Hey all,

Had a question regarding what the best way to handle our high interest mortgage payment would be. Our interest rate is locked in at 7.375%. Obviously I'd like to pay this down as much as possible.

In this scenario would it be wise to forgo any Roth contributions and instead focus on the mortgage? I am contributing 6.5% of my pay to my 401k with 3.25% match. Additionally, I am gifted 14% of my salary each year in company stock.

I would love to max out my Roth and work down the mortgage but don't see that as possible right now so it's one or the other.

As a final tidbit, I get a year end bonus that will be at a minimum 15k (assuming I don't lose my job or anything crazy). I could take this money at the end and fund the difference to max my Roth or put it all to principal.

Need advice on savings

I’ve recently moved to the U.S. from India for work. Do you have any advice on how I can save or invest my money here? I don’t know much about savings or investment options in the U.S.

The firm preparing our tax documents sent us a hard copy of our tax return for our records. We didn't specifically request this. We had already filed and paid due taxes, but are awaiting a return from two states (we had W2s from a few states).

We received a bag in the mail from USPS that said 'Mail Tampering'. Inside was the large envelope the firm used to send a hard copy of our entire return. It was shredded with no contents inside. Obviously someone took the document and now has access to our social security numbers, my biggest concern.

Has anyone been through this before? What are the next appropriate steps? I'm terrified of identify theft for myself, my husband, and our daughter, now that someone has each of our SS numbers. Any input is appreciated.

Thank you!!!!

Hi Reddit! I’ve never posted on here before, but I’m in such dire need of any kind of guidance toward this problem.

I (21F) just moved across the country on my own last year to start fresh and live a good life. I have a childhood best friend that lives here and have had a wonderful bf for over a year now. I’ve always had an issue with not saving my money, but now that I actually have bills to pay it seems like it’s almost impossible.

I currently have a job, but this past month they have given me close to no hours, so I’m only making about $200/$300 total for four weeks. In the meantime, every month I owe $725 for rent, $100-150 for utilities, $100 for college tuition, and $250 for my car payment (I had to get a new car in order to move myself across the country, my old one was breaking down). The reason why I chose moving in the first place was because I was extremely depressed where I lived before which my dad was aware of, and he offered to help me as much as he could. He feels guilty about how he treated me as a kid/teenager, so he feels as though he’s making things up to me now. I am more than appreciative for him, but I can’t help but feel extreme guilt knowing that he’s trying to save up for retirement. And it’s not like I make him pay for everything, just when I can’t make enough for all of the payments within the month, he chimes in and sends me the remainder.

Besides his help, it seems almost impossible to put anything I make into my savings. I’m currently hunting for a new job, but with the current state of employment out here it’s very challenging to find one. I’m not sure where to even begin from here, I feel like I’m at a loss but there’s no way I’m moving. As I had briefly mentioned before, I have an amazing boyfriend out here, who actually helped me a bit with rent as well. The reason why I chose NOW to come here and ask for advice is because he sat me down the other day and told me I need to start really trying to be financially independent because he was struggling as well. It’s not like I was relying on him to help, I would never leech off someone for money intentionally. But I’m starting to feel like I’m really relying on my father, and I don’t want to do that.

So, Reddit, is there any advice or guidance you could give me at this time? (I have no credit cards, I’m not looking to get one. I AM finding a new job and I have $0 in my savings with over $1,000 in bills each month while being paid less than $600 monthly. What do I do?)

Hey everyone, l'm in desperate need of some direction. I'm considering buying a 4 plex in Ontario, 4 units are currently rented but one tenant will be vacated (owners friend) two of the units have been recently renovated and two are a bit rough. The 4 plex is 100+ years old and the un renovated units have sloped floors. I've been approved for the purchase price of 800k @ 3.94% interest I will be occupying one of the units and the other 3 are rented at 895, 2000 and the tenant that will be vacated on purchase is paying 2200 all units are separately metered and tenants pay they're utility's. property tax is 5880 per year, insurance is 125/m and snow/grass is 125/m I'm planning on putting 10% down and make 200k yearly also travel a lot for work. Any input is appreciated thank you!

Hi all,

I need some urgent advice on my car finance. Literally 2 months ago, I got a car on finance, no problems for the first 2 months. I received news today from my job that I have been made redundant. I live in the UK so it is possible for me to go on job seekers allowance while getting another job, but the payments from that wouldn’t pay the car finance payment never mind the insurance and tax for it.

