Want to learn about money management and develop skills to help you retire early with a “fat stash”? Have you tried Reddit? The internet’s most active community likes to share financial tips and real-life experiences as much as it likes discussing markets and economic trends.
The following money and finance subreddits are a gold mine of financial advice.
1. Personal Finance (r/personalfinance)
Personal Finance will officially be older than some of its members in just a couple of years. This well of advice has been around since 2009 and counts an incredible 17.5 million people of all ages, educations, and social backgrounds. It is currently the 22nd-largest community on Reddit.
Some of the hottest topics and flairs on PF include:
- Autos
- Investing
- Budgeting
- Planning
- Credit
- Retirement
- Debt
- Employment
- Taxes
- Insurance
Personal Finance also offers a wiki with financial advice for teenagers, young adults, older young adults (aged 25-35), and mid-career adults, as well as a catalog of helpful books and videos. If you’re looking for thorough and specific advice on personal finance, you’ll probably find it here.
2. Personal Finance Tools (r/PFtools)
Whether looking for a couples app with balance forecasting, a Chrome extension to understand financial terminology, or a simple monthly money management software, you don’t need to look further than PF Tools. It’s a relatively new community (from 2015) with 15 million members.
Yes, people can pitch their personal finance tools, but only in a single post. Commenting on other posts in a promotional way is not allowed, so the advice is 100% relevant.
PF Tools is a unique subreddit where you can discover both official descriptions and personal experiences with finance websites, tools, and apps. Ads, user guides, tool reviews, tips, and discussions are scrambled together under the same thread and in a transparent way.
3. Financial Independence/Retire Early (r/financialindependence)
Do you know what you would do with your life if you didn’t have to work for money?
FI/RE is a subreddit that compels you to ask questions like that and find ways to get there. It’s about discovering and achieving life goals. By this community’s definition, Financial Independence is about earning more and spending less to retire early or as soon as possible.
With around 1.8 million members, this subreddit is one of the best places on the internet to learn how to be your own boss from others’ real-life experiences. It includes an excellent FAQs and Books section where you can read all about reducing expenses, increasing income, and investing.
4. Financial Planning (r/FinancialPlanning)
Financial Planning is a relatively small community (574k members) compared to other personal finance subreddits on this list, but it’s experienced and eager to help. It’s one of the veterans, too, dating back to 2009. It covers a wide range of topics, from home equity to taxable brokerage.
The most prevalent topics include budgeting, retirement plans, insurance, investing, and frugality.
5. LeanFire (r/leanfire)
LeanFire is a financial independence subreddit with a twist. It helps you approach your financial goals from a “minimalist, stoic, frugal, and anti-consumerist” trajectory. It offers practical advice on everyday problems similar subreddits don’t discuss, like how to save while dating.
If retiring before 60 with less than $25k in planned yearly expenses sounds like your dream scenario, the LeanFire community will go above and beyond to help you achieve it. There’s also a Wiki with a reading list and essential tips. LeanFire has been active since 2015 and counts 257k members.
6. Budget (r/budget)
If you need advice on budget planning and budgeting apps, it’d be difficult to avoid a subreddit with the most fitting name: Budget. This excellent community can teach you how to cut down daily expenses and save for the long term, regardless of where you are in life.
Budget is one of the older subreddits. It’s from 2009 and has 30k members.
7. Investing (r/investing)
The official motto of this long-established subreddit is “Lose money with friends!” It’s only fitting since Investing is one of the rare communities on Reddit that covers this complex topic in a friendly and easy-to-understand way. It is a fantastic place to start if you are a beginner investor.
One of the best parts of the Investing subreddit is Daily Discussions, which offers general advice and commentary on the current state of markets. It’s where you go for a daily scoop of investing news, tips, and tricks and a list of books and resources for further reading (also available in the sidebar).
This group has over 2 million private investors and threads going back to 2008.
8. Frugal Living (r/Frugal)
Frugal Living (“Waste Less, Gain More!”) is another senior subreddit from way back. It was created in 2008 and has grown into a 2.8 million community with a savvy mind and generous heart. The questions, commentaries, and discussion mostly center around small everyday savings.
Here are some examples of posts that you can find on Frugal Living:
- “Do we always have to use cold water when doing laundry?”
- “Is it okay to choose money over love, and how to get over it?”
- “Not a huge tip, but celery leaves are a cheap parsley substitute.”
- “Tips for staying frugal with an executive functioning disorder”
- “What’s the most inexpensive way to make your daily coffee?”
For quick answers, you can filter the precious real-life wisdom of this subreddit by flairs like Gardening, Electronics, Appliances, Recipes, and Personal Care. Links to sister subs with related but more specific topics, from general finance subreddits to lifestyle topics, are also available.
9. Poverty Finance (r/povertyfinance)
Poverty Finance provides personal finance advice for the financially challenged, so it has something for everyone outside of the Top 1%. It’s one of the newer subreddits from this family, but it has strength in numbers. It has 1.7 million members, even though it’s from 2018.
It also has one of the best wikis of all subreddits from our selection, detailing Emergency Topics like Food Banks, Low-Cost Healthcare, Legal Services, Credit Building, Debt, Loans, and Taxes. It’s for anyone who wants to acquire financial literacy and stop struggling with money.
