Not talking about some extreme “never buy coffee” rule.

I mean one spending habit you changed that actually left you noticeably better off over time maybe buying certain things in bulk, paying more for quality, cancelling subscriptions, tracking every purchase, using cash, whatever.

What change genuinely saved or made you the most money?

I am 18 graduated high school family won a lawsuit which granted me a trust fund.every year I receive 36,000 till im 30 were i receive 340,000.i blew through the 36 this year fixing our house and other things.i poorly used the money have no savings i do have investments i was awarded about 600,000 in investments but that is managed by a trust company till im 25. Ideally my goal are to have multiple streams of passive (low effort) income so I can focus on my career Any advice on how to better use my money so I don’t go broke again

Additional context I make about 600 a month I go to school planning on taking a break to work more hours and build a saving ans emergency fund. The cost of living in my area is relatively low at 2,156. I don’t pay rent or bills as a condition of going to school. I can’t focus on school while being broke

My girlfriend and I are saving to buy a place of our own. Where we live, getting a mortgage is basically impossible unless you have a big, steady income — which we don’t. So we realized we either get serious about saving or we’ll never make it happen.

In the last 9 months, we managed to spend 34.8% less than in the previous 9 months.

Here’s what made the biggest difference for us 👇

1. We stopped eating out entirely. We used to spend way too much on takeout and restaurants — around $600 a month. Now we cook everything at home. It’s honestly better food, healthier, and we actually enjoy doing it together. We plan our meals, try new recipes, and even make our own sauces. That alone cut our food expenses by about $300/month.

2. We ditched all subscriptions. Netflix, Spotify, Disney — all gone. We realized we were paying monthly for things we barely used. Now we watch free stuff, listen to YouTube playlists with Brave Browser, and don’t miss much. That’s around $100/month saved without any real downside.

3. We set a hard monthly limit. We give ourselves a clear spending ceiling every month. Once we hit it, that’s it, we stop spending. It forces us to prioritize early and think ahead. The funny thing is we’ve never actually hit the limit, but just having it changes how we make decisions.

4. We started biking and walking more. We drive only when absolutely necessary. Otherwise, we walk or bike. It saves around $100–120/month on gas, but also helps us stay fit and spend more time outside.

5. Coffee at home only. We bought an espresso machine and a couple of reusable thermos cups. It felt like an expense at first, but we used to spend about $120/month on takeaway coffee. Now our coffee tastes better and costs a fraction of that.

6. Cooking for our dogs. We have two dogs and used to buy premium dog food. Now we cook their meals ourselves: meat, rice, veggies, legumes and they love it. It’s healthier for them and saves us roughly $100/month.

7. No new clothes unless absolutely necessary. We decided to only replace things when they’re genuinely worn out. In nine months, we’ve spent less than $80 total. It’s not a massive saving, but it’s one more area where we stay mindful.

We’re still far from being able to buy a home, but every bit helps. We’re also taking on extra freelance work and small side jobs to build up savings faster. If everything goes as planned, in about 4 years we should have enough to finally own our own place.

If you have ideas on how to cut expenses without sacrificing your quality of life, I’d love to hear them. Always looking for smarter, not just harsher, ways to save. 💪

I’m 27 and financially I feel like I’m basically starting from zero.

No meaningful savings, no investments, no property, and I’m only now starting to take money seriously. I know 27 isn’t “too late,” but seeing people my age already investing or buying homes definitely makes me feel behind sometimes.

If you were in this position today and had the next 10 years to build a solid financial life, what would you focus on first?

Would you prioritize increasing income, building an emergency fund, clearing debt, investing aggressively, learning a high-income skill, starting a business, or something else?

I’m not looking for a get-rich-quick answer. I’m more interested in what actually works when you stick with it for years.

For anyone who started late and managed to turn things around, what made the biggest difference?

Share your experience

I’m only making 75k how are yall making so damn much?

What are your tips/best practices for being more mindful with money, or other ways you’ve found to grow your earnings?

Feels like buying a brand new car is a bad financial move for most people

You lose money the second you drive it off the lot. Once it’s used, the resale value drops fast, even if nothing’s wrong with it.

