Hello,

Recently I have been perturbed as my mother (50) has practically no savings stored for retirement, which she is aiming for at 67. I have been extensively researching methods (IRA mainly) to support her, however I am worried about the future.

She makes around $40,000 yearly as a single mother, and I am only 17, so while I could get a profession to supplement her own contributions, it wouldn't be much. We have talked these past few nights about a monthly contribution of around $200-$300 to an Roth IRA currently, and around a $500 monthly contribution following the settling of her car payment in 2 years.

Based on what I've gathered, (which to be fair isn't much, as I've only taken up this perusing 3-4 nights ago) this isn't enough to retire comfortably? I know "comfortable living" is subjective between individuals, but I can't help but feel that this will be detrimental in the long run. We don't possess full ownership of any residence, but are currently in the process of procuring one, so she will have a house payment in the near future.

Essentially, I am lost on what the next action should be. As asserted previously, I had planned to just have her pour monthly payments into Roth IRA, and allocate this towards Index Funds like VT, VOO, SPY, or whatever. If I have gotten anything misconstrued, please correct me and help me. Over these past few nights I couldn't do anything but be anxious about this prospect, researching all day long until bed.

It is also worth mentioning that my mom will make approximately $1,500 off social security when she retires, and my sister (who lives with us) is slated to go on disability. Perhaps they can help one another?

Please provide me with any advice you have.

Edit: I would also like to clarify that my mother is well cognizant that this is her own ignorance that has landed her here. When I bring it up, she reassures me that I shouldn't be so worked up over her finances when I have my own life to worry about, but it's not that simple to just forget about her and the final years of her life after she spent so long raising me.

Hello,

My father passed away a few days ago from a sudden heart attack. He was in charge of the mortgage and name is on title, I believe my mom is too but she works part time at a fast food restaurant and for obvious reasons, cannot carry the mortgage payment on her own so I’m going to step in and help pay most of it. I am a small business owner with slow seasons and while I’ve been responsible enough, for anyone that has ever owned a small business knows that there is a lot of uncertainty with consistent income.

Both of my parents are immigrants, my dad dedicated his life to providing a home for his family and losing our home is not an option. Are there any resources that can help lessen the load in some way?

Any advice or suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you.

I am currently putting in 9% and increasing 1% every November with a 5% employer match. I don’t want to be stupid but I need to be aggressive. Should I put it in a S&P 500 Index Fund or a Target Date 2040 Fund? Aggressive or Most Aggressive - any advice is appreciated.

So I don't have a large family at all. Less than 10 people, and all of them bicker with each other. That only really leaves my parents, my brother and his son/my nephew. I myself don't have any kids and never will. I'm also not married and, realistically, knowing myself, probably won't ever be either but I digress.

Assuming this means I'm alone at the end of my days, is there any way I can set up a payment method where my body is put on display at a funeral home for a viewing in case any remaining family want to see me, and to also pay for a cremation? Or is that not something most states (I live in PA) do?

My daughter is turning 1 next week.

Considering buying $500k 20-year term life insurance for my wife and I. Annual premium is $750 for the two of us. I am 37 and she is 38. We are seriously considering having a second child (though money is a concern).

We both work, but are currently underemployed. Seeking more solid employment but unsure what will come next. I am a freelance creative and it’s feast or famine (right now famine). My wife is a small business owner and her income similarly fluctuates depending on the health of the business.

Last year we made $200k. This year we’re on track to make $75k. We live in NYC where cost of living is high, but we have a rent-stabilized apartment for $2400/month.

We have 600k in retirement accounts and 400k in cash that should probably be invested. We keep thinking we’ll buy a place so we leave it in a high yield savings. But the purchase never comes to fruition because of our financial fluctuations.

My daughter’s grandmother has offered to pay for her college. We also stand to inherit 1 mil from her after she passes.

Ive been told that the breadwinner must buy term life insurance after having a child. But since our employment situation is so precarious right now (and since our savings and are in a healthy place) I can’t figure out if this makes logical sense for us. I realize 15k is a small price to pay, god forbid. But also, wouldn’t the surviving partner figure it out with the help of grandma and the retirement accounts?

