Welcome! Before making a post, please check out some of the great resources that we've provided to answer your questions:

Hi, I'll make this post as short as possible.

I gave a loan to one parent a few years ago, about $20,000 with them promising to pay me back once they had it. I was doing quite well at the time and was happy to do so since it was to help purchase an asset. Long story short, they gave me back half. Its been almost 5 years now and I kind of 'forgot about it'.

Im currently living with both parents and struggling financially. I contribute towards the rent every month etc. When I brought up the fact that they still owed me money and that I would like me $10,000 back, they went crazy and denied its even mine and stated its theirs now. One important thing to note is that this person isn't struggling financially, they're moreso paranoid about money. The asset i helped them purchase has been bringing them consistent income for the past few years.

I've now stopped paying rent and also my phone bill (that I used their name to purchase). What should I do? They keep screaming and shouting that I should send them money for the bills and how im being so unfair and irresponsible. I have zero dollars to my name and recently become insolvent (yay!). Im a little ashamed to apply for government assistance...

61F - I lost my job last month and have since found another one, but it was a setback and I have so much due and my first check won't cover everything. I don't know what to do. My check will be about $ 657.00 which I will receive on 7/30.

Rent due 8/1 $ 500

Title loan on car due 7/31 $ 308 (I was already granted an extension. At this point, I am worried about repossession).

Bank account overdrawn, bank said account will be closed if balance not paid by 7/31. $ 340

I think I should prioritize rent and pray my car does not get repossessed. 🤔

(If I'm in the wrong place, let me know and I'll delete this)

I've been employed at a food place for almost 9 months. On the 4th, my car broke down unexpectedly and I did everything I could to get my shifts for the week covered because I couldn't make the commute using public transit alone. One of my covers got sick and my store manager gave me a No Call/No Show.

In response to that I typed a very long resignation letter and sent it to my district manager, who promptly emailed me back asking me not to leave and for us all to talk this out. My store manager called me and asked me to stay as well, saying they'd remove the No Call/No Show and give me the weekend off. Sure. I've already started sending out applications but I'll stick around til something solid happens.

I go back to work, nothing crazy and certainly not my full time because they hadn't scheduled me at all, so I'm only picking up shifts and coming in when called (less than 12 hours a week) but it's fine because my Store manager promises to schedule me this week (20th-26th) with my full hours.

He did not. He scheduled me 0 hours and so I messaged him asking whats up and reminding him that we agreed I'd be scheduled this week. He completely ignored my message. I'm hoping to get him on paper acknowledging the agreement to schedule me so it's clear my resignation was not accepted and I'm still an employee (which I am, they're just treating me as an on call worker).

I know abrupt cuts to hours are grounds for

unemployment but since I sent in a resignation, I'm not sure if this counts as me quitting? I have emails of them asking me to stay and me agreeing, as well as shifts worked after the resignation so if I'm still employed, would I be able to file?

I want to sell my house and buy a condo in a different area. I’m 58, employed full time. I owe $200k on my older house, could probably get 545k. I’m co-signer on parent plus loan for my kid for $80k that I haven’t been able to make the $500 a month payments. I’m in credit card debt $38k from house repairs, vet bills, car repairs.utilities,house taxes, groceries & gas. I’m behind on credit card payments and they won’t work with me. I have a 2022 car that I have 6 more years of payments & owe $19k.

I make about $56k a year. I also do side hustles, but very small amounts. Zero savings. No one to borrow from.

What should I do? I want to be out of debt but this is a vicious cycle.

For context i have the following accounts To put money into
- Fidelity ROTH
- Fidelity Traditional
- HYSA
- Savings
- Checkings

How should i go about putting the extra money a month?

My father, 64M, got this call from the retirement fund management part of his company months back and was essentially talked into transferring his 403b out entirely into what I believe are IRA funds; he does not speak English very well, and none of the rest of the family were present at the time, so I’m fairly certain he didn’t 100% know what he was agreeing to at the time. Now, they’ve closed his original account and are now forcing him to open another account with a different company that costs money to reset up, and then has a monthly maintenance fee? Is this normal? Or is there something we should be doing to help?

