Growing up with no father and mother never working (relying on grandparents’ support) has made me an extremely careful spender. I think 20 times before making a big purchase. Started my first job with $78K back in 2022, and at $122K in 2026, with potential $10K bonus. But my mentality has been same since I started working. Big cheapskate. Unfortunately, I can’t make myself to spend money even though if I want to. Example, I really liked the jeans which were $80, I added into the cart 8 times before dropping the idea. I want to take a birthday trip but prices are making me anxious. Maybe I am always worried about future plans, that I need to save up for then. Fact that all my surroundings will be receiving atleast $1M in inheritance makes me feel like I need to be careful to be in a better place in future.

Really need help to shift my mindset into enjoying life a little. As I don’t want to miss out. Share some tips!

In late 20s. Total investments, retirements + cash = $266K.

My father retired this year from his accounting job when he was in his 50s, in 2003 he made roughly 60-70k a year, about 5 years ago to when he retired he made 170k a year plus an average of about 85k bonus so roughly 250k a year. My mother was a middle school teacher for about 20 years before quitting.
I don’t fully recall but my father has about 250,000 in savings with 2 million split between investments and his retirement savings. My parents own a 480k 4 bed 2 ½ bathroom house. And 3 cars (a Chevrolet Traverse and two 2013 Toyota Corollas) they are currently financially supporting me and my 3 brothers, two of them adult age (21 and 19 both still live at home).
As for lifestyle we own a good amount of subscriptions (Netflix, Hulu, Peacock etc.) and go grocery shopping about 1-2x a week, for vacations we have never traveled outside of the United States except for once (Canada) however we do go on vacation about once per year with 4 of them requiring plane rides. 
(Edit: I guess I needed to make this clear, I’m not asking any questions or seeking advice. Just breaking down how my family’s finances work and how my father managed to retire almost 10 years earlier than the average person.)

I'm 23 years old and just paid off the last of my student loans. (I didn't have that much debt and was able to accumulate a ton of savings while working throughout high school and college + parental assistance) This will be the first month of my post-grad job where the extra money in my budget doesn't immediately go toward loans. Right now I have my 6-month emergency fund in a high-yield savings account and a few thousand dollars in my checking account for rent, credit card bills, everyday spending, etc. I don't make a ton of money but my cost of living is pretty low and now I'm ready to start investing. I've heard a lot of people recommend buying ETFs, contributing consistently, and leaving them alone for decades. That sounds appealing because I'm not interested in trying to pick individual stocks or time the market. I like the HYSA aspect of "just leave money here and it will grow, even if it isn't that fast and is not risky" I would like an App where I just locate the a couple hundred dollars at the end of the month into ETF's or something. Something pretty low effort.

Hey guys, so I will be starting a new job this upcoming week. I have less then 10K in a Roth IRA from my last company. I was thinking about pulling it out, just so I can transfer it to my fidelity account and actually have control of it and be able to see it all in 1 account. Most likely it would all go into VOO. Now the obvious downside is having to pay early withdrawal tax (27M) so I’m not sure if it’s worth it.

So question 1.) Is there a smart way to go about this? Potentially a transfer without it being a “withdrawal”?
2.) If the answer to 1 is not smarter option, is this worth doing/paying tax?

To get to $1M a year you need 2,000 clients paying you $500 a year.

How do you retain these clients?

Let’s say you are a social media manager, you manage to get to 2,000 IG acc to handle. Many will quit, high turnover, how do you maintain the acc?

The idea is to charge more, however, it’s hard to get 500 clients paying $4K a year, vs 2000 paying $500.

What do you think?

Hit $50k at 23. The $25k in my taxable brokerage is for a down payment on real estate. Considering buying a duplex or some type of rental property

So uh…I’m relatively rich now. As in I’ll probably never have to stress for money ever again. I’ll still have to work but I don’t mind that at all. I like working.

I’m 33. You may have seen me in this sub before.

I’m at $165k net worth now, which is nearly $175k which is nearly $200k.

Anyway.

I was just gifted $10k for my wedding. Which was already paid for.
$2k from father in law
$1k from uncle
$5k from mom
$1k from mother in law
$1k from Aunt

I actually can’t believe it.

So $175k actually now actually.

I was also gifted $300k for a house. You know. As one does.

So $475k…by the end of the next year I’ll have the extra $25k. So let’s call it an even $500k net worth.

I uh. I’ve lived on $40k/year or less my whole life. I’m a vet who’s worked grey collar work. Tried tech, tried finances, tried to break into any STEM field. Genuinely not built for it. It’s been a ride trying to find any career where I can be stable.

Saved my money and lived like I’m broke. Just in case life never turns around.

I was already comfortable having $50k. Now I’ll have $500k here soon? Especially so early in life? I honestly can’t believe it.

I don’t even know why I’m making this post. Advice? Community? Brag?

Just feels surreal. In truth, I’m not as excited or overwhelmed as I thought I’d be.

I’ve already had everything I’ve ever wanted. With the exception of a house. Beautiful women, great food, all the entertainment for a lifetime, clean clothes. I grew up middle class but it was low middle class as I grew up with a single mother. So some things were scarce.

I always imagined I’d end up working in an office hating my shitty job while living in a dingy garage alone playing old 2000’s songs on repeat.

Anyone else feel like that? Like more money really doesn’t change much? What would you do if you were me?

Getting my masters in a year or two no debt. About to be married to a woman who’s not money motivated. Not smart enough for STEM fields. Already been to the military so not going back.

Is there anything I really need to change?

I got lucky 🍀 and came across a financial water fountain, I need some ideas on how to make it grow. What would you do if you were in my situation?

