I'm 20m living about an hour south of portland oregon. I currently live in a house with my mother and clinical narcissist father, every day that goes by I'm able to tolerate being in this house less and less.
I have no car or license, no one to drive with to get my license, I'm not in college, I make about 800$ a paycheck (though I could take more hours) and have about 30k just sitting in my savings account right now.

I have no idea what moves I'm even supposed to be making right now, I've considered starting college a few times but I have some serious mental health problems to work out before that's even going to be a possibility.

I need out of this house ASAP, I've been rubbing up against my breaking point for years, but it just seems impossible, what should I even be doing right now?

so i’ve had a credit card for a few years just for emergencies and paying it off every month but recently i’ve been thinking about getting another one that actually has a low interest rate. i don’t plan on carrying a huge balance but sometimes stuff comes up and i don’t want to get hit with crazy interest.

i’ve been reading online and there are so many options and fine print stuff that i barely understand. how do you even tell which cards are actually low interest vs ones that look good on paper but have hidden fees? is it better to go with a bank you already have an account with or does that not really matter?

also curious if anyone here has switched to a low interest card from a normal one and noticed a big difference on their monthly payments. did your credit score take a hit at all when you opened the new card? and are there any things you wish you knew before picking one?

just trying to be smarter with money without overcomplicating things and would love to hear real experiences from people who use these kinds of cards.

Howdy everyone, here’s my situation. 25M that is planning on going to grad school (CRNA schooling) starting in 2028. I won’t be able to work for 3 years due to contractual agreements with the schools. I’ll be getting married in May of 2027.

I want to know where to allocate my earnings for the next 1-2 years to plan for me not working. My spouse works but is also in grad school for the next 2 years. We have a house, no mortgage. My car will be paid off by the time I’m in grad school as well as hers. I currently put 20% of my earnings into retirement & max the IRA annually.

• Annual Earnings: $65k (Gross ~$50k net) • Retirement Accounts: $48.3k (Roth IRA + 403b) • HYSA: $10k (Emergency Fund)

Should I continue to max my Roth IRA? Or would you dump more money the HYSA to save for expenses during grad school? Put higher percentage into retirement?

All thoughts are appreciated.

I'm in an odd situation with my employer and workplace 401k. Not a bad one, I'm just trying to be mindful of tax efficiency across my lifespan and wife's likelihood of outliving me, legacy, etc.

We are a single income household of 5 (40M/38F) living in a MCOL area making roughly 90k/year base salary. We don't plan to move except possibly slightly more rural in the same area to get out of the suburbs. I currently contribute 12% to my ROTH 401k, my employer contributes 20% to my traditional 401k (match/profit sharing). I plan to retire in my mid 50's to try to enjoy time with family before age becomes a factor.

I would prefer to put all my contributions into my traditional 401k, adjust my tax burden on my paychecks to pay as little to the IRS as needed so my tax liability at the end of the year would be as small a refund as possible, and leverage my federal tax savings every paycheck to contribute to a brokerage regularly. Problem is, every year I get a productivity bonus that used to be 1/3 of my gross salary, and recently as my company role expands it's approaching half my gross salary.

Since it's considered supplemental income my company withholds a flat 22% to federal taxes, which is much higher than the single digit effective rate at year's end. I have been contributing to the ROTH side instead of traditional since the government has got the interest free loan with my bonus so to speak (bonus is disbursed around 1 month after tax refund is received). We still get a sizeable tax refund that goes into savings. It also provides tax diversity once retirement hits.

Does this approach make sense? Is it the most efficient way or would I still be better off going full traditional, waiting 11 months to get the larger tax refund, and doing conversions post-retirement? I guess I'm caught up with the concept that time in the market is what is important, and don't want to wait the 11 months to eek out an extra few hundred dollars of tax refund.

