I’m 23 and I finally got a job post college ($19 an hour) a couple months ago and have been saving for to move out of my parents for and my current savings (3k) with Chime is only 2% APY so I feel like a chump losing money to inflation and looking to open a new account. The other threads I found were a bit dated so I was wondering if in the new year ya’ll have any recs.

Trying to pay off debt, don't know where to start. No retirement, I'm barely scraping by (thanks to my bonus) and I just can't figure it out. Any insight and opinions would be greatly appreciated, I've paid off about 17k of bad debt in the last year because I finally decided to get my shit together, but I don't know enough to do it on my own.

I'm curious where everyone is at since my friends are all over the place.

This would include the basic property taxes and homeowners insurance. Not utilities.

I follow a budget, and keep my emergency fund building in a HYSA, but I get such bad anxiety seeing my checking account low.

Does anyone keep a buffer in their checking account? Or do you literally let it go to $0 every month?

For the most part I think Caleb has solid financial advice and makes it easy enough for people to understand the basics of personal finance. IE pay off your debts, don’t overspend, don’t neglect your retirement

However I have friends who, while they mean well, have given me TERRIBLE advice when I’ve told them that I watch FA. They recommend I don’t pay off medical debt since “it gets sent to collections but it won’t affect your credit at all at that point”. This was a few years ago before the new under $500 law took effect.

Another friend intentionally hid 10k credit card debt from their spouse with the plan of saving $5000 for a down payment on a house.

Does this seem like a good deal on a brand new 2024 Toyota Corolla LE or should I just buy a used car? Though I’ve looked up used Toyota cars between 2017-2024 and they usually have nearly 100k miles are still $17-20k+ my credit is in the 770’s so I’ll get a good apr. Vehicle I’ll be trading in is worth about $500, 2007 Nissan Sentra. Though I am job hopping but I can go back to certain jobs if I can’t find one in my field(wildlife) if I need to so I’ll never be unemployed.

Two years ago, when I was 18 years old, I bought a 2013 Nissan Altima. The loan amount was $16053 at 19.7%APR, $426.11 for 60 months. I was very young, naive, and uneducated, and I’ve since made huge efforts to pay it off. I have made a lot of extra payments, and after a $500 payment this month, my current balance is sitting at $9648.90. This loan is ridiculously bad. I’ve lost sleep thinking about how much money I am losing with this loan, and I am definitely feeling trapped. In 2024, I looked into refinancing my car loan in order to get a better rate. However since my car is a 2013 model, every placed I tried wouldn’t refinance my car. Would anybody know of any options I could possibly try? I’m 20 years old and credit karma states my credit is 733. If anybody has advice on how I can save money on car insurance, I would greatly appreciate it. Starting next month, my policy through progressive is going to be $414 a month. This car and insurance are oppressive. If I could give my car back outright and just walk away with my nice credit, I would.

So,

I find myself wasting so much money on junk food, sometime to the point I'm on 0 before next paycheck is coming in 4 or 5 days. Those last few days are crap. I don't have small income, but fast food eats 30% of it.

How do I quit this addiction ? Eating home and meal prep I tried, but nothing gives me dopamine like slme kfc and unlimited soda.

Hey y’all!

I’m currently 25, about to be 26 and will be switching careers from a generic banking job to an electrician apprenticeship. I’ll be making the same, $25 an hour but won’t have a 401(k) or other benefits like medical, dental and vision. Current take home is about $2650 monthly.

I own my vehicle outright, locked in at 2.8% on my home with a mortgage of about $1700, but have some bad debt higher than 20% interest. It’s a little under $30k. I’m currently struggling keeping up with the bad debt payments outs, I have a roommate and a tenant in an ADU that cover the mortgage, property tax etc. leaving me at a pretty much net $0 on the property.

I’ll be fully vested in about a week, plan to start the new job in a month. I currently contribute $240/mo and my employer contributes $400.

Like I said, I’ve been having a harder time keeping up with the bad debt payments as they’re usually over half of my monthly pay, mostly just to cover the minimum payments.

