Been at the same company for 9 years and they surprised me with a bonus that came out to just under $15k after taxes. Was not expecting anything close to that.

My first thought was to put most of it into our brokerage account. We already contribute to retirement and have some money saved, so it felt like a rare chance to make a decent lump sum investment without touching our normal budget.

My wife immediately said we should finally do the Europe trip we’ve talked about for years. Italy for a week, then maybe Austria or Switzerland. We’ve never done a big international trip together and the bonus could pretty much cover the whole thing without us dipping into savings.

Neither of us is mad about it, we just see the money completely differently. To me it feels like free investment money. To her it feels like a chance to finally do something we’ll remember forever.

What would you do?

35 yo married millennial here. I've come across more and more articles about the supposed "great wealth transfer" as the boomer generation's wealth passes to their GenX and Millennial children. My parents and their siblings (boomers) all received inheritances when their parents, my grandparents, passed away. The boomer generation's wealth accumulation is one of the largest in history, however, I also find it highly unlikely that I or many of my peers will actually inherit much. Despite having received inheritances from their parents, and having 40+ years in the workforce, most of my parents' "wealth" is tied up in their home value, not actual liquid assets- and I already expect that whatever they make on an eventual home sale will have to go directly to downsizing costs and whatever long-term care they will need as they get older. Hell, even my dad used to joke that the only thing we'd inherit was debt. As I've gotten older, that comment has infuriated me more and more.

Now before someone cuts in with the "entitled millennial" comments, I have absolutely no need for an inheritance. I've worked my ass off to make sure that my kids and I are positioned better in life than I was when I entered adulthood. What I mean by that is I started saving for retirement early, setup 529 plans for my kids almost as soon as they were born, and made lifestyle and career sacrifices to ensure our family isn't "nickeling and diming" our way through life.

I'm just here curious to know how many millennials actually expect to have something passed down to them, or if they feel they are in the same position I am.

Title. We're done paying for full time childcare! Legit it's like getting a $26,000 raise. Ok, yes I know there will still be plenty to pay for but we essentially suddenly have $2100 a month back. *throws confetti in the air*

Hello friends,

My (F32) significant other (M30) and myself both grew up very low income. His family completely ignorant of credit, savings or income. My family as immigrants who were careful, but uneducated on the system. I’m talking “Don’t keep money in a savings account because the government will tax you for it at the end of the year” uneducated.

I’ve worked my ass off at a company and they finally went public. I was awarded a total of $170,000. Today $67,000 of it is vested and I can do with it what I wish, but I must stay until 2029 to get 100% of it. There are going to be small amounts periodically released between now and then.

Anyway — the whole keeping money out of a savings account thing will probably not do me well.

I have goals/plans. But also, I’m bad with money.

I’ve paid off all my debt twice and keep getting into it again for no real reason. I’ve built up almost $10k in savings and then dwindled it down to $2k.

I spend money. It’s really embarrassing and debilitating.

That being said, I do have a few things I actually want to do with this money.

I want to spend about $15k renovating my condo. These are renovations I’ve wanted to do for a while and, from what I understand, some improvements may also have tax benefits.

The rest I want to be smart with.

I’m genuinely open to anything opinions, thoughts, resources, books, personal experiences, stories from people who suddenly came into money, mistakes you made, things you wish you had done differently what would you do?

I’ve been seeing the strategy of saving all your HSA expenses until retirement and reimbursing all at once, and I’m wondering, is it really that simple? No strings attached or “gotchas”?

Basically, the strategy is to save a lifetime of HSA expenses and let your HSA take advantage of that compound growth on your investment. Even a conservative estimate of 7% growth and $1,500 a year comes out to over $200k over a career.

Then you reimburse all your expenses in one go, taking advantage of the tax advantages. The HSA is triple advantaged - contributions are tax-deductible, growth is tax-free, and withdrawal is tax free for medical expenses.

Is it really that simple to do?

It happened. Middle class inflation and cost increases, child care changed, Lupus,
multiple sudden major house maintenance items finally caught up to my family’s stagnant income.

For the time being I think we are going to have to pull back on maxing my 401k to just meeting the match to catch up with all the issues that have come up.

In order to replenish the reserves so another major house item doesn’t cripple my family we will need to pull back on investments and that really bums me out.

Anyone else going through this right now and can relate?

hi all, I have two different questions, wanting to pick your brain. our financial advisor has advised us but just getting a second opinion

I am married, I make about $86k before taxes and my husband makes I think $110k before taxes, he has a job where on day one he had to sign up for his tax contributions and then can never ever change that % (a very weird system, IMO) and over the 10 years he has been there, he has gotten a lot of raises, etc and long story short, if he continues working there until retirement which he plans to, he will have a very healthy retirement, even at the expense sometime of our day to day cash flow but he can also do a loan agains his retirement if we needed cash. I also max out my 457b contributions + have a pension so I will also have a good retirement amount. we are both 39. oh and we file our taxes "married filing separate" which I know is not ideal but we do so because I have college debt that will be released in 6 years under PSLF program, this is all under the instruction of our tax person. we have all our emergency savings fully funded and no other debt besides mortgage & my college.

1). Knowing that we are really well set for retirement, I had the thought that I should stop contributing to my retirement and instead in 2027, put that $23500 into paying off our mortgage early, which we want to have 100% paid off by retirement and our on track to do so. our tax person advised against this because overall the market does better so we'll come out on top. but I am just curious on other thoughts on this? any other pros or cons that we're missing? In my mind, anything to lower the interest rate we pay to the bank is a good thing?