Poverty Finance might be the only place where you can vent and rant about your financial problems and not be judged. There’s an official Vent/Rant flair reminding users that this type of post exists to give members a safe and supportive place to express their frustrations.
10. Passive Income (r/passive_income)
Passive Income takes the cake for the best flairs on the financial side of the Subreddit. For example, you can post your experience under “just here to brag” and not receive any hate. You can also seek advice and help, and share referral links, as long as they relate to passive income streams.
PI is not the most extensive community (313k) but has many clever ideas and street-smart participants.
11. Credit Cards (r/CreditCards)
A vast subreddit for a huge topic, Credit Cards might hold the answers to some questions you’ve had since your first credit card. It’s a sub with over 1.2 million members, some active since 2008, where you can read about different types of cards, their perks, and how to stack them.
If you’re interested in a specific credit card, you can look it up and learn about it from other people’s experiences. You’ll be able to find comparisons and recommendations as well. The Credit Cards subreddit has a strict nothing-nefarious, no-referrals policy, so everything is 100% authentic and ad-free.
In addition to millions of informational threads, there’s a list of helpful links for free credit monitoring and learning resources. The Abbreviations & Lingo sidebar section is another nice touch.
12. CryptoCurrency (r/CryptoCurrency)
This giant subreddit has more than 6.1 million members, the most extensive membership on this list. CC was created in 2013 and has been one of the most hyperactive financial subreddits ever since.
The versatility of options on this sub alone is impressive. It is the only community on this list that awards Moons to its most significant contributors, keeps a monthly leaderboard, and has scheduled r/CC discussions. However, it’s not all fun and games. CC works hard on analyzing crypto trends.
Whether you’re considering investing in crypto or are already a holder, CC will keep you up to date with relevant news and discussions. The sub’s Polls, Predictions, and Wikis might easily be everything you need to make the best decision when managing, selling, and investing in crypto.
13. Banking (r/Banking)
Reddit’s biggest community dedicated to banking dissects banking advice, regulations, laws, complaints, and news in detail. It’s a specific subreddit with well-informed members and hundreds of posts about checking accounts, mortgages, loans, and more.
Banking has been around since 2009 and has a community of 54.4k members.
14. Tax (r/tax)
As “Reddit’s home for tax geeks and taxpayers,” Tax is an invaluable source of news, discussions, policies, and laws relating to any tax in the US and beyond. Despite being around since 2009, it keeps a small but tight community of 176k members committed to solving everyday tax issues.
15. MiddleClassFinance (r/MiddleClassFinance)
Reddit gives plenty of space to the financially challenged, but fortunately, only some fall into this category. If you’re lucky (and hard-working) enough to call yourself middle-class, this subreddit is for you. It has another 37k members and is relatively new (2019), so the posts are very contemporary.
16. Student Loans (r/StudentLoans)
Even though student loans are a central element of the American personal finance discussion, the number of subreddits dedicated to this topic is surprisingly low. In fact, this community that has been around since 2010, with 260k members and counting, is the oldest and most extensive sub about student loans.
The community generally focuses on US schools, but it welcomes members from all over the world. On top of sharing news, politics, and advice relating to student loans, it also provides a friendly platform for rants, complaints, and success stories. There’s a long list of valuable links as well.
17. Retirement (r/retirement)
Do you know how much you need to save monthly to earn for retirement? Know where to invest your grandparents’ money? Do you maybe need help decreasing your taxable income? If you have nobody to ask these questions, you’ll benefit from joining Reddit’s Retirement community.
This community is younger than most members (dating back to 2012), but it’s just as wise as all 19.8k of them together. It’s full of first-hand advice for retirement without debt.
18. fatFIRE (r/fatFIRE)
For those who do not know, the “fat” in fatFIRE refers to a “fat retirement stash” that you will hopefully build after studying this subreddit. That’s not as impossible as your current situation might suggest, at least not according to this sub’s many great success stories.
fatFIRE is a passionate community with 354k members, established in 2016.
19. Almost Homeless (r/almosthomeless)
Almost Homeless is one of the biggest subreddits for people living on the razor-thin edge of insolvency. It’s a place to “ask advice and gain support,” but begging for money or donations is not allowed. It is a community of 48.1k souls from both sides of bankruptcy.
Since it has been active for eight years (since 2015), Almost Homeless has had plenty of time to build a comprehensive information center for the poor and homeless. In addition to discussions, it offers a useful wiki and a list of subs for finding jobs, assistance, and mental health support.
Some of the many topics this subreddit covers are:
- Cutting your living costs
- Government career assistance
- Government aid and subsidy programs
- Private charities and helpful organizations
- Homeless living
If you need financial help, you can ask any question about your situation or follow the links in the wiki. You can provide advice and find a list of private charities that you can donate to if you’re financially stable and want to help. For critical situations, you can add an URGENT flair to your posts.
20. Finance (r/Finance)
Created in 2008, Finance is Reddit’s most followed sub on all things finance. Its community has 1.7 million members and threads with more than 1,000 comments. It covers finance in general – no personal finance posts are allowed – but it’s still a valuable resource for learning about the economy.
Happy Redditing
There are many, many more subreddits about money and finance that you can check out. The 20 subs on this list are the most active and have the most extensive communities, but a niche sub might help you fix your budget better. Let us know if you find a good one we haven’t covered!
