Howdy,

Just looking for some advice.

I recently passed 50k in my high yield and I'm wondering what to do with it.

At this moment, I have a Roth IRA that is a Schwab Intelligent Portfolio that is maxed out for the 2024 tax year and a 401k thru work.

I'm not the most financially litterate regarding stocks and ETFs, along with what type of accounts/ investing strategies and only have a individual brokerage account with a few pennies in it. As per the reason of the intelligent portfolio for the Roth IRA.

What would you recommend as my next step? Is there something similar to the intelligent portfolio that will invest for me into some ETFs or is their someone I should contact?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

My wife is starting a new job next week that will greatly increase her income.

Her 2024 income: $75,000 My 2024 income: $131,000

Her 2025 income: $150,000 My 2025 income: Likely $150,000, but I work in heavily commissioned sales, so it could be much higher or much lower. For the past 5 years I’ve increased roughly 15% YOY, so history says it will likely grow.

My job does not have a 401k offering yet. Hers does and she will be eligible to start participating in March/April. We can reduce her income by maxing 401k contributions, but it seems unlikely that we can get below the Roth IRA income limits.

We have been maxing our Roth’s for a few years and would like to get whatever tax advantages we can at this higher income. I typically invest the Roths in January to get the full year of growth. These seem to be some of the options I have- -Should I fund our Roths early on the off chance we don’t meet the income max? -Should I wait till the end of the year to know our total income? -Should I do a backdoor conversion early in 2025? This would be new for me and I’m sure I have a lot to learn to not make a mistake. -Should I fund a traditional Roth and leave it traditional?

Current savings- $150,000 in her current 401k $43,000 in my Roth IRA $15,000 in her Roth IRA $61,000 in our taxable brokerage $25,000 in HYSA as our emergency fund

My wife and I are looking to get into a home within the next year, combined we probably make at least 130k a year, my truck payment is my biggest at $600 a month after my rent.

I owe 13k on my truck and my interest rate is 8.34%. I have the feeling that paying off the truck now will help me put that money towards a mortgage. But am feeling hesitant, as losing 13k from my savings is the most I’ve ever pulled from it. Right now I’ve saved over 70k.

WWYD? Does it make sense in the long term.

My FSA has a grace period that ends on 15 March of each calendar year. This year, I bought a pair of glasses on 15 March and the transaction originally posted to my 2023 year benefits plan (192 of it to be exact, then $10 from my 2024 plan since it was a $202 purchase). 6 days later, it refunded the $192 from 2023 and $10 from 2024 and then reposted the full transaction to my 2024 plan. Basically, I'm $192 short for no discernable reason. Has this happened to anyone before? What should I do?

My employment ended in October and I had until December to elect COBRA. I did not elect because we can't afford it. However, I still have $1k left in my limited FSA. If I am unable to spend it before the end of the year, do I have any options besides my employer getting the money?

Not sure if this is a personal finance question or investing but my wife worked at Patterson Dental (PDCO) and opted into their employee stock option purchase (ESOP). PDCO announced earlier this week that they reached an agreement to be bought out at $31.35 a share. My wife no longer works at Patterson and can sell her stock, however looking at her portal - the only continuing restriction is that it cannot be sold for cash but I can transfer it to 401K funds.

I've never dealt with a company going private and never had an ESOP either. We're still 15-20+ years away from retirement and although the ESOP doesn't have a ton in it, it's enough that if we were to be taxed as realized gains, we'd probably owe money. Would there be any reason to keep the stocks knowing that it's set to be paid at $31.35 a share and is currently trading around that same price? As far as I can tell, there is no restriction on selling shares currently.

I'm not finding any documentation on her ESOP and given that she doesn't work there anymore, she can't really reach out to HR either so I'm kinda just Googling my away these questions. Anyone been in this situation before?

I work from home and have a 2011 Lexus sedan that has about 167k miles on it. We have two elementary age kids who plays sports and we know it’s some point. We are going to need to upgrade to a midsize SUV. Our plan has always been to drive this car into the ground. However, I have been nervous about the effect that potential tariffs will have on the cost of cars over the next few years. I think I can make it at least two more years, but I don’t think this car will last another four. Is it smarter to go ahead and buy now with end of year deals before the tariffs take effect or just hope for the best?

Hello! 25M looking for some advice on how to best prioritize my saving vs. paying down debt.

