50 and older, I'm sorry, but in my personal experience, your advice has been a little out of date.

Don't smoke, don't drink, learn composting, grow a garden and learn foraging.

Just do all the crazy shit. You live only once and soon your back will ache every day.

401k now.

Fuuuuck, I do both, though I've been... Trying... With the smoking. I have been working on my tomatoes though!

I think I maybe signed up for it when I was 23? I'll have to look into it again

I was a dumbass and withdrew my first one when I changed jobs around age 26. That job had profit sharing too. Such a waste.

Don't worry about money, worry about your health. Form the habits now, and stick with them.

Everyone will tell you that, and you'll just ignore them, we all know it. But, we feel like we should say it anyway.

It's really fucking important. Far more important than money.

At least contribute to your 401k to get the full match from your employer if offered. More if you can afford it. Time in the market is huge. Make a budget, have emergency savings. There’s little point in investing if an emergency happens and you have to withdraw your retirement at a potential loss, and that’s before penalties and tax. Take care of your body, especially joints. Be even a little bit active regularly. Figure out a decently healthy diet. These will help prevent health issues which can be expensive. Plus you might look better and feel better too.

All of this sound like too much? Pick one or two and try doing them consistently even if it’s half assed. Half assing something consistently for a long time is much, much better than putting in a ton of effort, burning out, and returning to old patterns. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Sorry I know that kinda veered into fitness but I see a lot of parallels in personal finance and fitness/nutrition. Both involve budgets and benefit from a plan and spreadsheets.

30-50 are most people's highest sarnings years, so if you aren't happy with your career, nows the time to fix it and get on a better path. Career changes get more difficult at 40 and 50.

Save even more than you think you can afford.

If you have IRA offered by your employer as a work benefit, try to contribute the amount that maxes out the employers contribution. This amount will vary by plan structure and also IRS limits. But basically you want to max out the amount your employer compensates you and even moreso for savings that compounds over time.

Consolidate and eliminate consumer debts.

If you need a car, buy used and let the first buyer take the depreciation hit.

Buy a house if you can afford to insure and fix everything that goes wrong with it also. Furnaces and AC and roofs are expensive.

If you plan to have a kid, start a 529 for their education now. Even if the contributions are small, time and compound interest is your ally here.

Don't get on TikTok or Instagram as it becomes an envy/peer pressure/consumption trap. I don't have the Amazon app on my phone either. I have to manually log in at a PC if I really need something from them. This reduces impulse purchases. Limit the Ubereats and Doordash expenditures also.

If you can afford a house, try as hard as you can not to buy a house that you can barely afford with a 30yr mortgage. Limit yourself to a house where you can afford it with a 15yr mortgage. I did that in my 30s and now in my 40s I don't have a mortgage anymore. Obviously with the current housing market this advice won't help many.

To those people, I'd say: stop using a basic savings account. Get a High Yield Savings Account. They pay 3.5-4% interest at the moment. Zero risk, and you can even havd a card attached to it for spending. They're liquid. Got 1k sitting in savings? That's $35/yr free money you're missing out on. 10k? $350/yr. Best part? When inflation starts going crazy and the fed increases interest rates to control it, your money starts making even more money. Not enough to fix everything, but it does help a little.

If you can, max out your 401k. Put money in a Roth IRA too.

If you want to play with stocks safely use index funds. Something like SPY for the S&P500. 98% of day traders lose money. Every trade someone makes is measured against the market. The trade you made increased 2% in the last week? Well, the market was up 2.8%. It's like gambling and the market is the house. The market eventually always wins and everyone else loses.

Check that your fund allocation is appropriate (e.g. a target-date fund or otherwise 80%+ stocks). It would be an absolute disaster if your money has just been sitting in the cash sweep account this whole time.

Also, up your contribution percentage to max it out.

I like it that you're keeping it in the nightshade family, shit add some eggplant and you got the trifecta!

If you can afford a house, try as hard as you can not to buy a house that you can barely afford with a 30yr mortgage. Limit yourself to a house where you can afford it with a 15yr mortgage. I did that in my 30s and now in my 40s I don't have a mortgage anymore. Obviously with the current housing market this advice won't help many.

I got a 30 year mortgage at a fixed 2.something % 15 years ago and am very happy with that because I could invest more in stocks with a higher rate of return.

'Course, with the current interest rates that won't help many either...

Tomatoes are great, especially if you make passata and use your garden waste for canning/pasteurise fuel.

Don't assume the future will be better than the past

Daily intermittent fasting is a great way to save on your food and toilet paper expenditure.

You can grow your own tobacco. Once you do, never buy someone else's (big tobaccos) crops.

It's cheaper, you'll probably smoke a lot less of it (you have to make each harvest last until the next crop is ready!), and you'll have more fun with it when you do (pipe or rolling your own smokes, bragging rights, etc).

Only one problem with the S&P500: a massive chunk of it is AI speculation, like 30%+, and that bubble will pop. Recommend bonds or metals until it does. Then switch back.

As much as i hate smoke, i would respect that

Spoken like a true capitalist \s

Set aside some time to understand how your pension and the tax system works.

It's dull as hell, but you will need it.

HSA > 401k > Roth or backdoor your Ira. High yield savings changes every time you can get an extra half point of interest.

