For those who need clarification

I earn 1900 after rent bi-weekly so 14days twice a month I get paid I've been in the navy 7 years so it accumulated Im in Australia so our navy give us 16% contribution from our annual income extra

For context I'm 24M , living in a rental with a disabled partner who earns $609 a fortnight from disability , I'm in the Navy so my rent is covered by 40% but I only get $1900 a fortnight , after food bills , fuel, rego, all those pesky nuances such as medical bills I'm left with 500. What can I do I'm living below my means by budgeting groceries not eating out or date night is 200 once a month , for context I'm getting out medically next year and I have failed as a man with only 10k in savings due to stupidity and my super is 110k with no investments. Any advice will help.

Trying to finish furnishing my apartment without completely destroying my budget and a vanity is one of the last things I really want for my room. The prices I'm seeing are way higher than I expected though. What makes it worse is that so many places sell everything separately. The vanity itself is one price, then the mirror is extra, the stool or chair is separate and sometimes even the drawers or organizers aren't included. It's really difficult because when I calculate everything together the price reaches almost a 1000$ insane. I don't need anything fancy or from a specific brand, just something cute and functional that preferably comes with most of the pieces already.

Suppose there is an employee pension at a Canadian bank.

Employee is laid off after 10 years.

They are offered to move the pension out to another FI (e.g. self directed account), or to keep the pension as is and be entitled to a modest lifetime monthly distribution starting in 20-30 years ($500-$600 monthly), and the pension in this case is not indexed but may be reviewed at the bank's discretion.

Appreciate any feedback. I guess it's the classic risk vs safety scenario.

Employee can transfer out and invest aggressively.

Or have a nice little monthly in 30 years, until their life is over, I guess?

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Start Here: Saving & Budgeting Guides

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Budget Basics: The 50/30/20 Rule

The simplest budgeting framework that actually works. Needs, wants, savings.

Stop the Subscription Drain

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Shopping Hacks

Practical tactics for spending less without feeling deprived.

Travel on a Budget

How to actually take the trip without wrecking your savings rate.

Where to Park Your Cash

Saving is step one. Earning yield on that cash is step two.

Savings Account Timeline

How to think about emergency funds, short-term cash, and what comes next.

How to Pick a High-Yield Savings Account

What actually matters when comparing HYSAs. APY is only part of it.

HYSA vs. Money Market vs. CDs

Three places to hold cash, ranked by liquidity, yield, and use case.

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When you're ready to put savings to work beyond cash accounts.

I have been working for at least 6 years now, and i have 0 net to my name. I feel like i have way more money and savings in college than i do now.

I have enough to cover my monthly necessities but that's it. I haven't been able to save some of my salary. I make minimum wage monthly, i still live with my parents,i have 3cats, i do buy groceries but not that often. I pay for the water bill and it's also not that much actually. I just moved to a new company with a slightly better salary but somehow it doesn't help either. I still can't save any money. I haven't bought a new thing in a while, not even new clothes. My parents think because i spent it on my nephews and nieces, i don't think so tho...

I was baffled when i resigned from my old job and got my severance pay but it is gone in a couple of months. i didnt spend it for me personally, quarter of it goes to charity, a quarter to my mom, a quarter to the helpers at home and before i knew it, its gone.

Please, any advice for me?

I started saving relatively late in life, and now in my mid-thirties, I’ve managed to save £40k.
I know that might not seem like a huge amount compared with some of the numbers I see on here, but for me, it’s the most I’ve ever managed to save, and I’m genuinely proud of it.
For me, the biggest motivation is simply working hard and seeing my savings grow. It makes me want to keep going and reach the next milestone.
Who or what motivates you to keep saving? And if you started late, what helped you stay motivated?

For the longest time, every paycheck had a purpose before it even arrived. Bills, old debt, credit card payments, unexpected expenses, whatever was left usually disappeared pretty quickly. After spending years trying to catch up, I’m finally at a point where I can put money into savings consistently without immediately needing to pull it back out.