Currently have $7400 in federal subsidized student loans that are in forebearance but will start having to make payments 2/1. IR should be between 4-5%.

Salary is $110k and I have the following saved so far: -HYSA: $26k -IRA: $23k -401k: $20k

Expenses are around $3.5k/mo

Knowing I'd like to make the IRA contribution next month, is it smarter to make monthly payments on my student loans with the interest rate I have or to pay those off immediately? If I paid the loans off and made the $7k IRA contribution, is the remaining $10k in cash too low? What would you do?

Hi everyone,

I’m seeking advice on a stupid financial decision I made that I’m now regretting. Back when I had just graduated college during the COVID era, I had no job prospects, and my mom’s friend, who sells insurance, convinced us to sign up for a universal life insurance policy. Unfortunately, I didn’t fully understand what I was getting into.

The policy has a coverage amount of $500k. I now have a cash value of around $4,000. However, there’s a $7,000 surrender charge, and I pay $250 in premiums every month. At the time, the agent pitched it as a combination of an investment account and life insurance, which sounded appealing to me as someone new to managing finances.

Now that I’m working and earning, I deeply regret not putting that $250 a month into my 401(k) instead. I feel stuck and unsure of how to get out of this situation.

Has anyone been in a similar position? What’s the best way to exit this policy, and are there any financial repercussions I should prepare for?

My job wants me to fill out a w-4 withholding form. This is the same company I've been going between due to schooling. However, I thought it would be a great idea to start door dashing while in school. But, I only used it twice and have only made like $20 from it. And have stopped due to safety concerns. Do I have to put doordash down as a "multiple jobs" or do I not?

hey guys I'm a 19year old from south africa. I have a job opportunity to work for 5-6 months but it has potential to be a permanent job. it's a stock control junior position and I also have the potential to climb up the ladder. on the other hand I've been accepted for financial information systems diploma and for other courses I've applied for I only get the results in January. and I must decide whether I want the job now or rather take the diploma or wait till January for other stuff cause I really want a degree in finance

They bought a brand new car via monthly payments and still owe $35k while the car is now only worth $25k. They filed for bankruptcy within the last year and have additional debts besides the car. Due to this, the dealership won't even let them downgrade for at least another year, but the monthly payments are greatly hindering them.

I don't know the APR and they live in Washington state, USA.

Thank you

Hi everyone,

Looking for some suggestions on how to approach my situation.

I’ve been using a Vanguard brokerage account to save for a few non-essential goals that are currently 6-7 years out. I started the account a few years ago and wanted to be more aggressive since I had about a decade time horizon, so right now I’m in 100% stock (VTSAX). Now that the time horizon is drawing closer, I’d like to slowly start diversifying into more conservative options for safety over the next few years.

Any suggestions on what I could do here? For example, if I wanted to get a 60/40 split going, would my best course of action be to simply start buying up VBTLX (bond fund) until it makes up 40% of the account total? Should I sell some of VTSAX and reinvest in VBTLX? Or is there a better way to go about it?

Thank you

I understand the general guidance of "will you have higher taxes now or later," but it seems like there's more to it than that.

I would expect most people to have lower taxes later, yet a Roth IRA always seems to be the recommendation. Why is that?

I could read the general resources about how taxes work (which I plan to anyway), but it would help to have one or two articles to read that get more specific about the pros and cons of having both traditional and Roth accounts, how withdrawing from them in retirement affects your taxes, etc.

I'm still trying to decide if I should switch my traditional 401k to a Roth 401k.

Thanks!

We'll call this a TMA post, Tell Me Anything.

My sister and I inherited our moms house. She died Dec 2nd. It avoids probate and goes directly to us via a lady bird deed. We have not gone to the courthouse yet to make that transfer official. We plan to put the house for sale in January 2025. The house is in Florida and is also where I live. My sister lives in Georgia. We will split the proceeds evenly, most likely $125k each.

Questions:

1. For tax purposes, is there any tax benefit to waiting to make the official transfer into our names after Jan 1st?

2. Should we have the house appraised before the sale, or after, for tax purposes?

3. What will capitol gains taxes be based on for me, since I will have 50% of the proceeds? Will it be the sale price minus the appraised value?

4. Is there anything else we need to do to save ourselves a headache come tax time in Jan of 26?

Much thanks in advance.

My best friend (84) passed away late last year and I inherited two separate IRAs from them. I decided to receive a lump sum from one of the IRAs into my HYSA, it was about 20k. The second IRA is around 14k and I plan on taking out RMDs each year for the next 10 years.

