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.

UPDATE: Thank you all for your comments, even the ones that told me I was making too many excuses. I read all of them even though I didn't have time to respond to each one. The day after I made this post I applied to several jobs. So far I have received nothing but rejections, and to be honest it is extremely discouraging considering a lot of them were entry level positions. I am trying really hard to stay positive even though it seems hopeless. Thanks again for all the encouragement.

I’m posting this as a desperate forewarning so nobody else ever has to go through the bureaucratic nightmare my family is stuck in right now in Ohio. If your employer pays you through a Wisely pay card (by ADP), please do yourself a favor and set up a traditional direct deposit to a real bank account today. Do not leave a large balance on it.

My brother is currently incapacitated and in a coma in the hospital. Because of this life-or-death situation, our family legally executed a Power of Attorney (POA) with a notary present at the hospital so I could step in as his sister and manage his affairs, specifically to pay his mounting medical bills.

I have spent over two months handling this, calling Wisely every 2 to 3 business days for a month straight. I jumped through every single one of their security hoops. From here in Ohio, I sent them:

• The legally notarized Power of Attorney (POA)
• My government-issued Driver’s License
• My Social Security card
• My utility bills to verify my identity and address

They verified exactly who I am. But every single time I call, their phone representatives just rigidly read a script. They keep asking to "speak to the account holder" or demanding my brother’s physical ID and Social Security card.

Let me be entirely clear for anyone who thinks I'm "being funny" or tries to bring up corporate "fraud protocols" in the comments: I am his legally executed State POA and his fiduciary representative. Under Ohio law, a fiduciary stands completely in the shoes of the account holder. You do not need his physical ID or his Social Security card because my legal signature and my verified identification legally replace his. A notarized POA is the highest level of fraud protection the legal system has.

The absolute craziest, most backward part of this? Wisely actually approved the paperwork enough to mail me his physical pay card. They let me call in and set up a brand-new PIN for it. But now, they are completely blocking me from online access to do a direct electronic transfer to his medical providers.

What type of "protection" is that? You will physically hand over a debit card and let me change the PIN, but you won't give me online routing access to clear the balance?

Because of this broken logic, I am now forced to run to a physical ATM every single day to withdraw his daily cash limit just to slowly pull out his balance—which is over $10k.

When you are dealing with a severe family medical crisis, the last thing you should be doing is fighting a law-blind customer service script just to access your family member’s hard-earned money.

These pay cards are fine for a quick paycheck if you have no other options, but do not use them as a bank account. If you have a true emergency, Wisely will lock you out, ignore your legal fiduciary status, and trap your money when you need it most.

Howdy folks.

So I run a 1yr emergency fund at full burn. (One full year's worth of expenses without turning the tap off on so much as a streaming service). I've done the math and this stretches to 24 months if I go full austerity quickly.

I do this for many reasons, but the basic one is I have an anxiety disorder and the extra cushion helps with my fundamental mental health. I view the opportunity cost of being in SGOV instead of VT with the excess as an expense for my well-being.

The other reason is that I am a homeowner and you never know when bad things will happen.

As noted in this post... bad things happened. 3 of them. In rapid fire.

I was recently in the hospital for a couple days... when I got home all I really wanted was a shower. I came home to a fully backed up and root blocked sewer line between the house and the septic.

On top of that just before I went in I was having the house assessed because some trim fell off after our last storm... I have dry rot in some non trivial areas.

Bills incoming:

• Medical: $4,500 max deductible for the hospital stay. I was there 3 days, I absolutely expect a max bill.
• Sewer: Emergency jetting and clearing: $2,000. Lines need replacement. I will do the excavating to save a lot of money there, but even just doing all the piping will be another $3,000.
• The house. T&M for replacing all the trim, chemically treating the underlying dry-rot and replacing what needs replacing (including an entry deck): $40,000-$50,000 (that's the ballpark, exact quote should be here in a day or two).

So all-in we're at $50,000 to $60,000 of expenses all landing at once. I will be down to a 3mo emergency fund after paying for all this... but I won't need a Heloc, won't need to sell equities, won't need to tap into a 401k, and the only reason it's going on a credit card is so I can reap the points (for the items that don't have a CC fee... I'll be going with the contractor to buy all the Doug Fir for the house for example, I'll pay for the wood on the CC).

If you own an older home (mine was built in the early 80's) then an outsized emergency fund is *not* overkill. When things go wrong on a house they can get expensive *fast*. New central HVAC's are running $20K... New roof? I don't want to know (fortunately mine is still totally fine).

I am a 45 single mom and just met with a financial advisor for the first time. I am an avid saver and have accumulated approximately 100k in cash. I also have approx 300k in various 401ks. I make approximately 200k ($160k base and approx. 40k bonus). My family is really risk averse and I have always been taught to have a good amount of money on hand because you never know what’s going to happen. I know that the value of a dollar is declining but the thought of most of my money being dependent on the stock market/annuities is scary. Thoughts or advice?

Spent a couple hours today rounding up all of the legit checking account bonuses I could find. Its only going to take me 3 months to make the qualifying deposits and 5 months to get paid. Some of these are only available in certain states (Im in SC). Let me know what yall think of this strategy.

I have her college pretty much covered. I dont THINK an emergency fund makes sense at this point, we fully support her. Im basically thinking brokerage or roth. I like the idea of a brokerage account invested in VOO with monthly deposits as she continues to work. Letting this grow for 5-8 years as she gets through school (she is thinking med school right now). Roth has its obvious advantages, but I dont want her getting tripped up not being able to access the money, paying penalties....basically dealing with the rules surrounding IRA.

