Hi, looking for advice.

I am 25M - moving to Ohio, USA on an E2 work visa. Moving from Scotland. Flying out Jan 27.

Salary is $180k.

Looking for advice on American bank accounts. Setting up my new financial life.

Roughly I think -

Chase - Debit Card (for receiving pay check)
Chase - Credit Card (to built a credit score as I know it resets to 0 in the USA)

For Savings

Chase Savings - 0.01% interest, simply a place to store ready cash each month.

A HYSA - 5-7% interest, not sure who from.

Roth IRA - max out $7.5k each year

Pension 10% contributions with 5% employee match.

Would also be looking to contribute to the US equivalent of a Vanguard S&S ISA - Not sure the limit on these but it would be in place to simply invest long term. I am thinking SnP500 - 10% per year.

I have around £30k GBP to be transferred to $ and roughly my first Pay will be around $22k - inclusive of a signing bonus.

I am looking for advise of the best accounts to open and a rough structure on where to send the money to each month.

I also appreciate that in the US I will have to complete a tax return every year. Still researching this.

Thank you.

I (early 30’s M) hit over ~$1M NW all tied up in stocks and a bit parked in cash. Which I feel really proud of. My number is $2M, but Long hours and high stress is impacting my mental health. I know I could take my foot off the pedal and get a more chill job but I really want to get there as fast as possible and the only path I see is keeping on this current grind. I realize the answer is somewhat simple and I need to gauge if the speed is worth the pressure, but If you were in similar shoes and took a more chill job do you regret the extra time it took? Looking for advice from similar shoes that can give me a different perspective.

To keep a long story short, I have a mortgage, car payment, student loans, credit card debt basically all the expenses that life throws your way.

This past year, I was in need of health insurance (I am in the US, I checked all my options in terms of state run insurance, Medicaid, etc) and I was not eligible in terms of income.

Well my medication for my chronic illness is around $20k per treatment, and I take it once every 8 weeks.

I ended up taking a state job with very good benefits, and very low pay. Now, I’m in the situation where I have good health insurance, but can’t afford my monthly bills.

Please, I’m not looking for sympathy, just answers if anyone has been in this situation and what I can do.

I have already cut down expenses as much as I can, and looked into refinancing many of my loans.

I have a toddler son and my time is very limited in terms of getting a second job.

Please help.

33F. US. Not a personal finance expert here. Everything I know I've learned from personal finance books, youtube, etc.

I got debt free last year and recently started investing. I got 2 significant raises at work this year (in a very short amount of time) and as a result, I'm now above the income limit for Roth Contribution. I just started contributing to my roth IRA for the very first time this past month ( a meager $1k) thinking I was doing something good, so imagine my surprise when ChatGPT said I might be "past the income limit".

I heard I can do a backdoor conversion, but how? and when?

Do I do it now before the year ends? And contribute only to a traditional IRA?

Do I keep contributing until the end of the calendar year and then convert?

Will my brokerage app help with that?

Do I need to get a financial advisor to help?

Trying to decide between Monarch and Rocket Money (please do not recommend anything else, these are the two I’ve narrowed it down to). I don’t care about budgeting or setting goals, mainly just tracking net worth, monthly cash flow, and categorizing transactions.

I’ve noticed Monarch uses transaction dates while Rocket Money uses posting dates. Unsure what makes more sense? I can see a case for both.

For those who’ve used both, which do you prefer and why? Mainly interested in accuracy, reporting, and overall functionality.

I currently have a trial with both, but am indecisive.

Hey my grandparents were married for 20 years then decided to get a divorce . They spoke often and he told her a few times that when he passed she’s still apart of his pension plan . We have the pension document and she is on there but when she put in for it , they sent a letter saying no because the death certificate says divorced . Is there anything she can do about this or has anyone experienced this situation before ?

I just started a new job and am enrolling in an HSA-eligible health insurance plan.

During enrollment, I'm being asked to select an annual HSA contribution amount, with the option to contribute up to $4,400 for 2026.

My question is, since I'm enrolling at the end of October, with only November and December remaining, if I select $4,400, will payroll attempt to deduct the entire amount over my remaining paychecks this year? Or will it simply divide $4,400 by the normal 26 biweekly pay periods and deduct approximately $169 per paycheck?

I'm planning to have some potentially significant medical expenses in 2027, so I'd like to start funding the HSA now. However, I don't want to inadvertently have thousands of dollars deducted from my last few paychecks of 2026.