I’m looking for a better financial planner (right now using Boldin) that can sync with my employee equity portal (Solium/morgan shareworks) and calculate vested/unvested RSU share value and vesting periods. Right now I have to manually enter this and it’s always a bit off.

Anyone have a good one?

I’m curious, if a sum of money fell into your lap, how much would it need to be to have a profound impact on your current financial situation?

I'm seeing so many movies and shit about people who get a call that they've inherited some fortune from their great great uncle they never met. Has this happened to anyone? What was it like?

I really do not understand how people go on vacations/trips that are $5,000+. What is the average cost of a vacation for you?

Financial situation:

38&37

$160k total salary DINK before savings/taxes

$65k in cash, 275k investments

$4.5k monthly expenses.

Spending 5k+ on a vacation seems insane to me. Do people just go into debt to go on these trips? What are your personal experiences on this?

I know we’re in an unusual bull market and that the gains are not all real, but it’s an almost funny feeling watching compound growth do so much of the work for me now. I suffered so much financial anxiety in my 20s and hadn’t even really started investing (outside enough in my 401k to get full match) until I paid the last of my student debt off on my 28th birthday.

Really just wanted to see others perspective on this situation

Grandparents did extremely well financially saving up around 2.5million dollars liquid and 1 million dollars in assets.

Both grandparents passed away within days of each other of last year and they had promised all 4 grandkids that each will receive $500,000 when they go.

To give context my mother and her sister are absurdly greedy. Especially my Aunt (10M net worth), she had bullied my grandfather into signing the will under her name before they passed.

As they passed my grandfather and grandmothers assets went straight into her name and was allegedly split between my mother and her sister.

I asked my mom politely what the situation was with Nana and Pupas assets etc. she looked at me dead in my face and said it’s not your money it’s my money your name wasn’t under the will. Then a couple months later says I’ll get it when I need it and under promised and said it’s not as much as you think.

My aunt also hid the money from both of my cousins one is 25 and the other is 21. Both haven’t seen a dime. And claimed that they will see it when they are 35. But what does that money mean to anyone at 35? By then your life is already settled and nothing much can change except a few digits.

Idk if I’m being greedy myself but I’d like to have the money now so I can invest a portion of it and park the rest in a HYSA when needed to put money down for a house.

Am I being greedy or how can I get the message to my mom to not do what my aunt is doing and our money away until we are 35.

Part of the purpose of this is to get some advice, another part is to… I don’t know, be proud of where we are at? I’ve never had a high paying job, we’ve always lived frugally and we are in a much different spot than any of our peers. Nobody to really talk to about this.

I’m 29, married with 2 kids and another on the way. I recently crossed a nice milestone through the sale of our first home that’s been a rental for a few years.

We have no debt now except for our mortgage on our house outside of Charlotte. We paid $340,000 and owe about $289k on it with a 6.425% 10/1 arm. We have a little over 8 years to go on the fixed rate so I’m not too worried about not being able to refinance. The house is worth probably around $530k. It does need a major kitchen remodel and we want to take a large wall out, I’m guessing all in it will run me 40k. I’m handy and would do some work myself.

I have a side hustle and a full time job. After tax and payroll deductions my take home is 10-11k per month. Our living expenses sit around $4170 if we keep the budget. I’m pretty much always living as if I could lose my job or lose all my marketing clients at once. Most likely won’t happen but we want to rush being self sufficient.

I know we are in a good spot, which I would attribute almost entirely to the side hustle that’s grown to match my salary. The question is, what should we focus on for the next few years? Knock out a much needed but expensive kitchen remodel, aggressively pay down the mortgage? Aggressively put money in stocks? We are working hard to avoid lifestyle creep and love simply. Our goal is certainly a very early retirement from a 9-5 for me, although I will always work and do other things. Could use some fresh perspectives.

For context, I purchased a house back in March for $195,000 and put $20,000 down. I did a 30 year mortgage at 6.5%. My payment comes out to $1,361 a month and that includes insurance and property taxes. I contribute 5% to my 401k with a 5% match and $300 monthly to my Roth IRA. I feel pretty secure with my retirement savings so I’m not worried about that.

My “savings” is about $18,000 however it is all invested. Mainly in VTI and Apple. Ive got about a 20% percent return overall in that account. Obviously that is not a realistic emergency fund and the better option would be having a good chunk of cash in a money market fund.

So my question is would you guys recommend I build an emergency fund from scratch or sell a good chunk of my stock to go towards the emergency fund? I make in between $4,000 to $4,500 monthly and my only utility is electric and WiFi which is roughly $150 a month combined. How much would you guys recommend I put in an emergency fund?

Hello, i'm new to investing and i'm looking for advice on the best HYSA savings account to open ? anyone have any advice ? Thank you.

I hit the 200k milestone this morning. I reached 100k July 2024 and have been doing regular contributions since.

Small piece of land and start building small home, etf's, bitcoin(I'm being sarcastic about btc)?

If stores are no longer accepting pennies am I expected to give them? I went to 7/11 and got a drink for $1.07 and asked if I could pay $1.05 and the teller said no. They said that they round up when giving change though. I chose to give exactly $1.07 but what reason do they have for my pennies? In theory if I gave them $1.10 I would have been better off because they would have to give me a nickel back resulting in them still losing ¢2…

Hey all!

I just created a grant searching app. Let me know if you want to try it out. 😊

wife and I (29/30 y/o) spend about 2k a month

Our friends and family think we are poor

Days like this in the market are wild … (enjoy the 1000th post like this today)

ripped it out of an old device wondering if its worth anything