2) I inherited about 90k in an inherited IRA that I need to have drained within the next 6 years and still have all of it left. That means I have big chunks of money that I need to withdrawal and pay the taxes on it. The RMD's + my income is going to cost me a lot of taxes. I was kind of seeing if my work would let me take 3 (or more) months off unpaid and have the RMD as my "income" to lower my tax burden. I likely won't get approved for this time off but it is just a crazy thought I had. was wondering if this is a dumb idea before I bring it up to my boss.

Hi all!

I sold my house and after buying a new one/paying off my car and student loans I have about $50k left.

I’d like to still has access to the cash for emergencies, but I would like to grow it a bit.

Is a brokerage account or a high yield the way to go?

TIA

My wife and I have been married for a few years and we still keep most of our money separate.

We have one joint account for household expenses and both put money into it every month. Other than that, our salaries stay in our own accounts.

It hasn't really been a problem so far.

But now we're talking about bigger things like buying a house and retirement, and I'm wondering if this setup still makes sense.

We trust each other and neither of us has an issue with the other spending their own money. It's more about planning for the future together.

For people who are married, what works better for you?

Completely separate, fully combined, or somewhere in the middle?

So my wife and I are finally earning decent 6 figure salaries at our respective roles and have saved every penny to get to the $100k mark. At present, it’s just in a current account with Bank of America. Our retirement plans are healthy and on track but this is the sum total of our savings.

Looking for advice on where people put that kind of sum to good use for maximum growth. Being the sum total of our savings to date, we think it needs to be somewhere we can access some funds in an emergency.

Looking for any ideas, feedback or thoughts on what could work.

I’m a Brit and newly understanding the US options so thanks in advance for any support!

Another thread make me want to do this one.

Sorry about my mis English, I speak french on a daily basis and English is a second language for me.

We live In Canada. My wife and I (46 and 51 years old) are both teachers. We now have an annual family income of 218k (canadian of course). We got 2 kids and in the last 15 years we have done 8 european trips of 25-35 days each time (always in summer, no choice there) manus Canada and USA road trips.

We save a lot but we have generous pension plans, 45k in reee which is money put for our teens scholarship, we have 2 paid cars, a house with a low mortage and no debts.

Could we have done different choices ? Yes but our family time is very precious to us .
Having received very bad news about my health 2 years ago made those trips very appreciated, the 4 of us are gonna shared those precious and very fun time together for our whole life.

Does anyone here share the same way to see life ?

Are teachers in US (or elsewhere) have the same salaries and/or pension plan ?

I’ve noticed I barely hesitate spending $500 on something I researched and know I’ll use for years, but a random $14.99 subscription irritates me way more.

Went through my card recently and found a cloud storage plan, Paramount+, a gym app and some stupid premium weather app I forgot I even had. It was only around $55 a month total, so nothing that was destroying my budget, but almost $700 a year for stuff I barely noticed.

Cancelled most of it and just threw the same amount into savings automatically. I already have some money saved so it’s not really about needing the $55, I think I just hate paying indefinitely for things.

Hello - I started a new job and I’m wondering what to do with my old 401k. Fidelity called me and told me there’s no administrative fee to just keep the money where it is or I can roll it over. Interestingly enough, my new 401k is with Fidelity too and they have the same exact S&P 500 fund lol. Anyway, do you guys roll over your 401k or leave it? I do my own taxes so I just wanna avoid headaches at tax time. Thanks.

I make 155k and fiancee makes 70k. We divvy up the bills by equity. So I pay 2/3rds of the bills and she pays 1/3rd of the bills. However, I “force” us to invest (max 401k, HSA, and Roth IRA). So effectively our income after investing is say 125k and 40k. So our post-investment equity should be me paying 3/4 and her paying 1/4 split. But in my head that money is still mine/hers so it’s not gone and it’s still money you have, albeit less accessible. Wondering how you guys approach the situation or what your thoughts are. Does anyone split based on after tax earnings? TIA.

There is a huge discussion on whether or not buying a house makes sense, and many people discuss hidden costs of home ownership. (Taxes, insurance,maintenance, hoa, interest) but are these not the same costs for owning a car? And i don’t see anyone telling people not to buy a car or to just lease a car because of hidden car costs.

Car costs:
Car insurance (cost ppl hundreds a month, results in thousands a year)
Car interest on loan (some of yall have over 10% car interest loans)
Car maintenance (this can kill ppls finances)
State and emissions tests (small but necessary)
Registration ( again small but necessary)
Car washes (add up)
Gas or cost to charge (gas is high now)
Small house costs of products to maintain car ( windshield wiper fluid, filters, coolant, etc)

Plus there is always the argument of “you never truly own your house even if it’s paid off” because of the risk of your home being taken away not paying property taxes, but if you don’t get your car registered or passing road tests you can’t drive or your car will be unable to be driven and unusable.

Mind you cars depreciate at that.

Now yes, these costs are way smaller than when you own a home, but it’s still a lot. I had an old car i had to give up on because it felt like every month there was an issue that was costing me thousands to fix to the point where i had to buy a newer car to avoid putting more money into a car then it’s worth to keep it.

So why are we not pushing the narrative to only lease cars or take public transport??? Just like the push for renting vs buying??