First thing build a savings account that has 6 months worth of bills. Keep it in cash. This is your in case shit money. In case shit happens. Find the highest interest rate savings account you can.

The job will likely offer you a 401K. Hopefully with a ROTH option. If they don’t or it is a traditional 401K, start a self directed ROTH IRA.

Max out ROTH investment. If it is a 401K with a ROTH option I believe the max is 20,500. If you have To use a ROTH IRA the maximum is 6,000. If you can max out the Roth investment then put the rest (or max out) a traditional 401K or traditional IRA.

In those funds, either buy a S&P index fund or a Target Dated Retirement Fund.

Do those things first.

Operate the cheapest reliable vehicle, preferably paid for with cash (fuck car payments).

I honestly don’t know whether to tell you to buy a home in this lending/real estate environment. I’d lean no, especially if you currently have no retirement savings.

Congrats man. Make that money.
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First, congrats to you. 2nd, are you planning on taking this job then?

Buehler is spot on so the only thing I'll add is that you should be saving at minimum 10% of your salary for retirement but 20% is preferable, especially if you're behind on retirement savings.

But first you need an emergency fund like mentioned and you also need to be saving for a new car, so it's ok to start on the lower end of the retirement savings spectrum, but once those are accomplished you'll need to ramp up your amount. With every raise, add 1-2% to your retirement savings percentage.
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Now you can afford Monkeypox vaccine
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You know what’s going to be nice?

When I’m not paying $800/month for preschool next year!!!
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Wow, I thought you were older than that.
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:-)
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We are currently at #4 on the worst annual returns in history since world war 2, not a particularly good spot to be in and if we don't rally in Q4 we may get higher on this list.


2008..... -37
1974..... -26.47
2002..... -22.1
2022..... -21.05
1973..... -14.66
2001..... -11.89
1957..... -10.78
1966..... -10.06
2000..... -9.1
1962..... -8.73
1969..... -8.5
1946..... -8.07
1977..... -7.18
1981..... -4.91
2018..... -4.38
1990..... -3.1
1953..... -0.99
1960..... 0.47
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It looks like it would take a pretty huge quarter to even rise one spot above number four.
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Help my understand the limits on a Roth IRA and Roth 401k if I have both of them. Can I max out my regular Roth IRA at $6k AND contribute to a Roth 401k too since the limit on 401ks ($20,500) is different?
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Yes.

You can contribute:

20,500 to a 401k (there is only 1 allowed per employer so type doesn't matter)
6,000 in a ROTH IRA
6,000 in a Traditional IRA

for a total of 32,500 in tax sheltered retirement savings.
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Thank you. I am still weighing my options. I think I might have to stick with it all in a traditional 401k because I need that tax benefit coupled with the $25k with the standard deduction for tax bracket purposes. The Roth 401k doesn't help me decrease my taxable income.
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Imagine being a stock broker in '73 and '74. All individuals had to go through a broker and often were advised by that broker. Probably a whirlwind of career changes at that point.
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I did a study of savings for a client once and I interviewed a bunch of investors about issues related to picking an advisor. It was kind of funny because they all knew that the market has ups and downs and they all said that they blame the financial advisor if they lose money.
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At these interest rates the fixer upper is still going to be pricey. 140k for dumps in this area and you have to have money to fix it up let alone some know-how and of course time to do it.
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Yet.
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