My mother was legally married to a woman who passed away in 2018. Over time, it came to light that there's a stock certificate for shares of AMD purchased in the 80's... wife liked to squirrel things away and not everything was automatically transferred over to mom. Mom's done lots of digging for bank accounts, retirement accounts, etc. through whatever hoops a same-sex marriage may have brought up.

The AMD stock has done pretty well since purchased, needless to say. Mom has gotten letters about unclaimed property and it does show up in California's unclaimed property database. Actually claiming it has been so far impossible.

Mom has the original Merrill Lynch receipt complete with certificate numbers. So far as we can tell, the shares are held by ComputerShare. In her digging, there's mention of a Medallion Signature required to transfer anything. Mom has accounts at Chase; Chase is worthless for help. Mom has accounts at Fidelity; Fidelity has apparently said "get to a physical office and MAYBE we can help out". If that's what she needs to do, that's a valid answer... she doesn't have one very close to her, which may be why she's not tried that option.

Is this even the right place to ask? Any help greatly appreciated, multiple attempts over several years have left her very weary of even trying. My brother and I can only do so much, we aren't financial experts, and none of us are within 1000 miles of each other to physically help her go places and get it figured out.

I’ve got around $29-30k sitting in a high-yield savings account and roughly $25k in stocks. I make about $5,500/month after tax if I don’t pick up extra shifts.

Buying a house here isn’t really on my radar anytime soon, mortgage rates are around 9%, and even a small, unremarkable house runs about $700k. I already have a reliable car worth about $15k, so that’s not something I need to save toward either.

I just don’t have anyone in my life who can actually advise me on how much I should be investing.

I know this i pretty good for my age but i have a lot of coworkers that have been on these wages for 15 years and dont have anything in the bank. I have been investing around 2k a month in the last year

Hi all- my wife has about $50k in student loans and recently her parents have offered to give her about $30k as a gift to pay off some of her student loans. They were hoping to give us a cash gift to deposit and pay off the loans. As far as I can tell the cash gift limit is $19k per individual, and depositing greater than $10k will trigger CTR form. We certainly are not doing anything insidious and none of us know the best way to go about doing this. Does anyone have any advice on how to accomplish this?

Of note, I believe that the money has to be in the form of cash since it’s what they have and they may have issues with depositing it themselves.

Appreciate any help!

I graduated college about 10 years ago. I had a job by the time I graduated, but I never prioritized starting my 401k. I always thought let me pay off debt first. Or I don’t make enough just yet. Always had a reason not to, fast forward 10 years I thought well hell let me just open it with 50 bucks per check and I’ll slowly start increasing it. I guess my plan worked because within 2 months I’m close to maxing out the 5% match. I know early 30s is later than usual but shit better late than never.

Hello,
I am 29 and preparing to physically separate from my spouse of five years. We are both high-earning tech professionals in California.
Throughout our marriage, my spouse handled all household financial logistics—utility bills, rent, joint accounts, credit cards, and investments—while I simply deposited my paychecks and focused on work. Because of this, I have never managed household finances completely solo, and I need a practical checklist to ensure I protect myself legally and financially during this transition.
Here is what I have already planned:

1. Opening an individual checking and savings account at a completely new bank solely in my name.
2. Rerouting my payroll direct deposit 100% to my new account.
3. Signing my own studio apartment lease and setting up my own utilities (electric, internet, renter's insurance).
4. What else do I need to prioritize right now?
5. How do I request and document copies of existing joint accounts, tax returns, credit card balances, and brokerage/retirement assets without escalating conflict?
6. Should I pull my own credit report immediately to see if there are any joint debts or authorized-user accounts in my name?
7. Any common blind spots people miss when separating finances prior to formal legal filing in a community property state (California)?
8. Any advice or practical checklists would be greatly appreciated.

Ive been contributing 8% to a 401k through my job…no employer match, with a retirement target year 2050, currently has around 65k with a estimate of 533k in 2050

I know very little about the subject but from ive read i should keep my current 401k, lower the contributions maybe half to 4% and put the difference in a roth ira?

