Hello all, only the thousandth person to post this topic. I am trying to do the research on my own but I can't decide if one is better than the other in my situation.

Here's my situation: fresh college grad, 22, engineering job starting at $85k in PA. I am planning to open a Roth IRA in the near future as well. Thoughts?

Hey Everyone,

My spouse and I are focusing on our long-term and retirement goals. Right now I'm trying to build a timeline that'll let me set X years as being when we retire, and then setup timelines for various projects and their costs for that duration.

i.e:

1. We owe Y on Car Z, starting Jan 2026 and ending Jan 2031.

2. When that's paid off, we expect to replace Car A with something, and that'll take us until 2036.

3. We want to buy a house to retire into, and so if we pay our current house off in 2040, how many years would we need to carry two mortgages, and when would we pay the second home off?

I want to put all of this into some kind of timeline or chart so that I can see the overlap, total (estimated) costs, and such things. The closest thing I've found to this is a few Gantt charts used for planning home renovations. Does anyone have anything similar to this that they use for tracking projects? Bonus points if it helps you calculate total expected costs.

So im a teacher in NYC, who is fortunate to have access to a plethora of tax advantage retirement accounts (one of the best 403b's in the country, a 457 plan, pension, and I pay into SS). I just want to know what is the best way to juggle all of them and still save to possibly own a house/condo. Should I limit contributions to accounts and put them in personal stock funds that I can use for a down payment, as tbh a lot of places here want an all cash offer if its like under a million.

My wife is looking to switch into nursing in the near future, and it looks like these are our 2 main options:

1. Private Accelerated Bachelors in Nursing (ABSN) ~$80K: 16 month ABSN with totals costs of $80K all in (tuition, program fees, textbooks, exam prep, etc.) for the program. This program is significantly easier to get into compared to the ADNs in option 2, and has a NCLEX (nursing certification exam) pass rate of ~90%

2. Various Public Associate Degrees in Nursing (ADN) ~$20K: Various public in-state ADN programs; each are relatively similar 24 month programs with total costs of about $20K all in (covers everything similar to the above). These programs are more competitive to get into, and have NCLEX pass rates between 80% - 90%.

Some relevant facts about our financial situation:

1. Both late 20s / early 30s, no kids and renting, but want to buy a house and have kids in the future (4 - 6 years)
2. I make ~$200K a year, wife is currently finishing nursing pre-reqs and is a full time student
3. Spend $7-8K a month in a HCOL, we have ~2K excess cash month after investing $2.8K a month (maxing 2 Roth IRAs, Family HSA, and putting 6% into 401K to get employer match)
4. Net worth of $174K

240K Assets: (211K Invested, $29K value of car, $15K cash)

$80K Debts ($51K federal student loans avg. rate of 3%, $29K car loan 1% rate)

5) Both have credit scores >770 which seem to qualify us for private loans with rates between 4-6%

We are currently saving the $2K excess cash each month, and I expect that we will be able to mostly cash flow an ADN program, but not the Private ABSN program. My wife is still in the process of applying, however there is a solid chance that she gets into both the private ABSN as well as one of the public ADN's.

Assuming that she gets into both, are we crazy for considering the Private ABSN given the $60K sticker difference? Our rationale is the following:

1. $50K made up by finishing faster: Starting wages in nursing are $40-$50 an hour in our HCOL west coast city, assuming she can begin working 8 months earlier under the ABSN, she would earn ~50K after tax during these 8 months:

($45/hour x 1560 working hour in 8 months = $70,200 x 0.7 (1.0 - assumed 30% tax rate) = $49,140)

2) No need for ADN - BSN bridge: In the future my wife would like to get a Bachelors in nursing, going straight to an ABSN would remove the need for her to do an ADN - Bachelors bridge program, saving potential future time and money (although I have heard that employers often sponsor this, so the money factor may be greatly diminished)

3) Possible student loan employer assistance: Multiple employers in the area have advertised student loan assistance programs based on working for them for 2 years. My understanding is that most of these settings are in generally less desirable med-surge positions, and she would like to maintain career flexibility, therefore it is definitely not a guarantee we will receive any employer assistance.

4) She has a desire to be done with school as soon as possible: Getting done with school 8 months earlier and moving on to a new life stage would be preferable

If you made is this far thanks so much for reading my ramblings, would appreciate any advice and happy to provide other relevant info if requested.

