You almost certainly will be better off paying down your debt than investing.

“And everything else” needs a good evaluation

If you have 1000 “extra”; or at least currently unaccounted for….you can be debt free in two months.  Just throw money at the debt and not random stuff

Well, it appears you do "feel like a millionaire" you "don't worry about anything when you want something new" and you want to retire by 50. I'm sure that's how "some" millionaires feel!

> minimum expenses total to about $5,000

> HYSA emergency fund where we have just under $10,000

Sounds like that's under 2 months of expenses worth of Emergency Fund.

Sounds like your EF has been underfunded for some time.  That's where you should prioritize.

Cook is one of the all-time great CEOs and operators. Amazing job by him

This hits way too close to home. I'm also from immigrant family and the guilt around boundaries with money is so real - it's like you're programmed to think being successful means you owe everyone everything. The part about comparing yourself to other people with similar income really resonates because I do same thing, but their parents probably had retirement funds and didn't need constant help.

  
One thing that helped me was setting specific amount I can give per year and sticking to it, even when emergencies come up. It's hard but you can't save them if you don't save yourself first.

Harbor pilot for commercial ships in and out of port. VERY competitive but can earn upwards of $400-500k

If you really want to figure out a way out of this debt, stop using credit cards and use debit card/ cash only. You can't spend what you don't have. Pay off highest interest rate debt (probably credit card) first and go down from there.

Edit:Grammar

One possibility would be to buy a home for them to live in and pay you somewhat reduced rent. You would gain equity in the home. Or house hack and buy a two-unit building with you living in half and them living in the other; again, paying reduced rent. Take over their financial management. 

I supported my parents and never regretted it, but it has delayed my FIRE journey. Love first, money second. 

Aircraft mechanics can make good money if you’re willing to work weird hours and in some bad weather.

If your interest rate on your debt is over 7% use the money to pay it off. Personally I'd probably do the same if the interest is over 5%.

Reality check.  In the current market, some self taught data skills after a 12 year gap won't get you a data role.  What did you do before your gap?  What's your educational background?  What were you doing during those 12 years?  Those are the things that will determine what you can try to target for jobs.

My cousin got a masters degree in marketing and then became an electrician and makes way more money. 

$1M at 35 in VLCOL is quietly rich, you're not spending that's why you're fine celebrate

You need to actually categorize **all** of your spending, not just a few regular monthly bills and label the rest as "everything else".

Pull statements from the last 6 months and put every dollar spent into a category.

What will she do for healthcare? COBRA is expensive.

I’d put every single dime into your emergency fund. You only have two months of expenses. What happens when that is depleted?


For something like this my focus would be cash flow. Realistically you will not be able to pay off her car before she gets let go, so all that extra car payment money I would be funnelling to my emergency fund instead. Ditto your surplus income. 

Also cutting back in abstract and cutting back in reality I've found are two very different things, I'd recommend you take an honest look at expenses and cut it back now until shes gainfully employed again. $5k/month on expenses means you've barely got two months saved, a job search is likely to take longer. The unemployment benefit is high but don't count on that coming in immediately, and it likely has a cap.

If you're wife uses her employers medical insurance then I'd recommend she get in as many doctor visits as she can now before she's laid off, cobra is very expensive and she may need to be uninsured for awhile unless you can add her to yours. Loss of coverage thru unemployment is a qualifying life event, you'd be able to add her now even though it's not open enrollment.

It happens to most of us. The real trick is to mindfully budget the raise. Your budget goes up 4-5% from inflation, your 'fun' money up some reasonable amount, an the rest to debt/retirement. 

In your case, about half the net raise should be going to boost your savings. 

?  I don’t understand. 85% of this net worth is tied up in minority,  non-controlling stakes in illiquid assets.  I think you’re right in feeling like you aren’t millionaires.  Keep feeling that way so that lifestyle creep doesn’t kick in.

I’m asian we give our parents 1k per month (24k per year). However, they are financially responsible and don’t live paycheck to paycheck. 

If they were and required our assistance… i would also only give up indirectly (not cash). Maybe weekly grocery delivery and select s place to rent and pay for the rent. Thisnis beyond “they sacrificed a lot for me”. This is a case where they do not have financial competence. 


Lump sum it into a TDF or VT (or equivalent).

Massive news, personally I'm looking forward to a hardware guy leading the helm.

One thing that really helped me is my spreadsheet tracks my total money I’m investing divided by my total income averaged over the last 12 months. Whenever I got a raise and didn’t bump up my automatic investments I would see a drop in savings rate prompting me to up it. 

Also, my investing account was 1-way and the money going to it was automatic so I couldn’t forget to set that money aside. 

Start by building 2–3 simple projects that people can actually understand. Something like a sales dashboard or a basic customer analysis works well. Put them on GitHub and share them on LinkedIn so people can see what you’ve done.

For roles, look at things like data analyst intern, MIS executive or reporting analyst. These are usually easier to get into and help you get your foot in the door.

Also, try reaching out to people directly. Keep it simple. Just let them know you’re restarting and open to a small opportunity.

Ok so those skills are what i’d call B skills. They are what make you actually efficient and useful at doing a job. What you are missing is an A skills which is the job identifier.
 
You can’t work in data really as those data skills aren’t fundamentals or good enough to hit the ground running. Your best bet is to think about what business unit you’d like to analyse data in, ie supply chain, finance, Projects, Procurement etc.

When you have decided find an entry level certification for that role and you’ll walk into a job and probably progress pretty quickly too.

If you’re moving abroad, make sure you look into residency requirements of any accounts you use. There are some accounts that require US residency to invest.

Things add up. Good for you for seeing it. It can be eye opening. And, great for already taking action.

