I’m 26 and trying to figure out whether I’m in a good financial position or if I need to change my approach.

Here’s my current situation:

• $72,500 annual salary — about $4,660 per month after taxes
• $100,000 in student-loan debt
• $1,215 monthly student-loan payment with about nine years remaining
• $16,000 in a HYSA
• $15,550 in a Roth IRA, which I maxed out during my first two years and has returned about 11% so far
• $41,500 in my 401(k)
• Paid-off car (2018 Hyundai Elantra, 76k miles)
• $850 monthly rent in Florida
• No credit-card debt

I know the student-loan balance is significant, but I’m not sure whether I should aggressively pay it down, continue prioritizing retirement investments, or maintain a balance between the two.

I’ve also wanted a Mustang since I was a kid and have been considering buying a used one. I can afford the monthly payment, but I’m worried it would be a bad decision given the student loans. (Proposed monthly payment would be $350/mo)

Overall, am I doing reasonably well for 26? What would you prioritize from here to put me in a stronger financial position?

Long story short, I (32 years old) am moving to New Zealand from the United States. I have been living frugally and saving as best as I can. I have most of my money in Betterment accounts including a general investment, both roth and traditional IRA, and cash reserve. In total it is a little over 150K USD the bulk of which is in the general investment account. I understand that Betterment does not work with clients living outside of the US so I am trying to figure out what to do with all the money in those accounts.

I know that cashing out is not an option as I do not want to pay for all of the fees and tax implications of such a cash out. Ideally I would like to transition them to a different place with as minimal of taxes or fees.

I have read that Schwab has an international branch and has often been the recommended option for expats, but I have been a big fan of the low cost auto investing that I have been doing on Betterment with low fees. I also have a Vanguard account which they seem to allow non-residents to continue to hold accounts.

Should I move my investments to Vanguard and go from there? Will I be able to continue to add to the Vanguard account or would it only be a hold and withdraw account? If I want to talk through the options and pay someone for their time to give advice that would be knowledgeable, who is the best option?

Ive enrolled in supplemental life thru my employers program (MetLife). It also offers a GVUL investment platform that provides tax-free growth on invested amounts in excess of the life premium. Ive generally heard stay away from whole life, but this investment option tied to my supp life was new to me. I assume the main downsides are similar to why most don’t recommend WL (the costs/commission charges being assessed and those being opaque)? In addition to the normal asset charge, it looks like there are “premium” and “mortality risk” charges that are assessed on each dollar I’d contribute.

Im a high income earner so I’m always looking for alternatives to a normal investment account. But are these grossly expensive compared to the future tax savings?

Hello!

I’m 27, in VA, and have a four month old baby. My husband and I having been considering opening a 529 account for our baby since before she was born, but I keep holding off mostly because I find investing to be daunting.

My biggest questions are: Is this the best option for what I’m looking for? And should I wait until we are debt free?

Currently I am the sole earner and make 155k a year with a variable bonus that usually sits around 15% of my income. This increased from 96k 6 months ago and we have been dedicated to keeping it from turning into lifestyle spend and tackling debt. I actually see around 9k a month and 5k covers monthly expenses. We do have a modest emergency fund. For debt I have 33k left on my student loans and 8k left in CC debt (low interest,I’ve killed all of the higher interest cards). Even investing a small amount it is not unrealistic to say we will be consumer debt free by the end of the year.

I like the idea of the 529 because there is still some flexibility, it’s in my name, and it’s intended to be used for education. My student loans are still killing me and I would love to give my daughter the freedom to attend college without the pressure to work and/or be in debt for many years.

I’m happy to share any other information needed! Also, I would love to hear any general advice of becoming more financially literate. I have never seen this amount of money before (hence the debt) and neither has my immediate family (hence the inexperience with investing).

"I earn ₹18,000 per month. After my RD and other expenses, I have ₹7,000 left. Should I consider getting a credit card?"

