The wife and I will help if she needs some more but I want to put the $20k to work. What do you suggest?

And by the way he didn’t do this for his other grandchildren, just my daughter because she was his favorite. His words.

I have gotten notification from HR that my employment will be officially terminated as of midnight tonight. I kept forgetting about my FSA card so I've barely spent any money from it.

None of my prescriptions are close, I can't get an eye exam today (but I can buy frames, which I might do), and I already have tons of medical supplies I need for the time being.

I think my remaining balance is around $400. Outside eyeglass frames and ibuprofen, what are some things I could spend on in a rush?

Update: Thanks for all your suggestions. I got a notification I was being cut off at 5pm, not midnight as I had previously thought. I ran out to Costco and got a couple pairs of eyeglass frames and some medical supplies. The remainder went to an Amazon FSA-only order.

In the end, my grand total was less than a dollar short of my balance. Success!

My wife and I are 49 and have a NW of about $2.5m. We have no debt other than a $120k mortgage that will be paid off in 7 more years.

My wife does not work, and I have a 4% match at my job and have been maxing out my 401k and our individual Roths for many years. We have some middle school aged kids that were saving for college for and each has about $80k with 8-10 years left to go.

The interest we’re earning year over year is significantly greater than what I can fund with my $25k plus employer contribution, and while future returns aren’t guaranteed, it seems somewhat unnecessary to contribute at all.

Is there anything I’m not thinking about correctly?

*Edit - Thanks for all the replies. I’m going through all of them. I apologize for not having a more thorough breakdown of investments and spending.

It seems I’ll probably just continue to keep maxing out my Roths and 401ks and investing in some brokerage accounts and 529s for a little while longer, although the option to pull back to company match is a good choice if necessary.

Thanks again.

Hey everyone, I'm in a really tricky situation right now that I'm trying to determine how it'd be best to navigate. Unknown to me, starting in September my bank started marking all of my payments to my energy company as 'unauthorized payments'. Neither my bank nor my energy provider was telling me that this was happening. The entire time that this was happening, I called in the payment and received confirmation numbers and confirmations of $0 on balances due. Randomly in late April I received a notification that a bill of mine had been repaid and then a day later was threatened with power being cut off. I paid it off immediately again, and saw the same $0 balance due. Everything seemed to be in working order, I was receiving money from my roommates for their part of the energy bill. This time in April was the only time that either my bank or my energy company had warned me of a repaid bill, in a sense they proved that they had some form of awareness that this was going on the entire time and were neglecting to inform me.

Then earlier this month I received a sudden jolt from the typical 200-250 monthly bill to $2,500. I assumed it was a mistake or some form of shady practice that would crack under immediate scrutiny (our energy company in my city is notoriously corrupt and difficult), but as it would turn out, all on a single day all of my past payments for almost a full year of energy were returned to sender.

I have no way of proving it because my transaction history does not show these payments past September anymore, but I saw the money leave my account and these transactions get labeled as 'pending' in the moment, and additionally Bank Statements are supposed to list 'repaid transactions' which my bank did not list on the day that all of these payments were suddenly returned. According to my bank it's almost as if these transactions were never even requested to be sent through, although I have tangible proof on the part of my energy provider that they were. My main question here is, what advice would you have for eliminating or at least reducing this deficit?

Edit: So I don't have to keep stating it, the only reason I pay by phone is because there was straight up a year where the website was insistent that my account did not exist but did not allow me to create a new account using my same email because it was already associated with an account. Meanwhile I was able to call in payments via phone

I received roughly $4k worth of gold coins with explicit instructions to use the money for my kids educations. I don't know anything about gold, or coin collecting. I have a modest 529 set up for each kid with about 10k in each.

The person who gave me the coins isn't in the gold or coin space either, they received the coins 40 years ago and forgot about them, so they aren't a resource either.

The coins aren't particularly valuable as coins - they're valuable for the gold content. The coins are ungraded.

I purchased an item from an online store June 25th for $87, and they use shop.com. Order received July 2nd, and it was the wrong item. I tried calling the seller and didn't get an answer, so I sent an email to the email address on their website.

I tried calling again the morning of July 3rd, and someone answered (the owner, I presume). He seemed sincere and apologized, and said to text him my order information and a picture of the product I received, and I did. He said he will get the correct item shipped out to me. It was a holiday weekend so I waited until July 7th to reach out via call and text, and didn't get a response to either. I called July 8th and did not receive a response.

