Capital One, Ally, and Marcus (Goldman Sachs) are all reputable banks currently offering good rates on their savings accounts! There are more too, those are just the ones I know off the top of my head

Invest inside a Roth IRA. This is a tax advantaged account, where all the gains you make will be tax free when you take them out, after you hit retirement age. The money could grow 3 or 4 times, so that is a big deal. You can take out the money you put in tax free at any time. To do this, open a Roth IRA account at Fidelity.com. Deposit the $50 in that account. Then buy FSKAX or similar (the entire US stock market).

I personally use Amex, but there are dozens of them out there.

Thank you! I've never been able to find one I feel comfortable with or has more than 2%

If you haven’t “seen” many HYSAs lately, then you haven’t been looking. That’s where it belongs. Quick and easy to open one from a highly rated company on this list:

https://www.nerdwallet.com/best/banking/high-yield-online-savings-accounts

I know it should, but do you have recommendations? When I research I don't see any that are very high, recent posts seem to have the same thoughts, or I don't trust the "bank" as I've never heard of them

If they’re charging the same fee for both credit card and ACH, then it’s simple - use a credit card with a good cash back percentage. Citi 2% or whatever.

You can generally invest what you want in an IRA, but I would consider keeping your retirement funds in something relatively vanilla and playing around with money you’re more ok with losing in a taxable brokerage account, but your call.

Uh check out citibanks HYSA… it increases it’s % every month almost. Unless I’m missing some glaring issue, I’ve been loving the 3.4%!!

>I haven't seen many HYSAs lately

I don't understand this. What do you mean? That's exactly where it should go.

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It's always worth fighting an HOA.

Nice! I’ll have to update mine as well.

https://www.ramseysolutions.com/retirement/investment-calculator

Generally speaking, with a credit union, you do need to have an account or be a member to secure a loan with them.

My dad use to give me the advice to never do two things when emotional: drink alcohol or make life altering decisions. Find a substantial outlet to build yourself up instead. Something inwards and not outwards.

Yes from a brokerage account, Roth IRA, , HSA, etc.

You can open up all these accounts on Fidelity, that's what I use.

Also most 401k's should have a low cost mutual fund that mimics the S&P 500

You can/should use household income to open and fund your IRA. Your spouse’s income counts.

Just purchase an ETF such as VOO, IVV, or SPY. You can purchase any of these through a brokerage just like you would any stock. And I would recommend maxing your Roth IRA every month before contributing to a taxable investment account to avoid taxes on the gains in the far future

Yes. When I initially signed up for TD, I put Discover as my bank account because I was getting ready to switch my direct deposit to them but then started reading horror stories about Discover so I didn't follow through with the change but it was too late for TD and there was no way I was going to go through their nightmare of changing so I gave up the idea of buying I bonds until I read a thread on Bogleheads that said it changed. Like I said, it took seconds to add Fidelity and delete Discover.

You can’t pay off debt without money. If you’re at the point where you’re never going to be able to climb out of it, it may be time to consult a bankruptcy attorney, but bankruptcy isn’t a decision to make lightly.

Some mutual funds are designed to provide complete diversification in a single fund - most target date retirement funds are designed this way. This means that by buying just one fund, you are getting the full spectrum of the stock market (i.e. large and small companies, international and domestic companies) as well as bonds (usually short, medium and long term) in a proportion that provides appropriate risk for your age. When you have one of these funds, buying others doesn't really provide extra diversification because the underlying stocks are just duplicates. You can use other mutual funds to "tilt" your investments (e.g. invest more heavily in a certain sector, like small caps or precious metals, etc.) but there is really no need to do this.

Other funds are designed to track a certain sector of the market and as such are not meant to be a one-stop fund. Among the ones you listed, the Vanguard Small Cap index and the American EuroPacific fund are two such. If you wanted to create a diversified portfolio using those two funds, you would also need to add a large cap fund, a bond fund and probably a couple of others to make sure you were properly diversified across all sectors.

Since you are just getting started, the target date retirement funds are perfect for you. Choose the one that comes closest to your estimated retirement date (or one a little farther out if you want to be a bit more aggressive) and put all of your money in it. Instant diversification and appropriate asset allocation.

BTW- fees on mutual funds vary wildly and can REALLY eat into your returns. IMO, there is no reason on earth to pay a higher ER than that of the target retirement funds, especially since you are not a sophisticated investor (yet!). I'm guessing that the Dodge, Harbor and American options have ERs north of .5 while the Vanguard funds are all under .2? Stay away from those! You don't need anything beyond the target date anyway.

There is no reason to wait to make the loss smaller. If VTI goes up VTSAX will as well.

You should absolutely fight an incorrect charge. You should also post about it in the public portal for your hoa so other members going after management about fixing it. We don’t get charged anything for using direct debit.

Wait, you can easily change bank accounts on TreasuryDirect now?