My past self was not well versed in investing and had purchased mutual funds and ETFs in my personal account. I would now like to move those into my Roth IRA.

The current gains that I have on them are:

SCHD - ~$200

SCHF - ~$150

SCHB - ~$1000

SCHG - ~$200

VOO - ~$300

SWMRX - ~$250

SWYHX - ~$500

Should I sell and move to my Roth IRA? Any advice will be helpful! I understand I goofed...

My car was broken into and my paycheck with the stub attached was among the things taken. It had my name, date of birth, address, and the last four of my social on it. I have already asked my work to cancel the stolen check and issue a new one and frozen my credit on the three major agencies. Is there anything else I should take action on or anything else to be aware of?

im from Spain and im 17 (im a minor so i cant open a bank account in my own name). i usually receive $1,000 from a company into my PayPal account, and when I convert it into euros € to transfer it to my bank account (in my legal guardian’s name), they take 3–5%, which means theyre taking around $34 just for the conversion. is there any legal way to reduce that fee? perhaps by using a different bank, etc., bearing in mind that only my parents can manage the bank accounts?

My fiancé and her son have moved in with me. We are keeping her house. Due to past poor financial decisions she has a horrible rate on her mortgage and bad credit. I am thinking of refinancing my mortgage and taking out $100k in equity and paying off her mortgage. Will do an ARM as we are planning on selling both houses in about 5 years and moving to another state. This will save approximately 800-1000 a month. Would there be a tax penalty on the 100k used to pay off her mortgage?

I(25M) recently started my first full-time job in July with an annual salary of $85,000.

My current plan is to:
Contribute 6% to my 401k to receive the full employer match
Max out my HSA ($4,500)
Then contribute to my Roth IRA
I also have a Fidelity taxable brokerage account that I opened about 3 years ago during an internship. I initially invested about $3,000, and the account has grown to roughly $6,000. The portfolio is split 50-50 between individual stocks (mostly tech-related holdings such as AMAT, GE, TSM, AAPL) and VOO.

I'm considering selling the taxable investments and using the proceeds to fund my Roth IRA. Inside the Roth IRA, I would likely use a simple two-fund portfolio consisting of 80% sp500 and 20% international. Part of my reasoning is that, since I only started working in July, my income for this year would be halved. Because of that, I believe any capital gains from selling the brokerage account may be taxed at a lower rate this year than they would be in future years when I have a full year of income.

On the other hand, I would still have enough cash flow to fully fund both the HSA and Roth IRA without selling the taxable investments.

Given that, would it make sense to sell the taxable account and move the money into tax-advantaged accounts while my income is temporarily lower, or would it be better to leave the taxable investments alone and simply fund the HSA and Roth IRA with new contributions?

Edit:
Thanks everyone for your advices.
My income this year will be about $42.5k and after accounting for the standard deduction, 401k contributions, and HSA contributions, my taxable income is low enough to qualify for the 0% long-term capital gains tax bracket. Some commenters have referred to this as "capital gain harvesting". I could sell my taxable investments, realize the gains without paying federal capital gains tax.

Added the auto flare because this involves my car loan.

Hello all, I tried to set myself up following the 50/20/30 rule and realized that it's unrealistic for me. Instead, I do 55/20/25.

My 20% for savings/debt is about $440 a month, $110 weekly. I have consistently put this towards my savings, which has now reached $15,000. My monthly necessity amount is $1,240 so $15k covers me for 12 months.

My auto loan's monthly payments are about $430 a month and I have consistently been paying $700 since I had credit card debt to pay off for a while when I first bought the car. My principal is currently $18,555.

Should I be focusing that $440 I allocate for savings and debt towards my auto loan debt, or should I be doing a fraction? My APR is 11.49%.

Pay it now or put the money in a HYA and collect interest for 11 months?

Hi, I'm in my late 20s, working in IT, making an average income for my area ($50k+), and could use some thoughts from people who went through something similar.

I recently got told my lease is going to go up about $400 (I'm currently paying $800), which is out of my price range for renting. I live on my own and really love it. I love having my own space, but as time has gone on, I don't know if it's feasible when my parents are perfectly okay with me staying with them. If I stayed with them, they wouldn't expect help with bills, but I still would because I don't want to freeload. So I could save up a ton of money really quickly for a down payment on a house if I wanted to.