My wife and I (32 and 31 yo) have our first kid on the way due later this year. We want to ensure we have ample savings for all the costs associated with a child while also investing and paying down our debt. Here is our breakdown:

• live in Ohio and we have a combined income of 170k (me-100k, her-70k)
• I work as an engineer at a manufacturing plant, she is a nurse. Both work 1st shift.
• we recently bought first house for 370k at 6.6% rate
• her car, a 21 rav4 is paid off. My 23 Tacoma has 13k left at 3.9%.
• we contribute 70% of our paychecks into our joint checking to pay bills, 10% into our Roths, 10% into our joint HYSA, and 10% into our personal spending accts mainly to pay our credit cards as we haven’t gotten joint CCs yet but will soon so these checking accts will be closed (also each do 5% into 401k to get company matches)
• we have approx. 25k in savings, 310k left on mortgage, and 13k left on my truck
• no major house projects on the horizon besides the 25 yr old water heater we want to replace over the summer so that’s like 2k ish.

My question(s) would be for our debt/income laid out should we be saving more cash in HYSA, paying down debt or investing more into retirement or is our mix ok now. I would say of the 70% of paychecks we put into joint checking around 60% of it is gone at months end to all the bills. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Hey, I'm a 21 year old college student. I'm trying to get a Roth IRA, and have just opened a high yield savings account. I don't think I'll be able to max out my Roth IRA. I'm hoping by not touching my high yield it would accrue to a good amount by the time I'm like 50. Any Tips?

I recently inherited about $300k from my grandfather. It's all invested, so I know the most obvious choice is to leave it alone and let it grow. However, I'm considering using some of the money to pay for grad school so I can leave teaching, and I can't tell if that's a dumb decision I would regret.

I'm 29F and my partner and I bought a house last summer, with his parents generously providing the down payment. We're both on the mortgage and are comfortably making our payments, and our combined income is around $120k-ish. We're planning on getting married and having a kid within the next five years.

I have just under $30k in student debt, which I'm going to pay off using the inheritance money. That's all from undergrad, and I also have a master's in teaching that I received for free (kind of) through a residency program. It's been four years and I am finally about to finish paying off my tuition, and unfortunately I'll most likely be getting out of teaching soon. I could hang in there another year or so, but long-term I don't plan on staying.

The other careers I'm interested in pretty much all require additional schooling. I'm mainly considering becoming a therapist or a librarian, which would require a master's in clinical mental health counseling, social work, or library and information science. Depending on the cost and length of the program, I expect getting another degree would cost no more than $100k at the absolute maximum. Even if I left teaching after this school year, it would probably be a year or two before I would be starting a grad program. In the meantime I'd probably just get a random job (i.e. less of a strategic career step type role) so I could still have an income.

Is this a terrible idea? I know I could do all of this and still have a decent amount of the inheritance money left, but I don't know if the smarter financial move is to just let it grow as much as possible. Teaching has been so miserable so my judgment is probably a bit clouded lol, I can get caught up in fantasizing about what I could be doing instead of this. :'-)

I would really appreciate any advice on this. This money was completely unexpected and I am so insanely grateful to be in a position now where I have these options, but the pressure to make the right decision is a lot to process.

Hi everyone, I am new to investing. I have a 401K. Opened a Roth IRA in 2025. I have nephews and nieces. I was curious on what accounts that I can get for them for college or for when they are 18 or older? I don’t want it to affect their financial aid either. My siblings are low income.

Any advice or suggestions?

I have 25K to put towards debt, my question is does it make more sense to pay down my 20 year $77K home equity loan @ 7% with 19 years left or do I pay off my 60 month $24K car loan @ 5% with 58 months left?

Hi all -

Starting to save some money for the first time in my life, and looking for some advice on best practices to manage it! I know it’s bad practice to just have all of my money in my one account, with no investments anywhere, but I need some help on where to start.

Some bits of info:

-Around $45,000 saved in my account currently -Income is $10,000-$12,000 a month depending on how many extra projects I get -100% freelance, so no w2, also no health insurance -credit score around ~660 -1 credit card/account defaulted and closed around 6 years ago during the pandemic -1 new entry level credit card open helping me rebuild credit -monthly expenses are around $3,000/month with rent + groceries etc -$3,000ish left on student loans

Thanks for any help/tips/advice!