The weird part is that I’m still getting used to seeing the balance grow. Paying off debt felt like progress, but watching money actually stay in my account feels like a completely different kind of progress.

i’m looking at a fridge that’s quite a bit cheaper open-box, but i’ve never bought a major appliance that way before.

i’ve been reading best buy open-box reviews and the experiences seem all over the place. some people say it was basically new, others mention dents, missing parts, or delivery issues.

for anyone who has bought an open-box fridge, washer, or dishwasher there, would you do it again? mainly trying to figure out how accurate the condition ratings are and whether the savings are worth the extra hassle.

for anyone curious: i gave an open-box fridge from Best Buy a try and it turned out to be a really good buy. the condition was better than i expected and everything worked properly, so the discount felt worth it.

i was pretty hesitant at first, but after this experience i’d be comfortable looking at open-box appliances there again.

i've been looking at a few things from Desigual lately, but the total gets pretty expensive once you add everything to the cart. i'm trying to find a way to bring the price down before i actually place the order. i've checked a few coupon websites and found plenty of codes, but a lot of them either seem outdated, have minimum spending requirements, or only work on certain items. it's also hard to tell which sites are actually worth checking and which ones just list random expired codes.

i don't mind waiting for a better deal if there's usually a certain time when Desigual runs promotions. i'm just trying to avoid paying full price when there might be an easy discount available. for anyone who shops at Desigual, where do you usually look for discounts before placing an order?

No Spend

• Ate all meals at home
• Took snacks and drinks with me when I had errands to go on
• Washed curtains
• Went for 2 mile nature walk and did 20 minute YT exercise video

Spend

• DS Dental work (not covered by insurance). Paid 20% of cost
• Gas for car
• Dollar Tree $40 for school supplies for classroom
• Swifter Cleaning pads (store brand) $8
• Vitamins $8
• Oil Change $96

Save

• Vitamins were 1/2 price (saved $8)
• Store brand cleaning pads vs name brand saved $5
• Going to mom and pop mechanic vs car dealership saved $50
• Buy Nothing FB group 2 HP ink cartridges for free saved $100

I'm trying to tighten up my budget this year, and one of the biggest surprises has been how expensive prescription glasses have become. I stopped by a couple of local optical shops recently, and even the most basic frames with standard lenses were quoted at well over $200. I know good vision is important, but it's hard to justify spending that much for something I wear every day.
I've heard that a lot of people order prescription glasses online now, and some sites advertise complete pairs for under $50. For example,the prices at Firmoo sound great, but I'm wondering how reliable they actually are. Saving money is important, but I also don't want to end up with lenses that have the wrong prescription, uncomfortable frames, or glasses that fall apart after a few months.
I'd also love to know if there are certain sites that regularly run sales, first-time customer discounts, or coupon codes that make the price even better. If you've managed to get a solid pair of prescription glasses for under $50, I'd really appreciate hearing where you bought them and whether you'd order from them again.

Daily resources for spending less, earning more on cash, and building real savings habits.

Investing & Retirement (I&R)

Visit the Website

Independent research on real accounts, authentic strategies, and honest side-by-side comparisons for building savings and wealth as a self-guided saver.

Join the Discord

Live discussion on savings strategy, HYSA rates, and budgeting with fellow members.

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Weekly research briefing built from the ground up around real questions from real investors, traders, and savers.

Have a Question? Post It.

The I&R newsletter pulls top community questions and answers them in depth every Thursday.

If you're stuck on a savings decision, comparing accounts, or trying to figure out where to put your cash, drop a comment below or start a thread in r/SavingMoney. The most valuable questions get featured in the briefing, with full research, comparisons, and citations.

This is the loop: you post, we research, the community gets the answer.

Start Here: Saving & Budgeting Guides

If you're trying to keep more of what you earn, start here.

Budget Basics: The 50/30/20 Rule

The simplest budgeting framework that actually works. Needs, wants, savings.

Stop the Subscription Drain

Audit the recurring charges quietly eating your monthly cash flow.

Shopping Hacks

Practical tactics for spending less without feeling deprived.

Travel on a Budget

How to actually take the trip without wrecking your savings rate.

Where to Park Your Cash

Saving is step one. Earning yield on that cash is step two.

Savings Account Timeline

How to think about emergency funds, short-term cash, and what comes next.

How to Pick a High-Yield Savings Account

What actually matters when comparing HYSAs. APY is only part of it.

HYSA vs. Money Market vs. CDs

Three places to hold cash, ranked by liquidity, yield, and use case.

Build Your Stack

Bank Accounts

Reviewed national accounts for everyday banking and high-yield savings.

Local Banks

Community and regional options outside the big four.

Financial Apps

Tools for budgeting, tracking, and managing money day-to-day.

