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He has a gambling problem, he just happens to be using IRA money. Separate finances, you take control of everything he makes. Read the book below for a financial education. Get him therapy zero exceptions. Financial infidelity is a big issue. He needs to get at root of problem. https://www.amazon.com/Morningstars-30-Minute-Money-Solutions-Step-ebook/dp/B00316UN3O

Honestly, inherited IRAs aren’t too complicated — advisors just want you to think they are so that they can collect fees.

Here some things to keep in mind: - Setup your inherited IRA through Vanguard (best customer service and lowest fees in my experience) - Speak to a specialized inherited IRA (you can call the general phone number and get redirected) - If you already have a brokerage account there, you can send RMDs (required minimum distributions) from your inherited IRA to your brokerage account. If you don’t have a brokerage account with Vanguard, I suggest setting one up. I found this useful setup guide a few weeks ago. This call to Vanguard is a one time setup and you will never have to do any calculations. - If you’re curious about how your RMDs are calculated, check out this free calculator from Charles Schwab - The reason why you want to take out the money via RMDs instead of a lump sum is so you don’t get hit with an insane tax bill. - Don’t pay a financial advisor a bunch of money if you don’t need to!

Hope this helps.

For someone who isn’t a financial advisor, I’d call this pretty damn good opining. If you wanna go more in depth on what u/RyanFromPropel is talking about, Check out I Will Teach You to be Rich and Money Honey. They’re both simple and practical advice on financial planning clearly written for a younger audience. They changed my whole mentality around money, helped me budget, and helped me figure out how to, practically set up all of my long term investment accounts.

OP if you have the cash and you do things manually (e.g. mail envelopes) just pay everything at once and make you life easy. I personally have every payment automatically pulled from my bank on the payments due date. I never miss a payment this way. But you need to budget carefully and be vigilant that you don't empty your account by accident or through some payee overbilling you. I use YNAB https://www.youneedabudget.com/ to do cashed based budgeting to keep track.

You are probably old enough to read this book

The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness https://www.amazon.com/dp/0857197681/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_GEGATR7JAMGR84MYBJNW

I found it very informative when I started learning about all this stuff

You might check the sidebar in /r/personalfinance.

I spend less than I earn. I have a portion of my paycheck deposited directly into savings. I always wait a day or more before making a non-routine purchase to make sure I still want it after a cooling off period. I pay for just about everything by credit card, but I pay the balance off every month. Both for the points and for the next suggestion:

You might look into a free budgeting tool such as Mint or Personal Capital to help track where your money is going -- easiest if you pay by credit / debit card.

Good on you for working to get yourself into a better financial situation.

I recommend "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham. It taught me everything I know starting up, from bonds to stocks and the history behind it all. https://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Investing-Essentials/dp/0060555661

Edit: it's a cheap book that's totally worth it, but if you don't want to invest the money into it then check your local library. Libraries have networks throughout their state and can get just about any book you want without the shipping costs.

Stock Picking:

• One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch

• The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham (old book, so get the one w/ commentary by Jason Zweig)

• The Warren Buffet Way by Rob Hagstrom

Indexing:

• Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel

• Common Sense on Mutual Funds by John Bogle

Saving:

• The Richest Man in Babylon by George Samuel Clason

I'm sure someone could add to this list, but these are just what I've read so I can recommend each of them. I'd start with The Richest Man in Babylon - it's an allegory and has a lot of great beginner's lessons on saving. Good principals to ingrain as you begin to invest.

OP, just wanted to say I second /u/fwuboy85 's advice. I know I'm just a random internet stranger but I feel for your situation and have lived through it. On January 1st, 2016 I was $32,000 in debt, and by following Dave Ramsey's plan, next month I will have $0 debt. It took sacrifice and time, but dammit it worked!

Go to your local library and see if they have Total Money Makeover or The Complete Guide to Money. Dave Ramsey not only helps get people out of debt, but helps couples communicate about money. 10/10 would recommend to anyone.

529s or a taxable investment account are both good options, depending on your priorities. I’m of the view that it is never too early to start on the 529s, assuming that your retirement savings are satisfied.

If you look at any of the predictions about how much college will cost in 16 years, it might shock you.

Here are two calculators you use to estimate the future college costs:

1. Schwab College Savings Calculator

2. Vanguard College Savings Planner

Why would they not accept your son on your wife's group plan? Unless there are prior-existing conditions, group plans will accept anybody eligible. You should be able to qualify for a 'life event' because of the cancellation of Medicaid - if you didn't, you'd have to wait for her employer's open enrollment. Which might be in five months (or could have already passed) - either way you're actually quite lucky to be able to keep coverage on baby.

> Do I have options with another company?

I mean, have you seriously not heard about these 'health care exchanges' that allow you to shop for healthcare plans? They've been kind of a big deal.

However, your wife's group plan is almost definitely better - private insurance is prohibitively expensive or the cheaper options have high deductibles. You're going to have to do research to see what the best fit is. I'm also still trying to understand how, "no insurance seems to want to take him on" if the only plan you've looked at is your wife's work plan. Is that what we're talking about here?

It sounds like life has been throwing you a few curve balls the past couple of months, but the reality is that you lost the Medicaid benefit by failing to respond to your insurer in a timely manner. The 'outrageous price' for insurance through your wife's work plan is the consequence of not keeping Medicaid. It sucks, but that's how it works.

You might crosspost this to /r/insurance - I would imagine there are some Health agents over there who might be able to speak better to cancellations and some of your specific questions about carriers and coverages (and the documentation needed) than I could.

TL;DR - Wife's work benefit is probably best, but look at Healthcare Exchanges as an option too.

Here’s a good book to get you started in the link below.

