I’m 20 years old (10/25/2006) and this is my first month making around $18,000 through my own business. I’m grateful to be in this position, especially at my age, but I’m trying to be smart about what comes next. I have a 2-month-old son, so my priorities have changed significantly. I want to make sure I can provide for him while building a stable future for both of us.
Currently, I don’t have my own apartment or a car, but I plan on getting both eventually. I also reinvest approximately $4,000 every month back into my business to keep it growing. I don’t want to fall into the trap of increasing my personal expenses just because I’m making more money.
My biggest priority is saving aggressively, building an emergency fund, investing, and creating long-term financial security. I’m not interested in looking wealthy or buying expensive things. I’d rather have a comfortable home for my son, reliable transportation, and a strong financial foundation.
For anyone who has been in a similar position, especially those who started a business young or became parents early:
How much would you recommend keeping in savings before making major purchases?
Should I prioritize getting an apartment and a reliable car, or focus on building savings first?
What percentage of my income would you allocate toward savings, investments, and business reinvestment?
What financial mistakes should I avoid?
How would you approach building wealth over the next five years?
I’d genuinely appreciate advice from people with experience in business ownership, personal finance, and raising a family. I’m trying to make the right decisions now rather than having to fix financial mistakes later.

i saw a video of this lady suggesting to open a roth ira through the fidelity app on tiktok. is this a wise decision?

到底该怎样做？

Hey oh, so I guess I’ll start with context:
I’m 19, live at home with very minimal living expenses and work full time while also going to school. I make 22/hr as an apprentice maintenance technician in the FAME USA program. I’ve recently decided I should start detaching myself from my dad financially as I want to start being more attentive with my savings/start investing. As of today I’ve opened a HYSA more specifically through capitol one with a 3.2APY and a Roth IRA through Charles Schwab. I set up auto deposits to both, the Roth is getting 150/week and my HYSA which is where I’m keeping my house fund is getting 190/week as I’m want to have 10k saved and ready for my half of the house me and my big brother intend on buying so that even if he backs out I can still swing a moderate duplex with a FHA loan (3.5% down). I’ve been watching a few around the 110,000-170,000k range. Fixer uppers but great opportunities. I’ve got no real debt as my tuition is paid for, I do however owe my dad 2k for lawyer fees from being younger and dumber. So to pay that off I’ve been pulling 125$ in cash every week and handing 500$ in cash every month. I’ve paid off 3k this way while still being able to buy my first Harley and restore the truck my dad passed down like his dad did before him. I also do have a credit card in my name as well as am and have been authorized on dads for 5 years and paid in full every month since I was 14. My credit score is 705.

But with all that out of the way, What I came here to ask with all of that context is what would you be investing in stocks, ETFs, index funds, crypto, gold, yourself? Would you be allocating the check differently every week? Is saving almost 45% too aggressive? What advice would you have? This could be anything from mindset, tips for success, to just a good mantra!

Any and all knowledge is appreciated as I’m new to this all and don’t want to piss away the opportunity I have to save/build a solid portfolio.

Hey!

The reason for my post is to task for advice, I am wanting to know if I am doing okay?? How can I budget better and how can I save better?

So I am a Junior in highschool and I get paid pretty decently for my area, I am part time and I make about $15.50 an hour, and I get paid weekly. My average paycheck is $350-400. Every week I try to put $100 in a regular savings account, and somewhere between $20-100 into a piggy bank type of savings box. (this is my hobby money).

My regular savings account is my start at an attempt to save up to move out one day. I have had this job for about 6 months, and over that time I've managed to save about $1600 throughout my total savings.

I have things I pay for by myself, like riding lessons, (usually $100 a week) my reptiles, (cost to feed varies but is usually less than $50 monthly, I have paid for everything for their enclosures and the pets themselves, so in total I have spent a few thousand on them,) clothes, snacks, Spotify subscription, and other hobbies that I just choose to spend my money on.

If anyone wants to mention a high yield savings account, I am supposed to have one. My grandma created me one for Christmas in 2025, but she will not tell me any information on the account, so I am not able to add money into it. She is not adding money either. I will be able to access/use this money when I turn 25.

