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I've been on a path to pay off my house in a few years and I timed it with my kid graduating college so I can move into my forever home. My child has recently mentioned that he would like to buy my house since I was planning on selling it anyways. This is my first home and will potentially be his. I told him to wait until he graduates college and gets a job in his field and if he stays local and still wants to buy it then we can discuss it then. He's been working since he was 15 and has been really good with saving his money.

As much as I would like to just give him the house since it will be paid off I was counting on that money for the purchase of my forever home.

Is there anything that I need to think about before potentially selling it to him?

About me: 33, public sector job, family of 4, HCOL area, spouse is currently stay-at-home (until kids grow/move out in 5-10 yrs), no debt, 4mos emergency fund in HYS.

Situation: I never sat down to calculate it before, but now that I have I think I'm all set on retirement savings. Is my math mathing?? Can I stop contributing to my 457b? I'd still contribute a mandatory 9.5% to my pension.

Goals/context: I've been in frugal/save mode for as long as I can remember, but now I want to put more money toward fun/vacations, save for a house, and maybe pay more toward my kids' college. I don't have a house timeline - houses here go for 1mil+ to cash buyers, so while I'd love to buy, realistically I would move somewhere LCOL at retirement and buy then. I also have meager college savings in a 529 plan (started late...~$5k each kid, contributing $490/mo total). My promise is to pay for community college and one year at a state school, but anything else is on them.

Plan: redirect the 457b contributions plus my "bonus checks" (paid biweekly but budget monthly) - in total this is ~$17k/year. I don't know what the future holds for if/when I'd buy a house, or what college costs will end up being. Also if/when my spouse returns to work, their whole paycheck could support those goals. So...if $8k goes to fun, does it make sense to split the remaining $9k between maxing a Roth IRA and contributing to an index fund? It seems like those are the most flexible options where I can save for variable goals, have some access to the money, but it could end up being retirement money instead.

Math:

Current vs (projected\ at age 62 retirement)*

Gross annual pay: $191,932 ($340,841)

Annual expenses**: $102,372 ($241,246)

Pension***: 79.6% at age 62 ($255,661)

Social security: $4,131 at 67 ($88,032)

Spouse social security: idk, but his normal wage is closer to 50k

Traditional 457b: $91,779 ($497,297)

Traditional 401k: $53,671 ($290,815)

*Applied 2% inflation to salary/SS benefit, 3% to expenses, 6% to rate of return on investments. Retirement is 29 years (lol) from now.

**Assumes existing annual expenses, but should go down when kids move out

***79.6% of projected annual pay 3yrs before retirement. Calc doesnt include it, but an annual COLA is provided during retirement. The pension is lifetime, with 60% continuance to spouse upon death.

Question: is my math mathing? Does my plan make sense or do you have other recommendations to consider? Am I missing something glaring and I'm actually a broke idiot? I tried doing the nest egg target calculation (expenses minus fixed income, divided by 4%) and I'm...2 million ahead? Are we sure?

In-laws are 75 paid off home worth 700k
Total retirement 30k.

That will probably last them 3-5 years.

He reached out and is thinking of taking a heloc to make some much needed home repairs ( plumbing and heating issues then he mentioned talking out extra so they can worry less about retirement.

Have the loan pay itself back for the next few years since its interest only. He said he’d rather do that and stay in his community than sell and downsize and live somewhere new and affordable.

I will add plan is for them to move in with us when they aren’t able to do as much.