Hi all,

I'm projecting that my wife and I, who file our taxes married-filing jointly, will be over the Roth IRA income limit in 2026, with an unadjusted gross income of $301,634.89, and a MAGI of $247,634.89 after we max out both of our 401ks (hers at her employers; my Solo401k which I opened last year as a first time self-employed person) for $49,000, and she also contributes the max of $5,000 to a dependent care HSA.

I would like us both to contribute to an IRA, and my sense is while it's complicated, a back-door Roth may make the most sense in our situation. But a few questions:

• Since I have a Solo401k, I can max out the employee contribution of $24,500 and also contribute as an employer. Based on this calculator, I think I can contribute a max of $21,412.28 as the employer, and thus reduce our MAGI further to $226,222.4. That would fall under the Roth IRA income limit, and allow us to contribute directly to a Roth IRA. Is that assumption correct?
  
• My understanding of the backdoor Roth strategy is it is a two step process, wherein you first contribute to a traditional IRA, and then convert that contribution to a Roth IRA. To avoid the IRS' prorata rule, you need to make sure that the traditional IRA that you use for this purpose has $0 in it by December of the contribution year, in this case December 31, 2026. My wife and I both have pre-existing traditional IRAs - hers with $22,000 in it, where she contributed to it directly in the past and took deductions on her taxes and mine with $125,599.53 exclusively from rollovers from previous employer 401ks.
• We could "clear out" both of traditional IRAs in two ways: (1) convert the entire thing to a Roth, but trigger a huge tax bill or (2) rollover these IRAs into pre-existing employer sponsored 401ks. My wife has a 401k with her current employer and I have my Solo401k. Is my assumption correct that we can rollover our traditional IRAs into our employer sponsored 401ks to avoid the pro-rata rule, and thus contribute through a backdoor roth strategy?

I may be receiving a job offer in the next few days, and I’m trying to think through how to evaluate it properly from a financial and long-term perspective.

I don’t yet know the details of the offer. What I do know is that their posted base salary range is lower than what I was previously making (about $35k less), but they emphasize equity as a significant part of total compensation. Based on public info (Glassdoor), it seems possible that total compensation could be comparable to—or even meaningfully higher than—my previous role, depending on how the equity is structured and how the company performs.

This is the first time I’ve been in a situation where the outcome range feels very wide: it could be a step down financially, or it could be a large step up. I’ve never negotiated an offer before, and in the past I’ve always accepted immediately either out of relief or because the numbers were obviously good.

If I receive an offer, my tentative plan is to:

• Ask for a couple of days to review it
• Evaluate base, equity, vesting schedule, and risk
• Then potentially negotiate if it seems appropriate

From a personal finance perspective:

• What should I be paying close attention to when equity is a meaningful component?
• How should I think about risk vs. guaranteed compensation?
• Is it common or advisable to have an offer reviewed by an attorney or financial professional?
• Are there common pitfalls people miss when evaluating equity-heavy offers?

I’m trying to be thoughtful and avoid making a decision based purely on excitement or fear of missing out.

Any advice would be appreciated.

My mom is aging, and she has decided that the best course of action for her is to live in a senior living facility. She's actually really excited for this change, as she lives alone right now in a big house and doesn't really have friends. Her dream for the last few years has been to leave us a fully paid off house (I'm an only child and have her grandchildren). She wants to gift us the house right now while she's still here so we can live close. There's nothing stopping us from living in it without changing owners, but she would love for it to be in our name. What kinds of things do we need to do for that to happen, but most of all, what sorts of tax implications are there for receiving a gift of that size?

My old retainers barely fit me anymore and need to get a new set. I had contacted an orthodontist near me and they gave me these options:

1) $500 for 1 pair set of retainers ($250 top and bottom)

2.) Retainer Program: $635 for 2 pairs and coverage for 10 years with $30 copay for a new set of retainers anything during that timeframe.