Brokerage and Roth/IRAs are like buckets. Stocks and bonds are the things you put in them. Each bucket has rules that apply to them. Those rules make them advantageous based on certain situations. Index funds group stocks/bonds into one stock symbol for example VT, VOO, and so on. When you invest in an index fund you spread your investment across the companies in that index fund. Hope that helps a bit. I started just 2 years ago but still have a lot to learn. Good luck!!

The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life https://www.amazon.com/dp/1533667926/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_VN3VMCSHWDS0WRZMC1XF

Roth - Target date Fund 2045 Brokerage - VTSAX and VHYAX

Read, read, read. A great one to start with is "The Millionaire Next Door" You can probably get it free from you local library. Learn as much about budgeting, investing and living below your means.
Knowledge is power so build you knowledge.

Without knowing your age or salary I would just advise to save as much as possible. Chances are if this is a first salaried job, you are a young guy. There isn't a formula for saving money. What you save often depends on how much you make. The overarching theme any person that comes into excess money should remember is to be frugal. Try to save/invest as much as you can. Make your money work for you. I recommend the book I Will Teach You to be Rich. I read it and found it pretty helpful.

In terms of savings, you might want to reach for these savings goals:

1. Open an IRA. Yes an IRA is a retirement account but it is the best investment you can make. You can long term invest without many tax restrictions. Start early. Throw what you can in there every year. It will be the difference between having enough to get by and being comfortable later in life. You might also want to open a 401k(retirement account) if you can. Often times your employer will match around 50% of what you contribute.

2. Create a rainy day fund. I.E. Save for 6 months unemployment. You never know when you'll need some extra funds. 6 months worth of rent, food, and any other needs should be kept in a liquid/conservative investment. I would recommend a bond fund.

3. Save/Invest for your future goals. It is never to early to start saving for property/car/school/whatever you want. With extra money buy some stock or put your money in a mutual fund. Put 5k in a fund every year for 5 years and you have a sweet new sports car. Just save what you can.

Best of luck with your new job. Hope this helps.

While I haven't read it myself it would appear that The Total Money Makeover is his seminal work. I'd start there.

Beyond that given that you're a student the primary goals should be to land a career that can pay the bills and keeping at bay the crippling credit card debt that many seem to accrue as students. Student debt is likely already a done deal.

Your current and projected tax rates are the biggest factor when deciding between the two, but there are some other considerations.

You can withdrawal principal contributions from a Roth any time for any reason with no taxes or penalties because the money has already been taxed. This could make Roth's attractive to someone who might want the tax free growth, but might also want access to the principal before they reach age 59.5.

Another factor is estate planning. Roth IRAs can continue to grow tax free for the inheritors for a period of time. https://www.schwab.com/ira/inherited-ira/withdrawal-rules

A third factor is tax diversification and having options during retirement. I've already seen the tax rules change on Roths once, and I'm pretty confident that there will be more changes for all types of retirement accounts in the next 20 years as people tie up more and more wealth in these types of accounts. If you have all of your eggs in one basket, and the basket rules change to your detriment, you won't have any options. If you diversify into different account types, you can adapt.

This is why we choose to spread our retirement savings into different account types. We are about 50/50 between 401k and Roth.

Do you not already contribute to retirement accounts through your jobs? 401k etc? Either way, a Roth IRA is 100% the right next move if you make under the contribution limits. https://www.schwab.com/ira/roth-ira/contribution-limits

It doesn’t sound like you need a traditional financial planner and I would be wary of one that would take you as a client. A good one would charge you 5k+ and a bad one would stick you in some high fee insurance BS.

That said, Schwab has a solid program for $300 and $30/mo if you want on going advice. For a relatively simple plan like yours, it’s the best route that I know of.

I'm not sure of your age or situation, but most advisors will tell you to pay yourself first. In this case you did, but just need to keep it that way.

I wish I could go back in time and put money into a 401k or IRA. That money grows tax free and the magic of compounding is an added bonus.

My advice is to setup an IRA with a low cost index mutual fund and transfer the money there. Then setup a budget to knock out that CC, and then the loans.

As for the old 401K you should still be able to get the funds.

https://www.schwab.com/resource-center/insights/content/lost-your-old-401k-heres-how-to-find-it

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/112315/what-happens-401k-after-you-leave-your-job.asp

First, I'm so sorry to hear about your father's passing. I offer my sincere condolences. During this time, you'll have to gather up some information about your family's finances. What I recommend first is jotting down all of your household's assets and liabilities. Then, write down your family's monthly income and expenses. Once everything is accounted for, I suggest inputting everything into a personal finance software. There's a plethora of options - some free, some not - that are suitable for you. "GnuCash" and "See Finance 2" are the ones I personally use.

GnuCash: https://www.gnucash.org/

See Finance 2: https://scimonocesoftware.com/products/see-finance/

Not only will you have greater control over your finances, you'll gain confidence and have peace of mind. Hope this helps and best of luck!

Peace...

A PC+monitor doesn't draw that much. Go buy a Kill-a-watt or other electricity usage monitor and see how many watts his setup consumes in an hour. (For example, https://www.amazon.com/P3-P4460-Kill-A-Watt-Tm-Ez/dp/B01IE05C82 but you don't have to buy this particular brand or buy from Amazon.) I'm going to take a wild guess and say his setup will probably consume 100-200w per hour.

Compare with A/C: a whole-home unit will probably draw 5,000-6,000 watts per hour. A window A/C unit will probably draw 1,200 watts.

Note about his room being hot: It could also be the human in it too, if the room is sealed up. A human releases about 60 watts of heat. And the fact that the heat is *in* his room could be a good sign that the home (or at least his room) is well insulated and the heat is not escaping.