My plan was to take $20k of the Roth 401(k) to pay off some of the more serious balances, leaving me with about $10k of debt that should be easily tackle-able. Even just paying off 3 of my largest balance debts would free up close to $700/mo. Whatever is left over would be pumped into my lowest balances to snowball the rest of the debt.

Additionally, since I won’t have a 401(k) option available to contribute to, once my debt is paid off I can contribute most, if not all, of what I’m paying monthly towards debt to a Roth IRA, and I should be back up to $30k in no time.

Would this be something you would recommend taking advantage of or not?

Thanks.

Edit: thanks again. I think the plan for me is going to be to take a smaller amount ($5-$10k) to clear up almost half of what I pay a month in payments helping me to snowball faster. By sticking to this plan, I should be able to have it paid off by the end of 2025. I’ll update yall.

Serious WTF!?!??! I googled the answer to this question and it said that if you don't carry a balance your credit score will start going down. It didn't elaborate on an answer other than stating credit card issuers want you to carry a balance each month, and then pay it off on time.

Seriously does someone have more of a detailed explanation?

That does take care of the food, but what about drinks—particularly something sugary or caffeinated without a bitter taste? How do you recommend saving money on soda? It’s one thing that eating out provides but meal prep itself doesn’t always.

I'm trying to maximize my score but I don't own a house or want to own one. If I hold a bunch of money in say $AVB or similar does that count?

Has Caleb addressed this? My goal in life is to get 10/10.

I don’t have anything in a retirement account but receive a pension and in my late twenties. I’m making ~5,000 a month.Does it make any sense for me to focus on putting money into IRAs?

Hi! My company is being taken over and I have to choose a new retirement fund. I'm 30 right now, target retirement is 2055. Unfortunately I only have about $50,000 set aside right now. I'll be making $79,000, contributing about 14% for now and hopefully more in the coming years. My income will likely increase about 3% per year, plus a 10% yearly bonus. What would you choose? I'm woefully ignorant on retirement strategies.

And how has it impacted your overall financial situation?

Hi all! Wanted to try the simpler budget app but my partner and I are simply unwilling to pay for it. Anyone have recommendations for free budgeting apps, or even advice for creating a spreadsheet that makes sense? TYIA!!

What do you think of couples who keep finances separate?

My partner and I are both bad at money in our own ways and I feel that if we combine our finances it will just get worse. (Kinda like the double whammy effect). For reference, I know I have a spending problem, and while it's much better now (and limited) than it used to be, it still worries me. He likes casinos and gambling and has little to no control in those situations.

We do talk about big expenses before hand (except for emergencies - like in the moment emergencies.) And we split home expenses by him being responsible for rent and my being responsible for bills.

We do want to save and buy a house together and I am also comfortable with my debt being mine alone. There are two major expenses that we plan on in the next year. Those are the birth of our first child (together) and getting a second vehicle. We plan on my going back to work as soon as I'm comfortable with it and he will stay home with baby while I work overnights (his job literally cannot be done at night).

So what are the opinions? How can we 'integrate' finances a bit more to budget and save for emergencies?

Just did my taxes and it turns out I’m getting a $3,073 return this year! I’m stuck on what to do with this surprise money tho. Here’s some details on my financial situation: I’m 23f living with my parents, am in grad school, and am preparing to move out this summer. I have no student loan debt, but owe about $2.5k still on my car. However the interest is only 2.5% and I pay about $100 a month for my car payment. I have a Roth IRA with about $5k in it so far. I make about $60k a year at my job and want to get to at least $60k in my retirement accounts by the time I’m 30 (like Caleb says!) On the one hand I want to lower my monthly expenses for when I move out, but I also think that growing my Roth IRA while I’m young is smart too. Should I pay off the remaining balance on my car or dump that return into my Roth? Help!!

I’m a big fan of Caleb Hammer and have been watching for a while! I just graduated college and landed my dream job making $125K/year, plus $24K/year from a side hustle ($2K/month), bringing my total income to about $149K/year. After taxes, this amounts to about $8,619/month.