For a little while, it may not be a bad idea to set a firm monthly budget (going out budget, subscription budget, spending budget, etc) that you won’t exceed for 6-12 months. This will help get spending habits back to what you want and being relatively frugal will start to feel natural again. 

Cheers

guys. i cannot believe what just happened.

so rewind to January, my company announces a "restructuring" (we all know what that means). i'm not in the first wave but the writing was on the wall. instead of panicking i decided to just… start preparing. worst case i have options, best case i wasted some evenings.

i went kind of hard on it actually. set up claude and careerflow ai tool to track every job i applied to, used to tweak my resume for each role because i learned the hard way that one generic resume mean zero callbacks. also let gpt audit my linkedin and it was genuinely embarrassing how many keywords i was missing for my own job title.

through march and april i was quietly applying in the evenings. had a few interviews, nothing crazy. then last week, offer. senior role, 30% more, a team i'd actually be excited to join. i accepted on friday and was planning to drop the resignation bomb today.

i kid you not, i was literally drafting the "thank you for the opportunity" email when my skip-level's calendar invite popped up. "15 min sync."

you already know. layoff. BUT, 5 months severance, garden leave, they're even keeping benefits active till august.

so now i have:

1/ 5 months of severance

2/ a better job starting in 3 weeks

3/ 3 weeks of actual vacation in between that i'm getting paid twice for

if you're reading this and you have that gut feeling about your job, trust it. start applying. keep it organized.

I prepared for the worst for 3 months. Today the worst happened and it's the best thing ever.?

I am 31F. All I ever think about is money. Ironically, I am in the best financial situation I have been in my entire adult life. I have no debt, but I make $12 per hour at my full time job. I doordash on the side and it helps a lot. Thankfully, my bills are extremely cheap compared to most people (around $900 per month). 

I have enough money to pay my bills, buy groceries, and maybe go out to eat/do something fun a couple of times per month, and put a little into my savings account. I'm also paying for a vacation that I plan on taking later this year. 

I only started my 401k a couple years ago and I feel so stupid. No one ever explained to me how important that was and I simply didn't do the research. I just didn't know. Everyone in my family has always lived paycheck to paycheck and no one every bothered to talk to me about money or saving.   
  
I have about $800 in savings right now. It just feels like no amount of money will ever be enough. I had close to $2000 in savings but had a couple of emergencies. Now it just feels like I'm one more emergency away from having nothing. I feel like I'm in a constant state of slight panic about money. Like I said, it's all I can think about. It's all I have to talk about with my family. I'm not sure what I even want to gain from this post... I suppose I am just venting. But I will gladly take any advice anyone can give me. 

I feel so behind financially

 Anyone else not enjoy corporate lifestyle? Sit on my ass all day, sit in meetings, eat shitty meeting food (pizza, cold cut sandwiches, etc.), be some modified version of yourself, listen to small talk all day, be indoors. Basically all opposites of things I enjoy, being outdoors, exercising, moving, walking, not engaging in small talk, eating healthy. I always wondered growing up why most adults seemed so miserable, now I understand. Why do we do this to ourselves? Just a vent post.



I FIRE because I hate the corporate lifestyle

My aunt is in her 80s now, and her husband was a radiologist who retired more than 15 years ago.

They always had a nice house, travelled a lot, and were very generous. The list of people who have lived with them during some life transition period is truly astonishing — everything from a recently-divorced mother and her two kids, to a German nurse making a move to the US, to dozens of in-college or post-college extended family members who needed a bed for a month or two between living situations.

But uncle did his residency in Hawaii, and one of their kids moved to Florida, and aunt LOVES to visit places with everything taken care of. To my knowledge, they’ve got timeshares in Maui, Cancun, Palm Beach, Orlando, and up in the mountains near where they live so they can ski/host all the kids and their grandkids. They also take one or two cruises per year and frequently go to some big event like Wimbledon or Augusta or the Olympics. They’ve been living this lifestyle for as long as I can remember — more than 40 years.

But yesterday I was talking with my dad (her brother) and he tells me that the family trust is going to loan them money because their big house isn’t selling after a year on the market (trying to downsize and move into partially assisted living due to health issues), AND that they are bleeding dry due to all the fees and payments and stuff on all their timeshares (that they can’t get out of or sell and none of their kids can afford), and the fact that she feels like she’s losing out if they don’t use up all of their week or two or four at each timeshare scattered across the hemisphere.

My uncle owned part of a radiology practice for more than 30 years and was probably pulling in 7 digits a year from the age of 45-65 and they’re having trouble paying bills in retirement because they could never let go of the high-rolling lifestyle, or really because they did it the stupidest way possible: buying timeshares.

Surely nobody here is foolhardy enough to get sucked into that, but it was a real wake up call for me to consider what level of lifestyle I want to preserve once I’m done working full time.

Just learned that my wealthy aunt is impoverished by timeshares

I keep hearing the constant narrative - if you don't use AI, you'll be left behind. Without AI, your entire skillset will be completely outdated. The people who are using AI will succeed and those who don't will perish. I feel like traditionally, technical roles like data and software engineering are used to having to pick up new skills constantly - for example, I started my career with a statistical program called STATA, learned R, learned SAS, Python and some JavaScript, C and Java. These all had a steep learning curve that I didn't feel comfortable saying I really knew R or Python till I really built stuff successfully using it. And that took some months to refine. 