I’m looking for some advice! My company was just acquired by a larger tech company and all of my stock options are set to vest when the deal is final. I’ve recently got into investing and planned to invest the money and start diversifying my portfolio.

However, I bought a dud of a house 3 years ago and constantly have major work to do. Next up on the list is to insulate the attic and exterior walls. There is a less expensive fix for $5k or total fix for $10k. I’m so bothered with having to spend any money on this and was considering doing the less expensive option. But now that I stand to have this lump sum coming in stock options, there is an opportunity to take from it and do the total fix.

Is that a reasonable option? You I was excited about investing it all but taking $10k away would only be a small amount of the total.

Hey all! I will plan to go to grad school in about 4 to 5 years.

I do not want any loans so I have had been building a lot of cash, now with about 70kish. I have it all in a CD at 3.9 percent but with how inflation is going I was not sure if there is a better way to park the money, while also decreasing volatility.

For example if I put in the stock market and it has crashed by the time I have gone the school that would be undesirable. But with how terrible inflation is I was wondering if there was something as safe as a CD/savings with higher interest.

During my divorce settlement, I was referred to an investment group who have a minimum dollar requirement of $750k and I just barely made the cut.

When I asked for an extra $5k over my annual budget, they made it seem like I was jeopardizing my retirement.

Retirement is only a couple of years away, so obviously the funds are going to go below that minimum amount.

Am I being paranoid or is some push back to be expected?

Hi I don’t really post much or am on reddit much but I just wanted to know if I am doing the correct thing and being responsible.

I am m20 in college and currently working to pay for my rent for the year while at college. I am planning on paying for my housing with my fafsa but also having money to pay for it without dipping into the fafsa is nice.

So I am currently doing a paid internship in a coroporate office for the summer. I am making about $2k per week. My rent is $860 and what I am doing is whenever I get my paycheck, I am first paying off my rent/security deposit with my credit card. My plan is basically whenever I need rent money, I sell off stock equaling the amount i need for the month. and then once I get my pay stub, I pay my credit off and invest the rest into safer investments (like 60/40 bonds and stocks and like apple [lowk am an apple fanboy and I think they’ll have a good year with future product predictions i’ve been following] and tsmc [one of the most important chip makers so I feel like they are “safe” in that many tech companies rely on them]).

I leave myself with $200 in my checking for “fun” money, everyday expenses (i try to limit them) and subscriptions I have ($10 a month for apple+ and $1.99 for google storage).

I just want to know if I am doing a good job or what I can do more to help optimize what I am already doing if anyone has any tips. I don’t want to be too risky with my investments but I didn’t want to just have my money sitting in my account doing nothing.

Anyone have any tips, any information is welcomed and appreciated. sorry for writing a lot, i’ve been told im hella wordy.

I’m fairly new to this space and have a genuine question of whether it’s worth taking advantage of the backdoor Roth IRA process, and if so, what are the recommended mechanics.

My wife and I are in our late 30s and make over the income limit for a Roth IRA, but not by much. I’ve maxed out my 401k and my wife has a pension. I DCA invest roughly another 20k (hope to hit 35k eventually) per year in a standard taxable brokerage account that I hope to not need to touch until retirement around 65.

Is it worth doing the back door Roth process? If so, do you contribute the max to the traditional IRA, convert immediately, invest as you see fit through the Roth account, and then repeat annually? Is there a better process? I’m also concerned about the “step transaction rule” that Schwab references on its website.

Thanks all!

I’m a 21 year old college student, I go back to school mid August. I like to go to the bars and have fun with friends and occasionally grab a bite to eat. I don’t spend much besides that, I’m bless to have parents that are covering my rent at school, as well as helping me through college to make sure I don’t graduate with debt. I am just wondering what I should do I will have about 13,000 dollars by the end of summer and want to invest.

in summary, 26M and 25F with 2 kids under 2 :) We make $5300-5600 a month (single income, wife is SAHM). expenses are about $3300-3500 total not including miscellaneous/random. We only have about $1k in emergency fund. As of this past month set up contributions of about $850 towards emergency fund per month while still maxing out roth (1 roth). We have $60k in roth from maxing out since i started working so idea of stopping is bit of mental wrestling, that being said, do we pause roth to build up emergency fund quicker? Things to note, we want to have another baby in 18 months or so. Snapshot:

Income: $5400

Expenses: $3400

Emergency fund: $1k

Roth: $60k

Other: Paid off car, house with 140k equity (bought as foreclosure which is why so much equity)