Good insulation is the first step in reducing energy usage. Shade the home, increase insulation, keeping the home sealed, keep shades down on the sunny side during the day, avoiding heat-increasing activities (OK, your brother won't stop using the PC, but for example don't make dinners in the oven or on the stove - grill outside instead), replace incandescent light bulbs with LED bulbs (you'd be surprised how much heat is given off by multiple bulbs in one room), and consider allowing the A/C setting to be 78 degrees instead of 72. Also, timers: if you get a A/C window unit, maybe get one that runs for an hour or two at a time before he'd have to manually restart it?

Anyway, a 2000 square foot home is a lot to cool. $500 does not sound abnormal.

The true lifetime cost of smoking is estimated between $1m - $2m. I’m sure you could imagine putting that money for better uses. Order Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking when you’re ready to stop. It’s very effective & saves you $1m - $2m! By the way, good for you for prioritizing loan repayment over some nice-to-haves. Hopefully refinancing can offer you some relief.

Get a Financial Life is my favorite personal finance for young adults.

Bogleheads is the place to go for investing. Very beginner friendly. The videos are super cheesy but very accurate and unbiased.

The Dave Ramsey way is to have a 1,000 emergency fund then pay off all debt smallest to largest, this way you keep up your motivation and free up bits of your income. Which is your strongest wealth building tool! He suggests to not contribute to retirement while paying off debt so you can focus all your energy and money in paying off debt. Then build a 3-6 month emergency fund. Then start saving for retirement.

As for the Roth, that is the best type of retirement account. I use wealth front currently. I like it. However I will probably change it to somewhere else when I am done paying off debt and adding to it again. I have made 14% in the last year on it. Here's a referral link so you can have an extra 5k invested with no fees. https://wlth.fr/2cMrvJG

Any Toyota or Honda will last a long time! Try to save up cash for the car! Can do this before going crazy on the student loans.

If you want good money advise try reading Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" book

I'm not too sure about investing literature per say, but the three books that gave me a huge advantage in the personal finance world are; Rich Dad, Poor Dad. By, Robert Kiyosaki, The Richest Man in Babylon. By, George S. Clason, and The Total Money Makeover. By. Dave Ramsey.

Those will give you some pretty great starting points on how to manage personal finances.

Something I enjoyed reading, though perhaps not quite as specific as what you desire, was "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas J. Stanley. Showed me wealth is more achievable than I thought, also made me consider the value of things outside of money.

I 100% agree. Go with a Vanguard (low fee) index fund. Keep it simple. At $90k, you could also start a separate Roth IRA thru Vanguard. You can have both a Roth 401k and your own Roth. You're on the right path. Enjoy traveling, that's great. For more ideas, read Mr. Money Mustache and The Millionaire Next Door. You don't have to follow these word for word but they will give you a base of knowledge from which to start your financial future, based on your personal goals.

It is difficult to offer any useful tailored advice at this stage since there is a lot of missing information about your situation and there are concepts that you are not familiar with yet.

To get started, spend some time understanding your financial goals:

• What do you want to use this money for?
• When do you want to use this money?

Then you can begin deciding how to invest:

• What are the different asset classes and which should you choose?
• How much risk can you handle?

When you have a handle on that but before you start investing:

• How do the different account types differ and when is each appropriate?
• How do fees work?
• What are the different brokerage options and which should you choose?
• How often will you be contributing?
• What is your contribution limit on your registered accounts?
• What is the difference between active versus passive investing?
• What is the difference between a stock, mutual fund, and ETF?

I would recommend starting with the book "The MoneySense Guide to the Perfect Portfolio". It does a great job of getting into most of these topics and is written in a focused fashion. It is aimed at Canadians which is nice since most of the personal finance books that get recommended have a US angle to them.

Some other books that I found helpful when I was getting started:

• The Millionaire Next Door
• The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
• The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns

They are still relevant to Canadians even though they get into US-specific accounts.

For a Canadian angle on financial topics, try /r/PersonalFinanceCanada

When you say $2,000 per month expendable income do you mean that's how much you have after paying all your bills?

If so, snowball the heck outta those debts first. Here's what I would do. In the first two months you can have the high interest credit cards paid off. Then apply the money that would've gone to those credit cards to paying off your car. You'll be free of those debts, the credit cards and car loan, in 4 months. Then you can build up the 6 month savings. Immediately after that, you can focus all your money on the student loans without worrying about anything at all.

I got Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover book for Christmas. I'm just now getting to chapter 8, Finish The Emergency Fund. This is baby step three in his formula for debt elimination. Basically, the $1,000 emergency find will suffice until you have everything paid off besides your mortgage. From what I've read so far, it seems that his logic comes from the idea that if you do lose your job or something, you definitely don't want to be both homeless and in debt. At least you'll have a car that you own to sleep in...

But $23,000 isn't very much in student loans. My wife has $80,000 in student loans that we'll start attacking in spring of 2015 after paying our credit cards and car loan. I'm on the fence about doing baby step three before attacking the student loans because the student loans are so high it will take us about 5 years to pay them off with our current income. However, I'm going to hit this head on, with 'gazelle like intensity' as Dave puts it, and get a part time job on top of my full time job to speed up the process.

age x all pre-tax income x 10%

is the formula that The Millionaire Next Door uses to determine if you are a "prodigious accumulator of wealth".

What Does Nevada’s $35 Billion Fund Manager Do All Day? Nothing

Pension Advisers Learn the Folly of Trying to Beat the Market

It's actually pretty simple. Use schwab's annuity calculator.

"Income Annuity Estimator: Calculate Your Payout | Charles Schwab" https://www.schwab.com/annuities/fixed-income-annuity-calculator

If you put in the monthly benefit you would receive from your db plan at a given age when you start and enter your current age it will then give you what it would cost today to buy that annuity (or the NPV) with different options for life only, joint life, period certain, etc.

