Army Nurse here looking to separate from the service in 18months time and go to CRNA school. I have a full GI bill that I am planning to use at a Public CRNA school so the only Academic expenses will be miscellaneous fees, etc. I also get a monthly stipend (BAH) from the GI bill depending on the zip code of the School, and that covers most of my total monthly living expenses (~$2.6k). Single, No debt, No kids.

Now the Big Question - if you had an extra 2.5k to invest every month for the next 18 months for the purpose of withdrawing monthly for the following 36mo, what ETFs would you park that cash to break even on inflation and/or come out net positive?

Currently have:

Approx $5k in a Brokerage I started about two years ago for funsies

Six months worth of living expenses saved as of next Month (~$25k) I recalculated the math and it should only be like $17k idk how I got to 25 but I guess it just feels like a solid number.

So I left my city police department after 7 years, I was fully vested. My pension has approximately $42,000 in it but I can’t roll it over into my TSP at my new job. I don’t want to withdraw it and have it count towards my income.

Does anyone know how I can just roll this over into a Roth IRA or other investment option without having to withdraw it?

Would love to contribute to this separate of my TSP so I can have more diversity in my investments.

Previous post about combining finances inspired me to ask for models for my own situation!

We just got married this summer, first marriage for both at around 40, and we also have only been living together for two years. We haven’t taken any steps to combine finances yet (we have a spreadsheet for the wedding expenses and will settle up when we get around to it). Neither of us keeps a budget, but also neither of us has any debt and generally are naturally frugal so budget-free life is fine. VHCOL renters and now that the wedding is over we don’t expect any major expenses any time soon (no kids, no house, no car, just rent and vacations).

Sounds like it should be an easy choice to fully combine, right? But while we both spend below our income, I am a career freelancer and keep an abnormally large cash fund for slow periods and have generally adapted to highly variable income. So any model involving paycheck percentages doesn’t work for me.

Meanwhile, I also find some psychological benefit to having separate money. My spouse smokes, and it is a long-standing source of tension, and I do not want “my” money going to the tobacco industry. I also am much more keen on maxing cc rewards and making sure to use the right card for each purchase etc, and he couldn’t care less about doing that, which I respect but I can’t bring myself to leave money on the table, and if we share our cards I’ll inevitably get mad at him for not keeping up with it. Also since I’m a freelancer my tax situation is atrocious and his is normal (USA).

It is lazy and easy to keep just vibe-splitting expenses, but we can’t Venmo each other forever, I guess. Please suggest a model for combining finances that seems suitable for us!

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

What interest rate on a loan would make you pay down the debt faster rather than investing extra cash?

I have a loan at 6.49% and am debating paying it down vs investing in a taxable brokerage.

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?

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?

Hello all. My wife and I have an opportunity to buy a really nice home that we love.

We have been renting for the last 7 years. We love our apartment but we have a 1 year old now and it’s come to the point to where we need a house.

The other day our landlords called us. They bought a house and did a little work to it and thought we’d be the perfect fit for it. It really is nice, has everything we could ever want. 3 bed, 3 bath. Around 2200 sq ft. Has a garage and finished basement.

They are asking $282,500. Now, here’s where it gets interesting. They have agreed to sell it to us for $200,000. And they would carry the 82,500 for a few years then we would pay them. We don’t know yet what the terms and conditions of the 82,500 would be. Maybe it’s 3-4 years and no interest. Maybe it’s 2 years 6% interest. We don’t know. We are meeting them later this week to discuss what that looks like. They believe by doing this, that it may help us in a way.

Next is our finances and affordability of this home. My wife and I will both have atleast 700 credit scores, mine maybe a tad under that but not much. We are thinking the interest rate will be anywhere from 6.95%-7.25% (locked in for 5 years, variable) so with that in mind, if we were to finance the 200 now that would make a payment (including taxes and insurance) of around $1700 a month. If we did the full $282,500 that would make our payment (including taxes and insurance) around $2300.

Here’s what our income and expenses look like:

I get paid monthly, my gross monthly salary $5,143.52
Wife's gross monthly salary $3,900.00
Combined gross income $9,043.52

(Gross is what the bank will go by)

Net (take home) pay:

My take-home $3,820
Wife's take-home (2 checks - paid twice a month) $3,120
Combined take-home $6,940

Debt Monthly
loan $488
loan $546
Wife's student loans $170
My student loans $250
Wife's credit card $35
Total monthly debt payments $1,489

Expense Monthly
Groceries $780
Electricity $150
Water $50
Internet $90
Car insurance $220
Gasoline $75
Cell phones $120
Subscriptions $160
Eating out $75
Childcare $0
Total $1,720

So going off our net income if we did the 200k after our mortgage payment, debts, monthly expenses we’d have about $2000 to play around with each month.