Debt: Nothing besides mortgage and $240 land loan on our farm land

I am new to investing, and without going into too much history, I have $20k+ in my IRA, but it's not really growing. I recently heard somewhere that just putting money into your IRA account doesn't actually invest it, that you have to choose where to invest the money I checked my account and yup.... my money is not growing. I have no idea what to do, or where to put my money. I am mid-forties and have a large chunk of cash (in the 6 figures) that I made after selling a business and divorcing/selling our home. I intend to invest some of that into a down payment for another home, am remarried to someone that is earning low six figures with his job but has zero saved. Oh, and we are moving from the west to Midwest (yuck), so cost of living will be somewhat less than what we deal with now.

My questions are:
1. What should I be investing in to grow my IRA?

1. Should I invest more of my cash into the market, and if so, how do I do that without having to pay the exorbitant fees charged by brokerage houses?

2. Should I put more down on the home we are purchasing, and have a lower mortgage that we can get paid off in full in 12-15 years, or invest that money?

I am frozen, because of the constant barrage of doomsday predictions about the housing market that "has to crash soon", and the "AI bubble that's about to burst". Any advise is welcome.

Oh, also, I am in charge of the finances in our household, and hubby is on board with budgeting and learning to say "no" to everyone in our home for what we need/don't need. He is retired military with a decent retirement, but certainly not what we would need to live comfortably for the rest of our lives.

So, I have a situation that is bizarre to me. I'm hoping some experts can tell me I'm right in being worried about this. I work for a major hospital in Memphis TN. I started working for them as a nurse extern, then became an RN and then a Pharmacist. The hospital has 6 different locations. Through this time, my total compensation has increased significantly from when I was hired ( April 2003) . I have now been with company for 23 years steadily employed with them full time except when I went to pharmacy school ( I became a weekender for 4 yrs, though most times, I worked 32-40 hrs). I noticed this problem years ago, but no one has been able to give me a straight answer why my balance is decreasing instead of increasing. Below is a snapshot of my last 5 end of year balance for my pension. My compensation has average 140k (conservative no) in the last 6 years, with my Gross income way over 200k in the past 3 yrs due to OT. My company has 2 pension funds, one is future builders while the old one is classic plan. I was told Im in the classic plan.

In 2003, my company closed their pension to new participants, and gave us the option to remain in the old pension or move to the new 403b. I chose to remain in the pension and have 403b. My 403b has done really well, while as you can see, my pension is going backwards. Is this normal? Is there a scenario where an employer's pension (whether classic or future builders) is decreasing with increasing years of service. No one can seem to understand my problem, not HR and not the customer service reps that have spoken to me. Can someone tell me Im not overreacting?

I didnt know my numbers didnt show. Below are the yearly balances numbers since 2020.

2020 - $86, 537

2021 - 105,041

2022 - 107,329

2023 - 75,576

2024 - 52, 487

2025 - 57, 100

2026 Q2 ending - 52, 636

Have a 529 plan with Georgia’s Path2College plan

Have 3 kids all with their own accounts as beneficiaries

My oldest has graduated college and begins grad school this fall.

Should I go ahead and give them full ownership so they can start directly paying their costs? Balance is approx $85K

Are there any tax or other implications?

I was planning to keep doing some modest contribution level $1500 /yr but maybe I stop that.

I’m about to go into my senior year of college as a finance major and am having trouble determining what I want to do after. Right now my situation looks like this:

\-Graduate with no student debt
\-$9100 in Roth IRA (maxed this year)
\-$4800 brokerage (portfolio not incredibly diverse, index funds/nvdia)
\-$3200 HYSA

Right now during the summer I work At dominos 3 nights a week netting about $450 in 14 hours of work because it’s the only delivery place at where I live. I also own 20% of a lawn care business with my brother that we’ve scaled from 30 clients at purchase to 100 clients now. I’m not able to fully help run it as I’m doing summer classes and still have this next school year but he pays me $22 under the table.

Right now my plan after graduation is to do this same work next summer to save up to travel from around 2027 September to 2027 December before really getting into “adulthood”. My issue is that I honestly don’t know if I should pursue a finance type job or keep scaling the landscaping with my brother and get my irrigation certification as that’s a very needed business in my area (only one company and they have a year long waitlist currently).

