Trying to decide between Monarch and Rocket Money (please do not recommend anything else, these are the two I’ve narrowed it down to). I don’t care about budgeting or setting goals, mainly just tracking net worth, monthly cash flow, and categorizing transactions.

I’ve noticed Monarch uses transaction dates while Rocket Money uses posting dates. Unsure what makes more sense? I can see a case for both.

For those who’ve used both, which do you prefer and why? Mainly interested in accuracy, reporting, and overall functionality.

I currently have a trial with both, but am indecisive.

recently found a vlog on you tube and they talked about creating / setting up a trust tri-fecta.

any one here familiar with the term / trust?

just trying to do my due diligence and looking for the actual facts about it before pulling a $2,500 + trigger setting one up

any feedback appreciated and welcome

Not sure if this is the right place for this. If it’s not hopefully people can point me in the right direction.

I’ve been in what I call a dead end career for the last 15 years or so. I started work as an auto mechanic as a way to help pay for college and got stuck in this field for far too long. While trying to finish school I changed my major too many times and in the process maxed out my student loans. I’m at a point that I a) know what I would like to do with my life, and b) am at a point that I learned the lessons I should have learned 10+ years ago. Does anyone know how to pay to finish school after maxing out on student loans? Open to any advice people have.

Hi, I am a 19yo young teen. I'll be very honest, this is something i wanted my parents to help me with but they aren't present much in my life so i thought i'll ask the adults. I am very new to money, and finance or whatever. I feel everyone has some basic knowldge which i really don't have any clue. I tried reading, watching yt it feels so overwhelming. I wanna know from grown adults, how and from where did you learn about finance? What's the blue print? How and when did you start? What did you learn or learn from? What and all should i know to be financially independent? What should i read or watch more?

Thank you :)

33F. US. Not a personal finance expert here. Everything I know I've learned from personal finance books, youtube, etc.

I got debt free last year and recently started investing. I got 2 significant raises at work this year (in a very short amount of time) and as a result, I'm now above the income limit for Roth Contribution. I just started contributing to my roth IRA for the very first time this past month ( a meager $1k) thinking I was doing something good, so imagine my surprise when ChatGPT said I might be "past the income limit".

I heard I can do a backdoor conversion, but how? and when?

Do I do it now before the year ends? And contribute only to a traditional IRA?

Do I keep contributing until the end of the calendar year and then convert?

Will my brokerage app help with that?

Do I need to get a financial advisor to help?

I am a musician and I want to get a keyboard to take my music to the next stage. The only way I could get the funds for it until I get a job is by taking the small sum I have out of my stocks. That would give me the 400 dollars I need.

I worry that by doing this I may actually not be making a good choice.

I will say when I do get a job I will be habitually adding to my portfolio and this is a expense I will eventually have to pay.

It probably would have much impact on my daily life outside of the fact my stocks will be cleared.

Hey I currently have the capital one platinum and looking to upgrade to a better card with better benefits. I was thinking about starting a relationship with chase and getting a chase freedom unlimited and then also requesting a limit increase on my capital one platinum. Please give me some suggestions

My dad is 66, relatively healthy. and would like to work until at least 70. He had started a new job, so has rolled his 401k into a traditional IRA.

He doesnt make a ton of money and supports my mom who doesn't have a retirement, they own their house, etc.

Is it worth keeping his money in the IRA and changing his allocations?

Should he move the money into an Annuity that let's him withdraw up to 10% / year?

Most internet resources are about setting yourself up for retirement but I am having a hard time trying to figure out what to do for someone who is at retirement age... but would like to grow their money more while they are able and not fully dependant on it.

Edit for numbers, sorry! :)

IRA all traditional: 250k Total 65 large cap 35 bond

Social: can get 35k / year?

