chrissie0555
New member
@brewersgirl74
Went from broke to 6 figure income, need help
- Thread starter brewersgirl74
- Start date
@brewersgirl74 My recommendation would be to start with a CPA if you don’t already use one. An accountant can help you organize your business finances and make sure you are paying the right amount of taxes (you could be paying too much or too little).
Protect the business first and then you can worry about your personal finances as others have suggested.
Protect the business first and then you can worry about your personal finances as others have suggested.
@georgevv Well said. Ensuring that this income stream keeps on giving is a priority.
My two cents would be to talk to a certified professional accountant and a wealth manager from a reputable firm. They can guide you on building the administrative structure to protect and grow your assets.
Has anyone looked at SEP? 401ks for business owners? How about your health insurance?
I’d look at workers comp insurance coverage or something similar if you lose your business. Shit happens.
My two cents would be to talk to a certified professional accountant and a wealth manager from a reputable firm. They can guide you on building the administrative structure to protect and grow your assets.
Has anyone looked at SEP? 401ks for business owners? How about your health insurance?
I’d look at workers comp insurance coverage or something similar if you lose your business. Shit happens.
@brewersgirl74 I would take a look at Dave Ramsay's method in regards to saving 6 months' worth of payments. As a buffer in case anything happens.
You need a financial adviser! You need something to show your success, not saying you need fancy things, but you should have a comfortable home to sleep in and a good car.
You should start to think long term. If you spend it all now, then you're guaranteed to fall upon time where you will go without. But if you save a bit, you will almost never have to live the way you did again.
You need a financial adviser! You need something to show your success, not saying you need fancy things, but you should have a comfortable home to sleep in and a good car.
You should start to think long term. If you spend it all now, then you're guaranteed to fall upon time where you will go without. But if you save a bit, you will almost never have to live the way you did again.
cledussnow
New member
@brewersgirl74 Get BOOKS!!! read... that is the best advice. Once you are better educated on the topic, seek professional help. If you look for that help too soon, you wont ask the right questions or understand what they tell you and have to take it all on faith.
Remember... 50% of the "professionals" you deal with in life were in the BOTTOM 1/2 of their class. (Doctors, lawyers, Financial advisors, etc...) This doesn't mean they are bad, but just graduation or passing the certification exams wont make them good at the job.
For starters - check out the flow chart "Prime Directive"
What to do with my money - r/personalfinance prime directive
Anything in that chart you don't understand... spend a minimum of 40 hours reading, watching, educating yourself on it. Once you fully understand that chart.... and have started to follow it, then go find a FEE BASED (NOT commission based) advisor to help. Take what they say and spend 40 to 80 hours making sure you completely understand it all and if needed, get a 2nd opinion from a different advisor.
Right now... you are in a good time to hold cash savings in a HYSA (High Yield Savings Account) earning an interest rate of 5% (best it has been in over a decade). until you understand things better, just live a minimal as you can, and save as much in that HYSA as you can.
it might take a year to understand everything, but it'll work out... time is still on your side.
Oh yeah - ignore gimmicks and if it sounds too good to be true (get rich quick) it is... don't jump in... take a day to really learn and understand what you are doing with your money.
Remember... 50% of the "professionals" you deal with in life were in the BOTTOM 1/2 of their class. (Doctors, lawyers, Financial advisors, etc...) This doesn't mean they are bad, but just graduation or passing the certification exams wont make them good at the job.
For starters - check out the flow chart "Prime Directive"
What to do with my money - r/personalfinance prime directive
Anything in that chart you don't understand... spend a minimum of 40 hours reading, watching, educating yourself on it. Once you fully understand that chart.... and have started to follow it, then go find a FEE BASED (NOT commission based) advisor to help. Take what they say and spend 40 to 80 hours making sure you completely understand it all and if needed, get a 2nd opinion from a different advisor.
