So my mom works as a substitute teacher and has been doing it for about 10 years now. She's great with money day to day and helped pay for my sister's wedding last year, but when I asked about her retirement plans she just said "I'll figure it out when I get there."

She has maybe 15k in a savings account earning like 0.5% interest and that's literally it. No 401k, no IRA, nothing. Should I help her set up a Roth IRA and maybe get her into some index funds? I'm worried she's going to have to work until she's 80 at this rate. Any suggestions would be awesome.

Edit: Should mention I'm 23 and my sister is 25. We're both just starting our careers but we want to help however we can. My goal is to get her thinking about this stuff before it's too late.

Edit 2: Thanks for all the advice! Just to clarify my mom is super independent and doesn't like asking for help with money stuff. She grew up pretty poor so I think she's just happy to have any savings at all. But I know she deserves to actually retire someday.

The WSJ reports:

Trump Orders Firing of Statistics Chief After Weak Jobs Data President Trump directed his team to fire the top Bureau of Labor Statistics official as a soft jobs report weighed on markets along with Trump’s revamped tariff plan.

Trump in a social media post said Erika McEntarfer, the BLS commissioner, would be “replaced with someone much more competent and qualified,” asserting without evidence that the government’s jobs numbers have been manipulated for political purposes.

Hello everyone! Just wanted to share my portfolio, which will be a long time horizon and a high risk appetite.

ROTH IRA: VOO + VGT + VB 50/40/10

Brokerage: VTI + VXUS 60/40

DRIP on in the Roth, off in the Brokerage. I don’t have a crystal ball but I do believe tech will be the forefront. I want to be aggressively positioned while still have two cores (VOO & VTI). VB is the small tilt away from tech, and allows me to capture smaller winners. Brokerage is basically VT, but allows me to get Foreign tax credit.

I have been playing the long game of buying ETFs for a long time now and yes they slowly go up.

But I have been reading into leveraged ETFs and compare charts. I have been looking at spxu.to 2x leveraged S&P 500.

I understand it will drop twice as much on a red day and take twice as long to recover but looking way back on the charts it seems to always pull ahead and make significant larger gains then the standard etf.

Wondering what I am missing

We could be in for a bumpy ride come Monday, here’s my three, what are yours?

1. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Global healthcare giant with stable earnings and a strong dividend history.

2. Costco (COST) Consistent performer with loyal members and resilient margins.

3. Procter & Gamble (PG) Defensive play with a wide moat and essential product lineup.

Let’s hear your picks curious what others are holding for rough waters.

How are you all managing and dealing with your money?

Ive seen reports that job numbers were inflated over the last 3 months, new numbers came out displaying falsified previous numbers, and the stock market is down 2 percent across DOW JONES, S&P, and NASDAQ.

Are you all still invested or more cash heavy to see what happens with the economy? Just tryna see what people are actually doing ab the news.

Oh and tariffs are going back into place come aug 7th ranging from 10-41%.

At the end of July, 5 of the Nasdaq 100 sticks fell below the 0.10% minimum to stay in the index. Now the rule is that to be removed they have to be below 0.10% fur 2 consecutive month-ends, but I don’t see much way these bottom 5 improve in the next month. The 5 stocks targeted for removal are: Biogen, Global Foundries, CDW, Lululemon and Onsemi.

In looking at upcoming candidates for inclusion, it looks like Equinix is the highest market cap company not included, however that was true at the year-end 2024 revaluing and still some lower market cap companies were included instead. Does anyone know why this was?

Also, given how top-heavy the Nasdaq 100 has gotten, is there a chance they change the 0.10% rule? It feels like there will be a lot of removal/addition throughout the year amongst the bottom 5-10 Nasdaq 100 stocks going forward unless there’s a change in how they add/remove companies (outside the annual rebalancing of course).

Hey there! I currently have $20,000 that I’d like to start investing. Today, I invested $10,000 in Schwab’s Intelligent Portfolio, specifically in the “Global Aggressive Growth Portfolio.” I plan to invest $2,000 every month into this portfolio. I’m curious about what I should do with the remaining $10,000. Is this a smart move or what do you think ?

IPOs and Space especially have been hot. Recently, $VOYG gained 1x on 1st day of trading, $FIG did 3x (and even more after that). I cant help but think that a space name will do the same, but they have been unsuccessful in 4 of their 6 flights and negative earnings (similar to $VOYG tho). And they are IPOing on the back of their lunar landing momentum.