Just looking for any advice

Edit…additional info, i make about 60k a year, i am married, and i live in New Jersey

The title sums it up. I'm a 24F and I am constantly freaking out about my personal finances and losing sleep over working a 8-4 and side hustles and being utterly exhausted and it feels like I'm still not making enough.

For context, I am a singer and I got my undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance and Theatre Arts before moving to a larger city to pursue my artistic career (I really dont want to argue with people about "choosing a bad major" so keep those thoughts to yourself please). I had help with paying for my degree so I have no student loans luckily, and I have always considered myself financially savvy but a couple recent emergencies have really put a bad taste in my mouth. My cat had to be hospitalized and unfortunately the entire expenses added up to $15K (again, I dont want to hear that I shouldve put her down or something) and I have a couple doctors expenses that are going to total around $3k out of pocket by the end of the year. Luckily, Ive been working since highschool and I saved everything I made in an emergency fund that was $9k and I have family who loaned me the extra money for my cat so I wouldn't have credit card debt, but the expectation is to pay them back about $5k whenever I can. So I'm feeling stressed about needing $8k more and rebuilding my emergency fund, which I now want to be between 15-20k because yeeeesh what a vet bill.

I am currently working 32-40 hours a week at an 8-4 making $17 an hour, I teach private lessons and workshops at a music school for about 2-8 hours a week making $30 an hour (and will hopefully be working more as I get more students), and I work a social media side hustle that gives me $50 a month (this one is just fun and less than an hour of work a week). I am actively performing so I have about 10 hours of rehearsal each week as well, not paid other than a very small stipend, but as you can see my schedule has gotten overwhelming very quickly and I am constantly exhausted.

Financially, I expect to make around $2,200 a month. I have no car payment, no student loans, and not any outstanding expenses that are immediate other than paying back my family so all my monthly money is divided up like this.

Rent- $650

Transportation/Gas - $150

Groceries - $200

Eating out - $100

My cat - $100

Laundry - $20

Subscriptions - $12

Performance things (like voice lessons) - $200

House maintenance - $50

Personal expenses - $100

Fun money - $75

So totaling about $1657 for regular expenses, that leaves me with around $543 a month of extra money. I am currently putting $100 a month into my emergency fund and just started my Roth at $75 a month so we are down to $367. I also have a dear friend's birthday this week so I'm planning on spending about $200 total for their birthday expenses (plus I feel like we can assume around this much comes up in random unexpected expenses), so that leaves me with $167 a month extra.

This feels like next to nothing when looking at such big goals like paying back my family and rebuilding my fund. I was going to begin auditions for graduate school this year but will have to pay for all the planes and auditions myself so I dont even know if i can afford to go to school and not be working while I'm paying this off. I think I just am hoping someone will tell me I'm on the right track (or wrong track!) with my thinking and budgeting, but I would love any and all advice on what to move around in my budget. Thank you guys so much!!

Title says it all basically, I have a house that’s worth $1.2m I owe $500k on it. I’be been debating selling and buying a house around $500k to be able to jump start my investment accounts. I previously had holdings in VOO and some other stuff.

TLdr: have nice house or have avg house and $700k in stock, I’m 29 yo

Thanks In advance

Edit:
QOL wouldn’t really change, I’d be moving from a brand new build on estate lot, to an upper class neighborhood. Same school district. My interest rate would be the same. I would be borrowing the 500k for new house not owning it outright. Bills would stay the same(prop tax would be less)

I just learned today that you can roll 35k from a 529 into an IRA after 15 years. Currently I have maxed out my IRA and maxed my employer match on my 401k (but I don’t want to do more since the options for what I can buy aren’t great). I am still on my parents insurance so I cannot open an HSA yet. Would opening a 529 with the goal of using it as a tax advantage account that I can just add to my IRA later on be a bad idea?

Hello, I'm 23 in Europe and just graduated. I live with my parents and have around 7000eu in savings.