Right now... you are in a good time to hold cash savings in a HYSA (High Yield Savings Account) earning an interest rate of 5% (best it has been in over a decade). until you understand things better, just live a minimal as you can, and save as much in that HYSA as you can.
it might take a year to understand everything, but it'll work out... time is still on your side.
Oh yeah - ignore gimmicks and if it sounds too good to be true (get rich quick) it is... don't jump in... take a day to really learn and understand what you are doing with your money.
fraankfrnk
New member
@brewersgirl74 Honestly, a lot of it is based on need.
Identifying your needs beyond sleeping, eating and staying healthy.
Start there, because if you're hemorrhaging vitamin D due to depression you'll do all kinds of things to fill that void. Master these things first. If you're taking care of yourself physically a lot of your needs come into perspective. Make sure you're up on your dental and health.
Then when it comes to budgeting, remember the 80/20 rule. 80% of what you spend on is 20% of what you do.
The big stuff will be glaring.
Generally it's car payments, housing, and eating out. Partying is usually an expense that people say you can cut - that means alcohol, women (hot boys too) and any kind of recreational drugs.
That's generally true but I find its incomplete. If you aren't doing some healthy dating you're gonna go crazy and do stupid things to fill a certain void. It might take a year, but when you go crazy you'll go hard.
So make sure you're living. Invest in healthy hobbies, don't just cut them all.
Then cut the big stuff.
Credit card payments, car payments, home payments. Downsize. A storage locker is cheaper than a room full of stuff you never use. Sell what you don't.
Make some friends who scrimp. You're making enough money to outsource some of your problems but nothing beats a thrifty friend.
If you're making 100k a year, things like suits and work garb you're going to need. Find a proper place to invest in and get into the kickbacks. If you do something more interesting, tattoos shockingly can be an investment (if you're a tattoo artist, pays to have some ink). I'm saying this because you have to invest in your work and your appearance matters. Don't listen to anyone claiming, "conventional wisdom" on how you should look. You're making 100k a year doing something right, but just know the world is superficial. Advertise who you are, not what people think "sells". Sometimes that means a few nice business suits, sometimes that means wearing the right sports attire. Follow your professional acumen, there's no correct way.
A lot of people will just say cut cut cut, and they're mostly right. Some good wisdom there.
But when you aren't investing or building something, you'll get itchy. You'll do dumb things.
Even Monks have something to live for, you can't emulate being zen without knowing what your zen is.
Investing in the markets is one way, collecting vintage watches - whatever. Get your money making money. The richest girl I know flips handbags making 2-3k profit - there's a market she understands and she likes handbags, so she exploits it. It sounds ridiculous but she makes more money doing that than I've ever made trading financial instruments. Life is chaos.
Turn your vices into virtues.
Obviously pay off any and all debt. If you have to return a car to the dealer, do it. If your rent is high move to a shoebox studio. If that affects your dating life, good, you shouldn't be dating people who are judging you based on your appearance.
You cultivate superficiality to project confidence, but life is cheap. You don't need much. Minimalist zen is a thing.
Check your credit card statements, things will become obvious. Start trying to use cards to keep track of your spending. Every month, shave off a big expense. Cut out a restaurant, stop shopping at the expensive grocery store. Start circling the outside and don't buy food that comes in boxes.
A large part of money these days is the times, we're in shrinkflation hell.
Find cheap hobbies because the world sucks right now. That's not you, it's the decay of modern society.
Lastly, you can't trust nearly anybody with your money. Just don't. If someone is good with money they are in hiding or buried trying to keep a family afloat. You'll never find them.
However you can find professionals in their fields easily. A massage therapist can help you keep your stress just plain gone. It's a 150 investment in keeping you from going insane. Chiropractors, acupuncturists are decent - forget about their efficacy scientifically. These are people who know happiness. This keeps you from getting into drugs, bad sex and getting lost in whatever dopamine you can chase. This is why people rave about manicures and pedicures. Happiness professionals. Spa's are an investment. Find a modality you like, go once a month. This will help level you out. If you're savvy, you can get your insurance to cover some of it - if you have good health insurance, talk to your doctor. A referral is hard to get, but crazy worth it.