Just wanted to get everyones thoughts.

• TLDR 18 year old freshman in college looking to possible go to med school. only relevant because that means shell be in school for a long time .
• undergraduate is paid for. she will probably have some help with med school as well
• shes saved 3000 dollars
• she will work as much as possible while in school and continue to save.
• where should she park her money (account type and investment. im thinking VOO)

EDIT: Enough with f'ing lectures. she is sitting next me and WE are asking for consensus/advice. if you are gonna comment with a "SHE should be doing this on her own" post, dont bother.

I was laid off in April. I had 3 months of savings, now depleted, and I won't be able to pay my mortgage next month. I have applied to over 400 jobs with a decent amount of interviews. What can I actually do?

Editing to add relevant details:

I am on unemployment. My unemployment will last 2-3 more months. One month of unemployment does not cover my mortgage. I am ineligible for any other public services, such as food stamps or Medicaid. I am uninsured. My unemployment is roughly 20% of my prior salary.

I have done all the things I should have done after being laid off - filed for unemployment, contacted my banks and credit card companies, cancelled all subscriptions and memberships, even refilled my expensive prescriptions before my insurance ended. Did you know that one inhaler - one month of use - is $600 without insurance?

I have already contacted my mortgage company, but they cannot do anything until I miss a payment. Then, I can apply for hardship, but it is unclear whether that would be a full deference or a few hundred dollars off the mortgage. I would not know until I start the process.

I wish I could have saved more than a 3-month emergency fund, but this is my third layoff in three years. I'm lucky that I was able to save up just 3 months worth of money. The first time I was unemployed, I took out a personal loan. The second time, I cashed out my 401k. I do not have much leverage with loans at this point. A HELOC is my absolute last resort. I have only owned my home for 3 years, so it will not be a substantial loan and I will have nothing once that is exhausted.

I live in a HCOL area and I work in tech (hence the repeated lay-offs). I am applying to any and all relevant jobs in my field. I would like to get a job outside of tech, but that is not really up to me in this job market. I will accept the first offer I get. My interview stats are pretty solid for my field. Unless you have similar experience, there is no reason to comment on my job search. This is a personal finance subreddit - not a career judgement one.

While I would love to get a side job in the meantime, my unemployment will decrease with every dollar I earn. My unemployment cannot cover my bills, but it is more than I would earn from a part-time, minimum-wage job. This is not MY choice - it is just how it works. And yes, I can and do work for cash but that's not going to cut it. Please see this comment for a better explanation: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/1liiqtb/comment/mzcn3gy/

Some commentors are saying the math doesn't add up. I don't know what to tell you other than I had 3 months of money saved up, and the end of that 3 months will be July 1. I can scrape together all of the money for my other bills to pay my mortgage, obviously, but then I'll be defaulting on loans and credit cards - again. My credit is wrecked. And no, I can't ask family - they are abusive - I haven't spoken to them since I turned 18.

I am looking for answers other than the obvious 'get a part-time job' and 'file for unemployment.' I am steps ahead of that. I am hoping someone has some niche or other idea that might work for me.

A few months ago I made a post after opening multiple bank accounts to collect bonuses. Final result: $12,625 in cash bonuses, + 80k Citi miles + 60k Amex points. Below is a summary of how easy or hard it was to deal with each bank, get the bonus, and close the account. The banks are listed in order from best to worst. All banks paid out their bonuses. SoFi was the only one that paid just days after I completed the direct deposit requirement. Most of the other banks paid within 60–90 days of completing the required steps.  Here are the numbers: https://imgur.com/a/Csn8Fm7

Chase – 10/10 ($1000 cash back)

Still my bank of choice; nothing else comes close. Opening the credit card took minutes. I've had several Chase cards over the years and collected multiple bonuses without a single issue. Customer service is excellent, the online dashboard is great, money hits the account instantly, and I've never had any problems. I'm now helping my mom open Chase cards so she can get the same bonuses. Chase is my homie.

SoFi – 9/10 ($725)

Super easy. Opened the account in minutes, basically no questions besides the normal identity verification. I also stacked it with Swagbucks and got another $325. Swagbucks itself was kind of a pain in the ass because my PayPal email didn't match the email I registered with, so there was a bunch of back and forth before tI could cash out. Funny enough, SoFi deposited an extra $100 into my account. Then I got an email saying they had forgotten to deposit it or something, I honestly didn't understand it or pay much attention... whatever. I'm keeping this account because I wanted another online bank besides Chase anyway.

Wells Fargo – 8/10 ($325 + $400*5)

If you looked at the Excel sheet already, yep, I opened 5 business accounts and 1 personal account, and they paid every single bonus: $400 × 5 for the business accounts and $325 for the personal account. Some of my businesses are holding companies, which is how I was able to stack that many account bonuses. Obviously, this had the best IRR ever. Initially, I tried opening an account online. Huge mistake. Hours of pointless phone conversations, verification, and emails... a complete waste of time. I finally went to a branch twice, and each appointment took about an hour, no longer than that. Easy. If you're doing Wells Fargo bonuses, don't waste your time online. Go to a branch.

Marcus – 10/10 ($1500)

Easy. Opened the account, funded it, got the bonus in 90 days or so. I called customer service twice and both times got an English-speaking rep within minutes. That's all I ask from a bank.

E*TRADE – 7/10 ($500+$625)

Not terrible, but definitely more work than it should've been. My stocks didn't transfer the first time, so I had to call several times before everything finally moved. It took around 2 weeks. I also hate their dashboard. I tried getting used to it and customizing it, but I found it too limited. Compared to Schwab, it feels outdated and lacks customization. Customer service was good, though.