With AI, it's not learning a new language....it's literally just asking questions in English. I mean I know some people are really leveraging AI in all kinds of unique ways, but at the same time, I feel like if somebody never used AI yesterday and decided to "get up to speed", it wouldn't take as long as learning a language from scratch because you're experimenting what it can/can't do with the prompts you feed in English rather than a learning an entire programming language and its respective syntax. Moreover, I'm a bit surprised by these b/c in the past, I felt like there were honest conversations about cost when it comes to increased abstractions. It almost seems like the conversation around AI makes it seem like AI can never fail. Am I missing something.....

Why do people say if you don't use AI, you'll get left behind when the learning curve for AI seems less than actually learning technical stuff before AI?

Almost a year into being RE@42, I followed Reddit's advice to keep it to myself and tell no one. My teenage daughter kept asking me if I was looking for a new job.

It dawned on me that she was worried. From her perspective, her dad was unemployed and was hanging out at home every day. I had to eventually showed her that I was making more than I did working.

"Tell No One" sounded good in theory...

Picture someone saving $25k/year to get to $2 million. At a certain net worth, cutting down to $15k/year hardly makes a difference.

|Starting NW|$25k/yr|$15k/yr|Difference|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|$0|28.0 yrs|34.5 yrs|6.5 yrs|
|$100k|24.2 yrs|28.9 yrs|4.7 yrs|
|$250k|20.0 yrs|23.1 yrs|3.1 yrs|
|$500k|15.0 yrs|16.7 yrs|1.7 yrs|
|$750k|11.2 yrs|12.3 yrs|1.1 yrs|
|$1M|8.2 yrs|8.9 yrs|0.7 yrs|
|$1.25M|5.7 yrs|6.1 yrs|0.4 yrs|
|$1.5M|3.5 yrs|3.8 yrs|0.3 yrs|
|$1.75M|1.7 yrs|1.8 yrs|0.1 yrs|
|$2M|0|0|0|

Past the $750k mark, whether you invest that extra $10k or not barely matters anymore. It moves the needle by less than 1 year. This is for 7% returns. If you’re using 10% returns, it’s even less.

The lesson here is to save aggressively early on, so you can cut back later and it won’t really matter.

At some point, there’s not much point saving an extra $10k to invest

i grew up dirt poor with parents who were constantly in debt and therefore had the mindset of ‘treat yourself’ when you have money. i also had absolutely nothing when i was a kid so when i got a job i went crazy buying everything i never had when i was younger

now i’ve grown into a shopping addict. i have no self control and nobody to learn from on how to be good with money. i want to move out but am struggling to save money because of how much i spend. i had almost 4k in savings but spent 2.5k of it to fund my fast food and shopping addiction. i also owe my nan 1k due to being super fucking irresponsible… i need help. please give me advice and help me with my budget

i earn around £1900 after tax and these are my monthly outgoings.

£400 rent to my parents

£160 a month on driving lessons

£56 phone

£30 contact lenses

£90 monthly bus pass

£14 netflix

£15 for my work union

£8 for an animal adoption charity

i should still have £1127 left but this gets drained every month three weeks in. i don’t even know where my money goes but it’s awful the way i spend. any advice would be appreciated

please help a girl who is living way beyond her means!

The field has gotten inflated and I'm burned out and just want an office job that pays the bills where I can turn my brain off and not get calls on weekends.

How do I present myself? Do I write my CS experience on my resume, or just old jobs before I went for a career. Does "I'm tired and don't want to be responsible for the world anymore." Fly when you're explaining yourself. How do you pitch yourself?

People who've transitioned from a CS career to a mudane job, how did you pitch yourself?

tl;dr - This post is neither inspirational nor educational. I got to where I am with a lot of luck (job and market run-up) and discipline (budgeting and saving). But sticking to the basic principles of FIRE gives you 100% better chance to freedom than not!

**About myself:**

* Mid-30s, first generation American (child of immigrants)
* Currently living in a MCOL city, but used to work in a VHCOL city until covid
* Working in finance (not IB, PE), just typical corporate finance
* 2.75M net worth ($1.9 brokerage, $0.7 in traditional/Roth IRA and 401(k), $0.15 in real estate equity in my rental unit

**The numbers first - net worth breakdown by year (how much I saved/invested):**

* Dec. 2020 - $500k ($60k)
* Dec. 2021 - $675k ($94k)
* Dec. 2022 - $640k ($100k)
* Dec. 2023 - $1.23m ($290k) - equity payout
* Dec. 2024 - $1.75m ($105k)
* Dec. 2025 - $2.42m ($263k) - sold a rental
* April 2026 - $2.75m

**How it started:**

* Went to an in-state public university and got degree in accounting.
* Full scholarship (my state had generous academic-based scholarship) and worked as a graduate assistant which paid for my masters.
* Pretty early on, my corporate finance professor taught us the magic of compounding interest and diversification through index funds, so that's all I invested in.
* Even with the scholarship, I worked all 5 years through my master's program as student assistants ($7.25/hr), did internships at accounting firms ($30ish/hr).
* Max out my IRA as a college student + no debt coming out of college.

**Professional career:**

* I was lucky enough to secure a full-time position with an international firm through my internship with them.. and the rest is history.. Through some good mentorship and taking on new opportunities, I eventually grew my salary from $54k when I first started at age 23, to $215k at age 30, to most recently $260k.
* During this time - always maxed out my IRA and 401(k) + everything else into brokerage.
* I always told myself just do the work. Early on in my career, I was working a lot! 60-70 hours a week and business travel every single week.
* I also took a few leaps of faith, too. E.g., moving to VHCOL city for new career pivot; timed job market well during covid and negotiated a huge salary increase when I jumped to another company; received some equity pay outs; negotiated remote working and moved to a state with no income tax; etc...
* I also gotten laid off once but came back stronger.

