Can I get the tax advantage of a 529 if I work in Minnesota but live in Wisconsin?

Thanks!

I'm self-employed with a healthy retirement fund that I've been putting money into for over 10 years. I also have a small investment fund (about 1/3 of what I have in retirement), 1 year of living expenses in liquid assets, and separately all of my tax savings for my business. Recently, I got the opportunity for "group rate" short term disability insurance through a professional org I belong to. It would be about $75/mo for a 6k/mo benefit, which is about half my income. I can't decide if this is worth it or not. I feel like I am really good at saving and keep high balances because my income can be so unpredictable; at the same time, I have read other advice that if you can use SDI instead of draining your emergency fund, that is preferable. I prefer to keep my monthly bills super low so I can save as much as possible, so the thought of adding a $75/mo bill seems like a lot to me even though I could afford it. Does this seem worth it or not?

(I am married but my partner makes significantly less than I do; not enough to cover our total household expenses if I had zero income. I am on his health insurance through his job. If I couldn't work at all, he would have to change jobs or pick up a second job).

I have $200 left over after all my expenses, and bills. I dreading of spending on something stupid a month I want to put it towards my future. I have a Roth with Charles S and a retirement account with my employer I’m a firefighter so city program, along with a pension. My question is what stocks do I invest in on my own for future in my Roth? Any advice helps. Or would a high yield savings be better?

Both of us are retired military drawing pensions and we both work full time at. FAANG-level company. Annual gross $450k, net $360k or so. Zero credit card debt, about $280k left on mortgage (2.625%, about $300k in equity). We own a second home that is rented out (5.125%, $50k equity, $250k left).

3 kids in college/grad school, all on scholarship. $600k in various Roth IRAs (yeah, could have done better there). $30k in cash. The only debt I have really besides the houses are 3 cars (my kids'), I owe about $90k on the cars altogether.

We're projected to make about $12k per month in retirement.

So question, what to do with or where to park the $200k inheritance?

I'm 17 years old, working part time jobs and studying. Now that I have a bit of money in my pocket, is there anything I can do with it?

Here are some of my options that I am considering:

1. Just saving it: I do save quite a big part of my salary and earnings however I feel that the value of that money will eventually decrease over time. Prices are increasing rapidly at where I live.

2. Buying courses/ "investing in myself":

I now have the financial means to pay for some courses. I'm currently looking at some coding books, finance books etc. I'm still not sure on buying courses on Coursera etc.

3. Giving back/ charity:

I'm also quite keen on donating some money to charity organizations. The world has a lot of issues and I want to help it in whatever way I can. I know there's volunteering work, but I have my studies, hobbies and work to occupy me.

4. spending on things I like:

Hobbies, Holidays, Netflix subscription, starting a collection. Of course I won't go overboard with it, but it's nice to treat myself sometimes. However I fear that it will cultivate a very bad spending habit. Everyone around me including my parents say that I should save and travel the world while I'm young.

My parents are very traditional, so there is absolutely no way I could convince them to open a custodial account and start investing. The best bet is for me is to start at 18 when I'm of legal age to do so.

And technically, my parents don't know what I'm spending with my money and it's not their money anyways so they won't be particular on what I spend my money on. So basically, I can kinda spend money on anything that doesn't require my parents to be involved.

I would like to get some advice on this matter, thank you so much for taking your time to read and give comments.

So I have a family friend that is a financial advisor with 20+ years of experience. I’m not interested in bringing him on as a long term advisor but I paid him to help me build a portfolio for each of my accounts. The overall portfolio is starting to get up there (currently at $500k+ with another $200k I’m DCAing in).

My question is - Do you agree with his suggestions as it seems a lot of people in this subreddit put nearly everything into something like VOO and I just want to make sure I’m not stunting my long term growth with these investment choices.

401k - 90% 2060 Target Date Fund // 10% US REIT

Roth - 90% VT // 10% VNQ

Brokerage - 28% VEA // 28% VUG // 26% VTV // 11% VWO // 7% VB

I also have an HSA and Employee stock but limited options for where to invest those so decided not to include.

I am in my mid 20s and live at home. I have about 180k in cash equivalent, and about 50k invested. I make about $4k take home at my day job then my side hustle averages about 3-4k take home after tax.

When buying a house I really want to keep all the expenses affordable with my 9-5 income so that my side hustle doesn’t become mandatory to run my life ( I think that’s smart at-least).

I would be looking at a 4-500k house and that’s the minimum I can physically spend in my area. I would need about 120k down all in and then about 3k a month in a mortgage.

