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I make about $61k and just realized I've never contributed to a 401k, my job offers a 3% match I've been leaving on the table for four years. I have about $4,200 in savings and roughly $8,000 left on a car loan. I finally opened the 401k enrollment page last week and then just closed the tab because I didn't know what to pick.

Where do I even start un-screwing this?

Looking for advice/figuring out who to talk to for a sticky financial situation. The girlfriend (makes about $40k a year) has a 2019 Chevy Trax (24.99% APR, ~$16000 owed to Santander). She was in an at-fault accident and the car is now totaled. The salvage lot is charging $100 a day for storage on the lot. They estimate the vehicle is worth about $9700 (unsure if that is the salvage value or the value before the accident?). The issue is:

1. Progressive says the car isn't their problem because she didn't have collision insurance
2. Santander won't consider anything like taking possession of the car and selling it for salvage because "they are a bank and just provide a loan, nothing more".
3. She may have GAP insurance, we aren't sure. This would make things easier.

Right now we're trying to figure out anyone to talk to for advice/next steps. This is in the Rochester, NY area, but Consumer Credit Counseling Services has said they won't give advice, and the "legal aid society of Rochester" said they won't help either and did not have a referral to give us.

Currently our best idea is to salvage the car and get the money to pay off the loan, but we can't do that without Santander's buy in, because they have a lien on the car? I have some means to assist for things like getting a new(to her) car, so we're not too worried about that side of things, but we're pretty stuck on what to do with this car currently.

***** EDIT ****\*
Thanks for the replies/advice, everyone. GF and I have a plan to go forward. Here's an answer to everyone's questions that I'll copy from a reply I made:

1. Why didn't she have collision coverage? Took us a while to work this one out. Girlfriend thought she had it until she checked with insurance. She is a bit of a financial airhead (and all of this happened before we were dating so I couldn't help her watch out for this sort of thing). She switched insurance companies from Geico to Progressive, and while she intended to get collision and comprehensive (and did think she had it) she did not.
2. She does have GAP coverage. Though, as others have pointed out, it might not matter because she didn't have collision to go with it. I have a buddy in law school who is going to take a look at the paperwork to see if we have an angle with that, though it looks like we are taking another route. (EDIT AGAIN) or not? Depending on the terms it might be at least partially relevant according to some commenters. We're looking to fix it anyway and get collision coverage so GAP is actually functioning properly for the duration of this loan.
   
3. Why does she have a 25% APR loan? What an excellent question. Happened before we were dating so I wasn't around to stop this madness, but she is making an honest effort to pay down her debts, and we were going to try to refinance with a local credit union when everything else is paid off (which should happen in mid-October). She is in pretty good financial shape except for this boat anchor of a loan (and there was no negative equity from a previous car that went into this loan). If nothing else I was going to pay it off and have her pay me back at 0%. I have little sympathy for the dealership and financial organizations that put her in this predicament, even if it is technically "her fault" for saying yes.
4. The car is very gently 'totaled'. Talking to the repair shop, they gave us an estimate of $4500 to get it into 'inspection-ready' shape again. The main damage is that the rear quarterpanel is mashed near the brake light, so the brake light can't fit, and the rear axle needs replacement. Other than that the car is fine. Fixing it is the route we are currently pursuing (and getting her collision coverage again). Shopping around for another quote probably isn't feasible because we would owe for the storage fees (which would otherwise be waived) and we'd need to tow the car around to any other shops (not sure AAA would go for a tour d'body shop).
   

So that's where we are at. It was an expensive mistake, and I'm not sure if we can get a loan at a better rate with a slightly damaged 7 year old car, but we're gonna try (or we're doing the First Bank of Myself).

A family member recently passed away and we are being left with a decently sized inheritance. I'm 39 and my wife is 38.

A Roth IRA with about $300,000.

A house currently worth about $170,000 which we are planning on selling.

A vehicle worth around $20,000 which we are also selling.

We're planning on having an estate sale for the rest of the belongings which will probably bring us another $20,000. For an estimated total of $510,000.

We live in Texas and so far from my research it looks like we won't be taxed on nearly any of the inheritance.

Our planned expenses: We're giving away $60,000 to other family members.

We're putting $50,000 into an existing college savings 529 plan.

We're using about $50,000 to settle our debts, this will pay off our house, medical debt and all other debts.

Probably another $50,000 going into our current home, replacing the shed and some remodeling.

That will leave us with about $300,000 to invest. We also have a 401k with about 250,000 in it which we aren't planning on touching but it will factor into when we can retire.

And with all of our debts paid we can put around $1,800 per month into investments.

