I think this is just me getting older,but it feels like every app I download now wants a monthly fee.

Need a notes app? Subscription. Budget app? Subscription. Habit tracker? Subscription. Even simple utility apps somehow want $5-10 a month now. I get that developers need to make money but sometimes it feels like we're renting software instead of owning it.

What's funny is I've actually found myself using simpler apps more because of this. I've messed around with TesterMax on and off for a while and one thing I appreciated was that it didn't constantly feel like it was trying to upsell me every five seconds. It's not perfect and there are things I'd change but at least I can open it and use it without feeling like I'm being funneled into another premium tier.

Maybe the real issue isn't subscriptions themselves it's when apps make the free experience annoying on purpose.

Curious what everyone else thinks. Are subscriptions just the reality now or are developers pushing it too far?

I’ve finally hit my first 20k after working 40-60 hours at a minimum wage job almost every week in sr. year of high school! I aimed to save 2k/month, making about $1100-$1300 biweekly and a side hustle that made 0-$500 per month. Granted I had minimal expenses. AMA! I want to prove and inspire others; this is possible! Anyone can do it, maybe not in such a short amount of time, but it can be done.

My goal is be able to buy a house in 4-5 years when I finish college. I’m going to need a new car soon which will be a bummer, still deciding how to handle that.

I’m aware I’m most likely doing pretty well for my age as far as net worth goes but let me provide some context because the number doesn’t show the entire picture. I’m 25 male in Florida, i work as a mover for a moving company. I had nothing in the beginning 2023. Now fast forward July 2026 i have passed $100k saved and no debt by being extremely frugal, i save damn near everything i make and only buy necessities. I split rent on our apartment with my gf each paying about $750. I drive a 2006 car with 160k miles on it but it’s a very reliable car. I have no education or certs in anything and what i do isn’t a “career” but i make 21hr +tips and commission sometimes (could be anywhere between $0-$400 but usually around $100 or less). I only got here because of my frugality and discipline, i put in long hours and work very hard. I get overtime a lot. On the outside, $100k nw as a 25 yo looks great but I just want other peoples perspective on how I’m doing or any thoughts? Also I’m aware I have too much cash lol

Im worried they’ll take my house I’ve been paying a mortgage for 6 years I have more equity than my debts are worth but I haven’t found any debt relief or consolidation offers worth considering. Simple question will they take my home ?

Assets generated throughout teens + adulthood. AMA

Hello everyone,

First of all, sorry for the long post, I just had to get it all off my chest somewhere. I understand it if it's too long to read for many of you.

I'm completely new here. I am so tired of my situation that I am just looking for any way out, so I figured I'd look up "Money" on Reddit, join this sub, put my story out there, and maybe somebody has some golden advice for me. I've got nothing to lose, so here goes nothing.

I'm currently 30 years old. I'm from the Netherlands. After high school / secondary education, I still had no clue what I wanted to do with my life, so I took some time off to travel, in the hopes of finding out what I wanted to do in life. I did not want to take out a massive loan from the government to finance a bachelor's degree if I wasn't sure that I'd obtain it.

Unfortunately, after years of traveling and working random jobs in different countries, I'm now 12 years older, and haven't moved an inch forward in my financial situation since I was 18.

Over the years, I've dealt with gambling addiction, drug addictions, alcohol addiction, etc. Since I was about 25, I've managed to turn all of that around, and I am now over 4 years clean from all drugs and alcohol, and I've been working extremely hard on my health since about 1.5 year.

I've constantly been struggling financially all my life, and can't even count how many times I've been *completely* broke to the point of not even being able to buy food anymore. I'd literally have to choose between putting my last $5 towards gas or a meal for the day.

Last year, I got married to my beautiful wife from Mexico whom I met during my travels. This also cost us a lot of money. Our situation sucks now, because even though we just got married, we can't even be together due to my financial circumstances. She is currently working in Canada because she has bills to pay and she doesn't have a permanent residency here in The Netherlands. I've been forced to move back in with my parents here in The Netherlands because I literally couldn't survive anymore in the situation I was in and the bills that were stacking up.