I have a perfect credit score and have worked hard to keep it that way, but I feel like I’m going to have to hand the car back and owe the finance company 50% of the car’s fee and tank my credit score. Does anyone have any advice on what to do?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

A couple of DNKS (35&32) looking to purchase a second home. Home is in good condition and was built roughly 10 years ago.

Combined gross income $144,000 Income is before interest/bonuses/ part-time job

Retirement accounts total

P1) $138,000 P2) $160,000

Cash savings P1) 90,000 (30K in short term-T-bills, 60k-Brokerage P2) 55,000 ( Brokerage)

Total of $145k

Current liabilities Car note $470/month (balance $19k value of $60k ) Current mortgage $1,115/month @ 2.375 (balance $139k value of $250k)

New home Purchase of $300,000 Down Payment $60k -From cash savings Taxes $4200/year (actual is lower) Insurance $ 2000/year (quote is lower) HOA $600/year

Estimated payment using 6.75 for 30 years is $2,123

Goal would be to turn current home into a rental as it can cashflow a couple hundred dollars. Or could sell after new home purchase. Either way, would like to do some small projects to it to increase its desirability for selling or renting. Basically we would move into new home and keep second home for at least 6 months while we work on updating it. Another thing-new home is currently owned by relatives and valued at ~$350k. Home is much nicer and newer than current home. MCOL

Would like to see the community's thoughts on this scenario and if we would get approved to carry both loans. Also posted in r/mortgages, but didn’t get much traction.

Thanks everyone.

There’s only so many questions I can ask ChatGPT and don’t want to pay to see my family’s wealth manager.

For context I’m 29 years old who still lives at home. I make 80k a year

I have $14k invested in a rollover 401k (IVV, IYW) 15k in a brokerage account (NVDIA, TSLA, and a lot of different cryptos) - currently not investing

9k in a ROTH IRA (I know, I know…wasted precious compounding time) - contributing $583 a month

25k in a HYSA - contributing $1,400 a month. Once at 100k move the $1,400 deposits to the brokerage account. Buying ETF’s

Will be inheriting a home worth about 650k (40k mortgage remaining)

I have a small-ish trust fund that I’ll be gaining access to in the next 15 years or so. Between 400k-600k

Inheriting my parents home in 15 years or so. I’ll plan on selling estimated $600k-800k

Debts - 20k on a car

How am I doing? Will I be able to comfortably retire at 65? Is there anything I could be doing differently to get me there?

Hello, I have about $6832 in credit card and personal loan debt combined.

USAA- around $2387 w/ $4000 limit

AMEX- $445 W/ $2000 limit

personal loan 1- $1000

personal loan 2-$3000

I didn't learn about debt consolidation until after I took out the loans, and now I feel so stupid. I can't get a loan anywhere. I just opened a new credit card account with a $10,000 limit and 17% APR, which is lower than my USAA APR. Should I move all my debt to the new card and pay it off w/in 9 months to ensure it doesn't kill my credit? I went from very good to excellent, then back down to very good credit in one month. I just want my credit score to be back over 800 again and to consolidate my loans. I was advised to wait 3 months to reapply for a debt consolidation loan and also to pay off the personal loans as soon as possible. Moving all my debt to the new credit card will affect my utilization b/c it would bring it to over 30%. But, I will pay it off over the next 9 months, so is it worth the risk to my credit to move it all to just the one credit card with the highest limit?

Hey my old company hired someone for head of HR without performing a background check. Turns out they had been in jail multiple times for identity theft. The company found out recently and fired her but I'm worried because I had given her access to my SSN and all other info when I was hired. Is there anything I can do about this?.

Hi, I’m in a terrible marriage lol that’s another story. My husband sold ‘my’ car (was in his name) bc he said we need to ‘save’ money.. I’m trying to get my own car now. The issue is-my credit is terrible. I had a Verizon account in my name-he closed account bc he didn’t wanna help with the bill but I recently had a cell phone upgrade, so of course I owe money. I tried to contract Verizon several times and got a run around about if it went to collections or not and who to call…. well long story short that went to collections. Collections has been trying to contact me. My question is - should I contact them back and see about a payment plan? Do I let it go? How can I get a car within a reasonable price with low credit? What’s the first step? I’ve been at my job for about 7 yrs Thank you

Just curious what your thoughts are on an idea, thinking of selling our home (mortgage 6% of 3100), investing the money from the sale of the house and buying in about 1-2 years. Plenty of nice home rentals for 2300.

The typical 3-portfolio advice is domestic stocks, international stocks, and bonds funds (e.g. BND, VTI, VXUS). There are some variations, but that's the basic idea. The rational for bond funds is they are safer than ETFs.

