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I recently had a molar removed that was infected and I don’t have good dental insurance. My insurance only covers up to $1,500 and I just spent $1,858 for my tooth to be taken out plus x rays. I only make $18.00 and can’t afford medical insurance. I go through the dental insurance through my job for only $5.70. Not sure what to do because what I need done, the dentist put in writing it will cost over $20,000. I’m 25 and live with my mother. Me and my mother split bills so we both can’t afford to pay for this. The dentist needs every payment up front before they do anything and don’t have payment plans.

For context, my father wants to give each of his grandchildren approx $20k at Christmas. I definitely want to help guide them to put it into a 401k but I have no experience, my job has a tsp (federal 401k) so I've never opened one up. Two of them are working full-time and the other four are either in our about to go to college.

Is it as easy as having them open a 401k account with vanguard/Fidelity and placing a lump sum in there in one of their long-term index accounts?

Can you place a lump sum in there even when you don't have a job yet? Thanks.

Edit. Sorry, meant IRA.

My dad died recently. He had an e-trade account that he managed himself. My mom was listed as joint on it but has not done anything with it. I am listed as the beneficiary. My mom wants to give me the money now (which was my dad's wish). The account has about $115k, most of which is in stocks and I think the cash amount is something like $12k.

What would be the best way for her to get the money to me? I understand she could gift the whole amount at once which would be reportable as a gift over $19k in one year but would not be taxable until we reached the $15m lifetime limit (not going to happen!). However, I believe she would be liable for taxes on the stock if she sold it and then gifted cash to me. Is there another way, or is that the best way? If she somehow transferred the account to me instead, would that have different/better/worse tax implications for her or for me? I am an adult if that is relevant, I assume so.

Editing to add: we are both in Maine. Dad died on 10/26, just a couple days ago. Mom is 75 but in very good health. My husband and I could very much use the money now to help with current debt and home upgrades, so don't want to wait. I don't currently have a brokerage account other than my retirement account, but my husband does (not through e-trade though) and we could make that joint and put the money there, though again some would be needed as cash to pay down debt.

Hey folks,

I've been saving most of my money ever since I graduated college.

I've got something near 100k sitting in a checking account with BofA so it's really not doing anything.

5k in hysa with wealthfront.

35k sitting in an investment account I mess with.

100% maxing out 401k yearly (currently around 75k).

I'm mid twenties don't pay rent because I opted to stay with my parents. I'm not entirely sure what to do with the 100k, I know it's burning money because it's not in the market but I've unfortunately been rather nervous about the market and indecision has crippled me from just investing that money. What would be the best strategy to investing it? Slow and steady week over week chunk it up and throw it into voo or something of the sort?

Sorry for formatting I'm on mobile

Edit: based on what people are saying I'm definitely going to be getting an IRA setup

so my mom sold our house and got $430k, she wants to invest it into a high yield savings account, my MIL recommended EverBank, but I saw some rather questionable reviews. Never had this much money before and honestly a little lost what to do, she wants to be able to access it but also have it make money. her health isn't the greatest either so wed like for it be transferrable on death without need for probate. what are your suggestions? Going to talk to a Financial Advisor in a few days so any information so I'm not completely lost helps too.

Open enrollment is coming up, and I'm not sure what to do. My company does not allow contribution to an HSA if you are enrolled in their HMO, and I'm currently enrolled in their HMO. I like my current HMO and the hospital it's integrated with- I do have doctor visits, lab tests, MRIs, x-rays, medication, etc. and other medical expenses multiple times a year, due to chronic pain and other health concerns. The low and predictable copay for all sorts of services is nice, and I'm worried about more first-dollar exposure using a PPO.

I understand HSAs are triple tax advantaged, and my company automatically contributes $1000/yr to your HSA if you are on the PPO plan. I always hear about how useful they are- but I'm a little hesitant to give up my HMO. It's with a hospital system I'm familiar with and like, and past experiences with a PPO have been more fragmented, less straightforward, and less enjoyable.

Does anyone have any similar experience or advice for the situation? Maybe I'm underestimating the value of an HSA once I'm retired and will have no access to my current HMO? Thanks in advance.

We told the dealer that we were doing a cash deal and what kind of dollar figure we had available. I figure they ran our credit so that they could see if they could squeeze us for a bit more, partially on credit. We ended up doing the deal as a cash sale. We now have two reports back from different agencies that they ran.

Is there a legal problem on the part of that dealer?