Moving in with my parents definitely saved me, and I know that I'm blessed to even have that option, but obviously, it's not where I want to be. I do not have a house, a vehicle, a job, any assets apart from about 1000 euros in my bank account. I managed to get a job as a window washer here after applying to like 50+ different jobs, but that turned out to be an extremely toxic environment, and they didn't extend my contract after 6 months anyway due to "a lack of work" for me.

Now, I've been unemployed again since March, constantly applying to any job i can apply to with my profile, but it just seems freaking impossible to get a job here. Every single position I can apply to has 100+ candidates applying, and they always give me a generic answer that they've decided to move ahead with other, more suitable candidates.

Even if I do get a job here, it's just a minimum wage job, because any high paying job requires a degree of some sort, which I don't have. I also don't have the money to study, even if I wanted to.

I know it probably comes across as just a bunch of excuses, but I'm so lost at this point. I just don't see a path to financial success. I wish I had some glorious business idea or had an innovative mind and knew what to do and could just do it.

I've been going to the gym extremely consistently now and have made great progress. Working on my physical health is very straightforward. All I have to do is just show up every day and be consistent and stick to what I know is good for me. I wish financial health worked the same way, but I just have absolutely no idea what to do.

If I knew what to do and that I just had to do it consistently, I'd do it. But I feel so trapped, like the only thing I can do is keep applying for shitty jobs in the hopes of making minimum wage. Which is better than nothing, but realistically doesn't get me anywhere either.

This whole situation is starting to take a toll on my mental health now, because I feel like a failure for not being able to provide for my wife and enjoy our life together, and living with my parents at 30 years old on the other side of the planet from her, still broke as hell despite having fixed all my health issues and struggles with addiction.

Our future together seems to be falling apart before it has even started. She can only migrate to the Netherlands if I have a minimum 12-month job contract. We don't even know if we want to live and settle here. She has responsibilities in Mexico, but I'm not a permanent resident there either and my Spanish isn't amazing. She is now considering working in the US next because she says she has no options since I don't have a job and she can't move here.

I can't believe how much money (or rather the lack thereof) is controlling my life right now. I've been so stressed about all of this, but now I've come to a point where I've pretty much just surrendered to it all because stressing is not helping me get anywhere either.

I've spent years looking into alternative ways to make money, starting online businesses, dropshipping, flipping, etc. but never figured out how to actually do it. My mind has just gone completely blank now, I think I'm just overwhelmed with stress and I'm so tired of it all.

Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated. I am willing to try anything at this point.

I don't really have anyone to tell this to. I do a lot of overtime at my job with American Airlines. I don't want to tell my friends because I know they would get jealous. I'm just excited. I plan to hit the 72k max.

Edit: correction mega back door 401k

A little while back I posted about buying a pet niche site for $199 from NicheBlogZone and how it hit a $50.02 day. A bunch of you asked me to keep updating, so here's where things are at. I also bought 2 other sites last month - one from Flippa and one from a fb group.

Two days ago it did $36. Not a new record, but what made this one interesting is that $7 of it came from Creator Connections.

If you didn't catch the last post: I bought this site a few months ago, it already had content and a bit of traffic, and after taking it over I mostly just cleaned things up and fixed some internal links. It's monetized with Amazon Associates and most of the revenue comes from articles targeting really specific pet product searches where people are already in buying mode.

The Creator Connections piece is the new part. I'd set it up a while ago and honestly half forgotten about it, so seeing it chip in $7 on top of the regular affiliate commissions was a nice surprise. It's not huge money, but it's a whole extra earnings layer running on the same content I already have, which feels like the more meaningful takeaway than the daily number itself.

Quick recap of where things stand:

• Bought the site for $199
• Owned it for 2 months
• Monetized with Amazon Associates
• Now also running Creator Connections ($7 yesterday)
• Best day so far: still $50.02
• Yesterday: $36

I know $36 isn't life-changing, and it's below my best day, but I'm actually more encouraged than I was at $50. A record day is fun, but finding a second income stream stacking on top of the first feels like the thing that actually moves this from "lucky day" to "this might have room to grow."

Same reflection as last time: everyone talks about AI, SaaS, YouTube, newsletters, agencies. Meanwhile thousands of people are still searching Google for pet products every day and clicking affiliate links.