The enrollment page also says I can change my contribution amount at any time. Would it make more sense to select a lower amount for the remainder of this year (e.g. $500-1000 or so), and increase it in January?

Or does it go based on enrollment date, e.g. Nov to Nov?

I asked a chat specialist on the website and they didn't give me a very clear answer, tbh I think they didn't really understand what I was asking and just gave me an AI generated response, and it may have even been a chatbot.

Hi everyone, I have always went with the PPO plan from my company, but this year I am considering the HDHP plan. Could you guys please help me decide which one is best for me? New to insurance through this employer so any advice would help? Are these considered "good" insurance plans?

To note:

• 27 Male
• I visit the doctor 2-3 times a year for general sickness, and I have labs every 3 months.
• High Cholesterol for which I am being treated and visit cardiologist every 4-6 months.
• Married but spouse is not currently on insurance as she is abroad, will eventually be included on my insurance but unsure on when that will be, she barely has doctor visits if ever.

Aetna HDHP

• HSA Eligible - Company provides up to $500 contribution
• Premium: 141.82 Monthly
• Deductible: $2,000.00
• Out of Pocket Max: $5,000.00
• Coinsurance after deductible is met: I pay 20%
• Preventive Care: 100% Paid For
• Primary Care Visit after annual deductible: I pay 20%
• Specialist Visit after annual deductible: I pay 20%

Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO

• Premium: 204.66 Monthly
• Deductible: $650.00
• Out of Pocket Max: $3,650.00
• Coinsurance after deductible is met: I pay 20%
• Preventive Care: 100% Paid For
• Primary Care Visit after annual deductible: I pay 20%
• Specialist Visit after annual deductible: I pay 20%

Hi everyone, thanks in advance for any responses!

I recently purchased a car for, the timing was tight and I had the money in savings to do everything so I bought it first and planned to figure out the loan later to keep my savings up.

After purchasing the car and seeing my new number in savings doesn’t feel as low as I originally expected to be. I have at least 3 months of expenses still but I was aiming to have 6 months. I’m debating now whether I should get the car loan or just slowly build back my savings to what it was before over the next few months or so. I currently have no other debt and just use credit cards on autopay but never exceed what I have in my bank account. It just feels a little weird to take out the loan now that I know I still have decent savings and will be paying interest on it instead of earning. I know overall it wouldn’t be a huge difference but it might be just an insurance policy to have the extra money.

The loan would be for around 10k at around 6.6% and then I’d have the money in my savings at 3.4%.

Thanks again for any thoughts, ideas, or input :)

recently found a vlog on you tube and they talked about creating / setting up a trust tri-fecta.

any one here familiar with the term / trust?

just trying to do my due diligence and looking for the actual facts about it before pulling a $2,500 + trigger setting one up

any feedback appreciated and welcome

I live alone as a renter, no kids, no debt. My annual costs of living including health insurance and leisure are $30k.

I was making about $50k a year as a freelance artist, but work is drying up, and I plan to change my career that makes about the same, which may take about 2-4 years. I can probably keep doing some freelance work on the side for $5k a year.

Current portfolio:

- $30k in HYSA

- $30k in US bond maturing a year from now

- $30k in US bond maturing 2 years from now

- $120k in SP500 ETF in taxable account

- $30k in Nasdaq500 ETF in Roth IRA

34yo Aiming to retire at at 60 or sooner.
Job 1 - Educator $115k retiring at 60 would mean about $4500/mo net income from pension.
Job 2 - Side gig stable $40k/yr
(I think my MAGI should allow me to max the Roth IRA because pension deductions should bring me 12k/yr lower)

Net income $10500/mo
Expenses avg $6500/mo (absolute minimum 5200/mo)

Debt: New toyota camry hybrid $32000 loan balance. 4.99%apr 0Down and the resale value is about equal to payoff amount.

Investments: Bitcoin ~70k (up 300%+ since investing)

Cash: $26k (some in HYSA 5.8% account)

TLDR: Opened a Fidelity Roth IRA. I plan to max this every year. Which ETFs would you purchase on a 20yr+ retirement hold?

403(b) too or no?

I have a $200,000 mortgage at 7% on a 30-year conventional. I also have a rental property with about $20,000 left on the mortgage. The initial rental property loan was $150,000 and has essentially the same rate and terms as the larger loan.