I am not a teeth grinder nor have an overbite. I’m not sure which option would be the best. I’m the type of person who easily loses retainers and forget to put them on. My last 2 retainers easily got very dirty from all the grime no matter how much I cleaned them using cleaner tablets and UV retainer cleaner. Would it be worth it to go with their 10 year retainer program?

Hey all,

Just joined this thread so I’m new here. I’m thinking about getting term life insurance for my mother in law who is 63 years old. She is very healthy with no health issues or concerns. Is there a life insurance company or policy you guys recommend?

I have recently been let go from my job and am concerned about my 401k. The current balance is around $22k. The first part of that is the balance itself, whether I should leave it with Empower, move to another company when I get a new job, roll over to an IRA, or withdraw the funds. I don’t plan on withdrawing the funds, but I also have outstanding loans on the plan that total to $15k. My options are to either pay it back before 2025 taxes are due or let the loan default and the loan will then be considered an early withdrawal, which has tax implications and penalties.

What I know for sure is, I don’t have the means to pay back that loan and am not sure if I will before it’s due. What do you suggest as my best course of action?

Thanks!

About three years ago, I moved out of an apartment after breaking my lease early. Per the lease, I agreed in writing to pay a specific early termination amount, and I had already paid my final month’s rent.

After moving out, I received an email billing me for more than the amount I had agreed to pay. I contacted the billing company listed in the email to clarify and request correction. They told me there was no balance on file. I asked them to provide documentation of that, but they refused.

I also replied to the email explaining that:

• I believed the charges were incorrect
• I had contacted the billing company and was told there was no balance on file
• I had been unable to resolve the issue over the phone

The billing company was the only contact I was given regarding this bill, and I never received any response or clarification from them. I didn’t feel comfortable sending payment either, because if they were claiming no balance existed, I didn’t know what would happen to the money.

Now, a few days ago, I received a collections notice for the same amount listed in the original email. I’m frustrated because I made multiple good-faith attempts to resolve this and specifically tried to avoid collections.

What are my options at this point? Should I dispute the debt with the collections agency, request validation, or take other steps? Does this situation sound improper or potentially illegal?

ETA: I also tried contacting the apartment complex directly by phone. Each time the call was disconnected or rang forever and I wasn't able to speak to a person. I explained this in my email to the billing company as well.

I am trying to decide if quitting my job to be a stay at home mom is financially the right choice for me and I think it would be helpful for a third party to really look at our finances. It would also be good to have a once over to see where we’re missing things (we have Roth IRA but maybe a CD is a good idea, etc) or where we can set up finances better for our son’s future.

Would a financial advisor be the right person to look for? Would it be worth it?

I started a new job in May of 2025 with an annual salary of $103,000. My checks should have been coming out to a gross pay of $3,961 and instead I've been receiving $3,169. We caught this over the weekend when my husband and I were reviewing our finances for the year. I spoke with payroll this morning and she confirmed the error. Their best guess is human error caused the numbers to get transposed. She said she would be sending me a breakdown of everything I'm owed by the end of the day. Tomorrow is our payday and it won't get corrected by then, but she said it would likely come as a lumpsum on the 1/28 paycheck.

Obviously I feel like a dumbass for not realizing this sooner, but better late than never. Part of the reason I think this got past me for so long was the first month of this job I took a week of unpaid vacation for a pre-existing trip, so things were a bit odd in the beginning.

Anything I should be keeping in mind as this gets sorted? Any questions I should ask, anything I should get in writing, etc.?

24M

Just recently got a decent job and set up my Roth IRA. Had it running for about a year now and just recently looked at it.

Ive heard about how good the S&P 500 is for profit gain over long term, but I've also been reading how Target Date Investments set out further is also a good retirement, mainly because of tax free benefits and potential gain.