That void is often a money pit, fill it. You can't cut the living out of your life, so do better living. Otherwise you'll get snapped back to reality when you date some nightmare because she knows how to manipulate you into being happy for 20 minutes a week, in exchange for half of your life.
Then, start meeting people in professional circles and focus on what they have to offer there.
Avoid financial advisors completely, they're experts in taking your money and making you feel good about it. They don't steal it, they just put it somewhere dusty and let it erode while they profit off of some ETF that gives them kickbacks. It doesn't hurt you, it just makes sure you put your money THERE.
Instead talk to older successful people.
Make some friends with old-timers, they've been through it all and the world is so shallow they don't appreciate their time. They're hiding in plain sight everywhere. Appreciate things, ask questions, listen for a long time. Share things.
Stitch 1 problem up at a time, don't try to fix it all. 80/20. Find what's hemorrhaging, plug it. Move on to the next. Can't fix it? Put it aside, fix the next one you can fix. 1 week at a time.
Lastly, and this is selfish - don't invest in people. Invest in professionals on the job.
It's really tempting to help friends, family, loved ones.
Here's the truth.
Anyone you help will feel indebted to you and come to hate you for it. This is a survival mechanism. Get helped, run away. You ruin your relationships by putting anyone around you into social debt. The nicer you are, the more likely they are to come to hate you.
It's a survival mechanism. It isn't rational. Sometimes they twist it into something rational to rationalize it, but the root is just insecurity and fear.
You can't beat that for other people.
So if you're gonna do it, form a company and put people to work. Pay for jobs. If people want to work it's one thing, but it's over when it's done. No debt. Pay on delivery. Then they can put it away. Otherwise it becomes a huge issue. This can help you with certain tasks too that might be ugly for you but easy for you.
Cleaning out a closet of things you got from an aunt who died, whom you loved? Easy for someone else to do. Great thing to outsource. Cleaning out a kitchen you shared with an ex? Great thing to outsource.
Anyway good luck, hope some of that was helpful.
Identifying your needs beyond sleeping, eating and staying healthy.
Start there, because if you're hemorrhaging vitamin D due to depression you'll do all kinds of things to fill that void. Master these things first. If you're taking care of yourself physically a lot of your needs come into perspective. Make sure you're up on your dental and health.
Then when it comes to budgeting, remember the 80/20 rule. 80% of what you spend on is 20% of what you do.
The big stuff will be glaring.
Generally it's car payments, housing, and eating out. Partying is usually an expense that people say you can cut - that means alcohol, women (hot boys too) and any kind of recreational drugs.
That's generally true but I find its incomplete. If you aren't doing some healthy dating you're gonna go crazy and do stupid things to fill a certain void. It might take a year, but when you go crazy you'll go hard.
So make sure you're living. Invest in healthy hobbies, don't just cut them all.
Then cut the big stuff.
Credit card payments, car payments, home payments. Downsize. A storage locker is cheaper than a room full of stuff you never use. Sell what you don't.
Make some friends who scrimp. You're making enough money to outsource some of your problems but nothing beats a thrifty friend.
If you're making 100k a year, things like suits and work garb you're going to need. Find a proper place to invest in and get into the kickbacks. If you do something more interesting, tattoos shockingly can be an investment (if you're a tattoo artist, pays to have some ink). I'm saying this because you have to invest in your work and your appearance matters. Don't listen to anyone claiming, "conventional wisdom" on how you should look. You're making 100k a year doing something right, but just know the world is superficial. Advertise who you are, not what people think "sells". Sometimes that means a few nice business suits, sometimes that means wearing the right sports attire. Follow your professional acumen, there's no correct way.
