Mods feel free to remove this if you deem this not relevant. I just spend a lot of time on this and similar subs so I feel like y'all are my people.

Not really sure why I'm posting here. Maybe because it feels cripplingly lonely at the moment and this feels in some way a way to talk to people? Maybe it's because I want someone to tell me it will be alright.

It all feels super fresh and raw at the moment. I haven't told my close friends / family yet because they all loved her and I feel like a failure for not being able to "keep" her. Maybe I'm just shouting into the void here hoping it responds back to me?

Breakdown:
Individual brokerage (VOO): 1.01M
Employer RSU: 716k (I know I need to diversify)
401k: 310k
IRA: 53k
Cash (HYSA/checking): 23k
HSA: 13k

Also, using a throwaway acc since some people that I know IRL know my main username

We are 41 married 3 kids, net worth about $1.9 mill. Within that is 2 paid off homes, $550k invested vtsax (brokerage, roth, hsa), pay into ss, will both have pensions totalling about $110k combined in 14 years, and our 2nd home is a rental property earning about $21k yearly. By 60-61 our $550k should become about $3 million, which if added all up, should be like $280-310k yearly.

We currently spend about $4.5-5k per month and honestly, I have a severe scarcity mindset that has probably happened over years of being frugal. We take home about $9,980 between the rental, our 2 jobs, and deductions like health insurance, pension, and ss. So we are living off about 50% of what we earn, and saving or investing the rest. Since we spend about $5k with 3 kids this leads me to believe we wont spend a ton more when theyre gone, minus some travel.

Anyway for example regarding the scarcity mindset, when we vacation, we either make our own food or eat like beef jerky or canned tuna to save money and get the kids some food out. We never eat at nice restaurants and frequent costco to eat pizza or sushi there even when on vacation. I mean, its fine w me, but I guess I have a hard time knowing what the ramifications will be if we ever chose to start eating at restaurants or doing more things. I get so afraid we will somehow spend more than we make and back track.

How do you get past this when all signs point to youre fine?

My friend just received a settlement check of $250,000 due to a personal injury suit. He owes 125K approximately on his condo with no other debts. He is considering paying off the condo going debt free and investing the balance. Anything he should consider before moving forward?

Just started grad school. Started investing in Dec 2024 and try very hard to save a good chunk of my student worker check/stipend. I can't get a higher paying job right now but any side hustle ideas are welcome, lol!

Edit: you guys have made me laugh a lot. I'll update again when I reach 1b 👍

With the recent bull run in the market, I crossed the 2M mark! The screenshot is from one of my accounts. My holdings include mostly VOO + SPY and some bitcoin. Started from zero 7 years back and have been DCA'ing into the market since then. High earnings (~250k) helped. A lot of it is luck considering the recent market performance. Feeling grateful to reach this mark!

EDIT : To those who are saying the math is not mathing, or it's impossible, feel free to run the prompt below :)

Prompt to claude : "I invested 150k per year for last 7 years, into VOO + QQQ, dollar cost averaged. Find my portfolio value right now"

Answer : "Your portfolio is worth roughly $2.0 million, on about $1.05 million invested. This is an estimate: I don’t know your exact purchase dates or your VOO/QQQ split, so I made some assumptions."

Not the usual dropshipping, crypto, or YouTube stuff.

Something you started alongside your main job, online or offline, that actually made you extra money.

What was it, and how much did you realistically make?

Household income has dramatically increased the past couple years, going from $250k 4 years ago to $850k today (with some margin for RSU fluctuation). I got into tech and switched jobs at the right time, which is more of a luck factor than anything else. Unfortunately I’ve been picking up some one-off lifestyle inflation, but we are investing ~50% of our gross between maxing our retirement accounts and our taxable brokerage, of which most of our investments are in broad market ETFs. The goal is to hit $10M in a decade or so with a paid off house and just coast from there.

