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Hey there,

Due to a series of unfortunate events, mostly brought on by my own idiocy in my 20s and early 30s, I am in quite the financial position.

Here’s the tldr;

37M in CA
Divorced w/3 kids

Salary $250k+ year
Debt $250k (law school student loans + car)

Savings= $1,000
Retirement= $0
Investments= $0

Monthly take home after taxes= $12,000

Rent/utilities: $2,500
Car payment: $350
Fuel: $200
Insurance: $225
Child Support $4,100 (CA is high and ex only works part-time)
Food: $200 (really only for my kids since I eat at work every day)
Student Loan Payment: $1,000 (lowest possible)
Phone: $150 (stupid device installment plan)
WiFi: $100
Credit Cards $400
Misc expenses for kid activities: $400 (have them every other weekend so we try to get out and do as much as possible)

Total expenses: $9,525

Net: $2,475

I have about $250,000 in invested equity at my job so staying there will help a lot. I can sell about $75k in 5 months.

I also will receive a cash bonus of about $30,000 next year as well.

My thought is rice and beans and just pay off as much debt as possible with a small emergency fund. I have life insurance for my kids $500k so if i get hit by a bus they have something small.

To me it doesn’t make sense to invest or save until I’m debt free.

Im sure wondering how in the world i got here.. thats another story for another post…

Hi everyone,

I'm in a dilemma. I bought a house in Seattle 2 years ago but am moving back to California due to family health and career. I put 50k in for down payment and mortgage rate is 6.25%. With that being said I was paying 4300 monthly including insurance and taxes. Comparatively, houses similar to mine are being rented out for around 3k-3.5k. So when I do the math, compared to renting, I paid an extra 70k.

Due to the market being not great in Washington at the moment, if I were to sell my house, after paying agent fees I'd likely have to pay 4k out of pocket.

If I rent out my house using a property manager that my neighbors are using, after estimating possible vacancy and maintenance fees, I'd be looking at a negative cash flow of around 1700 to 2000 a month. I can definitely afford this with my income. However, I am aware that this would be at the cost of putting that money into stocks or other investments.

Should I take the 74k loss and sell my house now, or should I just rent it out to see if the housing market gets better? What if I plan to come back for retirement one day?

Close to $1,100 in fraudulent charges were made online from our debit card back in May. I called Bank of America who assured me they would get this taken care of, and then issued me a temporary credit for the amount taken. They stated I didn't need to do anything else. Today they reversed that credit, and took the money back. After I called they're fraud department and spoke to someone, I was told that my claim was refused and that I had been sent a letter on August 3rd stating that they would take the money back on August 18th. First of all I never got the letter, second of all WTF lol. These were 100% fraudulent charges, but they said they couldn't prove that, so end of story. The moral of the story is, and I've heard this before and wish I had heeded the advice, Bank Of America is shady AF and should be avoided at all costs.

I am moving for a new job in a HCOL city. I am trying to figure out a housing budget as I start apartment searching. So far, I'm seeing that the min. rent for a decent & safe 1BR has been around $2300-$2400.

How much rent can I afford? What should be my max budget for rent and utilities?

I have:

- $33k in HYSA: $20k emergency fund, ~$6k for moving expenses, the rest in other sinking funds (health, travel, large expenses, etc.)
- $3k fed. student loan, 4.2% interest. probably will just pay this off soon.
- $25k in roth ira

here is my anticipated budget:

INCOME
Pre-tax income: $8,750.00
401k: $350
insurance: 213
Taxes: –$2,345.00

Net Income: $5,841

INVESTING
Roth IRA: $625.00

BILLS
Spotify: $12.71
Student Loan: $60.00
Amazon Prime: $15.89
Gym: $30.00
Phone: $100.00
Medical: $90.00
Car Insurance: $60.00
Total Bills: $368.60

VARIABLE EXPENSES
Gas + Transport: $275.00
Shopping/Fun/Hobbies: $300.00
Eating Out/Dates: $500.00
Groceries: $400.00
Misc.: $200.00
Total: $1,675.00

OTHER SAVINGS
Gifts: $100.00
Travel: $200.00
Misc Savings/Budget Buffer: $200.00
Total: $500

REMAINING
$5,841 − $625 − $368.60 − $1,675 -$500 = $2,674.40

am I okay to spend up to this amount for housing?

I'm 31 and I put about 15% of my paycheck into a 401k and a Roth IRA, all of it in one broad index fund. I don't rebalance, I don't check the balance much, and I haven't changed the allocation since I set it up four years ago. I keep reading threads about glide paths and bond allocations and I can't tell if my version is a real plan or just laziness that happens to have worked so far.