My question is, since I took a lump sum of one IRA and that amount is higher than what my combined RMDs would have been, do I need to take out an RMD from the second IRA before the end of the year?

I don't want to get penalized so any advice or reassurance is greatly appreciated. I'm in the US in Louisiana, if that matters.

Hey, everyone, I am a 21 year old in the 12% tax bracket trying to start planning for my future, but have no idea what I’m really doing. I have a 401k where I'm putting in the same amount of money that my employer matches, which is 3%. I have a Roth 401k that I add about $100 to monthly, I have a HYSA, I have no debt, and don’t need a HSA right now as I am still listed as a dependent under my parents. I have a Roth IRA with Vanguard that I maxed out a few weeks ago, but the money is just sitting there uninvested because I have no idea what to do with the money investment wise. I also plan to max it out again in January for 2025, but again I'm scared of investing into the wrong things and would really love and appreciate some guidance and advice. I plan to have my Roth IRA invested long term for about 40-45 years until I retire so my risk tolerance is pretty high and hopefully can invest in stocks that’ll help me end up with the most money at that time. I also want to open an individual investing account or a brokerage account (are they the same thing?) to invest money into that I could use in the next 10-20 years and would like advice on where to invest this money into or if you even recommend doing this or not. I am aware maxing out the tax deferred accounts would be the best option to do first, however I’m also looking to grow my money to use for possibly a house, wedding, or for any children I may have in the next 10-20 years which is why I was thinking about opening an individual investing account or a brokerage account. I also tried dabbling in crypto as well and have invested about $150 into Coinbase, if anyone has any ideas what coins I should invest into too. I appreciate any help I can get, thank you so much.

I am looking into either pulling my 401k or bankruptcy. I am so far in debt I'm not sure which is best option. To pull from 401k I'd need to transfer to an IRA then pull it and there's enough to get me straight. Or is it better to protect what assets I can and declare bankruptcy??

I have a question regarding monthly loan payments and how the payment is allocated toward the principal and the interest. I have a home loan through my local credit union. The payment is $385 a month. Most months, close to $300 goes toward the principal and $85 goes to the interest. However, this last month (November) only $145 went to the principal and $240 went to interest. This payment was made a couple weeks late and the previous month (October) the CU offered me a holiday "skip a payment." I'm not sure if either of these affected the distribution of the payment in November, but I'm confused as to why the distribution is the way it is for this payment. Any insight is helpful, thanks.

Saved up for a house for some time, got pushed back thanks to Covid and a family member who ended up needing care. They recovered to move out and secure a job, so now I'm back on track but in a higher interest rate market.

Originally wanted to buy long-term housing for equity and to get out of increasing rents. I still do, but I'm even less concerned now about aesthetic or style of the housing (I could live in a barracks with wifi if it weren't for dating). But when I go on to calculators or check posts here, I can't find many that talk specifically about "owning a home long-term purely for the equity" without viewing it as a rental/investment.

My question: how do you help maximize the potential return - assuming the common risks of a downturn in the housing market - based on the preferences of what folks want in a house instead of your own? How do you find this trend info, if it's publicly available? An example might be, "Americans historically like purchasing a 4bd/3ba instead of a 4bd/2ba" or "Americans disproportionately anchor their purchases on a high HOA fee" or "The median American family wants to be closer to work but will only pay *this much* of a premium on a suburban home before they consider a longer commute?" I want to factor this into my decision-making.

For an overview:

- 96k salary
- 110k down payment available
- No debt or medical bills
- 400k+ retirement funds
- Age 41
- No dependents
- Stable job (even in downturns)
- Local area prices range from $325k to $500k (near a college town), would prefer to be on the lower end of the range

Can anyone give some super-cool advice if they were in my shoes?

Hi, we recently moved our family (us and 2 kids). I received a job offer that paid 20k relocation and we sold our house and made a 30k profit from our old house.

My spouse did take a lower paying job but mine increased by 40k.

Back in October of last year, my in-laws gave my spouse 10k to pay off their credit card.

As I was signing finance disclosures today, it showed me that my spouse has 18k in credit card debt. I am blown away by this as they have told me things were great since their parents helped out.