It just seems a bit much since I would only have 1,000 left with my 9-5. I would still do my side hustle, but I don’t want to have to do my side hustle for anything else but saving and future investments.

I plan to stay home another year . But I also feel like I’m missing out not putting my foot in the door of home ownership.

( I am handy so I would do all repairs and Reno)

I feel as if I’ve created a awesome foundation but don’t want to blow it making a move I shouldn’t be

I have a CD maturing in a few months, and was wondering what to do with it. I was considering dumping it most of it into a brokerage account and investing in the S&P 500.

I was wondering if there were other alternatives to investing it, as my retirement savings are quite behind were I would like it to be.

(My first job didnt have a 401k, so i just squirreled l away money into a cd instead of investing it as I was ignorant about the benefits of financial planning and was incredibly risk averse)

Context: 30 years old

Roughly 6-7 months in emergency fund

No major expenses, currently in a masters program (will use left over cd money to fund the rest of it, currently cash flowing it through job)

Roth ira $14k (maxed this year)

Brokerage $16k

401k total $20k (trying to max)

Thanks for the advice!

Greetings all,

I am 22, college graduate, currently employed making $22/ hour (looking for new job), bring home ≈$800 depending on OT, no debt, and live rent free with parents. I have 62k in 4.5% money market and 25k in Roth IRA. I just started to put $50 into the S&P 500 weekly, 2 months ago. Any advice on what I can do to grow my wealth? No get rich courses lol. I know I’m in a good spot, don’t want to ruin it.

Thank you

I'm in my early 20s and make ~100k, about $5000 net per month after taxes and retirement contributions.

I live in a VHCOL area with no debt and no expenses. Theres a chance I might be able to snag a foreclosed condo that needs some renovations for ~300k, which if renovated would be worth around 380-400k based on nearby comps. My monthly payments depending on interest would be ~2500 which includes HOA.

I have about 40k in a HYSA, would only be putting about 5% down. I live rent free at home right now and am able to stack cash, but I'm torn whether to pursue this or not considering where I live most condos go for 400k+ and I'm afraid I'll never be able to get my foot in the door in buying a home and building equity since prices keep going up. I also enjoy living at home so am not really in a rush to move out, but if I can get a good deal for this it might be worth it.

Any thoughts / advice would be greatly appreciated, I'm super torn on this. Thank you

My background (feel free to skip to the next paragraph): Hi, all, I'm 37 yo soon, high income, with 3 kids. I have 2 1099 side hustles and just sold my house and car. I have a 401(k), pension, 457, a fidelity investment account where i buy additional ETFs, and 529 for my kids. Overall, I save about 12% a month, and I have shit ton of debt due to a recent divorce and financial devastation from someone who was hiding how they were blowing tens of thousands of dollars and also secretly not paying our taxes, among other very financially damaging things ive had to pay for. I'm working with a tax attorney now who has gotten me right with my returns and is filing equitable relief for our 6-figure tax debt. fingers crossed on that

I feel like, once I get out of this debt, I'll be doing okay and will have way more financial power to make some huge gains, but I have met with a fiduciary service that also files your taxes. I keep feeling that I need to hire them because I want to know I'm optimizing my decisions in where I put my money and how plus timing. I use YNAB and have a budget I follow, but I'm brand new to doing taxes as an "adult". I did the basic H&R block thing in college, then was married for over a decade, where my ex "did" them. I'm a bit afraid of the tax man and know nothing about this area of finances! How do you know if you're making the right decisions through the year to reduce your taxable income? How do you handle withholdings and deductions from your paycheck (or budget for tax time) so that you are accurate? I have so many things I wonder about and really want to know how others are doing it. So, all tips are welcome!

Sitting on a little over 800k in my 401k, I'm maxed at 21% (which includes almost all of my catch-up)... I feel like I missed the boat on a Roth IRA but I've started at 2% into that. I know I'll need to do a lot of conversion but I'm wondering if maxing it for say 10-11 years is worth it... sitting in the 22% bracket now...

Thoughts?

I’ve been using Excel for investment/net worth tracking but need an app that can just do it for me automatically. After switching from excel I noticed I was using multiple apps to track my investments and I’m tired of juggling through the multiple apps and want something that integrates everything seamlessly. What’s your favorite all-in-one investment app, and what features make it stand out compared to using Excel and several other tools?

