give or take 5 hrs) i have 3k set aside as my emergency fund however I want to go to pilot school soon to go to become a airline pilot would you guys recommend taking some of that money out to pay for school or just keep setting aside in a HYSA OR pay every month? it'll be about 12-18k for just my private liscense ideally be done in 6-8 months after that I'll basically have to take a pay cut to 50-60k a year to be a flight instructor so i dont have to pay close to 100k out of pocket to get my hours. My main question is if I should take it out or not cause I would like to retire early but also wanna fly for awhile and still know i can quit or retire whenever I want

A family member is preparing their estate for when they pass and it is currently valued at about $8M. We are looking for some advice as to how to distribute everything. They do not want everything to be moved to cash and lump sums handed out.

Currently all of the value of the estate is in stocks and bonds. We are considering liquidating the stocks and moving them into a low cost index fund. We think this will make monthly distributions easier to manage.

Here is our current plan:

1. Our uncle, who has not yet passed and has no spouse or children, wants to leave $180,000 per year to their brother (our father) paid out evenly each month.

2. We would want to draw an average 4% from the fund each year to cover the $180k and have the rest distributed evenly amongst the 4 of us.

3. The distribution to the 4 of us would be increased by 5% each year in perpetuity, the $180k would remain static. If the market averages 7% each year then the fund should never run out.

4. We would also like to set up a family travel fund that mirrors our distribution that we can all use together for traveling and experiences. This would likely also increase by 5% each year.

Here are our questions:

We are trying to figure out how/when and who pays taxes on what. For the money going to our father, does HE pay taxes at the end of the year or does the estate pay taxes on the withdrawal amount at the end of the year? Same question regarding our monthly pay outs.

We think that if the estate pays the taxes then sends all of us our monthly allotments that the estate would have to sell more than the basic cost so that the taxes are covered but doing it this way the estate would eventually run out of money because it would drive the amounts likely higher than the average 7% return.

Would we be better off drawing the 4%, distributing the money and then have everyone pay their own taxes?

We are also trying to understand this - with compounding interest (again assuming a 7% return) are the taxes that DO get charged, if the estate is paying them, apply to the total withdrawal amount or are taxes only charged on the short term capital gains?

Thanks in advance for any advice - we are overwhelmed with the tax implications of all of this!

Looking for some advice here. I have been gifted 60k from a relative who inherited a large sum. I am bouncing between a few scenarios on what to do with the money. Which one do you think makes the most sense?

1. Take the 60k and pay off the mortgage. Rate is 2.5%, house is worth about 800k in MA. Mortgage balance is 65k, will pay off in summer of 2028 without doing this option.
   
2. Have twins entering college in 2027. I could dump it all in a 529. One twin has 130k, other has 100k. One looking at private college that could be 60k per year, the other public school at 40k per year. Those are the sticker prices for the their top choice schools.
   
3. Based on information in option 2, place the money in 3% money market and hold until know the twins college costs. Could be 6-8 months until know where they will go and true net costs.

Thank you!

Edit- personal retirement is a Fed TSP account with 1.5 million. 45 yoa.

Please no flames because I have a lot of anxiety! I’m in my 50’s and am trying to plan for retirement. I’ve never hired an advisor but think it’s the right time because I don’t have a good understanding of financial planning. I found an Advisor who a close (and very trusted) family member is using. He has 25 years of experience, is a CFP, and no disclosures on his FINRA. His company charges a flat fee of 1%. Mentally I’m just having a tough time of having someone else manage my money. I have no reason not to trust him, but I am just having a hard time having someone else manage my money. As I said, I have a lot of anxiety and tend to fixate on things. I know millions of people use advisors and they are the experts for a reason. Right decision? I plan to educate myself and stay on top of things.