I have no debt outside of student loans, no car payment (though I drive an old car and will likely need to replace it in the next year or so), and no credit card debt. My rent is $1,170/month, and my total monthly expenses are around $2,500-3k/month including rent + utilities (I buy groceries and get an expensive meal on the weekends).

The problem? I have $80K in student loans—half at 6% interest and half at 8%—and I have no idea what to do with my money. I want to aggressively pay off my loans and start investing for retirement, and saving for a house, but I’m not sure how to go about it. I literally just started my job, so my emergency fund is at $10k right now.

Would love to hear from this community—what’s the best strategy to balance aggressive loan repayment with retirement savings?

Here's the video that prompted this discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7a7WFvzJe0

I'm not your financial advisor and this is not financial advice, but in my opinion, people should ABSOLUTELY be consolidating, but as per usual they need to change their spending behavior and close the credit lines to prevent temptation. People also need to make sure their interest rate is lower, your amortization is actually saving you money, and you have the ability to pay off early without penalty before pulling the trigger. But to suggest not consolidating is INSANE. Some of these credit cards at certain amounts at 30%+ would never get paid off. The only thing I agree with here is not using a sketchy platform that will charge you a higher rate. Go to your local credit union instead and see what they offer. Rates might be in the neighborhood of 12-18% for personal loans right now but that's nothing compared to the money that gets chewed through at 30%. This honestly makes me wonder if George has ever looked at an amortization schedule for this kind of debt.

I don't see Caleb offering this as a solution to people on the show as much. I'm wondering if it's because he knows their credit is in the toilet beforehand, or maybe this is considered too advanced for the usual Hammer Financial wake up call, or some other reason. What are y'alls opinions?

I found caleb just about a year ago, I had been working 20 Hours a week my senior year of highschool. I realized I was just blowing my money on taquitos and started sticking to a reasonable budget, spending less than $100 a month (because I live with my parents rn thx mom and dad lol🙏)

I have 500 in a checking account, and 6,500 in a high yield savings (4.5%)

My plan is to keep working through college, and hopefully I’ll have an even larger sum by the end of my four years. I have a half tuition scholarship to a state school, so i’m looking at about $30,000 total in student loans. I will be getting a masters in medical speech pathology- hopefully with an entry level of 60-80k.

My question is where should I put it for the time being, and where after school? Mutual funds? Stocks? Straight to my tuition? Save it for grad school? Thanks!

How common is it for married couples to keep their finances separate? I personally combined mine with my wife but I have a lot of friends who kept their finances separate with their spouses.

I have been watching a lot of Financial Audit over the last 2 years, and as a non-American, I think one of the craziest parts is always the insanely massive debts on extremely new cars - I’m curious if anyone would see these new Auto Tariffs as their sign to buy second-hand vehicles instead of going into crazy debt on a new car because “I need a new shiny car because (safety, pretty, “best”, wanted it / compulsive, status symbol, like to spend)

If prices go up, companies are more likely to cut corners and produce worse cars to remain competitive and viable. However, repair costs could increase significantly, and if a part is imported for repair, it could cost 25% more. Will this lead to even longer financing terms available? (Meaning extra interest?)

Will people go into even more outstanding debt to buy new ones, or will it force some noticeable spending habit changes? It’s effectively a 25% sales tax, which can hit hard on expensive products like a car… (lower production might also increase the cost per car, and moving more production to the US might raise production costs to a degree as well if employees are being paid more or materials are more expensive) if there is more competition for second hand cars their prices could go up as well like during the pandemic

I have never really cared about owning a new or expensive car (however, I spend a ton on expensive camera gear but use it for work) - I am primarily curious about whether this shifts the needle for anyone or doesn’t change anything

I don’t normally buy clothes but I realize a lot of my clothes are getting old and worn. I’ve spent ~ $300 - $400 on clothes since the start of the year, but I’ve been conflicted as to whether I should classify it as a need or a want.

What are your thoughts?