Personal Finance (Not Investing) • Do I need help from a “money” therapist more than a financial planner?

After almost 2 years of looking for employment, I can imagine it would be quite demoralizing. Since you mentioned you worked in the non profit sector, have you considered identifying a local non profit whose mission you support, and volunteering once a week in their department that will put your skills to use? This will help you network locally, take your mind off other things to focus on the volunteer work and for some people, improve their mental health.

I have Monarch and I open/refresh my checking and credit card accounts multiple times a day, even if I don't buy anything that day, because I'm scared of the amount dropping (what if someone stole my account?...

Take all the reasonable steps to avoid identity theft, and don't give out your passwords. People don't generally steal accounts, they steal money from existings accounts. Sign up for text alerts when there are changes to your accounts. Even if you do all this and someone steals money from your account, you are likely to get it back; it just takes alot of effort and time but it is theft and the bank is insured. This is probably a good reason to split the funds among at least 2 accounts.

what if I have a sudden charge I don't recognize?

You file a cc fraud report and they reverse the charge. Happens all the time. Again, it's a pain, but its not the end of the world. I had to file such a report a few months ago for a high 3 digit charge on one of my credit cards. The CC issuer closed the card and sent me a new one with a new number. Took 10 days to receive the new one, but I have other credit cards, so it was not a problem. They also required that I file a police report, which I did - took about 20 mintues of my time to complete online. In 40 years of using credit cards, this has probably happened to me a dozen times. Every time the credit card issuer reverses the charge.

what if the bank just takes all of my money?

This just does not typically happen. But split the money between two accounts to be safe. The more likely scenario is the bank goes under, and your funds are not available for a few days. But as long as you stay under the $250k FDIC limit, you get your money in a few days or a week or two.

I can't imagine what this would be like if I have an IRA and want to look at it multiple times a day while the market is open, but I recognize that I will have to get better at this.

So an IRA is a type of account that holds the money. Think of it like a bucket - there are all sorts of different color buckets - savings, checking, IRA, Roth, 401k, etc.
Then there is the issue of how you allocate the money in that account. Think of it like what you put in the bucket - there are all sorts of things you can fill the bucket with - standard savings, money market funds and investments, which would include mutual funds (bond or stock mutual funds), actual stocks, actual bonds, etc.
If you are not yet ready to invest, then just open a Roth and put the Roth money in a money market or high yield savings.
However, historically you will do better if you invest, and if you invest, there will be time the account value will fall. A good way to look at this is that share price is low, so it is a good time to buy more.
If you are not yet comfort

Statistics: Posted by Saving$ — Sat Sep 27, 2025 2:54 pm — Replies 35 — Views 2809

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