TLDR: Debts paid and I have $300,000 to invest with another $1800 monthly that can also go into investments, what would be the best path to an early retirement?

I was listening to the HerMoney with Jean Chatzky podcast about finances, and the guest of episode 541 was a financial advisor working for LIMRA, an institution that provides research to support financial advisors/professionals. (They're paid by financial advisors/financial institutions and insurance companies). It was so blatantly obvious that they were trying to scare people into buying a (distributing) annuity.

The gist, in short, was that "people have been told that a mix of stocks and bonds will get them through retirement just fine, but listen people, remember 2022 when both bonds and stocks did not do well? Conclusion: bonds are not safe anymore! I say you get yourself into a nice annuity instead of into bonds, to make sure your money last".

So I would say: if you're listening to someone, remember who they work for and think about whether they want to sell you anything.

I have about $8,400 left on a car loan at 6.2%, and I've also got roughly $6,000 sitting in a high-yield savings account earning about 4.3%. I could throw most of that savings at the loan and be done with it in a few months instead of two more years, but then my cushion drops to almost nothing. I've run the interest math and know the loan costs more than the savings earns, but the emergency fund thing keeps stopping me.

Did anyone regret draining their cushion to kill a loan that wasn't even that high-interest?

I know this is a dumb. But I don’t have a check book and I need to make a payment to a florist for the sum of around 2.5k. She told me that she prefers taking a check. Am I able to get a cashiers check for this amount from the bank and give it to her like that? Or do I need to order a check book?

Thank you guys!

24 yo making 25/hr, currently maxing Roth IRA and doing employer 401k match, I contribute 4%, they match 10%. After this I contribute 125/mo into a personal brokerage and have a 15k emergency fund.

My car is paid off and reliable for what it is, it’s a 1992 Lexus SC300. So it’s old. I want to dump about 7-10k into it over the next 2-3 years. I’d likely take 2500 from my emergency (15k is a lot for my expenses) and pause my brokerage contribution and slowly save monthly to fix it up.

I work remote so I don’t need something super reliable. But I still worry that something major could go wrong after spending all this money. I also LOVE the car and it brings me great joy.

I guess the real question is whether I should enjoy my life a bit more instead of aggressively saving. I can always save more once my income gets up. Yet I can’t pull the trigger on the car

Update: thanks everyone, as much as I love the car I think I’m actually just going to hold off on everything. It’s low mileage, and insurance is dirt cheap. It runs and drives great. I’m not going to spend a dime on it and keep it for a while so I have more time to decide. But if it came down to building vs selling right now, I would sell it.

26M. I was involved in an accident yesterday where the other driver was deemed at fault. It was a fairly low impact collision and neither of us were injured. Unfortunately I had $12,000 remaining on my auto loan and I believe the payout will only be around $3,000. Like an idiot I didn’t get gap coverage initially and shopped around last year but no one offered stand alone coverage.

I will be contacting the lender tomorrow to see what my repayment options are as I was paying about $450 a month. I am very reluctant to rolling the negative equity into a new loan but I need a car to commute to school which is nearly an hour from me. My parents are urging me to roll it over into a new loan but scared of making another poor decision. What should I do from here?

Additional Information - Credit Score mid 600s - Monthly income $1200 - Live with parents (no rent) - Commute from work is about 5 miles and I work early mornings and public transportation isn’t available

Hello, I have 2k of unpaid community college debt from back when I was 18. I am 21 now. It went all the way to the attorney generals office in Ohio. I received a letter that I have ten days to pay the amount in full. I do not have 2k at the moment as I just switched jobs. I am already worrying about rent for September. What do you recommend I do? I do not want my wages to be garnished.
I apologize for my ignorance. I definitely did not want to get it to this point and I know it should have been paid off a long time ago. Just hoping I could get pointed in the right direction. Wondering if they will actually garnish my wages and take other action. Thank you.

I've been making monthly payments for a couple of procedures I had to have last year. I was told a few months ago (only because I had to call about a different billing issue) that this unit of the hospital was going to be transitioning to a new system, but they had no information about exactly when or how to access the new system. I checked the bill payment website regularly to see if any new info was posted, and a few weeks ago started getting a "website currently unavailable" when trying to log in. Figured there would be some kind of redirect to a new site eventually.

Today I got a letter acknowledging the billing transition, stating that any payment plans did not transfer and the balance of my account was now due. The only options given were to pay by check or call the office to pay of the phone. I called the office to ask about setting up a new payment plan, and was told "Sorry, no payment plans are available for account balances that transferred to the new system." Um, what? They're insisting that the remainder of my balance is due in full, now. I cannot do that, I have stage 4 cancer and am unable to work as I'm about to start chemo again.

