Merits.

I have used 279 merits and have 1 to spend. 

I have 1 free reset and am tempted to use it.

This is where my current merits are spent. I feel I've fucked up somewhere along the way. 

Any advice on where to spend them would be much appreciated Load image

Crime progression is highly recommended. Spending on awareness and stealth is a wasteful investment. Life points is pretty useful during wars.

I would get rid of Awareness and stealth for sure. 
If you are close to having 2b in your bank I would bump bank up to 10
EDU at 10 is great
Mugging, if you aren't doing it a lot I'd drop those as well for the time being. 
I would personally drop the nerve as well, those points can be better used in other stuff for the time being 
As for the weapons I would probably pick the ones you use a lot and pad those over just random ones
Health and crit I would get up 
Hosp I would drop as well, unless you really need to be able to bump those hosp timers up
crime progression is another I would work towards 10

I agree with the above feom Bealeb.

plus:

At your level I also wouldn't worry about the weapon specific ones.

There are a shit ton of weapon merits and medals to get which will need you to use all sorts of different weapons for a long time.

Nevermind weapon XP once you unlock it with education (which also shouldn't really be a priority if you play meta)

Furthermore, you will eventually have your preferred load out and you will want to boost those.

The bonus stat ones are neat to have. I would advise to get them up to 7-8 and then 10 much layer when you have more merit points.

Also, you could get rid of all or most hospitalization unless you are planning to be a merc. 5 of that is way too much unless used to gain money woth it.

Here's a guide I turned to - https://www.torn.com/forums.php#/p=threads&f=61&t=16054007&b=0&a=0

Yes to the 10/10 edu and bank if you're in 2B or close to it

My take -> it really depends on your playstyle

If you war often -> stats + life + crit hits

If you need to get into a particular competitive company (like LS) -> employee effectiveness
If you're into stat building and using drugs heavily -> stat + mitigation

Personally, like most players, not a big fan of awareness (it only increases frequency but not necessarily quality of finds) + hosp time

edu, crime progression and bank are a must 10/10.

life and crit chance is good choice for 10/10.

employee eff for easier finding jobs, if you planning to stay in city job forever (or maybe director), just leave it at 0

nerve bar, useful if your NNB is too low and your nerve is frequently full, or you use refill very much

addiction is really up to you, not sure on this one

stealth, mug, and hosp are niche depend on your playstyle you must choose to focus on what you like to do.

if you rarely mug someone, just delete it.

if you not on merc or heavy hitter for hosping people at war, hosp is not pretty good.

stealth is, not sure for this one but imo it's quite useless.

awareness only increase the quantity of item, not the quality, you'll be the judge on your own luck

don't waste on weapon merit if you still changing your weapon type.

Education, Crime Progression, Bank, and Life are an absolute must 10/10. Crit chance depends on whether you war or not, if so then 7/10 minimum with first priority to 10/10 once all the other good ones are 7/10.

Employee Efficiency isn't really worth it early on, it's only really something you invest in if you have nothing better or want to get into a good job really early since high EE tends to attract higher star companies.

Personally I don't think nerve bar increase is worth it at all unless you're in Pub popping refills. Addiction mitigation and awareness are absolute dogshit and I wouldn't recommend picking those up until WAY later on (awareness can be slotted in once you have the book and it's awareness week and addiction mitigation is probably an ultra late game thing).

Mugging obviously only applies if you mug, I'd wager the same goes with stealth although it feels like dogshit to me personally even then.

I personally have hospitalizing at 7 for warring but considering resetting to remove that since I don't think it's useful unless you merc or are several bil in stats (if I'm wrong please enlighten me as I'm starting to drift towards becoming an RW person myself).

I'd put all stat passives at 7 once you've completed all the must haves for your playstyle alongside rifle mastery since long term you're going to more than likely use that for 99% of your fights (only time you won't is for merit hunting and by then you can afford to reset on a whim since you'll have good cash most likely). Once you decide what melee you're going to use, you can fill that up as well but not gonna tell you which to use since there are a couple valid routes for that. Both are only worth putting at 10 if you have everything else done.

I dont know about everyone else but I like to max them out before moving on, so to my eyes everything is fucked up here.

Hahahaha you ain't wrong.