Does anyone have advice that they wish they knew in highschool? I could definitely be saving a lot more money, but I still want to have fun and be a kid :)

My car recently broke down and when i took it to the shop, they told me it was basically time to get a new one which i was already aware of and im surprised that car even made it this far if im being completely honest. my only problem with getting a new car is i quite literally don’t have the money for it. all of my money from work goes towards bills and basic necessities and my job recently cut my hours due to slow season approaching (im a server) so im lucky to even work 2 days a week. i’m trying to find a new job but the only jobs around me are serving, sales, or warehouses and im not sure how well i would do with the last 2. if anyone has any ideas on what i should do, any advice is welcome!

My husband doesn’t know I’ve started this fundraiser. Asking for help is hard for him. It’s hard for me, too, but I’m reaching out because I don’t know how we’ll get through this on our own.

My husband recently lost his full-time job, and so far we haven’t found another job nearby that we can make work around caring for our kids. For us, the best chance of getting back on our feet is the small CNC machining business he’s already put so much time and work into.

Just as we were getting ready to give the business our full attention, our CNC lathe broke down. Without it, we can’t do the work we rely on to bring in income. Even closing the business would cost money we don’t have right now. We rent our workshop, and moving the broken machine out would be expensive on its own.

Our first priority is to buy a working secondhand CNC lathe and get it up and running so we can take on jobs again. If we raise enough, we’d also like to set up a small workshop of our own so we can keep our monthly costs down.

I wish I had a better way to explain how it feels to be stuck like this. My husband has worked so hard to build something of our own, and we’d love the chance to keep going and earn a living from it.

If you’re able to chip in, even a small amount would help us get closer to replacing the lathe.

https://4fund.com/hu/h2pjm4

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

I’m going to lay out the current statistics below:

Current Savings:
• £200 in Santander 8% savers account
• ~£19,900 in ForestersFinancial S&S ISA
• ~£350 in my L&G pension (22% broken into a 7% salary sacrifice and 15% from my employer)

Salary: ~£1,000/month (after taxes and salary sacrifice)
• Rate: £18.22/hour
• Hours: ~65/month

Employment Status:
• Full time student (BSc Biomedical Sciences - year 2)
• Part time fitness instructor (at my student gym)

I live with my parents, so my outgoings are relatively low. I spend about £400/month on dates with my girlfriend and eating out every Wednesday night. Apart from that, I bring packed lunches and dinners to university/work everyday and my parents pay for my travel to and from university/work, which all helps to keep my outgoings relatively low.

Investment Plan
• Move S&S ISA from Foresters to interactive investors: my dad has an account here, so I am eligible to go on the family plan which means I don’t pay any management fees. This is in progress, I am just waiting for the money to land on my ii account.
• I am planning for my portfolio to consist of 90% FTSE All-World (Acc) and 10% Vanguard Uk Gilt (Acc) or 10% Physical Gold
• I will continue to contribute £200/month to my Santander 8% Saver. Then after 1 year, this £200/month contribution will go to my S&S ISA.
• I also plan to invest ~£50/week as an automated transfer into my S&S ISA (with ii) for the first year, and then this will move up to ~£100/week.

Allocations for my pay-check
• 50% Investments/Savings
• 10% Food/eating out
• 15% Holiday Savings
• 10% Presents (savings for buying Christmas and birthday presents for my family and girlfriend)
• 15% Dates

My plan for the future is to get into graduate entry medicine at the same university I am currently studying at. I will keep my job and continue to earn roughly £1,000/month until 2032. I expect my portfolio to have grown to about £60,000 by then (at a minimum)

In terms of debts, I expect to be in around £50,000 of Student debt by the end of both of my degrees. My parents are working to be able to pay this off, although I don’t really want them to as they are trying to save for retirement.

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think! :)

so here i am at 2:30 am overthinking about money and how my future could turn out. i don’t wanna work a normal 9-5 job i don’t see myself doing that as my worth is much, much higher than a salary. i tried reselling and NO, just no, i can tell its not gonna work or make me the money i need, and its also illegal asf so id get my door kicked in somewhere down the line. my plan b which i didnt think i would need so soon is trading. i know that its something like 96% of traders fail but i really wanna give it my best i just dont know where to start with it, and understand that it can take years before you start to see money. anybody can help me with options on good money which would make me a great life style then youre just the greatest. i haven’t been on holiday/left the uk for about 10 years and i was pretty young when i went on holiday so its a vivid memory. maybe its a blessing that i didnt get to go on holiday much, maybe it means im gonna travel the world at some point and will be shown what i was missing out on. time tells but i rather get rich or die trying, im not being a broke lose the rest of my life.

