Financial picture: I live with parents and after tax, take-home pay is $6K/mo. I max out my 401K and Roth IRA, have a 6-month emergency fund built up and currently stash away about 18% into investments.

I’m also currently in a master’s program. One semester down, three more left. I saved up a bunch of money in the last two years with the intention of paying off my master’s in cash. But I’m wondering if I’m better off taking loans out on the remaining balance, paying a smaller amount monthly, investing the excess cash now and dialing up my investments.

I’d be borrowing $30K in unsubsidized federal loans at an interest rate of 6.54% to put toward the remaining balance.

I know nobody has a crystal ball but I’m curious how folks here would approach the situation and what aspects to consider before making a final decision. Thanks in advance.

**Edit**: specified loan type (unsubsidized)

Hello, I just turned 21 and a few months ago I was blessed with a $100,000 land claim settlement and it is burning a hole in my pocket and I only have $90,000 left.

I have a lease on a pickup truck and owe $17,000 on it over a year and a half. My only other monthly payments are $400 for insurance and $150 for my phone.

I currently make $55,000 a year and still live with my parents. I have been approved for a mortgage with a principal of up to $110,000. Ideally, I would like to spend $150-$175,000 on a house, leaving me with around $40,000 to invest in the event the housing market corrects itself(is this a bad idea?).

I guess my question is should I spend more on a down payment for a house or save that money and invest it elsewhere?

My wife and I are first time home buyers.
We’ve fallen in love with a house listed for $625k, and are under contact with the seller. HOA is just $60, annual property taxes 4k. I don’t have an insurance estimate yet but say it’s $2.5k annually. We are putting $150k down for a 6.25% 30yr loan.

We both make combined approximately $212k annually. We have a 10 month old kid who’s monthly expenses are daycare $1700, and an additional $300/month on miscellaneous baby stuff.

We typically spend about $700 on food each month
Car running expenses are about $150 monthly.
Car insurance is $900 every 6 months.

I have no clue what the utility bills on this house are going to look like. But it’s a 2700sqft house.

There’s probably an additional $500 off monthly spending here and there that I cannot account for.

Are we spending beyond our means on this house? Please help. I know there are some very smart people here who are great with numbers. Thank you so much.

I’m 17 and going away to college soon and I have $20k saved. I’m looking for a pretty safe/conservative investment, but idk where to start or even look. I’ll take any suggestions you have!

I’m living paycheck to paycheck and want to break the cycle so bad. Can I speak with an advisor about investing, 401ks, Roth IRA’s, and saving even if I don’t have a lot of money?

Basically with the goal of getting my finances on track. Or do they only work with people who already have money?

to help his younger sibling to get approved for the loan and buy a house for her to live in. Our house is already paid for. I was okay with him co-signing by himself but now he wants me to also be a co- borrower so my income will be included and they will be able to get approved for more. Is the risk about the same whether I’m a co-borrower individually or the wife of a co-borrower?

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I got my ineligibility letter but so far no overpayment letter. I was curious and called EDD twice to get clarification. My claim from 2020 was not marked as fraud states the reps. I even logged into my EDD account and it says I can make a new claim if I need to (obviously I won’t have to since I have a job but I wanted to check). I read when you made a fraud claim that you cannot make new claims for some time.

The very polite and helpful claims reps told me that I won’t be receiving an overpayment letter, nor will more letters be mailed out and also no more information and interviews are needed from me. The claim reps said I can breathe and that the reason for not having to overpay everything is because my claim ended in first quarter of 2021 and since then it’s been over 1 year. I think due to statute of limitations they said they have 1 year or so to get overpayment back if it’s a non-fraud claim.

It seems too good to be true even though the 2 claim reps said the claim is close and done. I even called Edd Overpayment line and they said I don’t have an overpayment and said if I need more information to ask claims since they decide on these situations.

I suppose I won’t be completely relaxed until maybe closer to the end of the year. I still fear a letter of overpayment being sent out and maybe the reps were wrong although they seemed confident and were on the phone with me for some time checking their database or dashboard.

Do I have reason to worry still?

Do you think the reps were right in stating Edd cannot request overypayment due to the time length of claim expiration with consideration of claim being marked as non-fraud?

So I’m 24, I just purchased a 2012 jeep wrangler with 100,000 miles on it. The quotes I’ve gotten range between 400-900$ a month! My driving record isn’t great I’ve had about 3 accidents and 3 tickets since getting my license at 18. (I truly believe this is because I didn’t fully comprehend the driving laws, and procedures until about 21 because my parents refused to let me learn anything about driving until I was 18)

and before the jerks come on here saying “ if you can’t afford insurance you can’t afford to drive🤡” I have no choice I live in in DFW Texas and commute to work and college and the metroplex is not walkable. There has to be something I can do that is not illegal like lying to the insurance companies or driving uninsured.