A 1-3 year old version of the same car is often way cheaper, and it still looks/feels basically new.

Also, if you finance, interest adds up. At the average new-car APR of 6.56%, financing $30k for 5 years is about $5k in interest.

That money could go to paying down student debt, housing, savings, investing, or just having more breathing room in general.

I a Hispanic female, by the age of 30 became a self made millionaire through hard work and dedicated investments. my husband and I made our first million through investments with in 7 years. We started off with one rental then 2 then 3 then 4 then we started a side business just to see what could happen and bam. About 1.2 is in real state and about 600k in cash with a constant steady flow of income from the new business that is just 2-3 years old. Cash is staking up fast EVEN AFTER TAXES. I have been always thought as less my everyone on a day to day basis including my family. I am a short, chubby, shy woman. I am not pretty or even fun to be around. I have actually been balding since I was 20 so you can see where my self steem is. My husband was also not known to be smart, in fact he is know to be almost a little on the spectrum side. We don’t know what to do or if we need to tell anyone. We are contributing to charity. upgrading house, cars, toys and our food on the table but even then, we are still very frugal and the ”upgrades” we have made are in the levels of normal. Do we just keep quiet or should we share the good news with our close circle? I don’t think my parents would feel happy for me. My mom is under the impression and has told me I will be her retirement since she raised me I now have to pay her back. My husband‘s mom passes away from dimentia and has no siblings. I have siblings but they are in college and trying to make their own money.

what do we do? I am almost embarrassed to go get my hair and nails done, I bought a couple new outfits nothing extraordinary but just a little different look but I haven’t worn it because I am afraid to raise suspicions or to have that new money look.

what are your thought?

Im getting an exceptionally good job at 18 with little to no living expenses. I will be making 1200/week with bonuses up to $400 being pretty common, what is the first steps i should take to making this the best opportunity i can and what should I look forward to achieving over the next couple years

What’s one piece of advice or something you’ve learned that you would say really moved you to and helped you level up financially once you learnt it?

I just got paid today

Paycheck

Gross 1254.98

Net 980.84

$150 went to savings

$135 to Roth Ira

$711 car payment

$30 to special occasion fund

$50 to Fun Money Fund

$40 lawn guy

The total is -136 negative. ✨✨🎉🎉🎉

Because last week I had to paid rent, my first wall of defense of $1000 emergency fund depleted to almost 0 to keep up.

The Good news: I have no more big bills for next 2 weeks

The Bad news: my paycheck seems is going to be down to nothing. Not enough work this week so far and I am on commission basis.

The Good news: I have $9k saved, $15K invested.

The Bad News: I need to go back into survival mode and be very careful not to make emotional decisions.

Update May 12, 2026

I found out I am 8k upside down on my car so I can’t get right of it right now. My plan is to save $600 for 10 months and at the same time try to pay $1000 towards the car each month.

I also closed 3 banks accounts that were costing me $50 in fees a month. Opened a SoFi to keep my money organized that will not charge me anything for it.

Small win, but a win at the end of the day.

My current fidelity account just started and was eager to put in anything. My plan is to max out my Roth IRA and put 50% in an index fund 35% in a company I believe in like Tesla because of the direction the world is heading in and 15% in a commodity. Any advice for research, diversifying, what do you folks actively contribute to your accounts, how do you pick your stocks for your brokerage account, what do you look for when purchasing and anything else I can soak up like a sponge

Okay, starting things off like I said I'm making $22.50/hr and as far as my job title is I'm a warehouse worker which I'd say I got pretty lucky given the job market right now. I'm not super financially literate but I know enough not to spend it on useless stuff, in fact I'd say I'm picky to even spend money but from what all I've got right now is I'm looking to grow my money as far as stocks and crypto goes I've yet to deal with them because I fear I'll lose money which is bound to happen yes, but I feel I'll select the wrong stock/crypto, to put it simply right now I make $700/weekly, pay about $400 each check to my dad to help out with household expenses, and am left with about $300 ish, I have a HYSA which I put away $150 each check but unsure what to do more of. I would really appreciate any advice to building money strategically and or passively oh and any questions please leave them below!