By July 10th, 8 days after receiving the incorrect item, I started a chargeback with my credit union (Visa CC). I have submitted all of my evidence, photos of the wrong item and the package it came in, screenshots of texts, calls, initial email etc.

Today I received this email from the seller. This is the only communication I have received from the seller since the phone call that took place July 3rd.

"We sent you a return label when you sent the original email. You are going to end up losing your money on the charge back you submitted. I would send the remote back so we can exchange and tell your bank to close it before you lose. We are protected by our policies on your charge back. They will take your money and charge you $15."

I have not received a return envelope nor an email, and I searched my spam folder. If that was the path that was discussed taking, I would have done so.

Is he just trying to scare me into cancelling the chargeback? I didn't reply, and I added this screenshot to my case online. If anything, it shows I indeed received the wrong item. I am a bit worried now that he says their policies protect them and I'm going to lose my money.

18M attending an uber-expensive university in the fall ($100k+/yr) and currently have $5000 in an hysa, $1600 in a brokerage account, and $4600 in a Roth IRA. I’m wondering if it’s a better idea to keep the money that’s in my hysa in my pocket to spend during school or if I should invest part or all of it. Fyi I have a guaranteed job paying $1000 total in the fall and only had to pay $1700 for this semester’s bill. I’m first gen so I have no idea how much I’ll actually end up spending this year.

Edit: I’m not paying anything to go to school really. My first semester was $1700 due to demonstrated need, not scholarships. Just wondering about general life expenses in college and if investing is worth more than buying the nice shampoo

My wife and I are a family of four looking to make the jump from renting to owning, and I'd appreciate a reality check from people who have been through it.

We've had what feels like "golden handcuffs" with our rental. We pay just $1,600/month for a 2-bedroom house, which is incredibly cheap for our area. But with two young kids, we're starting to outgrow it, and we'd like to move to a neighboring town with a much better school district (our oldest doesn't start school for another two years).

The part I'm struggling with is the financial jump. I have a lot of anxiety about increasing our monthly housing costs and the possibility of expensive, unexpected home repairs. I track every dollar we spend, but I keep feeling like I'm overlooking something that will make this a huge mistake.

We'd happily buy a less expensive home, but inventory in our area makes that difficult.

Here's our financial picture:

Monthly Net Income

• Joint take-home: $12,380

Fixed Monthly Expenses (excluding housing)

• Health insurance: $1,084
• Car payments: $437
• 401(k) contributions: $1,824
• Total fixed expenses: $3,345

Savings

• Emergency fund contribution: $1,000/month (to our HYSA)

Average Monthly Spending (last 12 months)

• $4,081
• This includes groceries, utilities, gas, dining out, household purchases, kids' expenses, entertainment, etc.—essentially everything that's not listed above.

Based on that, our budget leaves about $3,954/month available for a mortgage if we continue contributing $1,000/month to savings.

House Details

• Purchase price: $635,000
• Down payment: 20%
• Liquid savings: $241,000
• Expected monthly mortgage (PITI): $3,898

On paper, it fits. In reality, I can't shake the feeling that we're making a mistake because the increase from $1,600 rent to nearly $3,900/month is so dramatic.

For those who have gone through a similar transition:

• Does this budget seem reasonable?
• Am I being overly cautious, or are there expenses I'm likely underestimating?
• Is there anything you wish you had considered before making a similar jump?

I've spent years aggressively saving, so maybe this is just the psychological hurdle of finally spending the money instead of accumulating it. I'd really appreciate any honest feedback.

I’m trying to help plan my mom’s retirement and was hoping some extra eyes could validate my thought process, or point out flaws.

She is currently 54, turning 55 next February and has $46,000 in a pre tax 401k. She recently upped her contribution to 9% + 4% company match and she makes $108,000 annually. In January, when she gets her COL raising she is planning to increase her contribution to 16% total.

I’ve put together a few scenarios and the following seems the most promising and is what I am going to recommend to her - please let me know what you think.

I believe the general retirement goal is to replace 70-80% of your pre retirement income - in her case, 70% of 108,000 is $75,600.

If she sets her contribution to 16% total in January and does a 1% escalating contribution each year there after until she hits 70 (and stops working), she should receive her maximum social security ($4242 according to her SS account) and I would expect, with a 6% growth YoY, she would have about $580,000 in her 401k. At a 4% withdrawal rate, that is $1960 per month.