Income with current job: 45k/ year pre-tax

House: Paid off, they won't sell,expect a new roof in 10-15 years

Utilities/phone/internet: 600/month

Spending: Medical bills (mom) ~1k/month

Minimal spending on leisure / hobbies

Property Taxes: 1800 /year

Around 7 years ago my uncle passed and had a policy for a good ammount of money in my name. I couldn't claim the money then, because I hadn't turned 18 yet. Ive been told its been handed off from the insurance company to the California claims division. I've been repeatedly checking this website since my birthday in march. It showed up around 3 to 4 months ago, but the claim was transparent and un-clickable, it then shortly after disappeared.

Was just wondering if anyone had any experience with this type of thing, or could help me get a timeline or things I may have to do on my end. Thank you :)

I have a $750 deductible. I am married, we have separate health plans. I go to weekly therapy, it costs $120 session before my deductible kicks in, and then around $17 after my deductible kicks in. I wanted to put $1,600 into my FSA to cover my therapy for the year. I have very limited medical needs, and I have access to (and routinely use) a free work clinic that fills scripts, does check ups, preventative care, etc.

Should I just put away the $1,600 and then call it good? I have never had an FSA before so I want to make sure I am doing the right thing to pay for my medical care. I don't want to lose out on money at the end of the year - and I don't want to have to panic spend at the end of the year to stock up on medicine/band aids. Any advice?

I was thinking of taking profit on some investments this year (shares that I’ve been holding for a while, want to sell).

I’ve also started trading options this year in a separate portfolio, which will likely be net negative.

Does it make sense to sell off some of my shares this year to use the loss on options to offset the capital gains I would incur from the sale of long term shares?

I just opened an Ally Spend account for variable spending, and have a Chase account for fixed spending.

Any tips on how to set up money transfers/payments/auto pay to make it work well? Any pitfalls I need to avoid?

In the last two weeks, I got a hard inquiry for getting a consolidating loan. My credit score jumped from 720ish to 750. Then yesterday it jumped up to 780. Unfortunately, our living situation will be changing sooner than we thought. We are moving back to my home state and the plan is to buy a house. We are still not sure on a date to move. I also have a car that will more than likely not make it to the home state and I wanna be set as much as I can on getting a mortgage.

Any advice on how I go from here would be great! TIA

Hello,
We are considering a home in Parkside on the River Perry Homes in Georgetown TX. 2561 sq ft 4 beds 3.5 baths on a 50’ lot but yard is pretty big and it’s on a cul de sac. Builder is willing to do:
550k
5.99 rate
15k closing cost + 5k extra to realtor

Our income combined:
$15,200 after taxes and retirement
Current mortgage: $3250 (includes taxes, insurance, HOA)
Bills/utilities: $1000
Misc, groceries etc: $1000
Retirement combined: $400k (ages 32 and 34)
Stocks: $180k
No other debts, cars paid off, no credit card debt.

New home mortgage from lender sheet: $4075 (includes taxes, insurance, HOA)

Current home could rent for $2350
Current home would sell for less than what I paid and may have to bring cash to close so that’s why considering renting for a few years 🤷🏽‍♀️

With how it’s a buyers market and we have leverage right now we were thinking price needs to be 540k to make it worth while or is 550k at that rate etc a good deal? Do people think rates will go down anytime soon?

We don’t have any rush really since I have a house I already own which we will have to put on rent if we buy a bigger house. Reason we can’t stay in current home it would be too small for long term as we plan to have a family etc. Since the home values have dropped. We are considering buying now.

My fiance also owns his house outright 50/50 with his sister. But can’t live there cuz she does too.

Hi y'all, some advice please.

I'm retired now and I have eight credit cards, all with zero balances.

I accumulated them over the last few years because of the Zero percent interest offers.

Now, the Zero percent's have all expired.

I'd like to get rid of some of them but I'm wondering a few things:

1. How will canceling effect my credit score?
2. Will I ever be able to get a card again, with my low retirement income?

I own my house, still making mortgage payments.

I plan on downsizing and moving, in the next two years.

I use one card each month, to the tune of about $250. I'd like to be able to apply for another Zero percent card in the future, should the circumstances arise.