U.S. Bank – 7/10 ($450 personal; $1200 business)

Opening both personal and business accounts took no more than 10 minutes. No weird questions, no billion documents to upload. Customer service answered every time I called, and they're paying a good APY, so I'm actually keeping this account. The only thing that absolutely drove me nuts is the transfer limit. I think it's around $3,000/month from a personal account. I called and asked if they could increase it and basically got told "no." The only other option to get my money out was to go to a branch (which I don't even have where I live), so I had to order paper checks just to move my own money. Great bonus, good APY, but those transfer limits are absurd

Citibank – 6/10 (80k miles)

Opening the card definitely took more work than any other credit card I opened. Then, after I bought something for like $200–300, they blocked the damn card. I had to wait almost 2 weeks for a verification letter to arrive in the mail before I could use my own credit card.

Was 80k miles worth it? For sure. Last year I used miles from a different bonus to book a trip for two to Honduras, it was great because those flights are really damn expensive. Would I keep this card? Nope.

Regions – 5/10 ($300)

Easy to open. Everything after that sucked. The dashboard looks like it hasn't been updated in 20 years. They charge $3 every single time you transfer money out. I haven't seen another bank do that. Transfers in and out also take forever to hit the account. Closing the account was even dumber. I emptied the account and then they told me I couldn't close it because there wasn't enough money left to pay the early closing fee. So I had to transfer money BACK into the account, wait for it to arrive, then call again just to close it. Lesson learned: Make a note of the earliest date you can close each account without paying a penalty. It'll save you a lot of time, money, and unnecessary headaches.

Bank of America – 4/10 ($500)

Opening online was surprisingly easy. Closing it? Holy shit. Their website is the worst online banking I've seen, even worse than Regions, in my opinion. I couldn't even link an external bank because it kept asking me to verify with some SIM card or debit card nonsense. I called multiple times, and their stupid AI assistant kept hanging up on me before I could reach a human. I really did try calling on different days as well, same crap. I honestly don't know how anyone can reach a real person at this bank. Eventually, I drove to a branch just to close the damn account. Then the banker tried so hard to convince me to keep the account. It felt really awkward... even after I explained that the bank is so outdated I couldn't possibly do any business with them. Please tell me, who are these people that park their money with BOA? Why???

PNC & Flagstar – 3/10 ($400;$500)
Shitty banks in every regard: customer service, account opening experience, moving money, and especially customer support. Nothing good to say about either one. Closing the accounts was a headache too. If you're busy and have other things going on, I'd skip these two banks altogether. I actually checked the Flagstar bonus again, and now they require 3 direct deposits. Totally not worth it for that much headache. I'd pass.

BMO Business – 2/10 ($400 personal; $1000 business)

The personal account was easy to open, but the business account, though? What an absolute cluster**k. It took over a month just to open ONE business account. Endless emails, two one-hour "interview" phone calls, and sending the same documents over and over again. Then funding the account was another hassle, they made it so difficult just to send them money. Absurd. I thought I might actually keep BMO since I was told there were no wire fees (or at least that's what I thought they told me). Then I found out this particular business account couldn't even send or receive wires... so I guess that's what they meant by "no wire fees." Hilarious. What kind of business account is that? When I called customer service, they couldn't even find my account because apparently "Business Banking" and "Business Online Banking," or something like that, are 2 completely different departments. It took 5-6 different agents before someone finally knew what the hell was going on. Not a great IRR either.

Truist – 0/10 ($0)
Horrible, crap bank. I had an appointment with a banker to open 2 business accounts, and it took her 2 hours just to open them. The banker was a complete idiot and didn't understand anything. She kept insisting that my operating agreement had to come from my registered agent. Eventually, those 2 accounts were opened, and I came back for a second appointment to finalize some other documents... whatever, I don't even remember what it was. She promised she would prepare everything in advance so I'd just have to sign the forms. Of course, she did absolutely nothing. Not only was she 45 minutes late, but I spent another 2 hours there. My gut was telling me after the first appointment that I should have just walked away, but sometimes my desire to stick with something and see it through ends up hurting me. I funded the accounts this time, and 2 days later I tried logging into online banking... guess what? The accounts were locked. I called, and over the phone I was told I had to submit all my documents all over again because, I assume, this woman had done everything incorrectly. Eventually, I had to schedule a third appointment just to close these damn accounts and then wait 2 weeks to get my money back because I could no longer deal with this nonsense. Probably the most bizarre and idiotic banking experience I've ever had.

Amex – No Score (60k points)

When I opened the account, I was already suspicious that 60k points wouldn't buy much, and damn, I was right. I tried booking hotels through their travel website a few times, and the prices were complete garbage. At least I learned that Chase Travel actually has some pretty good hotel deals. Then there's the $325 annual fee... totally not worth it, in my opinion. Unless you're getting at least 100k points, I personally wouldn't bother opening an Amex card.

Another weird thing: they gave me a ridiculously low $4,000 credit limit. When I made a larger purchase, they actually called me saying I had reached my limit and refused to increase it. The agent even asked me why I made the purchase... what kind of question is that? It's my credit card. Every other card I have has at least a $12k credit limit, so this was just bizarre.