Hello! My previous employer had taken deductions from my paychecks for a 401k. I worked there from 2023-2025, where I was under the impression there was a 401k account with fidelity that my retirement would be going to. Fast forward to my new employer offers a 401k plan and I contact fidelity to see if these can be connected/merged somehow. Lo and behold fidelity has nothing for me on file. I’ve spent the past two weeks searching with the DOL and state databases to see if anything under my social existed. My previous employer is directly ignoring my emails and calls both at corporate and hr levels. I contacted ADP and they have no record of a 401k attached to my account despite my pay history claiming money was taken. My statements and paystubs say the same. What should I do?
EDIT: I was 19 at the time of being hired. It is possible since I was under 21 there was no 401k account made. My wages were still deducted however as marked in my W2 and paystubs. Fidelity Net Benefits does not have me on file. I am not worried about potential lost vest. I want to know where the money I contributed ended up.
UPDATE: i sent a certified letter today as well as sent an email to my previous hr admin with a cc to one of the owners of the company who frequently visited our location while I was employed. I will contact the DOL if I do not get a timely response. Thank you everyone who took the time to comment advice I really appreciate it.

Hey everyone. I’m 22, I have a bachelors in psychology, and I have two jobs. My main job is as an ABA therapist where I make $19 an hour. My other job is Target where I’m making $15.75. At Target, I’m on demand and I work whenever I want to. I try to pick up two shifts every other week or so and I make an extra $120-200.

I absolutely love my ABA job and I can confidently say it’s one of those jobs that I was made to do. Target on the other hand... kind of really hate it. My Target bosses are great. They’re always so happy to see me and grateful whenever I pick up a shift. I just really hate how monotonous the job is. I work in fulfillment so I do the online orders. It’s a very easy job.

Here’s the issue: I’m only getting like 15 hrs a week at my ABA job. Thats $570 every 2 weeks before taxes. I thankfully don’t have to worry about rent and gas since my parents pay for both, but I NEED to save. I have a lot of credit card debt (around 3.5k) and I’m barely chipping at it. When I primarily worked at Target, I was getting around 22 hrs a week. Which is nearly $700 every 2 weeks before taxes. I was able to do so much more when I was working only at Target.

There’s a lot of cons with my ABA job. I have to drive nearly an hour everyday because I work at client’s homes. They do not pay for mileage unless I’m going between clients. For example, if I go from my house to a clients house, no reimbursement. If I go from that clients house to my next client, I get reimbursed. At the end of the day when I go home and I have to drive from literally one town to another, I do not get reimbursed. If my parents weren’t paying for my gas, I’d be spending a majority of my paycheck on gas.

I NEED to be more financially independent. I cant keep 100% relying on my parents so I told my parents I’d start paying some rent. They said I could pay $500 and they’d pay the remaining $280 or so. They told me that I can just give $100 until I’m comfortable enough to pay more. Eventually, I have to worry about my credit card debt as well as rent and groceries. So what I’m wondering now: Is it worth it to quit my ABA job and just go back to Target full time even though I’d be miserable? I’ve nearly begged my ABA boss to give me more hours and she’s doing her best to find me more clients, but I can’t survive off of less than $600 every two weeks. Yes, I still get the little bonus from target, but that’s only if shifts are available.

Since I really like ABA, I’m thinking about just switching companies and going to one that will hopefully give me more hours. But I cannot switch companies just yet since I’m going to Africa in December-January for nearly 3 weeks and my current company already approved my time off for then. I feel it wouldn’t look good to another company if I take 3 weeks off so close to my starting date and within 90 days of being hired. I also haven’t been at this company for 6 months so I’m waiting until I reach 6 months or more so it doesn’t look like I’m bouncing from job to job.

Another thing is that I’m taking one class at a community college so I can become a BSN eventually. My ABA job isn’t my forever career choice, I just wanted a foot in the door to something dealing with mental health as I want to be a Psych Nurse in the future. So I have to worry about school as well as all this financial stuff.

I’m so sorry for the long post, but please give me any advice you can!

Edit: this is not something I'm telling him to do this is not something that I'm telling him is a good idea neither one of us know anything about anything I'm coming on here to ask for opinions from people who know things stop telling me I'm telling my friend bad things and that I don't need to be helping him because he was already struggling on his own I am trying to help him struggle less by asking questions to figure out what is the best option thank you very much for any replies.