In the past I always would have said to invest would be the smart thing (usually making 10% a year or more), but it feels like a potential crash is coming and I am worried. I'd love to get rid of a monthly payment.

I have 9 years left on a mortgage with $135k at 3.5%

I may be inheriting around $150k.

does it make sense to pay off the mortgage, thus saving $1400 a month, and $23,000 in interest?

I am early 50s, I have a decent 401k/stock balance (I think) but work has been slow (self employed) and I would love the extra breathing room that an extra $1400 would bring me.

Conversely, I have also thought about maybe redoing my kitchen and getting siding/windows, not sure if $150k even covers that anymore in NJ. That would perhaps increase my home's value, and give me some amount of enjoyment for the next 10 years. Any help would be appreciated!

All fully vested long ago. Had been with the company for over 18 years. Part of my "escape plan" was to live on a 401k withdrawal until I relocated and found other employment, roll over the rest.

Anyway - Principal says withdrawals are not an option unless I am no longer employed by that employer. Well, I am no longer employed by them - for 6 months now. Final paycheck and vacation payouts happened within 2 weeks. They won't tell Principal I am no longer employed there, and it is for revenge. They are admittedly doing it on purpose. (HR who handles this is laughing and saying things like, "I own you haha! Good luck!")

Edit for major typo - I had written "2" months but it's been just over 6!

It's immature and HAS to be illegal. What authority can I go to in order to get this resolved? I am no longer with the company and I should be able to withdraw/roll over and have it be under MY control.

My oldest brother took out money from his retirement or I guess his 401K plan from his job that he worked at for about 5-6 years. He got fired and him & his wife came to a conclusion to take out money from his retirement/401K plan from the job until he finds another job or something. He’s 29 Years old.
I just know that he ended up with about $30,000-$32,000 in a check.
My question is would he have to pay it back? Since he pulled from his retirement/401K plan early?
2 weeks later they spent it all on endless crap…I’m worried for his future sorta. We’re not close as we use to be and he seems to put his wife first then anyone else even himself.
My best friend told me he would have to pay it all back down the line or later in life?
Is this true? And if so how much estimated would he have to pay back?

Parents are planning to make continual gifted shares of the max amount under taxable (19kish) in stocks they own. The bad part is it's in individual stocks, and I tend to focus on index investing (VTI, VOO).

What would be your process to handle this early? It's usually before calendar year end when gifted to me and my wife (total ~36k). Would you keep it invested? Would you sell it pay the tax and move it over to index?

I’m 33 and in around 17k of credit card debt right now, with varying interest rates between 27-34. Plus a car loan around 10% interest with 4.5 more years to go. I make about 80k before taxes around 2200 per biweekly paycheck take home. Monthly expenses minus credit are around 2700 excluding subscriptions, credit card payments, and other discretionary purchases excluded. It really just feels like at this point I’m living beyond my means which feels insane because this is by far the most money I’ve ever made. I know I need to make some changes in my spending habits for sure, but having multiple cards feels like it’s somewhat a trap and also just hard to keep up with. Would it make sense at this point to try and consolidate all my cards to one debt, and lock all those accounts/shred the cards/remove them from any electronic memory and just get one large payment to get this paid off? I’m just having a hard time prioritizing saving for an engagement ring and recently depleted emergency fund to get a new car in a pinch. I think I need some hard advice about getting my ish together and trying to make bigger financial gains.

My wife and I have been married for a little over a year now, living together for a year+ before that. We're both older and have been managing our own money for a while, so combining the financial side of our lives was a bit tricky. I'm a saver, she's a spender (but of course it's more complicated than that).

We do have a budget that seems to be working finally! But of course, it needs to be updated so we don't drive the budget car directly into the concrete highway divider of rising COL.

Obviously, we're going to work this out together, but as I'm sort of the de facto finance person due to being slightly less worse with money than my wife, I wanted to throw out our situation for advice.

Monthly net income for the household: around 6k

Monthly budget categories with little to no wiggle room for editing: Rent, Utilities, Insurance, Subscriptions, Gas/Car Maintenance, a small amount of Personal Cash for each of us, a small monthly Debt Repayment (other than this, we have no debt).

Flexible household budget categories that we need to edit:

⬇️ Food/supplies: totally out of control; we are constantly going overbudget on this. I'm thinking of splitting it out into two categories ('supplies' are basically non-food groceries and misc. random expenses like dry cleaning, air filters, stuff for the house). I basically used to live on string cheese so I have no idea what a reasonable amount of money to spend on this stuff is. This needs to decrease pronto.

