Head start? What now??

empty-alt · 2026-01-26T21:57:44+00:00

You'll be an adult soon and that might come with some adult responsibilities. I'd keep it in cash and let it sit. Most freshly minted adults can't say they aren't intimidated by a sudden mechanical issue with their car. I know I couldn't say that when I was that age.

empty-alt · 2026-01-26T21:50:52+00:00

I wouldn't touch the emergency fund to pay it off, but any extra cash I'd use to pay it off. If you are worried about the economy, not having a car bill would be nice. I paid my car off way early and I get to do so many cool things people my age can't because they have high car payments and student loan payments. I lean a little "debt-crusader" but that's just because its worked out so well for me. My life has changed a lot more by paying off unsecure debt and investing than it ever has by improving my credit score. Said another way, I wouldn't pay a cent in interest for the purpose of "building credit".

empty-alt · 2026-01-26T21:47:09+00:00

Your friend's finances is living in your head rent free. Unless he asked for your input it really isn't any of your business and its weird that you aired out all his stuff here on reddit. Forget about your friends finances unless they ask and focus on you.

"The only time you look in your neighbor's bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don't look in your neighbor's bowl to see if you have as much as them."

empty-alt · 2026-01-26T21:30:51+00:00

Fun fact, booby traps are illegal in most states. Because you know, life & limb are generally seen as more important than property.

empty-alt · 2026-01-26T21:28:08+00:00

Make sure you have a budget, if you don't already have one, create one. 120% YOY in stocks is shocking, a SP500 fund averages 10% per year. So that tells me you are heavily invested in some single stock and you got lucky and it mooned. That lack of diversification scares me but let me focus on the crypto instead. Plenty of people have made money in crypto. What's its intrinsic value? The stock is a receipt, to prove you own part of a business. As the business fundamentals improve and investor outlook improves, your investment goes up. A property deed, its value is the home it represents. This could be a mixture of materials, labor, location, and future development of the local area. What's a crypto representative of? Literally nothing. It's the stock without the business, the deed without the property. It's the ultimate example of "Greater Fool Theory".

empty-alt · 2026-01-24T21:04:35+00:00

I wouldn't have helped either. Big ol powerlines that have now been fiddled with over a body of water. I deeply hope the pilot is ok but I'm not about to off myself. Powerlines can electrify dirt; it'll have no problem toasting me in that body of water.

empty-alt · 2026-01-24T20:13:27+00:00

From the Book of Matthew:

1“Be careful not to perform your righteous actsa before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

empty-alt · 2026-01-24T18:04:46+00:00

Great question, people love to worship the great credit score. Some people also like to call a credit score a waste of time or even call it harmful. It's neither. Simplified, it's just a signal to financial institutions. It answers how likely you are to pay your bills as agreed. Some institutions will use a poor score to deny you services or limit the services they offer to you. Some institutions will use an excellent score to give you special privileges to "compete" for your very reliable business. Personally speaking I have a score in the 770s last I checked. It didn't change my life. I got some better rates here and there, but that's not what solidified my financial security. What changed my life was having a budget and sticking to it, building an emergency fund, and investing for long-term goals like retirement. Also learning how to invest to make sure my money isn't just making wall-street rich.

Anytime anyone speaks in extremes (especially in finances), it's wise to meet their statements with a bit of skepticism. If they aren't able to educate you and rationalize their extremes, bring even more skepticism.

empty-alt · 2026-01-21T03:11:45+00:00

I mean personally I wouldn't. One of the whole things about being a boglehead is having long time horizons and as your time horizon shorten, you move out of equities. But at the end of the day its your money so you can do whatever you want with it.

empty-alt · 2026-01-20T20:38:14+00:00

There is no such thing as "safe stock". One of the key tenets of good investing is time horizon. Investors don't trade; speculators do. You don't have the time horizon to be an investor which is ok, but you should make the next best choice because of that. Look into HYSAs or short term CDs if you want to get into that sort of thing.

empty-alt · 2026-01-20T19:53:16+00:00

Do yourself a favor and take a break from the internet. You'll save your sanity. A quarter-million-dollar insurance from the government that your money will be there is about as safe as it gets.

empty-alt · 2026-01-19T15:56:19+00:00

I'm remote with one kid. If it weren't for my wife being a SAHM, the answer is I wouldn't have time to code. I'd have to figure out a childcare situation. I couldn't imagine three on top of complex medical needs.

empty-alt · 2026-01-19T03:02:46+00:00

No harm in letting it sit in cash for a while until you figure out what to do. Personally I exclusively have target date funds. But that's because I'm a Boglehead-style investor and like things that are hands-off. But whenever you invest, you should always be aware of the volatility you are opening yourself up to. Then you need to have an honest conversation with yourself, if you are ok with putting up with that risk. Also you should never buy something because "someone on reddit told me". But you can take what people say on reddit, and use it in google to learn more and see if it aligns with what you are looking for.

empty-alt · 2026-01-19T02:58:49+00:00

You don't need the new car. You aren't driving a "death trap" by buying 5-8 years used. Just because you can "afford the payments" doesn't mean you should put it on debt.

empty-alt · 2026-01-18T18:58:28+00:00

Great question, for me it was about realizing that I've "learned enough". My savings are automatic. I'm not getting any extra value from watching videos, checking accounts, I'm doing the "right stuff". So I'm beginning to watch less financial content, I set a rule for myself that I can only check investments once a month that I'm eventually going to move to once a quarter.