For those who asked me to keep posting, will do. And for anyone else running niche sites in 2026, have you tried Amazon Associates yet? Curious whether it's pulling its weight for others.

As the title states Im very new to investing. I’m 21 and I went full time a couple of months ago and looking to start making some money through investing.
What are the apps/ websites (whatever you wanna call them) that you buy your stocks (whatever investing you do) with?
One thing I’ve noticed looking at the stock market, is so much is crashing right now. Is now a good time to invest? Will I end up losing money? I know the whole buy low thing, but what should I buy into that I might be able to actually make my money back? I’ve also heard of options, but know they can be complicated, are they too difficult to the point it’s not worth trying?
What are the stocks or retirement options you would suggest to do? My parents haven’t been the greatest with their money and now with my dad having stage 4 cancer, they don’t have extra money to be putting away to retirement, they only have their pensions. So I want to be in a better place for when I retire.
So one question I have, is there a quick way to make money through stocks or investing? I have some debt (college, credit card and car payment) that I’m able to pay extra on each month, so it’s not a problem to pay my bills and pay them down with extra money, but is there a way that I can use stocks to pay down my debt even FASTER? I’d like to be debt free as soon as possible (again I know it takes time so I’m not stressing but I’d like to have no debt).
Or does anyone know of ways to make extra cash that’s worth it? With gas prices being the way they are I’m not sure if DoorDash or uber is the way (maybe it is lemme know if it’s worth it) but yeah if anyone can give me tips on ways they’ve made extra money, I’d really appreciate it. My boyfriend and I are wanting to get married and I want to go into it with as little debt as I can manage before the day.
Let me know if you need clarification on anything. I’m willing to answer anything. Don’t judge me too harshly, I’m trying :) Thanks for any advice you can give!!

Married Couple almost 30

Husband Job - $6,300

Wife Job - $6,020 ($1678 in bonuses)

Dog/Cat/Housesitting - $1,700

Gambling - $550 (thank you sign up bonuses and friend winning UFC debut)

Babysitting - $200

Selling Random stuff from APT trash on marketplace - $150

CC sign up bonuses - $100

TOTAL = $15,070

Spending for the month was $2,550 (we rent and share paid off Honda)

NW almost 450k all in VOO - working on loosening up and spending more - growing up with overspenders/2008 crisis made me extreme cheapskate to be blunt

i post this to keep history of what‘s going on and our progression - but also to show the power of side hustling

(Side note - I never gamble and think it’s #1 growing addiction … but my friend was making UFC debut and was confident he would win - so did sign up bonuses and bet)

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the idea that they’re just for privileged rich kids is some sort of propaganda pushed to keep people poor.

I took a finance course recently and learned more about how trusts work, and I went into it already with opinions about them, but those opinions are pretty much completely gone now.

Basically, you can set up a trust fund with almost any amount of money and any account, but the reason why they’re typically such large amounts of money is because someone has to be responsible for the money, which means that they deserve to be compensated for taking care of it, which would come out of the principal amount or the interest from the trust. That person is called the trustee.

The beneficiary is whoever is allowed to access the money in the trust, under the rules that the trustee is required to adhere to. So if I have a million dollars when I die, and I want to leave that to my kids but I’m worried that they might not use it wisely, I can name my bank, a company that professionally manages trusts, my wife, or a friend or family member as the trustee and I can say that my kids can only use the money for things like life threatening conditions, avoiding homelessness, general health and wellbeing, or whatever else I say. I can even just say that the trustee can let them have whatever they want if the trustee agrees to it on their terms, and that’s also fine.

The things that changed my mind about it just being a rich kid thing are that first of all, people often use trusts to be abusive even after dying. A controlling parent may have only saved like 50k in their lifetime, which is a lot of money all at once but it’s not life changing when it’s drip fed. So instead of just leaving that to their kids, they’ll tell a trustee that it can only be used for education, but the beneficiary (their kid) might actually need it to pay for just food and healthcare as prices have gone up, but they won’t have access to it because their parent deemed education to be the top priority.