I will soon start a job where I will be paid about 2650eu net/month but as I will still live with my parents, I will be able to save this money aggressively (I'm thinking about 2000eu a month, probably more as I won't pay for rent nor food most of the time, but I prefer to keep a margin).

I will probably live with my parents for another 2 years and then rent a room in a cheap apartment with roommates. My goal is to buy my own apartment (aiming for a 200-250k property) in a European capital city in 4-5 years (for personal reasons, I won't be able to buy before that with the job I will have) so I'm wondering if it's really interesting to invest now even if I will need a substantial amount of this money in 4-5 years? Or will I likely have the possibility to invest on one side and save enough for a mortgage on the other side?

My question is when should I start investing and how much should I keep in savings knowing my goals?

I don't really have any financial education (other than some Youtube channels I follow), so I'm a bit lost.

I was also thinking of discussing this with a financial advisor at my bank but I feel like their job is just trying to sell me products and I don't like that but I don't really know who to contact otherwise.

I have a large sum of money in a bank account that is earning zero interest. I have not invested it because I was setting the money aside for a house downpayment that hasn't yet happened. My bank was just purchased and the transition has been extremely messy. It's the perfect time to move my money to a HYSA until I either find a house or am ready to invest. What would be my best option so that I am still able to shift money from my checking account to the savings? I've been recommended to Capital One 360, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, and Community America Credit Union.

I had a previous bad experience with a credit union, but am also leery of online-only banking. I'm at a loss of what to look into and would appreciate any direction!

I just saw the devastating disaster that recently happened in Nepal on the news again and how devastating it is to the community. There's a CTA to donate at the end and I thought maybe I can try donating the remaining balances of my prepaid cards?

Turns out it worked! ($1 donation minimum)

If you have small leftover balances on prepaid credit cards that would otherwise go unused, you can put them toward a disaster relief instead of letting them disappear into the ether.

I just donated to the Nepal relief fund, but you can donate to any causes you choose.

This is a bit convoluted but I’m just freaking out a bit and am trying to make sure I do my next steps correctly.

(1) I had a 401k with a former employer (brokerage was John Hancock). My former employer was switching to a new brokerage by end of last month so I made a request for a direct rollover to my new employer’s brokerage before that happened.

(2) I want to roll it over to my current employer’s brokerage (Fidelity)

(3) due to some confusion in the forms apparently, John Hancock issued a check to Fidelity but the “FBO” line said my employers name instead of mine (ie “FBO [new employer]”). Fidelity said if they receive that check they can’t do anything with it.

I just learned this happened so i think I have to call JH and see if I can request them to stop the check and reissue with the correct info. But is there anything I need to watch out for given my former employer no longer has a contract with them? If they refuse to help for any reason, is there anything recourse?

I'm considering this card because it's just about the only card I've seen with 2% cash back without categories or other conditions.

I just want to make sure I can redeem the reward money the way I want, which is simply to redeem the cash value into my Capital One checking account.

Thanks!

Rent is due tomorrow so I said that I could pay it when I get my paycheck. They kept pressing for payment, even offering to put my card on file to auto pay on Friday, I hung up because I don’t like when people get pushy for my money.

That being said, do I even need to pay this? It’s so old and so little (in terms of debts). I have more medical expenses coming up so would rather not be paying for ones that are almost 6 years old.

Did what I said about being able to pay Friday reset my debt? Now I am worried

A family member of mine recently died and left me a fair amount of cash, among other things.

I was paying back debt and was almost back to being debt free after around 5 years before this came upon me, so needless to say I am in no debt. I lived with my mom until she recently passed.

She left me whay money she had saved, her car, and our house. I already had a car of my own which I nearly had paid off, so now I own two cars. I am also a single dad. I have full custody and receive no child support. I had no savings of any kind before this, lived check to check paying back debt while my mom paid our bills with her income.

She left me right around the ballpark of 71,000. Again I own my cars, and my home. I work and make net of around 38,000 a year. I need help budgeting. After doing some home improvements and buying some things, I am down to around 64.5. I need help budgeting l.