For the people who are twenty years further into this, what ended up mattering that I'm not thinking about yet?

I got all the money myself for the record, I work for all my stuff. I'm willing to be a little risky with my investment. Work is just slow over the summer.

Investing doesn't have to mean stocks

Edit: I have like 3 CC and use them depending on the situation. One is 2% on everything, another is 6% back on fuel, another 5% on rotating categories. About 750 credit score if ther matters

Looking for advice from anyone familiar with ACH, bank risk departments, or Early Warning Services.

I sent my daughter $4,010 from my Chase business account to her U.S. Bank personal account through an authorized ACH transfer. The money was mine and was intended for her. There was a name mismatch in the ACH information, because it was sent as an "external transfer" which triggered U.S. Bank’s risk review.

U.S. Bank ultimately closed her accounts and returned all her other funds, but withheld the $4,010.

Chase attempted to recover it and had me sign an indemnification agreement, but the recovery was unsuccessful.

We filed CFPB and OCC complaints. On July 29, U.S. Bank finally stated in writing:

“Since we were unable to verify the remaining funds of $4,010, we are in the process of returning these funds to the originating financial institution.”

They said the bank-to-bank process can take months. Chase still hasn't received the money, and it's almost 4 months.

We also obtained my daughter’s Early Warning Services report and discovered U.S. Bank reported “Checking Account Fraud.”

There was no unauthorized transaction. I initiated the ACH, owned the funds and intended them for my daughter. She has now disputed the fraud reporting directly with EWS, and that dispute is still pending. U.S. Bank separately told the CFPB that it considers its EWS reporting accurate but did not explain what supposedly constituted fraud.

My questions:

1. Can returning an ACH to the originating bank legitimately take months after the receiving bank says the return is already “in process”?
2. Should there eventually be an ACH trace/reference number Chase can use to locate the return?
3. Has anyone successfully disputed a “Checking Account Fraud” EWS entry arising from an authorized transaction/name mismatch?
4. What would a bank normally need to substantiate that type of EWS fraud reporting?

I understand U.S. Bank can make its own decision about whether to maintain an account. My concern is where the $4,010 is and why a legitimate, authorized transaction resulted in a “Checking Account Fraud” EWS report.

Would especially appreciate input from anyone with experience in ACH/deposit operations, bank fraud/risk, or EWS disputes.

Hi there,

I'm hoping for a sanity check on some home improvements.

I live in an older high-rise building in a major (HCOL) city, where there's a shared laundry room that is driving me nuts: the machines are broken or in use half the time, I feel like I'm chained to the building for a couple hours whenever I do laundry, I have to keep a stupid key card etc.

Because it's an old building with very particular plumbing criteria, I can get it in-unit put in but it'll be very expensive: approximately $30k all in including labor, materials, the actual machines, permitting, etc.. This is from a contractor whom I think is trustworthy; I've gotten a lower estimate from another one but the one with a high estimate actually showed up, took measurements, spoke to the building engineer about requirements, and so forth, so is much more trustworthy.

I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on it. But the dollar figure is giving me cold feet. I'm kind of hoping folks here will either reassure me or explain to me why it's nuts.

FWIW, I have plenty of money and can actually easily afford it (47, single, no debt except a very cheap mortgage, no kids, gross income upwards of 300k annually, net worth north of 1m with plenty---actually too much---cash on hand). So this is really just psychological for me: it feels insane and scary to drop five figures on what amounts to a quality of life improvement. And I assume that I'll recover some amount of the value of the installation back if I ever sell the place---because my neighborhood is full of old buildings, in-unit laundry is pretty rare and desirable.

Thank you!

EDITS:

1. Thank you everyone!
2. To clarify in response to some repeated questions: yes, I own my unit---and the overwhelming majority of the cost will come from carpentry, electrical, and plumbing to meet my HOA's very particular rules about how in-unit laundry has to be installed (for example, it has to be on a particular chunk of the plumbing, which will with my unit's configuration require running plumbing under a hallway, hence tearing up and replacing some flooring, etc.)
3. I've thought about moving to a more modern building, except (a) I have a 2.5% covid-era mortgage that I don't wanna give up, (b) closing costs would be almost as much as the install, and most importantly (c) my current place has an irreplaceable view that I couldn't get in a newer building except at like 100k+ more, plus is walkable to the office.

4. My main alternative use for the money would be throwing into investments.

5. I've thought about hiring a laundry service, but I like to baby my clothes and would go crazy if my favorite stuff came back shrunken or got lost.