A lot of people will just say cut cut cut, and they're mostly right. Some good wisdom there.
But when you aren't investing or building something, you'll get itchy. You'll do dumb things.
Even Monks have something to live for, you can't emulate being zen without knowing what your zen is.
Investing in the markets is one way, collecting vintage watches - whatever. Get your money making money. The richest girl I know flips handbags making 2-3k profit - there's a market she understands and she likes handbags, so she exploits it. It sounds ridiculous but she makes more money doing that than I've ever made trading financial instruments. Life is chaos.
Turn your vices into virtues.
Obviously pay off any and all debt. If you have to return a car to the dealer, do it. If your rent is high move to a shoebox studio. If that affects your dating life, good, you shouldn't be dating people who are judging you based on your appearance.
You cultivate superficiality to project confidence, but life is cheap. You don't need much. Minimalist zen is a thing.
Check your credit card statements, things will become obvious. Start trying to use cards to keep track of your spending. Every month, shave off a big expense. Cut out a restaurant, stop shopping at the expensive grocery store. Start circling the outside and don't buy food that comes in boxes.
A large part of money these days is the times, we're in shrinkflation hell.
Find cheap hobbies because the world sucks right now. That's not you, it's the decay of modern society.
Lastly, you can't trust nearly anybody with your money. Just don't. If someone is good with money they are in hiding or buried trying to keep a family afloat. You'll never find them.
However you can find professionals in their fields easily. A massage therapist can help you keep your stress just plain gone. It's a 150 investment in keeping you from going insane. Chiropractors, acupuncturists are decent - forget about their efficacy scientifically. These are people who know happiness. This keeps you from getting into drugs, bad sex and getting lost in whatever dopamine you can chase. This is why people rave about manicures and pedicures. Happiness professionals. Spa's are an investment. Find a modality you like, go once a month. This will help level you out. If you're savvy, you can get your insurance to cover some of it - if you have good health insurance, talk to your doctor. A referral is hard to get, but crazy worth it.
That void is often a money pit, fill it. You can't cut the living out of your life, so do better living. Otherwise you'll get snapped back to reality when you date some nightmare because she knows how to manipulate you into being happy for 20 minutes a week, in exchange for half of your life.
Then, start meeting people in professional circles and focus on what they have to offer there.
Avoid financial advisors completely, they're experts in taking your money and making you feel good about it. They don't steal it, they just put it somewhere dusty and let it erode while they profit off of some ETF that gives them kickbacks. It doesn't hurt you, it just makes sure you put your money THERE.
Instead talk to older successful people.
Make some friends with old-timers, they've been through it all and the world is so shallow they don't appreciate their time. They're hiding in plain sight everywhere. Appreciate things, ask questions, listen for a long time. Share things.
Stitch 1 problem up at a time, don't try to fix it all. 80/20. Find what's hemorrhaging, plug it. Move on to the next. Can't fix it? Put it aside, fix the next one you can fix. 1 week at a time.
Lastly, and this is selfish - don't invest in people. Invest in professionals on the job.
It's really tempting to help friends, family, loved ones.
Here's the truth.
Anyone you help will feel indebted to you and come to hate you for it. This is a survival mechanism. Get helped, run away. You ruin your relationships by putting anyone around you into social debt. The nicer you are, the more likely they are to come to hate you.
It's a survival mechanism. It isn't rational. Sometimes they twist it into something rational to rationalize it, but the root is just insecurity and fear.
You can't beat that for other people.
So if you're gonna do it, form a company and put people to work. Pay for jobs. If people want to work it's one thing, but it's over when it's done. No debt. Pay on delivery. Then they can put it away. Otherwise it becomes a huge issue. This can help you with certain tasks too that might be ugly for you but easy for you.
Cleaning out a closet of things you got from an aunt who died, whom you loved? Easy for someone else to do. Great thing to outsource. Cleaning out a kitchen you shared with an ex? Great thing to outsource.