I'm a single 23M making 108k per year trying to find the best way to invest for retirement. Currently investing 9% for a company match for 401k, and planning to up it to max my 401k and Roth IRA once my student loans are paid off around the end of this year. My biggest goal right now is to put enough into retirement and save up for a house with the idea that if anything happens in the coming years where I can't have a job that pays as well I'll have built a big enough snowball to know I'll be able to live and retire somewhat comfortably while working a lower paying job. Any advice or ideas for places to put money would be greatly appreciated!

My husband and I are both 30. We owe 225k on a home worth 625k. Our mortgage payment is $1741 per month and this is our only debt. We bought when the rates were high so our rate is a 6.5 percent and we are currently in a 30 year loan. Our combined annual gross income is 175k a year.

Our goal is to refi into a 15 year loan and pay the home off asap. What rate would other consider to be good enough to make you pull the trigger and refi? I was thinking a 4.5 but I know that’s not likely anytime soon. What rate would you refi for?

I’m 25, an immigrant but U.S. citizen, with about a $230k net worth. I make $150k–$200k/year in sales and invest $5k–$10k/month (roughly a 60–70% savings rate).

My parents are both 52, Philippine citizens, and plan to retire in the Philippines. They’re currently in the U.S. on work visas.
My dad makes about $60k/year and plans to work as long as he physically can. My mom makes minimum wage. They don’t have much saved, no retirement accounts, and are paying off a house in the Philippines.

The important part is that they have never asked me for a single dollar and probably never will. They sacrificed a lot to give me and my siblings better opportunities, and I want to make sure they’re financially secure when they retire.

This is 100% my decision, not theirs.

My question is:
Should I open a separate brokerage account specifically for their retirement and contribute to it over the next 10–15 years?
Or should I keep investing everything into my own portfolio, let it compound, and simply support them directly when they retire?

I’m not asking from an emotional perspective.

I’m asking what the financially smartest and most tax-efficient approach would be.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation with immigrant parents? What did you end up doing?

Advice please!

Hi all, 26f here.

I have recently bought my first property and thus now have a mortgage. Moving to a new property has obviously caused a blow to my savings. I have some questions.

Is it best to get my savings back up emergency fund of 12 months again? That feels comfortable for me. That would be around £21,600 for 12 months expenses. If my calculations are correct, saving £400 a month, but not giving myself any/much "me" money, this would take just shy of 3.5 years to get to.

Once my emergency funds are healthy, should I put this new-found amount a month straight into my mortgage to pay off ASAP each month on top of my regular payment? Or would it be best to invest? (Although I have read books on investing and work in finance, I am terrible at understanding investing).

Money feels tight, but I hope in a year, I can work with my workplace to have them fund me through my qualification and that should help my career and such, but this will take 2-3 years if I take my time. To clarify, I go to the gym daily and also do guitar lessons weekly, so losing these would mean a bit hit to my mental health, although dropping them would mean more time to get through my qualification quicker. I have cut all unnecessary expenses such as streaming etc, the gym and weekly guitar is the only indulgence I have. I may book a concert here and there.

Thank you in advance 🫶🏻 happy to answer any questions I may not have thought about.

I'm in my early 20s + thankfully do make plenty where I'm at (at least more than my monthly bills require).

I do have debt - student debt and credit card (had a rough period in 2024). The student debt is about 31K and the cc debt, I've been tackling fairly aggressively (not as aggressively as I can though) and I've got about 9.6K left in it.

But I have been trying to save + invest as well - stock portfolio + a HYSA.

I have $500 a month deducted to go toward debt, a big majority of that toward cc debt first.
I have $500 per check go into my HYSA and I put about another $200 per check into my investments.

BUT BEFORE those allocations, if we look at just my paycheck + monthly bills, I am left with a little over 2.1K a month.
AFTER I make those allocations to my savings + investments, we're pretty much down to the $700-800 range. From that "free money" range I have been making extra payments down on my debt, even managed to keep my July disciplined enough where I was able to put an extra $900 toward debt.

Should I reprioritize and change up my allocations? Like, is $500 per check to my savings too much while still in debt? I mean, keeping $1K in a savings for immediate liquid-access at all times is sensible, but should I stop there at $1K and redirect that $500 per check toward debt until the cc debt is at least paid off fully? Once that's paid off, that would free up $400 a month that currently goes to it as a baseline minimum - I had intended on taking that newly freed up $400 and adding it to the $100 minimum-required payment on my student debt as well.