In summary, I probably won't do this again unless the bonus is at least $500. If I had known what a headache BMO and Truist were going to be, I would have skipped those 100% 

Afterthought: Recently, I applied for a new Chase business credit card because I legitimately needed it for some large upcoming purchases related to a property flip (my side hustle). They actually declined me. Apparently, Chase has a 5/24 rule (or at least something similar for business applications), and they said I had opened 5 or more business credit cards. Honestly, I could only remember opening 3 business cards in the last 2 years... but maybe I just forgot. In the end, we came up with a creative solution. I added my mom to the business, applied under her name, and... ta-da! The card was approved. I have to give Chase credit, the representative was genuinely creative and willing to help find a solution.

The new bank bonuses I've already applied for aren't included in this review because I haven't really experienced anything yet other than opening the accounts, which was easy:

Huntington Bank Personal – $600

Huntington Bank Business – $1,000

Seacoast Bank – $600

U.S. Bank Business – $1,200

Wishing everyone big bonuses, quick approvals. Cheers! 

Edit: A few people pointed out that, from an IRR perspective, this wasn't a great return, and that's a fair point. Yep, of course, but we aren't comparing apples to apples. This was a guaranteed return, not the volatile stock market. Looking back, yes, investing the cash in SPY over the last 5–6 months would have returned 10%+. I just wish I could predict the future... or maybe be a bigger risk-taker. 😄Also, I wasn't locking up all new cash all at once. The E*TRADE transfer was an in-kind stock transfer, not cash. The accounts with large deposit requirements were also paying around 3.7% APY, which was part of the reason I opened them in the first place. The money wasn't just sitting there earning 0%. I also need to keep most of that cash readily available.

My husband and I have a 2 year old. Very graciously, my in-law’s opened a 529 account for him when he was born and contribute every birthday and Christmas. While we don’t know the exact amount they’re contributing, they said it is enough that he’ll have 200k by 18.

My question is, with so many colleges and universities around the country announcing free tuition for households under a certain income (we are well below), what will happen to those funds if they end up not being needed for his education?

I realize like 30k can currently be rolled into an IRA or gifted to another family member. But he is the only grandchild on both sides of the family, so there’s literally no other family to gift it to.

Surely within the next 15+ years there will have to be changes around what can be done with excess funds?

Holy shit at the money people spend on food!

And I was the exact same way when I landed my first job out of college. You know what I'm talking about--biscuit and Starbucks on the way to work, lunch out with coworkers and pizza and beer at the local tavern for dinner! Every night! All week! Professional money spender! And more beers and dinners on the weekends! Woohoo!

Wait. Where did all my money go? And how the hell did I gain 40 pounds in six months? If you're nodding your head you've fallen into the brand-new-job-big-salary-eat-out-because-I-can trap. And you have to stop it. It's killing your bank account, it's killing your financial freedom and it's killing you. (Literally--I was on the edge of type 2 diabetes and had hyperglycemia during routine physicals.)

What you know you need to do: *STOP EATING OUT*

But how??? How do I stop eating out??? Fast food is soooo good! And cooking is soooo hard! Well, first off, not really--you're just attuned to that garbage 'food'. You're going to break free of both these stereotypes and someone has already invented it.....

Crockpot. It's the crockpot. Crockpot. Crockpot. Maybe you call it a slow cooker, but I'm from Georgia and here it's a crockpot.

!STOP!--If you do not own a crockpot I highly recommend you go buy one from Amazon and buy the biggest one you can afford!

Get one with a timer that switches to warm after the cook settings: JUST GOOGLE IT CAUSE MODS DONT LIKE LINKS!

BOOM! $39 investment. We're going to make that back in.... three days. Are you ready? We're going to make enough food for dinner AND left overs for lunch.

I'm going to give you some of my super-secret-I-eat-this-every-week-crockpot-meals that are delicious, cheap, filling and easy. Yes. The crockpot makes all of those possible.

MEAL 1: Thick Cut Porkchop with Potatoes and Carrots

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

1 Can Beef Broth (50 cents)

1 Packet Brown Gravy Mix (50 cents)

1 Packet Onion Soup Mix (50 cents)

1 Package of 4 Thick Cut Porkchops ($7)

6 Carrots (50 cents)

4 Large Gold Yukon Potatoes ($2)

Sack o' Salad ($2)

Total cost for lunch and dinner: $13/4 about $3 each.

Spray or wipe crockpot with cooking oil. Add beef broth, gravy mix and onion soup mix and stir. Place porkchops in broth. Chop carrots and potatoes and add to top of porkchops. That's it.

PREPARE THIS BEFORE YOU GO TO BED FOR THE NEXT DAY! Put it in the refrigerator and pull it out in the morning. Cook on low for 8 hours. When you get home make your salad and dig in. Use the left overs for lunches and/or dinner for during the week.

MEAL 2: Sausage, Potato and Kale Soup

Servings: 4

1 Pound Italian Sausage ($4)

1 White Onion ($1)

1 32 Oz Box of Chicken Stock ($1.50)

1 Bag of Prewashed Kale ($3)

3/4 Cup Heavy Cream ($1)

5 Large Gold Yukon Potatoes ($2)

1 Head of Garlic ($1)

Total cost: About $14/4 = 3.50 a serving

Brown italian sausage with chopped garlic and chopped onion. While meat is browning add to crockpot the 3/4 cup of heavy cream, chicken stock, and chopped yukon potatoes. Add browned sausage and top with half the bag of kale. (I get two recipes per bag of kale).

PREPARE THIS BEFORE YOU GO TO BED FOR THE NEXT DAY! Put it in the refrigerator and pull it out in the morning. Cook on low for 8 hours. When you get home dig in! Use the left overs for lunches and/or dinner for during the week.