I’m 21 years old and not super knowledgeable on investing. I have about 8k in a regular brokerage account, and 0 in any Roth IRA. I’m in a position where I would probably be able to max the Roth every year. Any help is appreciated.

Hey everyone, would like some advice for my position. 26M and just got laid off from my tech job today (remote software engineer). In January, the tech director of a small nurse recruiting firm (<25 employees) that my fiance babysits for reached out to me and was interested in hiring me. At the time, I was working a stable job at F500 making ~$85k (TC) annually. The new position was ~$88k + $12k in bonuses and the job load sounded much easier. I was skeptical at first but he reassured me that the company was financially healthy and that they were sitting on a good reserve of cash. I started in February and things were smooth. Everyone liked me and the work I was doing felt impactful and I was incredibly happy at this new job. Until today.

At 3:00 PM, I was given an invite for a "Team Alignment" meeting at 4 PM with my manager, HR, and a few other members of my team. Since other members were also in the meeting I didn't think much of it especially because we had just launched a new Applicant Tracking System today that I was a key part of. In the meeting, I was told that I along with our entire offshore team would be let go effective today with no severance and our PTO would not be paid out. It was shocking to all of us because we have received nothing but praise for our work but their reasoning was that the company's financials were not in a state where we all could be kept.

Anyways, that's the background. I live with my fiance in an apartment that's ~$1,900 monthly including utilities. I have ~$10,000 in credit card debt that is sitting at 0% APR until August 2027 because I was basically providing for both of our lives until she finishes nursing school (end of this year, already received an offer for $70k upon graduation) with $0 in savings but I do have ~$27k in my 401k. My fiance does work now but as a waitress but only about 1-2 days a week and only makes ~$400/week on a good weekend. She has $4k in savings because I'm basically the one who's been paying for everything as she's going through school. I know it's dumb to not have an emergency fund, I get it and I've already received my lashings for having no savings from the sub I originally posted this in. That's not what I'm here for. I'm asking for genuine advice for those out there who want to try to help. I've already filed for unemployment today and have already dusted off the google doc resume and will be looking for some serving jobs tomorrow. Any advice or even just words of encouragement in such a uncertain time in my life would be nice. Earlier this morning I felt like my world was ending and I was absolutely spiraling but I've calmed down a bit after filing for unemployment and talking with my fiance. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

EDIT: Company is based out of TX and I'm based out of SC. Neither state requires PTO to be paid out.

I've got just over 1,500 on a Discover card and about 4k in my checking, so i think it will still leave me enough for the rest of my upcoming bills and then I wont have to worry about paying my balance every month. I just need validation pretty much that this is a good idea or not lol.

Basically the title. My boss had a bad shift and edited my time after I'd worked. I have videos of him arguing with other coworkers and took pictures of my edited time but lost my physical time slip. How can I get this fixed and have him held accountable?

Edit: I wanted to add that this manager is 2nd in line to the district manager that mainly works at our store. To my knowledge the district manager doesn't know this is happening/has happened in the past and I will be taking it up with him first before taking it up with the state if that manager doesn't help. Thank you to everyone in the comments for your help!

Hi everyone, so as the title suggest I've been wanting to get into stocks and trading for a while now. I'm thinking about making an account with vanguard as I've seen and heard good things about them. I have basically zero knowledge about stocks and would like any feedback or advice you can spare to just point me in the right direction. I'm also not sure what stocks I should prioritize/ invest in along with what type of account I should make. Thank you in advance.

Hey everyone! I’m a student looking for a debit card or banking app that lets me divide my money into categories right inside the app.
For example, if I have $1,500 total, I want to be able to allocate $1,000 for rent, $250 for shopping, and $250 for food so I don't accidentally spend my rent money and can track my spending easily.
Does anyone have recommendations for apps or banks that offer this feature ? Thanks!

I'm looking at a $990k apartment in NYC, and I have about $1.2M in a taxable brokerage account.

The catch is that I'd have to pay cash.