I also want to know how aggressively I should be putting my money in a brokerage compared to my hysa. I can live with my parents as long as needed and they live a mile from my brother so it works out work wise once I’m done with school.

For context, I am 34 living in a HCOL area (Bay Area, CA). I started investing toward my retirement since I was 25, basically maxing out my Roth every year since. I currently work for the University of California, where they offer pension, 403b, and 457. I am part of the pension plan and plan to work for UC for several years down the road, and I also contribute to both 403b and 457. I am now wondering if I should start contributing less to these accounts and use this money toward my individual brokerage, which honestly I haven't been focusing on at all. I want to retire by 55. Should I just continue to max out the 457, stop contributing to the 403b, and use that money to invest in my individual brokerage?

Overall, is my plan (Roth + 457 + pension + individual) a sufficient plan for someone who wants to retire by 55?

I'm in a conundrum. Married couple 5-7 years from retirement (5 if all goes well). We are both currently putting 17% into our 401K's each. 12% is going into 401k Roth, with the other 5% into standard 401K to get company match. We each have approx. $460,000 in our portfolios.

On top of that, we have standard and Roth IRAs at a paid brokerage. The combinded portfolio balance is approx $820,000. The fee is listed as 1.15% but my broker said this today:

"Your current breakpoint is $750k-$1MM.  That fee is 1.15%  your overall fee is below that and it has been that way since you started around $699k."

So my question is this... should I keep all my investment funds each month going onto my work place vehicle, or should I divert a certain percent into my paid brokerage in hopes of increaseing that balance and getting my AUM fee % down to the next tier that kicks in at $1MM+?

Thanx

Hello all.

I (27M) was recently fired from a job where I had automatic payments into a retirement account straight from my paycheck. Unfortunately, I now find my self having depleted my savings on rent, and I have used most of the small inheritance I got from my grandma passing away. I am looking down the barrel of not being able to afford rent or groceries soon. I am currently working two jobs (childcare:$21/hr and Retail: $19.45/hr) and am penny pinching every where I can, but I’m still coming up short when it comes to paying rent over the next few months. I am moving to a much cheaper apartment and downsizing my apartment quite a bit, as well as selling my project car in the next month. I do live in a medium expensive area but I need to be close to my support system for mental health reasons, so moving cities is not possible at the moment.

The retirement account currently has $14,000 in it. If I took it out now, I’d get about $9800, which looses a lot to taxes but is still around 8 months of rent at my new apartment. I’m still working also, and I’m hoping to get a promotion at my retail job soon that will help me make up some of the money. In any case, I know that it is generally better to roll over this $14000 into my separate IRA (that currently has $16,000 in it), but I kind of feel desperate for financial security now. I’m hoping that I can start a new career soon and still build up enough of a nest egg for the future.

What should I do here? Should I keep working and hope for the best or dip into the retirement fund?

HYSA is what I am looking at, since it is clean and simple. I'm wondering what other options/bonuses I can accrue for transferring a large sum of money at once, especially as a new account holder. Kinda like a SUB for credit cards but instead for balance transfers.

If you guys no any good institutions for this, lmk, thanks!

As the title says, I am 21 years old and living at home. I have no debt, school completed, and minimal expenses each month (under $500).

In the fall I am becoming a teacher in Massachusetts. 11% of my paycheck goes directly into the pension system so I will have a pension when I retire. In addition to a pension, I have maxed out a Roth IRA each year since I have turned 18 and have 35k in it currently. I also have a brokerage account that has 55k in it. I have 15k in a HYSA that i plan to continue building over the years to put toward a house. In the perfect world, I would prefer to just use my HYSA as money put toward a downpayment on a house but I suppose I also have the flexibility of the brokerage account as well.

With my teaching job, I will be making about 60k to start and will be expecting about a 7k raise each year after. In addition, I also have a side hustle that brings in about 30k per year.

My teaching job allows me to have a 457b as well. Should I max this out each year (maximum contribution is $24,500)? Should my contributions be Roth or traditional?

Thank you!

Hi everyone I need ideas & someone more savvy than me.
I have a car and I still owe $6900 on my loan.
However, I’m in a position where I don’t necessarily need this car anymore (I have access to another already paid-off car from a family member). And I’d love to no longer have a monthly car payment.