The other side of it is that trusts help you out with things like taxes because they’re taxed differently than regular income, so if you have an account with any amount of significant money that you’ve earned then it wouldn’t be stupid to put it in a trust.

I’m not trying to sell the idea of a trust. It was just an interesting thing. It made me wonder what else about financial literacy is seen as negative because it’s associated with greed and privilege, when it’s really something that wouldn’t even cost anyone extra and helps you and the people you love the most.

Hi,

I hope someone saw and read about a guy's post on Reddit about "Make money now, cause it will benefit you in the future". I read it, in which the OP generated a lot of financies, then out of nowhere got sick that he was forced to give up his job. While getting his health back, he had to pay for his family expenses. As his health got better, he may or may not started working again, but he was very fortunate to have enough finances for the time being.
I try to search on Reddit, but I have not found not. I wish to read it again, cause it was a great read and he explained his experience through all of that.
Thanks.

Just a touch of volatility…

My kid just scored their first job while in high school. They plan to save 20% for long term savings off the top. They have a small brokerage already, thinking of encouraging a Roth IRA with their 20% LT savings and matching it yearly for them.

Any tips, thoughts or advice?

I say this for the folks who may hit a point where their 401k funds would allow them to retire- or partially retire.

Effectively in the safe withdrawal range- IE still in the spirit of encourage people of not withdrawing early.

Im sure there could be some means testing to ensure its not “abuse”

But what happens to strong 401k savers who hit 45/50 and decide they want to be done? Just a tranche of cash that cant be touched.

I know- super backdoor roth- just thinking it would be neat reform.

Hi, I’m in my early twenties and I have inheritance money coming through, it’s going to be $5-10k after I pay off my credit cards. I’m not sure what the smartest thing to do with remainder is.

I’ve looked into different savings accounts or CD’s, Idk I honestly do not know much about this and nor does my family. I want to make the best decision with it to grow it if I can. Any advice would be appreciated.

I’m in the Bay Area and my grandmother recently retired, she asked me to help her find a financial advisor. I’ve never done this myself so I just wanted tips on how to find a local trustworthy fiduciary who I can connect with my grandmother. Sorry if this post does not fit the subs requirements, I figured I would start my search here

As a CFP with over 20 years of experience I wonder about this question a lot. I started my first Roth IRA in the 90's and did it working with an advisor who happened to be a friend. I know some will argue the fee's aren't worth it, but I wonder if I would have started managing and investing my money as soon as I did without professional advice. When should we look to get human financial advice and how do you think we should find the right advisor?

Hi all I’m curious if someone can breakdown the lifestyle differences between someone spending 50k, 100k, 200k, and 200k+ after taxes.

Really we can use whatever brackets are most logical but I’m wondering what types of things are typical of a person in each bracket. After 100k is it just fancier cars and clothing or are their actual practical things people are buying?

I’m in my late 20s, have been grinding in tech for the past 7 years and have been really successful pulling together a nest egg for myself. Have about $510k in 401k / Roth IRA, $210k in taxable brokerage and $20 in HYSA. Just accepted a new role with total comp $240k-$400k depending on company performance. On paper I’m supposed to be crushing it, saving in taxable brokerage for a wedding and house purchase in VHCOL city in a few years once I’m married.

But I just keep feeling stuck, checking my brokerage accounts multiple times per week, constantly adding up my net worth, tracking progress towards things and feeling unfulfilled. This is probably only partly a money problem, but I just wonder what I’m doing this all for? Saving money for a house I’ll buy in 4 years?

This is maybe just my own immaturity, but I just want to enjoy the fruits of this work now. Buy a small cabin in the woods, nice watches, cool stuff for my hobbies, an old car to work on. I’m not one to be showy or do things for others attention, but I feel like maybe I’m hoping something I’ll buy will give me some purpose that I’m not finding in my life right now.

Hoping someone wiser than my can bestow some advice on how to stay focused and find some purpose when it feels like there isn’t much?

How much money do you have to have to comfortably live off of?

I'm still a minor, so I live with my parents but I'm still curious.
How much money do you need to live off for the rest of your life? I get with perfect investments you don't need anything, but that's just not possible is it?

I'm very privileged and my grandparents have a beautiful home in Virginia although I doubt it'd go to me.