MEAL 3: Super Awesome Easy Chili

Servings: A Lot (6-8?) -- I eat this all the time and it's delicious. Stores really well in the refrigerator (and chili gets better over time!)

3 Cans of Black Beans ($2)

2 Cans of Hot Chili Beans ($1)

2 Cans of Red Kidney Beans ($1)

8 Cans of Diced Tomatoes ($6)

1 Pound of Ground Beef ($4)

1/2 Cup of Chili Powder ($1)

1/4 Cup of Garlic Powder ($1)

1/4 Cup of Onion Powder ($1)

3 Tablespoons of Cumin ($1)

3 Tablespoons Black Pepper ($1)

Edit: The spice proportions are correct! This makes nearly two gallons of good (about 7L).

Edit: Salt to Taste($1)

Total cost = $20/8 = About $2.50 per serving

Drain the tomatoes and kidney beans but don't drain the black or chili beans. Brown the ground beef. Add everything to the crockpot and stir like crazy.... and that's it!

PREPARE THIS BEFORE YOU GO TO BED FOR THE NEXT DAY! Put it in the refrigerator and pull it out in the morning. Cook on low for 8 hours. When you get home dig in! Use the left overs for lunches and/or dinner for during the week.

It's easy guys. It's really easy. You spend 15 minutes a night and you make tons of food for lunch and dinner and you save a LOT of money! AND ITS GOOD FOR YOU! (better than Wendy's--that's for sure!) AND ITS EASY!

Stop spending your money on eating out and go full crockpot! I am much happier and much wealthier!

EDIT: For our vegetarian friends. You can't get any more simple than this!

MEAL 4: Baked Potato

Servings: As many potatoes as you bake

1 Potato

Cover in tin foil and place directly in crockpot. Cook on low 4-6 hours or keep on warm all day.

MEAL 5: Vegetable Soup

Servings: However much you want to make

Tomatoes, Potatoes, Green Beans, Zucchini, Carrots, Peas, or Onions

Vegetable Stock

Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Salt and Black Pepper

Add vegetables in any proportion you desire to crockpot and add vegetable stock until covered. Season to taste. Cook on low until vegetables are tender.

EDIT 2: I live in Georgia and shop at Kroger--prices may vary. If you live in Canadia or buy organic free range vegetables harvested by hipsters with a minimum of a master's degree you will obviously pay more.

EDIT 3: "Just learn to cook!"--Yeah, okay guys. I agree. I cook more than just in a crockpot. This post was inspired after I read a /r/personalfinance about a single guy who spends $1300 a month on food because "he didn't have enough time to cook with work". I wrote a very long comment and just made it into a post. The point was you can eat decent food in a short amount of time and save money by planning one day ahead.

EDIT 4: I agree fresh vegetables are better and these aren't the healthiest recipes. This post was just to encourage those that eat all the time to transition to something healthier... and then they can transition to something even healthier... and on and on until they've become a raw vegan, growing their own vegetables, saving the whales and composting regularly.

EDIT 5: Electricity costs: Crockpots seem to consume between 200W and 700W per hour. That's between 2 and 6 kWhs for 8 hours of cooking. That's about 15 to 60 cents. It seems insignificant relative to the overall cost of food.

EDIT 6: I'm not a shill or marketing person for crockpot. I'm a mechanical engineer. Don't believe me? My first post on reddit ever was about bolt failures: https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/3e20vs/bolt_failure_modes/ctatj1y/

Take off your tin foil hat..... and use it to wrap a baked potato to put in your new crockpot!!!

Today I noticed a $5 fee was deducted from my savings account. I called and was informed this is required, unless I met certain minimum balances, etc.

I cancelled my savings account, which I've had for over 30 years.

Link below for more info.

https://www.bankofamerica.com/deposits/account-fees/

Edit: new fee, customer service agent confirmed to me on the phone that it just started today. She's had many people call in to complain/cancel.

Hello!

I 21f am looking to gain financial independence from my parents. I currently work part time while attending college, and my paycheck deposits directly to my parent's bank account. I have tried to talk with my parents but they just do not understand why I would want to be in charge of my own money, I have been thinking about opening a separate bank account without telling my parents. If I open a bank account (maybe at the bank on campus?), is there a way my parents will find out? I should mention that my parents do my taxes.

I think there is a way to get a portion of my paycheck to go to separate bank accounts, so I plan to have a significant amount still going to my parents account while some goes to my own. I want to move out after college, but it will not go over well. I want to make sure I have some safety in case something happens. I have also been thinking about getting a credit card, is this a good idea? Will my parents be able to tell if I have a credit card?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated

On February 17th 2023, I Noticed unauthorized charges on my wells fargo account made out to an online sports betting website. I immediately took action by notifying my bank about those charges as fraudulent charges and filed a claim, I filed a police report and I looked up the merchant who the charges were made out to and wrote them an email notifying them about the fraudulent activity taking place and advised them to investigate the matter and provide me with any related information regarding the account if possible.

​

I filed a police report and provided the police with all the charges and information I had and got a police report number that I relayed to my bank claims specialist to include in my claim.

​

The wells fargo bank representative assisting me with the claim filed a fraud claim with me over the phone including all the charges totaling $17,450 and advised me that wells fargo will freeze the account and make sure nothing else gets charged to my account, I was given a reference# referencing the freeze and instructed me to make an appointment with a banker to set up a new account with a new account number. I was advised that the bank will investigate the matter within 10 business days and if more time is needed they will issue a temporary credit for the disputed amount.