If I have $20,000 as a lump sum to put towards the loan(s), what is the most efficient way to allocate this money? Is it better to pay down the $200k to decrease the amount of interest accrued over the long term, pay off the smaller loan completely, or pay down $10k on each?

i was awarded a big grant to support my research. i want to save this money to use in two years to extend the amount of time i have to write my dissertation. because i need to use it two years from now the typical advice (set aside emergency fund, roth ira) doesn't apply. i have other savings and an income that will keep me going until then. what is the best way to protect (i dont want to to be tempted to dip in) and make this money grow that won't lock me in longer than 2 years?

I have a $750 deductible. I am married, we have separate health plans. I go to weekly therapy, it costs $120 session before my deductible kicks in, and then around $17 after my deductible kicks in. I wanted to put $1,600 into my FSA to cover my therapy for the year. I have very limited medical needs, and I have access to (and routinely use) a free work clinic that fills scripts, does check ups, preventative care, etc.

Should I just put away the $1,600 and then call it good? I have never had an FSA before so I want to make sure I am doing the right thing to pay for my medical care. I don't want to lose out on money at the end of the year - and I don't want to have to panic spend at the end of the year to stock up on medicine/band aids. Any advice?

If you have a checking account with chase and you link an external account (say Bank of America checking account) to chase and make numerous ach transfers to bank of america over past few months.....THEN chase for whatever internal reason decides to close your chase checking account, would this get my bank of america account closed as well?

I ask because they were linked and I guess bank of america might notice idk?

Any experience with such a closure and any ripple effects?

Thanks

I have $60k in a Treasury Trust fund. I am late 20’s, have no debt, already have an emergency fund, routinely max my IRA, and have no large purchases coming within the next two years.

I assume it would be better to transfer some/all of this money to index funds. My plan is to transfer $6k a month, with 50% in US, 30% in bonds, 20% in international.

In my head, this strategy makes sense, but I’m still freaking out. The AI bubble worries me, and I can’t help but feel I’m making a mistake (crystal ball aside).

Am I missing anything here? Faster transfers, slower transfers, a different investing option? Does the possibility of buying property in 3+ years change anything?

I am a North Carolina state employee and they require me to be enrolled in one of two retirement plans. I’m currently enrolled in their Optional Retirement Plan (ORP). They also offer supplemental retirement plans including a 403b and 457b.

The ORP has a mandatory pre-tax contribution of 6%, which the employer matches.

I need advice on what to do beyond that. Should I contribute to one of the supplemental plans like the 403b or 457b? Or should I start my own Roth IRA?

I’m not entirely clear on the differences between the 403b and 457b, but the employer does NOT match contributions to either.

I am in my late 20's and have about $30K in the ORP at the moment. I do not plan on staying with this employer long term. I can answer any other questions in the comments!

Hi, me and my parents came to the US just 2 years ago. Unfortunately, my dad was diagnosed of cancer the 2nd month after we came here. After a year of battling cancer, he passed away peacefully in his sleep which I think was better. However, I have accrued debt from having to take care of my dad (sudden medical/medicine bills, undertime in work to get him to hospital, and such) now, I used my credit card for all of that and have been paying it off little by little.

Now, I only have 6k left to pay on my credit card bill and the no apr promotion ends this month. If I cant pay it full, i would have 28.74 apr for that balance. Now I am thinking of loaning 6k on upstart just to pay it fully but the apr is the same with around 27%. Would it be better for me to just loan it to just pay it off and avoid interest as well as credit score decrease?

For context, i am working 2 jobs right now and earns around 5k a month. However, I am still supporting my sister and my mom can't work so I am basically the only one who has income and has to pay for almost everything. I tried applying for personal loan on my bank but I wont get approved as they say my account is still too new.

Any help or advice is much appreciated

I’m 39 and have done decent (not the best,but…) from where I come from. I’m in Texas and the urge to ultimately be debt free is weighing on me.

I have paid all debt off except for the mortgage, I owe $340k +/-, no personal loans, two paid off autos and I do put everything on credit cards every month That I can and I pay off before statement dates. I could possibly break even on the house in this terrible current market, or even come to closing with $5k if needed. Which is realistic based on comps.

$50k in savings and $200k in retirement accounts.
I understand cashing out retirement comes at a cost/ fees and tax implications. But cashing out and paying cash for the property and home, eliminating my mortgage; I would still set aside and save that amount to pay the offset. I wouldn’t do it until January so that I have more time to build funds.

Does this sound crazy ???
At worst this is a two year ordeal and I start square one on retirement accounts.