Please give me some advice that doesn’t involve something unrealistic.(side note I graduate in a little under a year and should be able to afford it by then as starting salary for. T career are good and I’ll be 25)

It’s been a decade or so and at the time, I feel like multiple places posted them clearly on their homepages and sites like Bankrate dot com would do all the work for you and list everyone’s rate. I swear, not much before then, they were in the newspaper.

I’ve been trying to just get a couple comparison rates, finally sucked it up going to Bankrate dot com knowing I’d have to give my personal info but at least I’d get some immediate results (they promised 3); they totally made it seem like the last page would have rates. Alas, in the end, I get a message that “we’ll work hard to find lenders for you” and now I get 45 calls a day.

I know I sound like a boomer (not quite that old yet), but wondering how the hell you kids shop for rates nowadays? Everybody’s acting like it’s this crazy big secret now so wtf and wth happened?

Hi guys. Not sure if this is the place to post this so please delete if necessary.

I am a 21 year old rural carrier with the USPS, just got promoted to regular career earlier this year and finally receiving benefits and retirement but I don’t know how financially secure of a job this is, though I don’t know of any alternative that would pay equally at my age.

This month I recently received a pretty substantial wage cut due to a complete company overhaul cutting salaries for over 66% of rural carriers. This put me from making $54,000/yr to $42,000/yr just like that. Still expected to work the same hours, 6 days a week, but now for $1,000/mo less in pretax income. However, on top of this my check deductions have increased significantly as well too. Now that I converted statuses to career, my deductions have nearly doubled to roughly $700/pay period. This is because of mandatory FERS deductions, union dues, and my election to invest 5% of my checks into TSP (basically federal 401k) as employer matches 5%, I haven’t even selected a health insurance yet which at minimum is $180/mo for an actual good one with no crazy deductibles. Still not sure whether to elect for BCBS or put that much into an HSA instead.

Alright, so normally I make roughly $4,200/mo after deductions. This is because of vehicle reimbursement I’m given to maintain my vehicle as I am required to provide my own and it must be right hand drive. I have been trying to save every penny I can in case of emergencies, enough to cover rent/bills/food for 6 months and/or a catastrophic vehicle repair.

My rough breakdown of my monthly expenses is as follows:

Rent $1,000/mo

Car Insurance $122/mo

Phone $90/mo

Utilities $150~/mo

Car Payment $400/mo

Credit Cards $200~/mo (Had to pay to convert new vehicle to RHD, total cost was around $5,000)

Fuel ~$400-$500/mo

Food $~300-$400/mo

Some months are more or less but on average out of my monthly income of $4.2k I try to set aside at least $1,000/mo in savings. I only have about $11,000 saved up as of today. I’m tempted to pay my credit cards with it but I also realize that with my wage cut saving will be even more difficult for me and I hate the idea of having less than 6 months expenses saved.

I’ve not yet received my new paycheck reflecting the lower salary but I’m going on the estimate of making $12,000/yr less as just cut and dry assuming I’ll go from $4.2k/mo to $3.2-3.4k/mo. Assuming my expenses remain the same (which for the most part is true) that leaves me with SIGNIFICANTLY less headroom to save. After all necessary expenses I may have only $500/mo that I could comfortably set aside. Obviously at that rate of saving only $6,000/yr assuming no big life events it will be very slow going.

The thing for me is, I’m getting extremely burnt out. Mentally, emotionally, and to a lesser extent physically. I have been working 6 days a week for about 2 years straight now, but I’m very efficient and fast at what I do so I usually only end up working 30 hours a week. I know that’s not a lot of hours, it’s not the hours that affect me. It’s only getting Sunday off every week to actually relax and recuperate, and the only day I can sleep in past 7am. Aside from that, I can see the post office slowly crumbling around me, and I don’t know how much job security I really have anymore. If it wasn’t for the reimbursement I receive for my vehicle maintenance I really only make the same as a pizza delivery driver in my area minus tips. I’m trying to get ahead, but I live on the west coast where cost of living is astronomical. I’m very lucky with my rent as everywhere around me is $1500+/mo for a 1 bedroom apartment.

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Is there anything more I can do to improve my financial stability and save more money? I’m trying to save enough to pay off my car loan in it’s entirety because I had no one who could co-sign me and the interest rate I was given was 9% because of my age and lack of credit history. The loan is still roughly $20,000. I also have dental work that needs done in the realm of $9000-$16000. But if I’m only able to barely save a little bit after having my wages cut, without getting a second job it would take me forever to save for these things. Not to mention a house or moving out of where I am currently. I just don’t know what to do.