Anyway good luck, hope some of that was helpful.
@brewersgirl74 Assuming you're asking how to cultivate it. You should probably invest in shares. Find stable companies that have been around for a while (basically ones that wont go bankrupt overnight), if you have no idea how to begin sign up for classes, plently of good ones available. Your money stay safe in the sense you wont have it at your hands to spend at a whim and it will simultaneously multiply and grow. But PLEASE be careful. You must know when to cash it.
overwhelming12
New member
@brewersgirl74 Watch some of “the money guys” on YouTube, the financial order of operations to learn the basics. Dave Ramsey has gone way downhill but it’s pretty useful for personal finance 101.
Congratulations man, you are amazing!
Congratulations man, you are amazing!
rydermaddox
New member
@brewersgirl74 Start reading books on how money works. Learn some basic rules of personal finance.
@brewersgirl74 Save and invest your money. My family was always broke. A lot of people taunted me bc my father owed them money. So I spent my 20s to 40s saving as much as I could. It’s paid off bc we were able to afford many expensive things now, instead of worrying how we could retire tomorrow.
I’m not saying don’t take a vacation. Just don’t spend money for the sake of spending it. Good luck.
I’m not saying don’t take a vacation. Just don’t spend money for the sake of spending it. Good luck.
@brewersgirl74 I admire your willingness to make a change and not be a statistic. Not many have the drive... My childhood has little to complain about but I sure wish I had some kind of guidance!!! I quit college had decent jobs till I became a stay at home mom. Now here I sit with 5 kids, on welfare wondering how the hell I got here! I don't even know what I would want to do for a job or company... I started school but don't have a clue for what... I'm good at anything I do and there's so much I wanted out of life and so many things I want to do but I feel so stuck in the endless "groundhog day" kind of loop, day in and day out... I feel so alone and lost...
I don't know why I shared this... Maybe I just needed to say it out loud...
I don't know why I shared this... Maybe I just needed to say it out loud...
@brewersgirl74 Watch some gail vaz oxglade videos on YouTube for finance, I believe inyanla vanzant also had that same mentality she went on one of the Oprah shows and talked about how she made money then spent it and went broke right away. Talk to your bank and get info from your bank about how to manage finances like calculate what you average every 6 months and use that as a guideline for paying all the bills like taxes, health insurance, do you rent? So rent insurance like content insurance as well and vehicle insurance figure out how much utilities are for the year and get on a payment schedule to have all the bills paid evenly throughout the year,
Honestly if you can afford it and have some spare time look into taking an intro to office admin class online if needed and they will teach you how to do your spread sheets and accounting so you have an idea on what to do even if you hire someone to do accounting you always need to check on things to double check everything as mistakes happen I took accounting but am afraid I will need to have hands on training initially to refresh myself and some companies even pay for re training regularly for their employees
Honestly if you can afford it and have some spare time look into taking an intro to office admin class online if needed and they will teach you how to do your spread sheets and accounting so you have an idea on what to do even if you hire someone to do accounting you always need to check on things to double check everything as mistakes happen I took accounting but am afraid I will need to have hands on training initially to refresh myself and some companies even pay for re training regularly for their employees
@brewersgirl74 Break that mentality or you'll never get ahead. No other advice will work if you continue thinking this way.
@brewersgirl74 You don't need anyone to teach you how to do this, it's really simple and really easy.
1) Make a budget and give every dollar a job before you get it. Budget for everything, including having fun and living a little.
2) Save 3-6 months of living expenses. This is your safety net. Don't spend money on anything else until you have this in the bank. Whether you need three or six depends on how stable your income is. Owning your own business, I'd tend towards 6.
3) Save 15% of your income for retirement. There are many ways to do this and save on taxes, and I won't try and tell you which way is right for you, just google "tax advantaged retirement savings" and do your research. Then google "index funds"
4) Spend less than you make.
5) There is no #5, that's the end of the list.