⬆️ Healthcare: Currently at $470 a month. I have some expenses before years end that will clear out our slush fun and my wife would like to resume a course of treatment that we will need to pay out of pocket for. This will need to be raised.

⬆️ Cat: The cat is getting $100 set aside in a savings envelope a month, but it's not growing much. This is a slush fund for vet care, the cat may need to see a specialist vet soon, so I'd like to raise it a little.

❓E-Fund: This has been depleted since we've been together. We have over one month but less than 3 months of expenses saved. Setting a realistic monthly savings goal for it has been tough. I've wanted to save as much as possible so we can 'snowball' that money into a home fund, but the monthly amount has been too ambitious and the timeline too long.

❓IRA: I have a pension and a retirement plan which I pay into through my job; my wife has no retirement accounts. I've been maxing out a pair of IRAs for a few years now, but with our shared expenses, this is no longer really possible.

- What are y'all spending on food for a family of two in a HCOL? How about the other irregular necessities that tot up so ruinously?

- Pet owners: what are you saving for those petz?

- Advice on how to set a shared savings budget for an e-fund? How do you balance that with a home improvement fund and/or a down payment fund?

- How much is reasonable to pull back on putting into the IRA (and how harmful to the present day might I be by panic-saving for retirement)?

I can tell you exactly what I spent on groceries last month, but I still can't decide if giving up $8k a year is worth having my evenings back.

There's a job I'm considering that would mean fewer late nights. Nothing's been offered yet and I've already made three different budgets for it. The bills would still get paid and retirement contributions would stay the same, but I'd have less money for travel and general savings.

I've been using career tests like coached to work through what I'd actually do with the extra time. I keep telling myself I'd cook more and see friends, but then I wonder if I'm romanticizing it and would just end up sitting at home scrolling on my phone.

I'm going to try living on the lower take-home pay for a couple months and save the difference. My family always treated earning less by choice as ridiculous, so even considering this makes me feel guilty.

For anyone who's taken a pay cut for better hours, did you find expenses you hadn't accounted for? And did trying to live on the lower salary beforehand actually help you decide? I want my evenings back, but I'm scared I'll regret giving up the money.

Hey all, sorry if this isn’t the best sub for this post but I’m looking for some input on switching from an hourly position to salary at my company (as a promotion).

The basic synopsis is that I made about 70K (before taxes) last year (2025) in 10 months at this company. About 55k in base pay, 10k in overtime and another 5k in bonuses.

This year (with a very nice pay bump around April) I’m on track to clear 80-85k without knowing my Christmas bonus (it should be less than last year’s ~5k).

I’m currently an hourly technician and get paid overtime, I worked about 200 hours of OT last year and am on track to work around 250 this year. My company asked if I was interested in the Supervisor position for my role, I said I was with the concerns about getting screwed on OT (while nobody can backfill my Technician job), location (this has been settled) and overall the job being salaried. I was essentially told I’d be kept on an hourly rate during a “transition period” until they successfully backfill my current Technician role.

I guess where I’m looking for advice is what should my salary position pay? Right now (no OT) I make 77K gross annually. With the loss of OT, and everything else the same (PTO, benefits, bonuses). I’ve heard some people say 10K minimum pay bump, others have suggested 20K pay bump. I’ve never been in a salaried position AND been excluded from OT pay.

TLDR
I work hourly and make overtime currently, 77K a year gross before OT. 80-90K a year gross after OT and bonuses. Switching to a salaried position (No OT pay) what salary should I be looking for?

I work for a city and was looking into supplemental life insurance thru the group account. I was quoted 95 dollars a month for one year of my salary 100k.

While on the other spectrum my husband is paying 9 dollars a month for a million dollar coverage. He is in the medical industry.

The price difference is insane, why is the price so different? We both work in NYC, yet medical is considered low risk? Are there ways to lower it or get a quote that's more reasonable?

A family member expressed that for a gift-occasion they are interested in investment advice or guide. I was thinking about Barron’s. The family member doesn’t have a formal background in finance so might benefit from understanding market concepts but they do have stocks in aerospace, home renovation, and medical research companies so understanding more about following developments in a sector would also be great. A course is outside of my budget.

I quit my job my last. I brielfly participate in my employer 10k program. I took out the amount I put in and never looked at it again. Yesterday I recieved a letter talking about what I was participating in. I logged in and saw that my employer amount became available for withdrawl and i submitted. Could they withhold it since I left before it vested and they didnt close out the account

i was awarded a big grant to support my research. i want to save this money to use in two years to extend the amount of time i have to write my dissertation. because i need to use it two years from now the typical advice (set aside emergency fund, roth ira) doesn't apply. i have other savings and an income that will keep me going until then. what is the best way to protect (i dont want to to be tempted to dip in) and make this money grow that won't lock me in longer than 2 years?