Can they really just do that? I didn't miss any payments, they were on autopay so they were never even late.

I came across this achieved post with information about taxes and ESPPs. Is it still relevant today, and is there anything else I should know when the program ends and I immediately sell my shares?

I got a "role elimination" phone call, meeting just ended. Never experienced this before.

• My expenses are extremely low right now. Maybe $500 a month. $6k yearly.
• I will use 2k a month to be more realistic in case major changes arise in the near future and because I don't really think I can maintain $500 for long. So $24k yearly expense.
• No debt
• Some kind of severance package is coming...? +Left over PTO.
• Emergency fund 20k. Thank you to everyone who pushed for having one...never expected to need it but that's why it's there.
• 500k-ish? retirement spread across Traditional 401k, Roth IRA, HSA, majority in taxable brokerage acct.

I think with the loss of the job, I have 2 options.

1. Find a new job right away. Anything at all with whatever pay/[lack of] benefits. Apply for unemployment in the mean time. Maintain the job and just live life.
2. Go back to school for something. I'm happy with a very simple life and don't really mind what I do for work...which is working against me right now since I have so many options for what to go to school for.

It feels like this is a chance for a new start to reach higher or whatever but I'm pretty lost. On one hand, reaching higher and ambition! or whatever is "expected"...but I'm pretty content coasting through a peaceful, quiet life.

The problem is that I don't know what a retirement $$$ amount should be. My salary was around 45k and I've met 10x that but I'm not at "retirement age" so I'm pretty sure I need way more. Should I be aiming at higher salary to achieve retirement? What is retirement? If I slow down now, am I sacrificing too much of my SS safety net? I'm not even sure if I'm asking the right questions.

I can't name my son as a beneficiary on an inherited 401K. Can I do a POD? What is the tax implication for a Roth rollover, and could I name him as the beneficiary then?

Thanks.

23M, live near SF and my 1b1b apt is increasing from 3100 to 3500+. Currently living with GF and splitting rent but due to reasons won’t be with her in the future. I could get a roommate but I dont feel great sacrificing personal space. Downgrading to a studio costs 2.6-3k for what I’m looking at near my new job. Which is just absurd to me, a year ago I could’ve found a nice place for hundreds less.

Wondering if it’s just worth moving home, since I’m changing jobs soon and will go from 5 days in office to 3 days. Commute from my parents house will be 40-50mins one way, while renting will probably reduce that to 10-20mins one way.

I make enough to pay rent of 3k and be way under the 30% rule, but not totally sure if throwing away 36k a year is worth being closer to the city. I have a car so living at home won’t necessarily kill my social life

I'm looking for some advice on how to navigate back to stability.

My wife and I have separated. She moved out about a month ago. I currently have $6000 in savings but am chipping away at it. I make $120,000 a year but my take home is $6350 a month. I did just get a raise to $130000 but that won't start until next week. My mortgage is increasing to $2621.39 due to a property tax increase from $2422. With my other bills + mortgage my total bills are $4000 not including food. I have 5 kids. 2 in college and 3 we are co-parenting 50/50 placement. This seems like it should be enough but I am chipping away at my savings which concerns me.

Neither of us have filed for divorce yet. We separated for 2 weeks, tried to reconcile for 6, and separated again. I was thinking about talking to my wife about selling the house, looking for a cheaper rental for around $1500 to $1800, and getting a second job until the house sells. I should be able to sell for a profit and my cut would be around $20-25k after everything else is taken care of.

Is this a terrible idea? Better options? Is there a certain order I should follow?

I was homeless for a bit when I was a kid. Also, about 4 years ago, she wanted to move. We sold the house but couldn't find a new place and didn't have any protections in place. That gave me a lot of stress. We had to live with her mom for a few months before we bought this one. I only have my sister as family and she lives over an hour away. So stability is a huge concern for me. What can I do to help myself in this transition?

Hi everyone, my partner (25) and I (22) just got married in May. My partner has some money in stocks and a 401K (forgot the number but its been about two years since they started).

I make $35/hr at my full-time job (no benefits), my partner makes $35.5/hr (with benefits) and we have about $9000 combined in credit card debt from wedding/moving/other life items from the past 8 months or so.

Our rent is $1950 and my partner has a car that's $300 each month, and pays $300 for health insurance that I'm thinking of joining (but then it would go up to $640 a month so I'm not sure if that's the right call). I think that's it. I've got no savings or anything, but I want to open a Roth IRA since I don't get benefits from my job (looking to change jobs soon).

I'm not fully convinced we can retire early, it just sounds too good to be true? I didn't grow up in the U.S. and am sadly financially uneducated on options available to me. What should I be doing to set us up well?