My wife (f29) and I (m30) just got married and are looking at buying a house together. We own a tree removal business that averages around 80k a year revenue. After expenses it's more like 50k. I am the foreman on site as well as quoting jobs and she does the secretary duties. We make a great team but she often complains that I don't seem to have a firm grasp on our financial situation. With the house on the way I wanted to reach out and see what some of the best ways I can plan for our retirements are.

We have some debt (about 15k on a work truck and another 15k on a personal line of credit of mine) and I'm curious if it's better to start saving for the future or paying off the debts first. What kinds of investments should we be thinking about. What would be the bare minimum for getting started on a retirement plan? Thanks in advance for your help.

Edit1: the business only operates for 7 months a year and the other 5 months I spend working with a crew of guys doing carpentry so my average yearly income is probably around 45k a year and my wife's income is similar.

I’m planning to study abroad in Spain next semester, and I currently have the Chase Freedom Unlimited credit card (my first and only card). I just realized that Chase charges foreign transaction fees on this card. I’ll be in Spain for 6 months, and I still want to use a credit card regularly, but I’m not sure if I should get another one.

I’ve heard it’s recommended to have 1-3 credit cards, so should I get a new one without foreign transaction fees or just go 6 months without using a credit card?

For context: I’m 20, a first-gen, low-income college student, and I’m learning about financial literacy.

Hello! I have almost $200k in stock from a company I worked for almost a decade and have let it sit. I'm thinking about either diversifying that stock (maybe shifting it to an index fund) or taking it out and investing it somewhere else. I would love some advice on how to make the money work FOR me and grow faster. I'm in my late 30's and am not well versed in this. Thank you for your help!

Long time reader, first time poster! I want to hear opinions on distribution of investments and if I’m putting my money in the best places. Everything that I manage myself in a TFSA and FHSA is in Fortune 50 stocks and Index Funds.

TFSA: 43k FHSA: 19k RRSP 21k Pension: 25k Mutual Fund: 5k

What should I be doing to see the highest long term growth?

This might seem like a silly question and I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I recently joined my company's insurance plan which has a premium coming out every paycheck.

My question is regarding the first deduction. I was enrolled in the medical plan and started coverage at the very end of the pay period with only 3 days left on it. However, I noticed on my upcoming pay stub that they deducted the full amount of the premium. I was wondering if this is this something that should be pro-rated based on how long I've been covered for (3/14 days)?

I only ask cause it would be a decent-ish chunk of change and it would be nice to have it pro-rated.

I have an interesting opportunity. I have recently got access to a no interest line of credit from my employer with a term of one year.

Here is my question: Is there a play here to effectively make my next year of mortgage payments early, put my monthly mortgage payments in a savings account, and then use that savings account to pay the loc? I was hoping to get see if there was a way to save on mortgage interest and get interest on savings.

Is this possible?

Hey everyone,

I recently turned 18 and I’m looking for any advice on how to start investing. I’m really new and don’t know a lot, I’ve heard a lot about contributing into s&p 500 and stuff. Wondering if there’s any other suggestions on high interest indexes to make me well off in the future. Thanks in advance

I grew up poor with a very financially illiterate family, and now we randomly are about to get all of this money. My dad died before receiving his inheritance from his mom, and he didn’t make a will. My mom is getting almost all of it, but my brother (18) and I (23) are each getting $25k

I know this is technically a good problem to have, but this money is causing me so much stress. I don’t like the circumstances that led me to get it and the family discussion of how to split it up has been awkward. Also, I’m terrified of doing all of this wrong, and I feel like there’s no one in my life that’s appropriate to bounce ideas off of

I’m 23 and work full time, maybe $85k-ish annually. I’ve been at my job for about a year. I contribute to a 401/roth but I don’t know the specifics, all I know is that there’s $13k in it. I have almost all of my money sitting in a HYSA, about $35k. I have a couple thousand in a checking account. My credit cards are paid off. I have $40k in student loans

My apartment lease ends in October 2025, and the plan was to (hopefully) keep saving and buy a house when the lease is up

I’ve been trying to learn about investing but I can’t seem to grasp it. Should I even invest it in the first place? Or throw it towards my debt?

My instinct is to just shove it away into the HYSA and stop thinking about it. But I really am trying to figure out the best path. My brother has no idea what’s happening and I currently handle my mom’s finances, so I need to help guide them too

Edit: I looked at my retirement stuff a bit. I contribute 4% “before tax” and 4% Roth. And all the money in there is invested, I guess it does it automatically

I have zero interest (lol) to dive into the why but for religious reasons I can’t participate in HYSA/CD.

I’m adding monthly to this checking out but would like to see addition growth as I plan on using this money for a major life investment in 2-3 years.

