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That’s not a financial planner that’s an insurance salesmen, he’s after your commission not your best interests. Also just curious, if you have no family/partner who did you set at the beneficiary for this life insurance policy?

You are doing well. You have way more of a handle than I did at your age. I just threw darts while trying to figure it out. Of course, the internet was just beginning

Do not worry about the layoffs. Layoffs go in a streak. In one or two years(tops), there will be no layoffs for another decade and it will only be hiring. 2009 to 2021, companies hired like mad, now it is time to pay the piper. By the start of 2024, I am willing to wager hiring begins again.

IMHO, when young you need to worry about surviving first.

Contributing anything to retirement is better than nothing. But contributing the max to retirement could mean living hand to mouth. I realize you are not contributing the max, but it is a good chunk. None of us know then the time clock ends. Life is meant to be lived.

I say cutback on the ROTH 401k contributions, maybe to 8%. If you like the 12%, then go for it.

For me, my goal was to always lessen my debt. Not sure what your rate is on student loans, but since I have seen some with 11.25%, ouch. As I recall, my student loans were at 8%. We paid our student loans in full. My loans were not in the 5 integers though.

I always figured if I lowered my debt, I could allocate the money to build wealth. I own mutual funds, dividend reinvestment plans, stocks, and iBONDS. Do not buy iBONDS.

Buy a ROTH IRA and put it into a mutual fund.

The RSUs are nice, but my advice is to keep 50% of them if you believe in the company and sell 50%. I speak from experience on losing out on a bundle of cash because my spouse told me I could no longer sell stuff because of the tax consequences. I was using the money for home improvements.

Fine. I sold none of it after that and watched it crash to -95% from the high when I cashed out. I lost $400,000 or so. After that I told my spouse I no longer accept advice from them.

Your life expectancy is not a precise number. You need to plan to be pretty old when you are waving your last dollar. You don’t want to save enough to get to 80 just to find you are good until 95.

The other factor to consider is the potential that the last few years of life can be insanely expensive. If you need help, it can easily cost $100k/yr today. There is no way to know if you need this care or for how long. Long term care insurance might offset this risk.

You also might not collect as much social security as you expect today. It is getting pretty likely that retirement age will be kicked further out. And Medicare may be a lot more expensive, as well. Both of these benefits are going to go under increased financial pressure.

My personal approach is to some day pay off my mortgage and use my home as a store of value to handle a major life change like assisted living.

In other words, you probably want to save enough to cover your expenses in retirement, maybe add a bit to give you flexibility for things like vacations, and have an extra pile to handle massive end of life expenses.

I think she should get a second opinion as well. I honestly don't know if she can prove that she told them. She probably just called them, and she did not record the call or anything.

Look for something new but continue to do your best. Hard work seldom goes unnoticed. Just worry about your performance. Not your coworkers.

If you're in the US, your salary sucks. But that's an entry level job for you.

If you're a minor living at home, good work. Keep it up.

5% is a small but efficient amount to practice and learn trading. Would keep that in mind.

Thank you so much.

One thing to add:

With CDs the taxes on earnings are on your income tax bracket, unless bought in a retirement account like an IRA.

With stocks/funds, if you own it for more than 1 year then when you sell the taxes on earning are lower (15% for people in the ~$40k-$400k income range). Selling them in under 1yr has earnings taxed on income tax bracket just like CDs.

Get a different tax guy. You reported your income change. I hope you can prove that.

I appreciate the response, ill look into that

Thanks so much!

I don’t know if I’m more impressed that you have $40k of credit card debt and not drowning, or that your credit card interest rate is only 9.9/11.9% (I’ve only seen credit card interest rates over 21%)!

Proper long-term investing is boring. It should not be exciting.

Real estate is proven.

Crypto seems extremely speculative.

With that high income and that low of financial prowess, I suggest whitecoatinvestor.com in addition to the advice to receive here.

HYSA doesn’t matter who you go with. The purpose of the account is to play defensive and be liquid. If you want lock up your money that’s fine but if you are spending time making a decision between like 4.5% and 4.75%. Then you are wasting your time and thinking too small.

You go through your insurance and let them deal with everything that's primarily what they're there for. Pay your deductible and since it's not your fault you'll get that deductible back plus whatever it takes to make you whole again.

Yeah I totally agree with the fact that I don’t have to work as hard as I do but the issue is that I’m an extreme busy body so when no one is willing to help, I tend to always step up because I can’t stand to have unfinished work before I leave.

My sister has been going through the same thing. IRS revised her return she filed last year. She received conflicting reasons why then she was inevitably told they can’t say, and she would have to refile by paper. They've been sitting on it since then and she still doesn't have an answer.

Lol sounds like you have no clue how to improve your credit. Step one is NOT "take on bad loans."

check your IRS transcripts. this is 100% because you said you didnt get the covid stimulus check during the 2021 tax year when the irs has on their end that you did receive it.

thank you, what are some valuable skills you recommend learning? and yes, already investing in ETF such as VOO and SCHD.

You are 23. You have no idea what the next four decades will hold for you.

It's better to retire with more than you need than with not enough.

> If that went unreported when I filed, I suppose TurboTax may have assumed that I didn't get it and listed that as an expected refund because of that. could that explain it?

Yes