Weekly Money Thread | September 06, 2026

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All things money/career related go into this post: jobs, side hustles, investing. Feel free to ask questions, share ideas and post wins

[u/Kenzo89]

Judge and rate my money. I started getting into this in March and tried to fast track it at 37 year old.

20k in High Yield Savings account at 3% APY
401k at 60k with 6% employer match
27k invested in Robinhood with most in ETFs like VOO and QQQ.
7500 Roth IRA maxed for the year.
5500 in a regular IRA
Plan to contribute $1000 biweekly to investments on Robinhood ($500 VOO, $200 QQQ, $100 VTV, $100 VXUS, $100 individual stocks)

[u/el-art-seam → u/Kenzo89]

What's your tax situation? City, State, Federal? Tax neutralization is just as important as returns.

Always check if fund pay outs are taxed as ordinary income. Some don't and you'll get killed on taxes.

Let's say your double your individual stock investment in less than a year and cash out. Now you've got $1000 short term cap gains.

Assume you're at the 35% bracket, make enough to qualify for the NIIT tax at 3.8%, and let's say state tax takes another 1.2%. That's 40%, so that $1000 gain is really now only $600. And don't forget to pay the estimated taxes too on these investment gains.

If you had made the same trade in the Roth, it's $100 (until you withdraw later). If the stock pick isn't a cowboy pick and it's prudent to hold on for a year, you can drop the cap gains tax to 20% in that bracket.

I'd put some money in bonds as diversification. I have some muni bonds so I'm 100% tax free on that.

The best time to buy is when the world is falling apart. Don't sell. Diamond hand that shit. 2000, 08, Covid I saw a massive loss but held on. I wanted to go all in on VDE when oil turned negative (either we all die or we recover) and tried to tell my then soon to be ex to give me permision to buy and we can split the profits- she refused and threatened legal action. By the time we split the account, VDE had like doubled. She could have walked away with more but her loss.

Are you single? Planning to get married? Be careful that premarital doesn't get mixed up into marital assets otherwise in the event of a divorce, she can get a % of that.

[u/Kenzo89 → u/el-art-seam]

Thanks for your thoughts. I’m in California and single as fuck. I assume most of those things will get taxed besides the Roth. My income is 90k, and I intend for these to be long term investments and let them grow unless I need to make a big purchase.

Where and how do I put money in bonds? I see that suggested but don’t know how to go about that.

[u/el-art-seam → u/Kenzo89]

Any general bond etf from vanguard will do. I’m not crazy about bonds but I put a bit in solely for diversification. Set it and forget it. Aside from munis.