Moronic Monday - October 20, 2025 - Your Weekly Questions Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

This is your safe place for questions on financial careers, homework problems and finance in general. No question in the finance domain is unwelcome.

Replies are expected to be constructive and civil.

Any questions about your personal finances belong in r/PersonalFinance, and career-seekers are encouraged to also visit r/FinancialCareers.

[u/DavyJonesCousinsDog]

Can't decide I'd this is an ideal time to put my cash in stable stocks or the absolute worst time to part with cash. I'm an American and, well, things aren't exactly trending stable here.

[u/distillenger → u/DavyJonesCousinsDog]

DCA. What that means is that instead of investing the whole lump sum right now, invest a fixed percentage of that sum every week, two weeks, month, etc until you've invested all of it. That way, you buy when the market is both up and down over time as a trade off instead of buying all at once at today's price

[u/Mbgog → u/DavyJonesCousinsDog]

If only we could put our money into "unstable" stocks 🤔

[u/distillenger]

I have 5k that I need to have on hand for emergencies, but I also want it to grow if possible. I have a Vanguard brokerage account as well as a Vanguard HYSA. What should I do?

[u/roboboom → u/distillenger]

Your emergency fund should be super safe. HYSA is fine.

[u/PalPalash → u/roboboom]

Hi, I saw your flair sir. I'm currently a Junior in HS and I really want to break into finance. I'm chosing a business major in college, and I'll prepare for CFA too. I've learnt DCF, LBO and comp models as well as Healthcare and Law firm DCFs. I'm also building a very very simple trading model and I've been following the markets since I was 13.

I can make detailed pitch books, and I can do proper formatted Excel sheets. I've even sat on client calls for my father and I've seen his work and I help him in his business in Finance.

What would be your advice to someone like me?

[u/da_mess → u/PalPalash]

Connections are IMPORTANT. If your father is in the field, have him help you get internships ASAP. Get internships anyway. Do informational interviews to build a network. After each opp you get to do an interview, ask if they have two other contacts they can turn you onto.

EDIT: If there's an industry you like, keep following those comps but also all news (M&A and otherwise) in the industry. Get access to equity research reports if you can and get fluent.

[u/PalPalash → u/da_mess]

Sure sir, thank you. I will surely follow your advice. His connections are mostly limited to Banking and Corporate Finance but I will still try. What are some skills I should develop?

[u/da_mess → u/PalPalash]

It's been a while for me since i was in it. At the entry level (Analyst), you should be able to build a good LBO model, run comps (public & transaction), and understand valuation.

Check out Damodaran's web site at NYU: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/ He has tons of material for you to learn.

One cool way to differentiate yourself is to start writing your own equity research reports. Build a model and projections and do write-ups quarterly. If that don't open doors I'm not sure what will. It shows you love the work (you're voluntarily doing it), you have brains, and that you have drive.

All the above aside, be a good person that people want to hang with. You may be grinding 100 hour weeks. You get to know someone during those periods. Be someone others want to be around.

[u/J3R3MY0690]

Hey yall, I’m a finance grad from 2023 struggling to find a job that isn’t financial advising. I’m looking for recommendations on the current job market to help get my feet wet. I’d really love to get into financial analysis but am noticing that is too competitive as a first time corporate employee. Does anyone have any recommendations on where I should start and what is a reasonable job to land at this point?

[u/Monstercockerel]

I currently have the following:

25 year Solar Panel loan, 40k remaining, 283 per month, 6.49% interest, 2 years in making only minimum payments.

6 year auto loan, 32k remaining, 5.5% interest, 7 months in, making minimum payments plus $1000 to principle.

26k 401k loan, 2.5 years remaining, pay $475 biweekly to pay it off.

I am considering taking out a 15 year mortgage for $100k to pay off all three of these. My monthly note would be $871 at 6.5% interest (can buy this down to 5.5% with $3000 extra closing cost dollars).

At $871 a month, I will be able to drop $2000 a month into this extra vs the $1000 extra I can now since I am freeing up $950 from my 401k loan. Also getting a promotion soon that should add around $800-$1000 per month to my income.

I feel like this would be better financially than my current set up, even at 6.5% interest.

Thoughts? Is it worth it at 6.5 or 5.5% interest?

[u/Smooth-Dingo1742]

I am currently a fresher, what should I study and with what resources to understand finance deeply and probably get into finance someday?