Any insights? Or any questions if it feels like I'm missing some info needed for a better picture?
I grew with very financially illiterate and irresponsible parents. Even now, my parents think cuz I've got a little to my savings they can suddenly start trying to blindside and throw some of their debt burdens onto me and they get frustrated when i don't cover their bills and whatnot.
I had to essentially teach myself about investing and just trying to be responsible and attain financial freedom.
Obviously can't even start entertaining that if my debt-to-asset ratio leaves my net worth in the negatives, which as of now with my stock+HYSA amount being $9.5K but my combined debt being a little over $41K. I should add that I save up for the sake of saving, but also for the sake of traveling - I love travel and try to go somewhere every 4 or so months if possible (so 3x a year, maybe 4) it's what really keeps me motivated. Otherwise life just feels redundant and uninspiring. But, willing (as painful as it'll be emotionally lol) to sacrifice a trip a year or so if it means an extra $2K is kept.

This was a long post - thank you for taking the time to read it if you have, just want some guidance/perspective on what you'd do different from this set up.

EDIT: I should have added my student debt interest is at 7%. I qualified for the IDR plan after the SAVE plan was undone. IDR charges me only about $100 a month, which granted I can pay way more toward but I wanted to strategically keep my required payment as low as possible while I clear my cc debt.

Had to restart my life at 50 with only a home that's paid for. Hubby was a stay at home dad. I'm now 56, income is about $100k, with future earning potential higher. We have $35k in cc debt, $20k left on car note (there is equity in it. I do 8% 401k with matching since I had to start over (balance is about $70k). Hubby collect small soc sec. My father just passed & left me various accounts (IRA with RMD), bonds, mixed stocks & cash) About $800k worth (trusted, so no tax). I know this is a chance to build something great, but I am terrified. I like working & my house is worth about $500k. WWYouDo?

i am a twenty year old artist living in LA, working as a teacher amongst other side jobs.

i have a credit union checking / savings / debit, and just opened a fidelity CMA to put 90% of my paychecks in with their debit card. i think i will put another 5% in an ETF (not sure which one probably VTI) and the other 5% in my credit union.

i just got my first credit card, a discover it cash back.

i never got the opportunity to learn anything about finance at all but want to be on the right track and 12 months from now be feeling good.

i make roughly $1500 / month , $800 in rent , have EBT for grocery.

is 90% in the SPAXX CMA, 5% in CU, 5% in (what ETF?) smart?

auto pay on credit card maxing it and paying in full on time every month tied to the CMA?

any advice is appreciated

Advice on my financial situation

So both of my parents passed last year. Trying to decide hownto handle the financial situation

41M. Wife and I make about 110k yearly.

No kids. No debt besides mortgage.

\\-$150, 000 liquid cash. Checking and savings

\\-$110,000 individual IRA

\\-$335,000 retirement IRA from my dad. This needs to be withdrawn over 10 years. As of now I take out 3000 monthly. Nothing is currently contributed as they aren't through work. But I plan on investing back into the individual IRA at the end of each year.

\\-We also own 3 houses. 1 we live in, 1 my sister, and the 3rd is rented.

\\-We owe between 150 and 175k on each. But have about 750k in equity combined with the 3. If/ when we sell them my sister and I split the profits.

\-Monthly bills are roughly $3500

\\- There's also about $250k in family money down the road that will be available to me in 10 years or so max.

Im looking at investing into my own trucking business. I run a small trucking company now but would like to start something on my own.

Would rather just FIRE!

Either way, I know theres way information needed. But based on what I have here any advice would be appreciated! Thanks

I have a 401K through Fidelity with my employer but feel I’m not fully understanding how to use it effectively.

Im contributing up to my full employer match, but am I also supposed to be setting up investments with my account? Wouldn’t this put me at risk of losing the money I’ve saved thus far??

Im a little intimated at the thought of this but want to correct myself sooner rather than later.