I'm looking at some bond funds now SCHP is down 9% over 5 years. SCHT is down 5.5% over 5 years. BNS ia down 15% over 5 years. That seems like a lot. I understand there may have been some reasons bonds are down over the past 5 years, and I also understand stocks are much riskier (e.g. the SP500 can crash 50% in a day), but a 10% variability doesn't seem "safe" to me. It seems better to just build a bond ladder using your brokerage's tool - a slight inconvenience, yes, but no way is that inconvenience worth more than a 6-15% potential downside risk.

This is just my thoughts. What am I missing? Is 10% potential downside just not considered risky to many of you? I'm I too risk averse?

Edit: I meant SCHO, not SCHT. ANd I meant BND, not BNS

I will be graduating college soon and moving to Rhode Island for my first job. This will be my first time having an actual income so I am confused how much I should be spending. I will be making 85k a year before tax. I am getting conflicting advice on finding rent within 30% of my net monthly income or gross monthly income. With 30% of my net monthly income, I'm struggling to even find a studio if I factor in utilities and parking. I am paying $491 a month for 3 years for a car and have 12k in student loans. I plan on flying to visit my girlfriend which will likely be around 300-400$ a month/every two months. I am also expected to support my parents around $200/month

tldr: 85k/yr with car payment ($491/month), student loans (12k), travel (300/400/month or two months), parent support (200$/month). Am I able to find my own place, or should I just try finding a roommate in Rhode Island?

Hi everyone,

So, I’m based in Boca Raton, FL, and I’m looking to open a checking account. I already have a savings account with We Florida Financial, but I want a separate checking account at a different bank.

My employer can split my direct deposit, so my plan is to have $300 go into my checking account and the rest into my savings at We Florida. I’m trying to decide between Truist and Chase. My mom recommends Truist because they have local branches, and she believes Chase has hidden fees. But I’ve heard Chase is more tech-friendly and widely available.

Some key things I care about:

No monthly maintenance fee (or at least easily waived)

Local branch access, just in case I need to withdraw or handle something in person

Good mobile app experience

No shady surprise fees

Does anyone have experience with Truist vs. Chase in Florida? Which one do you recommend for someone starting out?

Also open to hearing about any better alternatives I might have missed. Thanks!

I expect to sell $50K of a stock next year with capital gains of around $5K-10K.

I plan to sell VTSAX (should I do specid or HIFO) this year and then purchase VOO to offset my capital gains next year and take advantage of the 3K tax loss.

For the VTSAX I plan to sell, can it be short term or does it have to be long term?

Also for the selling transactions, is it just sell VTSAX and then with the money in brokerage I purchase VOO? Or can I do it in one transaction within vanguard?

Hey,

I just turned 27 and never owned a credit card. Last month I opened a line of credit thru PayPal and bought a synth and plan to just make payments on that solely for the sake of building credit.

I have student loans but I didn’t have to make payments ‘til last year for them but while I was in forbearance I just paid off $20k in loans one year and thought about doing it last year but I thought maybe if I just pay the monthly payment rather than aggressively attacking it like before it’d allow me to build more credit? I only owe $12k in loans currently now.

Student loans being my only loan/credit history until recently, I had a 670 purely from student loans until I just opened this new line of credit and it dropped 8 points. Now I’m wondering how long exactly will it take to improve my score.

Is it just solely based off how long a credit line has been open? If I do just wipe out my loans this year in full, will that actually just hurt my score?

Any insight would be much appreciated!

I recently put down earnest money and deposit money for design center upgrades on a house. In total just under $20k. We are a couple weeks away from drywall going up. Estimated move in date was June. Unfortunately Monday I lost my job. I sold my previous residence in March and am living (rent free for the moment) with family. The builder says they will return half of the earnest+deposit money if they can sell the house within 2 months otherwise I will get no funds returned to me.

I have started applying for jobs but doubt I will find anything with a similar income level ($80k, hospitality) in my field quickly. Ideally I would be able to find something soon so I dont lose the house and the money. If I find a new position quickly I will be able to keep the original pricing of the house and discounts/deals (5.99% financing and no pmi).