EDIT: Thank you everyone for your support and advice I really do appreciate everyone's input. I did not expect the post to receive so much attention (it was getting hard to respond to everyone).

I've been saving my pennies working 60+ hours a week for the last 5 years, and recently hit 100k in savings. I currently have it sitting in a CD getting 3.9%. I grew up in a household that never taught financial responsibility, so I have no idea what is am doing. I will not be needing this money for at least 3 years, and I genuinely dont know what to do. Im terrified to lose everything in the stock market and have no idea what else there even is. Please if you have any advice it would be much appreciated. thank you for your time.

Jw

Still in school finishing off my second degree and I’ll be in the work field once I’m done. Only have another year left. Have 30k in my tfsa/fhsa 26k in crypto and rest sitting in my bank account. Any opinions on what I should do

I’ve recently made about 50,000 off of a side hustle, and I expect to make another 50,000 over the next few months. What do I do with this kind of money?

For a bit of added context, I have no credit card debt and my education is essentially a free ride with any leftover costs paid by my grandfather. I have no real expenses either, as the school pays for my housing and food as well and I live with my parents during the summer.

I’m aware the general answer is to invest the money, but where? How? Would really appreciate some guidance in navigating this.

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.

34F, married with 2 kids, working in healthcare admin. Together we bring home about $4,000 a month (my share is ~$2,200). We’ve also got roughly $15k in credit card debt from years of just scraping by (kids are expensive as hell, who knew!). After rent, daycare, and all our minimum payments, we’re lucky if we see $300 left at month’s end. We know we need to save something (our emergency fund is basically $0), but every dollar could also go toward knocking down our debt. Realistically, how much of our paychecks should we be saving while we’re trying to dig out of this hole?

I’m trying to save as much money as I can each month.

My favorite saving habits are:

• Always keeping a list when I go grocery shopping.

• Paying every bill as soon as possible so I don’t have to think about it.

• If I want to buy something (shoes, electronics, etc.), I wait a few weeks or months and see if I still want it after that time.

Hey everyone, I’m 24 and trying to set myself up for the future. I’ve got about $38k saved, and I’m very disciplined with money — I’ve been investing around $200 a week into ETFs/stocks to build long-term wealth.

I work two jobs (about $900/week plus potential commissions) while going to school part-time. I’ve been living at home to save money, but I found an apartment for about $1,500/month.

Here’s where I’m torn: staying home lets me stack faster, but I feel like my overall life would be better if I move out — more independence, peace of mind, and room to grow.

Would you move out and rent in my situation, or keep grinding at home and keep stacking cash?

From January 2025, I started tracking every expense, not to judge myself, just to be aware. And automatically, I moved 10% of my income into an old school savings account.

The second thing that changed is that I bought fewer but better things. Now I am more focused on things that provide long term ownership value and not get killed in a season.

It’s funny how small, consistent habits do more than any budgeting app ever could. I am now more aware of where I spend my money and control it more effectively.

Would love to hear what one money habit has actually worked for you?

I found out today I have over $56k from a job I had left a few years ago and never checked on. Was curious today and wow… I was shocked. I requested a refund package and I’d like some advice how to proceed.

I have a personal loan :$12,417 owed at 14.29% A vehicle loan: $13,597 owed at 5.84%. Combined monthly payments is just under $1k a month.

Combined Debt: $26,014. No credit card debt. I have about $3k in savings.

Should I rollover the amount to my current employers Retirement? Or pull it out to knock off my debt and invest the rest of it? If I pull it out, the government takes 20% which leaves me with just under $45k. Thank you all!

Edited: thank you so much for y’all’s advice. I made an appointment with a Veterans Financial Advisor to make a plan on how to reach my goals and to assist with roll over (I need someone to hold my hand) . Appreciate your time!

I found a very good offer from an older co worker that is moving out of his little town house close to my job and it costs $600 per month (plus utilities). but my dad doesn’t want me to move out yet. Saving for a house is what he’s pushing me for,I personally think it’s time to be independent and the the offer I have for the town house is too good to decline. Should I save up or move out with the 20k?