**Investments/Savings:**

* This is where I think I got really lucky. Besides the boring index funds (VOO/VTI), I was always heavy in VGT. I was also lucky enough to bought a few thousand shares of NVDA back in 2021. VGT and NVDA alone yield over $500k of gains over the years.
* I also saved aggressively. With working remotely and living in a MCOL state, I was investing/saving $150k a year into the market.
* I follow Bogleheads (mostly) and just invest every month and forget about it.
* Portfolio currently is \~50% VTI/VOO, 25% VGT, and 25% NVDA/MSFT
* I'm not sure what's my FIRE number, but hoping to retire by $40 - whatever number I hit at that time will do for me.

**Lifestyle:**

* I'm frugal, but I also splurge on the things I enjoy.
* Things I enjoy: watches (bought myself two Rolex and a Panerai for my dad), cars (most recently owned a Porsche 718 - but sold both when I moved to VHCOL city), traveling (few international trips a year and if I can find decent business class seats, I will go for it), treating families (taking them on vacations, buy them gifts when I travel, etc.)

35 and just hit $2.75M net worth - I am so glad that I found FIRE!

Cook is out, Ternus is to replace him on September 1, 2026.

Cook does stay on as an executive chairman.

Cook took Apple from about $350 bil to 4 tril one of the greatest CEOs 

Ternus is an also a Good guy, a hardware guy actually. Cook is still around though just an executive chairman.

Do you trust Ternus to lead apple into the future?

Apple names John Ternus CEO, replacing Tim Cook, who becomes chairman

Underwater welding is definitely one of them It’s incredibly dangerous but experienced divers can make over $1,000 a day depending on the depth and the project Most people don’t even realize it’s a career path but the pay is insane because the risk is so high

What is a job that is surprisingly high-paying but nobody ever talks about '?'

So I was just looking at all my accounts and I realized my wife and I have over 1M in assets. Sure doesn’t feel like it though. 

I have:

220K in 401K

115K in investments 

60K Roth IRA

500K 24.5% ownership of manufacturing building

350K 2.5% ownership of company

Wife has:

80K 401K

We owe just 250K on our house. Was just thinking this weekend about our assets and I guess we are millionaires. We make good money in a VLCOL but man it doesn’t feel like I’m a millionaire. We just save our money and live within our means. Never buy anything extravagant but we also don’t worry about anything when we want something new. I’m hoping by the time we are 50 my wife and I just retire and not have a care in the world. 

I’m the only one that ever thinks about retirement in our relationship, whenever I talk with my wife about she’s not interested. Feels good and maybe I’ll do a little celebration tonight.

Millionaire at 35, Doesn’t Feel Like it

I'm a 22yo female who makes $580 a week, $2320 a month. Sometimes $2900 depending on the month.

my monthly bills include:

\- my half of rent: $850

\- my half of utilities including wifi: $200

\- phone bill: $25

$1,075 total which leaves $1,245 (using the $2320 example) remaining from my monthly wage for everything else such as groceries, gas, debt payments, miscellaneous. Also eating/going out which I am trying to cut back on. I admit I have a problem spending money I don't have.

my current debt owed at the moment:

\- credit card: $527.98

\- affirm: $369.12

\- klarna $222.42

$1,119.52 total (this total is not a monthly payment, i am paying it all off in small increments like $60-$100 each check across ALL of the debts, not each one.)

I've never had this much debt at once before. I was really proud of my credit score which has tanked. I lost my job right after I moved into my new apartment and was unemployed for three months which used up the entirety of my savings (meant for a car) to cover my living expenses and groceries. I have a new job now but feel like I've been drowning ever since trying to catch up on everything and find myself running out of money in between weekly checks.

I can't figure out a good way to budget the weekly paychecks and I end up running through my savings I attempt to put away each check. Anybody who is willing to help me work out a budget thank you from the bottom of my heart😭

Please help me get out of this hole

How would you invest $23,000 if you were a single 50 year old man with around $30,000 in accrued debt and still working but absolutely nothing in retirement. The goal for this invested money is to try to build it as fast as possible to both pay off debt and have a little something for either retirement.

Investing $23,000 as a 50 y/o with no wealth built

First time dealing with a layoff and doing my best to be smart in the meantime. Obviously priority #1 is finding a new job so she's updating her resume and casting a wide net. She has several letters behind her name and is extremely educated so my fear is job opportunities will be slim (although we have discussed taking something she's overqualified for until the right job comes around) so I am preparing as if we are about to become a single income household. Mainly need advice on where to direct our money while we prepare. I have to act or I'll freak out. For reference, our monthly bare minimum expenses total to about $5,000. I make about 75k a year and unemployment is like $700/wk in our state. Currently:

* We were aggressively paying down her car loan which we still owe $9500 (paying an extra 80$ a week on top of a min payment $305 monthly; interest rate @ 8.5%). We've been doing this before we found out about the layoff.
* Transferring 100$ weekly to an HYSA emergency fund where we have just under $10,000 (3.35% interest rate on that account). Also doing this before the news of the layoff.
* re-evaluating the budget to see where we can find some extra money and try and save that or pay off the car sooner.
* I've picked up some shifts playing guitar in a local house band for some extra cash, which will be saved or go towards the car.

While we prepare, would it be better to put our extra income (an any cash we find) towards the car or save it as an EM fund? I know this is situational but I tried to include as much context as possible.  



Wife is getting laid off in 3 months. Need Advice on where to direct extra cash while we prepare.

I got a raise about  18 months ago, around 22% bump, which felt huge at the time. I remember thinking okay this changes things, I can actually start  making real progress. And for the first few months I was pretty disciplined. Put a bigger chunk into index funds, kept my expenses roughly the same. Then I did a rough audit last weekend  and kind of sat with the numbers for a while.