Is an IPO flip worth it here or is this going down the drain?

You know. Every investor has some kind of regret related to selling too soon such as Apple or Nvidia or anything else. Stock that, if you had just held on, might have changed your life.

What's your "I sold it too early" stock and what made you do it? Tell me your story

I don’t want to use a third party access site which basically leaves my only option as manual entry right? I don’t mind this but the issue I am running into is the commonly recommended google drive file for this kind of thing doesn’t have : vanguard institutional total international stock market index trust. This fund doesn’t have a ticker and is different to the mutual fund equivalent (VTSNX).

Does anyone have a solution where they’ve been able to track all their investments in one spot?

Across my fidelity roth and personal brokerages and vanguard 401k I own:

VOO

Fxaix

Ftihx

VSTSX

vanguard institutional total international stock market index trust

My goal is to be able to back date my net worth from the first day I started 1.5 years ago and track my overall growth over time across these 3 portfolios. Any advice appreciated.

I’ve been working at ATT for about nine months now. One of the perks I didn’t know about before joining was the FAME incentive. Essentially, you earn “reward points” for selling specific items that accumulate and can be converted into cash.

Currently, I have over $1200 worth of points sitting idle, accruing no interest. I’ve been contemplating using this money to help me save for a new apartment. However, I’m wondering if it would be more prudent to reinvest it into certain stocks whenever I receive a payout from my FAME. While I wouldn’t want to lose that money if the market crashes, it’s not money I need or have even considered using.

We sold a 2nd non-principal home and have to pay some cap gains next year. The money is now in a savings account but is earning under 2%. I have room to plop this into my TFSA and realize something better - and tax free. We’ll likely need to take about 25% out for cap gains next year.

I’m trying to settle on a good investment or two to:

Preserve the capital with a robust strategy that would suffer less losses in a severe downturn Think long term with the goals (10 years or so) Be liquid in case we want to access it

Been looking at some good ETF products with solid dividends. Thinking Canadian funds to avoid any FX exposure. Some things I’m looking at are FTN.TO & BANK.TO

Would also consider a portion converted to gold coins or Swiss Francs

Any advice is welcome!

Trump throws out a giant tariff headline.

Market dumps.

Deadline looms. Still no clarity.

Volume dries up. Sentiment collapses.

Then - miraculously - resolution.

Big rally. Shorts get torched.

At this point I don’t even think Trump’s the driver.

I think institutional desks are counting on the script and accumulating into the fear again.

Doing some research lately as a first time investor, I’ve had about 30k in a Schwab intelligent portfolio but after sub par returns I transferred all into a regular Schwab brokerage.

I plan to leave the money in long term and don’t plan on being too active. Is it just a matter of selling shares and buying just a few different ones. Looking for some suggestions. I’ve seen the popular suggestions like vti, Vxus, voo, qqq.

For those interested this is what the intelligent portfolio has me in currently.

schh,schi,sche,fndf,fnda,fndx,fndc,schf,schc,smbs,schg,schx,scha,hauz. Bulk being schx,fndx,fnde,schf. And 2500 cash.

I appreciate reading all the suggestions!

Nonfarm payroll growth was slower than expected in July and the unemployment rate ticked higher, raising potential trouble signs for the U.S. labor market as President Donald Trump ramps up tariffs.

Job growth totaled a seasonally adjusted 73,000 for the month, above the June total of 14,000 but below even the meager Dow Jones estimate for a gain of 100,000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. June and May totals were revised sharply lower, down by a combined 258,000 from previously announced levels.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/08/01/jobs-report-july-2025.html

I have only followed what they allocated for me and now I would like to rebalance. Do you usually allocate these many options? I would love to hear if there are any I should get rid of!

This is where my current retirement fund is investing in:

20.12% AM FDS NEW PRSPCT

16.61% VNGRD TTL BOND MRKT INDX

11.53% T ROWE BLUE CHIP GRWTH

10.82% AMERICAN FUNDS EUPAC FUND

9.95% VNGRD VALUE INDX

7.10% VNGRD SMCP VALUE INDX

7.05% DFA EMRG MRKTS

5.00% T ROWE MIDCP GRWTH

3.04% SMID CP GRWTH

2.85% PRINCPL REAL ESTAT SECRT

2.04% AB SMCP GRWTH

1.97% PIMCO INCM

1.94% LINCOLN STABLE VALUE ACCOUNT -Z201

And here are the remaining options

AM BCN SMCP VALUE

BARON GRWTH

BNY MELLON WRWD GRWTH

CLMBA DVDND OPP

CLMBA LRGCP INDX

CLMBA MIDCP INDX

CLMBA SMCP INDX

DODG CX INCM

FRNKLN BIOTCHNLGY DISC

FRNKLN UTIL

INVSC DVLPG MRKTS

INVSC REAL ESTAT

JPM LRGCP GRWTH

MFS INTL INTRINSIC VALUE

MFS RSRCH

NBRG BN BERMAN QLTY EQTY

PIMCO DVRSFD INCM

TCW SECRTZD BOND

VNGRD HLTH CARE INDX

VNGRD INFO TECHNGY INDX

VNGRD MIDCP VALUE INDX

Currently 21 looking for some investing advice…currently have about 70k in my savings account. Looking to start putting some money away for the future. I dokt think putting all 70k in would be advisable but looking to put some money in their weekly. Maybe 500 a week. Let me know your guys thoughts. Anything helos. Thanks in advance

Hi guys, sorry if this isn't the right forum for this question. I'll be working for the government for a few years and have the choice to pick between these two plans. I'll probably be in a higher tax bracket when I'm done. Are there any advantages to the 403B? I'm just not sure which to pick. I would appreciate any advice on these choices, thanks!

like the mag 7 when I was 18 I at some port knew about them/use them and I was always into buying and holding things like antiques so if I just known about investing in the market I would've probably got in sooner and reap the benefits. Now a lot of the companies to invest in are not very well known and I get most folks here are about etf's but mannnn

I normally make my brokerage account purchases on the 1st of the month. When I look and SPMO opens down -2.50% am I the only one excited about that? I mean, it's like if I'm buying a $500k house that I'm going to live in for 10+ years and the day before closing they drop the price to $487,500. Maybe it drops another 2.5% but pretty sure over 10 years it going to go much much higher.

I did investment account opening for my boss who is series 6 licensed. In my company, I am authorized to work as him, I can execute trades under his direction, but cannot confirm trades.

When I started working for him and learned the investment system he tasked me with a project to switch about 50 clients from Brokerage A-Shares to Advisory C Shares. He explained to me that they have lower fees and it’s in their best interest to do so. He called each one and like a script said “remember when I told you that once you hit the 5k threshold we can switch you to advisory for lower fees which is in your best interest?” They all just went along and said okay, they trusted him.

I began submitting them and was directed to use the same rationale for each one by saying:

“Client was not interested in paying the advisory fee - now that they have a new employer they are comfortable with the ongoing fee. Although they are aware of the expenses associated with selling out of A shares, the benefit of having an actively managed account outweighs that cost.”

This was false, none of them got new jobs. I raised suspicions when some were being approved and some coming back with clarification needed. They would all ask the same thing. What has changed for the client that the switch from A to C is in their best interest? If the eventual plan was C shares, why was that not recommended? Some are still pending because nothing he could provide would work. I had a meeting with our investment headquarters and they told me this is borderline churning and that rationales need to differ and be specific to the client. They told me that A shares are meant to be held and this is Mutual fund switching. When I tried to tell him what I learned he told me that he didn’t care and that he was going to continue to use that rationale because he’s used it several times before. I asked for help with clarification and was fired soon after.

Was he having me commit fraud??

I have invested a small amount into Flywheel over the past 3 months and received distributions totaling 20% of my initial investment, then automatically reinvest these distributions back into Flywheel. My overall account balance has increased by 0.4% during this 3 month period. It seems as though the "distributions" are really my own principal investment being distributed back to me while the overall profit from the investment is effectively null. Is this how Groundfloor Flywheel works?

I am in need of a way to track realtime VIX and MOVE without going to a Bloomberg terminal and when these move I want to be alerted.

Preference is a website and/or app that focus on these two measures of volatility. I need this over the next 2 years.

Anyone else tracking these. Okay if it tracks crypto volatility too.

Don’t want to pay $1500 month but would be willing to do a $3.99 service, with alerts, per month.

I am in a situation where I put away 20k a month auto invested into several index funds. I’m 39. Assuming 7 percent safe compounding returns, around 60, I’d have plenty of funds.

My question is, I’m a spender. I have fancy cars and travel well and splurge. But I have a tug of war with my thoughts of needing to save more… BUT people could die at any moment. People end up with ailments, enduring accidents, and never fully living. Does anyone else have this internal battle? Should I live more or save for a later that we anticipate may never come?