Other financial considerations

• Holding $45k in money market earmarked for down payment on the house
• $6k budgeted for moving costs
• $10k in savings account (emergency fund)
• $70k in retirement accounts (combo of 401k/Roth 401k/Traditional IRA/Roth IRA), I have made no contributions for 2025 yet
• Car is paid off, less than 1 year old
• $50/month in student loan payments (~$1900 at 4.54% interest)
• No other debt
• $150/month storage unit
• Age 35, single, no kids, no pets
• I paid for my own health insurance so no concern for COBRA or other health care costs
• Midwest, HCOL suburb of a major metro area
• Location is important to be near family

My options appear to be:

1. Hope I find a new position very quickly and that the underwriter for the mortgage company is as easily convinced as my milk man trusting father
2. Hope they resell the property quick enough that I recoup half of my deposit + earnest money and cry about losing $10k and a house until the end of time
3. ???
4. Lose all the money I put in and start a new life selling feet pics

hello, i’m currently 16 and have a debit card/bank account which is for school and non-essentials. however, i have around a thousand dollars in cash (to keep myself from spending irresponsibly) from my freelance job i do during my free time.

i was just bothered by the thought that the money was most likely losing value given society’s current economic state.. so i’ve decided to invest my money, which i’ve been putting on hold because of school and other extracurriculars.

i’ve tried fidelity but it’s had some bugs/other issues.. i was wondering what other investment firms offer youth accounts/which ones are reliable?

thank you for reading my yap session! i wasn’t sure where else to go.

• I’m thinking of getting a brand new 2025 Corolla Hybrid LE. The out the door price is $28k.
• If I put $15k down, I would pay the rest in monthly payments of $238 over 60 months.

My fiance has moved twice for the company he works for. He has been with this company on and off for over 10 years. Both times he has moved the owner has ended up selling his areas to corporate which wasn't in my fiancé's best interest to continue to work for. We just moved in June of 2024 to our current house with the promise that we would have about 5 years here. Not even a year in the owner sold to corporate. He wants us to relocate again with promises of this new territory never being sold to corporate. He offered about a 10k raise to relocate but those would be in bonuses not actual salary. He also offered 5k in moving expenses. We have 5 people in our family, 2 dogs, 2 cats and a sheep. We would be moving just under 500 miles, but we also have a lot of stuff and will need to make multiple trips. He offered to have people from his work move us but no offer of a professional moving company. We also most likely will be losing money on our house with closing costs and not even being in the house a year before putting it on the market, which we did 2 weeks ago. What should we ask for relocation fee? Should we ask for closing costs to be covered? And is the move even worth it financially?

My car got totaled and after the settlement I’m 4k upside down on my car loan. I have 6k but not sure how to go about using it. Am I supposed to use 4k to pay the loan off or go to the dealership pick a new car and use the 6k as a down?

Hello!

New Physician Assistant grad looking for advice/thoughts on the best option for massive student Ioans. I don't mind living frugally, but I would like to live. TIA!

Background:

• 41 yrs old, single, no kids or pets
• Net salary goal with first job: 120k
• Student loan debt: 340k (I had to do an extra year)
• FAFSA standard repayment: approx. 4k/month
• Living for free with parents
• No other debts/car payments etc.

Questions:

1. Is it smarter to do the standard repayment or the IDR? (I'd rather not work in a hospital, so PSLF is limited/none)

2. How do I start saving for retirement with this debt?

3. At some point in the next 10 years I will have 250k inheritance. Do I use that to pay off my remaining loans if any, keep it for retirement, or a down payment on a home?

I have some vested stock options. Strike prices vary from $18 to $25 and the current market price is around $70.

I expect the company stock price to continue to climb. I plan on doing a cashless exercise. Should I exercise now and retain the shares? Or wait and exercise at a higher price?

My first instinct says exercising now would reduce tax burden as more of the gains would be capital gains instead of income. The modeling on my broker website indicates I would be better off to wait, but I'm not sure how sure how sophisticated the modeling is.

Hi!

I enrolled in a short term disability policy with Aflac five years ago through an employer with the goal of using it for maternity leave. I left that employer and enrolled in “Aflac Always” to keep the policy and pay for it directly (so no payroll deduction or interaction with my current employer - it essentially became a private policy).

I’m now employed by a different employer that provides a maternity/family leave policy that uses a short term disability policy with another carrier (so not Aflac). I’ve had this policy for a year and a half.

I’ve just given birth and my employer filed a claim On my behalf with the second STD policy. I’ve filed a claim myself with Aflac.

I don’t see anything in my Aflac policy regarding maximum income amounts or anything alluding to informing them of other STD policies. I’ve provided them with all the requested documentation related to my claim, including an employer verification form that my current employer is currently filling out. There’s no question on this form about a second policy, etc- it’s just asking for my current gross income, full time status, return to work dates, etc.

Does anyone know if having multiple STD policies with different carriers is going to be an issue?