I’ve been marveling at the following piece of irrationality: Stocks are something that people are more comfortable buying the more expensive they are. And the cheaper they are, the more people don’t want to buy them. It’s a real challenge to some piece of neural wiring that we humans have.

I'm earning $3,000 per month and have the following expenses:

Car loan: $500/month (24 months left)

House mortgage: $500/month (15 years left). This is where I live now

Living expenses: $1,000/month

Monthly surplus: +/- $1,000

I live in a third world country so the numbers might be lower than usual. I have 6 months worth of emergency fund already.

Im thinking about doing either or both of these things:

Option 1: Pay off my car loan early I can pay $10,000 now to settle the car loan in full. If I continue the monthly payments, I’ll end up paying $12,000 total. So I’d save $2,000 in interest over 2 years by paying early.

Option 2: Pay off a rental property loan I have another property that’s under a lease-to-own agreement. This one is different from where I live now. The current occupant is paying the bank monthly, matching the amortization exactly. But the loan is still under my name.

I have the option to pay off the remaining loan balance with the bank for $8,000. If I do that, the buyer will start paying $1,200/year to me instead (same terms as before) for the next 13 years. That would give me a 15% annual yield based on the $8,000 investment.

Once the buyer completes all payments, I’ll transfer the ownership of the property to them.

Should I pay off the car loan to save $2,000 and free up $500/month, or pay off the rental property loan and start receiving $1,200/month for 13 years with a 15% yield?

What would you do in my situation?

I'm a student in the US, 20F, and I want to know what I need to expect and prepare for if we are heading into a recession as bad as folks think. I'm not worried about paying for my tuition or fees or rent because that's already set aside in my savings, but I'll be the first to admit I have a bit of a spending problem- I manage to spend $300-400/month on snacks, sweet treats, clothes, concerts, etc. I was still on track to only graduate with ~20k debt, but will I need to significantly change my lifestyle to still meet that goal?

and will there be longer lasting effects after the recession itself I should know about? I'm hoping as an engineer I won't be stuck without a job but would I struggle to like pay bills? should i keep paying into retirement if i couldn't afford it as easily? (i currently have a few thousand in RothIRA and 401k, and was planning on maxing it out for at least the first 5 years after grad)

I'm hoping to just get as much info as possible on what I can expect because this will be my first time dealing with this as an adult and I want to make sure I stay on my feet and have a plan.

Hi all,

Like everyone else I’m seeing my retirement accounts drop with the market right now. Although it is tempting I know the logistical thing to do in to keep investing. Given that I have a solid emergency fund of 1 year of expenses (I’m in biotech which is volatile so I keep more than recommended) is it the correct choice to increase my 401k contributions to hit the max sooner in the year?

I currently contribute 11% and thinking about bumping to 15%. For reference I’m in my mid 30s

Hello, everyone! This is actually my first Reddit post ever so bear with me. I am 23 and live in Florida, any advice would be sincerely appreciated. I haven't dealt with this kind of financial situation before, but let me know of this post belongs in a legal advice subreddit instead of financial advice.

There is a lot of context surrounding my worries for this scenario so I apologize for the wordiness. It's related to credit, debt, and apartment eligibility. I separated this into parts to signify related chunks of context, but scroll down for the TLDR. Thank you for your time!

Long story:

1) Last year I used to work at a full body auto shop, which was visited by a Matco Tools distributor (I'm sure you can guess where this is going). I had thought I was making a worthy investment opening a credit account and buying tools, but I set a foot in my grave by adding a $2,500 tool box with the purchase. Not only did I realize just how deadly the interest rate was, but I ended up quitting the mechanic world much sooner than I thought due to medical issues. So there I was, stuck with a $4k purchase to pay off- which became $8k with interest.

Quite a few months later, I had no hope of keeping up with these payments. I decided to have my tools voluntarily repossessed in hopes that the market resale value would knock down what I owed by a decent amount. It did not. They couldn't get a hold of the original distributor for a good few months too, which stacked up some late fees on top of what I owed. My balance ended up just dropping to ~$3,400 after the process.

2) After all this, I was on a call with a Matco representative being honest about not being able to pay, and trying to negotiate a plan. They even sliced it in half- offering a one-time full payment of ~$1,700 to close up this ordeal. But this was still more money than I had in my entire bank account.

The representative had explained that if I fail to pay, Matco hands this business to a debt collection agency and my credit score gets affected negatively. But they repeated several times throughout the (recorded) call, "I can't tell you that you can do nothing, ok?" Like a reassurance. So I took it as I'm risking my job by telling you that you will be ok doing nothing. So I decided to go with my gut and their word, and take no action to pay.