Not sure why you’re downvoted. This is a good option if OP has any earned income. If so a Roth IRA would be a good choice to put your investment money.

https://www.schwab.com/resource-center/insights/content/can-you-contribute-to-an-ira-if-you-don-t-have-a-job

As my referral, you can get up to $500 when you become a Schwab client and make a qualifying net deposit. Get started with my personal referral link.

https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/nn/. refer-prospect.html?refrid=REFER6YP762V8

Referral: REFER6YP762V8

You'd be hard pressed to find any app where you don't need an account these days. If you'd like that route you'd most likely need to create your own Excel spreadsheet.

If you decide you don't mind making an account YNAB is a good service. They have an app and a desktop version you can work between/sync.

I would put it into some ETFs. I don't really know your timeline for when you would be retiring and using the money so wouldn't make any specific recommendations but this may be a good article for your to read. http://seekingalpha.com/article/1949811-concerned-about-being-underinvested-you-should-be to get an idea on your possible risk timelines if the market does go bad. As a young university student, I am looking forward to the next extended bear market to give me a chance to buy into a market bottom and then buy on the way back up again.

This is a neat post. Mentions SquareCash & Facebook Pay, but also Robinhood and one I haven't heard of yet: Prism

Prism looks interesting. Gonna have to check it out. Anyone else used it yet?:

https://www.prismmoney.com/

If you have a smart phone I would suggest checking out LEVEL MONEY on android and IOS. This apps syncs with your accounts and breaks down your budget down to how much you can spend in a day and it recalculates how much is left in your budget on daily basis so you know how much you have left at all times.

https://www.levelmoney.com

Also another one I heard mentioned alot and it's software I believe is

https://www.youneedabudget.com

I never used it personally but it gets mentioned quite often. From what I gather it also syncs with your accounts too

Read this book (check your local library before purchasing a copy), it's an easy read that won't take more than a week or two, and you'll have everything you need. The three-fund portfolios that others have mentioned follow the same guidelines.

Investing truly is simple. But the industry strives to make it as complicated as possible so you'll give up and pay them to do it for you.

Read this book ASAP. Join the Boglehead forum (google search). In short, low fee index ETF index funds or equivalent vanguard funds (according to what I’ve been told they are equally tax efficient)

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Books, Big Profits) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119404509/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_P6GBXWQ0TZW5PKQY3D9R

I read it on this book, but I think I have it confused with the first thing (I assume ETF) Vanguard put out. Which of course now I can’t remember

https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Path-Wealth-financial-independence/dp/1533667926

Personal finance “for dummies”. Eric Tyson MBA personal finance for dummies

Rather than sticking to the Internet where you can get some really dumb answers, I would recommend reading a couple books. Go to the library and save yourself a few bucks. Books I would recommend (and I teach a personal finance class) to start off are:

https://www.amazon.com/Index-Card-Personal-Finance-Complicated/dp/1591847680

https://www.amazon.com/Behavior-Gap-Simple-Doing-Things/dp/1591844649

It was about two years ago I read about bidets (I think in frugal) and my God, what a difference in money saved, cleanliness, comfort.

bidet seat

adapter that comes with seat sux, so buy this one

Dave is also on YouTube, Sirius XM, and your local radio station and has a ton of books out. The book for starters is called "The Total Money Makeover". Well worth the purchase price. It's available on YouTube as an audiobook: https://youtu.be/k3BkTOs7aQY.

Read this book, "The Richest Man in Babylon". It is a short read and has lots of good financial concepts.

edit: My favorite of them is >Each time I was paid I took one from each ten pieces of copper and hid it away. And strange as it may seem, I was no shorter of funds, than before.

I just started a few months ago on Dave Ramsey's plan. His book that I suggest you read first is, The Total Money Makeover. With his 6 baby steps to financial freedom. You will get debt free and stay debt free.

First of all, congrats on getting started at such a young age! The fact alone of you getting started so early makes you infinitely more likely to be successful! As far as resources, here are a few:

Websites:

Mr. Money Mustashe

Www.getrichslowly.org

Books:

Total Money Makeover - Dave Ramsey

I Will Teach You to be Rich - Ramit Sethi

Your Money: The Missing Manual

The Millionaire Next Door (at least the first chapter)

There are plenty more but this is what I could think of off the top of my head. Your main focus at this point should simply be to educate yourself on how money works and avoiding debt. Good luck!

Hell ya its attractive (if I substitute Arizona for Colorado or Tennessee)! And its very possible. You just need to know basic personal finance skills. And the earlier you get started, the more its going to pay off. I really enjoyed three books I've recently read: the Boglehead's Guide to Investing, I Will Teach You to be Rich, and the Total Money Makeover. Took me 3 weeks to read them all, and its probably the best investment I've ever made.

My goal is substituting "retirement" (which my mind associates with not working and sitting around all day) with "financial independence." FI means not having to work if I don't want to - maybe starting up a side project or beginning in a new field. For example, I'm in the medical field. When I reach financial independence, I'll probably still work part time in the medical field because I enjoy it. But I'll also build computers for people - which probably isn't profitable, but I'd be doing it because its awesome.

I'm in the middle of reading The Millionaire Next Door. So far the book has been pretty good at speaking about the habits of millionaires. What I enjoy most is that it encourages you to look at your own expenditures and compare that to the millionaires. I think that we all feel like we need a reference point as to "how much" we should be spending... ie- if you make 6 figures you need to drive an expensive car. But this book shows that there are plenty of very wealthy individuals who don't drive expensive cars or have custom made suites etc... industry specific of course.

In order to provide real sound advice we need a lot more information.