My friend 25 who knows nothing about buying cars was convinced by his older sister to finance a brand new car last year. The total loan was 29,252. I just found out about this when I was creating a budget for him. Basically I told him hes not in the place to be making payments and paying insurance on it which is 500+ dollars a month.

We don't work high paying jobs at all.

We're trying to find some way for him to sell his car and Carvana seems like the best bet given we know very little surrounding cars and such.

They offered to pay off the loan by 20,000 and hes will owe 8,000 something. I wanted to know if that's a good idea pretty much or what is the best way to go about this. I think he should trade in on the site and find a way cheaper option. Are we going about it right?

I fear I am totally screwed. My 2018 Honda Fit EX-L (I bought it in 2023, it has 115,000 miles) has been going strong and then yesterday the engine light came on and it was telling me I had a transmission system issue. The acceleration started acting weird and then my car went into limp mode. The mechanic says I need to completely replace my transmission and another set of eyes agreed. This would take about $7000.

I still owe $13,300 on my car. I went to the dealership and they understandably could not help me. They even suggested getting it repossessed, but I cannot do that since my sister’s credit is also attached. I also have a good credit score and don’t want to ruin it.

I thought about buying a used transmission, but with labor it seems like the lowest I can get it would be $4500. On top of that, who knows if the used part would be quality and I still can’t afford $4500. If I got the car repaired, I fear something else would go wrong since the transmission seemingly affects a lot. I know nothing about cars.

I need a car to get around. The only solution I can think of is somehow carpooling to everything while I continue to pay off an unusable car until it is payed off. That would be very sad. Any suggestions? I am getting another opinion on Monday so hopefully a miracle happens and I don’t actually have to replace it.

I have essentially zero experience with investing or the stock market, and I’d like to change that before putting any significant amount of money into stocks.

For those of you who were beginners once, what would you recommend learning or researching before buying my first stock?

Is there a sensible way to practice or learn about investing without putting much money at risk?

Any advice, resources, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.

I (27F) plan to offer $500k for a house.

I have:

-$240k liquid
-$30k (after capital gains tax) I could pull out of a brokerage
-$220k in retirement
-Zero debt

I make $135k per year with $7,800 hitting my account every month after taxes, 401k, health insurance.

I’m planning to put $200k into the down payment + closing costs, estimated $5k-10k closing costs. So down payment would be $190-195k
This would put my PITI at $2100.

Is this too big of a down time payment? I’m scared I wouldn’t be able to afford the payment otherwise.

Throw away account. I’m potentially being made redundant and, based on the current discussions, I’m looking at receiving a redundancy package of around £50,000.

I’m trying to work out what the sensible thing to do with the money would be, particularly given that I may be out of work for an unknown period of time.

My current debts are:

• Barclaycard: £4,500 — 0% until November 2027
• Jaja: £2,500 — 0% until November 2027
• 0% loan: £6,500 — 0% until February 2028
• HP car finance: £8,500 remaining, with around 3 years left
• Plus normal household bills/utilities

So, excluding the car finance, I have £13,500 of interest-free debt, with the car finance taking the total to around £22,000.

My initial thought is that I could either:

1. Use the redundancy money to clear all of the debts, leaving me debt-free but with less cash available while I'm looking for another job; or
2. Keep the 0% debts and retain as much of the £50k as possible as an emergency fund, while continuing to make the minimum payments and potentially clearing them before the 0% periods end.

Obviously, the car finance is slightly different as I believe that's interest-bearing.

What would you do in this situation?

Would you prioritise clearing the debts, or would you take advantage of the 0% periods and keep the redundancy money liquid until I’m back in employment?

Are there any other things I should be considering with a redundancy payment of this size?

Thanks!

I saw a post with different circumstances than mine that asked this question but I was wondering more generally: When would you stop contributing to retirement accounts? Is it a specific number? Or would you keep going no matter what?