3) Regarding my credit I think I have done very well so far, even though my length of credit is just two years: My score was 756 when I got my first dealership car in July of 2023 (causing 2 hard inquiries ofc). I have rent reporting enabled for rent on my apartment. I have never missed a single payment on my credit card, auto loan, or rent, and I have always stayed way below 30% usage on my credit card. I also don't let my balance roll onto the next month, I just pay it off manually on the same day each month before the credit is reported.

On Discover it lists 3 total accounts, N/A revolving utilization, 0 inquiries, and 1 serious delinquency from the tool situation. My AMEX (in which my parents are primary card holders, always paid on time) report shows 4 open, good standing accounts, and 1 closed derogatory account. It reports that my Matco credit account was closed in December 2024 with a high balance, with the pay status listed as "charge-off." At the time around the repossession of my tools, my credit score had dwindled to 701, then down to 600. I actually have no idea why it dropped that bad unless it was just the repossession, because I saw nothing else affecting my score negatively on my credit report.

4) Anyways, about 4-5 months pass since the call with the representative, and I'm just going about my life working and stuff. My credit scores slowly inch back up. Then I get a missed call from Weltman Weinberg and Reis Co. LPA representing Matco. The debt collector. At the same time, my FICO credit score gets dunked by 25 points for a major delinquent account factor related to my defaulting payments. I check my credit scores: Discover is down to 608, and AMEX sunk to 562 (this account was opened by my parents for me like two months ago, and the score started at 585).

This is one last bit of context to explain my current situation and why this history affects it. So November 30, 2025 is the end of my lease. I live with 4 friends (1 being my partner), in which we were all originally planning on moving out of state together by the end of the lease. Then, my partner recently received a job offer here in Florida. If this opportunity proves to be worthwhile, we would stick around for 1-2 years longer. Our two friends are moving out of state no matter what due to family, so in the scenario that we would separate, my partner and I would be moving to a different apartment here come November. (Questions below TLDR).

...

TLDR: I'm 23, live in Florida. I had my tools voluntarily repossessed by MATCO but couldn't afford to pay off the remaining balance even after the market resale reduced it to ~$3,400, so I took no action to pay. I got a call from a debt collector representing MATCO many months later (now), and my credit score was docked 25 points with a serious delinquent account status. My roommates and I are moving out of Florida by this November, and currently my credit score is 562 (AMEX) and 608 (Discover).

Question 1&2: Is it a bad idea to ignore the debt collector? I am deathly afraid of legal actions they can take, like suing me to get the remaining balance paid. I have no means of paying off the balance whatsoever, but is it worth calling back even to negotiate a lower payment? I would really only want to do that if I can make sure they remove the delinquent status from my credit accounts like a delete letter, but that may be highly unlikely if I can't pay the full intended balance.

Question 3: Is it likely that my credit score will reach or surpass 600 again by this November? My next worry besides the debt collector is being able to be qualified to get an apartment, as most require a credit score above 600. So I am wondering if paying the remaining balance (if reduced) and removing the delinquent status will help my score rise faster, or if none of that matters and it's likely to go back up in time anyways.

Thank you to anyone putting consideration into this post. Have a wonderful day!

Edit: I checked out the "Dealing with collections" and "Credit repair" links from the automod and they provided extremely useful information! I would still like feedback and opinions on my questions if possible. Thank you :)

Some people are saying invest now because we are young and stocks are crashing. I have never invested a penny of anything in my life. I dont know anything about stocks. I am 23 and I make a decent income (50k) a year working at a car dealership. I am about to quit and spend a few years abroad in Spain. I want to invest around 1-2k into something and never touch it. Any advise?

We are 29 (M and F) first time homeowners, married almost 3 years, with a 1.5 year old child. Our cars are paid off but we have credit card debt and student loans (as well as the house mortgage). If there isn’t a large purchase coming up on the horizon, does our credit score really matter? Finances are tight so debts are just getting paid off with minimums at the moment. Basically I’m wondering if our concern should be on the credit score itself?

I'm 18 years old and I was recently sent a bill from the psychiatrist that my mom forced me to go to when I was 15-16 years old, I have not undergone any treatment there as an adult and was not responsible for my medical decisions as a child. Am I responsible for this bill? I'm a teenager, I don't really have medical bill money, but I am estranged from my mother and have no way to give it to her.

I'm in SE Michigan. I'm looking for a place to get a mortgage. I don't know much about mortgages or buying a home, so would love some input.