Also, I hit a deer recently. My car needs a ton of *cosmetic* repairs. My insurance deductible is $1000, and I just can’t justify paying $1000 to get some eye-sore repairs handled. So alas, I’ve decided to rock with my beater-mobile now. In addition to the deer damage, my AC doesn’t work, speakers are blown, and my windshield is cracked. Here’s the deal though, that’s all “fluff”, the car runs GREAT. With regular oil changes this bad boy runs and runs.
However, the opportunity to switch to this other car with no car payment is tempting. And since my car needs so much work I’d rather just sell it and make the switch to a more comfortable ride anyways.
That leaves me with my loan. I still owe $6900 on this roughed up beauty. There’s no way I’d get more than $2k for it. So if I sell my car, how do I handle the rest of my loan?
I don’t have an extra couple grand to pay it off, and selling my car wouldn’t cover the difference.
My credit is good, I don’t mind if it needs to take a hit for whatever reason, though. (Not looking to purchase a home or lean on credit for a long time, we’re pretty off-grid folks). If that matters for my options.
Is it possible to switch the loan to something else? I could use a $6900 loan towards other life things currently, just not towards this car. I don’t own any other collateral, though. So I don’t know if transferring the loan’s purpose is an option. I’m very stuck.

TLDR; I want to sell my car, I’d only get $2k for it, I still owe $7k on my loan. Paying off the difference is not a financial option for me. I’ve been given a free car from family I’ll drive once I sell my current car. Suggestions on what to do with my loan? Open to hearing literally anything. Thank you!!!!

Hey all,

I am single and 38, living in Los Angeles. I make about 109k a year. I’m currently playing off 32k in cc debt (dumb I know). I have been putting money in my 4001k since I started working out of college but only recently (last 4 years) I’ve finally made more than 50k a year. So my 401k sits at 130k. I am contributing 6% right now which is all I can afford with other bills and rent. My company matches at 6%.

As soon as my cc debt is paid off I plan on increasing my contribution. Am I on the right path? I feel super stressed about it.

Any advice would be welcome.

Interned at software and consulting companies, saved up 50k. Invested in ETFs for the majority, not sure how I can capitalize on this fast (without gambling), and I’m thinking of trying to get larger returns by the time I’m 35.

Tuition and all is paid for, this is the money I have saved aside.

Any advice/recommendations?

My wife and I are both in our early 30s and are trying to decide if buying a home by the end of 2028 is the right financial move.
Current situation:
Both co-ops are in my name.
Co-op #1 (Queens, NYC):
Purchased for $360k
Mortgage balance: ~$189k
Interest rate: 2.67%
Co-op #2 (Queens, NYC):
Purchased for $210k
Mortgage balance: ~$168k
Interest rate: 6.5%
Rental income currently covers the mortgage.
Student loans:
Me (FNP): ~$50k
Wife (new grad lawyer): ~$55k
Careers:
I’ll finish my FNP program mid-next year and hope to start working by the end of next year.
My wife starts her attorney position later this year.
Plan:
Start a family around 2028.
Buy a $700k–850k home by the end of 2028.
Considering New Jersey, Connecticut, or Buffalo. We love Buffalo because of the affordability, but it feels limiting. NJ and CT keep us closer to NYC, but home prices are much higher.
Current strategy:
Keep both co-ops as long-term investments.
Potentially use a HELOC on the first co-op, along with savings, for the down payment.
Questions:
Does buying a $700k–850k home by the end of 2028 seem financially reasonable?
Would you keep both co-ops, or sell one before buying?
Is using a HELOC for part of the down payment a smart strategy?
What would you do differently in our situation?
I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from anyone who has balanced investment properties, student loans, and buying a family home. Thanks!

As the title says, I have a private practice with incredibly low overhead. Brings in on average about 450k a year. It is set up as an S Corp (W2 income between 100 and 140k) and I am the only employee. Granted payments can be inconsistent, so it isn’t unusual for me to go months without receiving certain payments, and I on average am owed between 30 to 50k at any given point in time. Between mortgage, property taxes, private health insurance, my quarterly payments, SEP and Roth contributions, and my child’s 529, I feel I’m not actually saving as much as I should be. It is also a stressful year financially as my wife and I have been doing back to back IVF cycles, which insurance won’t touch.

I’m wondering if there’s anything I’m missing. Is this just truly what it costs to live a non-luxurious but very comfortable lifestyle? Is this just a situation because of the IVF payments (about 65k in the last four months) and sporadic cash flow delays? Has anyone ever found themselves in a similar situation?