I'm 34, make about $50-55k as a cook, and I'm working toward an accounting degree. I already max my Roth IRA and get my full 401(k) match (5% of my income). I weigh around 388 lbs and have weight-related mobility issues. A GLP-1 may be my best option, but it would cost $500+/month out of pocket as insurance won't cover it. In the FOO, when does investing in your health and longevity take priority over maximizing retirement contributions, especially if improving your health may be necessary to reach retirement in the first place?

Looking for insight on slowing down retirement contributions to purchase a family home. Currently make 186k combined, contribute 36k to 401k, 3k per month. Have 340k in 401ks as of now. We are 29 years old.

We compute if we don’t contribute anything more we would have 2.9m at a 7% return, at age 60.

We are thinking of reducing 401k to be 15%. Would be 27.9k in total and allocate the rest to a mortgage. This would put us at 6m at 60, with 7% growth.

With down payment, the purchase price of the house could be 450/475k to make the payments fall in line with our current mortgage + additional cash from slowing retirement contributions.

Has anyone weighed something similar? Taking the current house satisfaction over long term retirement savings? We go back in forth on if we would rather enjoy a family home now versus having a larger nest egg and option to retire earlier.

I have 145k saved across all accounts. Roth IRA, HSA, brokerage, 401k. At the end of this year, I’m quitting my job to travel around and enjoy life. I’ve set aside 30k of that 145, so if I were to travel till the money is gone, I’ll be job searching with 115k still to my name.

I know it’s crazy, but I’m going to do it anyway. I only get one life. Just curious if anyone had any thoughts.

This study is release every three years, which means that up until last Friday the latest available number were from 2022. If you watch personal finance videos on YouTube, many of the creators use these numbers for a broad statistical profile of family finances in the US. I think Brian and Bo have drawn on these reports for various shows, and viewers always asked why they were using the 2022 numbers.

But now the results from 2025 have been published; here is the PDF summarizing the results:

https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/scf26.pdf

You can also download the actual data, if you are so inclined.

I work for a mid sized biotech and my first lot of RSUs will be vesting soon.

I understand the need to diversify, but I would like to believe that my company is on the upswing. Not crazy like how some tech stocks had grown over the years, but at least a chance to outperform the market in the next ~3-5 years. But of course, the down side risk is also always there, because you never know how things could turn out.

We have cliff vesting so essentially I would have some RSUs vesting once a year. Any advice on what I should do?

I’ve been taking a closer look at our finances, specifically emergency reserves, sinking funds, and cash set aside for improvements to our primary residence and rental property. After going through everything, I’ve realized we’re a bit cash-heavy.
By my calculations, I have roughly $40K that could be moved into a brokerage account without touching our emergency fund or other planned reserves.

A little background: I’m 49, and my wife is 45. We’ve been saving toward building a detached studio for her ceramics business. However, with current interest rates and construction costs, we’re both hesitant to take on the additional mortgage payment that would come with the project.

We also feel we’re a little behind where we’d like to be with retirement savings, so continuing to build our investments is a priority. Fortunately, we have a large walkout basement that’s serving as her studio for now, so there’s no immediate pressure to build.

Here’s my dilemma:

I’d like to put that $40K to work rather than leave it sitting in cash, but there’s a reasonable chance we’d want to access some or all of it in approximately five years to help fund the studio.

Currently, the money is earning 3.85% in a Forbright HYSA.

For those who have been in a similar position, where would you park this money with a potential five-year horizon?

I’m particularly interested in brokerage options that offer some growth potential without taking on excessive risk, knowing we may eventually need the funds.

Would you keep it in a HYSA, look at Treasuries or bond ETFs, or consider a conservative mix of equities and fixed income?

Interested in hearing how others would approach balancing potential growth, liquidity, and capital preservation.

Hi all, 33 in the messy middle. It's open enrollment season and my employer offers a HDHP as well as a PPO with the same insurer, so no network considerations, and also for the exact same premium. We're expecting our third child next year, so heavy utilization. Based on the prices for the PPO plan services, I think it's reasonable to expect $2k-2.5k all said and done for medical bills for the fam next year (through the FSA). Our HDHP has a $4k deductible with an $8k OOPM, and of course, access to that coveted HSA (which I have currently and have built up a low 5 figure balance). I'm torn between the cash flow win with the PPO plan and the tax haven of the HSA. The PPO OOPM is $10k but short of multiple catastrophic events, highly doubt we'll come close to that. Federal tax bracket is 22% if that adds additional context. What would you all do?

Hey guys, I’m 49m and I’m eligible for a service retirement next year at 50. My wife and I have a little over $1.5M invested and will receive pensions in retirement of about $180k annually (I’m realizing how lucky and rare this is).

Last year we stupidly decided to pay off our low interest car loan using emergency fund money, leaving us with only $10k in cash available. We have been contributing almost 40% to investing over the last couple of years playing catch up.

Should we reduce our investment contributions down to the required amount for the company match, plus what’s required for our pension contributions for 2027 to replenish the emergency fund before retiring at the end of next year? ChatGPT estimates we’d free up about $40k after taxes by doing so. 3 months of living expenses for us is about $30k.

I’m torn because this will be our last high income year to invest heavily.

Mid 30s here with an under 2 kid. It's our first time going to a HDHP, we plan on maxing it out.

I know the best case scenario is to pay everything out of pocket and leave the HSA untouched, but I'm just curious if people spend down their deductible and just invest the remainder. Any costs after the deductible are pretty neglible and I would pay OOP.

The plan I'm looking at our deductible is $3500, work contributes $1800. I'm kind of seeing using the funds contributed towards the deductible as an instant 38% tax savings.

So ultimately just curious how you all utilize yours, am I in the minority?

Rebalance into stocks right away? Or do period rebalancing? Or something else?

Edit: stop judging. it’s hypothetical and exploring for knowledge and learning…. And maybe asking for a friend… hehe

Let’s say age is 40, and no debt and no need for money and balance is $100k

I just don't buy this cutoff. At 200K gross saving 25% over any reasonable compounding timeframe gets really big. Combine that with Social Security payments and I think you're golden.

Back of the envelope calculations:

$200,000*0.25=$50,000 saved per year
30 years of 6% growth give you $4,000,000-ish in today's purchasing power.
$4,000,000*0.04=$160,000 in purchasing power off investments alone.
Social Security= $74,000 per year

Total: $234,000 per year in retirement income.

What am I missing?