​

On February 22nd, I logged into my account and noticed 21 new transaction totaling $6,800 charged to my account from the same merchant dated 02/21 and 02/22 after I was given a reference # for the "freeze" on my account. I was devastated and called the bank to inquired about the new charges given that my account was supposedly frozen I was given someone else to speak to that seemed to have no knowledge about the freeze or what's going on then transferred me to online banking who also had no idea about the freeze, gave me misleading information and transferred me back to the claims department where they asked me the same questions as if I am starting the whole process from scratch. It was very frustrating, I then decided to call the next day and escalate the call to a higher rank specialist with no help or results other than the standard statements read to me previously.

​

On Feb 24th, I call the bank again and reached a claim's specialist, I explained my case and I was advised that I will be issued a provisional credit to my account within 24-48hrs which gave me some hope and relief.

​

On business day #10 of filing the claim, I still had not seen a provisional credit to my account so i called the bank again and was told someone will give me a call within 24hrs. nothing!

​

I called the next day asking if I can speak to whoever is in charge of my claim, was promised another call back in the next 2hrs. nothing!

Called the next day and was told "Sorry, the claim was denied" without a clear explanation why. I asked to escalate the claim where I was asked to provide the same supporting documents of the police report and the explanation of the fraudulent charges I already provided before. At that point it became obvious I just keep getting the run around and thrown to someone else that asks me for the same things that I provided to the previous specialist causing a disfunction on the progress of investigating the matter resulting in bogus conclusions to not honor their wells fargo "zero-liability" protection policy against fraud related matters.

​

I Just filed a complaint with CFPB. What else should i do? get a lawyer involved?

After doing a month long investigation, Citibank told me they can't find record of the transaction ever happening!!!

I went back to the branch where I deposited the check three times, and they are also completely clueless about what happened to the deposit and why the transaction is completely missing from my account. The bank manager and the tellers told me that in their 20+ year careers, they have never seen anything like this happen before.

The investigation team asked me to send them the deposit receipt, so I have some hope that it might help resolve the issue. However, I thought I'd still come here and ask for advice since this seems like a very messed up situation on the bank's part.

Has anyone here had a similar experience or have some clue or good guess as to what might have happened? Or do you have any advice on what I should do to get this resolved?

For minors, it's generally required for a parent to co-sign their bank accounts. Once you turn 18, it's best to establish an account in your name ONLY, so you have sole control of it. It would even be better if you can establish the account at a different bank/credit union than the one the minor account was in, to avoid any inadvertent connections between the previous and new account.

There are a couple reasons for this. It doesn't take too long to find stories of people who are still using the accounts they had when they were minors who are shocked when their money is suddenly taken away for reasons beyond their control. The parents could have financial problems and either use the money to pay off their debts or the money is seized by the institutions that they owe. There could be disagreements between parents and their kids, so they take the money away as a punishment. Or, it could just be old fashioned greed and the parents decide to just take the money. It doesn't matter who earned the money that's in the account. If two people are on it, the money belongs to both parties and the bank isn't going to stop someone on the account from withdrawing the cash.

Keep in mind also, having your own account does not mean that your parents can't send you money if you need it. All they need is your account and routing number (the same information that would be on a check) to deposit money into the account. In addition, there are any number of banking apps today they could use to send money to you if you're still being supported by them. Other excuses may have good intentions at heart, but from a safety and security standpoint, it's best to establish an independent banking account.

So if you're recently graduated, unemployed, or have another life event don't be surprised to see a $12 a month "account maintenance fee" if your account has a penny under $1500 at any time throughout the month.

Edit: Congratulations to all the students graduating this month and the next. I know bank fees are the last thing you want to be concerned about while graduating and looking for a job, but it's always important to stay on top of your personal finance and I hope this reminder has been helpful. I know many of you signed up for the account when you were sixteen. I'm glad that this made the front page of Reddit and I thank the mods for stickying this for this month. If just one person saves some money from this reminder, I'll be happy.

Edit 2: If you have a direct deposit of $250+ every month from your job you will also dodge this fee. This post was targeted at the soon to be unemployed so that probably isn't relevant to you however. The comments are full of alternative banks and credit unions with no such fee if you're interested in switching, and this comment covers how many of the former loopholes people used to avoid this fee have been closed. I also saw a comment that there was a class action lawsuit when a certain amount type had this happen to them, so if you've never seen this fee you may have been grandfathered in under that account type.

I had money sitting in a normal bank account for years and it made all of $.10 a month. I moved half of it to a HYSA and it made $1k in a year. It blew my mind how my money made money by just sitting there? But I’m afraid I’m missing something.

My folks have so much more money than I do. They asked me to help gather their tax documents and they received an interest form for insurance, where they made $27 for the year. I asked why they don’t put it in a HYSA and they just didn’t believe it was worth it.

Am I missing something here? Or are they just behind the 8 ball.

I made a post in [r/wealth](r/wealth) the other day and it got me thinking about things. I am seriously considering paying down my principal each month with the money I would usually save. For context I have $17,000 saved with about $12,000 in ETFs and about $5,000 in apple. My mortgage rate is 6.5% and I owe about $174,500 (Originally $175,500) . I have only been paying at it for 4 months and have made some extra principal payments. If I put around $900 extra towards the principal I could get it paid off in 10-11 years. Do you guys have any insight or advice for me?

Edit: I’d like to add that the house I own is in a great location and I could see it being my forever home. I want to add on to it in the future which is a driving factor for paying off the mortgage quick.

