Arguably the best book on beginner retirement investing. Anyone at any level can read this and understand it.

Smart move, TN is beautiful, great cost of living, and NO state income tax.

Good for you taking on this class! We need more teachers like this. I am a former financial literacy teacher and found using this site to be the most helpful for all my needs:

https://www.ngpf.org/math/

You will find units, curriculum, projects, assessments, lessons, support groups, and much more for everything you need! I hope that helps.

Not to mention, this is all for free. NFPF is a non-profit organization. They also offer trainings for teachers.

You need to definitely separate these accounts. This should have been done when you turned 18. You can still help them out but you need separate accounts to save your relationship with them. That's like sharing food, cars, and everything else. You aren't married to them. The only person you should ever share you account with is your spouse.

This is a toxic situation you are in and you need to be separated from this. This seems like your parents have a budgeting issue and spending on lifestyle. You need to set healthy boundaries for yourself and your future family. If you parents show they have better spending habits in the future and you feel led to help them out then do so but from a separate account!

It's super easy to do in most states. Not sure which state you are in, but I've had three LLCs in three different states and they all took about 15-30 minutes to create and cost about $200 each to file. The hardest part was picking the LLC name ha!

I think that is a great idea to discuss this with trusted co-workers. Maybe even contact someone in a related field to see what they think outside of your firm.

This is very wise of you and your wife to get your finances in order. This will help out in many areas of your life but most importantly, your marriage!

1. LLC vs. sole proprietor needs can differ depending on the state. Typically, forming an LLC offers you a layer of extra protection and "official" status to your business and personal lives. You can also "pay yourself" through an LLC which can help manage your business and personal finances a little more and at the same time, lower your taxable income.
2. Going with an LLC is never a bad decision. Regardless if you decide to go separate, you should probably ask the IRS for an EIN number (you can do this without an LLC).
3. Definitely have a separate bank account, debit card, credit card etc. for your business. This should be separate from all of your personal stuff.
4. AMEX offers a decent 2% cashback on most expenses so that could be good option. There are many great business credit cards to use however. Capitol one has some good products as well.
5. Bank accounts SoFi, Ally, (Sofi and Ally are super user-friendly) Discover all offer around 3.5-4.00% interest in their savings accounts (conditions apply)
6. 25k is a good start. It's never to late to earn some extra interest in a HYSA. It would be a wise move to move that into a HYSA. Credit Unions can be a great choice as well if you have a local branch that pays a decent interest (3% or higher in today's economy should be good).

Have you received any raises since you have taken on more work currently?

If not that needs to be addressed. Your salary requirements need to be adjusted depending on how much work you will be taking on.

This an extreme example to keep my math simple: if you had to double your hours and/or workload, you should receive AT LEAST double your income (not accounting for bonus or overtime).

If you have to take on 1 or 2 extra client projects then you can factor that in much easier to your pay requirements.

Edit: I also forgot to mention that you are a valuable resource to this company. Even more so since other engineers have left. You have more leverage here. Whatever you decide to do, be confident and stick to your decision.

Yea first time can be chalked up as a simple human error. Something weird for it happening 3 times. I would just make sure you contact every one and keep records of your attempts to fix the situation. That's annoying but you are right, not the end of the world.

TaxSlayer and TurboTax self-guided programs are always super easy but beware because both companies have been accused of selling data to 3rd parties like credit card companies.

I've actually never heard anything good about HR Block.

Depends on your situation but https://www.freetaxusa.com/ is always helpful.

If your situation is more complicated you may need to look into hiring a CPA.

Learn everything you can on personal finance. Here are some suggested goals (I'm a former HS financial literacy teacher so I have had plenty of these scenarios brought to me)

1. Try and work as many jobs as you can. Enter your school's work half-day program (it may be called something else at your school).
2. Do not spend any money on anything unnecessary. Suck it up as long as you can and see how much your dad can still cover. Don't party and don't waste any spending.
3. Understand that your girlfriend is just that and not a wife. She may not be your girlfriend next year. You need to focus on how you can support yourself for now and not someone else. Please try to not get her pregnant.
4. Get on a written budget and be as strict as possible with it. Be disciplined here.
5. Ask for help from your teachers and counselors that you trust to see if they have extra resources available for you.
6. Try to get a better job if possible or start a side hustle. Grass-cutting and pressure-washing (and similar) companies are always looking to hire hungry and motivated kids.
7. Using your network, see if there are any low-rent apartments or shared-room situations to lower your rent as low as possible. This will be your biggest cost.

This is not for the faint of heart. I hope you know what you are getting into. You will be sacrificing all of your social life and more to do this but it can be done.

Have you reported this to your manager each time? If you have, then the first time could have been an honest mistake. The 2nd - 3rd time is weird. This has happened to my wife once each but it was corrected before the next pay period. They just did not pay us as much on the 2nd pay period because they overpaid on the first. The gross pay was the only thing affected.

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I'd get your HR/payroll and supervisor in on this to make sure everyone understands and that you want to put a stop to this.

First off, how is the scholarship not enough sometimes?

You could get a job somewhere part-time to help cover those expenses. I would do this before anything else.

I advise against extending more debt for this and definitely do not pull from retirement if you can absolutely help it.

I love using the Visual Capitalist charts if you can understand them! It can be overwhelming though. I bet your dad is right though!

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/best-and-worst-performing-us-stock-market-sectors-2022/#:~:text=2022%20was%20the%20worst%20year,to%20cover%20in%20this%20section.

This seems like something you should definitely pass on and maybe show some "tough love" by not co-signing. I would highly recommend to you to ask your sibling to move somewhere cheaper.

If the rental management is worried about your sibling's income and they still won't allow them to rent after your parent's offer to co-sign, it may be two problems:

1. Too much in rent

2. Not enough income

Perhaps you could convince your sibling to move into somewhere cheaper or at least manageable? Co-signing is a scary game even with a good relationship. In fact, it usually can ruin a good relationship.