If we did the full 282,500 we’d have about $1400 a month to play around with.

My banks policy is to keep DTI around 40%, of course they’d be using gross income and so we’d be pretty much right at it.

One thing to note. I am open to getting a second job, part time maybe 15-20 hours a week. Just to make our cushion a little bit better. I wouldn’t necessarily want to do that but I would if I had to.

I’m sure there are areas where my wife and I could trim some fat and we would for sure have to really budget each month. We currently pay $800 for rent so to go to a bigger house payment would be a big jump for us.

So, what do you guys think? Is it doable? Would we be stretching ourselves too thin? We truly do want this house and would love to see it work. We are just nervous as this is such a big decision.

Please give me your thoughts or ask any questions.

Looking for advice. I'm an independent contractor in my 20s, I had a well above average year and have some extra money to contribute to investments. I'm wondering if I should open a solo 401k or contribute to my individual brokerage account. For reference, I have 24k in a Roth Ira, 200k in individual brokerage. I'm more so interested in a solo Roth 401k vs individual brokerage. With the employer contribution portion + individual, it seems I can add roughly 40k to the solo 401k this year, or an individual account. I'm honestly not sure which makes more sense. To me the solo Roth 401k is an extension of a Roth Ira, except that I cannot withdraw early from. I don't think I would need to withdraw the extra 40k so the tax free gain at 60 is appealing. I always looked at the Roth Ira as a bonus when I get older as my individual brokerage account should do the heavy lifting as it sits now. On the other hand I could have an extra 40k in the individual account that I can pull out whenever I want, whether I need to buy real estate or anything else. I'm not sure what the right play is. I would like access to my money, but tax free gains on this 40k from an outlier year for the next 30-40 years is tempting. Any thoughts or questions?

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.

Long story short - 27 y/o, wiped my roth ira clean $20K deposits + $5K gains and all of my savings ($12K) from a gambling addiction. I’m working on recovery (therapy, GA, handed over control of finances) but :( lifetime down a solid $70K

I don’t know what kind of rate I’ll be looking at - it might be a higher rate than I’d expect to make in the market, but it would allow me to keep those prior year contributions. If I don’t do a 60-day rollover and put the funds back - those contributions are gone, and I’m limited to the $7.5K annual max. & I’m going to have to pay taxes and penalties on the gain withdrawal.

So personal loan + 60 day rollover or let it go, those past year contributions are wiped, and I pay taxes and penalties.

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

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.

Hi everyone. I recently got my first industry job after college, and after standard expenses (taxes/retirement/monthly bills) it’s about $48k. I just got my first paycheck so other than that money, I have no emergency funds, no savings account, and no credit card. I only have a debit card with access to my checking account. I have no debt, student loans, car loans or anything like that. I live in a low cost of living city, and I have a car that’s paid off.

I would like: Emergency savings, a credit card, money to travel, and a new reliable car, preferably within the year, but I have no rush. I also have a trip in June that will be around 5k, but probably less.

I don’t know how much money I should be saving, and I wanted the Sapphire chase card because of the travel benefits, but I don’t have a credit history. I don’t want to get too many credit cards because I’m not really sure how to handle them, and honestly I don’t care to spend a lot of money on anything other than travel. I cook and eat at home and my hobbies are art, cooking, and working out so I don’t spend much money at all. All of my outings are inexpensive as well because my friends don’t have a lot of income. I don’t plan on moving soon, either.

Please let me know if I am missing something necessary. I dislike handling finances so I would appreciate any and all help.

I am a 23 year old M who makes $2,000 bi weekly. I have no credit card debt or student loans. I have started putting $313 (being able to max it every year at $7,500)per paycheck into my Roth IRA on vanguard investing in VOO and I have 1k in my HYSA. I also have money automatically put into my teacher pension every paycheck. With extra money I’m now saving I want to start investing into some other etfs. I was thinking of doing QQQm for money growth and SCHD for dividends. Am I doing ok and are these the best options for me to be looking at?

My parents have never been able to support me and I need to make sure I’m doing all I can to ensure I’m looking out for my best future. Thank you taking the time to read this!

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.