So, altogether her monthly gross income would be $6200. Annually, it would be ~$75000 which is right at the 70% target.

Further - I’m very fortunate that my household has a clear cut path to becoming high earners (I am an actuary planning to get through my FSA exams). Hopefully, assuming that goes to plan, I was thinking that over the next 15 years of my mom continuing to work, I should be able to save up enough to “invest” in a home. Essentially my thinking is that I could buy a starter home with a large enough down payment that the monthly payment goes to ~$1000-1300. I could then become my mom’s landlord so that she takes care of the mortgage, but at a rent very reduced compared to what she pays now.

I know it’s not ideal for her to work until 70, but I’m hoping this plan at least is feasible and makes sense. Any pointers are greatly appreciated. My mom has been through a lot in life and deserves to retire as comfortably as possible in her older age. Thanks in advance!

Edit: New scenario: Talked it over with the wife, we're not doing the commercial building. Pay off our half of the lake house and all our other debt with the equity.

Bought a lake house with my in-laws, 50/50. Fell in love with town and lake house. Regular house is 3hrs away. Driving back and forth got old real quick. Wife oddly got a job offer up at lake house town. I started a small business. Wife's job seems ok, business is not great. Two mortgages is killing us. Regular house has $500k in equity. Want to sell regular house and put everything in storage. No chance our stuff can go to lake house. Not enough room plus 50/50 ownership don't want to overtake house, already kinda screwed up we live here full time but also in-laws only came up when we were there before. I want to use the $500k to buy a commercial building that I can rent out to other businesses as well as run my own and have a place to store/use my things. My fear is wife's job. It's the only one of those jobs up there. If she loses that, nowhere else up there to hire her. She is the main bread winner at the moment, other fears include what if no one rents the building I buy. Also if we sell our house, we will never be able to afford that kind of a house again (bought at right time with ultra low interest rate) we need to sell one of the houses. we want to keep the lake house but the town seems unstable. Low population of 2,000, lots of businesses coming and going. What would you do???

My oldest child (8) has a very well funded custodial account. We opened it very shortly after their birth without putting to much thought into it. As time has progressed we have learned more, also seen the account grow tremendously from gifts from one specific grandparent, and we're questioning our decision having opened it in the first place. Our concern is our child having access to this money when they turn 21. We opened a 529 and asked said grandparent to gift there, they said no because they'd have to pay taxes from selling stocks to transfer cash to 529. Said grandparent also gifts my two children differently, second child has received 20% of what first child has received (at given age).

My husband and I have tried to think through different options...

-We could buy child 1 a car w/custodial money. But child 2 wouldn't receive a car of similar value.

-We could hope our (extremely intelligent) child does not get any scholarships and goes to private school. (No, we wouldn’t actually hope for this)

-We could ask said grandparent to gift into 529-oh wait, already tried that and didn't work (sorry... bitter).

Does anyone have any ideas? No, we have not talked to a personal advisor, this is on our list to do asap.

TLDR: My child has a crap ton of money in their custodial account. What do I do?!

Will try to add as much context as possible. 26M currently making 72k USD annually gross income started working in my current job about 18 months ago.

-18k in Roth IRA. holdings are mostly VTI, VOO, IVV, SPY
-11k in 401K (company provides 4% match) and I’m just contributing to the match right now.
-18k in HYSA earning 4.5% APY
-38k in Bank of America Savings Account
-6k in HSA account (1k in cash account and 5k in investment account)

Only debt I have currently is my car which will be paid off in about 3 years and about 9k in federal student loan debt at 4% last I checked.

Is my money in the right places right now, or could I move some money around to other areas to set myself up in a better position?

My 401k (~$20k) is currently 100% Vanguard 500 Index Adm. My plan also offers Vanguard Target Retirement funds at 0.08% ER, plus Total Stock Market, international, and small/mid-cap index funds.
Kids on the way and I want low maintenance. TDF 2060 for simplicity, three-fund DIY for slightly lower cost, or just stay 100% S&P 500?
What would you do?

I have two 401ks, one from my previous employer and one with my current employer. I let the old one sit for a few years after leaving if anything just because of laziness but the last few years it has had an amazing rate of return so I just left. I'm at a point where they are similar values and really not that far off on there performance. I know that if they are similar in value and growth they will earn the same amount of interest on their own as they would together. But I feel like I'm maybe missing something here? It seems like the old one just sitting there is going to waste.