My grocery spending is up maybe 40% from two years ago. I eat out probably twice as often as I used to. I have a streaming service I added "temporarily" during a free trial that I've been paying for 14 months. My   gym is nicer than my old one and costs about double. None of these felt like decisions at the time, they just kind of happened one by one and each one individually seemed totally reasonable. The raise basically evaporated. My savings rate is actually lower now  than before I got it.

I'm not in bad shape overall and I'm not looking to vent, more just genuinely surprised at  how invisible this process was. I thought I was paying attention. I track my accounts, I check in on things periodically. But I was apparently watching individual trees while the whole forest changed  around me. Starting to pull this back now. Already cancelled two subscriptions this morning and I'm going back to my old gym at the   end of the month. Curious if anyone else has been through this and what actually helped them reset the baseline without it feeling like punishment.

The moment I realized I had been lifestyle creeping without noticing

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some guidance and honest advice.

I have a 12-year career gap due to personal reasons, and now I’m trying to restart my professional journey. Over the past several months, I’ve been actively learning and building skills in SQL, Excel, and Power BI. I’ve also been applying for jobs through Naukri and LinkedIn, but I’m not getting any responses or interview calls.

At this point, I’m open to starting small and even exploring freelance or project-based work, but I’m not sure how to break in or where to find opportunities as a beginner.

I would really appreciate advice on:

How to overcome a long career gap in the job market

Ways to get freelance work in data-related roles

Whether I should focus on building a portfolio (and what kind of projects help)

Any platforms, strategies, or steps that could improve my chances

I’m willing to put in the effort and learn more — just feeling a bit stuck on what the right next step should be.

Thanks in advance for your help.

12-year career gap, learned SQL/Excel/Power BI but not getting opportunities — what should I do next?

I’m currently 32F, single/no kids. My parents and I are immigrants, I grew up poor partially due to unfortunate circumstances and the hardships that come with being immigrants and partially due to poor financial choices that they made at over the course of their lives. It was a tough childhood but it made me dream big and work hard. Fast forward to my 30s, through a combination of hard work and luck I’ve been making great money and living very comfortably for the last 5-6 years (earning between $250-300k all in). I know I probably should’ve done a better job of being more discrete about my success with my parents but I grew up believing that I owed my family full transparency and that I am successful because of the sacrifices they made. I’ve unpacked a lot of this in therapy and have started implementing some boundaries over the years but it’s hard because of how ingrained it is in my culture and upbringing. I’ve given them a lot of financial help over the years even when I wasn’t making half of what I am now, which I don’t necessarily regret because they were in dire situations (things like medical emergencies, about to lose their house, etc) but I can’t help but also have some sadness around this because I could’ve used that money towards FIRE. By nature I think I’m a very generous person so I always want to give to those I love, and watching them struggle so much my whole life really impacted my mental health so as an adult I coped by trying to fix their situation anyway I can. It resulted in my mental health being impacted as an adult and needing serious therapy. This continued on over the years, the most recent was when they got divorced a couple years ago and things got even more strenuous so I gave them large sums of money (again). Fast forward to today, they’re in their 60s still working, still paying off debt, and have $0 savings in any kind of retirement accounts. The day that they can no longer work and I will need to step up even more is approaching what feels like fast. They both take their lives day by day, paycheck by paycheck because that’s all they know, but I can’t help but sit there and crush numbers in my head and feel very sad and overwhelmed and worried for them. 

Few questions I’d love insight on: 

\- has anyone been in a similar situation with their parents? How do you cope with knowing that you could be way ahead in life and closer to your FIRE goal if your familial circumstances were different? I’ve worked through most of the resentment in therapy, but I still feel sadness because Ive read a lot of posts of people with similar incomes that are WAY ahead of me.

\- if you grew up poor, do you think you struggle with lifestyle creep more than someone who had a better upbringing? I find that I’ve had a hard time saying no to my lifestyle creep at times because it feels so good to finally feel like I deserve to enjoy my life. 

\- if you’ve been in a similar situation with your parents, how did you cope? I hope one day I make more than enough to afford FIRE for myself and for them but I don’t know if that’s realistic. I get stressed just thinking about how I’m going to manage my own life and savings goals while also taking care of them and helping them even more than I’m helping out now. Them being divorced amplifies the financial burden I’ll have even more. 

\- I’ve been single for a long time and I can’t imagine sharing this burden with a partner as that would be unfair. I’ve decided I likely don’t want kids, but even if I changed my mind and did, I can’t imagine going through with it because I already feel spent taking care of others and my  future only holds increasing obligations. I know it’s probably in my head but this situation has made it hard for me to open up about my family when trying to date. 

Would appreciate any general advice/words of encouragement on how to cope and how to not lose hope that FIRE is achievable for me. 

My parents have no money to retire and it makes me sad

I fear for the amount of flack I may get here, but I am looking for some sincere advice.

I have lived paycheck to paycheck for almost my whole life. Loans to pay off, low wages, unemployed, debt, etc. It was about about 7 years ago I finally felt I got my life together.   
  
We are now a family of four. Finally making enough (two incomes) to have paid off our debts and for the first time, instead of having some month left at the end of the money, we have the opposite. We are now saving. Peanuts, but still.

This was also the moment I started thinking about the possibility of actually retiring at some point. I always pretty much assumed I'd work until I'd die or simply not live that long.

Fast Forward: We bought a house right before COVID. The market exploded in my area after that and the house is now worth almost 150K more than we bought it for. Since we are moving abroad, I will not need to reinvest that money in new real estate. We can sell and take the money and run.   
  