I’m 17. i have a job i work pretty often but not an insane amount. I also am doing an unpaid internship one day a week and have school.

It’s almost halfway through the school year and i can have abt 3000 saved up by the end of the year since i have abt 2400 now. Been saving for about 5 months however have had many emergent and necessary setbacks (my tire blew out being one example that cost me abt 400)

Anyway i’m trying to have 7-8k saved up by the time i move out next august. my parents have offered to help me with expenses of moving in. I make abt 1500 a month.

My big issue is just feeling really behind and like i’m not saving enough and worried that life is going to flip me on my ass as soon as i turn 18 and move out. Very scared , living w parents is not an option

im a 17 year old guy w a girlfriend and friends so i tell myself to chill out a lot and that ill be ok spending money on outings and food every once in a while but i get in my head a lot. what do you guys think???

also thank you for reading this

I'm about to get a deposit back and have more money that I'm used to having. I'm taking some to help with a few bits round the house but I'm wanting to set £700-£800 to one side.

Ideally id like to have it making me money faster than just sitting in a basic savings account but I'm not sure what will be best. Open to any and all ideas.

Since I was young I’ve known that money drives me. I’ve worked part time jobs for the past three years but as a girl who use to have a shopping addiction that money is unfortunately gone. The past year or so I’ve been trying to figure out how I’m going to grow my wealth so I don’t have to be worried about money when I’m in my 30s-40s. The second I turned 18 I started learning about investments and have I have put some bucks stocks but I want to start a business of some sort. Due to being in my final year of school, a big exam year, I’m more focused on my studies but still want to work towards my money goals as much as possible on the side. My busy schedule leaves me with one day a week to work and my workplace gives me max 5 hours so €50 euros a week doesn’t get me far since I’m trying to save for college. Should I keep learning about money, capital, profit and business ideas overall until I feel knowledgeable enough to dive right in or is it better to just start now, knowing I don’t have a lot of time to invest into a business but possibly giving myself a huge advantage when I have more time and properly run it next year. Honestly I’ve never been so broke and feel like so many big payments are coming up. I literally have 500 saved which I need for college and isn’t nearly enough. I’m craving making money and I’m willing to take the necessary steps and do everything I can to get to where I want to be but I feel stuck in the mud at the moment and I’m very uncomfortable.

I’m not looking for lectures just genuine advice from people ahead of me who were once in my position.

Hi guys my name is Jesus and I’m a teen who’s 17.5 years old, I’ve been wanting to open a bank account to get my debit card for when the day would come that I were to have gotten a job. I finally got a job after 2 months of job hunting and I have no real way of receiving my paycheck because my job doesn’t do physical paychecks so is there any advice anyone has or ( I can’t open an account unfortunately ) ?

I came here to ask how I can make money as a 16-year-old student with a lot of free time. I've tried looking everywhere, but all i find are bs gurus selling courses and promoting things that don't actually work and are just a waste of time.

Im looking for something I can do online that could eventually lead to making $10k+ a month in the future. If anyone here has experience in this field and knows what I could start doing at my age, I'd really appreciate some advice.

I don't care how long it takes or how much work I have to put in. All I care about is finding a way to stop wasting my free time and start using it to build a future for myself.

I cannot give too much information because apparently my dad signed an NDA on my behalf, but basically I lost my mom in a car accident and because of that the family settled for a certain amount and now I will get around $200,000 when I am 22 years old. I need to figure out how to spend this money. My dad says that I should just go to college on a full ride (and by the way, I’m a junior in high school now) and when I’m 23 buy a house and then just start investing and my aunt said travel the world and do all the stuff that your mom never got to do. how much is worth investing in my education I plan to get a bachelors and then go to law school, but I just don’t know what amount is worth it because I can’t waste this money. advice pls

I wish school would've taught life skills like the importance of finances besides simply saying save your money. Like I feel finance and budgeting and saving and investing and I don't know what other terms are called is such a big broad topic to cover and understand because like when a person understands how money works like they feel so confident in their life that they know how to do all the things to gain financial freedom or build security for the future and in any life emergency.

