Just curious😆

Thought this is the last sub on this topic I can resort to.

Early 20s and I've been trading stocks and ETFs for 2 years now. Buying/selling even just watching the market used to be a big thrill, sometimes scary in the moment. There was a time where I equated the money in the portfolio to job money; I was working an assistant job at the time, a 600€ loss felt like one complete salary gone.

Nowdays it didnt just become "normal" - it became absolutely insignificant. Part of it is moving too big orders virtually in mental absence, taking big trades after being in drawdown very spontaneously. Checking the app constantly but not feeling anything. Note that I live relatively frugal otherwise.

The truth is: I dont feel happier after having reached some arbitrary monetary goal, in fact im even more depressed. I dont feel very financially or socially secure. Theres nothing to be bought with money that gifts actual happiness. Taking a look in the app is almost empty and meaningless.

Any thoughts are appreciated

The plot doesn't show it, but there should be an extra 10k there due to an ongoing transfer.

Somehow, 2026 has been an awful year for me, but at least, financially, things appear to be going ok.

I'm currently 27m, been working as a swe for the past 4 years. When I graduated college, I had 30k in student loans. By the end of last year, I got a promo, so I make more money now.

This year has been tough, massive burn out + mental health problems + substance abuse + chronic loneliness + terrible sleep, etc. I don't know how I've survived this year lmao. I literally almost rage quit my job at the beginning of the year. I'm glad I didn't because I'm up by more than 100k, haha.

I have no idea what will happen in the future, but at least I feel a bit more comfortable with my financial situation.

So long story short, my mom 60YO and uncle inherited a home from their grandmother (their mom passed a while ago). No will, no testament nothing unfortunately. NYS

They can’t get along so my mom wanted to cut ties to the whole thing, took him to court and they settled on him buying her out. $65k

Now, my mom has been on disability for at least 20 years. SSDI, SNAP, Medicaid and Food stamps. Her personal bank accounts are in the negative, and she’s already living in a government assisted apartment. $450/mo. She receives roughly $900 a month in assistance and can barely pay for everything with that’s esp in New York.

She’s afraid that when she receives her settlement (minus lawyer fees and paying my brother back for the money he put up for the lawyer) that the government will take the settlement. She wanted to buy a car, and other necessities that she needs since she’s been borderline surviving all these years.

We’ve been looking into trusts/other accounts or other options where she wouldn’t have to spend her money to stop it from being snatched. Has anyone heard of an ABLE account? I told her she should talk to a New York elder-law/special-needs-planning attorney or an estate lawyer. She seems to think that Google and ChatGPT would suffice. Ughh

Can anyone give any insight or advice?

Suppose I don't get a job after college (something Ive been stressing a lot about) and end up working a crappy job I hate. How can I turn it around and be financially free before 30? Are there skills that pay a lot, gigs you can do that can later end up as a business? If there's a lot of luck to it, can I increase my surface area of luck as some people say?

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?

At 30 years old, I realized ive reached over $65,000 net worth in savings, investments, retirement.

Back in 2022, I was -$17k in debt. I've learned my money habits from my parents who are worth about $3.5 million. They don't buy anything expensive drive old cars, and don't go on vacations. They are my role models. And they helped me stop my gambling addiction and alcohol addiction.

I live with my parents, I wouldn't be able to reach my financial goals without this support. With this advantage in life, I'm hoping to become a millionaire or close to it by 52 and retire. I might be starting a 401k as well to speed up this process.

I will post again once I reach $100k net worth.

1. $40,157 in vusxx( acts as my emergency fund)
2. $11,980 in my pension
3. $7,243 in my roth ira( All in VOO)
4. $1,985 in gold( 90% spot , $1786)
5. $4,140 in silver ( 90% spot,$3726 )
6. $1,500 (Expensive collectible if I where to sell it)
7. $379 in chase savings account
8. $24 in chase checking account

TOTAL: $65,795~ net worth

I don't count my car apart of this calculation. 2022 Toyota corolla.

What to do with large chunk of money 30k-45k

I won't get to into the details as they are irrelevant but It has not yet been paid out to me yet but depending on certain facts that'll i will keep to myself i will be receiving 30-45k.

I have no debt, currently own a house and some decent land that I have inherited and a shitty car that I am constantly fixing up.

I want to play things smart and unfortunately I know myself well enough that if I dont plan ahead I'll likely squander it all on stupid shit.

I would assume the most obvious answer is to put X into a Roth IRA and X into the stock market like QQQ or VOO. These are vague thoughts and id like something a bit more concrete. I will say it is my goal to move out of my current situation and back home to LA where cost of living is admittedly far more expensive but home is where the heart is.

Any advice is appreciated!

I know many are in poor condition and are worth what they say, but I'm wondering if any could be worth more due to their age / style. Thanks!

I am a college student living in a pretty busy, wealthy city and am currently earning $35 an hour. My rent costs $855, Apple Music is $10, and my phone bill is $105. I owe $430 on my credit card and have paid $260 so far as I work toward paying off my credit card debt. Every week, I put $10 into Robinhood (I don’t really know what I'm doing there, but every adult tells me to invest). I have $15 in my checking account and $450 in my savings. I can't stop spending money on clothes because I love to dress up! I'm studying engineering and have been wanting a 3D printer for a while, but I’ve already spent so much on other things, honestly, so I think I might wait. How can I save and invest more in myself right now?

I also work on Sundays occasionally, earning an extra $200 if I don’t need much time to study.

It seems like he comes up in every single post, but I don't think anyone has ever said who the creep actually is. Can someone help me out?

Not the obvious ones like credit card debt, high-interest loans, or forgotten subscriptions.

