[Eji1700]

“Pay your bills on time and fully”

“Do what you can to eliminate addictive vices or never get them”

“Max your Roth and 401k contributions before even thinking about anything else”

“Try to budget”

“Don’t live beyond your means. Monthly payment need to be considered carefully”

If you can even TRY to do these things it puts you SO far ahead of the average person.

It sucks because I get it, if you’re behind waiting years for things to stabilize sucks, if you even can. So these get rich quick by just doing X scams are enticing but only set you farther behind.

God I still remember when a friend showed up on his 18th birthday with a pack of cigarettes to show how “mature” he was. I always think about how much that one decision cost him over the years.

[scrapcode]

I never personally liked the blanket advice to "Max your 401k." For most, if achievable at all, that would be the most they can invest at all. Even though it is often recommended alongside a proper "emergency fund," that advice leaves little liquidity without major penalties.

[throw0101a]

> I never personally liked the blanket advice to "Max your 401k."

I think the general advice is max out employer contributions to your 401(k)

* https://old.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics

* https://old.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/wiki/money-st...

[prasadjoglekar]

For enough income, maxing out 401K is the one way to reduce taxes and keep your money.

[jeffreyrogers]

Roth contributions are withdrawable without penalty. Also most employers offer a match of some amount, which is essentially free money.

[sumeno]

Not Roth 401ks, only IRAs

[jeffreyrogers]

Yes, although some plans let you roll contributions into an IRA.

[what]

Most people here are probably paid too much to contribute to a Roth IRA.

[pinkyboy]

I have considerable Roth assets because my employer's 401k allows for the Mega-backdoor, which means I can put $30k+ per year of after-tax income into 401k (beyond the normal pre-tax contributions) perform a Roth-in-plan-conversion on the after-tax assets, and then roll it out into a Roth IRA.

[ptmcc]

That's what the https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/backdoor-roth-ira.asp is for, assuming you don't have any existing traditional IRA balances

[jeffreyrogers]

You can also roll your traditional IRA into an employers 401k (if the plan allows this) to zero out your traditional IRA balance.

[jeffreyrogers]

You can convert your 401k to an IRA when you leave an employer. Some employers also offer in service rollovers (I think these mostly have minimum age restrictions on them though)

[what]

That’s a traditional IRA, not Roth.

[dripdry45]

The five-year clock is for the original contribution. It’s important not to get that mixed up.

[BeetleB]

I believe the general idea is to max it if you can. If you can't, put whatever you can, and forego luxuries like vacations until you can.

[throw0101a]

> If you can even TRY to do these things it puts you SO far ahead of the average person.

This is basically the advice of this 2016 post (later book):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Index_Card

The basics are really basic/simple.

[mohamedkoubaa]

The writer of one punch man was on to something

[sudo_cowsay]

He knew the way

[prophesi]

> God I still remember when a friend showed up on his 18th birthday with a pack of cigarettes to show how “mature” he was. I always think about how much that one decision cost him over the years.

The irony of taxing vices. I imagine most of it's paid by people who didn't know better at a young age, and helps encourage the downward spiral of poverty.

And if you say it discourages young people from starting on the addiction, I think we're barking up the wrong tree. Disposable vapes have the highest amount of nicotine they can put in their nicotine salts. Nicotine pouches like zyns sell the most at 6mg and above. Dispensaries and street weed have enough THC that would put a hippie in the 70's in a psychotic break.

God bless that Gen Z doesn't drink or smoke cigarettes. But they vape nicotine and marijuana. Or use pouches / edibles.

If we don't prevent first time users from getting an intense nicotine head high or accustomed to weed 5 to 10 times stronger than what their parents were used to, then I really don't see the point of excise taxes. It should be about preventing first-time use, and giving off-ramps to these potent products.