Best budgeting tips/tricks/resources? I loosely follow YNAB but am wondering what ppl on here like to do :)
OR, investing for beginner recommendations? TY

Question

Sarah Beck · Answer

My most earnest rec - open a Roth IRA and auto deposit as much as you can every month.: Go to vanguard, follow the steps to open a Roth IRA. If you can, auto deposit $625/month, which will max you out to the allowable limit for the year. Invest it in VTSAX. This money goes in post-tax, but grows tax free and is not taxed when you take it out. Do this for 10 years and you will have over $100k. While it's a retirement account, you are allowed to take funds out to buy your first home or for higher ed. Most importantly, time goes really fast and having money saved by the time you hit your 40s gives you options and flexibility. Start a new business, quit your job, ask for what you want at work. I will literally jump in a zoom call and walk through setting up an account.

Sarah Beck · Answer

A really useful flow chart for your financial order of operations: I know this chart is a lot but it is basically an entire road map, starting from the very beginning and goes until "what should i do if i have more money that i could ever need." In my opinion, you could read 100 books on personal finance, and this flow chart is still the answer. While this comes out of the "financial independence" reddit world, it's for everyone. Lots of specific terminology in here that can be overwhelming, but just take it one step at a time and google! Very, very good. Zoom in!

grace · Answer

fruitful!: it's truly been a life-changer with how my money feels. for context, I work in the service industry full-time on an hourly rate, so for years money has fluctuated and has been hard to manage. also... I have a partner and sharing expenses has felt roommate-ish for a lot of our relationship, so this was a really great way to combine our money/budget/resources. I now have a consistent savings! it feels great to spend! HYSA! so awesome. :)

JaperMoon · Answer

How to be a Rich Old Lady: I finally understand how to manage my various retirement accounts and this was actually a very fun read!

RanRan · Answer

Monarch Money: Monarch is the first budgeting app/system that has actually worked for me. Makes it so easy to know where your money goes and where you can cut back. Once you have things set up you don’t really need to do anything other than check your spending against your budget

Nat · Answer

Bogleheads Investment Strategy: Do what they say, automate all your investments to ~3 different funds, and retire comfortably in 30 years without a second thought. Easy peasy. There’s a subreddit that’s more accessible too.

Taryn · Answer

High Yield Savings Account: Not exactly “investing”, but I’m always trying to put people on to these. Works like a regular savings account but has a higher interest rate (not crazy, but think 2-3% more than you’d get at a big national bank). If you look around you can find ones with good rates that don’t have a huge minimum balance requirement. You need a savings account with some emergency money, you might as well get one with a little more benefit!

Best budgeting tips/tricks/resources? I loosely follow YNAB but am wondering what ppl on here like to do :) OR, investing for beginner recommendations? TY

My most earnest rec - open a Roth IRA and auto deposit as much as you can every month.

A really useful flow chart for your financial order of operations

fruitful!

How to be a Rich Old Lady

Monarch Money

Bogleheads Investment Strategy

High Yield Savings Account