1) Make a budget and give every dollar a job before you get it. Budget for everything, including having fun and living a little.
2) Save 3-6 months of living expenses. This is your safety net. Don't spend money on anything else until you have this in the bank. Whether you need three or six depends on how stable your income is. Owning your own business, I'd tend towards 6.
3) Save 15% of your income for retirement. There are many ways to do this and save on taxes, and I won't try and tell you which way is right for you, just google "tax advantaged retirement savings" and do your research. Then google "index funds"
4) Spend less than you make.
5) There is no #5, that's the end of the list.
@brewersgirl74 Amazing story, congrats!
You don’t need a radical change to start with. I think you should just open yourself up some retirement accounts and get a high yield savings account to begin with. Once you get that going, see how you feel and you can work on being even more ambitious afterwards.
You don’t need a radical change to start with. I think you should just open yourself up some retirement accounts and get a high yield savings account to begin with. Once you get that going, see how you feel and you can work on being even more ambitious afterwards.
@brewersgirl74 My father was diagnosed with cancer and next 6 years went from bad to worse to worst - but I somehow managed to get myself into engineering school while he was still around and he also somehow managed to pay my expenses. Our family didn’t have enough to eat and there was no government aid system in my country at that time. I worked hard in my job and finally earned a job in US which seemed to be the only way I could provide a better life for my mother and my siblings in my home country.
Here in US, I worked hard and managed to retire as a VP in a company. I’m telling you all this to tell you of the learning I had -
- while you can’t live a frugal life all your life, 6 figures income doesn’t do anything in the long run if you’re not careful about money.
- yes, you’d think that you deserve a Lexus because you’ve worked hard but a Camry would do just fine.
- working as a professional is a lot less riskier than running a business (I ran a business before enrolling into engineering school). You never know when conditions for a business will change and how much money you’ll need to reinvest into the business.
- at around 30, most of us don’t have any idea about how to manage our money. It’s a great step that you’ve realized that you need help in this department. Financial advisors are going to help. Unfortunately in my case every time a went to one, they made the task of managing money somehow be so difficult that I avoided the issues altogether. Most of them work on commission and I always thought they had vested interests.
- you need two types of advisors - one who can teach you what to do with your savings as an individual (hopefully one who doesn’t have an axe to grind). Few options - short term deposits, long term deposits, money markets, investments in the market (Fidelity is a good company). There’s no way other than you investing couple of hours each week in yourself learning about these things first.
- second type of advisor you need - someone who can advise how to manage finances for a business. This is trickier than average people think and many good small business go bankrupt because they didn’t know business basics. Your local Chamber of Commerce may have resources - meet with them and see what they have. If you’re lucky, you may even someone retired who can provide you some advice free. For business also, you need to educate yourself and your local community college may have courses too. See if you have time for that. A formal education in managing a business will give your business a boost that you can’t imagine.
All the best!
Here in US, I worked hard and managed to retire as a VP in a company. I’m telling you all this to tell you of the learning I had -
- while you can’t live a frugal life all your life, 6 figures income doesn’t do anything in the long run if you’re not careful about money.
- yes, you’d think that you deserve a Lexus because you’ve worked hard but a Camry would do just fine.
- working as a professional is a lot less riskier than running a business (I ran a business before enrolling into engineering school). You never know when conditions for a business will change and how much money you’ll need to reinvest into the business.
- at around 30, most of us don’t have any idea about how to manage our money. It’s a great step that you’ve realized that you need help in this department. Financial advisors are going to help. Unfortunately in my case every time a went to one, they made the task of managing money somehow be so difficult that I avoided the issues altogether. Most of them work on commission and I always thought they had vested interests.
- you need two types of advisors - one who can teach you what to do with your savings as an individual (hopefully one who doesn’t have an axe to grind). Few options - short term deposits, long term deposits, money markets, investments in the market (Fidelity is a good company). There’s no way other than you investing couple of hours each week in yourself learning about these things first.
