Hi everyone - long time lurker here but never posted here before. I posted in a different group last year but wanted more advice from you guys.

I am looking for some guidance on what I should do with my money based on my financial information.

In short: I am an attorney with my own small law firm. I've been practicing for 9 years. I started my own law firm 4.5 years ago. Generally, I make about $200,000 a year net income from my law firm but had two very large settlements in the last two years where I took home 2.5-3 million in legal fees pre tax. I do not have those types of settlements coming in the future based on my current caseload. I spend about $150,000 marketing a year to make close to $350,000 or so if you exclude the two big settlements.

I have truly been fortunate but need to decide my next financial moves and have been very conservative with my money since those settlements.

As for my personal life, I am not married but hopefully will be in the next couple years. I do want kids and hopefully that can happen in the next 3-5 years. I live in a high cost of living area in California.

CASH: Approx $1.8 million, mostly in treasuries and savings accounts (all yielding from 4-5 percent and maturing in the next few months) while figuring out what my plan is.

RETIREMENT: $250k in the S&P 500 (SEP IRA)

COST OF LIVING IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: With Rent (approx $5000 - i know high); insurance; food and going out; utilities; student loan payment; travel; etc...I spend about $9 or 10k/month

We will exclude my business expenses as those are investments in my law firm..

LAW FIRM NET INCOME:

2020: Approx -50k

2021: Approx 100k

2022: Approx 2.3million (approx 2 million of it came from one very large settlement which I poured all my energy and time into)

2023: Approx 750k (approx 500k from one settlement)

First 5 months of 2024: Approximately 100k

If you were me, outside of putting it back in the business, how would you split up the investing here?

Would you by a home, condo or townhouse? It is very expensive in California but I am spending about 5k/month now on rent.

Would you put it all/some in the S&P 500?

Thanks in advance

I’ve been collecting coins for a few years now. How much do you guys think this will get me?

Part of my 35.5 oz collection...and building.

Gross pay: $130000 a year. My wife makes around $13k a year (SAHM who does her professional job 1 day a week.)

We max 401k, and we max Roth.

We rent ($800/month), and we hate it (though the place is nice).

Horrible time to buy, and I wish we would’ve buckled down years ago, but here we are.

For savings, we have around $22k in a 4.40% HYSA.

Two car payments and rent, but no debt aside from the cars.

Two kids. I contribute to their 529’s when I can.

All of that being said, we’ve started budgeting better. I think we’ll have around $2k each month to save.

The savings is mostly emergency, but really our eventual down payment on a house.

How much should I keep there, and with new money coming in, how much should invest in the index funds? (Knowing it needs to go to house “soon.”)

We signed a new year lease with our landlord, so we’re locked in until June of ‘25. We will likely (aggressively) pursue a house next spring.

800+ credit scores for both of us, if it matters.

I know they’re hated, but I have Robinhood, with some kick around money. (Mostly VOO and SPY.)

Any ideas or thoughts for us to maximize the amount we save this year would be greatly appreciated.

Wondering because I like to listen to YouTube in the background while I do my favorite things.

Long story short. My wifes father passed away and left her a life insurance policy of 206k. Only debt we have is the mortgage at 180k and her newer car that has about 10k left. We plan on paying off the house and car so that we are totally debt free. This would leave us with an emergency fund of cash around 25k in my safe, and around 70k in the bank. I already have a saving account for my child with around 10k in it (he's 3). If we didn't pay the house off we would have around 280k to invest or sit away in a HYSA. We've never had more than 60k at a time and want to do the right thing to set ourselves up for the future. We are 32/33 and both work making around 90k a year combined. Mortgage is a fixed 2.7%. Am I correct in thinking that getting rid of the house payment is the best answer here to help us save more for our retirement accounts and play the long game without much stress. Open to ideas.

Been saving up since I was 17, have close to 120k across all accounts and ira. just dont know what to do. Cant find any good deals with homes in my area, everyone seems to be so money hungry and dont know what to do with this market. Everything seems to be pretty stoopid.

Currently my financial situation is:

The Good: - $7,000 in checkings - $351 in basic low yield savings - Two high yield saving accounts containing $10,000 each ($20,000 total) - Roth IRA maxed out at $7,000

The Bad: - $37,000 in student loans (paying $64 a month using Bidens plan, I will qualify for the PSLF in 7 years) - $151 on my credit card (will pay this off at the end of the month)

Expenditures: - $700 in rent, including utilities, food, entertainment etc. - ~$349 every six months for car insurance

What can I do with the $7000 to make the most of that money?

I was thinking of either buying stocks or stashing it into another HYSA. I personally feel like I'm falling way behind financially from my peers, and that just adds to my anxiety which leads me to stall out and do nothing.