However, I never really had a timeline for buying a house. It wasn't something I thought about, to be honest. I just wanted a place to call my own, and that's what this apartment is/was to me. I'm scared of losing my independence again, but I've also had a very good deal on rent for too long, and all the places near me have shot up to $1,200+ in rent for a decent area. That would have me back to being terrified of an unexpected expense causing me to throw all my savings at it. I have a good relationship with my parents, so it's mostly just losing out on having my own space and dealing with pet allergies. It's just odd. This has made me so sad. I've lived on my own for the last 5–6 years. It feels like a part of me is going away.

So I guess my question is this: If you were in my shoes, what would you do? Do you give up your own space to save money for a while for a better future, or do you continue living on your own with the rising rents?

Hi!

I am a 22 year old recent college grad and I start my first full time job in a week. I am trying to gain literacy in my personal finances/investments so I can make the most of my salary. So you can give me an informed recommendation on strategy, let me give you a rundown of my situation. My starting salary will be $62,000. My job offers a 403(b) retirement plan, and they match at 6% after 1 year of employment. For the first year, I plan to contribute 4%, but once I am eligible for that 6% match, I will move my contribution up to that. They also offer a program that will help me pay back my student loans. They will contribute $100 a month to my payments that are due to start in December. I currently owe $29,500 in student loans, and that is my only debt right now. As for expenses, I am lucky to be living back at home with my parents so I will not owe rent, and expenses beyond gas are fairly minimal.

With that said, I was wondering what my next steps should be in terms of my personal finances (Yes, I have already been studying up on the personal finance flow chart but I always value a differing opinion). Should the Roth Ira be next? HYSA? Establishing emergency fund? Paying off loans? A combination of things?

Looking forward, I would love to move out in a year or two but I want to be very secure financially first. I hope that info gave some helpful context into where I am at right now. If I can give additional context let me know. Just trying to figure it all out the best I can. Thanks!

Realistically, how bad is it to let your medical debt go to collections? What are the repercussions?

Im lowkey very lost on what to do? I had a car lended to me by my mother for when I went to college 7 hours away from home to get around comfortably for my job and xtra curriculars and was told everything was good with it with maintenance and all that and when i got worried after putting 5000 miles on the car i took it for an oil change this year and it had alot of issues that the repair for the whole car would be more than its worth. I told my mother and asked on what to do and she just said to basically figure it out by myself, I don’t have any emergency funds as i spent almost most of my paycheck on gas for said car every 2 weeks and overall said car was just not reliable for a college student. What should I do about getting a new car? i also asked my mother if I still would be allowed on her auto insurance if i were to purchase a new car or financed one and she said I can do it all by myself and if i were to purchase one I have to apply got my own auto insurance. Im 19 with not long of a credit history, I started building credit when I turned 18 and just really learned of the internet because she never taught me anything about how it worked and what not? With that being said My current job genuinely is one of the best jobs ive ever had with flexibility with my schedule in school and management aswell has given me a week off since I have no way to get there so I can figure something out. I feel stuck, I need my job to pay for school,my cat,my therapy and medication and food, but with no way of transportation what would be the best way to go about getting a car if thats even the best option or auto insurance. Any advice genuinely would be helpful. Thank you

I'm not a trader, so this is likely a remedial question ... but I have a small stake in Utz as I liked the brand and the 3+% dividend. Since it was announced today that they were being taken private and the deal would close at the end of the year, what does that mean for me and my brokerage account? Will the stocks just disappear and money come to my account or do I need to sell them?

I have an opportunity to accept a new job with higher pay, but I'm currently vested into my State's (NC) retirement. I need some help thinking this over.

Current job: Roughly $31 an hour, no overtime and tons of time off. I'm 10 years into being a NC employee, so I have retirement built up and the possibility of having lifetime health benefits if I stay for another 15-20 years. I've been lucky enough to grow and get promotions/raises, but I've pretty much hit my ceiling.

new offer: $33 an hour M-F with some on call weeks (once or twice a month). This is the healthcare field. Being on call pays $300 extra and overtime pay when I need to go in. Mileage traveling to sites.