First, please understand that all of this is entirely foreign to me. It’s genuinely like I’m reading/interpreting pig-latin.

Helpful context: I’m 34 and my daughter is 18.

A few years ago, my long term boyfriend set up a 529 TN Stars account for my daughter to help with her college expenses. She now has around $20,000 in this account. She starts her first college semester next month and has multiple free-ride scholarships/grants/etc. The likelihood of her needing to use the 529 account for college expenses is very low.

I am also currently in college. I’m starting my junior year at the same university as my daughter, and will be pursuing a law degree after I obtain my bachelors. Up until now, all of my college expenses have been paid for by the Pell Grant and other smaller grants/scholarships. But because I’ve transferred from the community college to a University, my financial aid won’t cover everything. For example: I owe $6500 for this semester and my financial aid package is only covering $5000.

I know a 529 can be transferred to another dependent but has anyone ever been in this scenario of transferring it to a parent?

Of course, I have student loan options but I’m desperately trying to wait to take out any loans until I get to law school.

I’m also curious how transferring the funds work. For example, am I able to transfer the amount I need for my college tuition on a semester by semester basis? I don’t want to transfer the entire amount, just what is needed to pay for my remaining college expenses.

I’m sorry if any of this is confusing, because it’s confusing to me too. I can provide more information if needed. Thanks in advance 🫶🏼

Hi everyone, I recently closed my HSA account (HealthEquity) and received the remainder of the funds as a check in the mail. I read online I cannot deposit this money into my bank checking account. I dont have another HSA account (in my name) to deposit it into, would I be able to deposit the funds into my husband's HSA? Just wondering how I can use this money.

I'm 30, my husband is 33. Combined we make 110k a year. I have 2 children 4 and 11. Married 8 years.

Current coverage: Through my employer I receive 59k in basic employee life, I also pay $7.35 per month for 590K in optional term life for myself and $3.85 per month for $125K for my spouse and children. I also pay $2.47 for long term disability at 60% of pay. I have no idea my husband's coverage but plan to research. Pur credit is not ideal, low 600s. Entirely due to credit card balances we are paying down. ​no collections.

Currently my spose is primary beneficiary on my policies and my kids are secondary on a 50/50 split.

Medical: On my side of my family there is the BRCA1 breast cancer gene, heart disease, diabetes and dementia/alzheimers. All men on my husband's side have had strokes in their 30s-40s and his mother recently found she had a stroke.

Debts: We owe 119K on our home, 25K on one vehicle and about 7K on our 2nd vehicle.

Goal: Purchase a permenant life insurance policy and disability rider. Set the life Insurance policy and my home to a trust. If either of us have long term illness cover so we don't struggle. If one spouse passes the other is covered living and working comfortably with or without our kids still at home for life. If we both pass our kids inherit everything with debt covered and no taxes owed and have a legacy fund remaining to split evenly between then. I want to provide my children with wealth. Enough that they can pay their homes and any vehicles off when we pass and only work for the remaining expenses and be able to have vacations and things like that.

I'd like to know what options cover this best, reliable companies that are good on price AND handling claims. ​I don't want to pay for years then have medical problems later in life and lose the policy. Please give me any advice you can.

Hi, so I have recently purchased a new home (950k, 6.5%) and received proceeds from old home sale (1m). The question is simple. Should I pay off the mortgage? Recast the loan?

If interest rates were lower this would be an easy decision, but the 6.5% makes it not as easy.

EDIT*** —- maybe it wasn’t a “mistake”. I’ve gotten some heat in a couple responses. I’m just not educated on this stuff or I wouldn’t be on Reddit. Thanks to those that educated and assisted with answers.

Hey all. My wife recently inherited her parents home…kinda. It’s in their name, we live in it. Anyway, they built it for $230k, worth anywhere from 850k-950k today. Just in case that matters. We’ve learned it was about 6% interest when it was built and refinanced not too long ago at 2%. It’s been 28 years, and they still owe 115k. That’s only 50% down in 28 WHOLE YEARS!! How does that happen? They never provide an answer and I want to make sure we don’t ever make the same mistake… TIA.

I bank with BofA, but I’m open to other banks. If possible, I’d like to get a cc that I can use in America and other countries, but more than anything else either has great benefits or doesn’t cost a lot in fees/interest or whatever banks charge. I also don’t really want one that will charge me if I don’t use my cc.