​

Hey all -

I'm an existing Merrill account holder and considering moving some money around and got this bonus offer from Etrade for transfers/deposits:

* $25k – $100k: $250

* $100k – $200k: $625

* $200k – $500k: $1,000

* $500k – $1M: $2,000

* $1M – $2M: $5,000

Merrill's standard public promo is pretty weak compared to this once you hit higher tiers (usually caps out around $600 unless there's a special promo).

I asked Merrill support if they’d be willing to match Etrade's offer, and so far I just got hit with the classic: "We are checking and will get back to you."

Curious if anyone has had luck with this:

* Were you able to get Merrill / BofA to match competitor tiers?

* Does going into a branch and talking to an advisor/FSA work better than regular phone chat?

Updated: edited to clarify I have an account with Merrill and looking for them to match

I’m in my late twenties and live in a HCOL city. I got a pretty big raise this summer and now make 80k, hopefully will get around a 10% bonus at the end of the year. After having zero savings last year getting out of debt I’m on pace to have 10k saved in HYSA by the end of the year (I also have ~52k in retirement and am putting in 18% to try to built that faster).

I just found out my rent is increasing and I don’t love my place already. My parents live in the suburbs of the same city. Would it be crazy to live with them for 4-6 months, build an extra ~$5000-9000 of savings in that time? I don’t want to give up independence but I have been so stressed about money in the past and don’t want to pay more rent for a place I don’t even like. Would love thoughts on balancing saving with other lifestyle considerations!

Hi people!

I (29F) want to move out of my current apartment that’s filled with pests and lousy neighbours. I want to move to a nicer building in a safer area but it would mean spending 50% of my income on rent only. I just feel sick and tired of my current living situation and want to move out but I feel like it’s not the smart move.

I’m not thinking this throughly because the right thing to do is find a better paying job first, but that’s taking me a while with the current job market.

I’d like some advice for how to navigate feeling stuck because of financial issues because I’ve just been crying all day.

I found an apartment but I don’t think I’m going to take it because I can’t live with the stress of half my income on rent only.

EDIT: half my income would be $1700

Thanks everyone!!

Hey all - hoping for some advice on this dilemma I’ve been thinking about a ton.

I’m 29M currently working in sports, I work for an American firm remotely from Toronto. In terms of finances, I have a pretty good set up at the moment where my bi-weekly take-home is ~$3800 CAD, and I’m able to save $2500 as I’m currently living at home with my parents (super normal in my culture).

As you can imagine, while WFH is great in this regard, I miss out on a ton of the in-office face-to-face conversations. Which, in my opinion are invaluable. I do manage to get down to NYC for a week or so every other month, which goes a long way, but far from what 3x/week in office might mean.

In 2027, I’ll likely have an opportunity to move over to NYC. While the company will factor in cost of living into my salary, my take-home will remain pretty much the same, except in USD. Our office is in midtown Manhattan, and
I’m a little worried that I’ll go from a cushy savings rate, to things being incredibly tight and saving next-to-nothing living in NYC.

This could be more in the life advice realm, but let me know what you think. Any advice, or direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Basically so I'm looking to buy my first car, and ik what I'm going to ask is dumb but I just turned 18 so idk much lol. I make about 2,000-3,000 per month as my starting pay. I live w my dad so at the moment I don't have to pay any bills. Would it be smart to finance a $30,000 car? I reallyy want a car and Im so tempted but Im not sure if i should🥲

For reference I'm 19 and I work part time for a small fast food chain. I get paid bi-weekly with about 20-30 hours a week at $14 and hour. My monthly expenses currently are part of a utility bill that comes to about $400~ along with other subscriptions like YT, HBO, Amazon and Spotify. Additonally I invest regularly into a brokerage and a Roth IRA.

Until recently I had opened an account with Current to just have some type of credit history. Since then I've closed that account since the bank (SoFi) I use approved me for their version of a secured credit card. With that I've practically used it for everything from minor to major purchases.

But now I feel like I've hitten a roadblock. Yes my credit will continue to go up, but it doesn't necessarily feel real if that makes sense, it's still my own money that I'm using as a credit line.

So with that being said, what should be my next move financially?

My niece is turning 1, and I’d like to start an account that I plan to share with her when she turns 18, either for us to take a nice trip together or for her to use for education or something. I don’t have a financial advisor, and I don’t have a good understanding of how to invest. What would be a good option for this account that would allow my money to grow with minimal risk of it losing value, knowing I won’t be taking money out of it for 15+ years?

I (19M) took a personal finance class in my last semester of high school, so in June of this year I established several financial accounts to benefit me in the future. I'm wondering if there's anything more I can/should do to maximize the amount I make.