- second type of advisor you need - someone who can advise how to manage finances for a business. This is trickier than average people think and many good small business go bankrupt because they didn’t know business basics. Your local Chamber of Commerce may have resources - meet with them and see what they have. If you’re lucky, you may even someone retired who can provide you some advice free. For business also, you need to educate yourself and your local community college may have courses too. See if you have time for that. A formal education in managing a business will give your business a boost that you can’t imagine.
All the best!
@brewersgirl74 1) Set up Emergency Reserves equal to 3-6 months of your monthly expenses. Given your history, I'd probably recommend 6 months and put this in a separate bank you don't use for your normal cash flow. Put this in some sort of money market or CD where you can earn a fair interest rate.
2) Immediately go and create/contribute into a Roth IRA. Do this for 2023 and come January 1st do 2024 contributions as well. You can contribute $6,500 for 2023 and $7,000 for 2024. DO NOT over think this. Just put it in a total stock market index like VOO or VTI. Seriously spend zero time on this, just buy, and once your account is a six figure account you can revisit. DO NOT over think this. You just need to start it growing.
3) I'm guessing these 2 items will eat up much of your discretionary income. As an aside from this, I would seek to set aside ~10% of your income towards savings. Happy to expand on this, but start with those first two.
2) Immediately go and create/contribute into a Roth IRA. Do this for 2023 and come January 1st do 2024 contributions as well. You can contribute $6,500 for 2023 and $7,000 for 2024. DO NOT over think this. Just put it in a total stock market index like VOO or VTI. Seriously spend zero time on this, just buy, and once your account is a six figure account you can revisit. DO NOT over think this. You just need to start it growing.
3) I'm guessing these 2 items will eat up much of your discretionary income. As an aside from this, I would seek to set aside ~10% of your income towards savings. Happy to expand on this, but start with those first two.
gfellowships
New member
@brewersgirl74 Why do you need to hire someone. Take your income and divide it into three categories. 1. Non-Discretionary Spending, 2. Discretionary Spending, and 3. Saving. Work out what you need in Cat 1, take that off you take home. Divide the rest 50:50 between Cat 2 and Cat 3. Don’t deviate. Now divide Cat 3 into Pension, Rainy Day and Saving for specifics. Now divide specifics into individual items you want(!!!!) and need (!!!!) two different categories. If saving for specifics is taking too long then change the Cat2 and Cat3 ratio.
@brewersgirl74 I feel like people in your situation are more likely to get the worse deals from financial advisors. Taking the time to learn about finances is a big step. In the meantime do something easy and just save up.
At your level it’s more about how much you keep.
Look at all your bills including food multiply that number by 6 and that’s your first savings goal.
Also pay down any debts like credit cards and car loans and once those are gone your monthly cash flow improves.
Open an ira and start there for retirement savings. Buy vti (entire usa stock market fund) for now and just let it do its thing. Ira through fidelity is great and they have great customer service you can actually call and talk to people.
I wouldn’t go beyond these three steps until you self educate a bit more
At your level it’s more about how much you keep.
Look at all your bills including food multiply that number by 6 and that’s your first savings goal.
Also pay down any debts like credit cards and car loans and once those are gone your monthly cash flow improves.
Open an ira and start there for retirement savings. Buy vti (entire usa stock market fund) for now and just let it do its thing. Ira through fidelity is great and they have great customer service you can actually call and talk to people.
I wouldn’t go beyond these three steps until you self educate a bit more
mommybebrave
New member
@brewersgirl74 Yourself. Congratulations, old people would say you pulled yourself up by your bootstraps. You know what to do. Save out every dollar you can Warren Buffett drives a five-year-old car, so can you. Help people, but on the street the saying is gimme is what got you here don’t give anybody anything except a job. Focus on saving the only person who’s going to take care of you is you. Good luck. It’s an awesome story.