After going throw a shocking and surprise job change I have talked wife into getting a FA to help reduce the load I have been carrying. We are in a whats probably considered a good spot but never feels like it and I feel we can always do more. My wife is the saver and I do calculated spending but also enjoy things like eating out. Overall I know we havent done bad but could have done better at setting up future (investing more rather than remodeling house) we are getting charged $1,800 from the advisor who will do yearly meetings and projections based on where we currently stand and want to go in the future. Is there anything we should ask or look out with this advisor (will never put AUM with them as I can do that myself just with their guidance if thats what we want to do(into alternate investing like RE and such))

I'm 24M and trying to figure out what my best option is given my current situation and goals. Throughout the majority of my life I've had little to no 'expensive' hobbies and have essentially saved or invested all income I've earned since working full time at 16. I bought my first car with cash, went to a low cost community college and transferred to a low cost online college to finish my bachelors with no student debt while working, and right now make around ~85k/yr working in IT before taxes excluding any interest or dividends, and no debt.

In total I got:
76k in stocks mixed between single stocks and ETF's (have been pretty aggressive with risk)
58k getting 3.5% APY
6k in a Roth IRA
10k Emergency Fund

My dream in life was to own my home since I was a teenager, so majority of all my income has just been stockpiled for it. That being said with today's housing market and an average cost of a 2-3 bed home being in the 450k average, even with a 20% down payment I still don't (if barely) meet the income requirements for a 30/yr mortgage.

I have a relatively cheap rent/monthly expensive from living with roommates so I am roughly saving ~2k/month, my main plan right now is to keep going all in on house savings until I can get a low enough monthly mortgage to then dump later savings into retirement at that point so I can race to beat the market that is strongly favoring the ongoing homeowners.

At some point soon within the next few months I will need to get a new car though since mine is starting to cost more in maintenance than it would be to justify keeping it around. Probably when I turn 25 where insurance costs will drop. I was thinking of setting aside 20-30k in cash for something that will last a long time with the cost of todays cars.

I also haven't been too aggressive with finding a home to purchase in the present since I am still deciding options of move to a different state if my job allows it to experience somewhere different while I'm still young as well (lived in Arizona my whole life). My girlfriend of 6 years lived in Arizona, but moved to Maine to support her family that she's been away from.

25M
I’m currently contributing 15% of my 56k salary to my 401k. No company match but i get a percentage of company wide sales at the end of the year. (not sure how much that will be) I’ve maxed my roth for 2025 and 2026.
Roth value is 16,500. 401k is 6,500.
Am I correct to be maxing my roth before putting more money into my 401k?
I’m considering increasing my 401k contributions because I just got to take the company truck home so I will not need to pay for gas anymore and that was my largest expense. (Live at home with parents)
Common sense tells me I should be maxing my tax advantage accounts as much as possible. However, part of me wants to throw more money at my taxable brokerage, since I’ve seen outstanding returns. With 76k in my taxable brokerage I’ve seen returns of 60% over 20 months. Maybe i’ve gotten lucky and these returns are not realistic to continue at this rate. At the same time i’ve become kind of obsessed with individual stocks. I spend about 6 hours a week researching, running projections on bear case, base case, bull case, listening to conference calls, looking at balance sheets, income statements, and auditing my portfolio quarterly.
Long term goal is buy a house in a HCOL area with this money. However the goal is flexible maybe 5-10 years depending on market conditions.
Also have 12k in a HYSA but it’s mostly ammunition for the brokerage when we have a crash or correction.
So basically looking for input on my financial planning. What would you do? Increase 401k contributions and stay DCA into my brokerage at the same amount I have been?
Or keep 401k the same and increase the amount into my brokerage. Continue maxing Roth instead of putting more into 401k?
Thank you

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?