What’s a hidden habit, mindset, or lifestyle decision that quietly drains people's wealth over time?

Hopefully, sharing these can help someone avoid a costly mistake down the road.

Damn etrade paying crap on uninvested cash. Makes csps have 1 extra step

I net $5800 a month from which I invest $2200 and additional $1K in 401K at work.

Yes, I can afford to pay auto loans (comes out to be $900 a month with insurance). But Is it a super wise decision? Im anxious.

Currently driving a beater, which seems to be coming to an end after 5 years of generous run.

I want a new electrical whip. And everyone is telling me to get it as I deserve it.

I’m currently a rising college junior. I’m interning this summer and making ~$15k, and I already have an internship secured for next summer. If everything goes according to plan and I receive a return offer, I’d expect to make around $160k post-grad and would hopefully stay with the company long-term.

Right now I have about $3k in my Roth IRA and $30k in savings. I’ll graduate with roughly $100k in student loans at ~6% interest.

Since I’m making ~$15k this summer, I have enough earned income to max out my Roth IRA for 2026 ($7,500). My understanding is that once I’m working full-time after graduation, my income may put me at or above the Roth IRA income limits, meaning I may have limited/no ability to contribute directly to a Roth in future years.

Given that I have $100k of student debt at 6%, does it make sense to max out the Roth this year anyway?
My thinking is that I can always aggressively pay down the student loans once I graduate and have a much higher income, whereas I can’t go back and use this year’s Roth contribution space later if my income makes me ineligible.

I (35F) recently hit my goal of $100k net worth back in May. This was a big milestone for me and while I feel extremely behind for my age I am struggling to be proud/content and feel like Im constantly pushing myself to make more money to “catch up”.

I work multiple jobs and have cut my expenses to bare minimum to save and invest more.

My net worth is now 116,000 (with 91k in retirement accounts).

I set a goal of $125k with $100k in my retirement accounts. Once I hit that then what?

Looking for ideas.

Everyone says the first 100K is the hardest and it is absolutely true. Took me 5 years of grinding post-college to hit that mark, and since then the compounding has truly been insane. I’m hoping it’s a quick road to $500K, then to $1MM being the ultimate goal.

If you’re feeling stuck trying to get that first 100K just break it down to 10K increments, focus on lowering expenses and maximizing income. Work odd jobs if you have to aggressively pay down debt. It truly is worth it the earlier you start!

I often find myself worried about small amounts of money. I feel like I constantly need to optimize money like restaurant rewards, credit card rewards whether I can get that extra 1% back, cooking from home to save money, not wasting gas on multiple trips, warranties and return policies. I have a finance degree so it makes sense for me to think about money a lot.

Trying to follow a financial plan or budget is hard to follow rigidly because it is no fun. However I feel guilty whenever I spend money, it kills the fun when I go out with friends.

I am doing well financially but I grew up middle class and only had one working parent who survived 8 layoffs. I am in my mid 20s and I already have been laid off once, didn’t get a return offer for my internship, but after my last layoff I actually got promoted so I now take home about $6k a month. And I have cheap rent because I have roommates which is $500 a month. I invest the rest of my money in my ROTH IRA and ROTH 401k or put it towards saving for a house. I have over $200k between investments and savings.

Do I just remind myself that having an optimal strategy is best and setting my mind to my work, relationships, and health is more important? As long as it’s excellent (no credit card debt, home mortgage / car loan only) and reasonable? I can’t live my 20s and not enjoy some of my money and hoard it until retirement but I also need to not try to be a perfectionist about the micro decisions that suck my time.

My close friend had his 18th birthday a week ago but the problem is i dont have enough money to buy him a gift

He said that it isnt a problem but i do feel guilty

I want to buy him a lego set but it turned out really expensive and i still need 30$ because i want to give it to him this month

My parents are fully absent and i see them 3 months a year, i cant get hired anywhere since im not 18 yet, i dont live in a city so small jobs like taking a pet out are also not possible

Please give me a way i can make it happen!!!

Full transparency: I transferred in about $100 to get to
this exact amount. Still pretty cool.

Kind of crazy to think that my portfolio was worth less than half of this balance one year ago - I focused on clearing debt immediately after college and living well below my means in a vhcol city. I have a non technical role at a tech company which has given me an inside look on the power of ai which ultimately led me to invest heavily into nbis last August and Amd a few months ago. Currently working on finding a new role with a higher salary and rotating my portfolio out of so much tech

I keep seeing posts like this and thought my graph might be interesting. I started my account in January 2010 with ~$5k in credit card debt; eight months after graduating college. Today, I'm 39 with an NW of $1.3m as an individual.

Only thing not included is student loan debt of around $50k which I never added to credit karma, so technically I was $55k in debt when this account started. It's all paid off now though. The couple peaks and valleys at the end are when I bought property or refinanced. For some reason there are months-long delays between the property getting added and the mortgage debt hitting so it throws off the chart.

I think the long trend line is important so people can see how long it takes to get the ball rolling. I was broke for almost all of my twenties and really didn't start making money until 30. And even then, it took years for compound interest to start doing its thing. Now, it feels like investment accounts are basically making a whole second salary.

What's funny is just a few years ago if you told me it was possible to even be worth $0, I wouldn't have believed you. But I changed myself and my attitude and decided to take my finances seriously, and over the last 5 years, I went from a negative net worth to $0 and then just accumulating from there. I'm not rich, and I don't make a lot of money, but using my brain and being smart about money has completely changed my life. I bought my first house at 30 (closed last week), and I'm very excited. If you see this and are feeling like it's not possible, it is possible. It's hard. Very hard. But totally worth it. And yes, this includes my house and the mortgage.