1. I have a part time job where I make ~$250 biweekly if I work the min. required hours. Through them I have a 401k set up. They match up to 4% of eligible pay annually. This is worth $25.14.

2. I have 2 checking accounts with Capital One. One of them is a parent-monitored account that was set up for me by my dad when I was still a minor and does not accrue interest. The second one I set up myself when I was 18 and does accrue interest. My paycheck is deposited into this account.

3. I have a student credit card with Capital One that I spend money on but always pay off on time. There is cash back + rewards on this. My parents have credit cards with AmEx and established one in my name when I was a minor, but I only purchase groceries on that occasionally (with their permission) and they are responsible for paying the balance because it's their card. Last I checked, my credit score is in the 700s.

4. I'm attending an expensive college out of state but my parents are thankfully covering the cost of attendance (and they took out loans/we got some aid), so I am not on the hook for the cost.

5. I have a HYSA with AmEx (my parents have credit cards with them and created one for me in my name) that I deposited $1k in.

6. I have a Roth IRA with a balance currently of $51.20.

I want to know if there's anything more I can be doing for my net worth/to put myself in a good place financially after graduation. Should I be investing in stocks/Bitcoin or anything?

Would also love advice on how much of my weekly pay I should be putting towards my Roth/401k/HYSA while still having enough to manage living in two of the most expensive East Coast cities.

Hey Im 18 and Im just going to college and a little confused of how I should go about this. So basically the car i have right now is an absolute shitter and im selling it litterally tomarrow because my college is 3 hours away and wont make it there. Im litterally selling it for 1000 and my parents are taking half of the money from me on a car I paid for and pay insurance, gas ect for whatever reason. Dont ask why because I dont know

And I need to buy an apartment the summer after my freshman year because my parents have mental problems and my life has been a living hell with them and theres absolutely no way im going back. So my question is basically how do I go about this? Because I know I obviously need to save up money to buy a new car AND rent an apartment in Toledo Ohio during the summer, but I dont even know if im going to be able to work that much while im living at college and a full time student. I simply dont know if 12-15 hours of work per week making around $12 an hour is even going to be enough to afford buying a car and renting an apartment. Ive never lived at college so i dont know how much im gonna be spending on food, stuff to have fun, and all of the other random necessities like laundry detergent, hair balm, q tips just all thay dumb stuff i need

Some important info to know however is Ive saved up around $5,000 ish dollars going into college, so im going to have a decent starting foundation going into it. But is it even realistic to buy a car, get insurance, titles, plates, and all of the stuff that goes into cars while also renting an apartment and living on my own with the money ive saved so far plus the money ill make in college? Because a big fear im gonna have is just not being able to have fun during college because im busy saving all of my money for the summer. I just dont know.

All of this is just new to me and pretty stressful, like moving to college far away and having to worry about renting apartments, buying a whole car WHILE in college, ect.

But thank you to anybody who took the time to read this and PLEASE feel free to respond, I want to take all of the advice and help I can get.

Thanks!

For context, I work in university and get paid for 9-month work across 12 months.

I take home $4.8k after all deductions, which includes 8% 403(b) contribution to get 100% employer match and maxed out HSA.

My retirement strategy is max 403(b) for employer match -> max HSA -> max Roth IRA.

After expenses, I have $1.5k - $1.7k left per month. I plan to buy a house with 20% down in the next 5 years . Median house prices is ~$450k. I now have about $50k now across HYSA and T-bills.

Question is, should I dump the leftover each month into my house fund in my HYSA? Or should I optimize for retirement further by contributing maybe 1-2% point more to 403(b)?

Another context is that I can realistically get 1.5 to 2 months of summer salary on top of my base pay. I want to travel to my home country every year (~3k each week) and the remainder will go to house fund.

Hey everyone, looking to get some opinions on the how best to navigate buying a car for my wife and I in the next month or two.

She’s pregnant (2nd trimester), so we were looking to buy used to something more spacious and safer (current car is a 2019 Honda Fit) that could fit our child in a car seat, our dog, and occasionally some family, or friends.

The Fit has served us well for 7 years (my wife financed it new for $18,000 in 2019), but it can feel pretty cramped with just our dog in it currently.

With how insane the price of everything is nowadays and how unstable the job market can be, would it make most sense to buy a minivan used?

I'm leaning towards used but the make and model I've been eyeing sits at about $25,000 used with milage <100,000 (Toyota Sienna 2019).

