Reddit's Best Advice: How To Budget When You Feel Completely Lost About Money
Not knowing where to start with money is more common than most people admit. A recent thread on Reddit's r/personalfinance subreddit proved it: A 20-year-old with $1,000 in credit card debt, inconsistent work hours and zero savings asked for help and the response was overwhelmingly practical, kind and immediately useful. Sometimes the internet is good!
And luckily for the rest of us, the advice applies well beyond their specific situation.
Here's what Reddit says to do when you feel completely lost about money.
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First, Don't Be Embarrassed To Ask
The original poster said they felt embarrassed about not knowing basic financial vocabulary and worried they were "too old" to be asking at 20. The thread's response was almost unanimous: Asking is exactly the right move.
"Step 1: Don't be embarrassed to ask questions," one commenter wrote. "Everyone starts off clueless about this sort of thing."
Several others echoed the same point. Financial literacy isn't taught consistently in schools and most people learn by doing — which means making mistakes first. Starting at 20 with $1,000 in debt and no savings is not a crisis. It's a starting line.
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Figure Out What You Actually Earn
One of the most useful moments in the thread came when commenters pointed out that the original poster had significantly underestimated their own income. They said they made about $300 a month, but working 15 hours a week at $18.15 an hour actually works out to closer to $880 a month after taxes.
The lesson: Before you can budget anything, you need accurate numbers. Pull up your last few paystubs, add up what actually hits your bank account and use that as your baseline. Guessing — even in good faith — leads to a budget that doesn't work.
Write Down Every Dollar You Spend
Multiple commenters recommended the same first step: Track every single purchase, whether in a notebook, a spreadsheet or even the notes app on your phone.
"Every time you spend money, write down on what and track it," one commenter advised. "You become a student studying your own spending patterns. Then you change the pattern."
Food and going out came up repeatedly as the categories that quietly drain accounts fastest. You can't fix what you can't see.
Pay Off the Credit Card Before Saving
The thread was nearly unanimous on this point: don't try to save and pay down debt at the same time when you're starting with very little. The credit card comes first.
"Do not try to do too much at once," one commenter wrote. "Focus first on paying off the credit card because that will be the monster accruing interest and hitting your credit."
The practical advice was to pay more than the minimum every single paycheck — not just once a month. Even $25 extra per paycheck accelerates the payoff significantly. Several commenters also suggested physically putting the card away somewhere inconvenient so the temptation to use it is removed entirely while the balance is being paid down.
Start Saving Something Small the Moment the Debt Is Gone
Once the credit card is paid off, the thread's advice was consistent: Open a high-yield savings account and start with whatever amount feels manageable, even if that's $25 per paycheck.
"It doesn't have to be a lot," one commenter wrote. "It can literally be $25 every paycheck, but it will accumulate over time and as you get older and your income goes up, you can start adding more."
Several commenters recommended the "pay yourself first" approach: Set up an automatic transfer to savings the moment a paycheck hits, before spending anything else. SoFi and American Express were both mentioned as solid high-yield savings account options with competitive interest rates.
Increase Your Income However You Can
Running through the math, the original poster's situation wasn't hopeless — but the income was genuinely tight. Commenters suggested picking up a side gig like dog walking, applying for more hours at their current job, looking into school work-study programs and considering longer-term options like trade school.
The point wasn't to pile on. It was that budgeting has a ceiling when income is very low and sometimes the most powerful financial move is finding one more stream of money rather than optimizing the existing one further.
The Simple Order of Operations
One commenter laid out the clearest roadmap in the thread, and it holds up for almost anyone starting from scratch:
Create a real budget. Separate needs from wants. Cut wants that exceed your income. Pay more than the minimum on any debt. Pay off the card completely. Then start saving in a high-yield savings account. Build an emergency fund first. Then look at investing for the long term.
That's it. The vocabulary and the complexity can come later. The starting point is always the same: know what's coming in, know what's going out and make sure the first number is larger than the second.
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