Do you have any insight and advice for me?

Thank you.

Edit: @ Plus 2 hrs. Thank you for your insights and helpful links. They helped me immensely.

What I'm going to do is check to make sure there's no fees and keep most of the cards. I'll cancel the ones with the poorest reputations, that is, WF, BoA, Dis.

I'll answer some of your responses individually below, Thanks again!

Hello everyone, I’m about six months post bankruptcy, and four months ago after I had to get a new car extremely quickly as I use it for work currently. I financed a 23 Kia Niro with about 30k that now has 34k on the dash. I financed this for around 26k with a whopping 28% interested rate, extremely fucking stupid, I know but I was panicking. I’ve paid every single month on time but Jesus Chris $750 a month is killing my ability to save anything. My credit score sits at 626, haven’t missed any payments since the end of my case, how, if any can I get myself into a better term/payment? Refinance? Trade it in, take a hit and get something else? Im at the point where i NEED a car to live and get by so not having one isnt an option. Im just unable to save anything at this rate unless i drastically increase my income, or hit lotto or something lol.

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)?

The federal reserve published it's 3 year report on the status of family financial status, as of 09 Oct 2026 for 2022-2025. Take a look at it if your interested in where you stand in relation to your age and other family characteristics.

As a household of 2 at 64 and 68, I would say the numbers seem accurate. Life long workers and savers that with luck and blessing made it to a relaxing place.

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.

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.

Hello! I am writing here as a last resort because I do not know what to do. I just turned 19 last month and I have no insurance, limited to no income, and no support from parents. In March I was hospitalized and did not realize the bill was under my name because I was 18. The total cost is just under $3000. I did not pay it or sign up for a payment plan because I don’t have any money. I just got an email that it went to collections, and when I mentioned that to a friend, he said I am hurting my credit. I don’t even have a credit card. I already tried to apply for financial assistance but they denied my claim. I don’t know what to do and I don’t have anyone to help me figure this out. What should i do???

For context, I recently lost my job. I am rolling over my 401(k) into a Rollover IRA I just opened with Schwab. I was thinking about just investing my money into a Target Date Index Fund as I am a “set it and forget it” type of person and I do not have the expertise to manage my own portfolio. That being said, should I seek help from an advisor? Should I contact someone at Schwab to put in the order for me when investing in the TDF? It’s not a whole lot of money, but it’s a fair amount.

I have basic knowledge but it terrifies me that I’m going to click the wrong thing on the app and go completely bankrupt.

For every day people who have very little expertise in investing that have found themselves in this scenario, how have you handled your 401k rollover? What do you recommend?

I recently rolled over my Roth 401k to an existing Roth IRA and I can withdraw tax free without waiting 5 years (so I was told by my financial institution). I am also planning to convert 250K from a Traditional IRA (I am aware of tax implications) and add to the existing Roth IRA. I was told by my financial institution that the 250K has to be in the Roth IRA for the full five years to withdraw tax free. When I search online I find that it doesn't. I want to avoid a mistake in planning for living expenses and want to learn from others who have done this. I don't know what answers to trust.

As the title suggests, my wife and I are strongly considering taking out a home equity loan to pay off some high interest debt. We’re looking to borrow $40k and don’t know too much about the process so I’m looking to get any tips/advice/personal experiences and also any recommendations on which lenders or type of lenders (credit union, current mortgage company, banks, etc.) to go with. TIA.

EDIT : half of that $40k will be used to pay off a high interest loan we took out to cover immediate home repairs, the other half will be used to pay off consumer debt that has been under control for a couple years, just hard to make a dent at it with the high interest and not much extra money to throw towards principle

I’m 18 and have been working 60 hours a week for the last 3 months to save for a car because I’ll be starting classes in January and need reliable transportation. I already have $12K saved. My grandad will also give me $2K as a gift. Used cars are so expensive that I likely won’t have enough saved by January, unless I get one with high mileage.

Should I just put down as much as I can and take out a loan for the rest? My mom will cosign.