38 married, two young kids. When socializing, friends and other parents will occasionally make comments on money or retirement that I find a little concerning or raise my eyebrow. We are all adults, to each their own. But the lack of retirement savings I am hearing about at almost 40 makes me think there is going to be an age sometime soon that it starts to be very obvious who is set up and who has just been juggling things for a long time and isn’t ready for retirement, kids college, or reducing work as they get older. Does anyone else think about this? I know some people will get inheritances that change things but many will not.

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I, 35, and my wife, 31, hit a milestone on friday. After about 10 years we have finished our journey to a million dollars net worth. Starting out we had -112,000 in debt mostly through student loans and a car loan. We both started down this journey first working off the student loans, getting smarter about our car purchases, and then investing intentionally. We both got lucky and have had our careers take off, even with 2 layoffs throughout the years.

We bought a house 4 years ago and had a son in the last year. We are still able to stay on our journey with some significant short term changes.

We arent stopping here with some goals around buying a larger house and upgrading the commuter car in the next 5 years and having the opportunity to retire at 60.

We arent going around telling people but it seems nice to take a victory lap on the internet.

Don't have many people to share this with, so posting here. My company does True-Up, so I'll still get my full match. Just maxed my 401(k), and on pace to max* my IRA in a few weeks as well, and I'm just proud at how far I've come :)

I have been with the same healthcare IT position for the past 15 years. As of last week, my position has been transferred to a contracting company due to mass layoffs within the company. I am thankful I still have a job moving forward as the majority of my colleagues will not, come August. I am not sure how long I will be with this company as I will be considered a “contractor” supporting the same systems as I do now for my current company.

I currently have a 401k and an hsa. I am contributing up to the company match into the 401k and receiving 750 into my hsa per year.

Here’s where I need help. I will have my 6 month Ffef completed next month (knock on wood I don’t need to use it!) I was planning on instantly starting step 5-6 and contribute 25%. This new company that I will be with come July, does not offer a company match whereas I’m currently receiving a 5% match for a total of 11%. They offer 401k and a roth 401k.

How should I navigate the uncertainties of a potential job loss along with investing. Should I pause additional investing moving forward for the time being to save additional cash in case of a job loss? Should I max out my hsa and open a Roth and contribute the rest to a 401k?

Btw, I am 38 with 130K in investments. I went through a divorce two years ago and can’t wait to make it grow again!

What would all you mutants do!?

Hi all, I’m a 26 year old math teacher making 70k a year, with some side tutoring maybe up to between 90 and 95k a year. I am looking to upskill and transition out of teaching in 1-2 years, where I’m hoping for some notable salary increase (I understand this is not a good job market, but I am not having too much fun being burnt out teaching).

Given the above, I’ve been contributing only ROTH to my 403b after maxing my ROTH IRA. Last year I almost maxed out my 403b. In my mind, I hope I’m in the future going to make way more and have that justify only traditional contributions in a 401k. I also have about 70k in a brokerage account.

My questions are: do I have put much in the ROTH bucket given essentially nothing in traditional besides my employer match? Am I overvaluing ROTH?

Im posting this for a fried. lol. No, really, to settle a dispute with my buddy. (Mid 40s, employed, grosses is $10-12k/month)

His emergency fund is $21k.

He had $17k in credit card debt but with 0% interest until September. He had some unexpected big expenses pile at the same time.

Should he use his emergency fund to clear the credit card debt immmediately and then rebuild it? (My suggestion)

Should he leave his emergency fund untouched and make bigger payments each paycheck requiring him to lower his retirement contributions? (He's close to maxing out his 401k and already maxed his IRA).

Was his emergency fund too small to begin with ?

Thoughts team? Let me know what other details you'd need to make the decision. Thanks in advance !

I subscribe to the FOO, love all the guidelines, and listen to every show, so I know and understand them in principle… BUT I’m having difficulty making a car buying decision because of the rules and would love to hear from others.

49m/48m, NW $1.5m, 25%+ savings rate, ~$80k cash including monthly spending account, emergency fund, brokerage (considering it cash for purpose of this decision).

We drive a 2016 with 140k miles and 2015 with 110k miles, they run great, serviced regularly by our son, will run forever and we really love them. In the next year our other son is moving from NY to LA where they’ll need a car, so giving them a car is an opportunity for us to get something new. Now the dilemma:

We’re looking at everything from a Mazda CX-50 Hybrid ~$40k to a Mercedes Benz GLC 350e Plug-in Hybrid ~$70k. I’m not comfortable paying cash for either one and am only considering putting $20k down payment. We’d make aggressive payments, probably $2k/month so the less expensive option would take less than 12 months, but the luxury options we’re considering would take closer to 24-30 months.

What would you do?

I’m(30F) a mom of 1, and my husband (34M) and I would like to have another baby. We currently pay a nanny but I would like to take a step back and drop to part time to stay home with my kids until the new baby is 3.

Currently I am on track for retirement (a little over 1x my salary in retirement) and my husband has a pension. Additionally we have no debt, a 150k mortgage, 50k in HYSA, 6 month emergency fund, and about another 30k in a brokerage. How bad would it be for my retirement if I stopped contributing for about 3 years? Currently I’m contributing 25% of my salary. I can still max my Roth out with me working part time.

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I had no financial literacy up until I was about 25. Credit card interest up to my knees, living paycheck to paycheck with a decent paying job at the time ($75K), and barely investing with 401K not even being actually invested (I was never taught there was a Pt 2 of the equation, fun). Dove head first to teach myself all the things, started with Ramsey, graduated to Money Guys.

Just turned 31 and new job is $125K with around 40% being saved. Live well under my means but extremely comfortably, maybe just from how I grew up. Bonus came in and immediately put into my savings. I would've spent that 5 years ago in a heartbeat, so I'm smiling that it's more indicative of a mindset shift.

Started net worth tracking Feb 2025, and more than doubled it in 1 year through these new habits and discipline. Long way to go, but I'm SMILING.

Active Duty military. $610K invested ($328K taxable brokerage, $172K Roth TSP, $118K Roth IRA).

Looking to FI/RE around age 47. Will have a military pension as well (approx. $55K/yr in today's dollars, inflation adjusted).

Per my calculations, if I completely stop contributing to the Roth IRA and Roth TSP...assuming a 7% real return annually, by the time I reach age 60, I should have $1.9M in today's dollars ready for tax-free withdrawal. That + the pension + possible social security (if it still exists) means I should be well covered from age 60 onwards.

Single/no kids/no plans for any either.

My attention now turns to the FI/RE goal as I want to FI/RE at 47.

If I channel the entirety of my $50K/yr retirement contributing to my taxable brokerage and don't put in another cent into my Roth IRA/Roth TSP, I estimate having $2.2M in today's dollars at age 47 assuming a 7% annual real return in my taxable brokerage alone. That combined with the pension would easily support my FI/RE goals.

Is this smart or am I overlooking something?

Thanks!

Other than my 401K and Roth IRA and emergency fund. I do have some extra money to invest in my brokerage account in a fidelity account that I have. Ive only invested in single companies stocks. Just looking to see others options people are investing in. I’ll do my own due diligence but any stocks you’re fan of or have seen have good growth send them my way thanks!