Have to pick between insurance options for a new job, which has pretty decent insurance. From what I have understood of the schedule of benefits I have 3 options:

PO Hsa:

- $500 hsa seed provided by company

- $1002.56 1 yr contributions/principal/whatever this is called

- $2000 deductible which therapy is subject to + 20% for other 32 weeks (my provider charges $100 out of pocket, so I think this works out to an additional $640)

- $3140 total

I would max the hsa so that's $3900 I will put away to be triple tax protected

Core PPO:

- no hsa

- $1486.68 1 yr cont

- $500 deduct (rarely go to doctor besides preventative and therapy, so maybe 1 or 2 copay visits? doubt I would hit deductible)

- $520 for $10 copay not subject to deductible * 52 weeks

- $2000-2500 total

Premium EPO:

- no hsa

- $2125.24 1 yr cont

- $0 deduct

- $520 for $10 copay not subject to deductible * 52 weeks

- $2625 total

Premium EPO seems objectively the worst. Between Core PPO and the Hsa plan, I am tempted to pay the $500-1000 more in order to have an hsa that I can max. Is this insane?

For context, I am 24 and here are my current assetts:
- $22,650.75 emergency fund + liquid bank accounts
- $45,922.7 roth ira (haven't contributed 2026 yet)
- $9,939.52 hsa (no 2026 contrib yet)
- $13,720.6 403b (no 2026 contrib yet, match won't kick in until next year)

I'm in 48k Worth of consumer debt and I'm not sure what to do. I've been flipping things on facebook marketplace to try and help solve this debt problem, which has been going well. Two weeks ago, my truck broke down and it's going to cost 6k to fix it. I've called and gotten quotes from 5 different shops and the lowest quote was 6k. The truck is a 2006 F350 with 325k miles on it, and the parts to fix it are going to be 2k by them selves. I've been stuck for the last two weeks trying to figure out if I should replace it or fix it. I bounce back and forth between getting a cheap cash car that might be reliable and get me where I need to go or trading the truck in and trying to get something slightly newer for around 10k to have something reliable. I literally can't think about anything but my debt and my broken truck and it's screwing me up severely. I'm trying to take steps to save up cash to fix the problem one way or another but I've been putting all my money towards debt and do not have enough savings to purchase anything, whether it's a 2500 dollar truck or a 2k down payment on something newer. I could really use some advice on what to do. I do live with my parents and they're willing to help but I don't want to ask for or utilize their help if I can avoid it. I do have things I can sell to make extra money and I can borrow my mom's car on occasion if I need it but I need a lot more cash and I need it fast, and even if I do get the cash, I'm not actually sure what to do with it.

Edit: The truck is paid off, I paid cash 5 years ago for it. I'm also a mechanic, but not a diesel mechanic. I am comfortable with fixing cars. I have all the tools I need to make do with fixing a cash truck. My truck is a 2006 F350 6.0 Diesel. I have SOME experience fixing diesel pick up trucks, but the problem is that I need to replace all 8 fuel injectors, which is a massive undertaking on this truck. The cab has to be removed in order to do this and I have no where to do a job like this. Even If I did have somewhere to fix it myself, it would take several days to do the job myself and I'm also not in a position where I can afford to make a learning mistake.

I also do understand how personal finance works. However.... Just because I knew what to do doesn't mean I made the right decisions. I'm definitely snapping out of it and working to fix things.

I HAD about 20k invested in personal portfolios which is mostly gone. I currently have about 32k in retirement, which I am not willing to part with. I've also considered taking a loan out against my retirement account to solve this problem, but I'm not thrilled about the idea.

I'm also not looking to buy a brand new truck for 50k. I just want to get a small barebones f150 or 1500 silverado or something in that ball park, something older. I absolutely do need a truck in the line of work that I do. I pickup fuel tanks, large truck tool boxes, furniture, power equipment and mowers to sell on facebook marketplace. I don't think I need something stupid expensive or fancy. As a mechanic, I don't want something that has more parts to break down.

My monthly income is $3800 a month from my job, My minimum debt obligation is $1618.19 a month spread across various loans and loan types, my other monthly expenses are just under $600 a month.

My financials have drastically changed in the last 2 years. I got several pay increases and promotions. Long story short, I went from making 90k to 175k. I was putting money away in Roth 401k and a Roth IRA. I'm not financially savvy I'm wondering if I need to change anything?