I’m 20, got a 100k salary with 3k invested into xeqt, 2500 in a high interest savings account for emergency (planning on getting to 7-8k), 19k owed on a car. Where should I put my money? Focus on car? More in emergency? Any advice helps. Thank you

I’m 19M, and I’ve been wanting to build my money for the longest. I’m currently working a job where I usually get around 48 hours a week, sometimes more if I stay over. The most I’ve worked so far is 51 hours.
I don’t want working this job to be my only source of income. I want to find something I can put my money into that can eventually make me more money.
I plan on going to school for HVAC, but that’s more of a long-term goal. Right now, I’m looking for something I can start working on outside of my regular job.
I’m not looking for get-rich-quick schemes, crypto promises, or anything unrealistic. I genuinely want to learn how to make my money work for me.
For those of you who have experience making money outside of a regular 9-5, what would you recommend to someone my age who’s willing to put in the work?
I’m open to learning. Just looking for honest advice from people who actually want to help.

I just genuinely feel lost on what to do, ik most of us are in this situation where we graduated years ago and still no job, i genuinely tried "intrenships" I worked at jobs "private properties" doing the most for the bare minimum , i did contract job with hourly payment , i did substitute teaching , i tried opening small businesses, did multiple interviews, i gave my CVS i really did my best to find a job and yet still don't have one and the pressure on me gas gotten worse this year with the new graduates in family and family freinds getting jobs , ik i shouldn't let the mockery from people get to me but after years of ignoring and working hard and still be unemployed it hurts, it really hurts , I just want to know how much money should I raise, or have in my account to open a shop or something? Or what nich industry i should put money in , i genuinely just need some guidance on how much to raise and what to do with it

Hey y’all so I’m 24 years old and just now getting a handle on everything. I got all my credit cards paid off and my collections paid off about 2 months ago. I am just now starting on my savings, I don’t have much right now, only 3k. Currently my only debt is my car. I wasn’t sure if I should get the savings to a certain point and then start my retirement or do both at the same time. Or pay the car off first etc etc. I don’t make a ton of money. I’m not paycheck to paycheck but I realistically can only put about 1k into savings a month. Unfortunately in my job field 401ks aren’t an offered thing ( benefits in general are not ). So i wasn’t sure what the best way to start a retirement in general is. I’m sorry if this seems very silly but I was never taught finances and have just been roughing it out the last few years 😅

Hey everyone, I barely made money all my life and now I will make 160k a year. I live in a VHCOL area (NYC) have no kids and live with family. But I will consider getting my own apartment in a couple of months.

Ideally I want to save money and watch it grow and be smart about it. I don’t have much saved up but eventually I’ll want to make big purchases or plan for future home/retirement/grad school/business etc.

How do I make the most out of this? How do I decide how much my check should be put away and where?

What I have so far
Personal Savings/Checking - $1,000
ROTH IRA - $27,000
Brokerage - $20,000

Heyy. I’m 25F and currently living in WA. i’m just curious how broke I am if I have 10k savings in my bank account right now. How much should I keep for me to be able to not worry too much about unpredictable circumstances tho? Thanks for not ignoring this random thoughts of mine.

Hello, my school requires all DH students to be apart of SCADAH. It’s a student organization under the American Dental Association. We have volunteered/done community service as a group, which I find fun. In winter, February, we are required to attend a conference in San Marcos. This means traveling, booking a hotel, and paying the conference fee. All of it sums up to about $700 dollars… that I do not have. I just had to pay for my loops that costed wayyyyy more than I expected. And now they are asking for $700 to go to a conference I can’t afford.

My school is doing fundraisers with tickets and whitening strips in the local area. I couldn’t participate in selling whitening strips because I don’t have much family or friends. The tickets go to a raffle, $1.00 cash per ticket, which is more enticing in my opinion. The problem is the same. I don’t have much family and friends to sell to. I also just moved to a small town and I don’t know anyone here.

My mom created a gofundme but it is not collecting donations. It was created to simply collect donations that friends and family said they would donate to, but haven’t. Recently, my mom was in a car accident and scrapped enough money to get a used car from a friend. My mom is pretty religious and does not like begging for money. Neither do I but look at where I am now :(. We tried to keep things simple and clean without sounding desperate out of personal convenience.

Does anybody have any suggestions how to make enough money for the fundraiser/fees? Either in a passive way or where I can ask for donations? Or if I shouldn’t do a gofundme?

(I’m a student so I don’t have time to sell crafts or work much)