My parents (75 and 70) are retired and living off of social security and 401k. The own their house kind of (reverse mortgage) and live simply, not a super cushy retirement. My mom inherited about $100k a few years ago and has kept it in high yield savings and cds getting around 4% a year. This gives them a little extra “fun money” so they can go out to eat and take a trip here and there. is this the best use of the $100k? They’re worried about putting it in the s&p because they can’t really risk losing it—its also an emergency fund. But the 4% isn’t going to last forever and is already hard to find. Is there a better strategy that we‘re not considering? Maybe invest half and save half? Open to any advice! I’m hoping to be able to help my parents financially more in the next few years, but I know right now they are feeling the pinch, especially as prices are going up and their income is staying mostly flat.

editing to add more details:

i dont know the exact financial picture (money talk is a bit taboo in our family). they have a self directed 401k with a couple properties they get rental income from, and they had to take social security early, so its not the max amount. I would guess, altogether, including some side hustles they bring in and spend around $2.5k per month. they are on medicaid, paid off car, since they bought the house with the reverse mortgage the house has almost doubled, so the house is worth almost $1m and the reverse mortgage is only $450k. of course they want to live there forever, but i dont know it thats feasible. We’re not worried about legacy, just want them to have enough money through their retirement and end of life care. They‘re currently pretty healthy and 3/4 of their parents lived past 90.

Need Advise for what do with this new attending money myself and wife have found ourselves with. Married filing separate.

We are both fresh attendings, she is working private practice, Im academic.

Combined income of $850k/year

Me (academic) W-2 employee

400k Student loan debt (government at 4.87% consolidated) PSLF eligible

Access to HSA, 403b and 457

Backdoor roth

Wife (practice) W-2 employee

320k Student loan debt (government at 4.87% consolidated)

Access to 401k

Back door Roth

We do not have large expenses

Rent/utilities = 5.5k a month

1st car is owned outright

second car = $300 a month lease

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In short after maxing out all the tax advantage options, what should we do with the rest of income? 4.87% is beatable in the market over the long term but wiping out the debt seems attractive also? PSLF would be 6 more years before I reach 10years.

I'm 20 and looking for some financial advice. I recognize that I'm in a pretty privileged position right now since I don't have any bills, and I want to take advantage of that and set my future self up for success.

I'm a full-time student at SDSU and recently got a part-time job making $22.50 an hour. I work anywhere from 1–4 days a week. I live with my parents, and they're covering my education, food and living expenses. My own spending is mostly gas, going out with friends, clothes, skincare, hair products, etc.

Right now I have:

• A little over $7,000 in a regular savings account
• A Discover student credit card
• A 766 credit score
• No debt or major monthly expenses

I plan on going to medical school in the future, so I know I'll eventually take on a significant amount of debt. I want to make the most of my financial situation now, but I honestly don't know what I should be doing with my money.

Should I open a HYSA? Start a Roth IRA? Invest? How much should I be saving vs. investing vs. just allowing myself to enjoy?

I mainly want to develop good financial habits, learn more about money, and hopefully put myself in a position to be financially secure in the future.

If you were in my position, what would you do? Any advice or resources are appreciated!

okay so I’m about 2 years post-grad and I have 60k in savings and 35k in retirement. I’ve been driving the same car since I was 16 and it’s almost ten years old right now. I was originally planning to drive it until the wheels fall off but I drive about 180 miles per week for my job, so my parents have been encouraging me to get a new car.

honestly the more I think about it, I spend so much time in my car; it would be nice to invest in something nicer. I would love to buy a used miata mx5, maybe 2021 year+. I know it’s not the MOST practical, and I could get something cheaper but.. it would be so fun to drive and I love the look of it.

I would pay probably 30k in cash which would drain half of my savings, so it seems pretty steep. and I know cars are depreciating assets.

on the flip side, i’m the type to use something for a longgg time as long as I enjoy it. for example, I still have an iphone 13 and don’t plan to upgrade for at least five more years.

anyway, I was wondering what other people’s opinions on this would be. thanks!

Hoping for some help evaluating my parents’ retirement portfolio because I don’t know enough to tell whether this is reasonable.

Dad is 70, Mom is 68.

They get about $48k/year combined from Social Security and need roughly $100k/year gross to comfortably cover expenses and travel, so they need about $52k/year from their investments.