Are you working? Are you planning on retiring? When are you planning on retiring? How old are you? Do you believe in 'the market'? Does the idea of having money in the market scare you? What is your most important financial goal? Do you have dependents? Are you saving for someone to go to college? We know you have no debts, but do you have any other savings? 401(k)'s? What's the dollar amount? Because the advice for $1 million in a tax free savings account is much different then the advice for $1,000 in a tax free savings account.

The quick and easy answer is to head over to /r/investing, in the sidebar on the right go to Recommended Reading. Start with "The Bogleheads Guide to Investing" (the last book on the list) and work your way up to "The Intelligent Investor". Bogleheads is super easy read, and very accessible to just about everyone. Intelligent investor has some older language in it, and takes a couple reads to get into the 'tone' of the book. Although modern versions tend to have additional 'explanation' chapters. It's going to be the toughest read.

Hi there, Agent with a major life insurance company here. I suggest "The Boglehead's Guide to Investing". That's basically where my suggestions are coming from. That and "The Intelligent Investor" form the foundation of my investing and personal finance advice (citing sources, and providing some great reads).

Create an Emergency Fund, in cash or cash equivalent (Money Market fund, or bank account). At least 6 months. 1 year if you can put it together. This is not an investment, do not consider it part of your overall investing.

Lacking any other information about your risk tolerance, let's go with John Bogle's suggestion. 100 - Age = Risk Tolerance. 100 - 28 = 72 Whatever money you put together to invest with 72% of it should be in something very aggressive (because you're young). 28% should be in something very safe.

Look into Exchange Traded Funds for the 72%. I hate investing in individual stocks (had a bad experience in 2008), but the overall market is much easier to pay attention to. Head to Vanguard to find the original, but most investment companies have them these days. Look into a Money Market Mutual Fund (separate account), or perhaps a tax advantaged bond fund for the 28%. That being a mutual fund of bonds issued by the state you live in. They have state tax advantages.

Congrats on the windfall and kudos to you for looking for the best ways to use it.

Most importantly: it sounds like your mortgage is an ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) and the rate will re-set in 2 years. That could be dicey since there's no way to know what interest rates will look like then or what your ability to refinance might be. Due to that and your husband's health, if it were me, I'd pay off the mortgage now.

However, you need to continue to educate yourself on finance and commit to putting whatever you had been putting towards a mortgage towards an emergency fund with at least 3-6 months of expenses in it, and retirement savings. Make both auto-withdrawals every time you get paid. You both should be maxing out a RothIRA every year at minimum. After that, learn about investing in index funds. Check out r/bogelheads and The Little Book of Common Sense Investing.

You obviously need to get some of those home repairs done. Maybe put half your former mortgage payment into a bucket saving for home repairs, and the other half goes into emergency fund bucket, then when that is done start aggressively saving for retirement.

Good luck!

There are lots of topics to consider here: Tax, estate planning, investment and retirement, the kids education and probably some life insurance. I would recommend talking to a Certified Financial Planner, because they are going to be able to walk you through all of these topics. A good planner will help educate you on what you need to know through the process as well. You can find a pro at: https://www.letsmakeaplan.org/

For self education on investing you might try https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/1118921283/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=fddb52ed-a408-4824-9626-1b3296c7bb47

Read a book like https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Results/dp/0273722077 - but an example of a well diversified fund is something from the Vanguard company - but there are lots of different options so you need to do some reading to understand them.

If I had these options I would put 60-70% in the Spartan SP 500 Index Fund and 30-40% in the Vanguard Total International. Both are really cheap funds (expense ratio wise) which will give you ample total market domestic and international diversification. Set it and forget it!

That being said, I am not you. You have to judge for yourself what your risk tolerance is, what your goals are, etc. Target date fund is fine as the other commenter said, but I don't think the bonds in such a fund make sense at age 23 unless you don't have a stomach for risk and volatility at all.

I would definitely recommend doing some reading and learning on investing though. I enjoyed the book A Random Walk Down Wall Street and honestly just reading the Reddit Personal Finance Wiki and their resources along with various YouTubers.

I had good employer where they did the maximum they could by law. I was lucky in a way because I got the job when I was relatively young and they paid pretty good. Another way is if you own business there is something called defined pension plan which is very aggressive way to get tax free growth. I never went with this but thought it over.

https://www.schwab.com/small-business-retirement-plans/personal-defined-benefit-plan

I think Schwab does still charge a fee for buying non Schwab funds, but there are plenty of Schwab equivalents to the Vanguard index funds available so personally I would just stick with Schwab and switch over to either Vanguard ETFs or the Schwab MF equivalents, but up to your preference u/MediocreSubject_

Hi there! Given your age and income level, I would recommend splitting your contributions between the pre and post-tax Roth.

The biggest variable to consider is your expected income tax rate in retirement relative to your current tax rate (based on your data - I'm assuming you're in the 22% bracket). In retirement if your tax rate is higher then the Roth would payoff because you'd avoid paying tax at the higher rate. On the other hand if you are taxed at a lower rate then the Traditional (pre-tax) option would payoff because you'd get the benefit of the current deduction at 22% and pay tax in a lower rate. Check out the Schwab calculator to explore this: https://www.schwab.com/ira/understand-iras/ira-calculators/roth-vs-trad

With your time horizon -- it's tough to forecast what your future tax rate would be. Who know what your income will be. Who knows how the tax rates will change over the next 30+ years.

Given all that - if you're ok with a little bit of complexity (2 accounts intead of 1) you could be well served to split your contributions 50/50 between the pre- and post tax roth. That would give you flexibility down the road too. Another way to look at this is, given your numbers, either option is pretty good so you could opt for simplicity and just pick one...

> IRA and 403b is money you can’t touch for decades.

This is false. Roth IRA contributions can be withdrawn tax-free at any time.

Let's make sure we're giving correct feedback when commenting to maximize the value we're giving here, yeah?