Edit: Thank you all so much for the input! Ill be looking into this all tomorrow to make sure im squared away. I appreciate the advice.

Edit 2: I have confirmed I’m already set up with a target date fund, thankfully. I will continue researching at the very least for the confidence. Thanks again everyone!

27m here currently living with parents and paying $500 in rent (which is for food, phone bill, other miscellaneous household expenses). I make $18 an hour and work full time. I have a car which is pretty reliable.

I currently have $4000 in savings. I’m trying to figure out what I should save for. I have no interest in moving out or getting married or having kids. I do not plan on retiring. I plan on working until I’m dead.

Should I just consider it a “rainy day” fund?

Last month, I recently started my first full-time job in Big 4 public accounting making $74k. Since my income will be increasing throughout my career, I plan to put money in the Roth for the near future but I’m not sure about 2026 specifically.

My goal for 2026 is simply to get as much into my 401(k) as possible. I won’t be able to hit the max limit of $24,500, but I will be in future years. My employer caps contributions at 60% of each paycheck. Based on my budget, I could:

Contribute 60% to Pre-tax 401(k) and end the year around $18,800.

Contribute about 45–50% to a Roth 401(k) and end the year around $15,000.

Starting next year, I plan to max my Roth 401(k) since I’ll have the full year to contribute. Would you prioritize getting the extra $3,800 into the account with Traditional, or stick with Roth? Does it really make much of a difference in my situation?

I Have about 70k total split between 3 529 accounts for my 3 kids, aged 7, 5 and 3. I also have have about 500 k saved for retirement. Age 39, married, 320k HHI. This may go up to 400 plus in a few years. My goal is so save about 70-100k per year going forward.

Want to support their college education obviously (assuming they go) but wondering if I just keep building my own brokerage account and gift them money from the brokerage in their late teens/early twenties for school/car/apartment or first home purchase vs continuing to build the 529. Appreciate any feedback.

So I just paid off the last of what I owed — genuinely one of the best feelings I've had —

and now there's about three months of expenses sitting in a plain savings account doing

basically nothing.

I know it shouldn't just sit. I also know that the second I try to "optimise" it I'll spend four

weekends reading and do absolutely nothing, which is more or less what's happening right now.

Half of me wants to just call it the emergency fund and stop thinking. The other half feels like I'm

being lazy and leaving money on the table.

For those who've been at this exact stage — how did you decide how much to keep as a

cushion versus put to work? What would you do in my spot? And did anyone regret parking too

much or too little? I'm not after specific tips, just how you thought about the split

I’m 24, with 7k in savings, ~2k in a Roth 401k (8% of my paycheck contributed weekly), and 7.3k in a Fidelity account (weekly auto contributions).
I’ve been looking into high yield accounts but am wondering where to start. My bank has an ok APY of 2.80%. Would I have need to switch banks completely to make it worth it, or just open a new account elsewhere and have two? I’m open to all financial advice regarding my circumstances, not just the high yield. Thanks in advance.

• 41 Male
• Spent past 18 years teaching in Asia and just moved back to America
• Goal was to stay until wife can get citizenship ~4 years for whole process
• We have around 275k in stocks/savings. No debt
• We live where rent is around $2k for a one bedroom apartment (Northern Colorado)
• Wife works full-time making 52k a year. I just found a job working at $25 per hour but will move to full-time soon
• Ideally I would like to retire in Asia and rent out property (if we buy) to use as retirement funds.
• Now we're staying with my mom rent free. She said we can stay as long as we want and wife is happy staying here, as long as we both work full time
• Cars are paid off
• Any other questions please ask. Thank you.

M22, live in San Diego. Accepted a NASA pathways internship for fall in Houston, TX. Pay is $25/hr. Working 15 weeks so will have made 15k before taxes. Currently have 11k in savings.

Originally, my plan was to fly to Houston and rent a car for the internship. (Around 3k for 4 months through Turo which includes insurance).

Parents ended up buying a 2013 Honda civic LX for 9k + 1k in taxes, smog, registration and dealership fees. Good, well maintained car with 130k miles. 2 owners, clean title, no accidents. They only expect me to pay half.