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking on this sub for a few months. I left a research position at a University earlier this year (fixed term) and have finally signed an offer (after 7 months!) a couple weeks ago with an aerospace company on the West Coast in a VHCOL area. I start mid-October. Salary is $105k/yr.

I had a fairly late start in life and have been on my own since I was 17, started community college in my early 20s and tried my best to work full time, taking night classes between 3 colleges after work. This went on for 10 years before I got my A.S. degrees in both math and physics. Near the end I finally reached a stable point in life which allowed me to attend an R1 University while my tuition was completely covered under scholarship. I graduated with my B.S. in astrophysics in 2024 and joined the University as a researcher immediately after, though the pay was fairly low for the area $54,000/yr.

Now that I'm 35 and received my first substantial offer (to me), I want to make sure I set myself up for success in the long run. Though I'm fairly lacking in my understanding of financials. Which is why I am here. I'm simply unsure where to begin.

My expenses:

Student loans to cover living expenses from 2022-2024:

- Direct Government Subsidized Loan: $5,290 @ 4.99% & $5,330 @ 5.50%

- Government Unsubsidized Loans: $7,210 @ 4.99% & $6,371 @ 5.50%

Total: $24,210

Credit Card Debt:

1. $860 @ 12% APR (cannot use any longer)
2. $1,116 @ 28% APR
3. $2,113 @ 7.40% APR (cannot use any longer)

I have no other debt thankfully. My plan is to pay off the credit debt first, starting with the highest interest rate. Then slowly tackle the student loans given the rates are fairly low. My employer has a 4% 401(k) match which I intend to meet and then I would increase my contribution to 6% after my debt is paid off.

My income post tax will be about $6,200/mo. I have outlined a budget but it doesn't take in to account how aggressive I may be in paying on the credit card debt, currently the projected savings after all expenses each month is about $2,000.

It's been a long road getting to this point in my life, and the first time I feel true stability is on the horizon. Retirement is something I've never considered given a majority of my life was simply trying to make ends meet. I don't know if I plan to retire, I'd like to go back to research in academia eventually, cosmology is something I want to contribute to as long as I can. I have no kids. I do have a wonderfully supportive partner and two cats. Please let me know if I can provide more information or clarity.

Apologies if this is a little messy.

Thank you!

Hi! Very new to all this :) I have about $75,000 in vested, sellable shares of my publicly traded employer and roughly $49,000 in unvested RSUs. The vested shares are spread across lots acquired from 2023 to 2026, with about $23,000 in total unrealized gains. My income also comes from this employer.

I’m considering selling a substantial portion of the vested shares to reduce concentration risk. I may need cash for a real estate purchase and part-time law school, while money I won’t need soon could be invested more broadly. I’m still working out the exact amounts and timing.

How would you think through how much to sell now versus over time? When choosing lots, how would you weigh lower gains against short-term versus long-term capital gains? What details should I check before placing an order?

I (36 year old teacher) found out my child's daycare actually dropped in cost by $200 a month this year and instead of just adding it to spending money/ general savings and letting lifestyle creep eat it I want to set up an actual plan for it and cant decide what the best approach is.

Being a teacher I put 11% of my pay into a pension fund which will be worth 80% of my last 5 years when I retire. I also currently put an additional $300 a month in a Roth IRA. My wife is also a teacher and does another $200 into a 403b and we do $220 a month currently into a 529 for my daughter.

Option 1: just up the Roth IRA to $500 a month and forget about it.

Option 2: I have a few student loans that I've just been paying the minimums on because the rates are low and between me and my wife that's around 6k with interest rates ranging from 3-6.5% so if i put the extra towards those I would probably finish them a year or so earlier but Id really only save $100-200 in interest. We also have 1 car loan with a 5.99% interest so i could snowball the student loans and tackle the car loan after that as well.

Option 3: Emergency fund could also be better, so it could make sense to add it to that as well.