College fund/ 529 account

My son is 4 years old and I have no college fund saved. I know this is a mistake, but I wanted to be debt free before I started saving. I want to start a 529 account. Should I do it on a website like brightstart, or have it through a major investment firm like Fidelity? Does it matter?

How much should I put from my savings into this? After the initial deposit from what I have now, how much should I invest every week/month?

Retirement

I am 29 years old. I buy into a 401k at work and I put what in what they match which is 6% I think. I have no IRA. Should I start one and if so, where? Major firm like fidelity or vanguard? How much should I invest monthly/weekly?

Savings

After starting a 529 and possibly IRA, how much should I leave left over for emergency savings? Where should I store my savings, a hysa or something else?

Bills and food.

Otherwise I think I just need help budgeting utilities and food. How much should I be spending each month on basic utilities and food? I have one phone line and have internet at home. I live in a rural area.

Cars

I've never owned two cars as I've never had a reason to do so. I thought about putting one in storage. I have no garage. I do not plan on selling. To make them last, should I just drive them equally and maintain them as normal?

One is a 2015 hyundai elantra with 137k miles on it, new motor put in 40k miles ago. The other is a 19 dodge journey with 103k on it. Hyundai is better on gas I've noticed.

I'm a 22 yr old female who within the last 2 to 3 years has struggled with being quite tight with finances.

I'm currently unemployed but studying full-time for a masters and job seeking (with limited luck). So overall my only income is investment returns and interest.

My outgoings are limited, with most going towards petrol and food, however I don't remember the last time I actually bought something for myself. Perhaps a $15 candle or something a few months ago.

I need new clothes and shoes but can't convince myself to spend the money as what I currently have is fine although ill-fitting.

The main issue likely stems from my account division being basically 100% to savings and taking anything out obviously feels horrible.

Anyway, the point is that I'm not sure how to balance savings and spendings appropriately.

It seems as if there's such a large splay within my generation of those excessively spending and those overly concerned about finances. I feel as though I'm missing out on enjoying things due to my constant concern over expenses as I'd love to travel and care more for myself without being excessive.

Has anyone dealt with something similar?

How did you manage it so that you don't feel guilty every time you spend on yourself?

Hey all. I am 40, making 95k/yr with bonuses on top of that, but I’ll just stick to the 95k for now.

I am at 8% contribution to 401k with employer match of 100% up to 4% and then 50% up to 6%.

I also have my Roth IRA that I max out.

Car is almost paid off, have 4K left on that and it will be paid off in a total of 2 years, was really aggressive with the payments.

I have a HYSA with 10k in there.

What else should I be doing with my money to maximize any returns? I will also have an additional 700 a month to use once the car is paid off.

My wife makes about the same as I do, but she does not have any retirement set up. I feel like this could be some thing that needs to change and what could put us over the top.

Live in Illinois and taxes are outrageous otherwise I would be having a surplus of money to move around with.

Edit: have about 95k in Roth IRA and about 107k in 401k

Looking for advice on savings vs spending. Wife and I are both 42. In general we are somewhat frugal spenders and have aggressively saved over the past 20 years relative to our income. The market has also obviously cooperated. Current net worth is sitting at ~$2.6MM broken down as follows.

$1.6MM 401k

$100K 403b

$300K Roth IRA

$100K HSA

$200K Cash Balance Pension

$300K Home Equity

We don't have a specific dollar target, but I want to be retired by 55. $5MM has always seemed like an aggressive, but also achievable number, but I have no ties to that. I'd like to spend our retirement on a nice home and traveling. If we can leave a chunk for our kids that's a bonus.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about reprioritizing travel vs savings. We're not getting any younger and I don't want to sacrifice more than we need to to reach our goals. Am I being unreasonable to think we've done the work to set ourselves up and we can start spending more on experiences now? Posting this anonymously because money is never an easy topic to bring up with friends and family. Would appreciate any advice from those in similar situations.