Do I simply put it all in a ETF like VOO/VTI? (DCA of course). Or the S&P500?

A 4-8% growth/year low risk is ideal.

Say I had 200$ month to invest in stocks. I figured I could do $150 a month in VOO inside of a ROTH IRA then take the other $50 a month and invest it in VOO through the stock market. The reason I wanted to do this is beside IRA I can’t pull until 59 & 1/2. But, if I’m putting it into the stock market outside of a retirement account, I would have money I could always access. Like if my car broke down in 5 years and I needed to buy a new one, I could take the money out of my stock market account & use it & just pay capital gain taxes.
Vs if it was all in the Roth IRA then I would have to depend on whatever I have in my savings account to pay for the vehicle.

I only make $1400 a paycheck every 2 weeks. My mortgage is $1100 a month. Water & electricity is $180-200$ Gas bill for heat is $180 Student loans $50 a month Wi-Fi is 76$ Disney plus is $15 a month. Credit card is $5-10$ a month ( use for gas just to keep my cards open pay them off in full every month) Car insurance is $30 a month lability Gym membership is $30 but about to cancel because I don’t go Christmas fund $100 a month ( only do this half the year) $50-60$ month for toilet paper,tooth paste deodorant, dish soap ect Vehicles gas 100$ a month.

That leaves me$820 a month. usually like one paycheck is $300 left over then the other has $500 left over depending on how the dates fall and the bill due date ect.

I was thinking of taking $100 out of each paycheck, putting $75 in a Roth IRA all in on VOO & then taking the other $25 per paycheck and putting it in VOO just so I would have some money gaining Interest that I can pull out whenever if needed. This would leave me about $600 a month to put into my regular savings account to have for emergency’s I have a 401k through work & I only put like 4 or 5 percent to get the match, but I just started it this year.

I’m 24 years old. Please help.

Edit to say I have a 2 year old son. Fiancé buys diapers wipes and food. She only makes about $1000 a month. Then she pays for her phone bill, her gas, drives my grandmas van so she doesn’t have insurance atm to pay for.

I need investing/ savings advice.

Good evening.

I have accumulated around 110k in savings. I dont pay rent in full, I pay half, and I pay all other bills, insurance, food, anything else for both me and my family member.

I am in pharmacy school and have amassed 50k in loans so far. I work only 8-10 hours a week making around $21 an hour since starting school.

My reasoning for taking on loans despite having a hefty savings amount was due to not having confidence that 100k will suffice for 4 (or 5) years worth of living expenses for the both of us.

One of my questions is, should I stop taking out loans and use my savings to pay for school instead, or how should I manage my savings? I am unsure on how I should be managing my savings with my circumstances

I feel like I’m really struggling financially and I’m just constantly throwing all my money into my credit card bill and I’m still not able to pay it off every month always and now after moving, I am bouncing closer and closer towards the roof every month. I’m trying to be very frugal and there are definitely times that I fail but I just paid into my credit card bill and before it was ~$400 from the max. my only other credit card is about $1000 below the max, and it’s on a balance transfer 0% APR that will probably expire in the next couple months IIRC. monthly credit card interest is a little over $500 a month and I feel like I’m struggling to pay off my debt.

I realized recently that my company has been increasing my percentage retirement contributions every year (I forgot they did this. It was in my contract. I’m not blaming them.) and now it’s at 10%. It’s been a blessing to see that at least my retirement account is doing well, it’s almost doubled in the last two years. I completely forgot to check into my retirement account since probably about three years ago because I thought that was best to just let it grow and not feel like it’s a parachute but I feel like it right now. My retirement is at about $62k psychic pull out enough to pay off all of my credit card debt, penalties, and hopefully still have a bit left over. My credit card debt is at about $30k($6.5k on balance transfer and $23.5k@29.?% APR). My food bill will be going down hopefully soon because when I moved in, there was an unknown bug infestation but now I can use my kitchen again.

Here are my large expenses and salary:

$2.4k rent $800 food (reducing soon) $750 car payment $500 CC interest $95 cell phone (will be reducing soon) $90 utilities/internet $70 pets $120 Misc. (drinking water, entertainment, etc.)

I’m trying to be as wise of my money as possible, but I feel like I’m not getting anywhere with it. I make $83k a year before taxes, insurance, and retirement are withdrawn, so at a little over $4k a month you can see I’m in the red before we even get to the credit card interest.