Do not, I repeat do not touch your fucking hsa unless you absolutely must and are dead dying on the ground. Take out a small loan before you touch your hsa. A little interest will be cheap as fuck compared to a years loss of hsa funds.

Look at how much fees cost. They are sneaky. Vanguard is the standard with low cost target date and index funds.

do not fuck with day trading unless you feel like gambling

WTF is an HSA or 401k? We're not all US Americans...

They are. Bravo on that awareness you felt the need to try and point out.

There are northern strains of tobacco that grow in scandanavia even, for the non aussies.

Best to quit tobacco and just enjoy the weed. If you can not get caught.

Without money health suffers. It's a balance.

The stock market is insanely overpriced and due for a downturn. Maybe the US government will bail them all out again, but already 40 trillion in the hole, probably close to 50 by 2028 even without a crisis, and the indigestion in the bond markets right now, would give me pause in dumping cash into the market now.

It's also helping to prop up the worst companies in the world. And managers of the funds take a big cut despite not doing better than random choices, or a monkey throwing shit against a list of stocks to choose. Seriously.

Your teeth and feet are hopefully with you for life. Take care of them.

The title didn't say "40 year olds in the US" now did it? Am I required to research every poster's history? Jeez.

Look, I brush and floss on a routine and haven't had a cavity since I was a kid.

But what am I supposed to be doing with my feet? I get that my teeth can rot out, but I have never worried about feet falling off...

No matter what the situation, you're not financially behind yet, but if nothing changes in 10 years, you will be.

Save and invest. If you don't have at least $200k net worth by the time you're 40, you're probably never going to retire.

I think the confusion about your reply is that it reads like you're assuming the person giving advice was being ego-centric or thinking everyone lives in the US or something, when in reality they were just answering the question. Nothing malicious. Spreading their own wisdom.

Nobody under 40 thinks the future will be better

Its not falling off so much as eventually wishing they would.we are on our feet every day yet we often don't lace up our shoes or boots.ill fitting shoes cause all kinds of problems for future self in thefeet and joints. Workboots every day can be a nightmare as can High heels for toes, ankles and the balls of the feet. Mostly good shoes are the answer but people like pretty things and not lacing up thier boots. When you get old and your feet hurt every day maybe you wonder why. Maybe it was those old converse with the hole in the toe.

what am I supposed to be doing with my feet?

quality footwear and custom orthotics.

Consider quality shoes a necessity, not a luxury.

They're both tax advantaged accounts - meaning you don't have to pay taxes on them in most situations.

HSA is supposed to be a Health Savings Account, but has turned into more of a retirement account. 401k is Americas sad replacement for pensions as workers need to contribute to it and so it largely only helps wealthier people.

The more general advice would be - make sure to save and invest money (preferably in ways that avoid taxes if possible).

Is every responder supposed to research how investing and retirement works in every country on the planet and answer in kind? If you don't have these programs where you live then just keep scrolling or submit your own response.

Are you required to open your virtual mouth anytime something isn’t directed at you? Are you op? Did I answer your question? If you hadn’t opened your virtual mouth would you be here having me shit talk you like a toddler?

How about you consider what actions you took to end up here.

This is good advice, but do kinda worry about the money. Just don't obsess about the money. Save what you can without sacrificing too much. Tomorrow is never guaranteed. Talk to a financial advisor that you trust ideally one that answers the question "are you a fiduciary" with a straight up "yes" anything else they aren't one and fuck em. Work out a plan and find what's realistic to accomplish, and how to get there. Start that today. Not tomorrow. Investments and savings work on time not just your deposits, and every 5 years you wait you double your contributions to stay at the same level of 5 years before. Be it $50 a week or $500k a year there's no such thing as too little if that's what you got. Also max whatever your explorer match is on the 401k. It's free money basically. There is so much more but the truth is none of us are likely qualified to answer this your your situation or even in general.

But yes have fun. Live for the moment. Take time off. Spend time with your family and friends. No one will remember you for your dedication to the grind, but perhaps they would be filled with resentment.

Get in the habit of wearing a backbrace. When you move something heavy, when you work in the yard, whenever you need to bend or twist a lot. Backbrace.

Good boots, gloves, kneelers etc. Good quality tools. Your tools (your body especially) are an investment. Buy quality. Buy to last. Take good care of them. Per the literals. I swear by Kobalt and Dewalt.

what am I supposed to be doing with my feet?

Brush and floss... is that not common knowledge?

I'm sorry you seem to have a bad day, hope you'll have a better one tomorrow. I won't be fazed by a stranger trying to berate me 😄

Thanks a lot for the explanations!!! 🤩

No, man, I just wanted an explanation. And I got one from another kind soul.

Why even make that comment, it adds nothing to the discussion IMHO.

It seems disingenuous to claim that you were "looking for an explanation" when you very clearly knew they were a US thing. It seemed more like you're complaining because someone gave a response that's only applicable to people in the US.

Can you explain what you mean about the HSA being more of a retirement account? Can't you only use that money on medical or health related purchases? I understand the possible tax savings through an HSA, but I don't see how it could be a retirement account.

Yup.

The Canadian equivalent is a TFSA, unless you max it out (congrats), then RRSP. Apparently there's niche cases where RRSP is better, so look into it a bit.

Although, if you have to gamble, fuck with day trading before slots or sports or whatever. Way better odds.