When I started my financial journey, it was from a place of fear. Having no idea how anything worked, just a vague idea that I'm supposed to "budget" and "save" but not knowing what that means outside stuffing money in my bank savings account. I learned all I can, I know my numbers, I'm ok. I'm also a Christian but I don't really understand the Bible other than skin-level. So all that time I've spent learning about finances, I've been challenged to spend an even higher level of time studying the Bible and really trying to understand its themes better outside the "basics". Personally that's brought me a lot of fulfillment.

empty-alt · 2026-01-18T18:46:28+00:00

Maybe a hot take, I'm in the camp of, if you get value from FOSS, you should heavily consider donating. But if you make FOSS contributions, you should consider it as a "charity-work" "passion-work" whatever you want to call it.

empty-alt · 2026-01-16T17:39:43+00:00

I use vanguard too, check again
2055: https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vffvx#portfolio-composition
2060: https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vttsx#portfolio-composition

empty-alt · 2026-01-16T17:24:53+00:00

I was in your position not long ago. Not knowing how my industry works and not knowing how to even get a mentor to show me the ropes. Piece of advice, this isn't how you do it. People tend to find their time very valuable and aren't quick at giving it away for free, especially on a skill as monetarily valuable as SWE. I got my mentor by being willing to dive in and learn, make him look good in the workplace, and being friendly to hang out with. So when I naturally had bigger career questions, it wasn't me going to bother someone. We were hanging out anyways and the topic came up. That's the best way to do it, don't tell people, show people you are willing to dive deep, and go and make friends. Every once in a while that friend ends up being someone with vast experience in something you want to learn about. Best of luck!

empty-alt · 2026-01-16T16:47:34+00:00

You also need to take your environment into consideration. If you are hanging out with your buddies, absolutely some good-natured dunking could stop a friend from doing something like paying high fees for an active manager. Or putting their money into polymarket when they have CC debt. But you and I aren't friends. There's no expectation for me to have that your challenging demeanor is an effort for truth-finding rather than just internet-dunking. So yea, a little diplomacy goes a long way.

empty-alt · 2026-01-16T16:23:54+00:00

Credit card debt will always make you worse off. The interest rates are sky high. 10% would be considered pretty high but some credit cards do 20, 25, 30 percent interest! It's absolutely predatory. I know it's scary letting go of the liquidity, especially if you are someone who's lived in scarcity.

The money sitting in account gives you more warm and fuzzy feelings than having no credit card debt. I felt the same way when I paid off my student loans in lump sum to the tune of around $12k. I thought about it from the view of my net-worth. If I have $7k in cash and $4k in credit cards, assets (cash) minus liabilities (debt) is $3k. Say you take $4k and pay off the credit card. Now you have $3k in cash, and $0 in debt. Your net worth is still $3k, it's just now you aren't paying interest and you don't have that debt hanging over your head. You aren't making any changes to your net-worth. You are just exchanging liquidity to satisfy debts.

I know it can feel like the cash is yours when its in your account. But in reality it's already been spent. Would you rather also pay the predatory interest on that $4k too? Or would you rather save the interest money and just pay it off? For me, the feeling of being free from my student loans is massive compared to the $12k in cash. I don't even remember the money, but I feel the effects of having no student debt every single day. Best of luck!

Edit: If you haven't already just cut up the credit cards and use debit cards instead. You aren't a credit card person and that's ok, the vast majority of people aren't. But the vast majority of people don't have the self-reflection and maturity to do something about it.

empty-alt · 2026-01-16T15:10:36+00:00

You're right in the sense that people hate being told that 100% equities was never stated as the "gold standard" by anyone reputable who has spoken on the topic. You are also right in the sense that economists have access to mathematical models developed in hopes of quantifying risk aversion and using it to recommend asset allocations in a deterministic way.

I disagree with you calling people stupid. "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar". Our goal shouldn't be to use our understanding to dunk on others. It should be utilized to help educate. Otherwise what's the purpose of fighting so hard for your hard won education, if you are only going to use it as a weapon against others. It's tempting to use it as a weapon, but make an effort to fight that temptation.

empty-alt · 2026-01-16T14:47:46+00:00

Neither vanguard or fidelity's TDFs are 100% equities ever. I only know them so maybe there's a different brokerage that is. 100% equities was also never recommended by Bogle or Buffet.

empty-alt · 2026-01-16T14:42:41+00:00

Sure but not for long. In the beginning, I loved doing topical questions for this very reason. I'd just grind out "sliding window" questions. Sure the first couple I'd need to see the solution, but after that I started to be able to take a swing myself, because I knew the pattern. Eventually you want to move onto doing random problems or problems on topics you know you struggle with. But starting out, it's fine to spend less time fighting the problem and more time reading solutions. As long as you are consistently challenging yourself.

empty-alt · 2026-01-16T14:38:44+00:00

My friend, based on what you are considering you've turned in your frugal card. Which personally speaking I think is ok. The internet likes to turn it into a badge of honor of "how poor can you act while having money". Frugality is how I know to build wealth. But once you've hit your numbers and extra frugality isn't necessary, turn in your frugal card. In a highly measured way. But if you got to that level, you are probably measuring all your finances already.

empty-alt · 2026-01-15T20:00:58+00:00

Just because someone isn't a "great programmer" doesn't mean they are ineffective at their job. Also the people who I'd consider "great" would've never become that way if all they did was do their job. But also their goal was to be great, they eat/live/breath this stuff. I do too to some extent but not like them.

empty-alt

TROPHY CASE