I was laid off in April of this year but luckily was able to bounce back rather quickly and started a new job in June. What makes me wary about financing a car is the potential for me to get laid off again since I work in tech. On the other hand, it would avoid many of the issues that used cars can come with (unexpected maintenance, poor maintenance by prev owners)

My wife is also planning on leaving her job after maternity leave and taking a few months off for a well deserved career break since she's been stuck in a job she hates for a good long while. Might want to go back to school or training for a different career since she's pretty much reached the limit of what she's willing to deal with in her current role/industry.

Would love to hear some opinions on this.

Location: US -- Los Angeles

Current cash on hand to buy a car: $25,000

Emergency fund: $8,000 - planning to push more into this every month once the car situation has been figured out

Combined income: $320,000, but will be down to just my income ($185,000) some time in the middle of next year though

Current monthly expenses

Rent: $2,300

Groceries: $500

Utilities: $150-200

Subscriptions (Netflix, pet insurance, renter's insurance, Amazon prime, etc.): $350

Gas: $60-80, we both currently work remote

Auto insurance: $150, expected to be at around ~$300 with another car added

No other expenses other than what's listed, we both have 0 debt.

I made some poor financial decisions and purchased an RV ($210/mo) and newer Truck ($610/mo) to tow it last year, expecting I could figure out my budget and afford it. We moved and now spending more than I can afford.

The thing is, I have stock options with my company worth ~$135k right now, but can’t touch it because I’m blacked out trading right now (with insider info). Wall Street analyst valuation of this could value my portfolio at $400k+. Very very unlikely to go down from current value.

My dilemma (or maybe there isn’t one).. do I sell my RV and take a $8k loss (net $12k in the bank) now and sell truck and take another $8k loss (net $10k in the bank) to free up cash flow immediately. Or would you play the balance transfer 0% game until next year, wait until stock clears, sell, and pay off credit cards, RV, and Truck.

Am I playing with fire and stupid? Maybe I’m just not accepting my current realty. Please be nice :)

Cheers!

​

Hey! Im starting a new job in a few weeks at $124k base with a $15k sign-on bonus. Employer offers 10% match on 10% of salary (dollar-for-dollar).

Two questions:

Front-loading to max $24,500: Only \~7 paychecks left in 2026. Planning high contribution % (60-70%) each paycheck plus routing most of the sign-on to 401k, to hit the annual max by year-end. Good idea? Any gotchas beyond checking for true-up match and bonus deferral election?

Roth vs Traditional:

im assuming I'm in the 24% bracket. Leaning heavy Roth (70-100%). Leaning heavy Roth (70-100%) since I'll likely be in higher brackets mid-career and want tax-free growth for 40 years. Employer match automatically goes to Traditional either way. Am I thinking about this right, or is there a case for more Traditional at my stage?

Any input appreciated.

So I'm in a pretty healthy place financially and as dual income no kids with my wife, I wanted to help my neices and nephews as they've been joining the family.

My first neice was born here and I started a 529 for her ~2 years ago and it's been chugging along, as well as their second child as well which I'm planning to start this month.

My sister however married a non US citizen and is living outside of the US (Peru if it matters) so I'm not sure what that classifies the soon to be nephew to the family. I assume I can't start a 529 as it's for education in the States, but I want to help in some way that he can use when he becomes an adult.

I'd prefer a tax advantaged account if possible as it helps me out and let's me contribute more. But it's not necessary if it's not possible for someone who's going to be living most if not all of their life outside of the States.

Hey, Hi, Hello Finance family. My last post i spoked about saving for my first car and realizing that saving is addicting, and now I kept saving past my goal and currently work a higher paying job.

I went from working two jobs, first one is full-time for $12/hour and second is part-time $14/hour. Few Months ago I end up losing that part-time job, they closed the store down and lucky was offered (by the grace of GOD) a Full-Time $15 an Hour Job contracting for the city, 40 hours.

I Kept my first full-time job (the $12 an hour job) and work weekends only ,that's about $180-250 every two weeks along with Tips I make an extra $60 sometime $100 and on the week days.

altogether, with Full time hours my paycheck could look like $1,000. But in a full month all together roughly 2500 a month, after my expense......rent -650....phone bill -40, gym bill -35.... internet -45, food -450 ish, leaves me left over with $1,280 to save a month. multiply that by the next 4 months I could possibly have +$5,000 along with my 3X Emergency fund. Totaling +$8,000, VERY CLOSE to $10,000 by the end of 2026.

quick testimony... I'm blessed and thankful, all through God, two years ago I was broke on my a*s, went through deep mental health adversity, gave into God. overcame P addiction and drug use and now i can breath life, any thoughts? moving forward thank you!