Unless you're just pissing away money for the fun of it, when you use debt to finance an investment, you're getting something worth that much debt (after factoring in the cost of servicing that debt and the expected payback period).

You uncle has two issues compared with the above. First, buying random crap on plastic isn't investing, it's just pissing away money for the fun of it. And second, he doesn't have a total wealth problem, he has a cash flow problem. He doesn't necessarily need more money, he needs a <em>budget</em> - And if he can't control his impulse spending, he may benefit greatly from cutting up his credit cards and limiting his spending to only what cash he has on-hand (I'm not a CC hater, love 'em myself, but some people just can't control themselves when holding what they perceive as a blank check).

Open a Roth IRA. I’d use Fidelity or M1 because they’re friendly for small accounts.

You need to read a few books.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Second Edition: No Guilt. No Excuses. No BS. Just a 6-Week Program That Works https://www.amazon.com/dp/1523505745/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_X6C1XYPV5BQBX81MKMYD

The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life https://www.amazon.com/dp/1533667926/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_AD7FPJHF233WPDCC0F5J.

Strong agree on an annuity. They're working with thin margins here and need something to get them through to the end of their lives. Also, if your dad isn't financially savvy, this puts the money someplace he won't be able to screw up.

https://www.schwab.com/annuities/fixed-income-annuity-calculator

Looks like your parents can get around $560/month for the rest of their lives.

>PCRA

https://www.schwab.com/pcra

That's pretty weird. A PCRA is a self directed account that basically has the ability to invest in almost everything available in the US stock market. @ my company, you have to choose to leave the 'regular' 457b to go to a PCRA.

I think it would be worth while for you. Building on what others have said.. look for a CFP designation. For fees CFPs... someone mentioned 0.5% to 1.0% of assets managed per year. Lot of CFPs won’t work with anyone unless they have $500k. But a lot of them will do a one off planning session for a few hundred bucks. For you it’ll be worth it because it sounds like there are unknown unknowns to you.

https://www.schwab.com/investment-advice

Yes you have until April 15, 2021 to make your 2020 contributions. If you make over $124,000 (single) or $196,000 (joint) you should be aware of the income limits. Although, there is a way around them.

I hear you re: unexpected surprises. Some of those are "expected unexpecteds" (Christmas, auto repair, home maintenance) that I actually recommend building into your budget, and saving the emergency fund for the Big Stuff. YNAB's Four Rules might be a good place to start: https://www.youneedabudget.com/the-rules-are-the-magic/

First, ask if there's an orientation available for the benefits program. A lot of workplaces have an optional webinar or something to learn about your options. Some places work with financial planners but that seems rare. My last position did but my others haven't.

It's also a great idea to call your insurance company or lol on the website to make sure whatever doctors you've been seeing are still covered or to replace them.

There are lots of podcasts and books on financial planning. Personally, I've found You Need A Budget to be my BFF when it comes to money management. The core philosophy is to give every dollar earned a job. This worked for me because like you, I had no guidance before I got a job. It's so easy to overspend.

tl;dr – go from % of each paycheck to $ amounts. If you can't budget for a full month with the income coming in, you now know you either need to spend less or make more.

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Hey! I had a similar issue last year when I was just starting to budget (much better now, the future is bright when you budget!) – I worked bartending, my pay was mostly cash and varied day to day and week to week. I had a difficult time "budgeting" for things because, as I'm sure you can atest, varying income meant varying outgo and I had no idea how to figure out my income for a month.

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Okay enough rambling: I found solace in You Need a Budget (https://www.youneedabudget.com/). You can create categories and log expenses, but even more important? You can log each paycheck when it comes in and immediately put the money towards the budget category that is most important to you until more money comes in.

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_________Stop reading here if you don't care about IRL examples___________

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Say my budget is the following:

Transportation: $100

Groceries: $50

Savings: $250

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If your first paycheck is $30, you need to eat and get to work before you need to save. You can put more money towards each of these categories when your next paycheck comes in.

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Hope all of that makes sense / answers your question!

To each their own. Do research on your 401k before you just sign up. If you lose out because of fees then your money isnt being efficient. Pretty simple. Here, this helped open my eyes that just because you have an option to do a 401k or 403b doesnt mean you always should. Do your research on companies.

https://castbox.fm/vb/275763776

I would recommend you start listening to the latest episodes of Radical Personal Finance podcast by Joshua Sheats.

Specifically, his latest show, How to Respond to An Emergency Loss of Income (https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cDovL3JhZGljYWxwZXJzb25hbGZpbmFuY2UubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M&amp;episode=M2MzMzRhMWUtNWY2Yi00NmNhLTk4ZTktODMwZmY3OTI5YjAy&amp;hl=en&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjQzKfR4dHoAhXBV98KHcwrCi4QieUEegQIAhAE&amp;ep=6) is a great rundown on ideas and approaches to how to weather this storm.

Both fidelity and Schwab has very basic retirement planning quiz to see if you’re on track—I believe Schwab came out with a more in-depth one that will analyze your accounts, taking into factor your age, the year you’d like to retire, estimate of expenses, etc... and run a Monte Carlo stimulation all without having to talk with a rep!

Usually the service at fidelity and Schwab (have/has both and vanguard, at some point) is good but you don’t need to talk with a live rep.

https://www.schwab.com/financial-planning/schwab-plan

https://www.fidelity.com/retirement-planning/overview

The following are your top three choices.

For education:

• Education savings account - $2,000 max annual contribution limit. Income limitations apply for the person(s) making the contribution. You can put money in until the beneficiary turns 18, funds must be used by the time they turn 30. Broad investment flexibility (you can invest in individual stocks if you want). Contributions are not tax deductible but gains are tax free if you use proceeds for qualified educational expenses.
  