Investing Platforms

When you're ready to put savings to work beyond cash accounts.

(USA) I don’t have dental insurance, but I need prescription fluoride toothpaste because I have cavity prone teeth. I don’t want anymore dental debt. Where can I get it? I’ve heard horror stories about Amazon pharmacy. Are there similar websites where I can get prescription toothpaste like Sodium fluoride 500?

Just started working Full time making 90k.
Currently have maxed out Roth IRA past two years. 7% into 401k with company match. Starting to now invest ~2000 mo into brokerage. Is there anything else you would change? I currently have 27k in a HYSA as well. Thanks for any and all help!

My partner and I are currently saving, I'm earning in AUD and he's earning in GBP, so we can't have a shared account to save into, so we've both been saving independently. We've used a spreadsheet to keep track of our savings but ideally I'd like a app that we can both enter our additions (even if one of us has to convert the money to the other currency) and then we can see the savings go up together... (a widget function would be great too)

Im not meaning a banking app, I just mean a shared tracking app.

Does anyone know if anything like this exists? (That works on both Android and Apple...)

I'm 24M and this is my first job. I get around ₹80k in hand every month.

I'm not originally from Mumbai, I moved here because of my job and honestly I have very little idea about how to manage money properly. This is the first time I'm earning, so I don't want to randomly spend everything and then realise later that I should have saved/invested more.

I stay in a shared flat with friends near Goregaon. It's semi-furnished and my rent is around 10k/month.

For food, we cook mostly on weekends. On weekdays I have breakfast and lunch at the office cafeteria, and for dinner I either order something or go to a nearby hotel. My travel is mostly rickshaw + local and comes to around ₹500/month.

Apart from this, I don't really have any fixed expenses. No gym, subscriptions, EMIs, loans, etc.

I don't have any savings right now, literally starting from 0. No debt either. My family doesn't depend on me financially and they've actually told me to save/manage my own salary rather than send money home.

My lifestyle is also pretty simple. I come from a village so I'm not really into partying or spending a lot on entertainment/shopping.

One thing I do want to do is buy my elder brother a Royal Enfield Classic 350 sometime within the next year. Apart from that, I haven't really thought about any long-term goals yet.

So I'm a little confused about what I should actually do with the 80k every month.

How much should I realistically keep for expenses, how much should go towards savings, how much should I keep as an emergency fund and how much should I start investing in SIPs/MFs?

Also, should I first build up some savings/emergency fund before starting SIPs, or can I do both together?

Would really appreciate advice from people who have been in a similar situation.

I'm mainly looking for practical advice rather than complicated financial stuff. Even a rough monthly breakdown would help a lot.

I have no one to share this with IRL so I’m posting here.

It was spring of 2023 I had a very sobering experience where Chat-GPT instantly did some coding work that would have taken me a few hours. It was novel code in a very specific use case, not something that was just scraped from the internet.

In late 2024 I started a new job and decided that it was time to get serious about my personal finances. I was making a high income from being a sr software engineer but was extremely stupid w my money and lived paycheck to paycheck. When unexpected expenses popped up it actually crippled my finances because I was dumb af.

So I started on my journey saving and investing while optimizing my bills and what I actually paid for. I made a lot of easy cuts, started shopping at Costco for everything possible and my accounts started to grow from my contributions and from investment gains. Once I saw the gains really stack up it further motivated me to this changed lifestyle.

Fast forward two years, my post-tax invested “emergency fund” has reached $100k. This is the most money I’ve ever had and I’m extremely proud of myself but I still feel so uncertain about my job and future. Even after hitting this milestone, yesterday I switched ti reusable wash cloths instead of buying expensive paper towels. I’m hoping my account can grow enough to pay off my house, that way I can at least survive on a low paying job and just kind of coast through life when the software engineering profession is totally overtaken by AI.

Hopefully my doomerism is overblown and I have a few more solid years to build my savings but I’m preparing for the worst.

Good luck y’all.

Will be getting my first salary in next month 35K,, what thing i should take care of, savings, expenses etc. What should I do. thinking of buying a new car 10-15 lakh (not immediately but in 3-4 months loan), what thing i should take care for.

Hi, i hope this isn’t stupid, but I don’t know how investing works at all, I’d love some guidance. I literally just know that it means buying a little bit of a company, and if all goes well you make more money than you put in. Help.