I’ve been trying to clean up my credit for a while now and keep running into roadblocks. I’ve paid off a few collections, stayed current on everything for the past year, and checked my credit reports, but I still have a handful of negative items that are dragging me down. I’ve been thinking about getting help from a professional service, and Lexington Law keeps coming up in my searches. On the surface, they seem legit—they’ve been around for years, offer attorney-backed services, and claim to help remove inaccurate or outdated items from your reports. But I’ve also read mixed reviews and some stuff that makes me hesitate. Some people say they got real results, others say they paid for months and didn’t see any changes. There’s also the fact that they were involved in a major lawsuit with the CFPB and are now banned from telemarketing for 10 years, which feels like a red flag. I’m not expecting miracles, and I know that no company can remove accurate negative info, but if they’re legit and can help me dispute things properly and guide me through the process, I’d be willing to pay for that kind of support. So I’m asking: is Lexington Law legit in your experience? Did they actually help clean up your credit, or was it just a monthly bill with no real outcome?

Hey all,

Looking for some extra insights on where to put the next dollar. Outside of my retirement investing I have been putting any extra funds into mortgage principal payments on a 7.125% mortgage. Figured a locked in 7% was better than a maybe 10% with risk in the market.

But now stock indexes are looking cheap and panic is high which usually leads to outsized returns. Does it make more sense to start to hold stocks again instead of paying on that mortgage? I assume inflation will continue to rise or hold steady and there won’t be any refinance opportunities any time soon.

If buying stocks I would only purchase VTI.

Thanks for the help!

Hello I'm looking to finance a 2018 civic around 65k miles I know most will say to pay cash but I would like to finance to build my credit off this loan and I would like to keep it for more than 5 years, I have around 6-7 grand for a down payment with,Tu 710 and equifax of 728 the cars have a avg price of around 14000 with taxes and all would be around 16k what are the chances of approval I'm curious, my credit history is slim since I'm 18 with about 9 months on a secured credit card at 6 months they changed to a unsecured card. I've been at my current job for 5 months and previous job history around 1 year and I make 2400 a month. I did have a previous installment loan of 2k but payed that off 2 months ago and I moved to a new area around 9 months ago I live with family so don't pay any bills currently.

Hey everyone, I'm 18, living in the U.S, and using Fidelity for investing. I'm putting together an investment strategy and would love to get your thoughts. currently i have aboutt $3k to invest as of now. After these initial deposits, i will stick to investing $50-100/mon. Here's what indexes I'm considering:

VOO for sp 500, maybe in the future when I open up a Roth Ira I'll invest in FXAIX through it.

QQQM for tech diversification

SCHD for dividend income, In the future I plan to add SCHG for growth + a lil more dividend and i heard they go well with each other

For international diversification, I'm torn between FZILX and VT as I heard they were both good . Any thoughts on those? Does this plan seem balanced? Would love to hear if I'm missing anything or should adjust for better diversity

Btw I don't have to worry about any college tuition fees or anything

Hey, I am junior in American HS, and I have some money saved up + an IBKR account my parents "manage" for me. What is the safest asset I could invest into to just preserve the value of my savings? Also, any book or article reccommendations are welcome.

Is there no separate bracket or limit that would apply for hourly employees?

My situation is that ive been working 80 hours for this entire past quarter and have made about 47k gross, I'm not planning on working 80 hours all year round but I am afraid I'll still end up being over that amount. Is the only option to be below that to just work less hours??

Also does MAGI also count investment growth? Given everything is set to reinvest automatically but should I also be concerned about that??

I want to help my retired, single friend manage his finances. He's 65, healthy, lives in his own house, has no debt, owns an SUV worth $5000 that he rarely uses, and has about $20,000 in savings. His expenses are mainly food and utilities. He eats well, exercises regularly at home, and lives very frugally in all areas (except for that one car purchase). His mind is sharp and he thinks he'll live another 20 years or so.

He asked me to teach him about trading stocks, bonds, and funds in international markets, but I'm concerned he might not pass KYC or AML checks since he worked as a musician all his life without formal employment. Since he has time, I'm considering buying him some investing basics resources, recommending websites, YouTube channels, and introducing him to ChatGPT prompts for research.

I'm unsure whether to encourage him or advise him to put his money in high interest savings, time deposits, or relatively safe bonds or funds to at least match inflation. I worry it might be too late for him to start investing.

Has anyone advised a relative or friend on financial matters and either been happy with or regretted the advice they gave?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I have no idea what I can do to raise my credit. I have a score of about 640-650 (depending on which one you look at), and I was hoping to raise it to 670 to refinance my car payments (probably no longer an option).