I knew going in that my spouse wasn't going to contribute to the new mortgage for the first few years until their salary increased and was fine with that. But now we are closing on that house in a month and I feel sick over the credit card debt. Does anyone have any recommendations on finance? I'm struggling right now with all the thoughts in my head. Is it possible at this stage to go back to mortgage loan and the seller and remove my spouse from the mortgage?

All, need help making a major decision. I have thought about this endlessly and gone back and forth, and spoken with friends, family and even a therapist, and I just can't come to a decision. Nothing feels right. I have decision paralysis. Maybe picking the minds of people also in the market, or financially-minded folks who have an impartial view, will help, ergo this post.

 Some background info about me: 36 single guy, with about 145k in cash savings and about 50k saved in retirement accounts. I have been making about 75k in tech but my career is unstable right now.

 The past few months have been incredibly stressful: I was told I will be let go from my job in Feb 2025, right after signing a purchase and sale agreement on my first property. I was able to get out of the mortgage agreement and get most of my deposit back, thankfully, but then another unexpected thing happened: my family offered to purchase the condo in total with cash, gift me a huge amount of money and the rest of it would be an interest-free, ~150k loan. An amazing privilege, especially given that the condo is a great deal in a VHCOL area (Greater Boston). I could pay off the condo in about 10 years (paying them back 1300/month, on top of 1.2k in other expenses), rent the place out and make a cash profit with probably high appreciation in value.

 More likely than not, it would turn out great at the end. Problem is the incredible stress I'm dealing with in my personal life, and I'm not sure I can handle the new responsibility of owning a home. My mental health is in shambles at the moment. Over the next several months, I'm going to be focused on my life and career, and possibly going back to school to get my master's (no idea if that will happen). After the agreed upon deposit, I would be down to about 25k in cash, and am expecting an assessment of 10-15k next year, and I would possibly have to replace the older heating system (another 15k) in the next couple of years. . I'm in tech- the job market is upside down, and I have no idea if/when I'll be able to find a job in this industry again. On the other hand I can collect unemployment and I have a backup career I'm a licensed private investigator, and can return to that, and make some decent money, but it would take several months to build up the income and I'm not sure if that's where I need to spend my energy right now.

 The timing is very bad, and I'm not ready to move right now with everything going on, so I would probably rent it out if I went ahead. But the opportunity is quite rare given this market. I have no idea if it makes sense to deal with this right now. I could turn it down, and still take the same amazing offer from my family on another property (it will still be on the table) when things get more stable…BUT...it's unlikely that I'll find too many opportunities as good as this one.

 Here's some info about the condo:

 PROS

465k for a 20 year old very nice "luxury-adjacent" 1100 sq ft condo on Revere beach, near the Boston subway system. This is likely to go up a lot in value. It's an up and coming area with lots of new condos. The deal is definitely a great value, you could argue it's a pretty rare opportunity.

 I could rent it out and make a profit of at least 800 dollars a month if not more, and rental market is primed to keep going up especially in this area.

 CONS

My stress level/mental health/stability is off right now. I really don't know how well I can deal with new responsibilities and the stress of my cash going down to 25k, which is lower than I'm comfortable with.

 The thing that makes me most uncomfortable is the high HOA fee of 640. Always bothered me. I was never prepared to spend that much on an HOA.  The HOA is primed to go up higher than the average rate because it covers flood insurance. It goes up 5-8% every 2-3 years…it will start getting very expensive. However, after the gift from my family, the monthly total costs are still very manageable for now.

 Climate change could potentially cause flood damage/assessments, but this is not happening that often right now in this area and might not be a factor for another several years.

 I don't love Revere (city bordering north of Boston), it's kind of a dump and a pain to commute in a car. I do like the neighborhood on the beach, it's a beautiful area, but I dislike the surrounding city.

Any thoughts? What would you do and why?

I’ve always relied on spreadsheets to manage my income and expenses, but I’ve found that they can be clumsy and time-consuming. Every day, I have to sit down at my computer to update everything, which often feels terrible. While there are many financial planning apps available, none seem to align with how I envision managing my finances.

The Concept:

I’m developing an app designed to simplify this process. What sets this app apart is its focus on future cash flow visibility. Instead of just tracking where your money goes, this app will help you understand how long your funds will last before you run out.

Future Cash Flow Visualization: Gain insights into when you might need to add more money to your account and how much you’ll have at specific future dates.

Simplicity Over Detail: Focus on maintaining a positive balance rather than analyzing every single spending decision.