As per the title, would it be possible for someone to live their life without having any debt? It seems like a lot of people get buried in debt in their 20s and 30s, then consequentially spend a large portion of their lives paying it off, doesn't sound fun. Is this avoidable or is debt kind of a given?

Been selling stuff on eBay past 6 years for a living, got lucky with good supply. Thought I was saving for a house but seems silly when my rent is 1400. About 40k in individual investment account 30k in Roth IRA. And rest in savings. I know this is not typically normal, but what should I do with the cash I have managed to save? (I’m currently investing 2-3k a month of the saved cash slowly into voo). I was keeping a lot for various reasons, but the biggest one was to buy a house, but seems out of reach I make around 120k (self employed) but get taxed heavily and average house I’d want to live in my area is 500-600k (like for a townhouse lol). I don’t forsee my income going up significantly maybe an amazing year I’ll hit 200k net but it’s up and down (and if a loose a good supplier could be significantly down like 70-80k loss in income). I lived one year at home the first year and saved basically all my money so that definitely helped.

Should I leave it there, do a 5%APY CD, or buy bullion (I’ve always wanted to own gold)?

Entirely new to having a little money. Please advise if you can, thank you all.

I spend roughly $2,000 a month, I run a business and I have some “fun” money which just goes to sneakers and going out. My brother said it would be beneficial to get a credit card for building credit and cash back, I don’t know which one to get any insight will be nice.

Is it true that I have to wait 5 years to withdraw initial investment money (not profit). Or if I invest 1k today, could I theoretically withdraw that money tomorrow without penalty?

Hi all, I (37 single male) just got a promotion at work. My gross income is now around 125K per year as a contractor. I own a small house and drive an old car, both of which are paid for and I don't have any outstanding debt. What do I do now? I'm a newbie at stocks and investing but I want to start saving for the future. I have 10k sitting in my checking account and I want to start contributing so my money can work for me. What do you recommend? Should I start buying stocks in the S&P 500? Any advice is very appreciated.

She wants it for herself. She told me that directly. She could live to be old and she’s unsure of her financial future. My grandpa wanted me to have it.

If I do this I could essentially lose my mother figure in my life. If I claim the policy I don’t think I’d ever be able to face her again.

Update: People asked about our situations. My dad confirmed and told me she’s currently getting $5000/mo pension and SS. Everything she has is paid off. She is 81.

I’m a 25 year old union worker with a mortgage. I live paycheck to paycheck but it’s a living. I won’t die tomorrow if I don’t get it is what I’m saying.

He did leave her other stuff. This is just the policy where I’m the beneficiary.

Dad called her. She is claiming that having me as the primary beneficiary was a mistake. She’s willing to fight for it.

Update 2: I misspoke. I apologize to you all. She’s not in medical debt. She wants the money in case she lives long and gets sick. My dad said her exact words were that she wanted to “live off of it” near the end.

Hoping to hit my first 100k by the end of the year wish me luck! if I max out my Roth and 401k I think I can hit that number..

No i can't find my baby's father. But I do have a particular set of skills. And an NSFW Twitter account with 40k followers.

Skills: basic SEO Can't build a website but smart enough to GPT one. Ai hottie creator Music production - slow skill needs work Video editing Marketing Growing a Twitter account Quite tech savvy

I'm up for any other advice as well. Go ahead be as rude as you like

I'm looking for jacks tips and tricks that nobody knows but you. What say? Do me

Hey Money community,

I find myself in a bit of a tight spot and could really use some advice. I'm a professional graphic designer with over 14 years of experience, but I'm currently in need of making $200 within the next 4 days. While graphic design is my main expertise, I'm also open to exploring non-technical crowdsource jobs to meet this financial goal.

Any suggestions or leads would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help!

As the title suggests I have a very short amount of time to make a minimum of $725 to settle some of my debt. I am going to jobcorps in 11 days. I am currently jobless but I'm in the process of getting a temp job that pays daily. I also have a few side jobs like doing yard and janitorial work. I'm planning on pawning off many of my items for extra cash. Is there anything else I can do for money? I live in Washington State if that matters.

Hello I’m a 13 year old and I really want to make money, I love to spend on my own work, so I need ways to make money even if it was low.

Over the past 4 years I've had a return or about 95%, and at first I was thinking maybe I couldn't replicate this because I bought in during covid so I could have just been super lucky. With that, recently I've started thinking about moving some uninvested cash in my savings and any new money into a CD with discover to get their 5% APY offer. This was my safe move, but I'm wondering if maybe I'd be better off trusting myself with the market considering my current streak. Any thoughts?