I don't have any credit cards at all. I have student loans. I paid off my two collections (which did raise my score to the 650 it is today). My credit card use is N/A, but is listed as "Excellent" on CreditKarma. The only two things that are negative or fair are my credit age (7 months, unfortunately, after I consolidated my student loans into one payment) and my # of accounts (18 somehow). Anyway. Would getting a credit building card even help? It will lower my credit age even more, and I have 100% on time payments. Is there ANYTHING else I can do besides wait for my credit age to be higher??? I would pay off my student loans but I owe a buttload (think 70k-ish, probably).

I signed up with Lexington Law about four months ago after seeing their ads and reading a bunch of promising stuff about how they could help fix credit issues. At first, everything felt really legit — they had a nice dashboard, gave me a “paralegal” rep, and sent out what they called targeted disputes. But now I’m starting to wonder if I’m just paying for a monthly subscription with not much actual movement. They’ve gotten a couple of things removed, sure, but they were small — like old addresses or duplicate accounts that weren’t even hurting my score that much. The real negative stuff, like a charged-off credit card and a medical collection, are still sitting there. And every month I get the same vague update that they’re “working on it.” I’ve seen mixed takes in other Lexington Law reviews — some people say it took six months to see big changes, while others claim nothing ever happened and they had to cancel. I don’t know if I’m being impatient or if I should cut my losses and try another route (or maybe even DIY it again). Has anyone actually had solid results with Lexington Law for tough items? Or am I just falling for a polished monthly billing scheme?

When my mother passed, she wanted her children to sell the house and divide the money between us. What do I need to know about taxes on the tis money?

In spite of moving to a 60/40 split in recent years, I'm still down a considerable amount of money this week, and my bond fund shares went up a penny. All my bond money is invested in the Vanguard VBTLX fund. Are there other bond funds that act as a better hedge when the stock market has weeks like this?

Hello,

Lurked on Reddit for a long time, but never posted until now.

Due to RTO mandate from my employer, I am now commuting 3 hours round trip/daily to work. Quickly, I determined this is not sustainable for me, so the plan is to move closer to my work.

I own a two family (originally bought with intent to have my mom and brother live with me, but they have both since found love and moved in with their partners) and owe $305K on an FHA mortgage. I rent one unit for $1K/mo and live in the other. I save the $1K each month for any potential home expenses.

After speaking with a realtor, he thinks I could get $475K for the house (let's say I net $130K after realtor fees, capital gains, and other expenses). However, the realtor's company also does property management, and is suggesting I can get $3200/mo for both units if I keep the property. TBH, this doesn't seem like that much compared to the expenses of the house. My mortgage w/PMI, taxes, and insurance are about $2200, Property mgmt fee would be 10%, $320/mo, plus water, and any other expenses that would pop up along the way would leave me with little to no profit.

The realtor is stressing that the home will appreciate in value and as rents go up I'll start turning a profit, but I'm far from optimistic about where the market is headed. I could take the profit from the sale and invest in a CD (I don't think there will be a dip to buy for a while), and not have to deal with the headache of having a rental property. Plus one bad tenant can ruin you financially. Am I crazy for wanting to sell?

I just had a missed payment on a Barclays card account that I completely forgot I even had worse part is that I couldn’t even access the account as I lost the card so I wasn’t notified until a letter came in the post. The most frustrating part is my credit score was doing good being in the high 800s now it’s dropped all the way down to 700….

The payment amount was tiny only being £15 but now it shows up on my credit report as a missed payment is there anyway to explain and get it waived or is that not possible. Thanks!

I’ve been saving for the past seven years but got a relatively late start. I’m 41 now, make 68,000 a year and save about 22,000 annually into my IRAs - SEP / Roth / and traditional. I have 170,000 currently stashed away.

Even at this rate I feel like I’ll have to work forever to comfortably retire. The one thing that might change that is my parent’s plan to leave my sibling and I their house when they pass one day. They are retiring now and are set between their pensions and social security. The house is worth a million in todays market. My brother and I plan to sell it one sad day.

What is a realistic way to factor this into my retirement planning? I know real estate is all over the place but how could I think about my share of this asset, how it might appreciate, and work that into my timeline for the next 20 years?

Hey everyone, I’m hoping to get some advice. I want to move out by September, and I need to save at least $2,500 by then.

Right now, I live with my parents, so I don’t pay rent which helps. I make about $700 a week, and my main expenses are my car, insurance, and electric bill. So far, I’ve managed to save $500, but I feel like I’m not saving fast enough, and I’ve been thinking about picking up a second job on weekends or nights.

At the same time, I don’t want to completely stop living my life. I still want to hang out with friends here and there, enjoy little things, and not feel super isolated or burned out.

should I do that?
itemized deduction is less than standard deduction.
It seems the difference coming from AMT credit. I will use about $4950 carried over AMT credit. Net loss is about $500 for $4429 cash flow. Worth it?