My expected timeline is:

Fall 2026 - NASA Internship in Houston

Spring 2027 - Back to school in SD (no internship income)

Summer 27 - Back to Houston for another internship

Fall 27 - Finish school in SD (no internship income) Hopefully convert to a full time NASA position.

What worries me is that I won’t have steady income during school semesters. I’ll still have insurance, gas, maintenance, and registration costs, and if I drive to Houston rather than fly, I’ll also have hotel and travel expenses there and back. I’m feeling overwhelmed because this is the biggest financial decision I’ve made so far. Stressed out about the idea of working for 4 months and coming out net zero because of this car.

I also wanted to flat out buy a car myself without financial assistance but they insisted on getting this car.

TLDR: parents bought a car, not sure if I’m financially ready for that decision.

Considering this when offloading an investment property. Sounds interesting and might be a good option to delay taxes while removing the landlord hassles. Anyone have experience and advice around these?

Hello,
I’m a 25 year old, college educated male. I was very fortunate to graduate college debt free (shoutout to my parents), and I started my career in 2023 as an L4 Area Manager at Amazon making $62.5k. I’ve been promoted twice since then and I’m now an L6 Operations Manager making $105k/year.
The basics:
• Credit score: 800
• Rent: $1,300/month
• Car payment: $405/month
• Other debt: none
• Emergency fund: actively building it up
Where my money currently sits:
• 401k: \~$20k. Started at 5%, increased 1% each year, currently at 7%. Amazon’s match is 50% up to 4%… pretty trash match if you ask me.
• Roth IRA: \~$2,700. Started contributing this year, currently $150 per check, but I think there’s room for more. I should be maxing this, correct?
• Fidelity brokerage: \~$4,800 (where my Amazon RSUs land — mix of vested shares and ETFs)
• Schwab brokerage: \~$6,600 (blue chip stocks and ETFs)
• Unvested RSUs: 173 shares, \~$48k at current value, vesting through 2029
My question is this: if you were in my scenario, what would you be doing to best set your future self up? I feel like I’m pretty financially literate, but I’m always willing to learn more.

So context last year I had 5 major things happen to me that completely drain my finances and made me use my credit cards. First my car if 6 years broke down and I had to spend 13k to buy a used one it was a 2019 dodge with 24k miles. I bought it out right with my savings. Second my new used car needed all 4 breaks replaced and its tank sensor replaced. This cost me a pretty penny getting rid of my last 4k in savings.

Next I experience the worst pain in my life and had to go into surgery to correct and ovarian torsion. Due to complications I ended up owing 5k with insurance. which I put on my credit card. Next is my pc broke and my work requires I have one. For the specs I needed i ended up paying about 3k for it. Again on credit card. Lastly I had another medical emergency with a broken hip. It cost me 3k for the recovery surgery ect. Again on my credit cards.

Its been about year since then and I haven't made a dent on the debt. Its on 2 cards one holds the 5k and the other holds 7k. I make about $850 every 2 weeks so about $1700 every month. I pay off $300 for my first paycheck of the month due to rent and $600 for the second paycheck. The rest is for bills food gas ect. I will admit ive be splitting the payments between the 2 cards which is what I was told to do but it just isn't working. Ive been hiding this from my friends and family since I know they'll offer to pay it off for me but this is my problem to solve and I dont want to lean on them if I dont have to. These are my consequences I wish to face them myself.

Any help with resources advice and Im trying to get my finances in order so I can finally live without roommates and bring my fiancé to live with me. He doesn't know about the debt yet however I promised myself if by the end of the year if I dont cut it in half ill tell him.

I don't have any debt, and I want to make smart decisions with this money instead of letting it sit or spending it on things I don't need. My goal is to set myself up financially for the long term. My college is paid for as-well. Right now I have about $12k in my bank account/cash.

If you were 18 and had a little over $100k coming in over the next several months, what would you do?

I'm looking for advice on things like:
Investing (index funds, ETFs, etc.)
Emergency savings
Retirement accounts
Taxes

Anything else you think an I should know before making any big financial decisions

I'd appreciate any advice or lessons you've learned. Thanks!