Hi I just got a big boy job with a 401k match that I plan to max out. My question is, why do many people suggest maxing out your Roth IRA after hitting your employers contribution match, wouldn't putting those extra 7k in the 401k increase your gains over time a lot more, since the 401k will have a larger amount of money. In 5 years 401k would have 70k from my contributions + employee match, then if I put the money I would out in a Roth IRA it would sit at 105k. Conversely, due to the cap the Roth IRA a would be sitting around 35k. So wouldn't the 401k be earning a lot more? Let me know if I'm missing anything.

I’m working on paying off my credit-card debt, the interest rates are really high. After I pay all of my regular monthly expenses and minimum payments, I don’t have a whole lot left over to put toward the balances. I just started a new job that offers a 4% employer match on 401(k).

What would you do in this situation? Would you take the 4% match and pay the debt down more slowly, or skip the match temporarily and focus on the credit cards? I would appreciate any feedback or advice.

35 and 40 years old

My wife and I just got married and are trying to figure out the best use for a large amount of cash we have sitting in a HYSA.

Basic info:

Me: 35, $105k salary + annual bonus (typically ~$28k gross)

Wife: 40, $110k salary

Combined take-home: ~$10,123/month

No debt besides our mortgage

Illinois

Current investments:

Me:

Brokerage (VOO/QQQM): $67k

401k: $207k

Roth IRA: $8k

HSA: $16k

Wife:

401k: $114k

Roth IRA: $50k

We're both contributing heavily to retirement. I contribute about 15% to my 401k and get a 6% match. My wife contributes around $22k/year to hers.

The mortgage:

Balance: $356,105

Interest rate: 6.625%

~25.75 years remaining

Monthly payment: ~$3,479 including taxes/insurance

Current principal + interest: ~$2,408/month

The big question:

We have approximately $155,000 sitting in a HYSA, plus about $12k in checking.

We're considering:

$50k lump sum toward the mortgage

$50k into our taxable brokerage account

Keep approximately $67k liquid in cash

The mortgage payoff goal would be around 10 years by also paying approximately $300 extra per month and putting $10k/year from my bonus toward the mortgage.

My concern is whether leaving ~$67k liquid is enough. We own a house, have two dogs, and my wife has some minir ongoing medical expenses. If we both somehow lost our jobs and immediately had something like a $20k roof replacement, that cash could disappear quickly.

So if you were in our situation, what would you do with the $155k?

Put more toward the 6.625% mortgage?

Invest more?

Keep significantly more cash?

Something completely different?

Just looking for outside opinions because I'm having a hard time deciding between the guaranteed return of paying down the mortgage and keeping/investing the money for flexibility and long-term growth.

Hello all! Right now I am looking to upgrade and get a bigger/nicer apartment, but I’m unsure if I can afford it. I am looking for an apartment (2 bedroom) that would roughly run about 1000 a month including utilities and pet rent ($50 for each pet). Currently, I pay $772 with pet rent in 1 bedroom.

My month to month income varies (I’m a contractor). On average I would say I make around $4000 a month BEFORE taxes, but summers are slow.

Here are my monthly bills:
Health insurance $491 🥲
Car insurance: $155
Phone/apple watch+ service: around $213
Monthly subscriptions: $50
Internet: $60

Gas: probs $50 a week
Groceries: probably the average amount for 1 person, plus cat food and litter for my 3 cats.

Could I afford an apartment that cost, and still have money to spend on wants?

Thanks!

20 year old dude who is recovered from a terrible gambling addiction. I am a full time student but I run my own landscaping and dirt work business while in school. On AVERAGE (busy season way more and winter way less) I make about $5-5.5k a month after taxes and all business expenses. I have a regular savings account with my local bank that has $5k, a HYSA with Ally that has $15k, and I just opened a Roth IRA and put around $2.5k in it (planning to max it out).

I am not into the stock market like majority of people say to do. I work hard for my money and am scared to lose it on stocks (funny cause I used to blow ALL my money at the casino lmao) when I can get a guaranteed return on a HYSA or Roth . The risk to return just doesn't appeal to me.

Am I making the right moves? I feel I am far ahead than most people my age but I want to make sure I am allocating money in the correct places. Is there more investment opportunities I am missing?