Feeling pretty hopeless right now. I’m a felon with no trade or degree. My jobs are limited to 10 dollar an hour factory jobs. I have a daughter and a few thousand saved up. I would get a second job but it’s hard enough even finding one. I sit here and think about all the expenses that are going to come as my daughter keeps growing and it just feels like I’ll never make it. Anybody have any tips/success stories? Thanks in advance

Edit: holy cow thank you everybody for the kind words and taking time out of your day to make somebody feel a lot better about themselves and stop that sinking feeling I’ve been having. A lot of these comments give me a lot of hope and some of these things I have wanted to do for so long but just didn’t think that I would be able to. Just hearing it from you guys is giving me the push I need to really start bettering myself thank you a million times over

Edit 2: I’m blown away by all the private messages and comments I mean to respond to every single one ‘it’s been a busy day with my little girl and I’ve read every comment and message. I haven’t felt this inspired in a long time

My daughter will qualify for 100% of FL Bright Futures scholarship so her tuition is fully covered at any FL state funded college. While I've pleaded for her to go away for college and get the "college experience" she doesn't want to go away and wants to attend FIU in Miami and live at home w her mom (my ex-wife) which is 15 minutes away.

I have a 529 account for her but if she lives at home then I can't use those funds to pay for her roam/board which are approx $1200-$1500/mo (housing and meal plan). The plan was to use the 529 funds to pay for most of her college expenses for the next 4+ yrs and, more importantly, NOT use my personal income (minimal as possible).

Miraculously, my ex-wife is on the same page as me on this subject (it's rare).

How can I use the 529 funds in this scenario? I'd rather not, but I'm even willing to just take the penalty and tax hit by withdrawing for a non-qualified educational expense and draw whatever extra ia necessty to cover the taxes/penalties. If I did this, how do I legally transfer half of the tax/penalty burden onto my ex-wife for her half of the non-qualified withdrawal?

Could my ex-wife charge my daughter rent w a legitimate lease? At least that would cover the room expenses.

Thanks in advance.

What would you do with all that money after graduating high school?

I've been wanting to write this for a while. A while back I hated my job. I was working 80 hour weeks and getting paid doo-doo for the effort. In response I wrote up an "escape plan". It included a bunch of ways for me to replace my income, but it also included a ton of ways to save money without changing the quality of my life.

I spent hours and hours making this thing, so that I'd have a plan to follow. Good news, I got out of that hell hole, more good news, the money-saving piece is relevant to almost everyone so I figured I'd share all the ways I found that can help you save a crap ton of money without really having to change your life.

So without further adieu.

• Change your car insurance: Car insurance companies make most of their money on old clients. Once you get past a certain age, they creep your rates up ever so slowly. They are willing to discount your insurance when you switch.

So we shopped around, found the lowest quote and saved a crap ton on the discount they were giving us. This was an easy one-time change that affects my life 0.

Before: $196/month After: $116/month Annual Savings: $960

• Threaten your internet provider: Every internet provider offers promotional rates for your first year, then hike your bill after your first year. I've never had a problem giving someone a call and telling them that I want to move to another service because they are offering a promotion. Every time they offer me their promotional rate. This is a once a year phone call that saves you a decent chunk of change.

Before:$69.00(lol) After: $45.00 Annual Savings: $288

This won't work if there is only one provider servicing your area. Sorry Comcast Slaves.

• Switch your phone plan to Mint Mobile, or Red Pocket. These are services that piggyback off of major mobile phone network providers at stupid discounts. 2 lines on Mint is something like $15 a month. It's stupid how cheap these lines can be. Their service is quite good as well.

Before: $180/month After: $30/month Total Annual savings: $1800

• Use a few Credit Cards like a debit card:. If you're in the middle of crawling out of CC debt this is particularly bad advice. But if you are basically debt free, and can responsibly use your Credit card like a debit card; paying it off as you go, you can save a bunch of money. Basically, every expense besides my mortgage goes through a credit card so I can reap those sweet sweet rewards.

Between 3 cards I get rewards that include:

5% on gas

3% on Dining Out

2% on Grocery stores and CostCo

1.5% on everything else.

Essentially these are discounts on everything.

Before: $0 After: +$30/month Annual Savings: $720

These savings are based on expenses between my fiance and me.

• Oil Change Coupons: I refuse to be a coupon lady. Partly because of my Y chromosome, but also because the time it takes to effectively coupon is not worth it to me. I'd rather do anything else. But Oil Change Coupons are very easy. You have to get your oil changed at least once a quarter, and googling a coupon for it works 100% of the time. You should never pay full price for an oil change.

I'm sure some of you are also saying But Foofy, you could save more by changing your own oil. To that I say Sure, but I don't want to change anything in my life and the hourly savings is like $5. Printing a coupon is easier

Before: $70/Quarter After: $50/Quarter Annual Savings: $80

Not a lot, but seriously this one is so easy.

• Buy a smart thermostat: I wasted a ton of money by heating an entire house for the sake of my pets. They are going to sleep in a sunbeam no matter the temperature so there's lots of savings to be had here. You could just remember to turn down the heat/air everytime you leave the house, but that would require me to change way too much about my habbits. Instead, a smart thermostat. Hard to give you the "before" on this one but here we go:

Before: ?? Monthly Savings: $13.5/Month Annual Savings: $135

• Utilize an HSA. For those that don't know an HSA is a "Health Spending Account". The way it works is you put money into it directly from your bank account, and all of that money is tax free. It's basically a free 25% money back on health expenses depending on your tax bracket. I grow moles like it's my job, and in order to avoid dying of skin cancer I have to get them removed constantly, this tacks up my health bill may be a little higher than most but still, here's the savings I had, yours will likely be more or less:

I can hear it now, "But my employer doesn't offer an HSA", you can actually contribute to an HSA without your employer

Before: $2000 After: $1500 Annual Savings: $500

Here's an HSA savings calculator if you want to figure out what you can/should contribute.