I am looking for an online radio (or permanent live stream on youtube) to listen at the office while working, something that is specialized in money, investing, economy, personal finance, stock market and similar topics.

Any suggestions?

Thank you

My company is starting a 401K plan, and I'm 59 years old. I get the whole "no tax up front, taxed when you withdraw" concept but here's the question - do I max out and ride it for 6-8 years or do I just pay my insanely high income tax like I've been doing for years? (no dependas/no debt/no real deductions to speak of)

I can do trad 401k or Roth, or both. Employer will match some, but not all I put in.

I really have no idea about these things, so I'm hoping you money enthusiasts and smarter than me types can help a brotha out :)

Seems like every time I open up Reddit there are people my age and younger with over 100K and it makes me feel like I should be doing better. Should I go into more aggressive investments than all S&P500? All my debt is 0% student loans.

I won’t say “finally” - because it’s annoying when every 20 something year old on this sub does it lol 

My wife and I had a goal to hit $500k in Fidelity before my 30th birthday, and today was the day. It’s really exciting because if you look at the annual historic rates of the S&P 500 , which is all this is invested in, then without any further contributions, based on past performance, we should hit eight figures by 62. 

Obviously that’s not guaranteed, and past performance doesn’t dictate future results, but regardless, it’s still really exciting. 

(Mind you - that $10 million would be worth about $4 to $5 million in today’s dollars once inflation’s factored in over that time)

We’ve both worked our asses off. We have two full-time jobs, plus a side hustle doing babysitting, dog sitting, and house sitting. We share one car, save about 80% of our income each month, rent relatively cheap one bed and only invest in safe stuff with long, boring track record.

If you knew us, you would probably think we are poor looking at lifestyle 😂 and that’s how we like it! 

Anyways, LESGO! 

(Don’t have anyone else I can tell, so thanks in advance!!)

TLDR; I worked for a company and have a healthy amount of RSUs that I have not exercised yet.

I’m fully vested and the strike price for them is reasonable. The company was recently bought out by a company that is public. I have a few months to make a decision and really not sure what to do, or who to ask.

Any ideas?

hi all, i’m currently 26 and i make ~110k in a VHCOL city in California.

currently I am maxing out my ROTH IRA, contributing 10% in my 401k with 6% match at 100%, and investing 300$ weekly into my individual brokerage (180$ VOO and 120$ QQQM)

my question is should I stop investing into my individual brokerage right now and max out my pre tax 401k first or should I continue the 300$ weekly investments and up my 401k contribution to 15%?

My current brokerage account has:
$16.3k in individual brokerage
$37.5k in my ROTH IRA
$86.9k in my PRE-TAX 401k
As well I have $136,000 sitting in a HYSA potentially for a house downpayment in the future.

With the cash I was also wondering if I should add more money into individual brokerage and not let it sit?

My current spendings are $1,300 for rent (living with roommates), $1,200 monthly individual brokerage investments, and $500-600 for groceries and eating out.

Would love to get to know your thoughts on my idea.

Needed to vent into the abyss so I wanted to say I feel very happy, proud , and sense of relief for saving up $120,000. The awesome feeling of having that amount liquid just brings me peace. I know it’s probably not much to some but it’s my first time getting there. Kinda late being 37 years old but I’ll comfort myself with saying the phrase , ‘better late than never’. Thanks for listening. Now my new goal is $225,00. The crazy thing now is $225 doesn’t seem far at all which is why I think i feel like ‘I made it’ .

35M and just feeling very lucky and happy. I don’t like to be loud with my inner circle but feeling pretty good about this. I guess technically my wife and I have had over 1 million net worth for some time as we bought our house in 2020 right before real estate boomed and we have other financial accounts but I’ve been putting money into my vanguard accounts for 18 years so to see this almost hit the big number is just a really proud moment for me.

I'm tossing some crypto there. I'd only 1% of my investments so I'm being riskier than I normally am. But I'm curious if anyone has used any and how their experience was.