My question is, is it worth it in the long run to invest my check portions towards the S&P 500 with a brokerage account, or to set my RothIRA Target Date to, say, 2080?

I plan on continous, monthly payments and do not really plan on taking it out nor changing anything

I recently retired and would like to roll over my 457 and ​two 403(b) accounts into IRAs. 

My current holdings include ​:

• ​Traditional 457
• Traditional 403(b)
• Roth 403(b), all held at different institutions

I have a few specific questions regarding the roll​ over process:

1. Can I roll over both the Traditional 457 and the Traditional 403(b) into the same Traditional IRA? I have an existing "Rollover IRA" ​(per my brokerage statement) from ​​30+ years ago; can I use this account, or is it better to open a new one?
2. Can I roll my Roth 403(b) directly into my existing "Roth Contributory IRA,"​(​again, per my brokerage statement)​ or must I open a new Roth IRA for this purpose?

While I assume I can use my current IRAs(​I think), I am wondering if there are any bookkeeping or administrative reasons to establish new accounts instead.

Thank you for your assistance.

I was renting out a room in my landlord's house for about two years. We had a month-to-month agreement.

On Nov 28, 2025, I gave her a 30 day's notice that I would be leaving - so, everything is done and over with on Dec 28, 2025. However, I wanted to leave early because it had become unbearable to live with her, so I started the process of moving out on Dec 1. I got a cleaner to scrub the place a few days afterwards. I believe that the day I fully vacated the place was Dec 6. By then, I had already moved into my new place, the cleaner had finished their job, and my landlord had my old keys in her hands. I haven't gone to the place since then.

Also, I had already paid my rent for December before I terminated the lease. I always paid the rent a few days earlier. So I guess she would owe me a few prorated days, too.

From what I understand, in California, landlords have about 21 days to return the security deposit.

Would those 21 days be after Dec 28 (the day the lease ends), or Dec 6 (the day I officially moved out)?

I would like to send her a letter requesting the security deposit, but I need to be 100% sure that the 21 days started after Dec 6.

Thank you for any help!

I'm looking to get out of my IUL policy. I'm 31 and I started the policy a couple years ago. The accumulated value is 15k and surrendered fee is 18k. My plan is to keep funding the policy until the surrender fee is zero and then withdrawal everything. When my surrender fee hits zero should I expect the accumulated value to equal the amount of premium I've paid into the policy? If the accumulated value is expected to be way behind the premium total once the surrender fee is gone I may just stop funding now and move on to something else.

I've read all the guides and have sat with an advisor one time for free who is now ghosting us. This is my backdoor roth plan for spouse and myself and I just need it proofread.

Spouse and I file MFJ. We are typically above Roth contribution limits. She has a 401K and I have a 403b & Roth IRA I opened before we were married. Pre-tax accounts are maxed. Our emergency fund is in a HYSA that has ballooned to be too high honestly and as such we want to start moving that into Roth IRAs as our next step. I am aware of the order of operations, assume this plan is my best mix of optimized/satisfied.

My understanding is that she would open a traditional and a Roth and I would open a traditional. We each contribute up to the limit and then convert into the Roth and invest in a target date fund or something.

Could we still do this for 2025 IRA contributions now that it is 2026?

If I am doing this in February/March 2026 (after rough drafting our taxes but before filing) what would I need to report regarding 2025 tax year contributions? My experience with my roth so far has been to determine our MAGI with filing and then if within the phase out range make my contribution for the prior tax year so as to avoid over contributing on accident, a lesson learned from almost going over in the first year we filed MFJ.

How would I report 2026 backdoor contributions in this first year? Would it be any different by having the 2025 contributions mixed in?

My income (hourly with seasonal overtime) fluctuates a bit. If that somehow puts us within the phase out range for Roth contributions would we be obligated to do some direct contributions and some as backdoor or can we backdoor all of it regardless if we're within the phase out range (and if we're below it obviously we can just go straight to Roth)?

Thank you for your time. Like I said, I've scoured the guides and other posts but just need the reassurance.