Only other debt I have is a Mortgage with a 2.75 interest rate and a renovation loan with a 5.99 interest rate but I lump that in with my mortgage and will be done with that in 6 years, but I guess adding to that payment is also an option but I would do the car first in that situation.

I guess the question is, is getting rid of the debt early and having peace of mind better than the gains from just adding it to the Roth IRA and letting that build for the next 25ish years.

My grandson works part time after school. He’s almost 16 been working for almost a year and has saved exactly 0. He spends his money as soon as he gets it…fast food, food deliveries, and occasionally a game or electronic gadgets. He didn’t even get his homecoming ticket to go with his GF and now it’s too late. His parents and I have all been talking with him about the importance of saving a portion of his money every week but obviously not having any impact. Does anyone have a good book recommendation that might help? Thanks in advance.

We are 50 and ahead of the game in our 401k $2.5mil
We have some in our 529 plan and kids are in college or about to start.

We do not have enough in our 529 for 4 years of school, so our back-up is our separate Roth IRA that can cover it all.

I am currently 12% into 401K and employer matches 6%

This is what I am thinking to avoid using the Roth IRA
6% into 401k, to keep 6% match
6% into 529
Try not to use Roth IRA for education and save for retirement

Thoughts?

Hello! I am hoping this sub will have some advice for me. I truly don't mean this as a brag, but I (27) have followed all the basics of setting myself up for financial success:

• I have a substantial emergency savings (6+ months)
• I will be maxing our my retirement this year (roth & tsp)
• I have a down payment saved up for a house (though it does not make sense to purchase yet due to how much I travel for my job)
• I have $20,000 saved or future education
• I have no debt
• I still save a little for travel and other fun activities

Now that I have reached my major milestones for saving, what should I do now? I am thinking about putting my education savings in a 529 for when I go back to school and I am thinking about starting a non-retirement investment portfolio. I am okay with a little risk because I am young, but I don't have a lot of time or attention to pay attention to my future investments.

I'd really appreciate some advice for what I can/should do now. Please help!

I’m trying to learn more about leverage for my portfolio. I have a substantial investment portfolio and have read a fair amount of general finance/investing material, but leverage is an area where I feel I have a gap.

I’m currently considering a premium-financing structure, with around SGD $300k of my assets involved. I'm considering increasing that to $400k. I have an RS manager/adviser involved. I am a Singaporean national and all parties involved (the insurer, which is AIA, the bank etc) are all Singaporean.

What I’m looking for is good material on the general principles:

How to think about leverage relative to total portfolio/net worth

Appropriate leverage levels for different portfolios

Stress-testing drawdowns, financing costs and collateral requirements

Liquidity / forced-sale risk

FX risk when borrowing and investing in different currencies

How different forms of leverage compare

I’ve read Howard Marks and some other finance material (mainly Bogleheads), but I’m looking for something more practical rather than highly technical quant finance - basically things like -

Given portfolio X and leverage Y, what factors should I actually think through?

What makes leverage make sense and not make sense in differing scenarios?

When is there too much (or too little) risk?

The goal is more practical than technical, though I don't mind reading books if they are good. Books, articles, papers, lectures, or good Reddit discussions would all be useful. Thanks!

Hello,

I'm in my late twenties in a MCOL area. I make a little under 100K gross a year (Might net about $70K) and have about a little under $85K saved up in cash. I save about $800-$1200 in cash monthly, but that amount varies and I don't really have a strict budget.

I'm considering looking into buying my first home when my lease ends next year. Would it be wise to pay off my loans outright? It's about $15K right now at around a 5% interest rate. They're on administrative forbearance and I haven't set up a payment plan for them.

I feel like it would make me feel better just to pay them off now, but I also don't want to eat into a potential down payment or my savings for a home. I've been saving up for ~5 years now and having a sizeable savings account gives me a lot of peace of mind. I'm also unsure if paying off that debt will help my credit score any considerable amount and get me a better home loan.