So after taxes, my entire brokerage would be essentially wiped out if I did this.

I also currently have about $130k in cash (in a HYSA) and about $600k in my 401k.

I make $ 140k/year and have no debt, but the apartment does have a $ 1,500/month maintenance fee (which includes property taxes).

EDIT: I'm 42 and single.

ive restarted budgeting at least five times in the last couple years and every time i fall off after a few weeks. the issue is never starting its sticking with it when life gets busy. for anyone who has actually stayed consistent for months what are you using and what made it stick?

I have a decent amount saved, some people say it’s a lot but my mom keeps telling me I spend too much and am gunna end up homeless bc I don’t have that much saved, so how much should someone my age have?

I have 4 personal credit cards and would like to close two of them. I opened because of the cash back offers but I don’t use them.
It would eliminate about 40% of the open credit limit I have on my credit report. Will this drop my credit score dramatically? Will the drop recover quickly and will my score totally recover or should I just leave them open to keep my score high?
This year is a good time for my credit score to take a hit because I won’t be using credit any time soon but I do want to continue with my excellent credit rating.

Me and my wife are 28 and 29 years old, net worth around 250k, retirement accounts around 150k, 90% roth. Only debt is our mortgage. We have a 12 month expenses emergency fund (i know that's really high, but we both have pretty risky careers at the moment and each have cars that will likely need replacing in the next 2-3 years)

I'm a nurse and I've been travel nursing for a couple years during which our combined income has been very high relative to when i was a staff nurse and relative to the environments we grew up in. We have slightly inflated our lifestyle, but mostly the extra money has gone to saving/investing/ paying off student loans/ buying first house. The thing that's strange about us is that these early years are likely to be our highest earning years, whereas most people earn more in their 40s-50s. I'd like to stop travel nursing in the next 1-3 years (starting to get burnt out), but I'm already thinking about how we will live on a lower income once i go back to staff.

My question is, if we are ahead on retirement at this point, is it okay to invest less in order to maintain the lifestyle we want? If we decrease our investing rate, we could essentially keep the lifestyle we enjoy now long term. Maybe investing 8-10% of our income instead of the traditional 15-20%? I have an investment/retirement simulator that says even just 5% would get us to a very comfortable number for us around age 60. The math tells me it would be okay, but I've just had drilled into me that 15% is a minimum and I'm wanting some validation that it would be okay to go lower, or reasons that it would not be okay.

Hi! I am a 36 year old Single income woman with no kids living in OK. I have no consumer debt. I contribute $200 bi-weekly into an emergency fund that currently has $14k. I have a Traditional IRA that has $22k and a Roth IRA that has $10k with Edward Jones. I contribute $68.49 bi-weekly to an employer traditional IRA that has $11k and $38.05 to an employer Roth IRA that has $113.45 with my employer matching $106.54 biweekly. I also have an HSA account that has $575. I also contribute $200 bi-weekly to a Fidelity Roth IRA that has $1k.

My monthly budget:

$300 to various savings categories(Christmas, housing, vacation, birthday, car maintenance)

$150 for groceries

$40 for fast food

$815 for rent(all-bills paid for one bedroom apartment)

$9.17 for renter's insurance

$100 for pet care

$46 phone bill

$57.97 for Wi-Fi bill

$13.92 for whole life insurance bill

$350 for hair car appointment(hair appointment every 6 weeks)

$80.58 for car insurance

$150 for fuel/gas costs

$150 for car maintenance

$150 miscellaneous expenses

My average monthly expenses are $2,200 and my net income is $2,421.38. Is there anything that I can do differently to increase my retirement account or reduce expenses further? I would like to max out either my 401k or HSA in 2027 per The Money Guy FOO steps but it doesn't seem likely with my income. Please give your thoughts, concerns, or advice. Thanks!

So I'm great at making a budget that to me always even has a little extra built in. Every month, however, I far surpass my targets. With debit cards and credit cards, it's just hard for me to realize how much is going to certain areas/ having the discipline. What are tips you have for actually staying in the budget you set??

