One question: What should she do?

Meet Hannah. She’s 24 years old, has a stable job with health insurance, and lives with a roommate. Hannah is careful with money but anxious about it too. Her parents are middle class, not wealthy, but she knows she could call them for help or even move back home if she needed to.

Hannah does not overspend. She recently got a credit card, which she pays in full every month, but prefers to use a debit card when buying things. She has added up what she spends in a month, mostly on rent, utilities, transit, and food. She keeps 2 months of expenses in her checking account. She read that she should also keep 3-6 months of expenses in a savings account as an emergency fund. She’s worked hard on saving over the last year and has finally made it to that 6-month balance.

Hannah also has student loan debt, which she worries about. A lot. She was relieved when payments were paused during the pandemic, but she knows she’s going to have to start repaying soon. She’s confident she can make the minimum payments starting next year, but it’s going to be tight.

Her employer offers a 401(k) plan but no match. Hannah hasn’t made any contributions and she doesn’t have an IRA. She doesn’t know what the future holds. Grad school? Marriage? Kids? Buy a house? Move to Maui and work remote? Those all sound like exciting but impossibly big decisions. For now, she just wants to be independent and responsible.

It’s the end of the year. Hannah’s up late looking at her account balances online, again, wondering if she’s doing things right. What do you think? How does Hannah’s financial picture look? Should she stay the course, or make some changes?

We want to know what you suggest! Yes, really. Please send us your thoughts at dev@brightfin.io.

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While Hannah is not a real person, she’s actually a lot of real people. What can we do to help all the Hannahs out there?