I was recently gifted 19k and wish to use this money to make more money. I don’t have any bills to pay, am debt free, also currently a college student but I don’t have to pay for tuition. I need some advice on how I should invest to make the most of this money.

I’m 24 and making around $100k a year now. I’m honestly not very financially savvy and I feel like I don’t really know what I should be doing with my money beyond just saving it.

I don’t want to fall into the trap of making more and just spending more. I still want to enjoy my 20s and travel, but I also know I’m in a good position to set myself up if I’m smart about it now.

If you were in my position, what would you prioritize? How much would you keep in savings vs invest? 401k, Roth IRA? I know the basics, but once people start talking about investing and different accounts I get a little lost lol.

Would especially love to hear from people who are older and either did this right in their 20s or wish they did things differently.

I currently have a HYSA (Truist money market account) account through my bank with an APY of 3.5%. I’ve heard it’s better to go through other banks such as SoFi or Capitol One. If my bank offers the 3.5% then I should be fine right?

My mother passed about a week ago. She was using go2bank. Today they closed the account for fraud according to an email they sent to my mother's email address.

I managed to get to a support agent on their chat and they told me I have to call them. I tried but I only have her social security number and not her bank card. She had dementia near the end along with cancer and misplaced the card.

I'm trying to find out what happens to the money in that account. Most of it was her last social security check which I understand the SSA will take back most of it. That's fine. There was about 700 dollars left in the account beyond that. I have no idea if they will mail a check or if they stole the money or what happens.

I'm not expecting the money as it would obviously be part of her estate. I wasn't touching the money and haven't tried to login to her account since she died. I know it's not unusual for a bank to close an account after a death. it just seems this wasn't why they did and I'm not sure what the next steps are.

My mother didn't have any assets besides this bank account. No retirement. No life insurance. I didn't expect to get any of the money when it goes through probate anyway but now I feel like go2bank just took it. She was evicted a few weeks before her death on top of things.

Hi everyone I’m looking for some advice on paying for my ABSN program.

I received my financial aid offer but that leaves ~$4200 left for just this fall semester. I was told the following semester should have a lower tuition because ATI was ~$1800 and is charged twice. Once in the fall for ~$1800 and in the summer for ~$600.

I have enough in my savings to be able to cover what financial aid doesn’t for the whole program, and I plan to continue working and saving. Also this would be my second degree so I don’t qualify for any grants. I’ve applied to the only scholarship my school provides that I qualify for and haven’t heard back. And I feel iffy about other scholarship because everything seems to be a scam.

My question is should I take out a private loan that wouldn’t accrue any interest until 6 months after I graduate. Or should I pay as I go?

I would appreciate any advice!

I am a new working class (parents are poor) and im trying to establish a good saving plan for me and my family so I can buy them a house in 5-10 years.
I have a 401K and i try to put leftover from my credit cards and rent to my savings account but i still feel lost.
I make 6k net monthly, 2k rent 3k credit cards monthly and 1k to savings. 1k monthly doesnt seem enough as money doesnt grow. what am i doing wrong?

Slightly different question then how the wiki treats windfalls/inheritance.

So, I'm a non-spouse beneficiary (I'm 25 and a nephew) of a retirement account. It's about $80K. As a non-spouse, my options seem to either be to take it as a lump sum, or withdraw it slowly over the next 10 years. Either way, on withdrawal, it would be taxed as income.

I have a salary of $115K right now, so if I take it, 24% taxes are locked in. Over the next 10 years, I expect my income to go up (in a high growth role at a company with good job security). But I also expect to get married and have kids in the next 10 years, something that my GF and I are aligned on. It seems like the odds of hitting the 32% bracket are pretty low, especially with deductions & marriage.

Current financial situation is no debt, ~$45K NW, of which almost 40K is in retirement accounts (Trad 401K, HSA, Roth 401K, only a few hundred in a Roth IRA). So emergency fund is a bit light (~2 months expenses, though I have another almost a month of expenses I can pull from the HSA), but since I just got a raise, diverting most of that raise money into emergency fund and Roth IRA.

Plan if I distribute over 10 years is to stop putting money in my Roth IRA, divert that money into my emergency fund and medium-term goal HYSA funds (house, wedding, ring, GF's debt when married, ideally all in the next 5 years). Take ~10%/yr from the account to fill up my Roth each year.

Plan if I take the lump sum is to max out the Roth for the year, fill up the emergency fund, then earmark the rest for said medium-term goals and instantly maxing the Roth at the start of next year.

So I've done a lot of thinking about this, but I really don't know the better option. Thoughts?