I’ve been at my company for 5 years and haven’t gotten a substantial raise, so I’m considering asking for one. I know I probably should just move onto another company because I could probably make a fair bit more but I really like that I can have enough free time with my current company to live my life enjoyably. If I can’t get a raise though, I’m not sure I can stay there. I don’t really care about career growth because I don’t find my fulfillment in my job so I prefer to just stay somewhere that I can get paid and then live my life outside the company, but I’m not sure my current job is able to help me with that anymore.

I live in LA by myself, but before had 2 roomates and before a year ago my car was paid off but then it got totaled, so my expenses have increased a lot in the last year. I’m a software engineer, but I’m remote and used to work in another state where it was much cheaper to live, but not my salary with my expenses is starting to not keep up. I’m willing to take advice, but the only areas I’m not looking for negotiation in at the moment is my housing and selling my car, so I’d appreciate if that was kept in mind. My car isn’t extravagant, but with the current market I did buy new but it’s a RAV4 so it’s not like I’m driving a bmw haha. The 9% APR hurts but it’s pretty much the best I could get. I love my car and it would be a bath to try and sell it to get something that is less and due to reasons I can’t mention moving is not an option.

I don’t want to withdraw from my retirement because it seems foolish and it’s growing quite well, it at this point I don’t know what to do. Even if I cut all the fat in my budget and at beans I’d still be in the red. If I did use my retirement I think I could still have about $10k left over. For reference I’m 27 so it’s not like I’ll be returning soon. Any thoughts?

I currently have an Citi CC with a balance of $5300 22%interest … CL $6000… would it be a good idea to do a balance transfer to my BOA CC which has no balance with a CL of $22,000… 0%APR For 12 months and 4% transfer fee… I have $1500 I can pay towards it now… is this a good idea, if not what do you suggest? Thank you!

Hi everyone, I’m 27 years old and currently earning around $75K annually, but I expect to make about $85K next year. Here’s a snapshot of my financial situation:

•	I started my 401(k) at age 23 and currently have about $13,000 saved, contributing 5% of my income (recently reduced from 15%).
•	I have 4 credit cards with a total debt of $2,700.
•	I don’t have a Roth IRA or any other investments.
•	I’m currently living with my parents but am considering moving out next year, although I realize it might not be ideal financially.

I’m looking for advice on how to improve my financial future. Should I focus on paying off credit card debt first, increasing my 401(k) contributions, or starting a Roth IRA? Any other investment strategies I should consider with my expected income increase?

Thank you in advance for your help!

I recently started budgeting after avoiding it since college. I've just been living paycheck to paycheck, paying my monthly minimums and thinking "as long as my checking isn't in the red...". I have credit card debt and student loans. My net worth is -$80k. I'm 25 and after listing every single one of my debts and monthly expenses I decided this was it, I'm going debt free and building savings. I've been budgeting religiously since, but there's a monster far bigger and scarier than even paying off the huge mountain of debt, and that is retirement. You're telling me I should be aiming to save between $1 - 2 MILLION from now to age 60? That would mean I would need to save between 30k and 70k A YEAR, ALL THE WHILE ALSO paying $2000~$3000 for a 30 year mortgage of a home whose median price is over $400k???? Please tell me I'm not the only one. I can't be the only person doing budgeting all wrong and seemingly not being able to afford education+retirement+a roof in the next 100 years. I sincerely do not see a way out of the tunnel. Any advice? Am I thinking about something wrong??

I'll try and keep this as objective as I can to see which scenario would be best for me. Then, at the end I can add some subjectivity to see if that would change anything.

20 Year mortgage at 3.75% from 2019 with 130k outstanding. Monthly payment is 1250 USD. Rent in the area is 2100-2200. I'd estimate I would need to invest 10k for it to be rent ready and to rent for 2100-2200.

I could sell as-is for 310k and net 160ish after commission and fees etc.

Currently have 75k in savings from another recent real estate transaction. Possible interest in using some of that as a down payment to acquire another property with positive cash flow and begin building a portfolio of rentals.

I own a small business and net 75k a year on average. My personal monthly expenses are relatively low at 3k. I was a landlord for one single property since 2009. I have contacts that can paint and do light to medium renovations to properties.

EDIT: Purchased in 2015 for 160k. Refinanced in 2019 and took equity for renovations.

Hey everyone, I’ve been thinking a lot about managing finances lately, especially when it comes to tracking personal spending or business expenses. I’m curious—how do you keep everything organized? Do you use any specific methods, tools, or templates? Also, would you consider buying templates if they were available to make budgeting easier? Would love to hear your thoughts