I am in a Top 10 Master’s program in ECE. Currently, hold no debt due to lucky scholarship awards.

Next semester, tuition will be $18k. I have $18k saved in total to my name. My monthly income as a student even out to my monthly expenses. Should I take out loans and keep some of my savings for emergency funding? If not, what is the best way of planning this? Appreciate the help.

My husband and I bought a house very late last year. We didn't move in because of the holidays. Then in January, before we finished moving in, the old house burned down.

The insurance company is still doing an investigation. We expected to have the old house sold in spring, but we can't sell it now, of course. So we're paying two mortgages LONG past our expected time frame and our savings is depleted. I've also maxed out my credit card, and he's on the way to maxing his out too. We're hanging on, but barely. I'm a 100% disabled veteran, but trying to make some money off of my hobbies (crafting) just to help offset everything a little. Of course that's not very lucrative, but better than nothing!

So I wanted to ask the old mortgage company for forbearance.

But how does this affect his credit score? The old house was only in his name, so I know it won't affect my credit. And we already have a new house, so we're not worried about needing a new mortgage. We were *hoping* to buy a pick-up truck with the funds from selling the old house, but I guess I can do that on my own credit (plus the 100% disabled veteran title tax exemption would be awesome if it's in my name). I just want to make sure we're not going to completely wreck his credit score.

Also, do we request a certain amount of time for it? Or do we just ask for forbearance "until insurance makes a decision" or when we sell the house?

Hello!

I currently have a 3 money market fund buckets through Edward Jones. Are there any fees I need to be worried about?

I know how terrible everyone says they are when it comes to investments through roth ira's and such, but am I losing out on anything when I treat those money market funds like hysa's?

Their returns are much better than I can get anywhere else and EXTREMELY safe. Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything here.

If so, any suggestions for alternatives?

New to all this, so thank you for any input!

Hi! Let me preface this by saying that I know I'm an idiot and should have known better.

I recently applied for a chase credit card that had 0% interest for the first 18 months strictly for a balance transfer to pay down another credit card I currently have. In total (as of a week ago), I have 4 credit cards and about $12k of credit card debt total all on just one card, my Chase sapphire. The other cards I have are an airline rewards card that I paid off a while ago and don't use, a Bilt card with Wells Fargo strictly for paying rent, and the Chase freedom card that I just opened for the 0% interest and balance transfer. Some of you may already see the issue in that I mistakenly opened a Chase card to do a balance transfer with another Chase card which, as I learned 20 minutes ago, is not allowed! Balance transfers can only be done with a card from a different bank to a Chase card. Now, I'm not sure what to do.

Background: Immediately after school a few years ago, I accepted a job in an extremely high cost living area for very little pay. I understand the issue with this, but was willing to take a gamble on myself and slowly increased my credit card debt to what it is now in order to live/be able to enjoy myself in a big city right after college (normal mid 20s stuff). This past year it has paid off - I've got a good living situation, I'm getting paid much more, and I'm putting more towards my 403(b) and my general savings/rainy day fund/investment account than ever. Currently, my credit card debt has flatlined (neither substantially increasing nor decreasing the past half year). Recently, I realized how much I truly am getting charged in interest each month (a few hundred) and decided to open a new credit card to transfer the balance of my Chase sapphire to avoid paying this interest and really start hammering away at my credit card debt. I have $0 balance on every card except my Chase sapphire. Before this, my credit score was 716, as I have always made on-time monthly payments for much more than my minimum. My total credit limit with Chase is about $30k and my Wells Fargo Bilt card gives me a $6k credit limit.

I don't know what to do now, seeing as I just opened a credit card and don't want my credit to take a big hit nor do I want to open a credit card with another bank just for them to give me a very low credit limit b/c of the credit limit I already have with other banks. I am also not open to taking out a personal loan.

Would the best thing be to close the card I just opened? Keep it open and get the intro rewards points? Open a new card from a different bank to do a balance transfer? Wait a couple months to open a new card? I'm so pissed off at myself for not realizing/knowing better, but this is the first time I've ever tried to do a balance transfer. Trying to take steps to be more financially stable as I'm now in my late 20s and it has absolutely blown up in my face just a bit. Any advice is appreciated!