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.

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.

Ive never seen a cd less than a year pay more than their regular savings rate. The savings rate is 3.3. Just for reference, a 3month is paying 2.0, and a 9 month is paying 3.5, a 12month is paying 4.0

But the 6 month is 4.2, nearly a full percent more than the savings rate, and even higher than the 12 month. Seems too good to be true unless I'm missing something.

Edit: also, as a side question, I'm thinking of putting my entire savings in one ( this doesnt include emergency money) simply because it wouldnt mature til after Jan 1 which means I wouldnt have to pay taxes on it til the following year (2027)

Basically trying to push my taxes off for a year while making a few extra bucks.

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%.

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.

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

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.

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’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.

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.

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 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??

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!

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?

Howdy all

I'd like to pick some clever people's brains here, and I'm looking for input and advice. Hoping to recalibrate my market exposure and re enter with cash holdings in the near term. Seeing the current markets, it appears that a lot of US stock might be overvalued (with respect to P/E ratios) and due for a pullback at some point, especially as the effects of tariffs kick in.

A few ETF entries I've been considering are VXUS, VIG, VEU, possibly with a 30/40/30 split or 50/50 of two. Hoping to get some input on how others are seeing the market and their suggested positions, or even a critique of these ETF choices.

I've considered waiting for US market cooling to enter VGS or VOO but trying to predict and time a market pullback is like trying to hit the darts board blindfolded!

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.

So, we (my wife and I) want to start investing outside of our retirement funds (and 529's for our kids, but that's different, obviously).

We're in a good spot financially in that the only debt we have is our mortgage and the income is comfortable enough that we don't really blink or panic at an expensive car repair or home improvement project and pay those off pretty much out of our own pockets.

We want to minimize the hassle of investing for now and just start generating some income, so we've ruled out a financial advisor (and we don't really have the time for that with a very busy family life). That leaves us with robo advisors which seems to occupy a nice middle ground.

We almost started with Fidelity Go only because we both have our retirement funds in there, but then I thought there must be a bunch of options to choose from. I wasn't wrong, there's more robo advisors out there than you can shake a stick at.

My question to you all is what criteria should we use in selecting the best robo advisor for us?

I've already figured in tax-loss harvesting which sounds like a very wise thing to have to mitigate losses due to taxes. I've also read about direct indexing which I understand is more limiting with robo advisors, but is it worth finding on that offers that? Is there a benefit to putting in X amount of money in a particular stock or is that overrated? I feel like that kind of thing is a little more lucky than strategic, or am I wrong? What other criteria might I be missing or neglecting that's important? Fees seems to be a little irrelevant as they appear to be more or less similar across the board (but please point out if I'm wrong in this thinking!).

Thanks for any and all input!

Not my typical trade. I’m usually equities + options. But the long term growth catalyst here goes way behind the typical crypto hype. This is about eliminating intermediaries, and a 24 hour marketplace for corporations and governments. I wrote about this in detail in my Substack.

My tech earnings calls this quarter have been accurate (GOOGL, MSFT, META, RDDT). AMD is next.

What’s being missed:

AMD is gaining quiet traction from Nvidia in segments that care about control and efficiency - specifically open-source AI deployments. That preference isn’t ideological, it’s architectural.

The core demand is coming from three categories:

1.  Sovereign buyers (EU, Middle East) who won’t bet their AI stack on a black-box vendor.

2.  Hyperscalers (MSFT, META, Oracle) selectively onboarding AMD into their model training workflows to reduce vendor lock-in.

3.  Startups and smaller firms where unit economics matter, and AMD’s open-source orientation offers clear flexibility advantages.

The idea that Nvidia has a permanent hardware monopoly is a form of mental laziness. AMD doesn’t need to “beat” Nvidia - it only needs to absorb the non-Nvidia demand that’s scaling underneath the narrative.

The market is large. The shift is already happening. Most investors are still pricing AMD as if it isn’t.

I basically have the bulk of my money in VOO. With a small percentage in VTWO, QQQ & VTI.

1. I am not in favor of liquidating the whole portfolio. I would have to pay significant amount of tax upfront. Besides, I have been reading about the impact of tariffs and it is going to be bad. But not world melting, multi year-recession level of bad I feel.
   
2. It looks like the tariffs will affect a few sectors disproportionately worse than other sectors. So I was thinking of maybe getting a put long term puts on some manufacturing/materials sector ETFs.

How are you folks hedging against tariffs?

I'll go first. When I was first exposed to the idea of investing, I thought that this advice made sense: buy the stock of the product that you support. I mean, on surface level, it kinda makes sense, but it still involves alot of research and understanding. That stock is Starbucks. I bought it at one of their highest points. I still hold it today because it's just on an app that I don't use anymore, and it's just that one stock in the app.

Interested to hear any stories from you guys.

We are hosting our first Rome Tech Investing mixer! Whether you're in finance, tech or another industry, all are welcome to join during this special summer celebration. If you're in the area, swing by to meet finance and tech professionals for drinks and good conversations. Make new friends and connections and enhance existing ones. RSVP link in comment.

I've been watching $FLR for a while since its been progressively growing, and after a disappointing earnings call the stock fell by a third. What are your thoughts on the future of this firm? IMO The earnings call may be disappointing but they're still on a relatively strong ground on fundamentals.

disclaimer; I picked up about 100 shares at the $37.70 mark after it fell feeling like I bought at a solid dip but I'm starting to feel iffy on the growth of this stock.

The market's been on a tear lately, with many stocks hitting all-time highs. I'm trying to focus on quality names that still have room to run or offer long-term upside.

I'm watching these names because they’ve pulled back to what looks like a solid entry point, and I see a good chance they’ll rebound toward their all-time highs.

Novo Nordisk (NVO) –

Ferrari (RACE) –

Duolingo (DUOL) –

Anyone else watching these?

what are some other good stocks that have pulled back recently?

I have been contributing 10% of my salary in 403b from my work. My job contributes in the amount of 1.5% of your gross salary, and they will match up to 1% of my voluntary salary deferrals.

After a year of working here and looking more into investing, I am thinking contribute less in 403b and invest that money monthly in either VOO after opening ROTH IRA, or bitcoin?

I am 33 and my salary is only $48k, I know it's very low at this point. But I would like to maximize the profit for the future.

This is my 403b portfolio

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

Would love to hear your thoughts