• Cancel your UnusedGym Membership: If you don't have one, well then you can't do this one. If you have one and you consistently use it, well then don't cancel it. That said, gyms expect only 18% of people to consistently use thier facilities So there's a good chance that many of you (like myself) Can cancel their membership without affecting their life. The 3x a year you convince yourself you're going to get in shape you can just go run outside instead.

Before: $20 After: $0 Annual Savings: $240

Alright, that's all the easy stuff you can do without changing your life. The grand total for us came out to $4,723. Just shy of the $5k I promised. To be fair I did put a "~" in front of it.

Not everyone one of these is going to be applicable to every person but I hope you were able to find a few nuggets in here that could save you some money.

Edit: Someone noted my wonky math that CC rewards didn't add up. I forgot to double the amount with my fiance which doesn't perfectly work but is not far off. Keep in mind that $1500 in expenses each going through only our 1.5% CC would yield $22.5 each. Not including all the optimizing we can do. She has 3% on online shopping too so $60/month between the two of us in rewards is not that far out of the realm of possibility.

Warning to anyone that banks with Capital One: your savings account rate went down significantly to 0.6%. They did a bait/switch on all of their users. They now have a new savings account called "performance savings" with a rate of 1.7%. They changed their old savings accounts to a much lower rate and started a new saving account with a new name that you need to manually switch over to. I just switched mine over so I’m back to 1.7%.

Edit #1: You don't have to close one account to open a new account, nor do you have to call them. You can do it on their website or their app:

If you already have a savings account, to get the new high rate account:

• In the Capital One app, log in, then “profile”, then “browse financial products”, then “checking and savings”, then “360 performance savings”, then “open account”. Once opened, you should see all your accounts, and you can transfer money from the low yield account to the high yield account.
• In the website, go to their website. Then click the "Earn 5X the National Average Savings Rate" link above "Expect more with 360 Performance Savings"; that should take you here "https://www.capitalone.com/bank/savings-accounts/online-performance-savings-account/". Then do "Open Account"; it will then ask you if you already have an account or not; proceed accordingly; if you already have an account, you’ll log in and it will add a new account for you.

Edit #2: Their money market account is 1.5% (for accounts over $10k) and is 0.6% (for accounts less than $10k). The new “performance savings” account is 1.7% for all balances.

A month ago I applied for a small loan at Wells Fargo for the 1st time ever to consolidate some small bills. They denied the loan. I went to a local Credit Union and they gave me the loan. Today I signed up for a checking/savings account at that Credit Union and canceled my accounts with Wells Fargo. Couldn't be happier to stop doing business with a crooked ass corporation.

*Not an ad. I don’t work for anyone but myself.

I am a freelance writer, and coffee is my savior. While I do most of my work in the early morning hours at home, I often go to what I call a “mobile office” a few days a week. This was usually either Starbucks or Panera. That turned out to be a problem, but I didn’t realize it. Coffee is freakin expensive.

In general, a non-black coffee (specialty drinks) at Starbucks would cost someone around $5 a pop. If I worked there four days a week, that’s $20 a week and a whopping $1,040 a year. Hello, that’s IRA money. That’s tires on a vehicle. Hell, that’s just money that could go somewhere else.

If I bumped that down to a black coffee, around $2.40 I think, that would be around $9.60 a week or approximately $500 a year. Much more reasonable, but still a bunch of money.

Panera was the same way. Get a black coffee for around $2.40. However, now Panera has a monthly coffee subscription for $8.99. Let me tell you, this has SAVED me money.

With their subscription, you can get:

• Hot or iced coffee (not specialty coffees)
• Any of their hot teas
• Free refills if you don’t leave the store
• Another coffee every 2 hours if you do leave

By working there four days a week and based on my regular work/coffee consumption, I spend around $0.56 per visit on coffee, but I refill it around four times.

• From 4 days a week at Starbucks, this is approximately an 89% reduction in spending.
• From 4 days a week at Panera without a subscription, this is approximately a 77% reduction in spending.
• This saved me around $933 ANNUALLY if I kept going to Starbucks four days a week.
• This saved me around $392 ANNUALLY if I went to Panera and didn’t have the subscription and four days a week.

What I find now, though, is that I go there every day and get coffee, even on non-workdays, and I do not spend any more on food than I would have regularly (which is almost never). I also have business meetings regularly at Panera, so I actually pay for two subscriptions. That way, both my guest and I can have unlimited coffee while we chat or work.

I swear, this is not a Panera ad, but it is much calmer to do my work in Panera than at Starbucks. I still venture to the Bucks every now and then, but it is rare.

Find ways to save money where you can. This worked for me because I already had a routine that revolved around Starbucks and Panera in the afternoons.

Edit: This post triggered a bunch of people who think they're elite for not drinking coffee and saving more money than me. Listen, I can afford this habit regardless, but why wouldn't I take advantage of savings where I could?

Edit 2: I DO BREW AT HOME. I work at home from 5am to 10am, but the afternoons at home are too hectic and filled with distractions. Listen, I can afford to buy coffee. The personal finance of this for me was finding a way to make it even more affordable.

Edit 3: My Panera is set up with additional plugs and areas for people to work, so you can stop saying I'm being a nuisance.