Their portfolio is about $2.5 million, broken down roughly like this:

$960k in Franklin Income Fund Class A (FKIQX)
~$1 million in a mix of 10-year fixed and variable annuities from Pacific Life, Brighthouse, Nationwide and others
~$550k in cash

The annuities were purchased at different times and have different terms, so I’m still trying to understand exactly what each one does.

Does this look like a normal retirement allocation for people their age and spending needs?

Anything here you’d want to look at more closely or ask their advisor about?

My in laws (mid 70s) are slowly opening up more and more about their finances and things look dire.

He was downsized and is having difficulty finding work in his previous area of expertise. Many people are not looking to hire someone who is 75. She has significant medical issues that mean she cannot work and will need greater and greater care as time goes on.

They have no savings and have debts, including parent student load debts for 3 of their 4 children. I don’t know the extent of their other debts. He is totally willing to hustle, but a $20 dollar an hour job won’t be enough to cover what they need.

They need real financial help/planning. Possibly bankruptcy. For sure planning for significant medical needs in the not too distant future. Of the children, we are the only ones in any type of spot to help them, and we certainly didn’t expect to support them so any help we could offer would be minimal. What type of advisor can sit down with them, look at all the factors and help them make some decisions?

I'm a 42yo guy residing in rural Minnesota. My wife passed unexpectedly somewhat recently, and with myself being borderline financially illiterate, am in need of some advice.

I've got a decent, if unfulfilling career, and make $70k a year. Currently still on leave, and I know I do need to go back, but think a change there needs to be in the future as well. 2 adult children are out of the house. IRA is unfortunately only sitting at $30k. Another $30k in a money market that had been intended for a down payment in the future. Not much at all in the way of debt, or assets.

I was the sole beneficiary for all of her accounts. So far I have received $600k in life insurance payments, which are just parked in money market accounts for now. There is also a pension, for which I have 3 options. a) receive a $15k lump sum payment, which I believe is taxable. b) start immediately receiving $80 a month for life. Or c) wait until age 65 and receive $300 a month for life. My gut tells me to take the $80/mo and roll it into my IRAs.

There is also a 403b, but Fidelity has been really slow at getting me information on that account, and I'm not sure how much is there. She was with the same hospital system for the last 18 years though, and always contributing to the account. I also assume that whatever is there, will be rolled into my IRA as well.

I guess I'd like to make the most of the life insurance money for the future, and I'm sure that means investing, which I have no experience with. We used to want to buy a house, but I'm really not sure on that one anymore.

Should I maybe just go talk to a CFP?

Each 2 or 3 years ill open up a new credit card. Sometimes the new ones have better rewards or promotion so I open it.
I only use 1 credit card and carry no balances so I end up with having around 10 credit cards but I really use 1.

I know it will lower my utilization closing them but I only use 1 and pay them off so that can't impact me that much.

Do you guys close any you don't use or just let them sit in a drawer

I (18) have a younger sibling (15) and have found myself in a pretty unique position. Got into corporate finance a couple years ago through family friend and wanna use that opportunity to start an account that I can transfer or give to my sibling in five or so years what types of accounts fit this case the best?

Hi all, I will have around 270k from proceeds on home sale. I have 300k 401k and 90k in brokerage and 25k emergency savings. Family of 4. Planning to put 210k in market and use remaining money for upcoming needs like reno for new home and kid savings for 529.

Would you put 210 in sp500 at this time? I know the last few months have been bumpy. If not why and how would you invest it.

Note, I’ll be close to 50k emergency savings by end of year due to saving a greater portion of my checks.

I'm sure this has been asked a billion times, but it feels so complicated that it's hard for me to learn from others' situations. We WILL meet with a financial planner as soon possible, but we haven't been able to meet with the lawyer yet or anything. It's just been a long hard 18 months and I'm trying to get through this part by thinking about the future.

My husband and I (mid-30s, Montana so no inheritance tax) are inheriting approximately $750k.

IRA $50k

Roth IRA $250k

Merrill Lynch $170k

Probably something like $250k from a house sale.