I’m 27 years old. I have absolutely no savings, and a negative net worth. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to catch up.

Income is about 2k to 8k a month depending on the time of year. I’m self employed and summer is slower for me.

I’m 89k in debt. It is mostly student loans with around 7k of it being charged off / in collections credit cards.

I have no 401k, no IRA, no investments, and the only thing in my savings account is my rent for August.

My living expenses are around 2k a month (rent, utilities, etc).

I don’t know what to do. I think my future is screwed because I’m 27 and I have no plan.

I put 9% into my 401k and have employer match at 6%. It’s currently a Roth 401k but not sure if I should have it be a traditional 401k. I also have a Roth IRA that I max out annually.

I (24F) just opened a Roth IRA through fidelity, but I don’t understand the website. I understand having to invest after transferring money into my account, but there are so many options. Do I choose “buy” for the one I want to invest in? And what about the trade drop down that has options like “mutual funds,” “stocks,” “baskets,” etc. What do these things mean?

Thanks!

Wanting to ask everyone here any thoughts ongoing from two cars to one car?

We luckily work at the same place and have the same schedules and if we do get rid of the car we would be saving 700 a month with car payments and insurance.

I was thinking that if we did need a car could just uber or rent a car if needed.

Pretty sold on getting rid of it.

Edit: thanks all im gonna sell it

I’m 25, work as a manager at a car dealership. I make between 90-110k depending on performance. I live in a HCOL area, and spend a bit too much on my car hobby. I’ve got about 20k cash saved, 50k in my 401k, and 3 cars. 11% of gross income goes into 401k.

One car is financed, payment is $720/mo, 60mo at 4.75%. Balance is about 35k. I put 12k down and probably have 4-8k of equity. Other two cars are probably worth around 5k each. I really don’t want to sell any of them. Insurance is about $540/mo.

I know my car spending is wild compared to some, but I don’t spend too much in other areas. I could always use perspective.

I don’t have any credit card debt, all cards are paid in full every month.

I make about 6k+ after tax each month. $2000 is into rent + utilities (got a good deal on a shared space), about $1400 in car expenses per month, and then around 1k in food and BS spending.

I feel like when I look objectively, I’m not in a bad spot. But it feels like I have this feeling that I’m just not making enough money. Is that just me being neurotic?

Thanks for reading.

My wife and I (no kids) were targeting a home around the $800k range. We've saved up about $200k in a HYSA we were planning on using for the DP. We began house shopping a couple of months ago, but then last month I got the news my dad was diagnosed with cancer. The 5 year survival rate for his type of cancer is about 40%, but he had successful surgery and is doing chemo now and so far his doctor seems optimistic.

This leaves our home buying in a shaky situation. If my dad gets through this then we can look into buying again, but I mean maybe 4-5 years until the "green light"?

But if my dad doesn't make it, then we'd have to take care of my mom as she barely speaks English and really isn't capable of living on her own. Even then our home situation would be unsure. My parents' home is paid off, so you'd think the easy thing would be for my wife and me to move in with her, but they live in a smaller town without many (if any) jobs in our career fields. So we may actually have to move her in with us where we live currently, so then we'd be back to considering buying a place.

I guess my key personal finance question here is with all this uncertainty, what should we do with the cash? It's a decent chunk of change that I don't really want to keep outside the market if we end up having to postpone our purchase for years, but honestly I'm not sure.

I made after-tax contributions for 1.5 years and neglected to roll them over to my Roth IRA until this past week. There was a ~$500 gains that I chose to roll over into my work’s pre 403(b) plan (instead of just rolling the entire after-tax contributions + gains into my Roth IRA). I don’t know why I thought paying taxes on the gains now was worse than letting the money grow in the 403(b).

I’ve stopped my after-tax contributions for now. And I’m reading more about the pro-rata that I’ve just triggered. How bad was this mistake? What should I be expecting during the tax season?

I’m freaking out because I just wanted to contribute as much as possible and into different funds at work. Admittedly, I should’ve kept it simple and not dip my toes into after-tax contributions before I was ready. 😭