I finally have an opportunity to let some funds grow for my family, and this is likely my only chance at retiring at all.   
  
What do you good people think is a safe bet to let this modest but significant amount grow over the next 15-20 years?

My One Shot at a Retirement - What Do I Do?

Find out how AI tools can help navigate the home buying process and where human expertise still matters most. Can AI help you buy a house with reliable information? What would you do if you had only ten years to live, received a $100,000 windfall, or lost your job with just one month of emergency savings? Sean Pyles, CFP®, and Elizabeth Ayoola sit down with a NerdWallet colleague to unpack his journey using AI to buy a home. But first, they take turns putting each other through a series of hypothetical — and sometimes grim — financial scenarios, revealing how they'd really handle everything from lending money to a struggling family member to deciding between a millionaire's Camry and a thousandaire's Mercedes. Then, NerdWallet’s podcast strategist Cody Gough joins Sean and Elizabeth in-studio to share his experience using Claude AI to help him make homebuying decisions. He shares how he used AI to figure out his financing options, find and evaluate agents, work through mortgage applications, and even assess whether specific neighborhoods were the right fit for his family. NerdWallet mortgage writer Kate Wood joins virtually to offer an expert reality check on Cody's experience — weighing in on his financing choices, what the AI got right and wrong about contingent offers in a competitive market, and where tools like NerdWallet's calculators and articles would have served him better than an AI chatbot.  2026 Home Buyer Report – 48% of Prospective Buyers Will Use AI: https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/studies/home-buyer-report  Compare Today’s Mortgage Rates: https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/mortgage-rates  See how far your homebuying budget could take you with NerdWallet’s free home affordability calculator: https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/calculators/how-much-house-can-i-afford  Want us to review your budget? Fill out this form — completely anonymously if you want — and we might feature your budget in a future segment! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK53yAufsc4v5UpghhVfxtk2MoyooHzlSIRBnRxUPl3hKBig/viewform?usp=header To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email podcast@nerdwallet.com. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Find out how AI tools can help navigate the home buying process and where human expertise still matters most. Can AI help you buy a house with reliable information? What would you do if you had only ten years to live, received a $100,000 windfall, or lost your job with just one month of emergency savings? Sean Pyles, CFP®, and Elizabeth Ayoola sit down with a NerdWallet colleague to unpack his journey using AI to buy a home. But first, they take turns putting each other through a series of hypothetical — and sometimes grim — financial scenarios, revealing how they&#39;d really handle everything from lending money to a struggling family member to deciding between a millionaire&#39;s Camry and a thousandaire&#39;s Mercedes. Then, NerdWallet’s podcast strategist Cody Gough joins Sean and Elizabeth in-studio to share his experience using Claude AI to help him make homebuying decisions. He shares how he used AI to figure out his financing options, find and evaluate agents, work through mortgage applications, and even assess whether specific neighborhoods were the right fit for his family. NerdWallet mortgage writer Kate Wood joins virtually to offer an expert reality check on Cody&#39;s experience — weighing in on his financing choices, what the AI got right and wrong about contingent offers in a competitive market, and where tools like NerdWallet&#39;s calculators and articles would have served him better than an AI chatbot.  2026 Home Buyer Report – 48% of Prospective Buyers Will Use AI: <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/studies/home-buyer-report" rel="nofollow">https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/studies/home-buyer-report</a>  Compare Today’s Mortgage Rates: <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/mortgage-rates" rel="nofollow">https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/mortgage-rates</a>  See how far your homebuying budget could take you with NerdWallet’s free home affordability calculator: <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/calculators/how-much-house-can-i-afford" rel="nofollow">https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/calculators/how-much-house-can-i-afford</a>  Want us to review your budget? Fill out this form — completely anonymously if you want — and we might feature your budget in a future segment! <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK53yAufsc4v5UpghhVfxtk2MoyooHzlSIRBnRxUPl3hKBig/viewform?usp&#61;header" rel="nofollow">https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK53yAufsc4v5UpghhVfxtk2MoyooHzlSIRBnRxUPl3hKBig/viewform?usp&#61;header</a> To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email <a href="mailto:podcast&#64;nerdwallet.com" rel="nofollow">podcast&#64;nerdwallet.com</a>. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices" rel="nofollow">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

AI in the Home Buying Process: What Works, What Doesn't, and When to Call an Expert