Talk me into it or out of it please! lol

This was my first experience working with an advisor from a private firm that was recommended to me by someone I knew. I’m high earning on w2 and originally had some stocks/index ETFs that I wasn’t sure what to do with. I was also interested in tax loss harvesting (since then I learned recently there are lower cost alternatives). My life has been crazy over the past 2 years and I hadn’t been paying close attention to the portfolio. Today some serious red flags popped out at me:

* overall the 438k brokerage portfolio they manage is up by 141k over the past 2 years…including 135k worth of my monthly 5k cash deposits. I feel utterly devastated.
* 1.5% fee. I didn’t realize that was well beyond the market average until I did more research today
* They bought 6-7k worth of SpaceX IPO.
* When I began to doubt things, I transferred out my remaining cash to another bank and stopped my automatic deposits to the managed brokerage. Seemingly in response they moved 185k worth of my assets into an alternative investment that’s high dividend but illiquid for 2 years.

The contract says I can give them 30 days notice in writing, but I don’t know what to do about the illiquidity issue regarding the alternative investments, and I don’t want them to try and do something with my current assets after knowing I’m terminating the contract. I have a meeting set up with the advisor for a week from now but I have half a mind to initiate an in-kind TOA to my self managed brokerage immediately. Any advice?

I was trying to use my HSA card to pay my medication today and it was declined. I paid with a different card. On my way home, I remembered that I received a new card, with different card number about a week ago, but I was too busy to activate it. I called HSA about not able to use my card and received a new card I didn't request (the card expires in 2028, so not because of close to expiration). The person on the phone said my card was reported stolen. But she can't tell me who reported it. I am not sure if this is a scam. If it is, then how are they scamming me? Has this happened to anyone else? Thanks for any insights.

Hello,

I have a car loan on an extremely old car that’s been broken down and sitting approaching a year. It’s got roughly 3k negative equity. I have about 2k saved up and can probably manage another grand by the end of November.

My plan all along has been to pay off the car in full, then sell it private party to use that $ as a down payment for a new car. Could probably get $500-1k more than a dealer would offer. Now I’m reconsidering because of the ding to my credit. Worried that paying off will decrease my score & then hard inquiries will also decrease my score, making it even harder to get a loan. Every place says something different but I see anywhere from 644-690 for my credit score. Everything is good or excellent except for my utilization, I’m also trying to pay down CCs.

Should I instead save up as much as I can & try to get it to a dealership to trade it in? It’s not very safe to drive if I’m honest. Frame is shot & it sounds terrible when I last moved it around a couple months ago. Let’s say it’s 3k negative equity, and I had $3-4k in hand. Trade in the car, get basically nothing for it bc it’s OLD and beat to hell, basically “rolling over” the loan while paying it off in the process? What is a better choice here? I’d love a lower interest rate, too. Current is pretty high.

Also considering going to my FCU that my loan is through to chat with a banker about my options, but I’m wondering if I should first have all the cash in hand.

Might be worth mentioning my credit is frozen at all 3 bureaus due to someone using my info trying to open bank accounts in my name. I know I’d need to unfreeze my credit before applying for a new loan. There’s been no fraud on my credit report, I caught it in time, thank god.

How long do we need to keep brokerage account statements? 30-40 years ago we were told indefinitely to show cost basis for any assets we sold but that can’t possibly be true any longer, can it? What about bank accounts (checking, savings, HSA, etc? I have been keeping those for 7 years but don’t think I need to. We have an entire bookcase full of binders with old statements. I’m assuming I can get rid of most of it, but what? I’m trying to simplify things for our kids.

My dad is 66, relatively healthy. and would like to work until at least 70. He had started a new job, so has rolled his 401k into a traditional IRA.

He doesnt make a ton of money and supports my mom who doesn't have a retirement, they own their house, etc.

Is it worth keeping his money in the IRA and changing his allocations?

Should he move the money into an Annuity that let's him withdraw up to 10% / year?

Most internet resources are about setting yourself up for retirement but I am having a hard time trying to figure out what to do for someone who is at retirement age... but would like to grow their money more while they are able and not fully dependant on it.

Edit for numbers, sorry! :)

IRA all traditional: 250k Total 65 large cap 35 bond

Social: can get 35k / year?

Income with current job: 45k/ year pre-tax

House: Paid off, they won't sell,expect a new roof in 10-15 years

Utilities/phone/internet: 600/month

Spending: Medical bills (mom) ~1k/month

Minimal spending on leisure / hobbies

Property Taxes: 1800 /year