• 529 - High contribution limit of up to $15,000 per person. Normally you can only invest in select mutual/index fund through the company you set up the account with. You can contribute even after the beneficiary turns 18 and no deadline on which the funds must be used by. You can get a deduction depending on which state you live in and if you open the correct state sponsored plan. It's also flexible in allowing you to change beneficiaries should the original beneficiary not attend a qualifying institution.
  

Both these account have minimal financial aid impact for college.

For non-education

• Custodial brokerage account - Invest in anything you want. Spend on anything you want as long as it's for the benefit of the minor. The money in here legally belongs to them so at age of termination (usually 18) the account becomes their's to control. This account also isn't favorable for financial aid as it counts as the minor's assets.
  

More info can be found here: https://www.schwab.com/active-trader/college-savings-accounts

Hope this helps.

I’ll put this here:

https://www.schwab.com/resource-center/insights/content/do-it-yourself-or-hire-financial-pro

I’ve sat down with a Schwab representative for free. Sat down with other and they either advise I buy an annuity or tell me something I already know while charging me a per hour. Check out Schwab. Their respectful, responsible, trustworthy, and FREE.

You don’t need to pay any fee’s if you just starting out. I consider it robbery imo.

Since he passed before 2020, the old rules still apply and ignore SECURE Act.

How you need to take money depends on whether he was over 70 1/2 or under 70 1/2 when he passed.

You likely should have taken an distribution last year, but my understanding is the IRS can be actually forgiving in this situation if you make up for those distributions.

You don’t need to take any RMDs in 2020 - this was a law change due to corona virus.

One of the options for taking inherited IRA RMDs is the 5 year rule. Half way through this article they address the 5 year option: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fiveyearrule.asp.

Charles Schwab also has a pretty good rundown of inherited IRA RMD rules: https://www.schwab.com/ira/inherited-ira/withdrawal-rules.

If you have more questions, the company where your money is held may be able to help.

Most importantly, I’m sorry for your loss. As a father, I can tell you he loved you more than you can know.

https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investment_advice/intelligent_portfolios?gclid=CjwKCAiAp5nyBRABEiwApTwjXo9duv3cwKCisY-DXyzVsfrQQFg5T57FUBJcjbkKhVT95GrY0zhxdhoCAv0QAvD_BwE&amp;src=TFY&amp;ef_id=CjwKCAiAp5nyBRABEiwApTwjXo9duv3cwKCisY-DXyzVsfrQQ...

Try going through Charles Schwab. They have a new advisory service that hooks you up with a CFP that puts together a plan for $300 and another $30/ month after that to have unlimited access to them. Incredible value relative to the rest of the industry.

YNAB is a budgeting program which is an acronym for "You Need a Budget". It's a zero-based budgeting program. You have to pay for it (they do offer a free trial), but it's changed my relationship with money. Before YNAB, I also lived within my means, but YNAB helps me prioritize what I want to spend money on each month, so I'm not accidentally spending it on the wrong things. It makes me feel like I have more money, and I don't feel guilty buying something I've saved for (vacation, new skis) while knowing I've planned for all the important expenses (property taxes, car repairs).

This is gonna sound harsh, I don't know you but I'm going to act as if I have a vested interest in you getting your stuff together for the sake of this comment. I'm also gonna make a ton of assumptions, I'm aware.

Why are your groceries $1k/mo?! Holy cow man does that include eating out? I live in Los Angeles, go out a couple times a week to decent places, get Blue Apron weekly, and frequent Costco and can't spend more than $450/mo. There is something going on there.

Try YNAB, if you're serious about saving. Also, if you recatagorize your transactions in Mint, it'll get remarkably smarter. Go through your spending, set budgets in your software of choice and set a realistic target for what you want your monthly spending to be.

Assess what your barebones spending needs are and assess where your luxuries are:

• Reduce your debt load. What are you paying on your car payments per month?
• Daycare, you're spending almost all your wife's take-home on daycare. Let that set in. What's the point of both spouses working if you're going to pass it off to people who will keep track of the kids. Your wife is then working in order to be away from the kids in practice.
• Subscriptions, make a list and suss out what they cost per year, is that service worth it to you when viewed that way?
• Call auto insurance companies yearly and negotiate your rate (assuming you aren't a high-risk insured)
• Shopping what are you shopping for? A family of four can only fit so much in a house, shopping should be for necessities and not
• Cellphones, you probably have too expensive of a plan (it seems like most people do), look at Ting or StraightTalk. You probably don't need new phones more than every 3 or so years either.

Then follow the index card.

Ok so the roth is probably very smart to confirm. The money you want to put in there is already yours and has been taxed as earned, therefore there are no additional taxes due. You can open up an IRA by yourself at any one of the DIY sites like, Etrade, Schwab, Scottrade, etc. The Vanguard target date fund line up that you noted will do fine for you and will cost very little. Once you get the account up in value either through growth, contributions or both, you can get more of an allocation going with a few funds. But you will have some time to do some research and see whats out there.

You can use someone to do this, but will either pay a commission on a mutual fund or pay some cost that you may be able to avoid for now.

If you are young I would lean more toward equities; if you were to look at the components of the Vanguard 2060 fund, its almost all equities and about 10% cash and bonds. I would follow this allocation. CDs and fixed instruments will not pace inflation and you have a very long horizon so you can stand shorter term volatility.

I hope this helps, I know it's hard to do a thorough job on here in a few minutes.

Source: financial planner.

Edited for typos.

Keep in mind - money is fungible. With your inherited IRA, you can transfer it to your own Inherited IRA, but it's not quite like an IRA you open on your own and fund with your own money.