Most people trying to slash their budget hunt for obvious waste—daily lattes, unused subscriptions, impulse purchases. But what happens when you've already cut the fat and your highest expenses are the ones you can't seem to touch: the mortgage, the car payment, the daycare bill? That's required bloat, and it's quietly inflating your FI number by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Key Topics Discussed Introduction to Value Matrix Case Studies (00:00:00) Jonathan recaps the series and introduces three value matrix case studies, following up from episode 592. Case 1: Required Bloat (00:03:00) Exploring a couple with high required expenses including housing, transportation, and childcare. Discussion of seasons of life and time-bound expenses. Insurance Optimization Strategies (00:13:00) Brad and Jonathan discuss how the couple saved nearly $10,000 annually by shopping insurance policies and adjusting coverage levels. Required Expenses: Fixed, Review, and Variable (00:18:00) Breaking down required expenses into three categories and identifying opportunities for optimization even in supposedly fixed costs. Case 2: The Optimized Budget (00:25:00) Examining a couple spending $50,000 annually with highly optimized expenses across all categories, demonstrating what a locked-in FI budget looks like. Self-Insurance Milestone (00:35:00) Discussion of umbrella insurance and the milestone of becoming self-insured enough to cancel term life insurance policies. Case 3: High-Joy Giving (00:42:00) Analyzing a couple spending $17,000 annually on charitable giving and gifts, exploring the intersection of generosity and financial independence. Effective Giving Strategies (00:46:00) Brad covers tax-optimization strategies for charitable giving including donor-advised funds, lumping donations, and donating appreciated stock. Takeaways and Tool Access (00:54:00) Jonathan wraps up with listener feedback and directs people to access the Value Matrix tool at choosefi.com/local. Notable Quotes "Just because it's required doesn't mean that we ignore it. We're going to put all of this into our process, into our value matrix." — Jonathan Mendonsa "There are definitely seasons to this. Take a deep breath and understand you're still doing great and you're still making plans to supercharge your path to FI." — Brad Barrett "Sometimes when you just get a different quote, you are shocked by how inexpensive it is. It always pays to just get different quotes on insurance." — Brad Barrett "When you have opened up your hands earlier to share in any way that you choose to do it, you are going to definitely avoid this feeling of hoarding." — Jonathan Mendonsa "Wouldn't it be cool if every single item showed up as high joy? That would just really show that you're living an aligned life regardless of cost." — Brad Barrett Key Takeaways Complete an expense audit categorizing all spending into groups (housing, transportation, food, etc.) before using the Value Matrix tool Shop your insurance policies annually—home, auto, health, life, and umbrella—to ensure you're getting competitive rates Categorize each required expense as Fixed, Review, or Variable to identify optimization opportunities Consider higher-deductible health insurance plans (like ACA bronze) if you're healthy to reduce premiums while maintaining catastrophic coverage If charitable giving is important to you, explore tax optimization strategies like donor-advised funds or donating appreciated stock Access the Value Matrix tool at choosefi.com/local under Tools and Resources to visualize your spending alignment Review time-bound expenses (daycare, car payments, student loans) and calculate how your FI number will decrease when they end Join the ChooseFI community giving forum to discuss effective giving strategies with like-minded individuals Resources and Links Effective Giving for the FI Community (Episode 483) FI Lanthropy Pledge ChooseFI Value Matrix Tool yieldandspread.org YNAB (You Need A Budget) Mint Mob…

Most people trying to slash their budget hunt for obvious waste—daily lattes, unused subscriptions, impulse purchases. But what happens when you&#39;ve already cut the fat and your highest expenses are the ones you can&#39;t seem to touch: the mortgage, the car payment, the daycare bill? That&#39;s required bloat, and it&#39;s quietly inflating your FI number by hundreds of thousands of dollars. <h2>Key Topics Discussed</h2> Introduction to Value Matrix Case Studies (00:00:00) Jonathan recaps the series and introduces three value matrix case studies, following up from episode 592. Case 1: Required Bloat (00:03:00) Exploring a couple with high required expenses including housing, transportation, and childcare. Discussion of seasons of life and time-bound expenses. Insurance Optimization Strategies (00:13:00) Brad and Jonathan discuss how the couple saved nearly $10,000 annually by shopping insurance policies and adjusting coverage levels. Required Expenses: Fixed, Review, and Variable (00:18:00) Breaking down required expenses into three categories and identifying opportunities for optimization even in supposedly fixed costs. Case 2: The Optimized Budget (00:25:00) Examining a couple spending $50,000 annually with highly optimized expenses across all categories, demonstrating what a locked-in FI budget looks like. Self-Insurance Milestone (00:35:00) Discussion of umbrella insurance and the milestone of becoming self-insured enough to cancel term life insurance policies. Case 3: High-Joy Giving (00:42:00) Analyzing a couple spending $17,000 annually on charitable giving and gifts, exploring the intersection of generosity and financial independence. Effective Giving Strategies (00:46:00) Brad covers tax-optimization strategies for charitable giving including donor-advised funds, lumping donations, and donating appreciated stock. Takeaways and Tool Access (00:54:00) Jonathan wraps up with listener feedback and directs people to access the Value Matrix tool at choosefi.com/local. <h2>Notable Quotes</h2> &#34;Just because it&#39;s required doesn&#39;t mean that we ignore it. We&#39;re going to put all of this into our process, into our value matrix.&#34; — Jonathan Mendonsa &#34;There are definitely seasons to this. Take a deep breath and understand you&#39;re still doing great and you&#39;re still making plans to supercharge your path to FI.&#34; — Brad Barrett &#34;Sometimes when you just get a different quote, you are shocked by how inexpensive it is. It always pays to just get different quotes on insurance.&#34; — Brad Barrett &#34;When you have opened up your hands earlier to share in any way that you choose to do it, you are going to definitely avoid this feeling of hoarding.&#34; — Jonathan Mendonsa &#34;Wouldn&#39;t it be cool if every single item showed up as high joy? That would just really show that you&#39;re living an aligned life regardless of cost.&#34; — Brad Barrett <h2>Key Takeaways</h2> <ul><li>Complete an expense audit categorizing all spending into groups (housing, transportation, food, etc.) before using the Value Matrix tool</li><li>Shop your insurance policies annually—home, auto, health, life, and umbrella—to ensure you&#39;re getting competitive rates</li><li>Categorize each required expense as Fixed, Review, or Variable to identify optimization opportunities</li><li>Consider higher-deductible health insurance plans (like ACA bronze) if you&#39;re healthy to reduce premiums while maintaining catastrophic coverage</li><li>If charitable giving is important to you, explore tax optimization strategies like donor-advised funds or donating appreciated stock</li><li>Access the Value Matrix tool at choosefi.com/local under Tools and Resources to visualize your spending alignment</li><li>Review time-bound expenses (daycare, car payments, student loans) and calculate how your FI number will decrease when they end</li><li>Join the ChooseFI community giving forum to discuss effective giving strategies with like-minded individuals</li></ul> <h2>Resources and Links</h2> <ul><li><a href="https://choosefi.com/podcast-episode/effective-giving-for-the-fi-community-rebecca-herbst-jack-lewars-ep-483?utm_source&#61;podcast&amp;utm_medium&#61;rss&amp;utm_campaign&#61;c50adeae-fcd5-4b40-813e-90772446dbda" rel="nofollow">Effective Giving for the FI Community (Episode 483)</a></li><li><a href="https://www.yieldandspread.org/the-fi-lanthropy-pledge?utm_source&#61;choosefi-podcast&amp;utm_medium&#61;show_notes&amp;utm_campaign&#61;c50adeae-fcd5-4b40-813e-90772446dbda" rel="nofollow">FI Lanthropy Pledge</a></li><li><a href="https://choosefi.com/local?utm_source&#61;podcast&amp;utm_medium&#61;rss&amp;utm_campaign&#61;c50adeae-fcd5-4b40-813e-90772446dbda" rel="nofollow">ChooseFI Value Matrix Tool</a></li><li>yieldandspread.org</li><li>YNAB (You Need A Budget)</li><li>Mint Mobile</li></ul> ▶ <a href="https://choosefi.com/essential-listening?utm_source&#61;podcast&amp;utm_medium&#61;rss&amp;utm_campaign&#61;c50adeae-fcd5-4b40-813e-90772446dbda" rel="nofollow">Browse Essential Listening</a>Support the Show We work hard to keep ChooseFI ad-free for a clean listening experience. The easiest way to support us is to use our <a href="https://www.choosefi.com/travel-rewards?utm_source&#61;podcast&amp;utm_medium&#61;rss&amp;utm_campaign&#61;support_the_show" rel="nofollow">Top Recommended Cards</a> page when signing up for your next travel rewards credit card.