This app is designed primarily for your checking account, but it will also allow you to track contributions to savings or investment accounts if desired.

Your thoughts?

I’m eager to hear your feedback! Do you think a tool like this would be valuable? Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Would you be willing to pay a one-time fee for lifetime access to the app?

Thanks!

Hello everyone,

I am looking for some advice on how to get my student loans paid off as efficiently as possible. My family members arnt very knowledgeable/helpful on this topic.

Can I start to pay my loans early? I am supposed to start paying March 2025.

I am hoping to have them paid off in a 3-4 year timeline. I have ~31,000 in loan debt. What if the most efficient way to get these done?

Thanks!!

I just saw a post that spouses FSA can invalidate your HSA and wondering what to do. I had regular insurance plan and a FSA account this year (have $10 left). For the next years enrollment I signed up for both an HSA(2500) and FSA(500). Employer will add 750 to HSA. Do I need to cancel my FSA to be eligible for HSA? The open enrollment is over but I have contacted them to see if it’s possible. Do I need to get the current years FSA balance to 0? What else should I do? Thanks in advance.

I’m looking to move out sometime soon, I’ve been looking at rentals, rent to owns and a few mobile homes that look relatively affordable. But I don’t know the first thing about any of this. Where do I start? Im mostly concerned about money, I don’t want to have to live paycheck to paycheck. I live in the Youngstown area of Ohio and am planning on moving out alone. What should I expect my expense bills (heating, electric, etc.) to look like? How do I know if I can afford this? I make roughly $18-19,000/year. If anyone has any sort of advice at all please help me! I’m so lost in all of this lol

I've worked freelance for years, my job and industry are unsteady (even more so recently) so I've squirreled away over 250k in savings with a mix of paranoia and ignorance keeping it in HYSA and CDs.

My wife has a 401k and HSA and I'm thinking I should give her the money to max out both every year going forward. I'm also going to open a Roth IRA and put in the 7k each year (our combined incomes will allow for contributions starting this year - as I said, my industry is slowing, in past years I wouldn't have been eligible, even if I was aware to it, which I wasn't). Also considering a 529 for my toddler daughter.

I'm still inclined to keep a decent amount of cash liquid/available (how much exactly I have not decided) in the event that I need to change careers etc but in researching the options for investing etc, the only thing I'm moving forward with in confidence is the 7k into Roth and maxing out my wifes 401k and HSA, which all tolled will probably move around 20k or less out of my savings

Should I just do that annually for as long as I can and call it a day? Or should I be moving a larger chunk into something else (i.e "the markets" along with the risk that comes with it, of which I've yet to decide my risk tolerance). 529 could be another place to put money but havent researched the limits or wisdom to that.

Sorry for the indecisive tone, but after reading and researching on and off for the past year and still feeling uncertain, opening it up to the Reddit community felt like it could help. I know wikis exist for this sort of thing but real person suggestions knowing my specific situation made a post feel warranted.

So I have recently set up a deal where I should be betting about 1,800 a month (pre tax). I am wondering what the best way to store this money would be. I have a brokerage, and Roth IRA, as well as savings account that is semi high yield. I think an ally account might offer a 1% more so I am considering moving it all to that and have the new income go directly into that. But maybe there is a better option? I should add that I make pretty decent money at my current job and don't really feel like I need to draw on this new income unless I wanted to just buy material things.

We just had our offer for a house accepted at $430K! After factoring in closing costs and other adjustments, our final loan amount will be $387K.

Our lender has us paying 2.3% in origination points to "buy down" our mortgage rate to 6.125%. Initially, we thought the points would only be 1%, but they explained that the higher amount is due to the rate buy-down.

We plan to live in this house for at least 10 years. Refinancing might not be an option, as we received a forgivable state loan that we’d need to repay if we refinance within the first 10 years. When we mentioned that 2.3% seemed high, they said we could opt for a higher interest rate instead.

As first-time homebuyers, we’re trying to understand if paying points to lower the rate is the right move for us. Should we stick with this strategy or consider a higher rate to reduce upfront costs? Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated!

I listed my car on FB marketplace and found a prospective buyer fairly quickly. I spoke with them on the phone, the background research I was able to do checks out well enough, and we’re meeting in a public location for an all cash exchange. I’ll have a buddy with me and will be counting the cash by hand, but I’m wondering if counterfeit bills are something that I should be worried about at all. If so, what are some best practices?

Thanks in advance.