There are rules surrounding inherited IRAs.

https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/retirement_and_planning/understanding_iras/inherited_ira/withdrawal_rules

You want to look at Traditional Non-Spouse Rules

socr2nite thanks for the response. I was working under this assumption. https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/081915/my-ira-protected-bankruptcy.asp

However these rules apply and depending on the size of the RMD and the OPs situation they could and probably should take the money and funnel the majority of it into a traditional IRA. However, more information from OP like budget, AGI, amount of inheritance would help us give better more tailored advice. Also, long term goals.

For anyone looking for a quick link this is what I found on inherited IRAs.

https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/retirement_and_planning/understanding_iras/inherited_ira/withdrawal_rules

Here's Vanguard's page about it, they call it an Individual 401k.

https://investor.vanguard.com/what-we-offer/small-business/individual-401k?lang=en

Vanguard is AMAZING for customer service, and they can walk you through all the steps on the phone. Schwab technically has a slightly lower fee:

https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/nn/m/indexfunds.html

But it's much more annoying to set up and maintain. I would go with Vanguard if you don't want to worry about it too much, and I would go with Schwab if you don't mind doing more maintenance and putting in extra time (in exchange for lower fees).

But both are ridiculously low when it comes to fees. The market average is 1% often for fees. Vanguard is .16% or even .05%, and Schwab is .03%. So it's amazing either way!

The good news is it might not even matter. Either way, it seems silly that they messed up and then reported it as a charge off. I'd try again, possibly see if you can get it escalated. Worst case, contest it with the credit bureaus and see what happens.

Hotels.com if you sign up for the loyalty program you get a free night every 10 stays. No loyalty perks, but it can free you to stay different places. They sometimes have apartments etc on the site also. If you are going branded hotels sign up for all of their promotions such as IHG, Hilton, Hyatt.

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Check out I Will Teach You to be Rich and Money Honey. They’re both simple and practical advice on financial planning clearly written for a younger audience. They changed my whole mentality around money.

Get a roommate or sub-let your apartment to someone else while renting a cheaper place for yourself, and stop taking money from your parents. Get the cookbook linked below and use it for your food. Stop telling your parents information that they would disapprove of; they don't need to know about it. That's really the only advice that anyone can give you based on the information provided but it could probably take you pretty far. Best of luck.

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Cheap-Eat-Well-Day/dp/0761184996

Read this book

The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down: Real Life Strategies for Investing in Real Estate Using Other People's Money

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Investing-Real-Estate-Money/dp/0990711714

Check out Money Honey. It’s down to earth and fun to read. But TL;DR:

1.) save an emergency fund 2.) invest in a simple maybe 60/40 domestic international index split like $VTI/$VXUS 3.) consider real estate. You could buy a duplex. Live in half, rent the other 0 mortgage and maybe some net 4.) Budget like you never had this money e.g. immediately pay yourself forward by putting it somewhere you won’t be tempted to take it out, as in your IRA your 401k your HSA and then your brokerage accounts.

Look into real estate investments with positive cash flow so you’d have $0 tax if you strategize it right.

The Book on Rental Property Investing: How to Create Wealth With Intelligent Buy and Hold Real Estate Investing (BiggerPockets Rental Kit, 2) https://www.amazon.com/dp/099071179X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_HWMH84EVTV4NF24P19FM

This is a good one because it’s pretty much multiple books in one. You really feel like you’re gaining knowledge that will put you ahead when reading it. They also have a “Personal Finance for Dummies”.

Investing All-in-One For Dummies... https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119376629?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Read this for how you should invest your whole life. It’s really the only way and it’s simple.

If you want to buy individual stocks do it with money you can afford to lose. It’s gambling

The S&P500 index is a collection of 500 American companies - as judged by the Standard & Poors Company.

The index is the collection of companies.

You can read more about the index fund and why it’s touted by investors (such as Warren Buffett) to be the most hassle free investing vehicle.

Here is a link for further reading.

Here is a book written by the found of Vanguard (John C. Bogle) on why you should use index funds.

It sounds like this is really a problem of motivation. If you have the time I would take a look at this book. It can help you develop habits that will improve how you manage money.

The only investment guide you'll ever need by Andrew Tobias https://www.amazon.com/Only-Investment-Guide-Youll-Ever/dp/0544781937 I was in your position and read this 15 years ago and retired early using his advice to invest. He updates it regularly. It tells you what you need to know in easy to understand terms and gives a good reading list if you want to go further to understand the theories supporting his advice . Read the reviews on amazon for other opinions

Thanks for the book recommendation! I'm guessing you meant the Author is Andrew Tobias, if so here is the link to the book on Amazon:

The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011H55NBM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_NrS8AbS7AG81Z

If this is not the book, then please let me know. Thanks.

Step 1: Contribute to your 401K up to the company match.

Step 2: Open a Roth IRA (I recommend through Vanguard) and max out your contributions. (Set up an automatic transfer of $500 a month for 2021 to hit the max of $6,000 for the year)

Step 3: Save remaining for house in a high-yield savings account (I recommend Ally but there are lots of options)

Additional recommendation- Read this book by The Financial Diet: https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Diet-Total-Beginners-Getting/dp/1250176166/

I applaud you for posting and no judgment here. One thing that might help to get you started is Suze Orman’s book. I bought the audio version and I think she has some really sound advice. The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+: Winning Strategies to Make Your Money Last a Lifetime https://www.amazon.com/dp/140195992X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_DxhJFbJTZ7VAV

recently I just bought a new house, and need to pay house instalment every month , I've learned a lot of knowledge from school, and my sister has been using this jMoney to manage the money, and she introduce it to me recently, it was offline and no any configuration needed, and now I started to manage my money too, and I can setup 4 layer of sub category to manage my money, really helpful to me, and I use it every day now, just share it to you https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=budget.money.manager.expense.tracker.spending.free