For background, me and my spouse currently make $9600 monthly net. We just bought a house with $3700 monthly payments and we have yet to sell our old house of $1300 monthly payments. The old house appraised for $300,000 and we still owe $145,000 on it. We also have a car loan with $18,000 left and $400 monthly payment and around $10,000 in credit card debt with roughly $300 monthly payments on it. We are trying to decide if we should take a heloc loan out to consolidate the car loan and credit cards to help ease the burden until the house sales or just try to survive until the house sales? Also if we were to take out a heloc loan would it cause any problems when trying to sell the old house because of the lien? Just trying to explore our options

24 and just started a new job. My company matches 100% of 7% of my salary, which I have been told is quite good. The only issue is that they do not start matching until 1 year of service. I currently have $8,000 in credit card debt, with the highest APR at 30.40%. I definitely want to start contributing after 1 year, but I am unsure whether to start right away or forgo retirement contributions entirely for a year and put that money toward my high-interest debt.

I'm definitely leaning towards pausing for this first year, but I may be missing something. Any insights are appreciated!

Hello everyone;

I’m trying to decide between the FRS Pension Plan and the FRS Investment Plan, and I’d appreciate advice from people who have experience with either one.

Under both plans, I contribute 3% of my salary, and my employer contributes approximately 13%. I’m trying to understand which option would make more sense for my long-term retirement.

A little about my situation:

* I’m 40 years old.
* I work for a county.
* I’m not sure if I’ll stay with the same employer long term, or even if I’ll continue living in Florida.
* I want to make a smart decision for my retirement while keeping my future career and relocation options open.

For those who have researched or experienced both options:

1. Why did you choose the Pension Plan or the Investment Plan?
   
2. How does the Pension Plan compare with the Investment Plan in terms of retirement income?
   
3. If I leave my employer or move out of Florida, what happens to my benefits under each plan?
   
4. How important are years of service and vesting when making this decision?
   
5. Does the Investment Plan offer more flexibility if I change jobs or move to another state?
   
6. If you could make the decision again, would you choose the same plan, and why?

I’d especially appreciate advice from people who have worked in Florida public employment for many years or who have already retired under either plan.

I’m not looking for someone to make the decision for me. I want to understand the pros and cons, especially since I’m uncertain about my long-term employment and whether I’ll remain in Florida.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

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’m currently enrolled in college and all my loans are deferred but TransUnion recently reported my new 2 recent ones. I pay on time, no late payments, usage 3 percent and never anymore than 10. I contacted a representative and they wouldn’t get into the point system. Can it seriously drop that drastically? My account age isn’t supper old but it was recently 734!

So I’m 23 and just graduated college last year in December and since then, my income has drastically improved.

One year ago I was making $16/hr working retail and now I’m making $5k a month from my job and an additional $5k-$10k a month revenue from my business that I started (~75% profit margin). Of course I’m no where near rich but I feel like it’s important to be strategic about my income and financial decisions.

I’m not sure whether I should reinvest into the business or pay off my $15k student loans and $35k truck payment.

Of course I’m gonna need to go into more detail so I’ll answer any questions.

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!

I’m 24, work in the public sector, and earn approximately $58k annually. I’m looking for feedback on my financial situation and overall budgeting. This is my first real job out of college so i feel like Im flying blind. I could really use a second opinion on my own personal budget to make sure Im leading my fiance and I in the right direction. This is also my first time really engaging on reddit so please give me grace if I broke any norms here. We split the bills in half so the numbers below are all half of the total amount. The assets are all in my name
Monthly Income
Net take-home: ~$2,950 (two-paycheck month)
Gross annual salary: ~$58k
Monthly Expenses
Rent: $650
Other living expenses: ~$600
Total expenses: ~$1,250
Retirement Contributions
Pension: ~$275/month
Roth 403(b): ~$290/month
Roth IRA: ~$575/month
Total retirement contributions: ~$1,140/month
Cash Savings
Approximately $1,130/month after expenses and retirement contributions
Two additional biweekly paychecks annually, which I plan to save
Current Financial Position
~$38k in combined checking and savings
Additional retirement and brokerage investments
Paid-off vehicle
No debt
Goals
I’m hoping to purchase a home within the next 1–2 years while continuing to prioritize retirement savings.
I would like to have at least 60k ready for a down payment but I dont want to blow my savings out just for a house payment to drown me.

All thoughts and consideration’s welcome, thank you!

Hey guys I'm 31yo got about 30k in student loan 22k in a car loan misc accounts in collections that's probably around 2k. I make 135k a year and my credit score is 573 I just checked Experian. Please can someone help me get this shit in order idk if I'm just lazy or what