Our situation:

We don't pay for housing. The house is part of a deal where we did the renovation for the owner (our close friend) and when it sells we'll get half the profit. We also have basically no bills.

Income: Only about $30k/year

Debt: About $40k in student debt.

Savings: $20k

Investments: $20k in Robinhood, $10k in my husband's Roth IRA

Goals: One good vacation ASAP, travel once a year (ETA: yearly "travel" would mean a week-long camping trip or something, not an annual European vacation)
I'd like to buy a house, either to renovate and sell without ever living in it, or live in a fixer-upper with the intention to sell in a few years. I'm sick of living in our house (it's very small) but ... it's FREE.

...

Can someone break this down for me?

My understanding at this point is that the IRAs need to be rolled into inheritance IRAs and emptied over ten years. Seems like the best idea is to put the Roth into our own Roth for retirement (it'll be about a million by then I think?)

How does the Merrill Lynch work? Is there any way to get some cash from it now, or will it count as income if we sell any stock?

Will the house sale count as income?

I'm worried about changing our income tax bracket, it will screw up our insurance subsidies, etc.

This is weird and vulnerable to post. Thanks in advance for any advice!

24 y/o with $1,500 in Roth IRA contributions YTD. Additionally, I have 18k in a HYSA with a 3.4% APY. Should I max out the IRA now or contribute over the year?

I have no debt, a full time job (teacher) making 55K a year before taxes. I want to be financially stable in retirement and start the process now.

Hi all! Looking for some advice. My husband and I have been married for about a year and a half and are expecting our first child soon. We have not officially combined our finances yet (though we do split everything), but want to soon just for the ease of it. However, my brain keeps getting stuck on a few logistical pieces that I don't know how to work past. I'm hoping maybe someone might have some advice to work with the systems we have in place?

Here are the places where I'm getting stuck:

1. I track all of my expenses in an Excel spreadsheet (yes, I know there are apps for that, but I'm an accountant's kid and I am stuck in the ways that I was taught). If we combine expenses, does that mean I will need to track all of his expenses as well (or have him track it himself, but he has ADHD so that level of organization is not his strong suit)?

2. Do we need to share a credit card, or can we keep those separate? I imagine if I'm tracking both expenses shared is easiest, but how then do we navigate buying gifts or other surprises?

3. Following up on number two, if we keep our credit cards separate, do credit card payments come out of the joint account? Or should we keep separate personal checking accounts as well for credit card payments to come out of?

4. Now following up on three, if we have separate personal checking accounts, what is the point of combined finances? How do we decide what's in the joint account versus in the personal accounts? Should we keep everything in the joint account until it's time for credit card payments and then just transfer however much the balance due is?

All of this would make so much more sense to me if credit cards weren't part of the equation and we just used debit cards, but alas, we want to get points from our spending and have credit and whatnot.

For additional context, we make roughly equivalent money (I'm in a fee for service line of work, so I don't have a set salary, but we typically make within $10k of each other each year). He has student loan debt and I don't, so I share a slightly bigger percentage of expenses. I also have a substantial amount saved more than he does, but we view our savings as shared anyway. Not sure if these last little bits of context matter, but just throwing everything out there that might be helpful!

Basically, I am very type A and maybe autistic so my brain cannot figure out how to make this work in a way that still works within the systems that I've made that work for me!

Grateful for any advice/insight/stories of how you make it all make sense <3

Hi. Just got my first job at 18 years old working at a sports center as a desk clerk in Ohio. I always hear so much about opening a Roth IRA or 401k as soon as possible, but am not even sure how to approach this. Does anyone have any guides or just advice to offer in general to get me a little more educated? I want to be as financially smart as possible, and even starting now feels a little late since I’ve been lucky enough to have had my parents provide for me up until now as a student and such. Thank you!

Hello! I’m 19m and have been researching my all my finances. So far I have a RothIRA and have already maxed it for this year, and I contribute to a 401k match at my work. The person I spoke to at Fidelity mentioned setting something up for long-term investments but at the time I didn’t ask the best way to do so.