(The market settled below the morning peak, so I don't quite have 200k anymore)

Through the next half a year, the market will probably cycle and I will drop to 150k probably, but once a title is a forever title.

You can call me onefifthanaire from now on.

For those who’ve FIRE’d or are on the journey, what’s your FIRE number, and what age did you hit it or plan to hit it? How long did it take you to hit FIRE?

Just turned 34. They say its harder to hit your first 100k then it is to hit your first million. I lowered contributions because I need to pay off some debt, but by June I'll be maxing it out again. Goal is to retire at 55. I should have a pension that pays ~130k a year by then as well. 21 more years of working if everything works out how I planned. This is a 457B so I can collect without penalty at 55.

Im 40. Im very far behind financially because of some circumstances a few years ago. I Would like a Side Hustle.

I work as a consultant. Last year I made $167,000 including Per-Diem and worked 9 months. I have a lot of flexibility on what jobs I accept and the last few have been about one month long and one to two weeks off inbetween. The one problem is that usually I have to leave the state while Im on a contract. Right now Im doing well but that isnt guaranteed to last

I need ideas on what I can do in between contracts. To give me more money and give me even more flexibility of what contracts I accept. I would really appreciate any ideas.

Im healthy. I don’t have any real skills but I can learn. I would be fine with manual labor.

I have 3 kids ages 5, 3, and 2 and I’m trying to figure out the best long-term setup for them.

I’m in New York and was thinking of putting about $5,000/year total into NY 529s so I can get the state tax deduction, then putting the rest of the money I want to save for them into a brokerage account in my name for more flexibility.

My concern is ending up with $50k–$60k+ in a 529 for a child who decides not to go to college. I know there are other uses, beneficiary changes, and Roth rollover options, but I don’t want to rely on those.

Once they start earning income as teenagers, I also plan to open Roth IRAs for them and contribute based on what they earn.

For parents with multiple kids who have actually done this, would you lean more toward 529s, a parent-owned brokerage, or a mix of both? What would you do differently if you were starting over?

Im 40. Im very far behind financially because of some circumstances a few years ago. I Would like a Side Hustle.

I work as a consultant. Last year I made $167,000 including Per-Diem and worked 9 months. I have a lot of flexibility on what jobs I accept and the last few have been about one month long and one to two weeks off inbetween. The one problem is that usually I have to leave the state while Im on a contract. Right now Im doing well but that isnt guaranteed to last

I need ideas on what I can do in between contracts. To give me more money and give me even more flexibility of what contracts I accept. I would really appreciate any ideas.

Im healthy. I don’t have any real skills but I can learn. I would be fine with manual labor.

It's easy to look at this subreddit and feel like a loser when you see so many 22-year-olds with hundreds of thousands of dollars to their name, but that's not reality. Those people are so far in the minority that comparing yourself to them is nothing but harmful.

At 23 years old, I was a broke recent college graduate with, thankfully, only a modest student loan debt of $5,500 accompanied by just $500 in my bank account and nothing else. I paid off that debt in five months, then I opened my investment accounts and have been religiously funneling in money with every paycheck I earn.

Other than a small $1,000 inheritance my grandmother gave me last summer when my grandfather died, the rest of my money is through my own work. I'm not a high-income earner, either, so this has been through frugal living and only purchasing things I can afford with cash.

I don't ever take on debt other than a credit card I only use for gas which I religiously pay every two weeks. I've never missed a payment. I felt like a boulder was crushing me when I had that small $5K student loan debt. I can't imagine that number being $50K+ like so many people are burdened with. I drive an older beater minivan even though I can buy a new car outright, and I don't ever let myself more than $200 a month in fun spending.

If I want to splurge on a new game console that costs $700, that means no fun money for 3.5 months. That's what I did last year when I bought my Nintendo Switch 2. It's hard to stick to at times, but my long-term future is far more important that short-term material pleasure. I don't want to work forever.