595 | Value Matrix Case Study Series: Part 2 — Required Bloat

Quint and Logan breakdown backdoor Roth IRA contributions. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Quint and Logan breakdown backdoor Roth IRA contributions. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Should I Do Backdoor Roth Contributions

The White House wants gasoline prices to be lower, and it wants to see American oil companies drill for more oil. But of course, these ideas are in tension. If prices are going lower, why drill more? This tension has only grown sharper since the shale busts of the mid-2010s, as American producers got burned multiple times by prioritizing production over profits. So what now? How do US producers think about the recent oil price spike? How are they thinking about the rising costs of their own production, due to higher energy, labor, and steel costs? On this episode, we speak with Jack McClendon, the founder and CEO of Siena Natural Resources, an independent oil and gas company that primary buys odd lots of wells from other companies. We talk about the long-term economics of the industry, including the central role of capital markets in determining how the industry moves. He also tells us whether the show Landman is realistic. Read more:Oil Tankers Hauling US Crude Via Panama Approaching 4-Year HighThe US Oil Industry Doesn’t Want the Iran War Either Only http://Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at  bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots Subscribe to the Odd Lots NewsletterJoin the conversation: discord.gg/oddlotsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The White House wants gasoline prices to be lower, and it wants to see American oil companies drill for more oil. But of course, these ideas are in tension. If prices are going lower, why drill more? This tension has only grown sharper since the shale busts of the mid-2010s, as American producers got burned multiple times by prioritizing production over profits. So what now? How do US producers think about the recent oil price spike? How are they thinking about the rising costs of their own production, due to higher energy, labor, and steel costs? On this episode, we speak with Jack McClendon, the founder and CEO of Siena Natural Resources, an independent oil and gas company that primary buys odd lots of wells from other companies. We talk about the long-term economics of the industry, including the central role of capital markets in determining how the industry moves. He also tells us whether the show Landman is realistic. Read more: <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-17/oil-tankers-hauling-us-crude-via-panama-approaching-4-year-high?utm_medium&#61;referral&amp;utm_source&#61;podcast&amp;utm_campaign&#61;odd_lots&amp;utm_content&#61;article" rel="nofollow">Oil Tankers Hauling US Crude Via Panama Approaching 4-Year High</a> <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-16/oil-producers-in-the-us-see-little-upside-from-iran-war?utm_medium&#61;referral&amp;utm_source&#61;podcast&amp;utm_campaign&#61;odd_lots&amp;utm_content&#61;article" rel="nofollow">The US Oil Industry Doesn’t Want the Iran War Either</a> Only http://Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at  <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots?in_source&#61;oddlotspodcast" rel="nofollow">bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots</a> Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter Join the conversation: <a href="https://discord.gg/oddlots" rel="nofollow">discord.gg/oddlots</a>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener" rel="nofollow">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.

Jack McClendon on Why It's So Hard to Create a New American Oil Boom

We all like making money. So, why not react to the wildest money-making schemes? Brian Preston (CFP®, CPA) and Bo Hanson (CFA®, CFP®) are back reacting to the internet's wildest money-making schemes (from an "8-figure 12-year-old day trader" losing $11,000 before breakfast to Mr. Beast grocery scams).   Building wealth isn't about outsmarting the system with a clever scheme, and we’re here to share why following tried and true strategies can help you build wealth that lasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all like making money. So, why not react to the wildest money-making schemes? Brian Preston (CFP®, CPA) and Bo Hanson (CFA®, CFP®) are back reacting to the internet&#39;s wildest money-making schemes (from an &#34;8-figure 12-year-old day trader&#34; losing $11,000 before breakfast to Mr. Beast grocery scams). Building wealth isn&#39;t about outsmarting the system with a clever scheme, and we’re here to share why following tried and true strategies can help you build wealth that lasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices" rel="nofollow">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

Financial Advisors React to the WILDEST Money-Making Schemes

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