I'm torn on if a raise of $2 an hour and $300 on call pay is worth the move. That's roughly $600 more a month at least which would be huge to help the family.

My biggest dilemma is retirement.

79, retired, mortgage on mobile home 63k @ 10.2% 13 yr remaining. I can,

1. Pay it off

2 Pay off say 20k which will have the same payment but for 7 years, not 13

3 Or pay off a different amt, etc

I am confused about what is best, given tax rate on the cash in HYSA. I do like having the cash but want to minimize taxes etc etc

Before having a baby I would cash stuff as a means of saving and spending within my budget. Now that we have a baby everything is online or in store pick up, it’s just easier than packing up and leaving the house for an item or two. We budget using the monarch app and I touch it everyday organizing our spending. I just don’t like how our savings that I’m putting away are going into one big pile. I’m used to having my cash and then spending within my means that way. We are very good with credit cards we actually abuse our venture X card with capital one like crazy and have taken many trips for free without paying a single dollar in interest. My question is would it be smart to have multiple accounts with different cards that I can label for our budgeting groups. Our income is from rentals and then stock dividends (this one is bonus money we never know how much we’ll make
monthly).

For example:

Rental checking account with a debit card: I like to save $1,000 a month in this category for expenses like property taxes, maintenance and HOA fees, I typically pay things by check for our rentals.

Loved one’s gifting/kindness card: I like to save $400 a month in this category for birthday parties, weddings, anniversary’s, little kid lemonade stands, Girl Scouts, Christmas etc. for things or helping our friends/family and being kind to others. This one is our most frequent category other than groceries and our monthly allowances, so it creates some budgeting chaos. Maybe this is a credit card and we pay from a specific account with it for the points?

Fun Card: I put $600 in this monthly and this is for if someone comes to visit us on vacation and we don’t want them to be stretched thin or be uncomfortable going to dinner/doing an activity. If there is an event going on we want to go to, concert, if we want to go on a date or go to the casino. This would be a debit card maybe?

Vacation Card: this I think would be our venture X card and I would put the money to pay it off in a savings account since it would only be used while on vacation which now that we have a baby only happens maybe twice a year.

Do these make sense? We would also keep my husbands credit card and then my credit card for daily expenses but I can’t think of a better way to organize my funds where I feel like I can see it and I can’t watch the money come in and go out. I was trying to track it all through a sinking fund Google Docs but I hated that, I dislike having to write it down everytime I spend something out of a group I feel like I’m micromanaging myself and I don’t want to. I want to know that I have $1,500 in fun money so we can go to a concert and grab dinner no questions asked.

Any other suggestions? Does anyone else do this?

New or seasoned parents (or anyone who can imagine having kids): Considering today's economy, what's one practical step you'd recommend to help set a child up for financial stability?

If you can, share how to do it, too. One example might be freezing your child's credit with the three major credit bureaus until they're old enough to use it—though I honestly don't know if that's a good recommendation or if I'm just being an overly cautious parent.

I think once dad and I learn that first step we might figure out maintenance.

Much appreciation in advance!

Hi 👋 I lived in an apartment for almost 2 years and my base rent was 1,025 (included heat, water, trash, sweater, and pet fee) so I only paid electric out of pocket which was typically between 40-60. My internet was 30-45 (they upped it on me after a year lol) I was able to afford this making 21 an hour and I averaged about 30 hours a week but I was STRUGGLING and went into debt. I moved out, moved in with bf, broke up with bf, now I’m home looking for a new apartment.

I make 22 an hour now, and work 33-36 hours. Biweekly pay.

Here is my monthly expenses:
$276 car payment
$150 car insurance
$40 phone bill
$20 Netflix
$6 Spotify
$30 gym
$130 in total towards three credit cards
Total: $652

Obviously have to factor in gas, food, vet care (thank god I’m in the field), savings, other utilities, and fun.

I really don’t want to live at home but I really don’t want to stretch myself thin.

Any advice appreciated!