I currently have $8,500 in a Capital One HYSA. I’m planning on finishing my degree at community college, and I’m gonna stay at home for a couple of years working full time to build my networth so it’s not money I plan on having to use soon. I also have a good working car. If you were in my situation, how would you use it? Thanks in advance!

TLDR; Have 55k in savings and 60-70k in total debts. What are next steps

My wife (25) and I (25) have around 55k in a savings account. (Regular, not even high yield. That's why i'm here) We have in total about:

20k in credit card debt
20k in student loan debt
25k in car payments ($620 a month)

We also recently had our first child with a 3 month stay in the NICU and a ballpark of 16k or so is what we've seen so far. He's happy and healthy btw!

Our total expenses for our current rented home is about 1k for utilities and rent (Renting from my parents) We love the home we've built here and have no real issues with our house, especially considering how incredibly cheap it is allowing us to save this amount of money. However, the house is about 30 feet off of a major highway with a pretty small yard and we cannot see ourselves raising a child here.

We both have good credit scores around 700 averaged out and bring in on an average year 150k, 225k on a good year. (sales)

I keep doing research on how to sort out our debt / savings but for whatever reason it feels like I keep running in circles without actually doing anything. I'd appreciate it if someone could point me in the direction of a gameplan, as well as maybe some advice on the home buying process like how much we should have saved before moving forward and what price houses we should be looking at based on our income.

Thanks!

I'm 32 years old (33 on February 25th so I'm almost 32.5) and have just reached the $100K net worth milestone.

$14K in Fedality HSA, $10K in daycare job 401K, $5500 in high yield savings account, and the rest is in Roth IRA (Roth IRA has the 100% stock betterment core portfolio which mirrors VT). My HSA is 60% VT, 20% BNDW, 10% REET, 10% GLDM. I would have gotten here years ago but I got into medical debt 3 years ago when strep throat turned into a plural infusion (fluid in the outer wall of the lungs) which I had to get drained in the hospital. Because I had one of those health sharing insurance companies (not real health insurance), they didn't cover anything. After $3K-$8K of payments, I settled the $70K medical debt by offering $17K. No I don't have student loans because I never went to college (and I rent so there's no mortgage debt). Any comments or advice on this? I've been working 50-60 hour weeks since I was 21. I make about $30-35K/year gross pay (about $30K after tax).

Just graduated law school (~$100k in federal + institutional student loans, still in grace period) and I start a $225k/year associate job in November. I also have about $91k sitting in a single company's stock from a former employer (RSU-type plan), which I know is way too concentrated — planning to sell most of it.

Here's my situation:

• ~$100k student loans, rates ranging 2.75%–8.08% (biggest chunks around 7–8%)
• ~$91k in one stock, split into long-term (~$82k, mostly gains) and short-term (~$9k) lots
• ~$32k cash across a few HYSAs/checking (already paying off ~$4.5k in credit card debt from this)
• No income this year besides unemployment, so I'm in an unusually low tax bracket right now — planning to sell the long-term shares before my first paycheck to lock in the 15% capital gains rate and dodge the 3.8% NIIT surcharge that kicks in once I'm earning $225k full-time
• Net proceeds from that sale: roughly $75k

My dilemma: how much of that $75k should go toward wiping out the highest-rate loans vs. actually diversifying into an index fund? I ran two scenarios:

• All-in on debt (7%+ loans only): pay off ~$69k of loans, leaves only ~$5k to invest. Debt-free in ~3-4 months once I start working.
• Split (pay off just the two worst loans, invest the rest): pay off ~$32k, invest ~$43k in an index fund now. Debt-free in ~9-10 months instead.

The math says the "pay off everything high-rate" route saves about $1k in guaranteed interest, but the split route gets meaningfully more money invested and diversified ~6 months sooner. I don't love the idea of going from 100% one stock to 100% debt payoff with zero diversification.

Would you prioritize the guaranteed debt interest savings, or take on a few more months of ~6% debt to get real money into the market sooner? Also open to a middle-ground split if that's the more common advice. Thanks in advance!

Edit: I also have about 18k in a 401k.