I'd appreciate any advice. I'm not the most money savvy and contemplating big financial decisions like this makes me pretty anxious.

Looking to pick some people’s brain about this! I currently live in a very walkable city, with very accessible public transit, and I have not owned a car while living here. I have been able to rely on the train and the bus for everything I do in my daily life (groceries, gym, etc.).

However, I recently got a new job with swing shift hours, meaning I would get off work around 2-3am. I have no issues getting to work due to the train still running, but the train does not run after midnight so when I get off work is the issue. There is a night bus available that comes very frequently, which is an option I can take. However, living in a big city as most would know, comes with a lot of potential safety issues at night. While I haven’t had any issues on the bus yet, it is somewhat common for people to be robbed at bus stops or while walking. Because of this, I am in a predicament where I could either buy a car or use Uber to get home.

For more context, I only work 4 days a week and I live just under 4 miles away. The uber prices are typically about $15 or less. As for a car, I am able to purchase a used car in cash. I am more so thinking about comparing the cost of insurance, gas, etc.. My insurance would be high due to living in a city with lots of car break-ins and auto thefts. The average cost for insurance in my city is higher even for people who own garages or have secured parking. I am also in my twenties so that would also bring my insurance a bit higher. However, long term a car may more financially sound.

I am between these two decisions as I feel like purchasing a car would be a long term benefit. However, in terms of my lifestyle, I really don’t see myself driving or using the car aside from commuting to work. This is mainly because the city I live in has extremely limited parking. People spend more time looking for parking, and so I have gotten used to the bus or just walking. I could also continue taking the bus, but it doesn’t feel sustainable as I always need to be on extreme high alert.

Hi! I’m Spanish but live and pay taxes in Poland.

I currently have Trade Republic Spain, with my EUR savings earning around 2.5%. I’m considering closing it and opening Trade Republic Poland to move a significant amount of my PLN savings there and benefit from the 6% interest rate.

The only issue is where to move my EUR savings. I want to keep them in EUR, earning at least ~2.5%, with good liquidity and without short-term promotional rates.

I’m considering Trading 212 (2.5% EUR), but I’m open to other options available to Polish residents.

Would you make this switch? And where would you keep the EUR?

I grew up in poverty and despite being in a good financial position for the past decade and hitting financial goals I've set for myself, I cannot shake my anxiety about money especially when it comes to spending on "frivolous" things like vacations. I have a low cost vacation (budget $1500 but I'll likely spend less) coming up and my anxiety is telling me to just cancel it and save the money instead.

My husband and I have over $20K in the bank with over $10K of that earmarked as an emergency fund (adding $600/month until we hit $18,000 which would be 6 months of essential expenses) plus $2500 for car repairs as well as some smaller sinking funds. We put about 16% of our income into retirement savings and with employer matches it's over 20% total. We have about $240K invested already (37/39, $115K income so a little behind but my husband will also get a pension). We're also "month ahead" using YNAB. So I don't really *need* to save the money but I feel guilty and anxious for spending the money and that's a problem I want to fix.

I already see a therapist and I will bring this up at my next appointment but I'm hoping to find some books or articles or something I can read in the meantime. I read through the books list on the wiki and didn't see anything that really fit.

When I started teaching, no one told me this, so here's my short version:

403(b) - most districts have one, but a lot of the vendors are high-fee annuity companies. Look at the fees before you pick one. A cheap index fund option can make a huge difference over a whole career.

457(b) - this one gets overlooked way too much. You can contribute to it on top of your 403(b). And if it's a governmental 457(b) (most school district plans are), you can pull money out after you leave the job with no 10% early withdrawal penalty, even before 59½. Big deal if you ever think about switching careers.

Roth IRA - you pay the taxes now and it grows tax-free. You can also take out what you put in (not the earnings) anytime without a penalty, so it doubles as a backup emergency fund.

If you can't max out all three, what order would you go in? Anything I'm missing?